Lately a great deal of my free time has been spent online learning about how different areas are approaching the challenges of building their local food moments. I was watching this video tonight and I liked a lot of the things he had to say.

Utah is in an interesting place right now regarding it's local food movement. I think this article written a few years ago makes some interesting points.  The local food movement is young here and behind in someways, at least compared to my experience living in the Northwest and Midwest. Some questions I keep asking myself are what does the local food movement need here? What would help Utah local/organic farmers? What would help the people connect with Utah local food? What needs to be done to build the local food movement beyond the stage of just having farmer's markets? 

My quest has been to get out and connect with people involved in the local food movement and talk about the state of Utah's local food movement and how we can continue to build it. There is so much potential here, but we need to build it more so that it will be strong enough to last. Otherwise farmers will continue get burned out and the people will just become complaisant with sub-optimal food choices.  

I think its good to look around and see what others are doing but in the end, Utah's local food movement will be all it's own and hopefully someday TED will come around here looking for "ideas worth spreading". It's lofty goal but weirder things have happened in Utah. 

Seeking out Local Food in Utah

After moving to Utah, I put my organic farming career on hold. From what I could tell, opportunities here seemed few and far between (at least compared to coming from the Northwest). I was bummed to leave farming, but I ended up landing a sweet job managing part of a wholesale nursery in the Salt Lake Valley. I love that I still get to work with plants and that I get to be outside all day.

Even though I've put my farming career on hold, its still really important for me to be involved with the local food system. It makes me happy and I can only choke down that so called "organic" produce at the supermarket for short spurts.  Having been deeply indoctrinated by Motown, I know that "there ain't nothing like the real thing baby" so I set out to get my hands on some fresh local veggies.

I had played with the idea of starting my own little backyard garden but it was a bit late in the season for getting started, I didn't have a space, and my summer work hours were long. For me, the best option was to find a small farm in the area and volunteer for a work share. I contacted a local farm and have been doing a few hours of weeding in exchange for fresh summer veg.

Peppers from the Farm

"So glad we got the real thing baby" 

I've been trying to piece together just what exactly is going on with the local food moment here in Utah. It exists, but seems to be a bit small and disjointed. I plan on making more contacts within the local food movement and farming community here so that I can get a better idea of what's going on and how I can help support it. I'll talk more about what I find in post to come. 

Fennel Flowers & Goat Cheese

I wrote the following for week 19 of Oxbow's 2013 CSA newsletter. Here is a link to the newsletter if your interested in seeing the final product and learning a bit more about my role on the farm. 

I have many favorite veggies that we grow here on the farm but I would have to put Fennel high in the ranks of my favorites. 2013 has been a stellar year for our dear little fennel friends here at Oxbow so as a farmer and fennel lover, I was really happy that one of our longtime CSA members took the time at the harvest party to tell me how much she has been enjoying all the fennel in her box this season.

I was introduced to fennel a few years before I started working at Oxbow, but now that I am coming to the close of my 2nd season here, I have come to appreciate it on a whole new level. I am always finding new and interesting ways to use it, whether they come from some crazy idea that pops into my head, a coworker tells me about a recipe they like, or I stumble across something online. Some of my my favorite fennel recipes are roasted and served with lemon pepper chicken, candied (bulb and/or stems) with lemon rid, and this year fennel flowers served over goat cheese. 

I had never used fennel flowers before this summer, but once they started coming in from the fields, it seems I couldn't get enough of them. Over the past several weeks, I have brought different variations of goat cheese and fennel flowers to our weekly lunch potluck. Every time I thought I was done experimenting with this dish and it was time to move on, a new idea would pop in my head and I had to try it the next week. Luckily, people either genuinely enjoyed it or did a really good job humoring me (I choose to believe the former). I hope that you enjoy the fennel flowers in your box this week. They will make you feel like a fancy gourmet cook with very little effort.  

Farmer Food Fennel Flowers

When there are extra or damaged items form the CSA or restaurants pack-outs, they go in a create at the end of the table and become "Farmer Food". That's some good looking farmer food. 

Below are a few of my favorite variations of the fennel flower and goat cheese evolution. 

Fennel Flower & Goat Cheese version 2.0

Version 2.0. What's New : Fresh allium of your choice (shallot in in photo) drizzled with olive oil 

Served over slice of artisan bread 

Fennel Flower & Goat Cheese version 3.0

 Version 3.0. What's New : Caramelized allium of your choice (shallot in in photo) drizzled with olive oil 

Carmelizing the shallots breaks down the starches to sugars so its really nice and sweet


Fennel Flower & Goat Cheese version 4.0

  

 Version 4.0. What's New : Fresh allium of your choice (shallot in in photo), drizzled with olive oil and served with baked pears.

I switched back to fresh alliums for this version because I wanted the spice of the fresh allium to counter balance the sweetness of the baked pear. 

Oxbow Farm in all it's Fall potluck glory

Frogs love Parsnips

Well it's that time of year again, Parsnips are back!  I can't get enough of them. Sliced, coating olive oil and salt then roasted until golden brown is my favorite movie night treat. 

I've been surprised that my friends seem to actually like them too. I kinda took them to a lot of parties last year. My Aunt and little cousin came for a visit and they were digging the roasted parsnips too. 

"Keep those parsnips coming Cuz!"

It's also that time of year when the frogs like to kick-it in the processing area. This little guy was hiding in the parsnips when I was washing them up on Tuesday morning. He jump at my face and scared the crap out of me. He's actually lucky he didn't get pulverized by the powerwasher (yup, that's happened before and its not my favorite thing). 

