That’s right! Around here it is all cool misty mornings (the fear of frost still not quite past) and warm sunny days (with plenty of spring-rain-just-when-we’re-ready-to-transplant-all-that-kale) and nights full of frogsong; a riot of redbuds and wisteria and dogwood and viburnum in the woods and a greenhouse filling just as rapidly with tomato, parsley, basil, oregano, sage, kale, broccoli, leek, scallion, eggplant, sweet pepper, beet, and chard seedlings; new building projects; and one young rooster trying to make sense of it all.

We are all in spring scramble mode, trying to get everything in place before our new piglets arrive next week, before our new laying hens arrive later in the month, and especially before our market season begins this week and our CSA season begins in late May!

Heather picks okra while some of the new chickens have a look.

Our fields and fridge are full of vegetables – and eggs! – and we’re feeling mighty inspired these days!  Just a taste of what we’ve been reading and cooking:

Did you know this coming Saturday, August 13, is the first annual National Can-It-Forward Day? The folks at Canning Across America, along with Jarden Home Brands (they’re the ones who make Ball jars and other canning products), are encouraging everyone to gather with family and friends at home canning parties to learn the basics of canning.  One of the coolest resources they’re offering is a day-long live stream of several how-to canning demos (mixed berry jam, kosher dills, tomatoes in their own juice, more!) happening at Seattle’s Pike Place Market.  See the live stream schedule and find the link here.

The August 2011 Bon Appétit had a fun article about an LA canning party. The recipes for dilly beans, pickled beets with star anise, tomato jam, and zucchini dill pickles are all on our list to try this summer!

And this recipe for onion jam has been tempting us for weeks.  Just onions, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and butter!  I could do that today!  We think it would be especially delicious on pizza, topped with just about anything else that’s in season right now.

(We should point out the turn-the-jar-upside-down method of sealing is no longer recommended; we’ll probably just make one jar for the fridge and another for the freezer, but here are two good resources for safe canning guidelines.)

We’ve made this heavenly tomato & cheddar pie twice in as many weeks. It does require a little planning: the biscuit dough for the crust needs to chill for an hour, and the tomatoes need to drain for 30 minutes.  But otherwise it comes together quite easily.  And the crust is quite forgiving.  The second time we made it we didn’t use quite enough flour, and the dough seemed a sticky and hopeless mess as we eased it into the pie pan.  But it baked up beautifully, and didn’t get soggy even after a day in the fridge.   And seriously: tomatoes, mayonnaise, cheese, biscuit crust? Do we need to say more?  Make it! Any of the tomatoes you’ve been getting in your shares or at market will work great.

We haven’t tried it yet, but CSA members Yajaira and Domenick independently told us we also had to make this heirloom tomato pie.

And while we’re on the subject of tomatoes: how delicious does Tyler Florence’s Roasted Tomato Soup look?  Thanks to CSA member Tracy for this one.

We’re longtime fans of Mark Bittman.  We pull his How to Cook Everything down from the kitchen bookshelf at least weekly, often more.  The How to Cook Everything app is pretty great too!  For close to fifteen years he wrote a cooking column for the New York Times called The Minimalist.  We’ll admit to feeling a twinge of disappointment this winter when he decided to write less about cooking and more about food politics.  Certainly the systems of food production and distribution in this country are damaged, and we appreciate compelling writing from folks who can help us think about how we might begin to fix things.  But there are many people writing eloquently about these issues; fewer writers have Bittman’s skill for making home cooking seem simple, fun, and approachable.  So we were really delighted by one recent op-ed: “Make Food Choices Simple: Cook.”  In it, he argues we should cook more and eat out less – because it’s cheaper, because we have more control where the food comes from, and because it tastes better.  He writes:

When I cook, though, everything seems to go right. I shop an average of every two weeks in a supermarket, and make a couple of trips a week to smaller stores. I’m aware that my choices are mostly imperfect, but I rarely conclude that I should make a burger and fries for dinner or provide a pound per person of prison-raised pork served with fruit from 10,000 miles away, followed by a cake full of sugar and artificial ingredients. Yet, for the most part, that describes restaurant food.

