NL Organics ~ St. John's Organic Weekly Food Box

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NL Organics Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 6 August 23, 2007

ORGANIC FACTS I’m away this week, so for fun here are some quick facts on organic agriculture in

Canada

– courtesy the Canadian Organic Growers Website (http://www.cog.ca/). · Organics is the fastest growing sector in agriculture, with sales increasing at 20% per year.· In 2005, the last year for which there are statistics, Canada had 3618 certified organic producers. Another 241 farmers were making the transition from conventional to organic farming.· Saskatchewan is home to close to one-third of all certified organic producers in Canada.· Over 1.3 million acres (530,919 ha) of land in Canada is used to grow organic food. Another 118,500 acres (47,955 ha) is in transition to certification.· Organic farm operations reflect the bioregional diversity across the country in the same way as conventional agriculture. For example, the majority of the organic farms on the Prairies are producing grains and pulses, organic dairy producers are found primarily in Ontario and Quebec and most of the certified organic tree fruit production occurs in central British Columbia.· Wheat is Canada’s largest organic crop with over 187,000 acres (75,816 ha). · Organic livestock production is increasing dramatically. From 2004 to 2005, the beef herd increased by 30%, sheep numbers by 19%, layers by 20% and broilers by 56%.

· The number of certified organic processors and handlers increased by 47% between 2004 and 2005, with the largest increases observed in British Columbia and Quebec. This represents the second year of dramatic growth in the processing sector. Between 2003 and 2004, the number of processors jumped by 48% with most of the gains occurring in Ontario and Manitoba.

NEWSLETTER HELP WANTED Do you have access to a printer and photocopier? We’re looking for help with newsletter production, particularly in the fall. Yolanda and Mark will write up most of the content (although contributions are always welcome) and you would simply have to add in the weekly food bag contents when Mark has figured out the harvest plan, and print off 35 copies for him by the time he starts deliveries on Thursday. If you can help with this, please email Yolanda (ywiersma@mun.ca). Thanks!!
This week’s food bag This week’s food bag contains: v 2 Zucchiniv Beautiful Salad Mixv Mixed Currantsv 1 Cucumberv ½ lb Chanterellesv Winterbor Kalev The last of the Chinese Cabbagev NL Summer of Icebergs Lettucev 2 Japanese “Eat-Fresh-in-salad-Turnips RECIPE OF THE WEEKDon’t forget to check out the recipes section on the website: www.nlorganics.com! To submit a recipe for the website, email it to Mark (nlorganics@yahoo.com) or Yolanda (ywiersma@mun.ca) Cold Cucumber and Zucchini Soup 1 medium cucumber, divided1/2 zucchini
2 tablespoons butter
1 leek, chopped (white part)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon flour
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup half and half cream
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Chopped dill
Sour cream

Peel and thinly slice your cucumber and zucchini. In a large pot, melt butter; add sliced cucumbers, zucchini, leek, and bay leaves. Cook slowly until tender, but not brown. Discard bay leaves. Stir in flour, mixing well. Add vegetable or chicken broth and salt; bring just to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Puree mixture through a sieve or in a blender or food processor. Chill soup in refrigerator several hours. Peel, halve, and remove seeds from remaining cucumber, then grate. Add to soup with half and half cream, lemon juice, and dill to taste. Correct seasoning with salt and pepper. Chill in refrigerator for at least another 30 minutes, so soup will be icy cold when served. Serve in cold soup cups and top each serving with a dollop of sour cream. Makes six servings.

Week 4 Newsletter

NL Organics Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 4 August 9, 2007

Wonderful weather Last week’s tropical storm set some rainfall records and had some pretty awesome effects on the streams and rivers around town. But, if you’re like me and have been an urban/suburban dweller most of your life, then, after checking your basement for flooding, you probably didn’t think much more about the storm after that. Or at least, not until Mark’s email notifying us that the food bag delivery would be a day late due to the fields being too wet for harvest. I was glad to hear the crops had survived the storm, but to be honest, hadn’t given a thought to the effects of the storm on the farm until Mark’s message. This small event in the week illustrates rather nicely one of the philosophies of a CSA. Because CSA members pay the farmer up front, in advance of the growing season, they are investing in the coming harvest, and by nature, implicitly agreeing to share in all the risks of farming. Anyone who has farmed knows it’s a risky venture. Weather is unpredictable, and you need just the right amount of sun, water, and all at the right times. A bad season and a farmer’s whole crop can fail, leaving her/him with nothing to sell, and no capital to buy seeds for the following year. CSAs work a little differently – the farmer has an assurance of capital, because everyone pays up front. CSA farmers hedge their bets by practicing market gardening – that is, growing a wide variety of crops, so that there is a good chance that at least something will produce a bumper crop that year. This is different from industrial farms, which are often monoculture crops and have a “boom or bust” economic model. While “sharing the risk” may not sound attractive, it does make you (the eater) more aware of the challenges faced by farmers. Even more importantly, you can start to make a link between the weather outside your door and what shows up on your plate each week, which is a rare privilege, in the globalized food system we are mostly caught up in.

To make a newsletter contribution (recipe, food tidbit, community news), contact Yolanda Wiersma, volunteer editor: ywiersma@mun.ca

More about those lovely golden chanterelles...

