Winter squash soup

We made our first winter squash soup of the year with the Sibley Squash that I picked up at the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market this morning .  Our main purpose of going to the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market was to procure some Ayers Creek Farm heirloom beans but I couldn’t resist when I saw this beautiful squash at their stand while waiting in line to pay for my many bags of beans.  Several people even commented on my arms full of beans.  I overheard someone say “now there’s a bean lover”.  Guilty as charged, but I do have a good excuse in that we don’t live in Portland, right?

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Organic cranberries in Bandon, Oregon – Brush Prairie Bogs

The holidays are over, but I still wanted some local cranberries.  Every time I am in the produce section at the grocery store, I look at the box in hopes to see Oregon cranberries.  Instead I walk away disgusted that a grocery store in Eugene buys cranberries from Wisconsin.  What the heck?

We did manage to pick up a pound of local cranberries through Eugene Local Foods right before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t feel like I got my cranberry fix for the year.  After reading the Culinaria Eugenius post about most Oregon cranberries being shipped away, I did not have high hopes on our trip to Bandon.

We paid a visit to Misty Meadows, an Oregon coast producer and retailer specializing in cranberry jams.  While completing our purchase of cranberry jam, gooseberry jam, tayberry jam, and some local frozen huckleberries , I asked whether they sold frozen cranberries.  They suggested that we look in Coffee Break, a weekly publication of classified ads published by the local newspaper, Bandon Western World.  Sure enough there was an ad for organic cranberries from Brush Prairie Farm.  I was giddy and could hardly wait for them to call me back.  Eventually, we arranged a rendezvous and we are coming home with 10 lbs of organic cranberries.  I will probably make cranberry ketchup and cranberry salsa.  If you have other ideas, please put them in the comments.

I am encouraged to find a farm that is willing to sell smaller quantities directly.  We are hoping that some of their cranberries can find their way to Eugene next year.

They still have a small quantity available this year.  If you plan to be around Bandon in the next couple of weeks and are in need of a cranberry fix, contact Brush Prairie to see if they have any available.  If you are interested in how cranberries are grown, harvested, and packaged, they also have a beautiful set of slides on their website that chronicle the process.

Read about other local food and food related sources here.

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Beans and grains in the Willamette Valley revisited – Ayers Creek Farm

Beans and grains have become a bit of an obsession around here.  We are headed to the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market next weekend in search of some beans.   A helpful reader turned me on to Ayers Creek Farm (thank you!), owned by Anthony and Carol Boutard.  I have exchanged a few emails with Anthony and read a few online articles about their farm and harvesting methods.  The only thing I am disappointed by is not being able to get any of their beans until next weekend.

Anthony and Carol grow a wide variety of heirloom beans and grains on their farm in Gaston, OR.    They grow a number of Italian heirloom beans including Bianchetto, Black Basque, Purgatorio, Zolfino, Borlotto Lamon, and Tabais.  They also grow barley, corn for polenta and popcorn, durum wheat, and soft red wheat.  Until now, they have focused on growing non-bread grains.

They use some of their durum wheat harvest to produce frikeh.  Frikeh, a grain featured in Middle-Eastern cooking, is wheat that is harvested while still green, then roasted, and finally threshed, and winnowed.  Anthony wrote a very informative, detailed description of the process, along with information about required equipment here.  According to Anthony, frikeh is best enjoyed within a month of harvest, which begins in July.  I am looking forward to picking some up this summer and exploring ways to use this unusual grain.

The polenta, popcorn, and beans listed above are all available right now and can be purchased at the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market.  They are sold out of barley and frikeh until the summer.  I can hardly wait to try some Ayers Creek Farm beans, polenta, and popcorn.  Of course, we will share our experiments and recipes with you here.

If you are a small grain farmer or wish to know more about growing and harvesting grains, Anthony shares his experience on growing grains on the Small Grain and Pulse Production blog.  You can watch a short video about Ayers Creek Farm on Cooking Up a Story here.

Read our other bean and grain posts here:

Beans and Grains in the Willamette Valley

Ham and bean soup

Pot beans

Cranberry beans in tomato sauce over polenta

Read about other local food and food related sources here.

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Beans and grains in the Willamette Valley

I wanted to follow-up my last post, Pot Beans,  with some more information on local beans and grains. I mentioned the Southern Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project in that post, but thought such an exciting project deserves more than a mere mention.

I learned about the Southern Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project through my volunteer work at Willamette Farm & Food Coalition.  The project began a few years ago when a local farmer and founder of Oregon Tilth, Harry MacCormack, was shopping for beans at First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis and realized that none of the beans or grains were grown in the Willamette Valley.  He planted several varieties of beans to see if they would be viable and determined they would.

Harry & his wife, Cherie, run Sunbow Farms.  They sell organic beans, grains, and vegetables produced on their farm.  They sell beans and grains by contract in 5lb to 100lb quantities and grow a variety of each.  The bean varieties they sell include pinto, black, fava, and garbanzo bean, and grain varieties they sell include wheat, oats, rye, amaranth, and quinoa.  Their 2008 crop is completely sold out, but contact them via email to let them know you are interested in placing an order for their 2009 crop.

