Hello Friends of B & H Organic Produce and Welcome CSA Members.

This year has been very interesting. It is the wettest spring I can remember. This set us back quite a bit and our first planting in the mud was pretty spotty. The upside is that somehow I managed to pull together the most amazing crew of people to work with me this season. There is so much positive energy and joy. The veggies can’t help but grow. We are totally caught up with planting and very ready to begin the market and CSA season.

The Elverson Farmer’s Market begins Saturday May 28^th at Livingood Park 9 am till 1 pm. And the West Reading Farmer’s Market begins Sunday May 29 th 500 block of Penn Ave 9 am till 1 pm. And of course the CSA begins on Wednesday June 1^st.

I am very excited to get going again and to see all the faces I have missed so dearly over the winter. You all mean more to me than you will know.

This week we are harvesting:

· Strawberries

· Spinach

· Salad mix

· Radishes

· Kale

· Baby Pac Choi

· Lettuce

· And if you are interested in herbs we have: oregano, marjoram, mint, sage, and garlic chives.

· Komatsuna- mild Asian mustard green.

If you ordered a meat share through our CSA it will be delivered the first drop off of each month. That means you will be receiving your first meat share on Wednesday June 1^st.

Aren’t sure what is in your box. Please check our recipe blog http://www.bhrecipes.blogspot.com/ I worked for several years compiling this information just for the CSA. I would love it if you would add your comments and your own recipes as well. Remember that if you copy recipes you must site the original author.

You do not have to order for the CSA each week. Only order if there is something your absolutely want or do not want. If you do not order we will pack a very well rounded box for you. I have been doing this for a long time and I know what most customers are looking for.

Thank you all so much and have a super week,

Erica

Hello loyal B&H blog followers! My name is Katherine, and I will be an intern here until July 10^th. I am a Biology major at Palm Beach Atlantic University down in Florida, but I will be home in Wyomissing, which is not too far from the farm, for most of the summer. Just last Monday I began working on the farm. I have not had any previous experience working on a farm, but ever since I was little I remember begging my parents to move to the country where we could live on a farm. Just recently, organic farming in particular has become even more of an interest to me. B&H Organic Produce seemed like the perfect fit for a summer internship, and it is! I love that every day that I come to work I learn so much. I love that on lunch breaks, when it is nice out, I can sit in the cool shade and enjoy the view of the farm with the mountains in the background. I love that I am getting hands on experience with a job that I’ve had an interest in since I was young. I love that I get spend my days working outside. I love that I am coming to understand the importance of the work done at B&H Organic Produce, and at any organic farm for that matter.

Last week we planted one of my favorites, tomatoes! Growing up I was never a fan of tomatoes; my sister and grandpa used to sprinkle sugar on tomato slices, I did not even like watching them eat that. Now, I feel as though a sandwich is not a sandwich without a tomato. Thank goodness for changing taste buds, or I would still be missing out! One of my favorite foods to eat with tomatoes in it is fresh mozzarella and tomato salad, but I must say that my Mom’s tomato sauce is pretty tough competition to the classic fresh mozzarella and tomato salad. The recipe she uses is actually a slight variation from one that she found in the “Joy of Cooking” cookbook. Here is the recipe with her modifications:

Heat in a medium saucepan over medium heat:

2 T extra virgin olive oil

Add:

1 medium onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in:

One 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, with juice, broken into pieces

1 T dried basil

1-2 t dried oregano

Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in:

1-2 t sugar

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Heat through, about 5 minutes.

Another exciting thing that happened last week was that we cleared out all the plastic and metal scraps from the frame of the greenhouse that collapsed in the winter. It was great to get all of that stuff out because it means we are a little closer to getting another greenhouse.

Looking ahead, May 21^st is our Open House. There will be tours of the farm, where people can ask questions, see what an organic farm is like, and learn all about where their food comes from. For the children there will be a whole area with different games and baby chicks. I hope to meet most of you there!

Our intern Zoe

Hello, my name is Zoe and I am an intern here for the summer. May 11^th marks the one month anniversary of my arrival on the farm, and so far I am absolutely loving it. I do not come from any sort of farming background, so everything that I am doing here is a first for me. I am currently in an interim period between high school and college, as I was unwilling to follow the “normal” path and dive head first into higher education. So this past year I have been trying, without much success might I add, to figure out what I want to do with my life. And after a few existential meltdowns and one somewhat spontaneous decision later, I find myself here. And I could not be happier.

Every night I fall asleep, back aching, legs sore, skin drenched in sun and dirt, and yet I am always excited for the day to come. I’ve already learned so much here, more than I even expected to. And not only about farming either; I’ve acquired knowledge about business, cooking, medicine, even dancing (thanks to Miriam who let me accompany her to a contradance, which was more fun than I could have ever imagined). But I think that one of the most significant things I am learning is to live off of what the land is producing, in the case, spinach. I can safely say I have never eaten so much spinach in my life, but hey, who could complain about a nearly limitless amount of fresh spinach leaves, as long as my head and as vibrant as a St. Patrick’s Day shamrock button? Not I, that’s for sure.

