This year is coming to a close, and we relish in the opportunity to reflect on the 2019 bounty. It's been 365 days of tractor repairs, all-day harvests, and literal tons of fresh, organic vegetables. We've driven thousands of miles around Austin delivering our vegetables to homes and neighborhood pickup sites, and have troubleshooted flat tires, stuck tractors, and broken forklifts. We have partnered with AISD for their Farm Fresh Fridays and at least one of our crops has been featured on an Austin cafeteria menu each week for the entire school year. We've added some additional opportunities to grab a CSA share in Houston and DFW, and have continued our partnerships with some of the best restaurants this town has to offer. Acreages of the farm have been planted in cover crop, insuring healthy soil for seasons to come, we just completed our annual organic certification. Each Saturday morning, rain or shine, we've packed up our trucks and headed to a myriad of Farmers' Markets around town - opening tents, unfolding tables, and stacking the week's harvest in mountains of herbs and pyramids of turnips - bring the freshest crop straight to you. We've also provided a safe and reliable workplace for around 100 employees this year, without whom we could not have done any of this. We look forward to this next decade and the opportunity do what we love - farm and deliver vegetables to you, our wonderful community.

Without further ado, 2019 in photos:

January

Barn Manager, Tracy, and Packing & Processing Manger, Tim, are two of the individuals who make sure that the right crop is harvested, on the right day. Thank you to these men for helping to make 2019 such a smooth, bountiful year! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

January is the coldest month on average at our Garfield Farm. Here, rows of leafy greens are bouncing back after a chilly night. On nights that we know will be extra frigid, we turn on the irrigation and cross our fingers. This photo, along with most int his series, was taken by our farm photographer Scott David Gordon. He makes his way to the farm just about every other week, usually in the very early hours, to capture the weekly beet.

Last January we had fun with our rainbow carrots which really give new meaning to the idea of eating the rainbow. We snapped this picture, posted it to Instagram, and were shocked to break the JBG record for "most liked" photo on social media. This beautiful carrot gradient collected over 1,707 likes on Instagram! Who know if we will be able to top that internet love this year... Photo by Scott David Gordon.

February

Kale fields! Our hearty kale crop can usually stand up to the occasional frosts that sometimes hit in winter months, making it a reliable crop for January and February. Kale's popularity affects our crop plan, and we plant a lot of this crop! Specifically, for about 36 weeks out of the year (October through May) we harvest around 100 cases of kale a week. That's around 3,600 cases of kale a year, and with 24 bunches per case, that's around 86,400 bunches of kale harvests from our fields annually, and THAT'S A LOT OF KALE.  Photo by Scott David Gordon.

In addition to crop planning for our own fields, we put a lot of effort into crop planning for our annual transplant sale, which usually happens sometime around the last weeks of February/the first weeks of March. The 2019 transplant sale was a huge success and was certainly worth the effort of transforming our commercial greenhouses into a customer nursery. Checkout this colorful group of future farmers that visited the sale. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

March

With the danger of killing frosts diminishing and the ground warming, March can be a beautiful time at the farm. Crops like bunched beets make their return, and we are busy busy.  Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Did you happen to catch those kale statistics listed above? March is a busy harvest month at the farm, and cases of kale almost always make the pick list. Our favorite March days are the ones where we still need a sweatshirt. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

April

The first glimpse of summer squash is always such a welcome sight. If you're a customer reading this, we're sorry to say, but the first case of harvested squash is usually taken home by JBG staff - we're just so excited to see this juicy fruit after endless months of leafy greens and root crops  It's hard to even imagine the late summer-squash fatigue in early April. Photo of this early squash crop by Scott David Gordon.

Our tomato transplants have been dutifully growing in the greenhouse since February, and by mid-April we're are racing to finish planting the tomatoes and getting the tomato stakes in the ground. Despite the mud on this particular day, stakes were going in. One by one by one. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Green beans are a finicky crop, with a very short planting window in Texas. Some years, we miss the window and there are sadly, no beans. This past spring, we had a small crop of green beans that were ready for harvest in April. Enter: The green bean picker - this machine’s sole purpose is to pick green beans. The reason for that is that it’s super labor intensive to pick all those little green beans that are hiding in leaves. With three people we can harvest large swaths of green bean crops that would otherwise take us all day plus a lot more people."

Some of the most stunning pictures of the farm happen as the sun is rising over a bountiful field, but our Garfield farm is only of the equation. Almost every day, anywhere from one to three harvests make their way from our Garfield farm to our Hergotz Packing Shed. Here, Cooler Manager Ricky is unloading the harvest from our (half painted) refrigerated truck. Produce gets loaded into the coolers where it's sorted, organized, and delegated to various departments. We're happy to report that later this April, the remainder of this truck was painted with the generous help of some awesome volunteers. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

May

When a pipe breaks, you've gotta fix it. Even if it means an all-day, muddy excavation. This past May Brenton took the lead on fixing some damaged pipes. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

June

If you're reading this as a part of our year in photos post, then June may seem like a long way away. And it always does, yet before we know it, we'll be covering our greenhouse with shade cloth, trying to eek out even a 1-5 degree temperature drop for the transplants growing inside. Shadow puppet show by the farm crew, photo by Scott David Gordon.