Hope you enjoyed the little “taste” of wild mushrooms last week. There are more in this week’s bag. There is something really neat about being able to forage wild food from the forest. Wild mushroom harvesting is a significant economic activity in many parts of the world, and has much less impact on forest ecosystems than other economic activities (like logging). If harvested so as to leave the ground where the mycelium grows, chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) will reappear year after year. They are prized for their aroma and flavour and hold their flavour with cooking better than most mushrooms, but generally are not eaten raw.

Interested in learning more about wild mushrooms?? Check out information on the NL Mushroom Foray, hosted by the Humber Natural History Society (http://hnhs.ca/mushrooms/). A foray is a fun way to meet other people and learn about mushroom identification, collecting, and cooking.

NL Organics Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 3 August 2, 2007

Updated Website Hi all. Thanks for your feedback on the food bag and newsletter. In response to a member query, we’re printing the newsletter on recycled (30% post-consumer) paper. You probably received an email this week inviting you to join the mailing list from the NL Organics Website. Rest assured, with the amount of field work Mark has to do – you won’t get your inboxes flooded! Please do take some time to visit the farm website: http://www.nlorganics.com/ Mark has recently updated the website and invites you to submit comments, recipes, community news, etc. Please send such items to me (ywiersma@mun.ca) and/or Mark (nlorganics@yahoo.ca) and we will post them online and/or include them in the newsletter.

To make a newsletter contribution (recipe, food tidbit, community news), contact Yolanda Wiersma, volunteer editor: ywiersma@mun.ca

HELP WANTED Would you like to get out of the city and get your hands dirty? Do you want to see how your food is grown and help with its production or harvest? Volunteers for farm work are always welcome. You can sign up via the website (http://www.nlorganics.com/) where you can indicate which days you prefer and which kinds of skills you have to contribute. Don’t want to farm? There are lots of non-physical jobs that we can use help with... admin work, newsletter contributions, web maintenance, marketing, etc. Leave a note on the web page. This week’s food bag This week’s food bag contains: v Zucchiniv Italian parsleyv Greens v Kalev Sagev Rosemaryv Salad mixv Swiss chard What to do with fresh herbs Herbs can be chopped fine and used in any recipe in place of dried herbs. Generally 1 teaspoon dried herbs = 1 tablespoon fresh. If you can’t use all your herbs at once, tie them up with a string and hang them upside down in a cool, dry place. When they are dry, you can crush them with a mortar and pestle (or just between your fingers) and store them in an airtight container.Fresh herbs can also be frozen is ziplock bags and then put into stews, soups, sauces in the winter for a little taste of summer flavour. FARMER PROFILE One of the cool things about a CSA is that you get to know who is growing your food. So, now, in addition to all the other people who provide you with goods and/or services (your mechanic, your dentist, your massage therapist), you also have a farmer. Who is this Mark Wilson guy? Why is he doing this farm thing? What makes him so passionate about lettuce? I sat down with Mark (at the sidelines of an ultimate Frisbee game he was playing this week) to find out a bit more about the guy growing our food. Mark was born in Cambridge, Ontario and from the age of 4, grew up on a farm primarily devoted to market gardening. He remembers raising his own chickens and selling eggs and corn by the roadside at the age of 10. Four years ago, he came to Newfoundland for a friend’s wedding, and never left. Having had a long-standing interesting in wildcrafting and harvesting of wild foods (in Ontario he sold wild mushrooms and Arctic Char around farmer’s markets), he spent some time working on mushroom surveys with Dr. Faye Murrin at MUN. Last summer, he managed the Rabinovitz Organic Farm, another St. John’s area farm co-op. This past winter, he branched out on his own and developed a business plan for NL Organics, which was officially launched on May 1, 2007. When he isn’t growing vegetables, or chasing a Frisbee down the field, Mark also performs in the well-known reggae-ska band The Idlers, which have been playing around St. John’s for the past year or so. The Idlers are currently recording their first CD, with funding from MusicNL. RECIPE OF THE WEEK I love kale. Every CSA I’ve been in has a lot of it. Given Newfoundland’s cooler growing season, I’m anticipating tonnes of it. Yum. But, I’ve found lots of people don’t know what to do with kale.

Since kale is in the box this week, herewith a simple kale recipe: 1) “Boren-kole” (“Farmer’s Kale) This is a Dutch peasant dish that I grew up on. I made it once for my British-heritage in-laws and they thought it was the most gourmet dish ever. I had to make it for their Christmas dinner. It’s very simple... Peel and cut potatoes into quarters. Put them in a saucepan covered with water and a little salt. Now cut the stems off the kale and chop up into bite-sized pieces. Put the kale on top of the potatoes and put the pot on to boil. Turn the heat down once boiling and cook until the potatoes are soft and the kale is steamed. Drain off any water, and mash the potatoes and kale together with a little butter, salt and pepper. Milk is optional if you are the type that likes really soft mashed potatoes. You can eat it as this (fancy mashed potatoes), or if you want to do it my Oma’s way, transfer the mashed mixture to a casserole dish, smooth it down and top it off with sausage rounds or bacon strips (vegetarians can use marinated tofu strips). Bake uncovered in a 375 oven until meat is cooked (or tofu is crispy) and the top of the potatoes are nice and crispy. The drippings from the meat/tofu will add the “gravy” to the potato dish. Serve hot.