Before the 1980′s when many of the valley’s bean and grain farmers converted to grass seed, residents of the valley sourced about 50% of their food locally.  That number currently stands at less than 5%.  The aim of the project is to reverse the trend by reconverting much of the grass seed land back to producing beans and grains.  One grass seed farmer,American Grass Seed Producers, has already begun the transition back to growing some beans and wheat.

Through their food production arm, Stalford Seed Farm, American Grass Seed Producers also sells beans and grain.   They produced red wheat, white wheat, garbanzos, and pinto beans this year and currently still have everything for sale except the red wheat.  The prices for the white wheat, garbanzos, and pintos is $0.75/lb.  The 2008 crop is in their last year transition from conventional to organic.  The 2009 crop will be certified organic.  I plan on making a run up to their farm in Tangent after the new year to pick up some garbanzos, pintos, and possibly some white wheat.  Please leave a note in the comments or send me an email at ourhomeworkseugene at gmail dot com if you are interested and I will pick some up for you too.

In addition to buying direct, there are also some buying clubs that you can purchase through.  Ten Rivers Food Web has a buying club in Corvallis and Krishna Khalsa organized an informal buying club in Eugene.  I will post updates to buying club information in future posts – so stay tuned.

If you want to read more about this exciting project, Dan Armstrong at Mud City Press maintains a biannual report.  The latest report can be viewed here.  In addition, the December issue of Edible Portland features an interview with Harry MacCormack.  Read the article online here or pick up a copy of Edible Portland at Laughing Planet Cafe on Blair between 7th and 8th.

Other recipes and posts on beans:

Beans and grain in the Willamette Valley revisited – Ayers Creek Farm

Pot Beans

Ham and Bean Soup

Cranberry beans in tomato sauce over polenta

Read about other local food and food related sources here.

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Pot beans

When we decided that we would eat as much locally grown food as possible, we started using mostly dried beans.  There are sources for some dried beans (mostly black beans) in the Willamette Valley, but that will hopefully be increasing with the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project that is focused on converting grass seed farmland into bean and grain production.  A larger variety of dried beans can be purchased from Azure Standard, which sources most of their beans from the Northwest.

Imagine my delight when I ran across Rancho Gordo at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market in San Francisco a few years ago.  Rancho Gordo sells dozens of varieties of heirloom dried beans.  Since they aren’t local for us,  I only pick them up on trips to San Francisco.  (They do have a mail order option.)  On our unexpected stop in San Francisco this past weekend, we picked up 5 lbs. of beans, including 1 lb of Red Nightfall, which we used in this recipe.  Although pretty expensive at $5/lb, they are very high quality making the extra cost worth it.  They have an almost cult-like following in the Bay Area.  On the airplane, our rowmate noticed our stash of beans which prompted a discussion about our favorite bean recipes.  Who would have thought people could be so passionate about beans?

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Eugene local foods

We picked up our second order from Eugene Local Foods and we couldn’t be more pleased with our box o’ loot.  For those unfamiliar with Eugene Local Foods, it is an online source for local fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, etc.  The farmers let them know what they have available each week and they put it online for consumers to purchase.  It’s kind of like an online grocery store for only local foods – pretty nifty, huh?

We found the prices very good – less than we typically pay in the grocery store and definitely less than what we pay at the Eugene farmer’s market.  I would guess that it is comparable to CSA prices.  Here is a copy of our order that I copied and pasted from my order confirmation email.

Order Detail
Item Name	Price	Qty	Total
Savoy Cabbage (1 head)	$0.98	1	$0.98
Red Butterhead Lettuce (1 head)	$1.50	1	$1.50
Arugula (1 bunch)	$1.20	1	$1.20
Yellow Onions (8 medium/large)	$1.20	2	$2.40
Garlic (4 heads)	$1.25	4	$5.00
Shiitake (1 lb)	$7.85	1	$7.85
Cheddar Medium (1/2 lb)	$4.20	1	$4.20
Unsalted Butter (1 lb)	$4.80	1	$4.80
Sour Cream (1 pint)	$3.60	1	$3.60
Smoked Jalapeno Peppers (1/2 oz)	$1.80	1	$1.80
Order Total:			$33.34

The ordering process is incredibly simple.  You sign up for a weekly email that lets you know that ordering is open (which I typically get on Thursday).  You can also just go directly to the website.  Place your order online by Monday at 11:30pm and pick it up between 3pm and 7pm on Tuesday.

The best part of Eugene Local Foods  is that we have a local source of a wide range of vegetables, fruit, meat, and dairy for the winter (it is available throughout the year, but local food is much more difficult to come by in the winter).  With the exception of the arugula which was a little wilted (but revived quickly with a little spritz of water), everything was in great shape, and mostly (if not all) organic.

This is an incredible resource for our community that we will be using just about every week.  Yay – local stuff!

Read about other local food and food related sources here.

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Winter market

We stopped by the mini-farmer’s market at Hideaway Bakery on Saturday.  I was impressed with the number of vegetables available so late in the year – one farmer even had some cherry tomatoes.  There were about 5-6 stands in total – Pleasant Hill Orchards/River Bend Farms selling apples, apple cider, and hazelnuts, Groundwork Organics with their usual spread of beautiful vegetables, Cinco Estrellas with an equally impressive spread, Biancala Pork, and a couple of others.

I recommend a visit over the next couple of weeks – you can support a winter market and get some locally grown food at the same time!

Read about other local food and food related sources here.

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