Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 30 2012 Market

This Sunday marks the last day of September and the our last market of the season. Near enough to 10:00 AM, some stimulus, usually a bell but sometimes the nod of Eamon's head, will open the market.

We will return to Hillsdale Farmers' Market on the 18th of November and linger through 17th of February. Chef and friend Cathy Whims once chided us for being a seven month farm. We stand accused, but in our defense we will add we that we do not stop farming, we just need the other months to assure a well-run farm. As we survey the crops for the winter markets, we are looking forward to our return.

This Sunday, Anthony will be selling his book, Beautiful Corn(link), and Carol's sister will help behind the scales. So you will have his full and undivided attention he will be placed some distance from the stall, something that is impossible under normal market conditions. For the holiday market, we are thinking about putting together a gift box with the book and other sundries to be determined.

At 11:00 AM, Hillsdale's market chef, Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans, will start preparing several dishes using hominy prepared from Amish Butter popcorn and Roy's Calais Flint corn. Both types will be available when we return to the market at the end of November. Especially if you harbor a chip on your shoulder about hominy and are not yet willing to prepare it yourself, stay a while and see how good the fresh version is. As Carol so often says, it will knock your socks off. We are looking forward to seeing what magic Chef Yeomans lends to this wonderful food.

Here is what we expect to bring:

Again, we will have an abundant supply of Astiana, our culinary tomato. As we did for the last two weeks, we will have some boxes, tape and a scale next to the tomatoes for bulk purchases. There will be some Striped German tomatoes as well.

We hope to have some plums and onions.

In addition, almost all of our dry beans have been harvested and we will bring is a broad selection this Sunday, along with chickpeas. The beans will include Tarbais, Borlotto Lamon, Dutch Bullet, Black Turtle, Zolfino and Purgatorio.

We will also have some preserves. Our selection is very limited but good on toast, cheese or paté. One of our tasks over the next two months will be our annual three day pilgrimage to Sweet Creek Foods to make our preserves. We will be adding jostaberry to the mix of preserves. Our selection up plum preserves will be robust, joined by gooseberry again.

An Agricultural Act

For those who love our Astiana tomatoes, flint corn and popcorn, the beans and all of those wonderful chicories, imagine how good life would be if we and other quality market farmers were allowed to lavish the same attention on Cannabis sativa. The plants would be organically grown in the field with dilute foliar sprays of salt and kelp, followed with timely and careful harvest and cleaning. Levity aside, Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, is one more proposal for relieving this nation of it crazy fixation on marijuana. The prohibition clogs the court system and destroys peoples' lives senselessly. More importantly, Measure 80 is an agricultural act.

This Friday, for the better part of three hours, seed growers and fresh vegetable farmers testified against recklessly changing Oregon Department of Agriculture's quarantine in rapeseed, aka canola, in the Willamette Valley. It is a known noxious weed which will increase disease and insect pressure, and cross pollinate with valuable seed crops. In a surrealistic procedure, we testified before a hearings officer, an impassive scribe, who had no decision-making authority and no working knowledge of the issue. Our testimony was delivered in three minute snippets, governed by horizontal traffic light. For those who recall Woody Allen's Sleeper, it was a scene reminiscent of talking to the leader's nose. Using a hearings officer in this manner is simply agency cowardice and insouciance; dozens of farmers joined by numerous other citizens took the time to express their concerns and the agency's decision-makers hid behind the "nose" with no interest in engaging the public. We were an inconvenient step towards a decision they have already made.

It doesn't have to be this way. When Janet McClennan and Dick Roy, both of whom frequent the Hillsdale Farmers' Market, were members of the Board of Forestry, they sat through hours of public testimony regarding forest practices and other thorny issues with Jim Brown, the state forester. Chair McClennan, and her predecessor Tom Walsh, took the time to thank each person when their testimony concluded. The board members and state forester engaged people appearing before them with respectful questions when appropriate. Their discussion following the testimony took place in public, and took into account the testimony. They followed a consent agenda, so if no member of the board dissented that agenda item was approved. It was a glowing example of public process and civil engagement, in the finest spirit of democracy. Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture chose the exactly opposite route, leaving us to speak to an impassive nose and then finalizing the decision behind closed doors. It was a shabby example of public process and civil engagement, with nary a shadow of democratic spirit.

This bring us back to Measure 80. Currently, the domestic production of hemp is impossible because of its relationship to marijuana. Hemp is a valuable, high quality fiber and oilseed plant that is well adapted to the climate of Oregon. Disentangling ourselves for our state and national marijuana prohibition, will allow the cultivation of Cannabis sativa for its fiber and oil, as a well a pharmaceutical. If it is joined by the passage of similar laws in Washington and Colorado, its will be big step in opening the conversation about legalizing its cultivation nationally. Is Measure 80 perfect, probably not as the Oregonian has taken pains to point out, no law is upon passage. But a statutory measure can be amended easily. So, as we fill in our ballot sometime in October, these two farmers will mark "yes" on Measure 80 as an agricultural act.

And if we miss you Sunday, we hope to see you on the 18th of November, santé,

Carol and Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 23 2012

We will return to Hillsdale this weekend with a good complement of late season fruit, including tomatoes, table grapes, and prunes. Bell rings when Eamon says it rings, but generally at 10:00 AM.

Of special note this week are the table grapes. The fecund grapes will include some muscats and the extraordinary Price which is the grapiest grape of the grapes. The crunchy seeds are essential part of these grapes, and have a pleasant hint of pepper and clove that lingers on the palate. Price is to the grape what Chester is to the blackberries, a singular and stunning parcel of perfection. The celibate sorts will be represented by Canadice and a mixed ensemble of green grapes. Good grapes too.

In the region's agricultural weekly, Capitol Press, there is an article about how Idaho table grape growers are trying to achieve the large berries found on California table grapes. Apparently, they have convinced themselves that small grapes are uncompetitive against big blobs from industrial vineyards. Happy to say our grapes are dinky, and look and taste nothing like those giants from the Sequoia State. Table grapes keep well in a cool place or on the kitchen counter. Refrigeration kills the flavor. Better to freeze them.

Again, we will have an abundant supply of Astiana, our culinary tomato. As we did last week, we will have some boxes and a scale next to the tomatoes for bulk purchases. There will be some Striped German tomatoes which are excellent sliced raw.