With this abundance of spinach comes a wide variety of ways to prepare and eat it, from soup to salad to stir fry and everything in between. There’s nothing tastier than a simple dish of spinach sautéed with garlic and olive oil, or a nice creamy spinach soup (for which I have written up a recipe), or an omelets made with farm fresh eggs to accompany your farm fresh spinach. But personally, I like to eat spinach fresh and raw. For dinner I will usually take a hefty bunch of the giant green blades, wad them up in my hand and bite the leafy sphere as if it were an apple. The taste of summertime earthy greenness erupts onto my taste buds and perfectly epitomizes the feeling that the aestival season is upon us. And after a horrible cold wet depressing winter that this past one has been, there is nothing in the world that tastes better to me.

Creamy Spinach Soup

1/2 of a Vidalia onion

2 cloves garlic

Olive oil (or butter, whichever you prefer)

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

2 cups water

1 pound of fresh spinach, stems removed

salt and pepper to taste

Sauté spinach with garlic and oil until wilted. Put in food processor until spinach is in fairly small pieces, but not completely pureed. In a medium saucepan, sauté garlic and onions (both should be diced) in oil (or butter) until onions are soft. Add yogurt and water and mix well. Add spinach and cook on medium heat, stirring periodically until it reaches desired thickness. Enjoy hot or cold, or for a special treat try it au gratin, with a layer of melted Swiss cheese on the surface.

Miriam's Blog

Hello! My name is Miriam and I am the assistant farmer at B&H this year. I was an intern last year, so some of you may remember me from the farmer's market and other events. You may not see as much of me at market this year since I'll be focusing on the field work down on the farm but you are welcome to come out and visit us. I'll also be showing up here on the blog from time to time.

My journey to B&H has been a winding one. I started out my adult life thinking that I was going to be an electrical engineer, but it didn't take. I worked as an electrician for a couple years in Philadelphia and although I didn't mind the job, it just wasn't the right kind of dirty. I came to farming after studying permaculture and natural building and thinking hard about who I want to be. My long-term goal is to have my own urban homestead and small market garden in Philadelphia so I can provide for myself as much as I can to meet my own needs. This is my third full-season as a farmer and I still enjoy the work, so I think I'm on the right track. I love being outside, working hard, and feeling connected to the world around me.

It is springtime and here at B&H, we are playing peek-a-boo with the rain. As soon as the soil dries, we disc and harrow and seed and plant until the clouds form again. Because of this, we got a little behind on our planting schedule, but with dedication and hard work we've managed to catch up. We have lots of greens germinating in the field and we've transplanted the broccoli and cabbage that we started in the cold frames. The bare-root transplants have taken to their new homes, so our cold frame experiment this season was a success. With all the extra room for root growth, the plants started out larger than they would have been in cell flats, which is our usual method for starting new plants. Very soon now we'll start our summer crops, your favorite tomatoes and eggplant and summer squash. But to give you a taste of the market season coming up soon, we're already harvesting the spinach we planted last fall, the rhubarb is in full-leaf now, and the strawberries are blossoming.

Spring also means that I have some projects of my own. I get excited by the first flowers of the season, dandelions and violets and even the weeds in the fields since they signal the start of the farming season when I can get my hands dirty again. But I figured there's something else I can do with these plants other than look at them, so I started making wine. Last year I made one gallon of dandelion wine and it turned out very well, so this year I'm making two gallons. I'm also trying violet wine for the first time. Unfortunately, it will be a few months before I can taste it, so I don't know if I can recommend it. Here's the recipe for the dandelion wine, but if you'd like to try it you'd better move quickly. Our first spring flowers are starting to give way to late spring plants.

Dandelion Wine

Adapted from Jack Keller's wine website: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

· 2.5 qts dandelion flowers

· 2.5-3 lbs granulated sugar (less sugar makes a dryer wine)

· 4 tangelos or oranges – you will use a very thin paring of the outer skin (no white) and the juice (strained – no pulp)

· 1 gallon water

· ¼ tsp wine yeast (I use Red Star Premier Cuvee)

· 1 gallon fermentation vessel (glass jug) and fermentation trap (also call an airlock)

The recipe I follow says to pick the flowers at mid-day, when they are fully open. I tend to pick them in the late afternoon. I figure it's all right as long as the sun is shining. Once picked, keep the flowers cool until you are ready to process them. Remove as much of the green from the flower heads as you have the patience for. (This year, I am running an experiment. With my first batch, I removed all the green, which took several hours. With my second batch, I merely pulled the whole tops from the stems, which took about 30 minutes.)

Boil one gallon of water. Put the prepared flowers in a crock and pour the boiling water over them. Cover with a cloth. Let this mixture steep for two days. The crock can be ceramic, glass, or stainless steel. Don't use aluminum.

After two days, pour the flower mixture back into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the outer parings of the tangelos (be careful not to get too much white pith with the peel) and boil for ten minutes. Strain through a muslin cloth or bag back into the crock and add the sugar, stirring to dissolve. Let cool to room temperature.

Once cool, add the yeast and tangelo juice. Stir well, then pour into your fermentation vessel, fit the fermentation trap and keep in a cool, dark place until the there are no more bubbles rising through the trap. This should take 2-3 months. At this point, the wine is ready. It's a good idea to siphon the wine out of the vessel so as not to disturb the sediment on the bottom. I think it's good for drinking right away, but you can also bottle it and let it age for six months to a year.