Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter February 16 2014

The large predators are often described as indicator species by ecologists. On the 1st of February, around 2:30 PM, our great horned owl laid her first egg and settled in for a month of broodiness. Last weekend, she was dusted with snow, and now her plumage will have to shed the rain. Don't feel badly for her. She would be out in the snow and rain anyway, and her mate is keeping her well fed as she sits on the eggs and later keeps their chicks warm. The second egg was likely laid around Wednesday of this week, judging by the amorous sweet nothings we heard a bit earlier. Otherwise, they discuss more prosaic matters and keep track of one another sotto voce all night long; her voice is low and soft, his moves about the savannah and is higher and sharper with an urgent edge. In about four weeks, we will see the first downy face poke out from under its mother's wing.

For us, the owls are an indicator species with a different twist; the incubation of the eggs indicates it time for us to attend to matters close at home as well. Even though 2013 was, in the technical jargon of farmers, a real stinker at every turn, we always know the next season will be the best ever, our version of the Big Rock Candy Mountains, otherwise why would we bother. Machinery needs maintenance and repairs, perennial crops need pruning and fertilizing, buildings need sprucing up, and the early crops, chickpeas and favas, need planting as soon as the opportunity presents itself. The nesting boxes for the birds need cleaning and we are putting up a new development for the kestrels on the south side of the property. More on that interesting project later.

Consequently, tomorrow will be the last time until July that I load up the van for the Hillsdale Farmers' Farmers Market this season. I will have corn in its various forms, sweet and Virginian potatoes, soft red wheat kernels, adzukis, onions, squash, ash gourds, preserves, cayennes and plenty of horseradish.

We return to the market on the 6th of July. This year, our annual ramble will take place the Sunday, the 5th of October. It is about time for a harvest season ramble, and a good opportunity for you all to see our new harvest shed, as well as the many other changes that are afoot for 2014.

Finally, the disclaimer regarding this newsletter. If the dim prattle irritates, please send a note and I will removed your name from the list. Or you can change your email address between now and the 2nd of July and not tell me.

Maybe I will see you all tomorrow. Forecast to be a fitting end to a stinker of a year.

My best,

Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Snow-maggedon 2014

 Happy February from Deep Roots Snow Farm!
 
I hope you made it out of the recent storm unscathed. We weren’t so fortunate, but this certainly could have been worse, and we are, as ever, thankful we have each other and the support of our wonderful friends.

Any hoo, I thought you’d enjoy a few pictures.
Strawberries are under there somewhere:

This last storm dumped more snow than we have seen (in the valley) since we’ve been farming (16 years). After two full days of desperate snow blowing and snow whacking, and various other snow removal techniques, our greenhouses began to collapse under the weight of 18+ inches of snow. So, we resorted to drastic measures and began to cut the plastic off the frames.

The far end of this greenhouse is on the ground. Here’s a closer view:

And those we couldn’t get to in time look a little more like this:

The greenhouse next door houses Kaia’s chickens. As you can tell, they received a lot more of our attention, and remained safe and warm.

In all, I think we lost 16 greenhouses, give or take—3 are completely flat, 2 have partially collapsed, and the others are de-skinned.

So, now we rebuild. This year’s going to be different, that’s for sure. Any veggies we had growing before this storm have yet to decide if they will pull through, so we are not sure if we will have much to offer for the early spring markets. We still plan on attending the Hillsdale Market on March 2nd to sell, at the very least, Kaia’s Lovely Eggs.
I hope to see you there!
Kimberly

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter February 2 2014 Market

"Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand. All the other bulls he lived with would run and butt their heads together, but not Ferdinand. He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers."

Munro Leaf's story of Ferdinand was first read to me by Mrs. Angelini, the first grade teacher at the Plain School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The story of gentle pacifist who loved to sit among the flowers was neither odd nor unfamiliar; my father was a Ferdinand by every measure, and to his very soul. Born to a family of engineers on Groundhog Day, Cecil Roy Boutard was the odd duck among them, the one who loved beauty without the need to disassemble or understand it. Saturday mornings as I was growing up, he would make bread in the company of Milton Cross and the Metropolitan Opera. Serene in the Italian or German maelstrom unfolding on the radio. Most of all, he loved flowers. His three children were fortunate to live a life surrounded by such beauty, and a fine teacher as well. On the first of July, 2010, he carefully planted his summer tubs, hanging baskets and window boxes, and that evening sat down next to mother, just quietly, his job done. A graceful way to exit after 94 years.