Also fantastic?  ”101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less,” a Minimalist column from 2007.  Loaded with awesome ideas for no-fuss summer cooking.

Oh! We’ve posted our favorite ratatouille recipe before, but it bears reminding — early August is definitely ratatouille time in Central Virginia!

That does it for this week!  We’ll be back this weekend with more tasty links.  And we hope to post later this week about two delicious vegetables that we know can be intimidating: okra and eggplant.

We’ll wrap things up with some more recent images from the farm. (Click on any to see ‘em big!)

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Weekend Links is a (soon-to-be!) regular feature here on the farm blog: a weekly(ish) list of articles, recipes, and other resources that have been inspiring and amusing us of late. A tasty smorgasbord for brain and belly!

But it happens every year, and yesterday we started preparing. It was a long, hot, deeply satisfying afternoon: Ali and the crew filled thirty-two 300-foot rows with 2000 collard plants, 3000 kale plants, and 4000 broccoli plants.  As the sun dipped below the horizon we watered them well, to prepare them for today’s triple digits.  Tomorrow: 3000 cabbage plants.

We’ll do it all again in late August for generation two.

We’ll tend to them all with sweat and care, and we hope all these numbers translate into bountiful autumn CSA shares and market tables, with enough remaining for a possible winter CSA or winter market.

Ali often remarks that getting in a full planting is one of the most exciting things that happens on the farm. You start with long expanses of bare ground, a greenhouse full of seedlings, and a hefty dose of determination. You spend a whole bunch of hours moving back and forth, back and forth, planting, sweating, joking, planting, stopping for water, planting some more.  And then you slowly uncurl and stretch your back and shoulders and there it is in the setting sun: a field full of promise.

But we do aim to make Weekend Links a regular feature here — a list of articles, recipes, and other fun stuff that’s been inspiring or amusing us lately.

Read on!

Mitch and Heather picking your basil!

First things first: it’s a Pie Party tomorrow! If you can, join the almost 1,400 (!!) people who are baking pies and posting their photos and experiences on Facebook, Twitter, or their blogs. This event evolved quite spontaneously during discussions on Facebook and Twitter but it took off like hotcakes.  Read more about it here – and make pie!

Are you intimidated by making pie dough? I feel more at ease in the kitchen than just about anywhere else, and yet until fairly recently I was scared of pie dough. I definitely allowed all the talk about cold butter and not overworking the dough to get in the way of delicious, homey pie.  But you know what?  It’s not so hard!  We’ve been using the pie dough recipe in this Orangette post – easy peasy!  And if you need to avoid gluten, try the recipe in the Pie Party post on Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef.  (Did you learn how to make pie from your grandmother, your dad, your next door neighbor?  We’d love it if you could share the recipe in the comments!)

I don’t have a great segue here – I do love pie – but I’m considering signing us up for the 30 Day Vegan summer session beginning August 15. This is a whole foods online workshop led by Heather of Beauty That Moves.  It’s for anyone interested in eating more vegetables and seeking a more balanced, centered approach to nourishment: vegans who feel they’ve been eating too many processed foods, people considering becoming vegan, or folks (like us) who aren’t vegan but who are looking for some inspiration and love the idea of getting some fresh perspective with a community of other eager eaters. The session costs $45 and includes access to a private blog, video cooking classes, loads of recipes, and one-on-one guidance from Heather if you need it.

Hey! Our farm was featured in an NPR story about cooking from a CSA share! Nicole Spiridakis’s “Oh the Things You Can Do With a Farm-Share Box” is one of the best things we’ve ever read on the challenges of learning to cook from what’s really in season.  She brings a spirit of adventure, ingenuity, and fortitude to her cooking – go get inspired!  I’m especially eager to try her Farm Egg Soufflé With Vegetables as soon as our new chickens start laying.

Here’s another great piece on making the most of a CSA share.  Author Kate McDonough shares several tips, including this shift in thinking: do your meal planning for the week after you pick up your share.

And here’s one more on cooking from a CSA share, from Meagan at The Happiest Mom. This one is really about coming up with a focused and mindful approach to summer eating.  Her Six-Meal Shuffle approach to menu planning is especially encouraging and I think we’re going to give it a try!

