By Heydon Hatcher

I am not a good cook. That statement is usually met with a deluge of supportive responses denying the fact, but it’s okay, I’ve accepted it. I resisted the truth for a long time, thinking my culinary greatness had gone unrecognized by myself and others. An epicurean revelation hibernating before some great unveiling that would occur at an unspecified future date when I would casually throw together some showstopping meal for friends, but that’s just not the case. My fiance does most if not all the cooking in our tiny abode, and I couldn’t be more lucky and thankful. I know my strengths.

However, when I must fend for myself during the day, I make simple meals that utilize our CSA in a straightforward and very uncomplicated way. One of my favorite breakfast and/or lunch meals is Red Radish Toast, a fancy name for piling things on bread. We have been laden with these spicy and vibrant roots as of late and I love to stack them on a hot, crusty piece of bread with an assemblage of seasonal toppings. Toast and butter (or even mayo?) some bread, slice one or two radishes, cut up a boiled egg, chop whatever seasonal herb if that strikes your fancy (or maybe some green onion?!), place and layer the toppings as you please, and finally, add salt and pepper to taste. I have crunchy onions in the pantry that I love using as a final touch. Enjoy and savor this effortless snack. I often revel in the fact that I made something edible, but hey, that’s just me. Oh, and register to vote!

Heydon made and photographed this toast, all by herself.

 

You’ve enthusiastically surveyed your sweater collection, and maybe even donned a favorite cozy item on an early morning stroll. Your social media feed is slowly casting visions of pumpkin and cocoa instead of inflatable pools and watermelon. You can go to the park, in the middle of the day, and feel the sensation of both warm sunshine on your shoulders and a cool, crisp breeze at your back. The weather is starting to shift in Texas, and this incredibly pleasant time is known as fall. If we had to put a finger on a week that marked the transition from repressively hot to intoxicatingly cool, this is the week. Can you feel it?? While so much in the world seems up in the air, the air itself is announcing the predictable tilt of the planet and a seasonal transition that will bestow sunny days and cold nights, warm mugs of hot beverages, and cool-season crops. We're talking carrots for days, and verdant greens as far as the eye can see.

JOIN NOW AND EXPERIENCE THE WONDERS OF AN OCTOBER CSA SHARE .

NOW IS THE TIME WE LIVE FOR

About 95% of JBG employees clock in and out of an office with no walls and dirt floors, an outdoor environment devoid of any separation from the elements. For a Texas farmer who lives outdoors, fall is the season we most readily welcome. Literally, we jump for joy, get to work early, dance as we pick, and laugh as we sort. Oh, to be cold! It’s time to fetch our knit beanies and load bins of freshly harvested produce with a little less panic - no longer racing against the sun’s harsh rays. But this moment of transition isn’t just exciting for the improved office conditions. This moment is exciting because of the bounty pouring out of the fields.

Kieley this past week wearing her Carhartt beanie. By noon it was excessive, but in the hours just after the sun peeked over the trees, it was necessary!

Fall is perhaps the most plentiful season at JBG, and the sheer diversity of the crops we’re harvesting right now rivals the shelves of Whole Foods. Often, eating seasonally means learning that squash is summer and lettuce is winter, but fall? In fall, you can have it all. This week we welcomed our first bunches of collards, mustards, and parsley. Cool-weather crops abound, and soon the abundance of kale and collards will surpass that of warm-weather vegetables like eggplant and okra. But for now, everyone exists together in perfect harmony. You can make a summer ratatouille with a side salad, and if you’ve been a CSA Member for a long time, you know how exciting (and fleeting!) this moment is.

CUSTOMIZATION

Did you know we have officially brought back our CSA Customization feature? Many of you have been suffering from a serious case of eggplant fatigue, asking us to alert you know when it’s over so you can re-join the CSA. Well, it can be over immediately if you want it to be. CSA Members: As a reminder, you can log in to your CSA account during your customization window and swap two items you don’t want for ones you’d prefer. As we mentioned, warm and cool weather crops are both in full force at this moment, but if you’ve had enough of summer, just swap out the squash and bid farewell to the okra. For a reminder on how to customize, click here or just shoot us an email - farm@jbgorganic.com.

This week we picked our first harvests of collards, parsley, and bunched mustard. If this sounds exciting to you, make sure to try out our CSA customization feature to get more of the veggies you want.

CSA PERKS

Did you know that we have an official CSA Referral program? We’re reminding you about this fact now because it’s an incredible time to refer your friends to the CSA. We really can’t overstate it… our fields are bursting at the seams with vegetables of every flavor! CSA Members: when you login into your CSA account, you’ll notice a referral code at the top right corner of your “My Deliveries” page. Share this code with a friend (or several), and if they enter the code when they join the CSA, you’ll get $20, and they’ll get a free box! We kid you not!

Folks join our CSA Program for many different reasons… some focus on the environmental benefits of supporting a nearby farm that can get food to the table with minimal food miles. For many, the fact that our farm is certified organic is paramount. Some of our CSA Members are all about the convenience of our home delivery option, and for others, it’s simply important to support a local business. But why do folks stick around? Why have we been delivering a box of homegrown vegetables to some homes, every week, for over 10 years?  Well, the vegetables, of course. It’s fall, and we’re so excited and proud of the diverse and delicious crops coming out of fields right now. This is the moment WE ALL live for! Happy fall and happy cooking!  Bon Appetite!

Photo by Summer Migoni. Recipe for this summer ratatouille linked above.

This week on our main blog post we're talking about the seasonal transition we're currently experiencing at the farm. Cool-weather crops abound, and the abundance of collards and kale will soon surpass that of warm-weather vegetables like eggplant and okra. But for now, everyone exists together in perfect harmony. Thanks for capturing this exciting moment in the season, Scott!

