Milestones and Musings

I just want to say that yesterday’s market was really cool for me, in a lot of ways. 

One friend, a now retired entrepreneur, apologizing for not being able to make it, said 10 years was nothing to sneeze at.  Another friend, a customer and also a small business owner, gave me a high five with a genuine “right on!”.  Someone in a thread on line remarked that I’ve been at this longer than many of my peers. An accomplishment of which I wish I had more company.

It always feels nice to hear these things from others who know what it’s like to start a business, from the ground up, and work with the tenacity it takes to make it successful. 

Aside, however, from the kudos, were the subtle things done or said by others who may not have realized how much their actions, too, meant to me. 

The cancer survivor customer who credited me in a way I’d never think to take credit for; who also brought her neighbor on his first trip here, who has been on a mission to better care for himself through better eating habits – he’d lost 90 lbs over the past few years - says he'll be back and already ordered the salmon we were talking about.

The once curious youngster who helped season after season to plant, weed, pick, wash and sell produce, returning as an all grown up and out on her own now young lady – super excited to learn I had yard eggs for sale, in addition to the produce she picked out - that I had a hard time charging her for, after all those Saturday mornings of help. 

The veteran farmer who, after working herself all day in the heat, drove yet another hour and a half the night before my market, to be sure I had some extra produce for the event. (and if you missed out on getting some of that delicious sweetcorn or those sweet potatoes and tomatoes…..so sorry for you. But there is still some breakfast sausage left in the freezer for next market!)

The vendors who fill my out of the blue orders, even though I’m one of the most inconsistent customers they probably have on their list, with a smile and well wishes for a successful day. 

And another veteran farmer who drove over an hour and half, one way, not to bring produce to sell, but just to get off his farm and bring me some extra fall plant starts he'd grown, that I needed to jump start the spotty germination I had on some of my stuff. 

The volunteer who faithfully shows up each week, sometimes twice – even just to blow up balloons for kids, help our harpist get set up, make sure the gate is open at 9, and give impromptu mini-demonstrations of his solar dehydrator to whoever shows any interest or curiosity – giving me more time to answer farming and produce specific questions. 

And the couple - one or the other, nearly without fail shows up each market day- to bring us the wonderful and unique ambiance of harp music. Allowing children, of all ages, opportunity not only to hear harp music, but get to try their own hand at it, and encouraging them in their curiosity.

All of these things, and others I’ve not detailed out as well, each on their own makes a part of what I do both more successful and better. But to have them all come together on the same day, to help assure a successful anniversary market day event, was really awesome. 

A bit overwhelming even – but in a good, happy tears, way. I wish everyone could feel so cared about, so appreciated, so respected. I wonder if they genuinely did, how different a place the world could be. 

I’m lucky to have so many kind, caring, outgoing and genuinely nice people in my circle. It helps me to be a nicer person, I’m sure. 

They say you are the company you keep, and I think that’s very true. I’m glad and grateful for the company that keeps me, in return. 

Here’s to the next milestone!

  

Marie 

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Ratatouille – Dallas Fresh Veggie Style

 Ratatouille – Dallas Fresh Veggie Style

If my memory serves me correctly, the first time I was served ratatouille, it had been prepared by chef Graham Dodds who has presided over several wonderful Dallas restaurants since I started farming, and becoming more aware of my taste buds. You can, and definitely should, go check his art out at Wayward Sons in Dallas, where he is now currently cooking up a storm of wonderfulness!

It was such a colorful dish; full of reds, greens and yellows. And it tasted so good! I looked it up to see what all was involved in making this dish, that’s how much I liked it! There was no way I could just figure it out from eating it, because remember last post I told you, I'm not a chef! 

So today I’m sharing with you a version of ratatouille that begins with the recipe I found on line under Martha Stewart's web site. Of all the paper, real life handed down and gifted, food stained cookbooks I have at my house, I can't believe that I had to find it on line. But you can find the list of ingredients and more detailed instructions here.

The above photo shows the base ingredients from my farm and a few from the farm of my friend and colleague, Beverly Thomas who owns and operates, Cold Springs Farm near Weatherford. 

She grew the banana peppers, those cool little green eggplant, and the red onion. The rest is from my place. Tomatoes, yellow squash (in lieu of zucchini), bell peppers, garlic and not pictured, fresh oregano and a secret ingredient I’ll tell you about later. 