"And for all I know he is sitting there still, under his favorite cork tree, smelling flowers just quietly. He is very happy. The end."

I will be at the Hillsdale Farmer's Market tomorrow, with pretty much the same selection as in the previous two markets, though shy on the dry beans. Plenty of popcorn for the awards shows and in between. The market bell rings at 10:00. And yes, I will remember to call mother before then.

Carol's foot is on the mend, discomfort has subsided, though she will be off of it for a few more weeks.

Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter January 19 2014 Market

As you tuck deeper into your covers knowing the alarm clock has its day off, you can take comfort knowing that a farmer and his daughter will rise in the still dark and frosty fog, and have things arranged nicely for Hillsdale Farmers' Market opening bell at 10 AM.

Here is what we will bring:

Dry beans and cayenne peppers, winter squash, sweet potatoes, spuds, onions, ash gourds, preserves, popcorn and cornmeal.

For those who have eyed the ash gourd, or more aptly winter cucumber, with reservations, Katherine Deumling of "Cook with What you Have" (www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com) has prepared a recipe for a flavorful, refreshing salad using the gourd. We will have a recipe sheet available at the market.
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For several years, our 15-acre berry field produced approximately 15% of the nation's organic blackberries. We sold roughly 200,000 pounds of berries annually to Cascadian Farm, and they were packaged and sold all across the country. The organic sector has grown tremendously since then, and today our production would fall several zeros on the right of the decimal point, but it was significant at the time. As our field aged, we decided to shift the focus of our farm. Nonetheless, those first seven years taught us a lot about farming and working with a large staff.

About 18 months ago, two blueberry growers had shipments of their blueberries blocked until they admitted they violated labor laws and signed consent judgements. As a relatively small direct sales farm operation, it is tempting to brush off the case as a matter affecting only big farmers, an event beyond our ken. On the other hand, the case represented a terrible miscarriage of justice from a farmer's perspective. Preventing the sale of a perishable crop and using its very perishability to exact a binding confession is wrong, and fortunately, as reported in the Oregonian yesterday, a U.S. Magistrate has sided with the growers with respect to the consent judgement.

During our Cascadian seasons, we had a large staff harvesting fruit. Consistent with the law, we paid staff a price per pound of fruit picked or minimum wage, whichever was greater. Harvesting berries is skilled work and there is a great disparity between the fastest and slowest pickers. Two of our very best berry harvesters, Gregorio and Leticia, would typically bring in 300 to 350 pounds of berries a day early in the season. Gregorio was 80 years old, and Leticia was 22. Both of them picked with an easy precision, just like the finest typists their fingers moved without a wasted motion or mistake. On the other end of the spectrum, we had pickers who struggled to bring in 150 pounds during the same period, and a good number who never reached 100 pounds. The slowest staff always earned minimum wage, whereas the fastest would earn well over $20/hour, especially early in the season.

The complaint against the blueberry growers asserted that they allowed "ghost workers." This was determined by the average the picking staff harvested in a month and people who picked more than the average were assumed to be assisted by another worker who was not submitting their own harvest tickets. Reading the paper, we were struck by the fact that Gregorio and Letica, both highly skilled solo pickers, who would have been considered by the Department of labor as two or three people under the agency's formula. There was nothing ghostly about their skill. Treating harvesting of fruits and vegetables as unskilled work where everyone should pick at the same rate because any idiot can pick a berry or apple, the assumption behind the purely statistical investigation, degrades the workers' value. It is also a gross misuse statistics.

It is true that in any larger harvest operation, there will be some "ghost workers." Often a brother, sister or spouse will help if they don't have work one day. When there are 100 people in the field, an out-of-place person is not easy to discern, especially a close relative. There are also compelling ghosts. We had one couple who would pick together for an hour before the husband, who drove his wife to the farm, would leave to work at a nursery up the road. Another man drove his wife to work and slept in the car until noon or so because he worked as custodian cleaning offices all night, and after waking he would help her haul her flats of berries out of the field. A mother of one of our staff would show up at 11:30, sell tamales and tacos from the back of her car, and then help her son for an hour or so. No one was gaming the system; it was the way the agricultural families helped each other.

