The North Olympic Land Trust
Harvest Dinner—

An Epicurean Local Meal!

This weekend, the North Olympic Land Trust is holding their big fundraiser, the 2014 Harvest Dinner. What makes this dinner unique is that 95% of the ingredients come from the North Olympic Peninsula. The only ones that do not come from here are things like olive oil, coffee, salt and pepper.

The dinner sold out at the beginning of September, in large part because it is a reflection of the incredible place where we live. On this Peninsula, we truly can create a high-class, gourmet meal that is almost completely local.

Even some of the nonlocal ingredients chef Arran Stark requested could have come from here if the general public could have accepted local substitutes. For instance, we grow an abundance of mustard seed in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and mustard seed is about 35% high-quality oil. However, its flavor is very different from olive oil, and people are accustomed to olive oil in their salad dressing. Butter made from local cream could be a substitute for cooking oil, but for 200 guests, it was prohibitively expensive. The point is, it could have been a completely local meal, had it not been for cost and expectations in flavor.

Even some rather unusual items can be produced in greenhouses on the Peninsula, such as bell peppers, hot peppers and even saffron, a spice featured at the dinner and grown in Joyce. But even though we don’t grow most spices here, we do have many wonderful herbs.

Local agriculture can supply all the basics, plus some extras, to feed us. Whether or not there would be enough to feed everyone is another issue. That depends on how much land we can save to grow food, and where we would find young people  who are willing to farm. Raising funds to save local farmland is the purpose of the Harvest Dinner.

We heartily recommend the Harvest Dinner in 2015, where you will be able to enjoy a great meal that literally radiates the terroir of the North Olympic Peninsula and benefits the preservation of farmland here. But next year, get your tickets early! The word’s out—it’s the best dinner around, and it’s
LOCAL.

Week 12, September 26

Both boxes have: Savoy cabbage, arugula, garlic, celeriac, yellow carrots, spinach, lettuce

The Small box also has: Corn

The Standard box also has: Green kale, Copra onion, broccoli

Celeriac

“You can’t tell a book by its cover” goes the proverb, and it couldn’t be more true in the case of celeriac, aka celery root.  Although it looks gnarly on the outside, its luscious cream-color interior is aromatic, delicious and extremely versatile.

The celery root in your box this week is not actually the root of full sized celery.  Instead, celeriac is a different variety that produces a smaller, tougher stalk on top, and is grown for its delicious softball-sized root.  This long-season crop was planted in the green house early April and transplanted late May into the 24 Carrot Farm’s rich alluvial soils.

If you come from Europe, or lived there for any length of time, celeriac is no stranger to you. It has been a common cultivar there since the 17th century. Celeriere moulade, a classic cold French salad, is prepared by peeling and grating the root, then soaking it in diluted lemon juice and tossing it in a mustardy mayonnaise. A simple and delicious favorite local way to enjoy celeriac is roasted in a root medley, alongside other fall roots, such as carrots, potatoes and beets.

It’s a perfect substitute for starchier veggies, such as potatoes, and it has only 30 calories per serving. It’s also an excellent source of dietary fiber. You can boil and mash it, grill it, cut it into long strips and French‐fry it, or grate it raw on a green salad. Add it to soups, stews or casseroles. Peel it with a paring knife rather than a vegetable peeler because the outer layer can be fibrous. It’s worth every effort, because its flavor is so unique and delicate.

Celeriac & Apple Soup

Savoy Cabbage

Savoy cabbage is a visually stunning vegetable with its crinkly leaves and varying hues of green and yellow. High in vitamin K, vitamin C and fiber, it’s also a very good source of manganese, folate, vitamin B6, potassium, and omega-3 fatty acids. Heads of Savoy cabbage can be so large it’s a good idea to have several dishes in mind. Because it is so tender, don’t shy away from using it in salads. Just use salt and a vinegar or lemony dressing to help it wilt.

Savoy cabbage is named for a principality on the borders of Italy, France and Switzerland. It is one of the sweetest of all the cabbages, and goes well with strong flavors, like sausages or seafood. It can be braised, roasted or boiled, and it’s very easy to saute it in butter, olive oil or bacon fat. It can also be used in preserved recipes like kimchi or sauerkraut.

Try it chopped finely in a coleslaw, or added to fresh greens for a refreshing autumn salad.

Creamy Savoy Cabbage & Carrots

Week 11, September 19

Both boxes have: Golden beets with greens, corn, red potatoes, red cabbage, apples, spinach, basil, Italian parsley

The Standard box also has: Artichokes, collards, Pearl Romanesco

Basil/Parsley Pesto

Grilled golden beets with brown butter vinaigrette

About Pearl Romanesco

Nash’s Pearl Romanesco may be the only vegetable of its kind in the U.S. It was developed from seed given to Nash by an Italian farmer in 2007 when Nash saw the vegetable on display at the Salone del Gusto  in Turin. The Salone is one of Europe’s biggest artisan food events, where 300 producers from over 50 countries meet with international buyers and foodies. The farmer was not at the event, but Nash was determined to find him, and he and Patty followed a lead in a brochure to a small town south of Turin where they finally tracked him down.