I started out with very ripe, fresh tomatoes. The recipe calls for cans, but – nah – if you have fresh ones, that’s what I’d opt for, every time. As you can see, I mix and match varieties. Here are Hillbilly, Costoluto Genevese, and Burbank Slicers – I think. 

I chopped off the stem/core and then chopped them up into chunks. I tossed them into a baking dish and drizzled them with some olive oil, gave them a stir and into the oven they went. As per directions, I stirred them every 10 or so minutes; keeps them from sticking and blends the flavors as it thickens. 

Meantime, in between stirs, I cut up the eggplant into chuncks and salted them with the Real Salt that I sell here at Eden's, using the larger crystal or “kosher” version, and set them on top of a paper towel. This “sweats” the eggplant of its excess moisture. 

Next up is to sauté the chopped up onion, just till it was a little translucent, and then add the garlic. Now Martha’s recipe calls for an entire head of that stuff, and that may be why, in part, I needed the secret ingredient at the end, but since I’d only made this once before, I went ahead and followed the recipe as it was written for the most part. 

The variety of garlic I used was Burgundy, I believe.  A Creole Hardneck garlic with a well deserved reputation for its combination of rich taste and striking beauty. I had 3 kinds this year but I am pretty sure this was the variety I grabbed. 

Next into the hot olive oil goes the peppers. I had a couple of small, bell style that were starting to get wrinkly I thought I'd better use up, and I thought I’d add 1 or 2 of the pretty lime green banana peppers from Beverly’s place, too. I had tasted one last Sunday at the VeggieVan and thought it was a little warm, but didn’t think it would spice up this dish too much with all of the other ingredients that are included. Ha! 

After stirring and getting the peppers all nice and crispy, and after stirring the tomatoes several times and letting it get kind of syrupy, I combined them into the cast iron skillet, along with fresh, chopped up oregano.  

Side note – be sure to wash your hands really well after picking your oregano, and before fishing out of your eye whatever flew in it on the way back from the garden – or be prepared to cry. ouchie. My friend Trish says that a drop of coconut oil on the corner of the eye will put the fire out. Next time, if there happens to be one....

Now the kitchen is really smelling yummy! Chopped squash and the eggplant are last to go in. Simmer a bit more, turn it down a little, then cover; leaving just a little of the lid open for escaping steam. 

A few minutes later, I just had to have a taste to see how it was coming together. Added a bit more salt, I never seem to use enough at first, and then a couple of tablespoons of the red wine vinegar and it should be done. 

Well, I wasn’t expecting quite the kick out of those banana peppers that I got, or maybe it turned out to be the full head of garlic. But at any rate, the day before at Market Day when talking about making this dish with my friend and bee keeper, she mentioned using what sounded like an odd ingredient to add to this otherwise savory dish. But, alas, I decided it was what I needed!  Honey. Susan had just brought a case of our “spring” harvest Zip Code Honey®, too.

I needed to cool the dish down because I am not a fan of chasing every bite of my food with milk or something else to cool off my tongue or throat.

Now, it was going to be perfect! And it is!! I like to eat mine with some fresh baked, crunchy crusted bread and fresh butter, the real kind.  The bread was still rising and I was hungry though, so that will have to wait for next time. But boy was this a great lunch! And you don't have to be a chef to make it - but it's good to have it made for you, too!

Now, since today happens to be National Ice Cream Day, I will follow it up in a little while with a big ol’ banana split! Sorry, not pictured – I have to get some of those goodies at the store, yet. Nothing better than a homemade banana split to cool down a slightly spicier than planned lunch!

I think a pint of Ben and Jerry's non-GMO ice cream and some organic bananas are in my immediate grocery list future!

Marie


Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Frost Watch

Smoke, our Icelandic ewe, is glad someone finally turned off the heat.

A few weeks ago we were in the first frost “watch” mode of the season. That is, the local prognosticators were calling for an earlier than usual first killing frost that sent many folks scrambling. But it never came. At least, it never frosted here at the farm.

But with this new, much more severe sounding “polar vortex” forecasted recently, frost seemed more likely to happen and it seems everyone is calling it quits on summer crops. (Whatever happened to the much friendly phrase – “blue norther”?)