And a few fun links to round things out: How close to a train track can you set up a vegetable market? Have you tried an Eastside Fizz yet this summer?  And are you as excited as Guy Clark is about homegrown tomatoes?  I know we are!!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! May there be lots of good food, fireworks, and lightning bugs in your (near) future.

Things have been busy over at the farm Facebook page though!  We encourage you to check in there regularly to share your recipe ideas, get ideas from other CSA members and market customers, and enjoy some more snapshots of our farm season.  You don’t even have to have a Facebook account!

We hope to be back later in the week with some tasty ideas for using cucumbers.  (In the meantime, our “How to be cool as a cucumber” post should help.)  And until then: some photos from the last month.

We used that Margaret Atwood quote right about this time last year, and we’ll probably be saying it to ourselves again come June 2012.  Our farmers market season started a few weeks ago.  Our CSA starts next week! And the story all spring long has been rain rain rain. So in between thunderstorms, we scramble and sweat to get as many beds tilled, as many seedlings planted, as much compost spread, and as many rows weeded as we possibly can.  It’s kind of hard to believe Eric, Shannon, Tim, and Ali, along with James, Josh, Troy, and Matt, are still standing.

We have lots of fun plans in mind for this space this season: more interviews, more (and better organized) recipes, a monthly cookbook giveaway.

But for now, there are tomatoes to stake.  And chard to pick.  And lettuce to wash.  And two trucks to load. So I’ll let the pictures do the talking, and we’ll see you here again soon!

(One small piece of business: the CSA starts next week, so if you or a friend has been thinking about joining – you’ve still got time! Sign up here.)

(Do you know you can click on any of these pictures to see them large? Kinda fun.)

Our growing season began in February, when we seeded our first leeks. But between welcoming new crew members, starting more seed, marketing the CSA, nodding in satisfaction and hungry anticipation as the greenhouse began to fill with seedlings, smashing our heads against the desk as we heard the tractor repair estimate, praying for a dry spell so we could get out into the fields, and chasing after one very awesome 17-month old, we’ve neglected this online space.

But we’re back! Today we’re thrilled to interview our very own Shannon Convery. She drives a mean tractor, transplants beets and picks tomatoes faster than lightning (and faster than Ali!), and has already conscripted Arlo onto the turnip-washing team.  She was on the Frog Bottom crew in 2009 and 2010, and this year she’s headed quite a bit further afield to use her agricultural skills and infinite good cheer in some incredible new ways.  Read on for Shannon’s thoughts on the rhythms of the growing season, farm field yoga, and the future of the local food movement – and to learn a really, really nice surprise.

This is the inaugural interview in a series we’re pretty excited about.  Throughout the season we’re going to be talking with people connected to the farm in all kinds of ways.  We hope the interviews will enrich the story of the farm we’re trying to share here, as well as give some insight into what is necessary to sustain a local food system where eaters and farmers alike are truly thriving.

Let’s get started!

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Hi Shannon!  Tell us a little about where you come from.  Where did you grow up?  Did you have any farming or gardening experience as a child?

We moved around quite a bit, but the town I more or less grew up in is Kennebunkport, Maine. I spent some of that childhood on a farm my parents rented and were sort of caretakers for. We had cows, sheep, chickens, geese, a goat and a pig, so my brother and I learned the value of hard work at a pretty young age and it’s definitely molded who we both are today.

What were you doing before you came to Frog Bottom?

I was living in Providence, Rhode Island, working for a small gift company doing a little bit of everything.

What drew you to farm work in general and to Frog Bottom specifically?

I got pretty burnt out on city life and just really wanted to get back to the basics. Things move so fast and we take a lot of things for granted, so I initially started looking into farming to just breathe some fresh air and think about what I wanted out of life. As I started looking into internships, emailing farmers about the work and learning what they were passionate about, something just clicked and I realized this was where I needed to be. I looked at a lot of farm websites, and was pretty instantly drawn to Frog Bottom through all the info and pictures they had posted. I remember getting an amazing email back from Lisa that was just as lengthy and personal as the inquiry email I had sent her, so I had pretty much made up my mind that this was the place for me.

How did you describe your farm job to people?  What kinds of tasks did you do in a normal work week?

