7-15-2008
CSA Newsletter
July 15, 2008
The quality of our topsoil determines the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. If the quality of the topsoil is allowed to degrade to any degree, the life it supports degrades to the same degree.
Malcolm Beck, Acres
Topsoil, topsoil, topsoil – that’s what it’s all about! The world’s food supply depends on about 7 inches of soil that covers the earth in some places. It is very valuable, delicate, and only slowly renewable. The most important element of topsoil is the microbes living in it.
When intensively farming land, which is what we are doing, you have to be very conscious of the soil’s health. Each of our 34 outdoor growing beds get’s a cover crop at least once a year. Cover crops help rebuild the soil in many ways. Some are used for their nitrogen fixing abilities, some are used for the massive amounts of organic matter they produce, and all of them enhance the microbial life in the soil.
When plants are growing they excrete excess sugars from their roots. Those plant exudes attract microbes which feed on the sugars, and the surrounding soil. In turn, the plants receive micro and macro nutrients and minerals that the microbes have processed into a plant available form. So, if I can keep the microbes in the soil happy and fed, then all the plants growing in this soil should be happy and fed also!
Some of you may have seen me or Alayne out spraying things early in the morning or late in the evening. The things that we are spraying are helping to feed the microbial life in the soil. In fact, sometimes we are spraying microbial life itself. This leads me to our compost tea brewer! (Oh thank god, I thought it would never come up and I have been DYING to talk about it!) Compost tea is a critical element in many well run organic, biological, and biodynamic farms. Compost tea is made up of an inoculant (some form of compost, I use vermicompost (worm poop basically)), food, and oxygen. The compost and the food are put into some kind of container filled with water, oxygen is added to the mix, and the tea is allowed to brew for 24 hours. After about 24 hours you have the maximum microbial bloom (the population is at its highest), and then you race out and get those microbes on the plants and in the soil. You already know what they are doing in the soil, but we want them on the plant leaves also because they are the good guys and they eat the bad guys that may be on the plant leaves.
There are other elements to my soil management program here at Copper Moose Farm, but I have a feeling I may be loosing some of you (I realize that not all of you think soil science is as cool as I think it is). So, I will save the rest of it for another letter…..
To wrap things up; conventional agriculture has destroyed much of the world’s topsoil, hence the increasing dependence on petroleum based fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Exhausted topsoil cannot “feed the world” without these chemical inputs. Soil that is treated respectfully and kept healthy can feed the world without the use of dangerous chemicals. Don’t believe Monsanto and Cargill when they tell you that the only way for us to feed the human race is to embrace their Round-up Ready beets, corn and rice and their toxic and unnatural strains of vegetables with deadly chemicals imbedded directly into their DNA!
The Harvest
1# salad greens (spinach is in the salad mix this week)
½# stir fry greens
¼# arugula
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch turnips
1 bag scapes
Sweet Pepper (either Purple Beauty or Sweet Cal Wonder Bell)
Jalapeno (enjoy them, this is the last!)
Not everyone will get the following:
¼# basil
Eggplant
Cucumber
Edible flowers
Beets
Broccoli
Heirloom Tomatoes
Basil
That’s a lot of basil! It must be time to start making pesto and freezing it for later use. That’s why I am giving you so much right now. Don’t seal the bag when you get it home, and make sure it doesn’t get crushed in the bottom of the fridge (it will go bad faster this way). Keep the bag slightly open and in a safe place in the fridge.
Stir Fry Greens
These are mature: mustard, beet greens, chard, kale. These are meant to be cooked. They don’t need long, just a few minutes of steaming or stir frying should do it.
The News
Just wanted to remind everyone of a few events:
August 16th – Slow Food’s Feast of Five Senses – contact Slow Food Utah for more info.
Sept 6th – CSA Harvest Potluck
Copper Moose Farm is at the Park Silly Sunday Market these days. CSA members will receive 20% off flower bouquets – so come see us.
The Recipe
Caroline’s mom sent us this one:
Fluffy Turnips
6 medium size white or yellow turnips 1/8 teaspoon basil
2 egg yolks 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2/4 teaspoon salt 2 egg whites
Dash cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Start your oven at 375 degrees or moderate. Peel turnips and cut in sizeable chunks. Cook with a cover in a small about of boiling, salted water until tender when tested with a fork. This takes about 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly and mash.
Beat egg yolks in a separate bowl until thick and add to turnips along with salt, pepper, basil and lemon rind.
Beat egg whites until stiff and mix or fold gently into turnip mixture. Pour into an ungreased quart baking dish, sprinkle with brown sugar and bake 20 minutes. New slant on turnips for 6.
And this one comes from Brent, chef at Chez Betty Restaurant:
Curried turnip and ginger soup Serves 6
5 ea lrg turnips peeled and lrg. dice
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger peeled and minced
1 Tbsp. garlic minced
1 Tbsp. scallion minced
1/2 gal low sodium chicken stock
2 Tbsp. yellow curry
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic chili paste
2Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 can unsweetened coconut milk
1/4C light brown sugar
In a large pot ,heat olive oil on a medium high flame. When oil is hot add the ginger garlic and scallion. when you can smell the aroma add the chili paste, soy sauce, and curry. Then add your turnips, coconut milk, brown sugar, and chicken stock. Simmer for about 30 min until turnips are tender. Let cool and puree in your blender until smooth. Soup can then be reheated and served garnished with chopped chives
That’s all for this week. See you tomorrow – enjoy the harvest!
Daisy
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