At first, they were calling for a light frost, something that would give us a temperature range of about 32°F down to 28°F. This temperature range affects the most tender of your summer garden such as beans, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, New Zealand spinach, okra, peppers, pumpkins, summer squash, corn, tomatoes, amaranth, and winter squash plants, although if the skins are hardened on the latter, a light frost won’t affect the fruit itself.

Other conditions must be present for a frost to set up on the plants when temps are hovering at 32°F, such as calm air and a clear night sky. This is also known as a “radiation frost”, and is generally what happens when we wake to “Jack Frost” on the pumpkins for the first time in the fall. Although, with the way the winds blew in with much colder temperatures, this event may well qualify as an advective frost, as occurs with a strong cold front.

A hard freeze occurs when temps are colder than 32°F for four or more hours, and temps get below 25°F. Not too many veggies appreciate these temps, although winter crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, onions, parsley, peas , (but you may lose the blooms), radishes, spinach, turnips, leeks, and sorrel, are often “sweetened” instead of damaged by them, and don’t usually require protection. Although I’ve been known to cover seedlings if they’ve not had a chance to harden off.

"Deep swings in the weather can take out plants that would ordinarily be hardy.  But then we never experience 40 degree temperature swings in North Texas, do we?"

Somewhere in-between these two lists are the crops that can usually take a light frost, but not the hard freeze and include artichokes/cardoon, beets, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, endive, lettuce, parsnips, peas, Swiss chard, escarole, arugula, bok choy, maché, and radicchio.

While the above lists are a good rule of thumb, and should be taken into consideration when planning your garden layout, I’ve seen exceptions to all of these rules at various points, on various plants. The more mature a plant, the higher off the ground it generally is, and the more susceptible to frost it will be due to losing contact with the ground heat. Deep swings in the weather can also take out plants that would ordinarily be hardy.  But then, we never experience 40 degree temperature swings in North Texas, do we?

Many factors can affect frost.

Sometimes, an area will escape a forecasted frost if it is somewhat protected by its micro-climate such as often exists in close knit, highly cemented, urban areas. The heat of the day is held in by the buildings, parking lots, and side walks.

That’s why many times a small backyard garden isn’t affected by a light, brief drop in temps, like one in a wide open space. Like this urban farm.

Although, if you have an inner urban property that exists at the bottom of a slope, or the top of one, you may experience a frost, while a neighbor on the side of the same slope, may not.

Experience over the years on a property is the best teacher for whether or not you’re likely to see damage based on a forecast – IF that forecast ends up correct. One extra push from a strong weather system, could mean an unprotected plant may not make it if temps end up dipping just 1 or 2 extra degrees.

It’s probably not too hard to cover most small back yard gardens, so if you want to try to preserve yours, you may as well be safe, rather than sorry, and cover it up. (More tips on how to do this, below.)

Time to Prepare

As seems par for the course, we had a few very nice days ahead of the predicted cold. I like to take advantage of those days to prepare. And we did just that here at the farm. Tugging on a 100’ x 15’ piece of frost cloth with 25 mph north winds can probably be equated to trying to struggle with the parachute of, say, the Jolly Green Giant during a Minnesota winter. Not fun.

And while it was still a bit windy while I was giving the farm intern his first experience with this winter weather drill, we were pinning frost cloth down in a brisk, easterly wind with the temps near 75°F, not 35°F. The wind chill is much more pleasant at the former.

Additionally, you’ll increase your soil’s heat holding capacity by about four times, if it’s well irrigated beforehand. That’s why you’ll hear me saying to be sure to “water in” your garden, before a frost. Cornell University says it can affect the air above the soil by 5 full degrees, which is a big deal when temps are hovering near freezing over your heavy laden, late fall tomato, basil or eggplant crop!

Some folks decide it’s just not worth the trouble to try to save summer crops and let them go by way of a natural season ending frost. But often, as had been the case the first few winters I was farming, the first predicted frost comes in early to mid November, the low temps last briefly, and there is little to no damage, followed by several weeks of mild weather.

We enjoyed summer squash well after Thanksgiving, tomatoes and summer squash at Christmas and didn’t have to cut all of our basil until around New Year’s. Lately, though, winter has been hitting earlier, and harder. Time will tell if the few hours of prep time will pay off.

To Cover or Not to Cover

By now, you’ve either decided to bother or not, and I’ve covered this topic a few times in the past, but it bears repeating. Frost cloth is designed to trap heat from the ground, under the blanket, not keep cold air from touching the plant.