One year, we had to harvest the field on Labor Day because of rain expected later in the week, and so many family members who had the day off came to help each other that we were done by 9:30. That day, there were more ghosts than staff, but the family member on the payroll was paid for every berry brought to the scale and punched on their ticket; there was nothing spectral about the dollars they earned. They got the job done early and enjoyed the rest of Labor Day together.

There are real problems with growers shorting and mistreating their harvest staff, but growers should retain the right to challenge the evidence brought against them, especially evidence as flimsy and tenuous as the statistical models employed by the Department of Labor. Maybe the blueberry growers in this case are bad actors, however as farmers who have faced similar challenges in the field we believe a reasonable doubt exists and a day in court is warranted. Just as there are bad and sloppy farmers, there are bad and sloppy inspectors. Inspectors wield tremendous power and it takes a great deal of discipline to keep an inspection from cascading into an adversarial encounter. When a farmer has been up and dealing with a host problems since the break of day, seeing a fresh, perky suit show up late in the morning during the busiest part of the season, coffee in hand, for an unannounced inspection foretells a missed lunch and a ruined afternoon. Equanimity can be elusive.

Running any sort of farm is challenging and the shrinking availability of labor and the perils of dealing with the thicket state and federal laws convinced us to shift how we farmed. The way the field operates today is more cerebral than sensuous, gone are the sounds of laughter and exchange of gossip, the tinny transistor radios, the rhythmic calling of the weight and the click as the tally card is punched, and the dense fragrance 20,000 pounds of Chesters loaded on the big flatbed and ready to go to the processor in Salem. We harbor no nostalgia, but retain a healthy respect for those who farm as we did seven years ago. It is a hard business, and they deserve fair treatment by government agencies.

We will see you all Sunday,

Carol & Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter January 5 2014

On our first crepuscular Sunday of 2014, we may catch sight of our resident bobcat as we head off to the Hillsdale Farmers Market. The opening chime sounds around 10:00 AM.

The bobcat, Lynx rufus, is a furtive spirit, more often observed by what is left than its actual presence. Our cur, Tito, picks up the cat's scent and has developed the sensible habit of demanding human company and looking over his shoulder when goes out before bed. He is the same way when the coyotes hunt close by. Despite millennia of domestication, he retains the survival instincts of his ancestors. The average bobcat adult weighs about 20# (9 Kg), though individuals can approach 40# (18 Kg). Their diet is mostly rodents, though they can kill much larger animals if the opportunity presents itself, even deer. The bobcats west of the Cascades are distinctly darker than others of the species, and are recognized as the subspecies fasciatus.

We first saw the bobcat in September hunting in the draw, recognizing its feline gait and stalking mannerisms, and an animal obviously leggier and taller than the feral tabby cats that survive being tossed out of cars as kittens by careless souls, but not a positive identification without seeing it face-on. Later in the month, Zenón went out at dawn to pull rocks from newly cultivated field and saw "un gato grande" hunting voles in fresh ground, a more certain sighting. Our neighbor Darwin, a veteran hunter and outdoorsman, made the positive identification in late November when he turned a corner near his blind and came face to face with the cat. As he described it, they both paused, staring at one another for a moment to catch their breath, before the cat bounced away into the canary grass. In the twilight of Christmas morning, we watched the bobcat lope across the field and down the road towards the creek, quarry in its jaws. Evidence points to its denning at times in the briars near the pump station, a hunch with which Tito, his hackles high, concurs.  

Animals that are active during the day are described as diurnal, those at night nocturnal. Crepuscular animals are active at twilight, the edges between day and night. In habitat as well habit, the bobcat is a species that thrives on the productivity of edges. As we have described previously, we are situated where the Tualatin Valley is at its narrowest between the Coast Range and the Tualatin Ridge, providing a short corridor between those two forested foothill habitats. The farm itself is a mosaic of cultivated fields, oak savannah and wetland, offering a lot edges between these ecotypes. The effect of our "edginess" is best seen in the variety of raptors that hunt on the farm. Kestrels, harriers, red-tail hawks, barn owls and great horned owls all nest on the farm, osprey and bald eagles nest in the valley and hunt here. Migrating cooper's hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, merlins and peregrines pause to fatten up during migration. Elk, deer, mink and cougar, among others, use the farm as a path between the foothills, but they pass quickly and with purpose beyond our boundaries.