We will have a good supply of prunes and some damsons. Chick peas, preserves and other odds and ends as well.

Been a busy and productive week, so that's it.

Carol and Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 16 2012 Market

Sunday, 9:59 AM, we will be standing in the midst of the Hillsdale Farmers' Market waiting the 10:00 AM chime.

Earlier this week, we sent out our "Dear Produce Manager" letters informing them that the Chesters are no longer fit eat. Yes, we can pick some reasonable facsimiles, nice black berries, but they have lost their essential character. Fortunately, we have bunch of really good stuff coming to market.

Tomatoes: We will have a generous supply of own sauce tomato, Astiana, at this market and probably the next two as well. Earlier this week, a frost fell on the lower parts of the farm, reminding us that October is getting closer, but the upper bench was spared. We will have some boxes on hand that you all can fill with tomatoes, or you can bring your own box. It will be ideal processing weather for the ideal sauce tomato. If you have room in your freezer, Astiana also freezes beautifully because it is much drier than most tomatoes. In the middle of winter, that bit of fresh tomato makes the saag or stew brighter.

Dry pulses and grains: chick peas, zolfini, and naked barley. We have given up trying to keep our barley varieties separated. It is now a mix of Arabian Blue, Dolma and the black Jet type, and some other long forgotten types. Two-row and six-row all mixed up. Sometimes it is important to keep varieties separate as in the beans and corn, but other crops, such as barley, we have decided are better as a mixture.

Fresh shell beans: flageolet, cranberry and johnson (aka soldier)

Table Grapes: Mostly green types such as Interlaken.

Plums: prune d'Agen, Pozegaca, Fellenberg (Italian), prune d'Ente, Royale de Vilvoorde, Reine Claude violetta, damsons

All four of the prunes dry well. Pozegaca is the prune used to make the Balkan eau de vie Slivovitz and the plum paste Slatko. It has a pleasant astringency and the same distinct fragrance as the eau de vie. Probably the widest selection of plums found anywhere in the United States, so revel in our plummy obsession.

Preserves
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Gathering of Dusty Feet

When the market manager's designated representative swings the bell on Sunday, it is a gesture steeped in history. Markets are regulated places of exchange. The antecedent to the market structure, a big and heavy club in order to whack somebody over the head and exact their goods, was woefully inefficient. The lump on the head approach of unfettered exchange requires double the number of transactions, and headaches all around. People of a libertarian bent rant about the need for "free markets," but that is an oxymoron. From the earliest times, the right to conduct a market or a fair was granted by the reigning monarch to an individual or institution by means of a charter. A critical component of the charter was granting of safe passage to and from the market or fair by the monarch. Without that guarantee from the government, there would be a paucity of vendors and buyers.

Markets must also have rules of trade. When Adam Smith was contemplating his "invisible hand" in the late 18th century, he recognized three conditions necessary for an efficient market. The first is the requirement that buyers and sellers have free will, no coercion, no big clubs. Second, the market is composed of atomized buyers and sellers, in other words everyone is operating at the same scale and no entity can dominate or monopolize the market. Third is the notion of perfect information. These are sweeping conditions impossible to fully meet. Ideally, rules and regulations nudge the market closer to meeting them. For example, standard weights and measures are there to help the market advance towards the third condition, consequently we must use an inspected and licensed scale to conduct trade at Hillsdale. A standardized opening time signified by the market bell is another gesture at meeting the third. In times past, the weight of a loaf of bread was also standardized, giving rise to the extra loaf in a "bakers dozen" to avoid the stiff penalties for coming up short.

As soon as rules and regulations supplant the big wooden club, the need for a means of a club-less resolution of disputes arises. Probably from the time of first organized markets an organic and rational system of justice arose, ultimately giving rise to merchant law. In England during the time of the Saxons, market charters granted the right to "sac and soc and tol" and "infangthef." This meant the owner of the market could investigate (sac) and adjudicate (soc) claims, and exact goods and money (tol) to satisfy a claim found legitimate. The right of infangthef allows the owner of the market to purse and apprehend miscreants within the market or fair boundaries.

With the Norman conquest, these rights evolved into the Court of the Piepoudres. The name "piepoudres," in its various spellings, is derived from the French/Latin words for "dusty feet," a reference to the long distances traveled by the merchants as they walked between markets and fairs. The merchants may have travelled from France, Spain, the Low Countries or Ireland, as well as other parts of England. They were a transient population, and needed to move on as soon as the market ended. Consequently, these courts displayed a streak of practicality. The investigation and trial had to be completed within a fixed time, typically a day, or in the case of seafaring merchants, three tides. The proceedings relied on evidence rather than testimony regarding characters of the plaintive and defendant. The tribunals included merchants and customers. When an alien was before the court, an alien was also seated as a member of the tribunal. We have in these courts the inkling of a jury of peers. The Courts were administered by the market itself, a separate and limited jurisdiction distinct from the town or borough in which they were located.

Over time, a body of merchant law developed and the need for a separate court within markets and fairs faded. The very last of these courts was seated in middle of the 19th century. Though, in the United States, the modern tradition of small claims courts shares the spirit of the dusty foot courts – expedience and practicality. If you are interested reading more, Charles Gross discussed the court in The Quarterly Journal of Economics (1906), vol. 20: 231-249 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1883654). It includes the proceedings from the mid 15th century case of Thomas Smith vs. the contumacious Cristina van Bondelyng.

Fortunately, the Hillsdale Court of Piepoudres sits very infrequently, and if all goes well this Sunday and there no infractions of the rules, we can hasten home and enjoy a tasty plum cake (Zwetschenkuchen or Pflaumenkuchen) with a mix of the prunes we picked for market. This recipe is adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 11th Edition. As New Englanders, Fannie Farmer is where you go for basic recipes.

Plum Cake

Butter a 9" x 9" pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream
1/4 cup butter
Beat in
1 cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
Sift together
1 &1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Add to the first mixture alternately with
1/2 cup milk
Cut plums in half and place cut side up close together in even rows over batter. The plum flesh should float slightly above the batter.
Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons melted butter
and then sprinkle with turbino sugar, especially over the plums.