The fact that there are so many frogs coming in with veg and living around the barn is a nice little reminder that we are an organic farm. Now if we could just train those frogs got eat the dang cucumber beetles ... that would dandy. 

Summer on the Farm

Good Looking Farmers

August on the farm is magical. Both the farm and farmers have been feed by the sun for several months. They're both cranking and looking so good doing it.  

Barn Dance & Dinner at Oxbow

Somewhere in all the magic of August, we hit a wall.  The days start getting shorter and the novelty of 10 plus hour work days with a start time at 6 a.m ...GONE. NO MORE! So we switch to a 7 a.m. start time and do little things to keep spirits up like trips into town for lunch and of course post work or lunch break River swims!   

Chilling down at the Point

Snoqualmie River

Kid-Os Day on the Farm

My brother and sister-in-law needed a babysitter one Saturday morning so my dad and I volunteered for the job of entertaining the three little cuties. Since raspberries were ripe at the farm, we decided to take a nice little outing to Auntie's farm.

Studious 2 year-old berry picker for hire. Works for goldfish crackers. More interested in picking than eating. Note: once berries within child's reach have been picked over, significant decline in product quality occurs, as rotten product from ground is considered suitable. 

Helping Grandpa Harvest

 Climbing tractor Wins again. 

Oxbow has an awesome living playground in the Children's Garden. It's got plant tunnels, a tepee made of beans vines, "Spiral Corn Maze" and what are the kids always the most stoked about? ...The Climbing Tractor. With good reason though, tractors are usually the forbidden object. That thing you are not allowed to touch as a kid. Not at Oxbow though.

Rhubarb leaf hats! 

Everyone is sufficiently tuckered out...time to go home. 

looking back at spring

I found some forgotten photos from this past spring. I meant to post them a while back but it never happened. I decided to break my normal protocol which is to say "oh well" and move on and I am posting these. So here is a quick look back at some spring events. 

The Sow-Dow at Oxbow Farm

Kids preparing for the Maypole

Farmers gearing down for a post-Sowdown swim in the Snoqualmie River. This was in early May and although we were having an unusually sunny and warm spring, this river water is never really warm so it was a very quick and brisk swim. It felt great though and now that it is summer there have been many lunch brake and post work swims. 

In preperation for the Sowdown, I was on mowing duty and by the end of the day it was pretty obvious. 

 The OxBox!

 This spring on the farm we got new boxes. It was and still is kind of a big deal for us since these boxes have our Logo on them. It was something that has been in the works before I even started working here but I count myself to be luck to have been there for this milestone in Oxbow history

Pigeon Friend!!! 

In May we had an injured pigeon show up at our place for a few days. He had a band on his leg and we figured that he must be a pet. We gave him water and some food and after a few days he started taking flights father away until one day he didn't come back. 

Jaccomo was not sure about piegon friend. 

Fun with Friends 

Eating Greek food  down at the Lake

One last night out on the town with a good friend before she moved

Missing that girl!

Evening walks out near the lake. 

Morning Dew

Evening Sunset at Oxbow

Nothing better

Lunch on the Farm

There are many reasons why I love to work on a farm, but one that is near the top is the Farm Lunch. I get an hour to myself to make lunch with fresh ingredients then I can go sit in the display garden and eat, rest, nap, and/or socialize with coworkers. 

Close up of Friday's concoction

I usually bring some kind of base item. Like today it was quinoa in a sauce I made out of sunflower seed butter, soy sauce, splash of chicken broth, and some ginger (needed coconut milk but I was out). Then I improvised with what was harvested today and what I could grab from the display garden. That's how the sugar snap peas, red romaine lettuce, arugula flowers, strawberries, and Moroccan mint garnish all ended up on my plate today.  Oh can't forget, the drizzling of hot sauce.  Lunch on the farm has turned into a choose your own adventure where I can foster my laziness or 'winging it' in the kitchen philosophy with special attention to exploration of  flavor fusions. It's awesome. 

Friday's lunch under the grape arbor and overlooking the raspberries. 

Having fresh ingredients right at my fingertips in every season is really great. I'm super lucky in that regard and I try not to take it for granted. I'm also trying not to take the beautiful weather we've had this spring for granted either. Compared to last year's grey "June-uary" this spring has been sunny and warm.  

Snapped this picture of the new grape vine growth on a particularly beautiful sunny day on one of my lunches last week

I love the color combination of green and blue in this picture. Blue and green are cool on their own, but so much cooler together. 

Garden Season -- 2013

This year my family and I put in two gardens again. We put in one in our backyard and one up at our friends place who graciously let us use space on their Hill Top spread. Over the weekend we put in the garden at our friend's place.

I decided to get a little creative this year and I did my twist on the Three Sisters (Corn, Beans and Squash). Don't ask me why I planned it this way because truth is I didn't plan it, I was winging it! 

 I borrowed the idea from permaculture keyhole garden design. I was thinking of how it would be easiest to irrigate.  Since there is a down hill slope, the curves would slow down the water, plus nature doesn't like straight lines (I would have to agree with her on that one) and it's always better to work with her when possible. I think this will look more interesting too, but it very well could end up in failure...so will see. My best advise to people gardening is just go with it, if it fails then do something else next year. 

Map of the Hill Top Garden 2013.  Green Line represents a ditch that corn and pole beans were planted in. 

View from the top of the garden. 

Tomato Town

Garden on!!!