It’s for this reason that unless you’re stringing lights inside the cloth to keep that palm tree warm, simply tying a sheet over the top of a tall plant is not likely to do much good. And I’m not entirely sure how well doing that works, I’ve never tried it.

Unless you’re able to keep soil heat radiating up inside that blanket to protect the plant, there’s a good chance you’re wasting your time making lollipops out of trees.   

You should never use plastic directly on a plant, without first protecting it with at least a cloth sheet. Plastic conducts the cold. A hoop over low growing plants is also helpful in protecting as a heavy frost can form on the surface of your frost cloth and burn the tips of leaves it’s touching.

So, in review;

1-Decide if the temps are going to dip below freezing long enough to damage, or just to chill the air enough for a hot cocoa. If you’re not sure, plan to protect plants based on predicted temps and above lists.

            Hard freeze range – 25°F or lower; 4+ hours below 32°F

            Light frost range – 32°F - 28°F, a bit warmer if dew points are right with calm winds and clear skies

2-Irrigate the garden soil, thoroughly. Moist soil holds in more heat than dry soil. (but don't forget to disconnect that hose when you're done!)

3-Foliar feed with a liquid seaweed, compost tea, regularly, but for sure before a frost. The higher the plant’s brix reading, (the more sugars present), the less likely plant cells will experience damage from the frost. Healthier gardens tend to fare better than stressed ones.

4-Harvest any tender fruits, such as ripening tomatoes, peppers, summer squash (and blossoms), even if you cover to try protecting the plant. Often the fruits themselves will not make it through if ripe or nearly ripe.

5-Cover the garden while the sun is still warming the soil in order to trap as much ground heat as possible. Use bricks, boards, sand bags or special frost cloth fabric pins to secure edges of cloth against the ground, closing gaps where air can leak in/out.

For the really adventurous, you can try to extend your growing season by a technique used by Eliot Coleman up in Maine where he gardens all year long. After you’ve covered with frost cloth, pull a layer of greenhouse plastic over top and secure the edges. This creates a deeper layer of protection, sometimes up to 3 zones worth of coverage, from a short blast of cold.

I tried it one year, almost by accident, and was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.  

As I type, the temps are still in the mid 30’s, and the dew point was at 24°. I still don’t quite understand all of the meteorological factors involved in predicting frost, but it felt like frost was imminent earlier when I did my final walk for the evening.

And sometimes, a farmer’s intuition is all you need.

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Marie

PS- We hit our goal, even exceeding it by a bit, for our on-line fund raiser last weekend. Thank you to everyone who contributed, pitched in by sharing, tweeting, etc. Watch for future blog posts on lessons with the new loader. 

Market Day Then and Now

First Market Day August 2007

Has it already been 7 years since I opened my property as home of the first farmer’s market in southeast Dallas County? Yes, I guess it has been. You can read about our humble beginnings here. And here. 

Back in August of 2007, I invited some of the farmers from the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Assoc. to set up a food co-op at my place. I’d advertise for pre-orders and customers could come pick up here, at my house.

See, I’d fallen on some tough times and found myself without transportation out of Balch Springs. Being somewhat particular about the food I chose to consume, I found it frustrating that I couldn’t buy any thing I considered suitable at the only grocery store within walking distance. The other store, over 2 miles away, didn’t carry anything organic either – much less, locally grown from N. Texas. Maybe, not even from anywhere in Texas.

The Early Years Market Day

So started my journey on what has now become a passion of mine; To make available for me & my community, real food that was grown without the use of synthetic poisonous pesticides, by people who like to meet them – face to face. I call it Market Day. And everyone is welcome here - no membership required.

It’s not flashy. It’s not loud. It’s not crowded. It’s not a “stuff” market.

It’s Real Food, Grown with Integrity. I used to say that it was Real. Clean. Fresh. Local. Food. But a lot of people didn’t know what that meant. Clean food? You mean, you wash it for us? Not exactly.

If it’s really full of soil, yes, we’ll rinse it off. But ever since the USDA restricted the use of the word organic by anyone who doesn’t pay them to do so, farmers have had to find alternative ways to describe farming practices older than the USDA. Whatever.

Simply put, we don’t use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. Nature has enough in her arsenal for controlling outbreaks of insects, diseases and soil building. And soil building is the key to “organic” growing.