Bake about 20 minutes or so until the batter is cooked. Cut into squares.

The original recipe suggests placing the plums in the batter cut side down, and adding cinnamon to the sugar. Wouldn't look as pretty, and who needs cinnamon when you have a good plum.

Style Manual for Market Farm Newsletters (3rd Edition) satisfied, that's it.

Carol and Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 9 2012 Market

A cheerful bell ringing at 10 am will see us tallying up your purchases at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market this Sunday.
Finished planting the winter crops this week, including turnips and mustards. Next we start planting the first of the summer crops, garlic, shallots and wheat for frikeh. And you expect us to get the correct change every time when our minds are addled by having to straddle whole seasons. Anyway, you might ask why we continue to plant turnips as none of you want to buy them, and sometimes recoil at the mere suggestion. We are waiting for some sharp researcher to illuminate the common link between the great centenarian cultures. Yes turnips. Theories state that secret of longevity is fish in Japan, yoghurt in Georgia, garlic in Russia, and pomegranates in the Middle East. Jiminy cricket, can't they figure out that turnips are enjoyed and eaten with gusto in all of these long-lived cultures? Hope springs eternal, so we pray the turnips grow well and our perspicacity is rewarded as reason returns to your eating habits. You can even start your centenarian regime now because a diet rich in plums is the other common thread among those cultures. The plums may even generate a hankering for turnips as you feel the spring return to your step.

Here is what we will have at the market, more or less, the advertised specials at any rate:

Chesters: They still in good shape and we will have some this week.

Plums: Seneca, damsons, la mirabelle, prune d'Agen, golden gage – What a lovely way to start the centenarian diet.

Tomatoes: Astiana and striped German. In our estimation, two perfect tomatoes. Astiana is the cooking tomato, richly acidic and flavorful. Striped German is the slicer for the mid-morning tomato sandwich.

Preserves

Roots: Beets and spuds, but not many because of space considerations.

Fresh shell beans: flageolet, cranberry and johnson (aka soldier)

One of the earliest vegetable crops we planted at the farm was shell beans. It was one of those odd ideas the got lodged in our heads, yet we were clueless as to how handle them at a commercial scale. A couple of years later we would repeat the scene with flint corn and frikeh. One of the advantages of farm equipment is that you can plow under your blunders and failures, such as summer turnips, emboldening the creative streak. The beans were planted and we began began to practice the pitch. Sitting around on a hot summer's afternoon shelling beans is a great family time, just like shelling peas. Though, truth be told, as children we had regarded shelling peas and beans as a dreary chore taking us away from far better things.

In the spring of 2000 we planted several different varieties. In June, before the craziness of harvest began, Carol took a week off to visit her parents. In a rural country store, she saw a container of freshly shelled butter beans (limas). She joked that it must be a lot of work to shell all those beans. The woman directed her to a shed out back where they had a bean shelling machine. The big green wooden machine had hand-routed on its front panel "Roto-Fingers Pea-Bean Sheller." The manufacturer was Welburn Devices in Laurel, Mississippi. A few weeks later, Larry Welburn shipped his first Roto-Fingers west of the Continental Divide. He quipped that it is highly unusual to find any identifying marks on the machines because, once a farmer had one, the information was obliterated to keep the information away from any competitors.

The Roto-Fingers is a batch sheller. About 20 pounds of beans are shelled at a time, and it is a very gentle process. All of our dry beans are shelled in the machine as well. Fourteen years later, many tons of beans have gone through this contrivance handmade one at a time down there in Laurel, and it still runs perfectly.

Fresh shell beans are the equivalent of new potatoes or frikeh sans the smokiness. They are still developing their starches, and they have more of a vegetable flavor than the dry forms. Initially we harvested them very green, but over time we found they are better when they have a range of maturities in the mix. Not every dry bean is good fresh shelled, and some are very dull indeed. In addition, some shell in a messy fashion and take a long time to clean. The beans, shelled or unshelled, should be refrigerated. Part of the mythology about shell beans is that they keep better in the shell. This is not true, the shells are big chunk of respiring tissue which generates heat and often mold in storage, compromising the beans inside. When harvested, the shell comprises between 50 and 60 percent of the bean's weight.

The soldier or johnson is a white bean from northern New England with a reddish figure around the eye that reminds some of a soldier and others, with a less martial mindset, see a piece of anatomy. Use it as you would a cannellino bean, very good in a cold salad with tuna and some minced shallot. Get a bit of albacore from Robin at Wild Oregon, or a bit of salmon. The flageolet is a small green bean which is often served as a side dish with lamb or in a gratin. The name comes from a French wind instrument similar to a recorder. Vermont Cranberry has the most robust in flavor of the three, yet will disappoint you when the beautiful pink bean turns a muddy brown as you cook it. At that point you are left to enjoy the distinguished flavor. A bit of acid will restore some of the markings.

Chastened after purgatory among the berry flats, the staff writer is even offering a recipe in compliance with the essential style manual for market farm newsletters. If you are inclined to ignore such instruction, there are two things to remember. Never eat shell beans raw. You will suffer a stomach ache that you will never forget. When cooking any type of beans, add any acid ingredients, such as tomatoes, after cooking. Otherwise, the beans don't cook well and stay tough.  In some parts of the country, they add a pinch of soda or slack lime to the water to keep it on the alkaline side of neutral.

Cooking Fresh Shelling Beans

Judy Rogers offers this excellent method in her cookbook, The Zuni Café Cookbook  (2002, W.W. Norton and Co.)    

For about 2 cups:
2 cups fresh shelling beans
1 carrot, peeled, split lengthwise and cut into chunks or minced
1 small, yellow onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
Salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil.

Directions:

Rinse the beans in cold water.  

Place the carrot, onion and bay leaf in a 2-quart pan and add cold water to cover.  Cover and simmer over low heat until the vegetables have softened and flavored the water, about 25 minutes.

Add the beans and enough additional water to cover.  Some varieties may turn the water grey. Bring to a simmer then tilt the pot and skim any foam that floats to the surface.

Simmer gently uncovered until the beans are tender, 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the variety and point of maturity. Stir a few times to ensure even cooking and add water as needed to keep everything just covered. To test for doneness, cut a bean in half.  The bean should be moist and tender with no pale, chalky core.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in salt to taste.   As it takes time for the beans to absorb the salt, taste the liquid, not the beans for the right saltiness.  Stir in the olive oil and leave the beans to cool in the cooking liquid.

