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2013 Summer CSA is Open for Sign-Up!

Greetings everyone!  We hope you have all had a cozy winter and holiday season, staying warm with family and loved ones!  It's been a while since we've all been in touch, and even longer since we've written a full-length newsletter!  So I will waste no more time.

We here at the Echollective have been hunkering down, keeping warm, and taking advantage of this time of year to rest along with the land.  We have been grateful for so much snow (and rain?  In Jan./Feb.?  We'll take what we can get, I guess).  Nowhere near enough to break the drought, but it's something.  Our mulch-covered garlic fields lay blanketed in snow, and we're sure that our thirsty aquifers are appreciating so much moisture.  We'll need it to make up for the parching Summers we've had, and the ones that may come.

We've been far from completely inactive, however!  It's getting to be that time-- 2013 seed orders are in and we are starting to plan the farming season, dreaming of lettuce beds, cilantro bunches, asparagus harvesting and other spring vegetables soon to come!  2013 Summer CSA season Sign-Up is now also officially open!  Our Summer CSA season is tentatively scheduled to run from the last week of May, to early October, 2013.  Not to happen for some time, but we've decided to open up our doors for sign-up.  The early bird gets the worm!

Want a peek at what we'll be growing, and what we have grown in past years?

Click on "CSA Info" above to get a basic idea of what will be available during Summertime, or other seasons.  Watch out-- we may expand this list with more crops!

Sign-Up is super-easy for our Summer season.  By clicking our "CSA Signup" tab above and following our links and prompts, it takes less than five minutes to ensure your membership with our CSA and 20 weeks of delicious, healthful, naturally-grown and local food!

"What about our Spring CSA 2013?"  We are still organizing what we plan to grow for Spring and what the CSA's duration will be, so our Sign-Up has yet to be configured and opened for business!  It's that much closer than Summer, so we want to get the details just right.  If you are super-interested in getting veggies sooner than May, please email us and we'll put you on a tentative list.  In the meantime, you can always sign-up for Summer!

 With little to no farming to do, it's hard not to get fidgety, so we've been immersed in many projects and activities.  With so much snow, cross-country skiing has been a real treat on the 14 acres of open field where last year's produce once grew, and where our garlic sleeps under the drifts.  Rabbit-hunting has also been a boon!  We must have eaten three rabbit stews and roasts already.  We've all done an incredible job this winter eating the most ethical, local meat we've been able to hunt or raise.  Oh, and I should mention-- we also have chicken eggs!  Yep, Echollective has ushered in it's first official egg-laying flock of little bossy, colorful hens.  It seems not too unlikely that more Echo chickens could arrive, so our chicken tractor/coop combo building projects (there are two in the making) have been restarted with renewed efforts.

One of us recently finished pickling several of the wild-caught rainbow and brook trout we spent time catching all summer, pickling them with herbs like garlic, cayenne pepper and juniper.  It may sound like a strange food, but it's actually incredible!  Much like canned tuna, but it's straight from Iowa's rivers, not the Atlantic; and even more delicious!

We've also been nibbling here and there at local venison, or lamb and goat chops from other farmer friends who raise their own animals for meat.  We've enjoyed cuts of pork from the hogs raised and butchered right here at Echollective, Dr. Caporkian and Merlock (we can't thank those pigs enough!).  Our hog-specialist, Will Lorentzen, is hard at work bacon-curing, sausage-making, and pork-smoking.  Yesterday he just finished building a rudimentary meat smoker that procured us a super-tasty smoked loin roast!

What more can I say?  We've been eating right!   Now all we need to do is wait to grow veggies in the Spring.

Come to think of it, it won't be long until we have some new pigs.  This year, Will has in mind to set-up a Pork-Trade Program.  The basics?  Help with our hog care, and you get some pork!  No money involved.  Want more details?  Email us!  At echofarmers879@gmail.com.

Also, Echollective Farm is kicking off the very beginnings of its Shiitake Mushroom program!  In cooperation with Oak Savannah Mushrooms, we've all been inoculating a high number of shiitake logs in our little greenhouse.  The goal is to get to 500!  It still won't be at least 6 months to a year until we start seeing shiitake mushrooms, but it's certainly a beginning.  Who knows, maybe you'll be seeing the likes of a mushroom CSA next year?

Thank you for listening, and we hope to be your farmers this year!
2013 Spring CSA Sign-Up 2013 Summer CSA Sign-Up chicken eggs
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Fall CSA Begins; PFI Field Day Thursday!

Greetings all.  The cold season slowly approaches!  Days are noticeably shorter.  Very soon...winter will be at our door.  Time for sweatpants, gloves, coveralls and sturdy boots.

Fall CSA will have its first pickup tomorrow!  We'll be happy to see some returning faces from Summer CSA, as well as some new folks to join our lineup.  We're excited to continue growing into colder times.  If you still have any questions, see any loose ends, or are mystified by our Fall CSA, please contact us so we can help!

 As warm weather diminishes, and days shorten, this gives some of our member farmers some time to focus on other farm-related projects.  Work has begun anew on a large combo chicken coop/tractor, which will house chickens that can aid with soil amending and pest control, as well as give us some eggs!  Yum.  Farmer Will is turning to focus on the more business aspects of mushroom production, and the possible start of an Eastern Iowa Mushroom Co-op this winter.  And it's been some time since an update on some of the farm's little-known residents, the pigs Merlock and Dr. Caporkian.  They are BIG!  We've been feeding them organic veggies and all sorts of goodies.