Collard greens have arrived! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

For a farmer, there is nothing like the feeling of a beautifully amended, shaped, flame weeded, and irrigated bed, ready for planting. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

(Very) early morning okra. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

How many ready-to-pick okra pods can you spy? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

That time of year when the morning eggplant harvest requires a winter hat. We're in heaven with these cooler temperatures. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The longest shadows. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Acres of eggplant ready for market. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Empty bins, full hands. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Sexy soil, if we do say so ourselves. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplants, transplants, transplants. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

John-Mark jumping into his office! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Sweet potatoes coming out of the ground, still attached to the vines. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

 

  

Curly parsley transplants reaching for the sun and begging to be planted! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Curly parsley transplants going into the ground. Thank you! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Collard veins shining bright. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Red beets are looking beautiful! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Kieley "popping" transplants, or using a small wooden dowel to release the tender plants from the plastic cell trays. We "pop" all of the transplants just before we load them up onto our transplanter implement. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

John-Mark getting ready to direct seed some crops. This week's direct-seeded crops included radishes, carrots, and rainbow chard. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

A truckbed of freshly harvested turnips, ready for a trip to the cooler. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

It's been a long time since we've harvested full bins of collards! Let the fun begin! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Bok choy leaves looking divine. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 5th

Large:
Beets
Bok Choy
Collard Greens
Curly Kale
Cilantro
Green Leaf Lettuce
Multiplying Onion
Hot Pepper Medley
Sweet Potato
Radish
Patty Pan Squash
White Japanese Turnip

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 5th

Individual: Beets, Farmer's Choice, Collard Greens, Herb, Multiplying Onion
Small: Cucumber, Collard Greens, Farmer's Choice Greens, Herb, Multiplying Onion, Sweet Pepper, Sweet Potato
Medium: Bok Choy, Farmer's Choice, Arugula, Collard Greens, Cilantro, Multiplying Onion, Hot Pepper Medley, Sweet Potato, Patty Pan Squash, White Japanese Turnip
Large: Bok Choy, Collard Greens, Curly Kale, Cilantro, Green Leaf Lettuce, Multiplying Onion, Hot Pepper Medley, Sweet Potato, Radish, Patty Pan Squash, White Japanese Turnip

This is the time of year when our CSA boxes are brimming with variety. Summer crops mingle with winter ones, and our CSA shares are truly their best selves. If you’re currently a CSA Member, we wanted to remind you of some of the perks that come along with being a member. And if you’re considering signing up, we wanted to remind you of your potential perks waiting for you when you join the club. 

Your CSA Membership is a handshake deal with our farm. And we work really hard not to disappoint!

PERK 1: First Dibs

As you might know, the vegetables we grow at JBG get pumped into the community in three main channels: at farmers’ markets, through restaurants and grocery stores, and through our CSA Program. If you’re a member reading this, we’re happy to inform you that you always get first dibs on the highest quality crops as well as the newest, most exciting crops.  When a new crop makes its seasonal debut, it usually trickles in slowly, one harvest case at a time. During this initial period when there is only a limited quantity of the vegetable, we always make sure it’s allocated to CSA Members. CSA Perk number one: You get the first taste of seasonal shifts. We farm to please!

The vegetables hidden in these boxes are always grown by JBG farmers. You can rest assured that they're always safe, fresh... and delicious.

PERK 2: Fresh + Customized

Our farm’s CSA program is unique in several ways. First, it’s a true CSA! This means that all of the vegetables that arrive on your doorstep are planted, grown, and harvested by JBG employees at our Garfield, Texas farm. We can even tell you the block they were picked from if you’d like. Unlike other delivery services that aggregate vegetables from many sources, you can rest easy knowing exactly where your veggies come from. The biggest benefit of getting your vegetables straight from a farm? They’re fresh beyond comparison, spending no time in a storage facility or unnecessary transit. We harvest, pack, and then deliver our vegetables straight to you, meaning they end up on your chopping block very close to their harvest date. Fresh vegetables equate to more nutritious and delicious meals.

Another CSA Perk that is unique to our program is the ability to customize your box. We’re lucky enough to have a farmer (Brenton) whose brother (Aaron) is a talented web developer. Years ago, Aaron developed some software that allows our customers to swap out two vegetables they won’t want for ones they’d prefer. We love that we’re able to offer you this choice and as simple as this process may sound, it has actually taken years to refine. If you’ve been a member for a while, you might know that we had to press pause our customization feature at the beginning of the pandemic… in case you didn’t realize, it’s back!

Aaron and his wife Sherry  (right) chatting with Brenton and Kimberly at last March's Spring Picnic. Thanks Aaron for making our CSA dreams come true!

PERK 3: Referral Program

CSA Members, did you know we have a CSA Referal Program? We’ve found that one of our best marketing tools is word of mouth. Each Fall, when our fields are overflowing with vegetables, we are in a position to welcome new members to the club. If you enjoy the experience of being a CSA Member and find yourself cooking vegetable dishes more dazzling than you ever thought possible, consider referring a friend. Now is the ideal time - the variety in boxes will peak in the coming month! If your friend signs up using your referral code, you’ll get $20 towards your next subscription and they’ll get a free box. Sound too good to be true? It might be… so don’t dally and refer a friend soon. You can find your referral code by logging into your account. It is on the top right corner of the “My Deliveries” page. Shoot us a message if you have questions.

Have a friend that might like the CSA? Do us a favor and tell them about it! It's the kind thing to do.

