This Week's Harvest Box Contents

The CSA Harvest Box contents are changing with the season. Here's what our subscribers will find in their boxes this week:

• 1 Long English Cucumber
• 2 lbs Cooking Onions
• 1 lb Shallots
• 5-7 lbs Red Kuri Squash
• 1 massive Sweet Onion
• 1 Sweet Red Pepper
• 1 bunch Radishes
• 3 lbs Apples
  
• 1 bunch Collards
• 1 bunch Kale
• 1 head Lettuce
• 1 bunch Beets

Here's some info that might help you navigate the box this week:

Apples
Apple varieties are Blenheim Orange and Belle de Boskoop. Both of these apples are primarily cooking apples, although we like them for fresh eating and cider as well. If you can hold on to them, both varieties will taste better in a week.

Squash
The Red Kuri Squash is a very dry-fleshed squash with a rich flavour. It is popular for soups, its seed cavity can be stuffed and it also fares well in baking (it makes great pies). Local restaurant Seasonal 56 posted a recipe for Red Kuri soup on their Facebook page.

Onions
The onions and shallots are together in the same bag this week (sorry for any confusion this caused people last week . . . hopefully everyone figured out the difference). We have also included a massive Bedfordshire Champion Sweet Onion this week. You can use this raw in sandwiches, burgers and salads.

Collards
The collard greens are great chopped and sauteed with butter, seasoned with sesame seed oil and soya sauce or balsamic vinegar. You can also blanch them in boiling water and use them as wraps for your favorite sandwich fillings. Many people use them raw, too. Try grated carrots, beets, lettuce and sweet onion with rice or quinoa and cheese. Cookthink.com also has some ideas for using collards.

Happy cooking and happy nourishing.

Summer's Last Sunset

Last night I was heading into Abbotsford and stopped at the top of the hill to catch summer's last sunset over Glen Valley. It was quite spectacular.

Heading away from the valley, I was reminded that the full moon this month falls on the Autumnal Equinox. Here's the almost-full moon of last night.

Autumn and the Foggy Valley Days

Tomorrow marks the Autumnal Equinox. At this time of year we often see the fog rolling into the valley, obscuring our views for part of the morning. As the days get shorter and cooler, the fog lasts longer and longer . . . until one day it doesn't lift at all.

The photo above is taken from above our farm, just a quick walk up the hill, out of the valley. As you can see, just the tree tops are visible in the valley below.

From this vantage point on a clear day one can see clear across the Lower Mainland and even see skyscrapers in cities closer to Vancouver. In addition, it's a fantastic view of the farms in Glen Valley and the Fraser River meandering through. Below is an image on a relatively clear day.

Autumn is one of my favorite times of year. We celebrated the Equinox on the weekend with a party for some friends and family. The weather didn't cooperate, so we moved everything into the barn and had a great time.

Equinox is a time of balance. The days and nights are of equal length and we transition from the long days of outdoor labour in the fields to more family time indoors and recovery from the season we've had. We, as farmers, move toward a time of leisure and learning. We are able to pick up books we've been meaning to read. We are able to take days off. But we do this amidst the outdoor tasks that need to be finished before winter arrives. Slaughter day approaches for the goats, we continue to get root crops into storage and finish preserving fruits and vegetables. In many ways, it truly is a time of balance.

Since starting farming, celebrating the change of seasons has gained more relevance for me. My body is exhausted and craving for sleep as well as the warm, savory meals of winter, comprised of root vegetables held in storage. I want to be able to spend more time with my children, going to the library and swimming with them and visiting friends. Marking the change of seasons is a way of celebrating what we have accomplished while reminding us of the need to change pace -- and understanding that changing pace is allowed.

I get a chuckle, however, when I hear people state that celebrating the Equinox and Solstice is flaky. In actual fact, it's marking a distinct change of seasons as the earth orbits around the sun. It's a change upon which all life on earth hinges. And it's much more concrete that any religion we're asked to believe in and celebrate (many religious holidays being, of course, appropriations and abstractions of old pagan rituals based on the change of seasons).

So take a moment to celebrate the arrival of autumn by taking stock of where you need better balance in your life. Take a walk and contemplate the changes taking place and compare what you are seeing to your memories of summer. And if you've been preserving food, take a picture of your canning cupboard or freezer -- for posterity's sake if nothing else. And while you're at it, make sure you've written down how much you actually preserved (for next year's planning).

We talk a lot about balance in our lives. I think it's fine to be out of balance from time to time. That's particularly true in farming when the summer is such a busy time. But it's important to re-balance and make sure we don't try to extend summer into the months when we need to rest.

Spring, after all, is only six months away.

Curried Couscous with Crispy Kale

From Moira, one of our Community Supported Agriculture subscribers . . .

Serves 6 to 8

This is an easy, versatile couscous dish that works well as a warm side dish or served cold in lettuce cups as a salad. The curry flavor is distinctive but not overwhelming; adjust the amount of curry powder to suit your taste. The tamari-crisped kale is very flavorful and adds interest and nutritional benefits to the dish.

To stretch this recipe into a meal, try adding shredded cooked chicken or pork, garbanzo beans, or diced shrimp.

