Chickens are here
on Aug 07 by JosieDear CSA ,
We have chickens for sale. Whole frozen birds for sale at $4 a pound. We are really proud of our birds. We raise a Red Cornish cross chicken. About 99% of the chicken that is sold in America, even organic,re a patent chicken by Tyson. Yes, they own the patent of a bird. So, many things are wrong with that. The Tyson bird or Franken Chick, can go from baby to fry pan in 8 weeks. These birds can hardly walk after 6 weeks and many of them die from heart attacks. We refuse to raise that bird…. So, our birds take longer to grow and they are given room to act like chicken and run, scratch and chase bugs.
If you would like some chickens we can bring them to your CSA pick up point. The birds range small $11, medium $13 and large around $15. Send me an email at peacefulbelly@yahoo.com and tell me how many chickens you would like and where your pick up is next week. Thanks
News Letter the First of August
on Aug 04 by JosieCSA is going by so fast…This season is strange to me as a grower, by now we usually have tomatoes and peppers but they are still a few weeks out, along with the corn. This season has brought us wonderful food..looking back we have seen so many wonderful veggies. We are in our third week for the flower and wine shares and fruit starts this week…yea!!!!
If you would like a box of peaches for canning or freezing Eagle Creek Orchards can bring that to you via Peaceful Belly. Please send them an email eagleorchard@eagletelephone.com. They would be happy to send more fruit your way.
Have a great week and enjoy those carrots…we spent hours on our knees weeding them to get them in your belly.
News letter
on Jul 08 by JosieWhat a spring and early summer this has been for the farm. Really it is July? Feels like June. The crops are starting to size up. Carrots and beets are plumping up and so is the summer squash. Our beets got hit this year by leaf minor, that is why the greens are not the best but we are trying to work it out and in about a month the greens should be beautiful again.
Fava beans click here to find out more? These big beans are such a treat this time of year. Many people are allergic to them so if you have never had them before keep that in mind. Favas can be boiled whole pods and eaten just like edamame. Here is some links to wonderful ideas
Sauted Fava Beans click for recipe
Roman Favas click for recipe
Grilled Fava beans click for recipe
I love Chard, my favorite chard is creamed chard. Try it, you will like it. Separate the leaves of the chard from the stems. Chop us leaves and steam separate. In a pan put 1 Tbl olive oil and 3 cloves chopped garlic add chopped stem and cook on medium heat until stems are soft. Add the leaves to the pan and a pinch of salt and white pepper, cook until greens are wilted. Add 1/2 of cream, cook over low heat until cream is reduced by half, add a little salt andpepper for taste. serve over rice.
Flower Shares will start in Two Weeks with Wine Shares
Fruit Shares will start the 2nd week of August-read Linda’s Fruit Blog
Summer is finally here and with it came the hot weather we’ve been hopping for. It’s been a long cool and wet spring, which brought all the challenges associated with it, molds, fungus and slow growth and fruit development. Because of this slow development we will be delayed with our first CSA delivery by a week or so. We’re on the other side of all that cool weather now and the fruit is starting to really grow in size every day. It will be another wonderful crop which will nourish and please us all.
This year through the long hours of frost protection, pruning, thinning and all our other tasks we’ve had a very welcome partner helping us along. That partner is you, our CSA fruit share customers. You are right here with us every step of the way growing your fruit. The fertilizer used to feed the soils was paid for by you, the pruning and thinning crew of three locals was paid by you, the fuel for the tractor was paid for by you, the Lady bugs we released to help control aphids were paid for by you and so many other things were paid by you. The income we received from CSA Fruit Shares has allowed us to operate this spring with out having to barrow from the bank, something we are loath to do. We thank you and the trees thank you.
Supporting your farmer through a CSA is a way to be involved in your food production, you could have shopped at some big box store but you chose to know where your food comes from. Every time you buy anything you support whom ever and where ever the product came from. You vote with your dollar and you have chosen to vote for fresh, local and organic. Because of you Organic foods are the fastest growing segment in food production, 5% last year, a year which gave us the worst recession ever faced by the people of this country which saw many business fail.