PERK 4: Apple of our Eye

How do we say this…. You’re our favorite child. Our CSA Program really is the bread and butter of our farm, and we hope to treat you as such. You’re the dill to our pickle, the apple of our eye. Sure, we love the fact that our veggies are on restaurant menus and grocery store shelves, but there is something so special about the direct relationship we have with our CSA Members… members of our community that have so much faith in our farming operation that they’ll pay us upfront for a season of veggies. We don’t take this responsibility lightly, and we are always working our hardest with your food in mind. Being a favorite child definitely has it’s perks, and if you join the CSA you’ll know what we mean.

A (pre-Covid) scene from a local market. Can't you see the glimmer in our eye? CSA Members are our favorite!

PERK 5: Your Own Personal Farmer

When you join the CSA, you’re basically joining forces with a team of professional farmers to help you eat seasonally and become a vegetable wizard. We’re here to help you on this journey, and love when members shoot us messages asking “How do I cook these beets?!”. If you don’t know how to chop, store, or prepare a veggie, we’re here to help. Think of our 512 phone number as your own personal veggie hotline. You can get in touch on social media, too. Here is a link to our Instagram and another to our Facebook. We even tweet. Most Wednesdays, our social media Manager, Hector, usually does a “CSA PSA” where he unpacks a Medium CSA box and unveils his meal prep plan for the week. If you’re new to the CSA and are having trouble identifying all the veggies (or just knowing what to do with them!) consider tuning in… Hector’s an amazing cook and always has great ideas.

If you follow us on Instagram, click on the TV icon at the top of our profile to see Hector's weekly "CSA PSA" videos. If you're new to the CSA, Hector will help you id the veggies... and figure out how to cook them!

Till next time!



 

 

 

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 12th

Large:

Beets

Cucumber

Farmers Choice

Collards

Greens

Kale

Herb

Lettuce

Multiplying Onion

Hot Peppers

Sweet Peppers

Squash

Turnip

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 12th

Individual: Kale, Herb, Sweet Peppers, Sweet Potato, Squash, Turnip

Small: Beets, Arugula, Collards, Kale, Herb, Squash, Turnip

Medium: Beets, Farmers Choice, Collards, Greens, Kale, Cilantro, Multiplying Onion, Hot Peppers, Sweet Potato, Squash

Large: Beets, Cucumber, Farmers Choice, Collards, Greens, Kale, Herb, Lettuce, Multiplying Onion, Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Squash, Turnip

Every Friday afternoon, we finalize the CSA box contents for the following week. (This is why you can customize your box starting on Saturday morning!). On Tuesday afternoons, once the first of the CSA box contents have been harvested, our photographer Scott goes to our Hergotz location and snaps a photo of the weekly box contents which we post on our website and social media. This past Tuesday, Scott captured the excitement of the day: volunteers helping Lyndsie paint one of our new delivery vehicles. Faceless white van, no more!

You'll never finish if you don't start. Photo by Scott David Gordon.



Long-time JBG team member Lyndsie is heading up this paint project. She may be masked, but we'd recognize that side pony anywhere. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Lyndsie used transparencies and an old-school projector to trace the designs onto our vans. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

You gotta start somewhere. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We're so grateful to our volunteers that lent a steady hand to this project! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Cinder block seats and a bluebird sky. What more could you want in a day? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

As you may know, we've put a pause on our volunteer program for the past 6 months. We've made an exception for this special project, and it feels wonderful to welcome so new faces to the farm. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Homegrown in East Austin circles the letters JBG, made up with blocks and lines just like the layout of the farm fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We love the transformation from a boring white van to a branded veggie mobile, bright with color and ripe with potential! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Even though our veggies are now technically grown at the farm, they started off as homegrown offerings from Brenton's backyard on Holly Street. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

 

The pinkies are how you know they're professionals. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Farmers are artists, too! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Lots of concentration, and some fun too :) Photo by Scott David Gordon.

These are professionals, y'all!

High, medium, low. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Thanks again to the wonderful women who helped paint our new delivery truck!! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Do you have studio art or painting experience? Does this volunteer opportunity sound like something you'd like to do? Email Ada (ada@jbgorganic.com) with PAINT in the subject line to get notified when we schedule our next paint day. Please makes sure to mention your artistic experience. All volunteers are thanked with a box of veggies and the satisfaction of knowing you beautified a van.

 

Recipe and swirly photos by Mackenzie Smith Kelley.

Last week, Jesse Szewczyk posted a gorgeous picture of spicy yogurt beet dip on Instagram, and I knew right away that some version of this would become a staple in our house. Beets are roasted whole, then blended with lemon juice, horseradish & salt, swirled into a mixture of salted yogurt and sour cream, then drizzled with olive oil, fresh dill and chives and a few cracks of black pepper. 

 

Jesse’s dip is beautiful as it is delicious, and while his recipe makes enough for a full party, we had no problem polishing it off between the three of us in a few days (hello, electric sandwich spread). The ratio of yogurt to sour cream can be adjusted based on what you have on hand, and I would encourage you to push the limits with the horseradish, starting at ¼ a cup and increasing up to ½ cup until you can feel it in your nose. (This recipe is for people who love horseradish.) 

 

Oh! Happy voting season! Here’s a link to early polling information in Travis County. Have you made your voting plan? 