I tried to find “organic” farmers that wouldn’t have to drive hours on end to get here to sell their products. And I didn’t want to go to some big warehouse to buy imported organic produce and re-sell it. There were already enough brokers from whom you could get that kind of product. No, not nearby.  But why not give customers the chance to meet the people who grew their food and be the first place like it in our area. Why not give people the option of eating in a way they didn’t previously have. I saw a blossoming, local “real” food hub! We had enough fast “food” joints.

Unfortunately, it was not an easy task to find sufficient numbers of organic growers.

Some early days volunteers help farmer Marie

Farming is not easy, as I have discovered. I broke ground and into a new career in 2008. Keeping farmers coming back year after year of grasshoppers, hail, drought crop losses – is not easy either. But it is something I feel compelled to keep doing. You could say that I've become a small farm & local food justice activist. Hey, if you don't stand for something....

When a customer will drive her motorized wheelchair down the street, oxygen tank in tow, over 2 miles, to be a part of Market Day, and encourage us to keep up the good work, spending what little money she has on fresh, real food – I can get up every morning and hoe a row of weeds down and fight the county not to spray toxic pesticides in the area that will kill our honey bees - who pollinate our crops.

Community Garden Ground Breaking

Brenda was one of our first cheerleaders. She still calls my shop every time she sees a story about us in the paper and came to markets as often she could find the energy to do so. She was even part of our community garden ground breaking. She doesn’t come to visit as much anymore, her health has limited her outings. But a new neighbor from 2 miles the other direction, Charles, has started to cruise down on his chair. He is sometimes late and misses a lot, but we’ve usually got something leftover that he likes. Yesterday, he took home a watermelon and some home made Italian rolls. And a smile.

 

A small community of folks living just to the community south in Seagoville, became another reason I am so diligent about organic methods being followed by our growers. The folks who live together in a special “camp” for chemically sensitive people taught me the importance of not allowing any of our farmers to use “conventional” methods.

Even if it meant, no fresh strawberries.

One spring when I had to retract our excited press announcement about featured organic strawberries coming to our market, instead of complaints, I got thank you notes for “thinking of our health”.

(By the way, growing strawberries organically is no easy feat. We look each spring for someone who can grow them and bring them to market. Our soil here just hasn’t been rich enough to support that crop – yet.)

Families are encouraged to visit

It's really important to me that children know how real food is supposed to taste and where the heck it comes from.

Eggs don’t grow on trees and tomatoes don’t come from plastic covered foam cartons. 

Texas Honey Bee Guild Advocates for Education

And you know what? Most kids don’t even flinch when they learn that honeybees and earthworms make their food grow – and taste - better. 

Where's my "hat-cam"?

And they get some of the most awesome looks on their faces when they pet and feed one of my friendly roosters or hens; learning not to be afraid of them, while respecting them as a living creature who provides them with food. This happens a lot at Market Day, too.

This spring we were approved to accept SNAP at the market. To me, this was monumental because I know there are a lot of good people in the area who have fallen on the same hard times I fell on back in 2007. Good folks live all around me who might need a helping hand in order to keep their families well fed and use the Lone Star Card. They can even use it to buy vegetable plants and seeds here so they can grow some of their own food. We're always offering gardening tips and hold low cost classes periodically.

Picked by hand - with care

NOT found at Market Day

We can’t beat bulk supermarket prices. Everyone here grows, harvests and handles everything by hand on a very small scale and that costs more to do than mass production. 

But we sure can give you awesome taste, unmatched freshness, and the peace of mind people get knowing that their food was grown in a safe way by someone they can meet – face to face. And once you try real grass fed beef – that “closeout” meat won’t ever look, or taste, the same to you.

Eat More (grass fed) Beef!

As our newly appointed volunteer market manager Iris says, we are not the biggest, but we are....

Farmer Mel - Farmer Jones Eco Friendly Produce

“The Cleanest Little Farmer’s Market in Town”. We’re also still, the only one.

Real Food, Grown with Integrity. All farmers, ranchers and producers – only – No brokers - ever. 

GMO free – always. 

Happy anniversary to us all! Hope to see you next time, down on the farm!

Marie Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Market Day is every 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th Saturdays April – December (weather permitting) at 4710 Pioneer Road, Balch Springs in back of the the old gray farmhouse next to the Zumba House, across the street from the new Dallas County Cowboy Church.