Cover and refrigerate up to 4 days in their liquid.

See you all Sunday,

The Boutards of Gaston

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 2 2012 Market

This weekend marks the sartorial end of summer, and autumn is certainly in the air as well. Tomorrow, Sunday, we will start the day at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market in a sweater as we watch the waning and very gibbous moon set in the west, but by mid-day we will have shed the woolies. The bell rings at 10:00.

We will have Chesters, seneca prunes, beets, potatoes, karela and some other stuff.

The staff writer has been placed on unpaid administrative leave for wanton disregard of the essential style manual for market farm newsletters as well as ignoring standard food jargon and forgetting recipes. Dead people and bees, but no recipes? Sentenced to hauling heavy flats berries without end all week, that should send a message.

Cheers and see you all tomorrow,

Carol and Anthony Boutard

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter August 29 2012 Market

Yet another relaxing Sunday morning will be denied us as we hasten to the Hillsdale Farmers' Market in order to be ready for you all at the ding of the bell, around 10:00 AM.

Gage Plums & BlackberriesWe are on cusp of September when the shell beans, prunes and grapes will be ready. We just finshed threshing barley and will begin harvesting the chickpeas next week. Fortunately, the blackberries are still excellent, so we will have a very full van. Here is what we will have:

Plums: Reine Claude aka green gage

Those raised on the salty music hall routines of Stanley Holloway, who also played Albert Dolittle in My Fair Lady, will remember his little ditty about one of Henry's wives:

In the Tower of London large as life,
The ghost of Ann Boleyn walks, they declare,
Poor Ann Boleyn was once King Henry's wife,
Until he made the axman bob her hair,
Ah yes he did a rum glum years ago,
And she comes up at night to tell him so,
With her head tucked underneath her arm,
She walks the bloody tower,
With her head tucked underneath her arm,
At the midnight hour.

So what does Anne Boleyn have to do with Queen Claude, aside from both sharing a tragically short life? Boleyn and her sister were Queen Claude's ladies in waiting. Like Claude — la bonne reine — and the various wives of Henry, the green gages will also have a very short life, so enjoy their rich, acidic charms, barely contained within the delicate skin, while they are here.

Indeed, growing the gages is more of a courtship than actual farming; neither plant nor grower knows what they are doing so nothing happens as it should. You may recall the old Gastonian quip: The green gage will break your heart twice, once when growing it, and again as it enters your mouth.

Blackberries: Chesters & Triple Crown, to the extent we can persuade staff to pick them.

Pole Beans

Beets, Spuds and some Onions

Preserves
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A Queen with a Pearl Collar

It is late summer and, as usual, members of Hymenoptera — the insect order that groups together the wasps, bees and ants — are putting on a show. About two weeks ago, a large cohort of male bumble bees emerged. Fidgety and playfully pugnacious, they fly about just inches above the ground, darting here and there, trying to stay out-of-reach of any remaining barn swallows seeking a quick snack on the way to Capistrano. Their shape, coloration and behavior is very different from the females of the colony — the queen and her daughters the workers. The males do not have a stinger.

The male bumble bee develops from an unfertilized egg. In other words, denied sperm an egg paradoxically yields a male. Fatherless male offspring is one of those peculiar twists that makes the Hymenoptera so interesting. Both the queen and her sisters can produce eggs, but only the queen has mated and produces fertilized eggs which develop into the females of the nest. The sperm from her nuptial flights is held in a special organ, and the eggs are fertilized as they are laid, or not in the case of males. Typically, the males appear towards the end of the colony's existence and may have hatched from an egg laid by either the queen or one of her daughters.

Despite their aimless flight pattern and endless tousling with their brethren, the males are ever alert for the emergence of a newly hatched queen, or gyne as entomologists call her, and the opportunity to mate with her. Apparently, the males identify her by sight not a chemical cue, which may explain why a hapless swallow-tail passing through earlier this week found itself mobbed by amorous bumblebees. Discovering this lek of bees, we shared with the males a keen interest in seeing the queens emerge, pausing to survey the area as we passed at various times during the day. The nest is in an old mouse hole in the heavily travelled lane between the blackberry fields. Monday the show began.

The new queens are genetically the same the worker sorority; there is no special queen gene. They are raised in larger wax vessels than the workers, and they are fed more food during the larval stage. In order to survive the winter and a summer of laying eggs, a more robust body is needed. After emerging from their pupae, these large females linger in the nest and fatten up for a few days. They emerge from the nest, mostly individually, groom themselves and then take flight. In seconds, the males converge upon her and, in a airborne scrum, try to do the honors. Once a coupling occurs, the surplus males drift back to their posts and the job is finished on the ground. After mating, the queen quickly seeks shelter. She mates more than once and, well provisioned with sperm, she will spend some time building her fat reserves for the winter hibernation. If all goes well, she will emerge from her hibernation lair in the spring and start a new colony.

We have at least four bumblebee species on the farm. The white-shouldered, black tailed, yellow-faced and the brown-belted – the latter are the queens emerging this week. The scientific name is Bombus griseocollis and translates into "bumblebee with a pearl-grey neck," probably referring to a fine line of hairs that encircle the neckline of the females. The brown belt of the English name refers to a distinct band of brown hairs on second abdominal section of the males, just behind the wings. The newly emerged gyne is very beautiful. Her coat is much lighter than the male's or worker's. Interestingly, the male brown-belted bumblebees darting about are not merely callow Lotharios; it is one of four bumblebee species where the males actually assist in the nest by incubating the brood, an important task.

The bumblebees can be difficult to identify, prompting one entomologist to call them "morphologically monotonous." The key distinguishing characteristic are differences in the male genitalia, perhaps prompting this observation. Fortunately overall appearance is sometimes enough and Rich Hatfield at the Xerces Society identified the bee for us from a photo. Xerces is based in Portland, and is internationally recognized for its efforts at invertebrate conservation. They have produced many useful publications, both print and on-line, and issue a quarterly magazine called Wings. Xerces is a very important and well-run organization.