 

Recipe adapted from Jesse Szewczyk

 

½ pound fresh beets

¼-½ cup freshly grated horseradish (jarred is fine, too)

2 teaspoons raw honey

1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste

A few turns of black pepper

 

Juice from 2 medium lemons

 

Zest from 1 lemon

2 cups plain, full-fat yogurt

1 cup sour cream 

1 teaspoon salt, more to taste

Freshly chopped dill & chives for garnish

Olive oil to drizzle

Salt & pepper to taste

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Wash the beets, but do not dry, and wrap them individually in aluminum foil. Place the wrapped beets on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until fork-tender, 65 to 75 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. While the beets are cooling, combine horseradish, lemon juice, honey, salt, pepper, and the juice of 2 medium lemons in the bowl of a food processor.
3. Once the beets are cooled, rub them with a paper towel to remove their skins and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Add to the bowl of the food processor with the horseradish mixture and blend until completely smooth, adding 1 tablespoon of water to thin the mixture out if needed. Add more horseradish to taste. 
4. Thoroughly combine Greek yogurt and sour cream in a large serving bowl and stir in a teaspoon of salt. Add the beet mixture and gently fold it in to create streaks of pink. (Do not overmix.) Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Garnish with chives, dill, a drizzle of olive oil, and a few big cracks of black pepper. Serve immediately with assorted raw vegetables and crackers for dipping.

Photo by Mackenzie Smith Kelley

Each week, we attend 12 different farmers' markets https://jbgorganic.com/markets . The closest market to our farm is the Mueller Market on Sundays, but we also make the trek to Katy each Saturday for our beloved Memorial Villages Farmers’ Market. Depending on the market, our staff usually sets their alarm clocks for 4 am, giving them enough time to get to the barn for a 5 or 5:30 am start time. Waking up early and schlepping a truck to a market is a regular ritual for many small farmers across our country who farm in rural areas and then must travel to their customers, who are clustered in urban ones.

Nao, Rich, Marcela, & Jerry: Our Downtown Crew!

We work hard to fill our booths with mesmerizing mountains of beets and colorful carousels of carrots. These displays are more than pretty pictures, however, and we’re also creating a layout that is ergonomic for our staff and makes for a safe and pleasurable experience for our customers. We’ve been attending markets for over 15 years, and we’ve got a system down! We hope that when you visit us on Saturday or Sunday morning we make the veggie business look easy. But of course, there is an enormous amount of sweat, figuring, and planning that goes into creating a mobile and temporary produce stand. This week we are pulling back the curtain and showing you what goes into our weekend market display, a display that wouldn’t be possible without our fun-loving and talented market staff…. and the reliable functioning of their 4am alarm bells.

THURSDAY AND FRIDAY: Our Farmers Market Manager, Jerry, works on a Thursday through Monday schedule. Thursdays and Fridays Jerry spends the majority of his day hidden away in our coolers, a series of four separate rooms (and two sizeable cubbies), most of which are linked together by large and cumbersome doors and rubber curtains that make you feel like you’re entering a car wash everytime you push your way through. On Thursdays and Fridays, Jerry is charged with the enormous task of “building the market pallets”. Each market has an unofficial official parking spot in the aptly named “market cooler” and on Thursday mornings, Jerry begins by placing empty pallets in the designed areas. Over the course of two days, Jerry will build the pallets with freshly washed, sorted, and sometimes bagged produce, making sure to send a little bit of each item to every market. The quantities he’s packing aren’t random. The number of cucumbers we send to the Sunset Valley market, for example, is a finely tuned figure based off annual records, as well as the “market notes” and sales records from the previous weekend.

Even though Jerry works sometimes a 13 hour day on Saturdays, when asked he said Friday was his most challenging day at work. Head to any market JBG attends and right now you'll see bulk beets. If you love beets, you can thank Jerrry! Each market gets around 2-3 bins of beets (each weighing about 35 lbs.) and Jerry is responsible for physically packing and stacking those 1,000 lbs of beets. And those are just the figures for beets… we sometimes send upwards of 30 different items to market. We’ll save Jerry the headache of seeing the full figures, but he no doubt moves, carries, and shuffles thousands of pounds of vegetables every week, and the weekend’s smooth success depends on his dedication.

FOUR AM TO 7AM SATURDAY MORNING: Market mornings start out at our Hergotz Packing Shed (Barn) location. On Saturdays we attend 8 markets, making it the busiest market day by farm. Market drivers with the early shift arrive at the Barn at 4:30am, and those with the late shift roll in at 5:30. Once drivers arrive, they begin a synchronized dance of carts, forklifts, and pallet jackets, all happening in the dark. It’s well rehearsed, and most mornings things go smoothly. There are two main groups working alongside each other on Saturday mornings: those JBGers driving vans to market and those operating the box trucks. The drivers departing in a van work pretty independently on Saturday mornings. If there was one tragedy of the market setup, it’s that the openings in the back of our vans are too small to load vegetables with a forklift. For this reason, van drivers are responsible for hand-loading their bins of produce and market supplies, all the while muttering a prayer that they return home with a significantly emptier truck.

The drivers that operate our big box trucks, and extra long reefer truck, are responsible for managing our busiest markets (bigger markets = more vegetables = bigger trucks). These bigger vehicles will roll-top doors are loaded with a forklift, and these drives all work together on Saturday mornings, some pulling out and staging vegetables with the pallet jacket, and another loading by the light of the forklift. Somehow, our amazing market managers navigate the loading dock’s dark corners, pushing and pulling literal tons of fresh without anything going wrong, even though technically, anything could fail. Think: dead forklift, flat tires, missing CSA boxes. If all goes as smoothly, the vans are gone and the trucks are loaded by 6:30 am. The next 30 minutes, there as a buffer, are ideally spent filling water bottles, perhaps some light stretching, and chatting about the new vegetables or new protocol that will be rolled out at market. By 7:05 am, the Hergotz loading dock, once a maze of forklifts and towering pallets of vegetables, is empty, the lingering smell of freshly brewed coffee floating above the concrete.

Jerry in his office on Friday morning, pulling out a pallet of CSA boxes.

Thankfully, the area under our barn is well lit, and collisions of carts and jacks are rare.

A driver taking a van to market must hand-load market supplies like tables, tents, and of course: vegetables.

Fork lift dances.

