Category Archives: vegetable love

curious farm lovages you

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.

light, dirt, and hope

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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.

kimchi: early autumn

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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!

curious farm pickles win blue ribbon

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first place to curious farm pickles Grand Central Bakery awarded Curious Farm Pickles a blue ribbon during its Fair and Urban Farming Expo this weekend. We’re thrilled!

Just a week out in the world, and these delicious pickles have already won a pretty ribbon… yay!

If you’d like to try some of these pickles yourself, send email. For a short while, 32oz jars are $7 each.

My next step: introducing the pickles to chefs and specialty markets in the Portland area.

And more: a special Curious Farm preserve also won a ribbon at the Grand Central Bakery fair this weekend, but there isn’t enough of that preserve to share so we’ll have to wait until next June for a batch of those garnet-colored jars to come out of the pot.

curious farm pickles

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I am ridiculously excited to tell you that Curious Farm Pickles are tasty, fine, legal, and ready-to-mingle.

To begin, we have three varieties: Classic, Spicy Dill, and Summer 2010. For a special introduction, each 32 oz. jar is $7

These pickles are the real deal. The cucumbers ferment in spiced brine for several days before they’re jarred. Curious Farm Pickles are a “live food” that must stay refrigerated. They probably won’t last this long at your house, but the pickles will be ready for your next BBQ a full year after purchase — as long as you keep them refrigerated. In fact, their flavor may improve .

Wait until you taste the spiced crabapple jelly! This is my vision for our small farm: I want us to grow bounty and preserve that bounty, and I want to be able to share as much of that with you as possible.

Certifying the kitchen — so that I can bring these pickles to you (and the preserves to come) — has been quite a challenge. The jars in the photo above are my first fruits.

les pommes/les pommes de terre

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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.

glorious growth

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We’ve come so far this year. Really. I don’t care that the lettuce has bolted, the potatoes suffered some, and the basil got such a late start. Look at this wonder:

The tomato jungle:

The cucumbers are just getting started, but they’re growing well and already have baby fruit on them:

Shhhh… don’t tell this gorgeous cauliflower that it’s August!

We loved meeting more of our neighbors during our first open farm hours this last weekend. Thank you, neighbors! We’ll host open hours on Fridays (4 – 6 pm) and Saturdays (9am – noon) most weekends for the rest of the harvest season. Please come by and say hello. We also will pick vegetables (and reserve eggs) for you on other days — just call (503.245.1507) or email. We won’t pick them until you request them, though, because we want them to be as fresh as possible for you. We notice a difference, and you will, too.

(psst… five hens are laying… the rest should start laying eggs in the next couple of weeks. the eggs are wonderful.)