If you've been following our farm for a number of years, you know that every June we get really excited about one thing: tomatoes.  We love this shot Scott captured of Brenton with a mixed tomato harvest, enjoying the warm June sunrise.

More tomatoes, of the Sungold variety. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

July

In the warm summer days, leafy greens like this arugula are harvested first thing in the morning when the day is at its coolest. Photo by Scott Gordon.

This past summer we aimed to do a bit of education regarding the varieties greens we can grow in this Texas heat - because there are a lot! From left to right, we've got: (top row) purple amaranth, baby bok choy, arugula, sweet potato greens, (next row) basil, mizuna, and purple and green amaranth. We hope that some of you learned how to easily incorporate these greens into your cooking!  Photo by Scott Gordon

Fishing for black beauty eggplant among waste high plants. July and August are the peak season for eggplant at JBG. Pictured here is an early morning eggplant picking with our harvest trailer. "Arms" are swung out and float over crops, eliminating the need to carry heavy bins of produce down our long rows. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

It always amazes us how delicate and tiny our crops start out. Come late July, we're already thinking about the beginning of our cool weather crops. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Photographer Tamir Kalifa made his way out to the farm one hot August. Tamir paired an off-camera flash with his digital camera to add a surreal, vivid element to everyday scenes on the farm. Here, Luis uses his machete to make a path among flourishing cover crops and sunflowery forbs.

August

Brenton and Krishna go over seeding and planting schedules in the greenhouse. August is one of the busiest seeding months of the year. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Luis and Jack laying the drip tape. Here at JBG, we burry our drip tape under a prepped bed. This way, drops of precious water are targeted to plants roots and hidden from the sun's bring blaze, which would cause quicker evaporation. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The summer heat compelled us towards some creative solutions. This year marked the first time we draped shade cloth over our transplanter for a shaded transplanting experience. This cool innovation will certainly be carried into the next decade. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Okra is a member of the Mallow family, and is related to the cotton and hibiscus plant. It's actually a tropical plant, and can therefore stand up to the unrelenting Texas summers. The same plants are picked on all summer and can grow to be over 6 feet tall. These okra seed pods were harvested by the farm crew and photographed by Scott.

September

Don't the flowers resemble hibiscus? Up and up our okra grows, all the way until the first first. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The very first of the fall crops start to make their appearance in September, making for a wide variety of farmers market offerings. If you look closely at this photo from the Sunday Mueller Farmers' Market, you can see the first signs of fall - big heads of bok choy and bunched radishes among summer staples like watermelons and peppers.

October

This past October we finally got in the kitchen with our beloved Operations Manager, Krishna, where he shared some of his family recipes including banana pepper fritters and aloo mutter. Thanks again, Krishna, for all you do and for also sharing these gems! (To find the recipes, just search "Cooking with Krishna" in the search bar on our home page. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Just like that, CSA boxes are filled with greens like collards and kale, and savory warming recipes like this seem right. This past October recipe developer Mackenzie Smith made a dish we can't stop thinking about that included collard greens, miso, coconut milk, kidney peans, and pecans. Photo (and recipe) by Mackenzie Smith. Search "Kidney Beans Coconut" in the search bar to find this recipe.

November

We may not have much of a fall leaf change in Texas, but rows of colorful lettuce will certainly suffice. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Early morning bed prep. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Purple Daikon harvest, from above. To get the shots he wants, our photographer Scott Gordon has been known to climb on top of trucks and tractors, as is the case here.

December

Delicate December moments caught by Scott David Gordon.

And just like that, we're suddenly in December with endless fields of verdant rows. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

By mid December, our brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower are hitting their peak. Shown here, broccoli crowns are being harvested into ifcos, set atop the arms of our harvest trailer. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Each year ends and begins with onions. Here are some 2019 onion transplants that were planted in January and harvested in March of 2019. It's a year later, and our December photos look about the same - thousands and thousands of onions, waiting in the greenhouse for planting in the fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

CSA Box Contents Week of Dec 23rd

These will be the last set of the photos from the farm of this decade! Can you believe it? Checkout the frosty morning Scott caught on camera.

 

Bunching carrots isn't as easy as you may think. Unearthing the root without breaking the greens off is a true art! And our farm crew are true masters! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Here some are, ready to go. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

The freeze this week caused some damage, and though it means a loss of profits for the farm, it does look beautiful, no? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

These greens should hopefully bounce back after an afternoon of sunshine and a good watering. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Purple top turnips, ready to be lugged out of the field. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

After this freeze, turnips are getting separated from their greens. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Rows ready, and rows to come. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Thousands upon thousands of onions spending some last days in the greenhouse before they get planted. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Forget wish lists, letters to Santa, and piles of presents underneath the tree. You know what makes us farmers light up more than a big pile of homemade chocolate chip cookies and a glass of raw milk? Errr.... or maybe just as much? Fan mail. This week we wanted to share one special letter from our friend Jeremy that we recently received... as well as some kind words from CSA Members. Enjoy the fan mail, and if you feel so inclined, drop us a line and tell us why you love the farm. On freezing cold mornings, it takes reminders like these to get our tractors started!



