This is a batch of Curious Farm Harvest Kimchi, just before it goes into the crock to ferment.
The dark leaves are tender, young broccoli leaves from this patch in the garden:
The sweet carrots came from here:
The garlic was harvested at Curious Farm a month ago:
This batch of kimchi will be available at the Beaverton Farmers Market in early October. We love sharing the bounty with you.
Really… if you knew how we have neglected the garden this year, you’d be surprised by this haul, too. Thank goodness for September and unexpected harvests.
And many of those cucumbers will be juiced… my new favorite thing: cucumber juice with lemon, ginger, and cayenne. Fresh cayennes, too!
Our lovage has come up, and we’ll bring some to the Beaverton Farmers Market in May.
By June, this patch of lovage will be 5 feet around and 6 feet high, based on how it grew last year. Then it will flower and wilt and go away until next year.
Lovage is related to celery but is more aromatic. Its mysterious spiciness reminds me of bay more than anise, which is how many people describe it. It’s lovely in soups, cooked with beans and added sparingly to salads. People eat the root as they do celery root. The seeds are edible, too, and used just like celery seed. I like the tender leaves best — torn on top of soups or salads just before serving. Everyone always says, “What is this? I love it!”
We’ve been busy planting and preparing for the Beaverton Farmers Market. We’re a farm and a fresh food producer and have never sold at the Market before so we’re trying to get all our supplies in order so that we’ll be ready to offer you our wonderful live-cultured foods, pickles, and some fresh-grown herbs.
I am ever more aware of the power of light this year in the garden. I watch the hens respond to the short days… when we have a string of cloudy days, they lay much less. When the sun comes out even in frigid cold, egg production increases. Thankfully, they’re beginning to feel the longer days, and they’ve been laying in a more predictable way again.
It’s been so cold here — frosty crust everywhere — and we probably will get some snow tomorrow evening. Still, I notice how spongy and welcoming the soil is right now. I think the soil itself responds to the change in light, and I never noticed that before.
That’s garlic coming up in the photo above. I planted much more than before and wish I would have planted even more — next year hopefully. I’m anxious to offer garlic greens soon.
Here are the leeks, still standing proud and strong in the winter garden. To be a leek! They have such humble courage! They grow even more sweet in the cold.
I know… it’s been almost a month since I posted here on the blog. I have been making pickles and wondering how to clone myself so that I can make some progress in the garden, too. (I am very, very behind out there…)
But I come here today to tell you that Curious Farm now offers crunchy, lively, seasonal kimchi. The first batch is called Early Autumn (and until I get inspired on the names, we’ll be literal and calendar-based). It’s really nice — not too hot but still sassy.
I like all kinds of pickles and krauts, but I love making kimchi the most because of how it can capture a moment in the garden and keep it all year. Early last spring, I made a batch that included some of the very first succulent snow peas. Our new Early Autumn batch (available to you!) has some baby end-of-season green beans with a few barely ripe cayenne peppers from the garden.
Every batch is different, yet each captures bright, fresh flavors. $5.00 each 9 oz jar. When they’re gone, they’re gone… but a new batch — filled with the new season’s goodness — is right around the corner!
Yesterday I tried to clean up the failed potato patch — only to discover 22 pounds of healthy red potatoes under the straw. The plants didn’t flower, and they gave off every sign of miserable failure. To find such a harvest under the straw was unexpected.
A very happy thing I learned in school is that people in France call potatoes the “apples of the earth.” There is such hopeful beauty in that phrase. A dirt-covered root can be cleaned-up and admired as something delicious and sweet.
Also while I was digging, I felt ever-aware of how fragile these “fruits of the earth” can be. The wrong press of my spade into the earth might hurt them. (I believe that every human being should try to dig up a root at some point. It’s very humbling.)
I was so tired after digging out the potatoes, and I wanted to go in and shower (I was so dirty!), but I wondered about the pommes on the tree out back so I went out to bring in the few that were left on the tree. They are Akane apples — a bright-tasting, very crisp, tart, slightly sweet, early ripening variety. I like them. This is the first year the tree has produced so I hope we learn to tend it well.
Since the potatoes revealed themselves and the pickles have arrived (separate post!), we’ll have a regular farm day this coming Saturday. Think good thoughts toward the sun because she helps the squash and beans grow. The chard, onions, and beets know how to grow even with little sun.
Eloise and I had a good time setting up the vegetable stand outside our garden today. We do this every Saturday morning during harvest season, and we hope to keep going through the fall.
We set up the farmstand to help us meet our neighbors. When the tent is out, and there are colorful vegetables there, you all stop by, and we get to say hello. We love this.
But we’re always happy to pick vegetables or reserve eggs for you on other days — just call (503.245.1507) or email. Our Fresh Now page lists what we have available right now.
Fall is coming, and I have some big garden work to do in the next couple of weeks after Eloise starts school. We’ve been so busy that I haven’t planted fall crops yet (ack! I know…). This has been such a weird year weather-wise. After getting going so late, the squash went bonkers and is now winding down. I’ll be clearing those areas and the bush beans to make room for fall greens.
We may have a nice round of pickling cucumbers and hot peppers coming on soon. The beans will keep going strong for awhile. A new crop in a different area of the garden has just begun to produce more pole beans. Today we had the last of Grandma Smith’s amazing carrots to sell, and she’s coming over tomorrow to plant a round for late fall. She has a magic touch. They grow big and strong and stay sweet.
Big News!
We worked really hard this year to turn our big garden into a tiny, urban farm. We’re proud of all we’ve accomplished.
However, behind the scenes, we also were working to certify our home kitchen so that we can produce and sell preserves — the sweet kind (jams) and the salty, crunchy kind (real, old-fashioned brined pickles).
Yesterday we were able to get the kitchen certified so fabulous pickles will be available soon. The cucumber vines in back groaned in relief when the inspector signed the official paperwork. (I’ve held back on picking them this week in order to make sure that my finished pickles will be legal.)
Here, in fact, is a legal pickle:
I’ve been trying to get our pickles to market for almost two years so yesterday’s certification is an important milestone. It means that I can sell Curious Farm pickles directly to our customers here, via a stand at a local farmer’s market, and also at local grocery and specialty stores if their buyers agree to make our pickles available to their customers.
We have big hopes, but we’ll start small on this venture, and we hope to hear your feedback on the pickles and other preserves so that we can make them even more delcious.
As always, thank you for your bright smiles, support and interest. We’re very grateful to you.