Jerry making sure every market has their merch bin, credit card machine, and hand sanitizer.

Amy loading all of the market supplies onto a box truck. Tents, tables, scales, and supplies are stored together on metal farmes that we call "wunder pallets". With a forklift, all of these supplies can be loaded at once onto a box truck.

Lights, camera, action. By 7:05, all of these trucks will be long gone.

AT MARKET: Our photographer Scott followed behind as Jerry left dusty Hergotz Lane and headed a couple of miles west, to SFC’s Downtown Market. Over the past 10 years, Scott has captured thousands of moments of farm life. But even for Scott, the process of market setup was a mystery. Like any good event, no one is supposed to see the setup, correct? At each and every market we attend, our market staff is usually the first to the scene. Slowly, other vendors arrive, and empty parking lots transform into bustling markets where you can get your mushrooms, vegetables, meats, and coffee all in stop.

Like the dance that happens at the Hergotz loading dock, the actual setup of tents, tables, and displays of vegetables is a choreographed routine where muscle memory and artistic intuition manifest into an organic produce shop that would rival many grocery stores. Take a look at Scott’s photos to see each setup step.

 

We're usually the first scene at the farmers' market. First step: open the door.

Open the tents. Marvel at early morning sky reflected in the surrounding skyscrapers.

Don't forget to attach the sign before you raise the tent. That's a rookie mistake.

Safety first: attach the tent weights before doing much else. These are home-made weights - pvc pipes with a metal foot at the bottom, clip at the top, filled with concrete.

Unloading: One person stands in the back of the truck and deliveries all the supplies to the rim, including a cooler of water so we can stay hydrated.

Jerry builds the soon-to-be veggie displays with stacked ifcos. Marcela sets up the CSA table.

Did you know that you can schedule to pickup a CSA box at a farmer's market? Pay ahead of time, grab and go.

Coloring in the lines.

Some quick deliberation. SFC's Downtown market opens at 9am and the clock is ticking. There is nothing worse than not being setup as customers arrive.

Everything is off the truck, and the display is taking shape.

We send an average of 100 lbs. of bulk beets to each market.

Since March, we've modified our market display so that only JBG employees can touch vegetables. All of the day's offerings are displayed in one long line, and customers "order" what they'd like from the checkout.

Sinage helps keep things flowing.

Bungie cords are a particularly useful market tool.

And just like that, there is an entire market in Downtown Austin! Time to go grab a cup of coffee before customers descend.

Our first customer of the day. We are ready.

WHEN IT’S ALL DONE: The average market shift is a 12 hour day, though our valiant crew that drives places like Houston and Waco often work longer hours. Generally, the length of a shift also can vary depending on the season. The more vegetables that are in season, the more bins of produce we attempt to sell, which takes longer to setup and breakdown.

After tearing down tents and consolidating bins of vegetables, the trucks are re-loaded so they can make the trek home. Jerry is often the first one back at the barn, and drivers from other markets trickle in for the next 30 minutes. It’s a jovial time at the barn - everyone is a tad delirious and is certainly pumping with a little adrenaline and lots of joy that come from meeting our customers and serving the community vegetables. There is one last cleanup dance that needs to happen before the crew can go home. Trucks are unloaded, supplies returned to their spot on the loading dock, and the leftover vegetables are brought back into the market cooler where they are sorted. You’ll usually find Jerry in the cooler cave, again, on Saturday afternoons. There, he’s finalizing the packing for Sunday markets. Half of the market staff help Jerry with this task, and the other half tackle the unglamorous and monotonous job of cleaning and sanitizing all of the empty bins that once contained the day’s offerings.

MONDAY: Each Monday, or Jerry’s “Friday”, he spends the day getting closure on the weekend. Have you ever thrown a ruckus house party involving loads of people and tons of food? If you can remember what that was like, call to mind the state of your kitchen the morning after such an event. To some degree, Jerry spends Monday cleaning up after the weekend’s wild festivities. Ideally, our market staff are returning bins of produce and supplies in a tidy manner, but sometimes a market shift can be such a busy whirlwind that beets mix with carrots, and the supply bin looks like a junk drawer. Our market staff also take detailed notes of the day's sales, which Jerry enters into a spreadsheet, and note any problems with vehicles or supplies that need restocking. Dry erase markers, rags, price signs, sign clips, credit card machines, credit card paper, table cloths, sanitizer, bungee cords, merchandise, brochures, cash registers, tables, tents, weights…. One missing or broken piece of equipment could make for a lousy market experience for our staff. Luckly, we have Jerry and Monday mornings to make it all right when the cycle begins again in a few short days.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this behind the scenes look at how we farmers’ market and we hope to see you at a market this weekend! Consider helping our market staff out and buying a few more beets than seems reasonable… the more you take home, the less we have to lug back. As always, thanks for reading!

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 19th

Large:

Cucumber

Squash

Herb

Spinach

Radish

Turnips

Mustard Greens

Sweet Potato

Beet

Curly Kale

Lettuce

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 19th

Individual: Cucumber, Squash, Beet, Collards, Arugula

Small: Cucumber, Kale, Herb, Sweet Potato, Lettuce, Beet, Chard

Medium: Cucumber, Squash, Herb, Spinach, Collards, Chard, Turnips, Mustard Greens, Sweet Potato, Radish

Large: Cucumber, Squash, Herb, Spinach, Radish, Turnips, Mustard Greens, Sweet Potato, Beet, Curly Kale, Lettuce

Sweet Potato Albóndigas

Recipe and photo by Héctor Gonzáles.

The coming cold days (under 75 weather) makes me crave comforting foods. Carbs tend to be what I enjoyed the most while growing up in México. While adapting some of the recipes from my country to my current residence, some things have changed. Although I’m still an omnivore, I enjoy vegetables for their flavor and how fun playing with these ingredients can be. This dish is one of those Mexperiments.