See you all Sunday,

Carol and Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Kookoolan Farms Newsletter August 22 2012

Kookoolan Farms is at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market this Sunday, August 26, 10am to 2pm, with fresh whole chickens, ducks and rabbits; frozen cut-up and halved chickens; a small inventory of frozen no-soy, no-corn chickens; fresh eggs from pasture-raised hens; our homemade Kombucha tea; and several people will be picking up reserved shares of beef and pork.  Thanksgiving 2012 turkeys are sold out.  At the farmer's market you can also talk with Farmer Chrissie about reserving beef, pork, or lamb shares, and sign up for any of our cheesemaking classes!  (We have fewer than 10 "pastured pigs" left for this year, and fewer than six lambs left for this year, reserve soon or you'll have to wait until June 2013!)

OUR CHICKEN SEASON RUNS THRU THE END OF OCTOBER
Kookoolan Farms poultry animals are raised outdoors on grass pasture.  Therefore our poultry is a seasonal product, not available year-round.  Our 2012 pasture-raised poultry season runs from the beginning of May through the end of October.  We will kill our last chicken on the year on October 30, 2012, after which no more fresh chickens will be available until approximately May 1, 2013.

STOCKING UP - DISCOUNT PACKAGES FOR BUYING BULK
Note that in order to have chickens for the winter, you’ll want your freezer to be fully stocked up before the end of October (September recommended as October chickens sell out quickly with people stocking up for winter.)  We offer a few different discounts for stocking up your freezer:

• Our chickens are always buy ten get one free.  This applies to all fresh or frozen, whole or cut-up chickens, any combination.  Buy any ten packages and get an eleventh package free.  (10% off)
• Our jumbo chickens, 5.5 pounds or more, in bulk purchase units of 24 chickens or more, are 20% off at only $3.67/lb.  This price is even lower than our 2007 first-season price!  Reservation and $50 deposit required, email kookoolan@gmail.com to reserve yours.  Available for pickup at our farm in Yamhill, at the Hillsdale Farmer's Market, or at Barry and Lauri Tauscher residence, as arranged at time of reservation, email kookoolan@gmail.com.
• Limited quantities of "#2 cosmetically-challenged chickens" are available each week for $3.50/lb.  Generally these chickens have a broken leg, dislocated shoulder, or torn skin in the breast area.  As available.

WHAT MAKES KOOKOOLAN FARMS POULTRY SO SPECIAL?
Chickens and ducks on pasture at Kookoolan FarmsKookoolan Farms is coming up on our seventh anniversary in October, and has been a licensed and inspected poultry processor since July 2007.  We are one of only a handful of farms in Oregon with on-farm licensed processing.

All of our poultry is pasture-raised:  young chicks are started indoors until they are old enough to regulate their own body temperature and are a bit more robust against predators:  about 5 weeks old in warmer drier weather; about 6 weeks old in cooler wetter weather.  


Free-Range Poultry Housing
We start our young chicks indoors for about the first 4 to 6 weeks of their lives, depending on the weather:  longer early and late in the season, shorter in the warmest months of the summer.  For the last 2 to 5 weeks of their lives, our chickens live outdoors on fresh grass pastures.  We prefer to raise larger chickens: as is true with most species, larger chicken carcasses have superior flavor and texture.  Our chickens are slaughtered between age 7 weeks and 9 weeks, compared to age 45 days for most industrially-raised chickens.  Raising them to an older age also maximizes the benefits of pasture-raising, increasing the Omega 3 fatty acids and CLA's in the meat.  

The outdoors birds are a joy to watch. They require protection from predators (especially at night) and continuous access to fresh water and food, but these chores are completed twice a day, with more frequent checks on the very hottest days of summer or during periods of rainstorms or other harsher weather.

On hot sunny days, chickens need shade.  We have used portable tarps, portable hoophouses covered with shade cloth, and wooden portable houses covered with roofing.  Each of these structures is lightweight and portable, and can quickly and easily be moved from a “used up” section of pasture to fresh clean grass.  In this way, the manure load is spread over the entire pasture, resulting in lush, deeply fertilized pasture grass.  Each section of the pasture has a substantial rest period before chickens are returned to that section – this interrupts disease cycles and keeps our soil and poultry flocks disease-free.

Numerous studies have shown that birds raised outdoors on pasture have higher levels of Omega-3 compared to Omega-6 fatty acids; higher levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA, a cancer-fighting agent) and vitamins including Vitamin D which the chickens produce themselves when they are exposed to sunlight, just like we do.

Feeding -- Organic vs. conventional
All of our housing and raising practices qualify as certified organic; all of our slaughtering and packing plant practices are completely chemical-free and could be certified organic.  Our pastures have never been treated with any synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides.  Here the term "organic" really just refers to the absence of chemicals.

Chickens are omnivores, like pigs and humans.  Chickens cannot sustain themselves just on grass, anymore than you or I could sustain ourselves only on salad greens.  They require a balanced diet with a significant portion of protein: about 18% to 21% of their calories should be protein.

We have raised a few batches of chickens on certified organic feed, and a few batches even on soy-free, corn-free certified organic feed.  While these projects supplied food to a niche market who was willing to pay a premium, the size of that niche is too small to provide our family with an income.  And the more we dig into sourcing certified organic animal feeds, the more we became convinced that in general certified organic feed is actually NOT an ethical choice for us, even if more folks were willing to pay for it.   This conclusion surprised even us; let me explain.

Most commercial chicken feed is conventionally raised corn and soy, which means most of it comes from monoculture corporate-owned factory farms in the Midwest, using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.  At best these are high-producing hybrids which require large amount of fertilizers for their high yields; virtually all of them now are GMO varieties.  The Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers drain the bulk of America's bread basket, pouring millions of pounds of chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico.  The unnaturally high levels of phosphorus cause algae to flourish, sucking oxygen away from native plants and animals and causing "hypoxia".  