So we are busy here with moving our irrigation twice daily, our beautiful veggie garden, and monitoring the fruit, pest and weeds. Eagle Creek has settled down after this springs flood. We didn’t have any damage because of the well vegetated riparian flood zone that nature built for just this kind of event. We will plant more willows this fall to replace what the creek took out at high water. We did lose some fruit to natures crazy spring weather that last freeze in May took a lot of apricots. With natural events there is always next year, unlike the fishermen and women in the Gulf who have lost their way of life for who knows how long. I think of the people, animals, sea life, plants of the Gulf Coast allot, and know that people want desperately to help change things for the better. For Robert and I who are trying to purchase our land and grow organic food our CSA fruit shares have done just that.
Week before 4th of July
on Jun 27 by JosieRemember that there is no CSA pick up for this week. This week gives us the time we need in the field to get ready for all the summer crops to come on. The carrots need weeded, along with the beets, tomatoes, peppers and beans. The tomatoes need trellised and the melons and squash need to be thinned. We will see you the next week after the 4th with a new bunch of crops, you can look forward to beets, carrots, peas and favas. We will say good bye to boc choy, radishes and mustards. Have a great forth.
2nd week of CSA
on Jun 07 by JosieWow! we are wet on the farm. I bet you are ready for sunshine like we are. This rain has produced some monster Bok choy. Here are some great ideas for Bok choy
Bok choy with ginger and garlic click here for recipe
Spicy Bok Choy, click here for recipe
Bok choy salad click here for recipe
In the pick up this week is, Baby spinach, Boc choy, red mustard, arugula, radishes, turnips and Walla walla onions.
Our favorite way to do turnips is to cut them in bit size pieces and saute in a pan with a little olive oil or butter and a lot of chopped garlic, a Tablespoon of cummin and some salt and pepper until they are soft, then quickly add the chopped greens for just a second till they wilt. Yum!!! A few red chili flakes spicy it up.
Why we should eat organic
America’s farmers were delivered a post WWII mandate to increase production and lower costs, ushering in the “cheap food policy” era that persists unto the present day. Survival instinct drove many cultivators to expand, embrace toxic chemistry, hyper-mechanize and deepen debt, but most simply drifted from the land, abandoning agrarianism for a burgeoning urban economy. In many ways, we have all been “guinea pigs” in a grand experiment to industrialize and cheapen the production of food.
Last week, some notable results from that venture were published in Pediatrics, official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Researchers from Harvard University’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine, among others, examined the association between urinary concentrations of organophosphate pesticide metabolites and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children 8 to 15 years of age, coming up with some startling indications. Their data, gleaned from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2000-2004), which assessed thousands of children representative of the general U.S. population, demonstrates those carrying pesticide levels higher than the median concentration were twice as likely to suffer from ADHD than subjects whose urine contained none.
This common class of nerve agent insecticides, including Malathion and Chlorpyrophos, long employed in agriculture and urban pest control, accumulates in the more sensitive juvenile population largely as a result of dietary intake. A more encouraging 2006 study, conducted by Emory University’s Chensheng Lu and collaborators at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), confirms that children switched to organic diets clear organophosphate residues from their urine almost immediately and maintain undetectable levels of these pesticide metabolites until reintroduced to conventional eating habits. The USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) has analyzed hundreds of thousands of food samples for residues over two decades and regularly finds contamination in conventional products four times more frequently than in those certified organic.
We inhabit a contaminated world, where many of our chemical tools persist in the environment over time. Organic foods sometimes contain residues from such “background” contamination but when detected, measure on average at dramatically lower levels than those in conventional foods. Entrepreneurial American farmers will grow food, given appropriate technological support, non-toxically if you demand it and compensate them fairly. These emerging facts lend credence to a friend’s assertion: “Cheap food is not good, and good food is not cheap”.
-–Tom Willey
how do I cook mustard greens?
on Jun 02 by JosieMustard greens are really spicy when eaten raw but cooked they lose their edge and are amazing here is some ideas for what to do with them.
In a pan put 2 tablespoons of butter or oil, add about 2 cloves of garlic chopped and a little salt and white pepper and about 5 Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Cook over medium heat until the mixture reduces by half. Add a huge bunch of chopped mustard green (you may have to add in stages) do not cook it to long just until it is wilted. This is great as a side or on a baked potato.
Here are some other ideas
Garbanzo beans and mustard greens click here for recipe
Simple mustard greens click here for recipe
Mustard greens with Chipotle and bacon
Are you ready for Veggies?
on May 31 by JosieRemember CSA pick ups start this week…brings bags and get ready for some yummy spring veggies. In the share this week is radishes, turnips, walla walla onions, mustard greens, arugula, bok choy and spinach.