Albóndigas (pronunciation can be found here) is the translation for meatballs in Spanish. Despite the fact that these contain no meat, I felt the name in Spanish fit this recipe better. This word’s etymology comes from the Arab word “búnduqa” which means “ball.” The “Al” at the beginning meant “the,” making the literal translation “the ball.” Simple.

These were usually made with meat at home, but I wanted to play with some of the ingredients from my CSA. The sweet potato will also have some of the greens from this week’s box as well to make it shine. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• Albóndigas
• 3 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 cup of masa harina
• 2 cup of greens, finely chopped
• 1 medium egg (an egg substitute can be used, like flaxseed or chia seeds)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp Mexican oregano

Sauce

• 1 lb of fresh tomatoes or a 15 oz can
• 1-3 chipotle peppers
• 2-4 cloves of garlic
• Salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork or knife. Roast for 30 minutes or until tender. Peel and let these cool.
2.  While the potatoes are roasting, blend the tomatoes, chipotle peppers and garlic. Add or remove peppers or garlic to taste. Add salt to taste after blend.
3.  Mix the ingredients in a bowl until it reaches a playdough-like consistency.
4.  Roll into 1 inch balls and put into a 9 in x 9 in square pan. The balls can touch each other.
5.  Heat the oven again to 375 degrees. Roast in the oven, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Then add the sauce to the pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and raise the temperature 425 degrees and cook for 10 minutes.

You can also add cheese during the last step, as it will get deliciously melty.

Have you ever met a grocery store that you loved at first sight? One that you could instantly tell had isles of wonder both delightful and delicious? Stacks of goods, carefully procured and displayed with attention? That’s how we feel about Austin’s own Wheatsville Co-op and the gregarious group of bakers, butchers, clerks and warehouse staff that make the store sing. 

It feels important to note that Wheatsville is currently baking vegan pumpkin spice donuts. That you can enjoy in a pumpkin patch. Run!

If you’re new to Austin or have been living under a rock, let us tell you a little bit about Wheatsville Food Co-op. Wheatsville is a full service, natural foods cooperative grocery store. It was founded in Austin in 1976, meaning the grocery store is coming up on its 45th birthday! Wheatsville has over 24,000 invested owners who help direct the co-ops growth and community impact through annual elections and meetings. (Are you a member? This year's meeting is virtual and is coming up on the 24th. Tune in!) Members enjoy special shopping perks and discounts, all of which you can stay hip to by subscribing to The Wheatsville Breeze, the store’s version of The Daily Dirt (the name of JBG’s weekly blog). To us, a visit to Wheatsville is more than just a trip to pickup groceries. It's a cozy, intimate, and wonderful shopping experience where you can discover a new favorite flavor of chips, get a warm and affordable lunch, and casually participate in a unique finger of Austin's food system. Through its Community Action Program, Wheatsville donates thousands of dollars every year to local nonprofits, and so there's that, too.

Where is Wheatsville, you may be wondering? Wheatsville has two locations, one on Guadalupe nestled near the heart of UT campus, and another easily accessible (and newer) location on South Lamar, just north of Ben White. You don’t have to be a member to shop at Wheatsville, and their friendly staff welcomes everyone with a startlingly authentic warmth. Seriously… go to Wheatsville and TRY to find an employee that won’t flash you a very friendly smile. We should know, because we’ve been wheeling our way through the Wheatsville doors since 2012. Like any grocery store close to our hearts, Wheatsville makes a point to stock their produce department with a variety of locally grown vegetables... plus all the staples you expect a grocery store to carry. 

JBG & Wheatsville, 2013.

JBG & Wheatsville, 2020. It looks like the sign got an update, but it's the same great co-op!

We work with Wheatsville year-round, but when cool weather crops start to roll in, Elias, Wheatsville's Produce Manager, really starts ramping up his orders. This week, in fact, the Wheatsville produce sections at both the Lamar and Guadalupe location are brimming with JBG vegetables... we just delivered a fresh harvest yesterday! Specifically, you can head to Wheatsville right now and snag some JBG okra, beets, collard greens, kale, or maybe a divisive bunch of dandelion greens. Do you love ‘em or hate ‘em? We know it’s not always feasible to make it to a farmers’ market on the weekend, so if you're hankering for some JBG produce mid-week… just head to the co-op. If you’re a member, you’re in luck: from 10/22-10/25, owners can receive 10% off an entire basket of your choice. In other words, shop 'til you drop, grab some JBG veg, and save. There are options to Instacart or Curbside your Wheatsville order, too!

Leafy greens like collards are a common JBG crop you can find on the Wheatsville shelves. Looking for JBG veggies at Wheatsville? Just ask a clerk!

In addition to carrying our veggies in the produce department, both Wheatsville stores are CSA pickup locations. Through this partnership, Wheatsville kindly offers our farm the ability to drop off CSA boxes for customers to pickup - allocating precious floor space and employee attention to help our members. Wheatsville, if you're reading this, we can't thank you enough for your steadfast work as a CSA Pickup location. Through this partnership, our CSA Members can pre-order a CSA box  for pickup at Guadalupe on Thursday afternoons and at Lamar on Friday afternoons. CSA Members, did you know you can always switch your pickup location just for one week? If you’d to coordinate your next pickup with a little Wheatsville shopping spree, just shoot us a message. 

We asked our driver Tom to snap some photos of his experience delivering to Wheatsville Guad on Thursdays. Tom usually makes this drop quickly, because as you an see our delivery truck feel especially large in this somewhat small parking lot. Thanks Tom for sending us these selfies. They're just as wholesome as we hoped they would be. At the Guadalupe location, CSA boxes are stacked near the front window. If you're lucky, you'll have a friendly run-in with Joseph who can help you find your box. 