2 large bunches dinosaur (Tuscan) kale, stemmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper (1/4-inch dice)
2 shallots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tablespoons good-quality curry powder
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup Organic Raisins
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup couscous
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts or pistachios

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the kale and blanch for 2 minutes. Drain and let cool.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. When the kale is cool enough to handle, squeeze the water from it. Place the kale in a small bowl and toss with the tamari sauce. Spread the kale pieces in a thin layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the kale is dry and slightly crispy, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; when the oil is hot, add the bell pepper and shallots. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables start to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, curry powder, and brown sugar, and cook, stirring frequently, for another 3 minutes.

Add the broth, raisins, and salt, and bring the liquid to a boil. Stir in the couscous, cover the pan, and turn off the heat. Let the couscous sit for 15 minutes without removing the cover, and then fluff the grains with a fork. Stir in the reserved kale.

Transfer to a platter or shallow bowl and garnish with the toasted pine nuts.

Fall Fair Time

I just returned from the Mount Lehman Fall Fair with my daughter Roxie. This evening is the entry period for the fall fair contests. I entered a variety of our fruit and vegetables that are currently in season.

The experience was a blast. I'm not sure how many people actually enter items at the fall fair, but the organizers were quite excited to see a lot of produce coming in. In fact, they had to add another table. All of a sudden, I was part of a bunch of conversations about what kind of soil is best for growing, where to buy seeds and when to plant.

People asked if I was a hobby gardener. I almost felt ashamed to say that I'm a farmer, as though they might think I have an unfair advantage. The advantage really comes from the fact that eight of us grew these items, but my name had to go on the entry forms.

My inspiration for entering the fall fair came from Amy Jo Ehman's book Prairie Feast: A Writer's Journey Home for Dinner. Written about a year of local eating in Saskatchewan, Amy Jo visited a number of community fairs and festivals, even entering her bread in a wheat festival and her friend's mustard in an Oktoberfest.

The reality of our situation hit me as I read. Since moving to the farm four years ago, we haven't had a whole lot of exposure to the local community. We're rather out-of-the-way at the end of the valley and our errands are scattered between Abbotsford, Fort Langley and Vancouver. And we haven't made a lot of effort to meet people in the area.

All of this is slowly changing. We've met many farming neighbours through the farmers markets and we're slowly finding out about community events. As our children grow, we'll undoubtedly find out about more community goings-on.

But the Fall Fair seemed like the best way to do something right now -- at a time when we otherwise say that the season is too busy for other things. When you grow vegetables for a living, can we really be too busy for the local Fall Fair?

Last summer I was the guest speaker at the Pender Island Fall Fair. It was a blast and, perhaps, the first time I had really paid attention to a fall fair. They had exhibits, a big meal, a parade and, of course, all sorts of competitions for produce, baking, preserves, flowers, eggs, animals and art. It was an amazing day.

These events are so much of what community life should be about. On a small scale like this, everyone knows who the organizers are and, ultimately, everyone needs to participate in order for it to work out. And too many rural fall fairs aren't getting the participation they deserve.

Maybe more fall fairs will pop up in the cities now, too. With urban gardeners increasing in numbers, they need a place to exhibit their achievements and have a chance at winning a blue ribbon.

I hope we do see more fall fairs in the city and rural areas alike. And through them we could see more community celebrations. Hopefully, in the future, the produce competitions will be the main event and no one will be embarrassed to admit whether they're a gardener or farmer. In the end, we're all in this together.

All About Our Eggs

One of the questions we get every week at the markets concerns whether our eggs are from Free Range chickens. We actually spend more time talking about our eggs and hens than any other topic with customers. So, here's some info.

To be certified organic, eggs must come from free range hens. This means outdoor access, no cages. In our case, our small flock has access to half an acre of green space to roam, plus a spacious coop where they roost, feed and lay their eggs. They also have a covered space outdoors and a dust bath (which helps with controlling parasites).

Our hens get a diet of certified organic grains, plus access to oyster shell to help their shell strength. They also get a large dose of greens from our vegetable production, including beet tops and extra lettuce, chard and kale that comes back from market. They also eat greens growing in their chicken run (various grasses and weeds) plus a healthy dose of insects and worms that they scrounge from the earth.

It is the access to greens and bugs that give our hens' eggs a rich, dark yolk -- due to the
presence of organic pigments called cartenoids, found in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants. But in case you're worried that the richer yolk is bad for you, here's some info from a 2007 study commissioned by Mother Earth News -- Truly free-range eggs had:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

Now, although the colour of the yolk indicates healthier eggs, the shell colour is irrelevant. Shell colour is determined by the breed of hens (i.e. it is a genetic trait). For example, brown colouring comes from the pigment protoporphyrin. This comes from haemoglobin in the blood; the pigment is added to the egg during its formation. There are heritage varieties of hens that lay different coloured eggs (blue, green, etc) but these are generally not available commercially because the hens often have lower productivity than breeds used in commercial production today.

Our chickens play an important roll in our overall farm operation. The manure we get from the birds is composted and then used to nourish the soil for our fruit and vegetable crops.

Finally, there's the issue of price. Simply put, it costs more to purchase organic feed and to maintain the space required for free range hens. Our farmers market cost of $5.50/dozen doesn't actually leave us with a very large profit margin at the end of the day. But we think the price (lower than most store-bought organic eggs, higher than conventional battery cage eggs) is worth it.

Home Sweet Home

One of our Co-operative shareholders, Tricia Carpenter, started keeping bees on the farm this year. Although she didn't get the bees until late in the season, they seem to have taken to their new home. We won't get any honey from the hives this year, but the bees have been busy pollinating our crops.