Coming up this Thursday is the Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Day!  Running from 10 am to 4 pm, and the description is as follows:

"See a wide range of equipment, tools an plant varieties used to harvest food all year, and learn about crop coverings, from simple and homemade to expensive and complex. Hear about plant variety selection and how different growing and handling techniques are used to harvest produce year-round.  Garlic is one of the farm's largest crops; learn about planting preparations, and purchase seed stock.  Several hoophouse pipe-benders will be on display; bring your own pipe to bend into hoops!  A simple farm-fresh lunch of Echollective produce will be available; free-will donations accepted."

 To you Fall CSAer's: See you tomorrow for your first veggie box!  Take care!

On the table this week:

  • Kale
  • Peppers
  • Zucchini
  • Garlic
  • Salad Mix
  • Radishes
  • Potatoes
  • Daikon Radishes
  • Bok Choy
  • Winter Squash

Recipes

Whole-Grain Spaghetti with Garlicky Kale and Tomatoes (www.realsimple.com)

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta, and return it to the pot.
  2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the kale and cook, tossing frequently, until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook, tossing frequently, until the tomatoes begin to soften, 1 to 2 minutes more.
  3. Add the kale mixture, almonds, pecorino, and reserved cooking water to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve with additional pecorino. 

Kyle Bailey’s Butter-Poached Radishes (nymag.com)

  • 1 bunch French breakfast radishes (about 3/4 lb.), greens and bottoms discarded 
  • 3 tbs. unsalted butter
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 dashes raspberry wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable stock
  • 1 tsp. fresh tarragon

(1) Depending on size, halve or quarter radishes lengthwise. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet until melted. (2) Toss in the chopped radishes and season with salt and pepper. Sauté over low-medium heat until they become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the raspberry wine vinegar and sauté approximately another minute until the radishes turn a vibrant pink. Add the vegetable stock and the remaining tablespoon of butter and cook for another minute to glaze the radishes. (3) Remove from heat and tear fresh tarragon leaves directly onto the radishes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve as an accompaniment to roast chicken, pan-seared duck breast, or meaty fish like striped bass.


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Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!

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CSA Signup: Deadline This Weekend

If you still want to be a part of our 2012 Summer CSA Season, better do it now!  Our signup deadline is this weekend, ending midnight on Sunday.  After that, we will apply a $30 late fee to your share cost.

Our mini Spring CSA will begin this April!  We are beginning to offer transitional CSA's for reduced costs.  For more info, visit our CSA Info page.  A box of veggies, including spring greens, green garlic and potatoes, will be delivered to you each week for $20 a week for couples, and only $10 more per week for families.  Please contact Derek Roller directly to sign up!

It sure does seem like spring has hit us with a bang, although the temperatures are suspiciously summer-like.  The weather has been weird.  The jet stream is looping down to create a very intense, stormy cold front thru Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, which is following directly after this previous heat wave heading for the east coast...however, Iowa so far has been spared, nestled right between the two systems, experiencing a little bit of the storms and the heat separately, but never directly.  How nice!  Warm weather to encourage the plant babies, and a little bit of rain to water them.

We can now boast to have plenty of our sprouts in the ground!  Pac choi, lettuce, and cilantro have been transplanted, more on the way.  Radishes, arugula, peas, and more spinach have been direct seeded and growing quick.  Still awaiting a new life in their flats are beets, kale and sorrel, a hardy perennial herb that tastes kinda like rhubarb, with some good medicinal properties...it makes a great tonic and diuretic, but it also just tastes really good.  Rosemary and even tomatoes have sprung up in their flats, along with a wide array of Alliums: leeks, shallots and onions, enough flats to fill up half of one of our greenhouses!  Today I just planted some peppers and parsley.  Yep, we're getting everything going!  On top of that, garlic is beginning to peek up out of its mulch bed, and we're beginning to harvest some of it for shares as green garlic.  A few of us recently burnt down all the bushy asparagus plants out in the field, so we will be expecting our first tasty asparagus shoots!

There is so much going on.  Spring is an exciting time!  Not only are our vegetables coming to life, but many new farm projects are budding.  Soon we're not only going to be caring for plants...we will be introducing some animals into our farm practices!  A few of us here are working on a handful of chicken tractors: two small ones to house a few chickens, perhaps Bantam chickens, and a big one to house at least sixteen hens and a couple roosters, get some serious egg production, field fertilization, and pest reduction going!  Not sure when those will be finished.  I will have to tell you how this works soon.  We will also be getting....pigs!  We will be buying piglets, penning them over our beds to remove stubborn weeds (especially thistle!) and using their poop as compost to the highest advantage.

Along with plants and animals, we will also be introducing fungus!  Mushroom growing has already begun, and the construction of a mushroom structure is to be finished by the end of next month.  This will probably mean a separate mushroom CSA will be available!  Oysters, shiitakes, and lion's mane are among a few of the varieties we have discussed.

Today we just finished our first delivery to the Iowa Valley Food Co-op!  A lot of folks bought our greens and potatoes.  Quite successful!  We were a little bit late for our delivery, but we'll make sure not to be next time.  We will be selling again next month, with a whole lot more stuff available too!  If you live in the Cedar Rapids area and crave some local organic food, go check out their website, www.iowavalleyfood.com.  It's on our page!

My land, there is so much going on that it takes a squeezing aside of time and chores and things to even write what is happening out here.  It sure is exciting to see it all condensed into a few paragraphs.

The farmers at Echollective hope you are doing well, eating healthy, and enjoying the wonderful weather.  Happy Spring!
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