I liked to tell people that I did a little bit of everything. The early spring is a lot of greenhouse work and getting the fields ready for transplanting (when they dry out). Spring and summer tend to really kick your butt in terms of the amount of work that needs to get done and hoping the weather doesn’t make things more difficult. There’s that breath of fresh air as soon as you look at the empty greenhouse and realize everything is in the ground … and then the panic that there’s a lot of work to make sure they all live. Every day had something new in store for me, so it was hard to come up with a good job description. I really did a little of everything and I learned something new about the farm and my capabilities on a daily basis.

Moving from the city to the country is a big transition!  Any thoughts on that?

It’s definitely a big shock to the system! I knew I was going to be the only worker for a couple months last year and was actually kind of excited for some alone time. After the first month, I was begging for Claire and Joseph to get here and keep me company. Haha! There’s definitely a transition period any time you move someplace new, but having the right attitude and finding fun in the simple things is the key to a positive outcome.

What did you find most difficult or challenging about the work?

The 115 degree days! Haha! Honestly, the most challenging thing, for me, was getting my body used to starting back up in the springtime. Those first few weeks back at work usually include a lot of stretching, Aleve and hot water bottles on the old back. Once you can bend over and touch your nose to your knees again, you know you’re in the clear.

Most surprising?

Last year, especially, I was most surprised at my threshold for heat. Us Mainers aren’t built for hot summer days over 85! I remember looking at the weather online one week in August and having a sense of relief at the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be over 95 for a few days.

Most satisfying?

I think the most satisfying moments occur when you work your buns off all afternoon transplanting and you finally stand up and look back at everything in the ground as the sun sets. Those are not only the most satisfying, but the most beautiful moments on the farm.

Can you talk about your experience getting to know CSA members and market customers?

This was one of my favorite aspects of working at the farm! I’m a pretty outgoing person, so being able to connect with the families that support us came really natural to me. They’re all so supportive and appreciative of the hard work we do, so it’s kind of a battery charge to get to talk to them and hear all about the meals they cooked. I didn’t go to market much last year, but I did the Wednesday CSA pickups in Richmond, so my Church Hill peeps usually got a very caffeinated Shannon asking about their week and talking about life back in Pamplin.

Why do you think local foods matter?

I could talk about this for pages and pages, but I’ll try to give a brief summary. Local EVERYTHING matters! I think it’s our job as a community to support one another. I’ve always worked for small family businesses and the motivation to do your best is so much bigger when you can directly see the result of that hard work. It’s the same with being a consumer. If you buy all your food from the farm or market down the road, you know everything you spend goes into helping a family/individual succeed. There’s no bailouts for the small guy/gal, so it’s our job to take care of one another!

Where do you think the local foods movement is headed in the coming years?

There’s always so much talk about the local foods movement being a “fad” and only catering to the people that have the time and money to eat locally. I think there’s been a lot of positive attention focused on local foods in the media lately, so I’m hoping that has a huge impact on the longevity of the movement. Between the Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative and Jamie Oliver taking on cafeterias in the public school system, it’s out there for people to realize we need a change.

Where are you headed in the coming years?

Well, I spent part of the winter in Texas, working at Texas Specialty Cut Flowers.  I decided not to stay all winter but I am glad I had the experience. I admire large scale production farmers for the amount they get out there, but I’ve ultimately decided that staying closely connected with the people that support your business/lifestyle is more important.

The one thing I really loved about Texas is the closeness of their community and, in turn, their intuitive locavoreness (did I just make up a word?!). The farmers market scene wasn’t really big there, not because being a locavore wasn’t important, but because they just called up a friend or neighbor if they needed something. Also, there are a TON of food co-ops within the city of Austin, so even the city kids don’t necessarily have to rely on Whole Foods for local and organic. It’s kind of like Richmond, but 50 times bigger and with more bike lanes!

I could talk forever about my love for Austin, but you can go visit Edible Austin and read up on it for yourselves.

I spent the rest of the winter back home in New England, braving the weekly blizzards, drinking hot coffee, making pesto bread, and getting in some much-needed family time.  I also traveled to Sri Lanka to visit Claire, who is working at an NGO there called the Sewalanka Foundation!