Edwards Green House farmers market is Now The Erskine’s
Edwards Green house will not be having a market so that pick up will be at the Erskine’s, Starting June 1. Tuesdays: 5 until 8pm. 5200 Castle dr. right on the corner of Hill and Castle. phone 345 8003
Hidden Springs
Pick up your veggies at the Hidden Springs community barn. This is a amazing location and so scenic. Starting June 2, Wednesday nights from 4 until 6.
Defoggi’s house 1210 N 16th St ( North End)
Starting
June 2. Wednesdays: 4 until 6pm. This is a hoot of a time. Laughter, sharing and true community are found here.
Jan and Jades house 1115 E. State St- Off of Warm Springs Ave (East End)
Starting June 3. Thursdays from 4:30until 6pm. I don’t understand this amazing pick up. No one forgets and they all bring their own bags, they have book swaps and so much more. I have to say this east end pick up has is all together.
Thursday Night Market Down Town
Starting June 3, Thursday nights 5 until 7. Come visit the new market on 8th street. Pick up your CSA, get a bottle of wine and enjoy down town. Our booth is located on 8th street and Idaho.
Linda’s Blog about Eagle Creek Orchards
on May 08 by JosieYou still have time to join the fruit CSA….don’t be the CSA member with out fresh peaches
It’s been a beautiful, windy, cool spring at the orchard. We’ve been so pleased with all the great support received from all you CSA members who have got our Fruit Shares. Thank You! The income this time of year is very important. The orchard spends the bulk of its money in late winter and spring on soil and pest managements. Robert has been very busy applying soil amendments both to the ground and in foliar sprays. We concentrate on long term soil fertility and micro nutriment balancing. Our practices include yearly soil and plant tissue testing, no till cover crop management by limited mowing, reincorporation of pruning byproducts, and careful use of irrigation. We grow a cover crop which fixes nitrogen and is mowed as a green manure. This is incorporated into the soil by our worms. Micro nutriments and microbes from kelp and compost tea are applied through out the year.
We all made it through frost protection we think but the weather tonight has the chance of being cold for this time of year. However the fruit looks like it set well. We have some trees in the apricots, pears and apples that are light, but we know all the soil amendments helped keep the fruit through almost two months of cold weather.
The bloom in the apricots was short lived due to the cold windy weather. The apricots are the first to bloom and the first fruit section we frost protect. This depends on the stage of development of the buds. The frost alarm is set at the lowest temperature that the buds can go to without damage. As they develop this temperature rises, so now the alarm is set at 28°. We spent fourteen plus nights up this year on frost protection so far.
This time of year we play catch up on office work, repairs on machinery and tools, and the never ending household chores and we need to paint the barn and a new out building. We scratch cook most of our meals on my fire engine red 1940’s gas stove. We have our beef from Debra and Steve Campbell from New Meadows Idaho. Their beef is grass fed and finished. The freezer has fruits and vegetables that we put up. We also have the canning Robert did and the fruit I dried. Robert is in the process of planting our small garden; we try our best to keep up with it through out the fruit harvest.
We were able to capture another wild swarm of bees this year, rescued from an irrigation ditch the tree their hive was in fell into. That brings our total to four hives. Two of them are wild bee’s swarms, we find them out and about even when it’s cooler temperatures, they seen to handle the cold better. We like the wild swarms they aren’t big honey producers but seem to do better because they are native to this area. We use no pesticides or antibiotics on our bees.
As part of our pest management we set out monitoring traps. Robert also put out pheromones confusions lures. They draw the male fruit moths to them because there pheromones are stronger than the female moths, they don’t find each other and they are unable to mate. We are on the lookout to trap stink bugs this time of year as well. They can do a lot of damage to the fruit so we draw them to traps with pheromones as well before they do. We’ve seen a lot of ladybugs already; they do a great job keeping down the aphids.
Now that the fruit is pea sized the next big project we’ll be doing is thinning. This is a process of taking off almost 90 percent of the fruit, the ones that remain will then get much bigger. We will be working with four other people who have experience from the last few years. This is all hand work, it’s nice to be in the trees without tools or a picking basket. It’s not a difficult process, however it takes great focus. You have to imagine what the branch will look like with full sized fruit. We thin the peaches, apples and Asian pears. This will take about a month to finish.