"Organic" commodity grains are mostly imported into the U.S. rather than grown domestically; most come from China and Brazil.  These grains come to Oregon through the commodity market, using large amounts of fossil fuels for shipment by barge, train, and truck.  Chinese organic grains are of questionable certification and prone to containing unauthorized ingredients; Brazilian grains may be grown without chemicals, but the soil fertility comes from unsustainable slash-and-burn agriculture of the Amazon basin.  Also, "certified organic" just means the absence of chemicals; lower-quality certified organic grain by-products rather than higher-quality whole grains are often used in certified organic animal feeds.  Organic feeds can be as much as twice as expensive as conventional feeds, and not necessarily of better or even equal nutritional quality for the birds.  But even if there were a large enough market, we’re not happy with the non-transparency of origin, questionable labor and environmental practices, and high fossil fuel requirements associated with commodity grains grown on a different continent.

There exist the beginnings of locally grown, organic grains and poultry feeds which we are happy to see, and we use these on a limited basis as a portion of our poultry flock’s overall ration, mostly just to encourage the effort.  However these feeds are substantially more expensive -- 50% to 100% more expensive compared to conventional feed -- and until a larger fraction of our consumers are willing to pay that additional price, we are not able to use this fine local organic feed exclusively.  

 Our current feed is milled locally with ingredients that are preferentially sourced locally whenever available; it is primarily comprised of soy, corn, barley, limestone/oyster shell for calcium, and a vitamin/mineral packet.

Handling, Slaughtering, and Processing
At Kookoolan Farms, "trucking to slaughter" involves a 200-yard-long, two-minute tractor ride.  Our birds undergo minimal handling stress, are killed humanely and with respect, and are processed cleanly, chilled rapidly, and delivered fresh to our customers.  We handle our birds so gently that more than 90% of the chickens we process are sold as fancy-quality (absolutely blemish-free with no bruises, dislocations, or broken bones) whole broiler/fryers:  the evidence of their gentle handling is right there in the perfect carcass in front of you.  However, and this probably is not a surprise to any of you, killing chickens, burying their offals for compost, and cleaning the slaughterhouse are not our favorite farm chores.  So we only process 300 chickens a week, only one day a week, only five months of the year.  Other days we’re busy with milking cows, making mead and kombucha, growing and harvesting vegetables, and offering cheesemaking classes.  This balance of work is important for keeping our farm humanly sustainable for our family and our workers.

I know you’re tired of reading emails from me so this time we have Imogen Reed as guest essayist.  She wrote this piece especially for Kookoolan Farms.

Where do you Buy Your Chickens?
In times past, pasture-raised poultry would have been the norm. Until the 1960s, the intensive factory farming methods we know today simply hadn’t been heard of. Then, some farmers started to raise their animals intensively in order to increase output. To compete, others followed and the rest is history. Have we now reached a point where intensive farming is an inevitability or is it possible to turn the clock back and find another way? Some farmers have already done so. The difference in their pasture-reared poultry and the birds churned out by intensive, industrial farms is huge. Pasture raised poultry is tastier, more nutritious and of course, much more ethical.

Industrial Poultry
Industrial poultry is raised in huge-scale industrial facilities. They truly are factories, rather than barns or anything we might associate with traditional farming. They are concentrated in just 15 states, and there are only 27,000 producers of poultry in the whole country. That is a 98% drop from the number there were 50 years ago, when there were 1.6 million producers nationwide. The average broiler chicken sold in US supermarkets today will have come from a farm which raises around 600,000 chickens each year. Our appetite for cheap chicken is huge, with 9 billion being eaten a year, compared to 580 million 50 years ago.

What problems does farming on this scale and at these kinds of densities create? It harms both the birds and the environment around them. In order to meet our huge demand for chicken, industrial farmers have used breeding and growth drugs to help reduce the time it takes to raise a bird by almost half (naturally, it takes 84 days on average, now it is down to just 45 in confinement – 63 days at Kookoolan Farms). These drugs are harmful, giving the birds some nasty health problems, as their bodies grow faster than their hearts can support. They suffer chronic pain, leg defects and heart failure. The conditions they are kept in add to their problems. With only around 130 square inches each, they cannot move around properly and are subject to stress and disease; in confinement most poultry is treated with antibiotics, usually hidden from consumers by injecting a long-acting antibiotic into the egg the day before the chick hatches.

All those chickens in one place creates an awful lot of mess. That mess has to go somewhere. The manure and waste products from the industrial farms end up in the fields in higher concentrations than the land can absorb, and from there is washed into streams and rivers, polluting them.

Pasture-Raised Poultry
Portable pasture housing for broiler chickens at Kookoolan Farms Pasture-raised poultry is kept very differently. It is a natural, seasonal, ethical product. Chickens are raised on natural grass pastures, perhaps with barns or shelters that they are free to wander in and out of as they choose. They can peck, dig, scratch and generally do what chickens do. They are not forced to grow faster than their bodies can handle. They do not produce mountains of waste products: their waste is a natural part of the life cycle and is easily absorbed by the earth they live in due to lower stocking densities and periods of rest for the pasture between batches of birds. They will generally be fed on higher-quality grain rations, rather than on poor quality commercial feed mixes. They live as close to the way that wild chickens will live as possible.

Chickens raised like this cost more than those raised intensively, as do the eggs from chickens raised this way. These products are also not available all year-round. Chickens raised indoors in barns are not seasonal because their living conditions are removed completely from the seasons. Pasture-raised chickens are born over the spring and summer, although of course, they can (and should!) be frozen for use over winter. In the past, most food was seasonal. Just as certain fruits are only around during the summer months, so various meats are only naturally grown at certain times of year.

As well as being much more ethical, pasture raised poultry is healthier and tastier than industrial poultry. Both meat and eggs from industrial birds are lower in certain nutrients than those raised in pasture. They are often bruised and damaged from being kept in confinement, and can be prone to parasitic infection.

The industrial farming industry has removed most of us from the natural life cycles of our own foods. We can produce anything we want, whenever we want it. The question we should ask is whether the low cost of cheap chicken is worth the high cost in suffering, taste and sustainability.

Imogen Reed is a freelance writer from England who writes mostly about drug addiction facilities and resources. She also believes strongly in other good causes such as organic produce and has everything from an organic mattress to organic carrots at home.  She wrote this piece particularly for Kookoolan Farms.  Thanks Imogen!

Kookoolan Farms pasture-raised, hand-butchered chickens are available fresh weekly at our farmstore in Yamhill, fresh every Tuesday through October 31, 2012, and then frozen until sold out early in November.  