The big news is that I signed up for Peace Corps.  It’s been quite a waiting game but I just found out I’ll be shipping off to Cameroon in August to work in agroforestry!  I’m really interested in becoming more involved with the food justice aspect of agriculture and helping to get better food to low income families, so we’ll see where the wind takes me after Peace Corps.

We know Shannon is itching to get started with her life in Cameroon … but we’re beyond excited to share: she’s coming back to Frog Bottom for a few months before she heads off!  She arrives next week.  We can’t wait.

We’ll get right to it: this is a recipe every CSA member everywhere should have in their arsenal.  It’s easy, it works with just about any vegetable you find in your share these days (except the leafy stuff like lettuce and cooking greens), and it’s seriously delicious.

To braise means to cook in a small amount of liquid in a covered dish for a long time at a relatively low temperature. It’s a perfect cooking method for the tough roots, firm winter squashes, and strong-tasting cabbages you’re seeing in your CSA shares and on market tables everywhere right now. Braising tames even the most pungent vegetables into something earthy, tender, and sweet.

Here’s the basic idea: grab a couple casserole dishes.  Chop two or three or four kinds of vegetables very coarsely, arrange them in crowded single layers in the dishes, and douse with olive oil and/or broth and/or white wine and/or water.  Add salt, pepper, and red pepper.  Cover tightly with foil and cook in a 325°F oven for about two hours, turning the vegetables about midway through the cooking. And that’s it!  (If you have time, uncover the dishes, turn the oven up to 400°F, and cook everything for another 15 minutes to brown the vegetables lightly. But if you’re ready to eat, you can certainly just dig right in.) This dish is a classic example of the whole being far, far greater than the sum of its humble parts.

Tonight’s version includes arrowhead cabbage, Sunshine kabocha squash (from our friends at Waterpenny Farm in Rappahannock County, since our winter squash fared so poorly this year), and rutabagas.  It, along with some gingerbread and whipped cream, will warm our bellies as we say our sad goodbyes to Shannon, who’s leaving us this week after two years on the Frog Bottom crew.

It’s also delicious with carrots (coming soon in the shares!) and onions.  We often add garlic — keep the cloves whole and unpeeled, and everyone can squeeze their own garlic from the peels when they eat (it’s fun!).  It’s very, very good with a poached egg on top.  And chicken is a perfect addition — just tuck some legs or wings in among the vegetables.  Or try it with sweet potatoes, beets, turnips…

Read the step-by-step instructions over at Orangette.

This gal swears she’s a great radio voice.

Last Wednesday Arlo and I traded the juicy tomatoes and the excruciating heat of the farm for some blessed A/C and delightful conversation at the WRIR studios in Richmond. (Don’t get us wrong: we love the farm! But the cool of the studio was something else.)  We joined our good friend Eli of Eli’s Greens and Sunny Gardner of Lightly on the Ground for a great chat about farm life and local food systems.

Have a listen!

Lightly on the Ground radio interview, 21 July 2010

Down below the photos, we’ve listed a few recipes we’ve been loving lately.  Some CSA members have also been sharing recipes via email, the comments sections here on the blog, and over at our Facebook page.  We’ll try to highlight some of those soon as well.  And plans are still afoot for adding forums to this website, so you can share your recipes and cooking adventures directly; we’ll keep you posted!

Here are some tasty ideas for working through these early summer CSA shares and farmers market finds.  Most of them would be fantastic fare for your Fourth of July BBQ!  Lots of these posts link to other great recipes too.

Ginger Scallion Sauce at Chocolate & Zucchini

Red, White & Blue Roast Potatoes and Firecracker Potato Salad (two recipes) at Babble

Fondant Fennel from Edward Schneider at Mark Bittman

Raw Beet Salad at Just Braise

Quick Sauté of Zucchini with Toasted Almonds at Smitten Kitchen

Chard, Onion, and Gruyère Panade at Orangette

101 Fast Recipes for Grilling at The Minimalist

Soon, it should be easier to search recipes we’ve posted or linked to here on the farm blog.  In the meantime, you might enjoy just browsing the posts with recipes.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!  What will you be eating?