"Keep up the Great work and THANK YOU for providing this service. I can't always make it to the Farmer's Market to purchase local vegetables. Having this CSA service always me to support local business and get local veggies rather than having to get veggies from the grocery stores which may come from many states away."

"We love you guys! Thanks for feeding us well for 3+ years now!"

"We are pretty new to the membership. So far it has been a fun experience.... We want to not only introduce our three year old to new veggies, but also expose him to how/where our food comes from. We feel it is important to understand the value of how precious our food supply is and the hard work that y'all do in order for us to eat well. Thank you for your time, dedication, and most of all hard work!"

"Overall, I love my experience! One of my favorite parts of the CSA is JBG's recipe blog. Especially when first signing up and having a surplus of red potatoes & collard greens (something I had never eaten before), I often turned to the blog to find inspiration for my meals. I don't rely on it quite as heavily now but I still have some of my favorite recipes that I go to when I have certain veggies or when I'm not feeling creative enough to come up with my own recipes. I'm so glad that I found this CSA and think that the quality produce combined with phenomenal customer service make it well worth it."

"I love being a part of JBG !"

"I was a CSA member, getting a medium box, several years ago. I stopped getting the box because it was becoming a chore to use all the vegetables, and I recently picked back up with the individual box after making some lifestyle changes. I am so impressed with the variety, it seems like this program has made some changes in the time I was out of it, and I am loving what I get in my box every week. I have a picky eater in my house, and she's also very excited and willing to try using something she says she doesn't like, and she usually winds up enjoying it. I value this program, and it is an important part of my life right now."



"Joining this CSA has been so wonderful! I tell everyone about it and it truly brings me joy. Thanks for all of your hard work!!"

"Thank you guys for all that you do. I grew up in Germany and miss the seasonal/farming/fresh connection to my food. Your veggies make my body feel happy :)"

"I’m very happy with my experience. We travel a lot so I’m not always consistent but have loved how easy this has made getting fresh quality veggies. Thanks!"

"We love our veggies! My kids now eat okra and kale chips thanks to you."

"Thank you! I am so grateful JBG exists. Also, you have the best carrots ever."

We love picking carrots, just for you.

We love hearing from you. Email us, write us, Instagram or Facebook us.

farm@jbgorganic.com

JBG 9515 Hergotz Lane Austin, TX 78742

@jbgorganic on Instagram and Facebook.

 

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Dec 16th

A beautiful bowl of soup featuring none other than your neighborhood rutabaga and turnip.

 

Photo and recipe by Mackenzie Smith.

This soup is inspired by the thick paste at the bottom of a jar of tahini -- the stuff you wish you had thought to mix in to the rest of the jar when you first opened it. I had already planned to make a pureed soup with the turnips and rutabaga in our CSA last week before I spotted that jar of tahini in my fridge, and it dawned on me that throwing a tahini puck into a blender with soft braised root vegetables and stock would make much more sense than trying to get the right consistency if I used it to make hummus.

Smoky tahini and salty-sweet miso do a beautiful job of wrangling any bitterness from the rutabaga and turnip in this silky, pureed soup which is gracefully pulled together with one pear, garlic and ginger.

This soup makes a lot (8-10 servings), so if you’re not up for a week’s worth of it, freeze some of it for later, or halve the recipe.

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 2-inch nub of ginger, grated
• 4 large rutabaga and/or turnips, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 1 pear or apple, sliced
• ¼ cup tahini
• 3 tablespoons white miso
• 1 13.5 ounce can full fat coconut milk
• 1 quart stock or water
• ¼ teaspoon of lemon zest
• salt to taste

In a large pot, saute garlic and ginger in hot olive oil until you can begin to smell it, (30-45 seconds) before adding rutabaga and/or turnips and apple or pear. Cook on medium-high heat until root vegetables start to soften, then add coconut milk, stock, and a pinch of salt. Cook for about 5 minutes or until vegetables can be easily pierced with a fork. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a blender with miso, tahini, and lemon zest. Blend until smooth; add water if needed. Salt to taste.

Optional toppings/add-ins: chili oil or hot sauce, a squeeze of lemon or lime, chopped parsley or cilantro, toasted nuts and seeds, roasted vegetables, chopped pickles, potato chips, crackers, pesto, a drizzle of nice olive oil. The list could go on and on! I can’t think of a savory bit that wouldn’t go well here -- survey your fridge and pantry and get creative!

CSA Box Contents Week of Dec 9th