Available fresh weekly at all Oregon New Seasons Markets meat cases, fresh every Friday with final delivery of the season on Friday, October 26, 2012.  

Available fresh and frozen EVERY OTHER WEEK directly from Kookoolan Farms at the Hillsdale Farmers Market, Sundays 10am to 2pm, August 26; September 9 and 23; October 7 and 21; November 4 and 18, 2012.

Whole first-quality chickens are $4.59/pound (same price everywhere).  A note about pricing:  due mostly to the drought in the Midwest and the loss of an estimated 50% of the nation's corn crop, we have seen feed prices rise from $266 to $433/ton in the past four weeks alone.  All projections are that increases in meat and poultry prices of 33% to 50% are likely in 2013.  A freezer of meat and poultry bought at 2012 prices may turn out to be an excellent investment.


As always, we sincerely thank you for your patronage of our little farm.  Please feel welcome to email or phone with questions or to make a reservation.  We'll see you Sunday at the Hillsdale Farmer's Market!

Best wishes for your health,
Chrissie and Koorosh Zaerpoor
Kookoolan Farms
Yamhill, Oregon
August 22, 2012

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter August 19 2011 Market

This spell of hot weather should be a mere memory by the time we finish hauling the flats of berries out of the van at Hillsdale. It has tested our mettle. You will hear the tintinnabulation of the bovine necklace around 10:00 AM.

From time to time, we have written about the robust and internationally recognized specialty seed industry in the Willamette Valley. This year, on the north border of our farm is 20 acres of open-pollinated Bull's Blood beet, the subject of a once and future essay. On our western boundary there is approximately 40 acres of hybrid spinach. The beets and spinach are grown for the Danish seed company, Vikima. Down the road aways, there is another large field with radish for cover crop seed. This radish is used by midwestern farmers to open up compacted soil, improving the soil and saving fuel when they prepare for planting. The crimson clover seed on our southern boundary was harvested last month, and will be planted by farmers to provide organic nitrogen for next crop. The production of synthetic nitrogen requires a huge amounts of natural gas, and is even damaging to the environment when it is applied to the fields.

In an effort to maintain the integrity of the valley's seed production, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has a quarantine on rapeseed/canola production in the valley. Earlier this month, the ODA announced that it is altering the quarantine on the first of September and issued "temporary rules" developed without public input or hearing. In fact, it was announced during the busiest time of the year for the affected farmers, a really ugly single digit gesture from an agency with "agriculture" in its name. As it would affect our on-farm seed production, we have joined with others in asking Director Coba to suspend the rule. Fortunately, Friends of Family Farmers has gained a temporary stay on the temporary rule from the Court of Appeals. There is a lot of interesting information about the canola issue at the Friends of Family Farmers website: http://www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org/?p=1622

We have supported the Friends of Family Farmers for several years, and we are deeply appreciative for their willingness to pursue ODA on this terrible and destructive proposal. Deep in its culture, the ODA is brittle agency that prefers to work behind closed doors with no public input. The agency is riddled with apparatchiks more comfortable in the back room with industry lobbyists than in a public meeting with famers and consumers. Written without the input of the affected farmers, this temporary rule is a complete mess, imposing on small farms like ours all sorts of unnecessary rules governing our own seed production. They even assert the authority to destroy our seed crop if we fail to comply with all their rules. We need Friends of Family Farmers help and, we are happy to say, they are there for us.

In the state fair exhibition of advocates for better farm policies, Friends of Family Farmers would win the treasured tricolor, Best in Show, hands down. They have emerged as a national model for this sort of organization, and when friends ask if you have heard of their director Michele Knaus, you can nonchalantly say you see her shopping at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market, even on the snowy days of winter. No empty rhetoric there. Any support you can give them, moral or money, will be greatly appreciated by us and other family farms.

Here is what we will have:

Chesters & Triple Crowns: We are considering hauling in an additional 24 half flats berries this week, reducing space for other odds and ends. It is hard to predict is when people decide to take a summer vacation. We watch the automated out-of-office replies to get an idea of how many people will be missing from the market.

Beets, Cucumbers and Potatoes: The potato vines are beginning to die back. We stopped the water a couple of weeks ago. At this point, the tubers stop growing in size and the starches change. The tuber prepares for the winter by developing its corky skin. You will notice the difference in flavor and texture.

Pole Beans: Preacher and Fortex

Garlics, Shallots & Onions Frikeh: Went fast this year, so we are at tail end of the supply. ___________________________________________________

Bolero Memories

The death of Chavela Vargas earlier this month stirred up memories of our first year working this bench of land above Ayers Creek. We arrived at the farm as capable gardeners with no commercial berry experience. This gap was factored into the purchase agreement. The owners had estimated the value of the annual production of blackberries so we allowed them to sell the crop that year and remain on the farm during the harvest rent-free. The crop value was deducted from the purchase. In exchange, we observed the details of the harvest. It soon became apparent that we would be working with 100 - 200 people, most of whom did not speak English. Nor could we speak a stitch of Spanish.

Adopting a variant of Professor Harold Hill's "Think System," we decided we could learn the language listening to Spanish music, assisted by a bit of tutoring. In the manner of young Ron Howard learning the Minuet in G, we would pick up Spanish just thinking about it. We stumbled onto the music of Chavela Vargas first. Her strong, elegant voice tinged with longing brought us the beautiful boleros of Agustín Lara, Alvaro Carrillo and others, filling the car on our way from Portland to the farm every morning. Soon we added Germaine Montero singing the rhythmic and insistent folksongs of Spain and, of course, Mexico's Singing Cricket, Cri Cri. Montero performed in the company of the Spanish poet Garcia Lorca, and many of the songs were transcribed by him. She also recorded Lorca's poems including "Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter." Born and raised in France, her native tongue softened her Castilian Spanish. Francisco Gabilondo Soler was an accomplished singer and composer who is remembered fondly as the children's troubadour Cri Cri. Several months into the think system, a major advance was marked when we realized the refrain of Cri Cri's El Ratón Vaquero was actually sung in English.