Speaking of shopping sprees, we a all know shopping habits have changed across our country since the onset of the pandemic. Consumers are making bigger trips to the grocery store, less often, sometimes cutting out once-regular stops to smaller grocery stores that might not carry all of the items they hope to secure in a single swoop. This week on the blog we simply wanted to remind you of Wheatsville and what a wonderful grocery store it is. If you don’t go for the rainbow of JBG vegetables currently in stock, go for the house-made cashew tamari salad dressing. It’s the perfect companion to this year’s salad season, and after one taste you’ll understand why the dressing has a bit of a cult following around town… and in the JBG office. Thanks Wheatsville! We love you! 

If you know, you know.

   

 

 

At this moment in the fall season, we have a lot of crops in the ground! While we're harvesting many of these crops, there are many more that are in the ground, but are not ready to be harvested... they've gotta grow up! Our job? Keep these plants that are in the ground, happy and healthy. This week at the farm, Scott captured this moment in the season. Scroll below and you'll see us working to give these crops both a weed and bug-free environment in which to mature.

Rows and rows of weed-free rows. We love the fall! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Before we can plant any seeds in our transplant trays, we mix soil on this concrete pad, fill the trays, and stack them up. Who knows how many trays Giana, our greenhouse manager, has filled up? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplant babies, enjoying some time outside of the greenhouses on our transplant trailer, where they will grow up and harden off. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Radish sprouts sporting their first true leaves. Welcome to the other side! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Army worms and cabbage loopers have made themselves at home in our beet greens. Temo, our head grower, is at war. Here he is topping the beets so he can get better coverage when he targets them with the spray arms. Don't worry, the greens will grow back quickly! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Beets: the mowed version on the left, to-be-mowed on the right. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Slowly harvesting the rainbow chard forest. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Aren't the colors spectacular? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Greens as far as the eye can see. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The cabbage is coming along! You can see the heads beginning to form. Greens as far as the eye can see. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Why hello there! We're glad you joined!

We keep this tiny Case tractor around for the main tasks of tine-weeding. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

These metal tines can be set at distances to avoided the precisely planted crop. The tines disturb the first inch or so of soil, and uproot any tiny weed or grass seeds that have just germinated. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Lush, leafy spinach that would make Popeye proud! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Bok choy, of the baby variety. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Peppers are still going strong, but they'll be gone before you know it. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Clouds and carrots. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Okra overlooking the situation. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 26th

Large:

Romain

Spinach

Carrot

Herb

Roasting Bag

Eggplant

Sweet Potato

Mustard Green

Sweet Peppers

Cabbage

Collards

Kohlrabi

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Oct 26th

Individual: Lettuce, Chard, Dinosaur Kale, Turnip, Herb

Small: Spinach, Sweet Pepper, Herb, Chard, Squash, Collards, Turnip

Medium: Romaine Lettuce, Carrot, Herb, Beet, Dinosaur Kale, Mustard Greens, Sweet Pepper, Turnip, Kohlrabi

Large: Romaine Lettuce, Spinach, Carrot, Herb, Roasting Bag, Eggplant, Sweet Potato, Mustard Greens, Sweet Pepper, Cabbage, Collards, Kohlrabi

Easy Tzatziki Dip Makes about 2 cups Author: The Migoni Kitchen

This easy Greek dip has been a favorite of our family for years. It’s incredibly refreshing with the crisp cucumber and fresh mint. We love it alongside grilled Mediterranean kabobs or alone as a dip or appetizer with some fresh pita bread. Great way to use up the last of those summer cucumbers!

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup whole milk yogurt
• 1 small cucumber, peeled and finely diced or grated (about 1 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Combine all the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine well. Add additional salt, pepper, and lemon to taste. Serve with fresh pita or alongside your favorite Mediterranean meals! Can store in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Recipe and Photos by Ada Broussard

Golden, red, or the willy-wonka chioaga, beets are truly a fall and spring crop. If you’ve been a CSA member for a while, you know that we had some major beet crop failure this past fall, and so these spring beets are *hopefully* an exciting addition to your box. If you’ve never blended up your beets to make a delicious dip, perfect for salty chips or a piece of thick crusty bread, go ahead and do that. Recipe below. If I’m roasting just 1 or 2 beets, I try to find a moment when my oven is on anyway, then wrap these up in foil and throw in the back corners until they are soft. My mind was blown when I found out how many restaurants batch-roast beets: Fill up a pyrex or oven safe dish with a bit of water (an inch or so), plop your scrubbed beets in there, then tightly wrap the top with foil. If I’m cooking a bunch (ha!) of beets, I use this method, which yields the most tender, juicy, and delicious beets. The skin sluffs off easily with your fingers, and then you can use said fingers or a bit of freshly roasted beet to blush your cheeks or tint your lips. Who cares that you’re not going anywhere? Treat the greens like the sexy, silky, spinach substitute that they are and cook gently with a bit of garlic and olive oil. 

Quarter peeled and roasted beets and put them in a bowl. (They should be very soft. If the skin doesn't come off very easily, they need to go longer.) Add about an equal volume of canned (drained) chickpeas. Canned white beans would work great here, too! I think I used about 6-9 roasted beets.

Add about 3-5 cloves of garlic, more if you have more beets. Add a very generous glug of olive oil. A quarter cup? Add about the same amount of tahini. Maybe a little less.

Add as many chopped "tender" herbs as you feel comfortable with. I used parsley and dill. Honestly, you can go pretty heavy on the herbs. They will help brighten the earthy flavor of the beets.