We have started our irrigation for the year. We get our water from Eagle Creek which flows out of the Eagle Cap Wilderness and is applied to the orchard by sprinklers. We move them twice a day. Water is applied only when needed as shown by monitoring the soil moisture. In the spring this water carries rock dusts, which are good micro nutriments. We can hear the creek from any where in the orchard and it’s great to sit and watch it flow by. One of my favorite smells is the spring cotton wood trees.
I had the good fortune to read a great book this spring. It was lent to us by Debora and Dave Mader from “Horsepower Organics” in Halfway Oregon. The title is Dirt, the Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery. Wow, what a good, informational and very powerful book. It answers so many questions for me about our precious soil and how through out history it has been lost. It has changed me. I will never look at a plowed field or hold soil in my hand and not think of what I learned from this book. All I can say is read it for yourself.
The spring has given me wondrously blue skis, dark cold starry nights, endless wind and the incredible smell of the orchard in bloom. What more could you ask for from a way of life. It’s time to feed the chickens, dog, and cat and ourselves, close the gate and read a good book. Sometime time late tonight when I should be asleep I’ll ask Robert, “What’s the temperature and what time is it?”
Newsletter May 5 (chance of Snow)
on May 05 by JosieWhat is going on with this weather, snow, wind and frost. Our crops are having such a hard time growing. The greens are just waiting for heat and so are we.
Due To The Unseasonable cold weather CSA Pick Ups will start two weeks late. We need to push the CSA pick-ups back two weeks because of the cold spring. We have everything in the ground and germinated but it is just sitting there waiting for some heat to grow. This on again off again weather has been very hard for the little plants. Here is a link to the pick up spot page please look at the new dates. New pick up dates
News letter March 2010
on Mar 12 by JosieIt is warming up and seeds are in the ground ready to spring up and bring food to your bellys. the new farm is great and we are having a great time dreaming and Scheming.
Remember CSA dues are due March 15CSA Work Day on the New Farm
We need help cleaning up the creek on the new farm. It will be a hard work to cut down dead limbs and chip them up. The Dry Creek goes through the new farm and is such a great treasure but it has been neglected for some time and needs some love. We need some help with this. Could you give 2 hours of time to help us? This is not a kid friendly activity. The idea is that we could get it cleaned up and make it a kid friendly area and help the creek out. We will have the big farm clean up March 27 from 12 to 5. We will also be cleaning up the fence line and hopefully planting trees. If you would like to help out send me an email at peacefulbelly@yahoo.com.
Linda’s Fruit Blog
Eagle Creek Orchard
March - April
We’re well into the peach block with our pruning, having already finished the apples, pears, apricots, nectarines and plums. Our two helpers with the pruning are Kingsley and Lynn, with Linda and I we make a good team. This is Kingsley’s second year pruning with us, he has a small farm up the creek where he lives with his wife Reb. Lyn has a farm down the valley from us which he works with his wife and 7 kids.
The trees are waking up now and buds are swelling with anticipation of this seasons fruit. We are on guard for frost now; we have a frost alarm in the house with a remote sensor out in the orchard. When a frost event is detected the alarm goes off, a loud ear piercing sound Linda tells me, of a frequency which I can’t hear but Linda, thankfully, can. I guess my folks were right about all the loud music in my youth or maybe it was the tractors and chainsaws over the last 40 years. When the alarm sounds, usually between 02:00 and 06:00 we jump up and rush out into the orchard. It’s quite peaceful out there then, still, dark, stars sparkling in the cold night sky. I’ll run around the orchard checking temperatures in the different blocks of trees, if the temp is still falling we’ll fire up the wood heaters in the apricots, the most sensitive earliest blooming trees. Then we’ll watch the temps if they continue to fall I’ll start the Orchard Rite Wind machine, so much for the peaceful night. This machine is a 20’ propeller on a 50’ tower powered by a propane fueled 454 Chevy truck engine, the propeller spins real fast and sounds like a helicopter drawing the warmer air down into the orchard and displacing the cold air, this really warms things up protecting the entire orchard.
All these efforts to warm the night air are not the most important means of frost protection, it is keeping the trees as healthy as possible and this is done by keep the soils healthy. By balancing the soil micro nutrients and organic mater so the soil microbes can keep working braking them down making them available for the trees to use. It all starts with the soil.