The following summer it was up to Zenon and the two of us to develop the future character of the field. People working in the field referred to him as both the row boss and the majordomo. Titles are far more important than names in the field, so we asked him what he preferred, and thence forward he was the majordomo. It was in this role that he told us that Anthony, el patrón, needed to go through the field and show them what was expected. The majordomo followed explaining how to pick the perfect berry, seeking the slight dullness and ease of detachment that betrays the fully ripe one. In a nod to the singing cricket, each year that first week became known as "la escuela de la mora" – blackberry school.

Just as Cri Cri's English was a bit difficult for us to discern at first, so was Anthony's Spanish to the people in the field. Blank stares demanded a more theatrical effort. Generally, people picked good fruit. If someone was picking poorly, el patrón closed his eyes and reached into bucket where he had spotted the most horrible looking berry. Into the mouth it went, followed by a shudder, an anguished wince and a rapid swallow. "No, no, no, the blackberry is food," he would opine in a sad voice and broken Spanish, "and that one was not yet food. Next week, maybe." Then lapsing into idiom of love learned from the boleros, he would explain that every berry that goes into the bucket should break your heart because you know how delicious it would be in your mouth, yet you must part with it. A giant anglo in white shirt is somehow less imposing when he is relaying the pleasures of eating fruit using the words and cadence of love and longing, with a touch of Cri Cri's humor. For the coda, a perfect fruit was picked, savored for a moment, and in a languid manner el patrón declares "la boca conoce la alma de la mora," – the mouth knows the spirit of the blackberry – followed by a smile of contentment. By the 30th or 40th sour berry, the patrón's shudder and wince were very convincing, yet quickly assuaged by the sweet one that followed.

Prior to Ayers Creek, our experience with blackberries was limited to picking them along the field borders on Sauvie Island. Some sweet, some bitter, some sour, some just plain insipid, and all were seedy. We were listening to Vargas singing boleros when we began our affair with the sublime Chester, and like other songs associated with fond memories, it is hard to separate the two. A bolero will never come to mind when contemplating the seedy Himalayan blackberry. Fourteen years later, the field is very different. We stopped selling to Cascadian Farm after 2007, shifting over to fresh market only. Just ten people work for us today, and they carry out a range of tasks on the now diversified farm in addition to the harvest. No more blackberry school. But the character of the field which the majordomo helped us establish that second year hasn't changed, and the desire for a berry that brings a song to mind remains. Upon reflection, it is a good thing that we didn't use conventional language tapes for travelers, or we would have ended up describing the berries in terms of luggage and menu items, or that berry on the right is good, the one on the left is not good. How dull it would have been. Te amamos, Chester. Gracias Chavela.

We look forward to seeing you all this Sunday,

Carol & Anthony Boutard
Out there in Gaston

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter July 8 2012 Market

When we come to the Hillsdale Farmers' Market tomorrow, Sunday the 8th, we will have a good supply of berries. The anticipated hot spell will likely shrink the raspberry and loganberry season, so this is the week to enjoy them. We will also have gooseberries, red, pink & black currants. Montmorency cherries are also ripening and we will bring some as well.

The frikeh is ready. This year's harvest is the greenest and most tender we have ever produced. You will need to start checking it at about 20 minutes.

We will also bring some mixed greens and fenugreek. The newsletter muse has been diverted by other tasks. Even though we haven't started enjoying the full bounty of summer yet, we are busy preparing the ground for the chicories, escaroles and other crops of winter.

Carol and Anthony Boutard of Gaston
Ayers Creek Farm

_____________________________________

This is from last year's newsletter about frikeh:

Frikeh:

Frikeh (freekeh, farik, &c.) is parched green wheat, and a middle eastern specialty. We prepare it using the traditional method of collecting heads of wheat while the grain is still green, burning them and then threshing the grain from the head. The is just 72 hour window when the wheat is at its best. The process produces a jade green grain that is slightly charred and has a smoky quality. Although durum wheat is usually used, we have started using the much thinner skinned soft red wheat, producing a more tender grain. Using fire to process green grains is also practiced in southern Germany where spelt is roasted to produce grünkern, and in the southwestern United States where unripe corn in the soft dough stage is roasted and dried to produce chicos with their own characteristic light smokiness.

To prepare frikeh, rinse well in couple of changes of water. Drain and put in a saucepan. Add water to about double the depth of the grain, or more. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently, checking it for tenderness around 20 minutes. Drain, salt as desired and store in the refrigerator without liquid.

At this point, the grain can be used in many different dishes. At its simplest, we use frikeh to build a seasonal grain salad along the lines of tabbouleh, using olive oil, lemon juice, mint, parsley, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and perhaps a bit sauteed summer squash. Chef Naoko Tamura adds frikeh as a topping for her seasonal salads using a traditional Japanese soy and rice vinegar dressing: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/17/136394182/seasonal-salad-with-bamboo

Frikeh is delicious with yoghurt and butter milk. Nostrana serves a butter milk and frikeh soup based on a similar soup from Deborah Madison's The Savory Table. Linda Colwell guided us in putting together an Ayers Creek version of this soup. http://anurbanagrarian.blogspot.com/ It uses two cups of frikeh in a quart of butter milk. Add a couple tablespoons each of fresh cilantro and dill, a tablespoon of ground coriander toasted gently in a dry pan, and two cups of purslane whole if very young, or chopped coarsely. Linda also brought a jar of her tuna, and we made the tuna and frikeh salad shown on her blog.

Yesterday, we prepared our variation of the middle eastern dish called kibbeh using frikeh. In its traditional form, raw lamb is mashed with bulgar wheat in a mortar with parsley, onion and mint. The mixture is dressed and served raw as a tartar. Unfortunately, the raw version is seldom served in restaurants, instead the kibbeh is fried or broiled. In our version, we ran a half pound of lamb through a meat grinder and then mixed it in with the herbs and frikeh. We dressed it with olive oil and lemon juice, and served it with salad and Siljans, the round rye crisp bread.

Frikeh is also very good in heated dishes. Egyptians stuff fowl, usually pigeon and chicken, with frikeh. Add it to a mix of sauteed vegetables. Its gentle smokiness and grassiness is welcome summer fare. If you plan on storing the frikeh, we suggest pouring it into a glass jar and keep it in the freezer. This preserves its quality. It is shelf stable, but the flavor drifts away over time. For us, though, it is linked with the flavors and texture of summer, and we have no inclination to prepare it in the winter.