Add a lot of acid: lemon or lime juice if you have it, and maybe some red wine vinegar if you don't. I used lime juice because it's what I had. (Zest, too, if you're feeling fancy!)

Salt!

Blend it up! I used an immersion blender. Taste, and add more salt if it's bland, acid if it's too early, and olive oil if it's too chunky. I needed to add more of all three after my first blend. Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips, or maybe even slathered on a wrap.

I've also made versions of this dip using plain yogurt instead of tahini. It's a creamier dip, and is very delicious! Sub roasted carrots for the beets in either the tahini or yogurt version! Also, if I had a hot pepper (jalapeno or serrano) I would have added some of that to the beet hummus - the spice will help balance the earthiness.

 

WHAT TO COOK

What is more spooky than a bone-chilling cold front that swept in like a dementor? The time has finally arrived to pull down those stock pots and get creepy in the kitchen. If you’re like us, you’re cooking all the time. Why not liven things up on the Day of the Dead by cooking with a theme?

SWEET POTATOES

Sweet potatoes and their beta-carotene-packed flesh seem like the obvious anchor vegetable for any Halloween themed meal. Why not make a sweet potato soup, and then garnish the top with two dollops of sour cream and a black olive in the middle to make it look like some eyeballs are peering from beneath your bubbling brew? Or, roast some whole sweet potatoes, slice them wide open, and top them with bloody beet chorizo? Again, turn to your friends sour cream and black olives to make some eyeball-like garnishes. Here is a recipe for the imitation beet chorizo , and here is some chorizo-stuffed sweet potato inspiration.

Did you catch last week’s sweet potato albóndigas, or sweet potato meatballs, recipe? Why not make these meatballs, serve them over pasta and tomato sauce, and make it spooky by transforming the balls into... you guessed it... more eyeballs. This recipe uses mozzarella and olives for the pop factor.

Hector's sweet potato albóndigas, with some added eyes. You get the idea!

Photo by Kat Wirsing, courtesy of Delish. Link to the recipe above!

Many of you often wonder why we don’t grow pumpkins, and we once devoted a whole blog post to that very question. Though we don’t grow pumpkins, you can just use our sweet potatoes and in a move of true culinarian theatrics, and pretend like the potatoes are tiny pumpkins. These potato jack o lanterns might be better than the actual gourds.

Photo by Jill from her blog Simply Jillious. Link to the recipe is above!

TURNIPS

Believe it or not, before people were carving pumpkins, they were decorating and cutting up turnips… an ode to the myth of Stingy Jack who was given a lump of burning coal by the devil, which he kept in a carved-out turnip. Why not pay homage to this very weird and creepy myth by first carving a little face into and then roasting, some turnips?

Not keen to carve any vegetables? Wooden skewers, toothpicks, and glue go a long way.

GREENS

Dark leafy greens and fragrant herbs abound, and there is no shortage of recipes out there that turn these greens into an insatiable and cheesy dip. People are doing ghoulish things with dips to make the presentation a bit more... grotesque. You can serve the dip in a bread-mummy or have it projectile out of a pumpkin. Which is kind of gross, but if gross is what you’re going for, carry on. Traditionally spinach is used in a dip like this, but a combination of spinach, kale, or even finely chopped and cooked collards would work well. Don’t forget to add whatever herbs you might have on hand like parsley, dill, or green onions. They will bring life to the deathly dip.

CARROTS & BEETS

What better way to celebrate the season’s first bunched carrots than to carve them up to look like actual farmers’ fingers, accidentally sliced off during the harvest and packed in your CSA box? Too much?  Might we suggest making this brightly-colored beet hummus to dunk the fingers into.

Ada's beet hummus. Link to the recipe above.

Photo courtesy of Tesco. Use your JBG peppers to create the finger nails. They're glued on with a bit of cream cheese.

WHAT TO DO With traditional tick-or-treating off the table, we thought we’d share some of the creative Halloween happenings around town.

From 2-4pm on Saturday, Wheatsville is hosting an in-store experience called Trick or Treatsville. Why not grocery shop in costume, while providing your kids with a trick or treat experience?

Our friends at Tiny Tails to You are celebrating Halloween and hosting Virtual Animal Costume Parties that you can invite your friends to.  Cute, cuddly, and even creepy-crawly Tiny Tails animal friends will be in attendance. Wear your costumes to join in on the fun! Our party animals will be dressed up in animal-safe costumes to put smiles on your friends' faces.



Manor Farm Tour: Our friends at Bee Tree Farm, F-Stop, and Two Hives Honey are teaming up to offer free tours of their farms from around 9am to 1:30. There will be hayrides at F-Stop, seed bombs at Two Hives, and goats at Bee Tree. Details here. 

Last, what is scarier than a democracy wherein people don’t participate? If you haven’t voted yet, please do. Early voting ends today, and then you’ve got one final chance this upcoming Tuesday. Happy Halloween to you all! As always, thanks for reading!

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Nov 2nd

Large:

Orange Carrot

Eggplant

Lettuce

Cabbage

Roasting Bag

Sweet Pepper

Curly Kale

Collard Greens

Spinach

Herb

Beet

CSA Box Contents Week of Nov 2nd

Individual: Orange Carrot, Eggplant, Lettuce, Spinach, Curly Kale

Small: Orange Carrot, Eggplant, Lettuce, Kohlrabi, Arugula, Curly Kale, Herb

Medium: Orange Carrots, Eggplant, Lettuce, Farmer's Choice, Kohlrabi, Sweet Pepper, Curly Kale, Collard Greens, Herb, Scarlet Turnips

Large: Orange Carrots, Eggplant, Lettuce, Cabbage, Roasting Bag, Sweet Pepper, Curly Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Herb, Beets