Romanesco originated in Italy and is a light green brassica, with fractal-like swirls that form cone-shaped florets. It is related to the cauliflower, whose florets are more rounded, and has a delicate, nutty flavor. The farmer in Turin, through classical breeding methods, had developed either a pure white Romanesco, or a coned-floret cauliflower. Not speaking Italian, Nash doesn’t know what the farmer started with.

The farmer gave Nash a small bag of seed that was not completely “clean.” It still required several years of further selection to get the cone florets. Nash and his young farm team started the selection process, and have come pretty close to the shape and color they want.

Enjoy it like you would cauliflower—raw, steamed, roasted, or in salads , soups, casseroles, stews, and marinated for antipasto.

About Collards

Collard leaves contain lots of dietary fiber that help control LDL cholesterol levels and protect against colon cancer. They are rich in phytonutrients with potent anti-cancer properties and are a rich source of vitamins C, A, K, the vital B-complex group, and minerals like iron, calcium, copper, manganese, selenium and zinc.

The leaves are more dense than many other greens, so they can be added to soups and stews and not disintegrate. If you sauté them, cook them a little longer to make them tender, but  please don’t overcook! As any Southerner will tell you, they are great cooked with pork, especially ham or bacon.

Open-pollinated vs. Hybrid Seed

Nash was able to continue the development the Pearl Romanesco because the seed he was given was from plants that are open-pollinated. This means that they reproduce themselves by disseminating their pollen via wind, insects or water, either between two plants or between the male and female parts of the same plant.

Open-pollinated plants (OP) produce seeds that  “breed true.” This does not mean that there won’t be variation—mutations can always occur. But generally the next generation closely resembles the parent plants. This means a farmer can save seed, and be confident of getting the same crop the next year.

Traditionally, a hybrid comes from the cross of two different varieties of the same plant species.  Today, however, there is a more narrow and legal definition. Seed companies control the parent lines and the pollination process to get desirable traits, such as disease resistance, color, or stature. They make deliberate combinations to produce uniform offspring, whose subsequent seeds will not breed true to type. You must always combine the same parent lines to get those traits, and the only ones who have the parent lines are the seed companies. In effect, they “own” the hybrid seed, and even patent them, and the farmer must return to the same company to purchase seed year after year.

It’s good business to be paid for your work, and that is why seed companies developed hybrids in the first place. It is an issue that all farmers who develop OP varieties  have to deal with—that once they release it, anyone can grow it and they will not come back to the originator to purchase more seed.

However, seed was once part of the “commons” in agriculture. Farmers shared them so that everyone could eat.  When all seed becomes proprietary, it will be a more expensive, and perhaps even dangerous, world. No one person, government, or corporation should own the source of all food.  It is already leading to tremendous loss of agricultural biodiversity, and it puts too much control in the hands of those who do not have the community’s interests as their primary concern.

Nash’s Grain Program

This epic summer weather just keeps on coming and farmers across the Olympic Peninsula are LOVING IT!  Our grain production team has been working over-time  to bring in the grain harvest.  Grain requires heat and dry weather to fully mature and to be harvested, and this summer has been ideal.

Not only are our grain crops way ahead of schedule this year, but yields have also been high.  We’ve combined over 75 acres of barley, 7 acres of rye, 7 of triticale, 6 acres of green peas, 10 of red wheat, 15 of white wheat, and 15 of oats.

These crops will be cleaned in an intricate series of seed cleaners and screens throughout the fall and winter. Grain crops keep people employed during the slower production times of year (there is no actual “off season” at our farm!). Many hours of cleaning, bagging, milling and sorting will transform these field-run harvests into products that can be readily consumed by livestock, bakers, millers, distillers and others who appreciate healthy, organic, local grain.

Grain production completes the cycle of nutrients on the farm. We produce enough grain and seed to feed our own pigs year-round, to plant green manures for cover cropping that improves the health of the soil, and to also feed the farmers and community.

Organically-grown whole grains and freshly milled flours are part of a well-balanced diet, and we are  lucky to have access to such products on the Olympic Peninsula. We have a restored an old stone mill and gone through the extensive process of getting it, and the milling room, certified by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. We use the mill to grind white wheat, red wheat, triticale and rye.

We also grind dried yellow dent corn into corn flour and corn meal, and whole buckwheat into buckwheat flour. Although these products are not certified gluten-free because they are milled in a facility that also mills wheat, they are nevertheless appreciated by folks who want to avoid gluten in their diets.

Late August oat harvest on the Schmuck Rd. field