The bobcat is likely a visitor as well, a youngster seeking its own territory. That it has lingered so long explains in part why we have so few chicories this year, even though we doubled our planting. We adhered to our pattern of crop rotation without considering that the planting bordered part of the farm that was in fallow for the past year. Last spring, the population of meadow mice (voles) was low so we paid little heed to them in our planting during the summer; it was an understandable but unfortunate oversight. Unobserved by us, the population in the fallow field skyrocketed over the summer, and there are few crops so well suited as chicories for feeding a hungry hoard of voles through the cold months. By September, we sensed the problem and did everything we could to salvage the crop to no avail. Wave after wave of voles have kept the raptors well fed, and the surplus rodents kept us in the bobcat's hunting territory. The ground is covered with holes barely a foot apart, and the cold snap made the little rodents that much more ravenous. Without a bounty of fat, chicory-fed voles, the bobcat would probably have moved further into the foothills where there is a better cover and supply of prey, and less competition from the coyotes and raptors.

In the popular literature, healthy predator populations are supposed to stabilize prey populations, creating a population equilibrium and thus providing a service to humans. Yes, predators are valuable components of a healthy ecosystem, but it is important to understand that population dynamics in prey populations are driven by many environmental factors. Disease, weather, food and cover availability, for example, all have a far greater influence on rodent populations than the predators. Face it, predators are like us, consumers rather than mere service animals. There is parallel with farming in that no matter how good we think we are as farmers, the weather and other exogenous factors ultimately determine our success. We can plot and plan, but the weather and vole populations defy anticipation for both bobcat and cultivator.

    When you are chewing on life's gristle,
    Don't grumble, give a whistle,
    And this will help things turn out for the best, and
    Always look on the bright side of life,
    Always look on the light side of life .  .  .

Heeding Eric Idle's advise, as you grumble about the sloppy farmers who failed to deliver your chicories this year, maybe it will help to know that a leggy, elegant bobcat is meting out some form of retribution. And a host well-fed raptors as well. And it is, after all, a backhanded compliment to our farming efforts that so many other animals thrive the fruits of our labor.

We will be at the market with the many bits and pieces they left, including:

Dry beans, adzuki beans, dried cayennes, naked pumpkin seeds, stone-ground cornmeal, popcorn, various corn kernels for making hominy, preserves, winter squash, ash gourds, potatoes, and the belle of winter cuisine, freshly dug horseradish.

Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow,

Carol & Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm and Wildlife Feeding Station
Gaston, Oregon

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter December 22 2013

You will find us at our usual spot at Hillsdale Farmers' Market this Sunday and, with luck, ready to go by 10:00 AM.

Once again, as an expression of our gratitude to all of you who brave the elements on Sunday mornings with such aplomb and good nature, we will have our new calendar available. This year, the bumblebee is featured through much of the year. It is the most challenging calendar we have ever produced in terms of the subject and research. Don't worry, it is not overly polished; there are still plenty of missing articles and such to keep you participating in the effort. Please be sure to grab one as they are only useful on your wall. We will also have some available for the 5th of January market.

We will have a good supply of preserves available, as well as the gift boxes. We are out of blackcap for the year, a consequence of that heatwave at the end of June. If your visitors avail themselves over-generously and you need to restock, our preserves are found at the following stores as well, in good company with other fine food.

City Market, 735 NW 21st Ave.
Food Front, both Hillsdale & NW Thurman
Foster & Dobbs, 2518 NE 15th Ave
Gaston Market, Gaston, OR
Pastaworks, 3735 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Peoples Cooperative, 3029 SE 21st Ave.
Vino, 138 SE 28th Ave.

We regard it as a great compliment that Ava Gene's uses our preserves on their cheese plate. They have the brightness and acidity that accents good cheese. While at the market Sunday, we recommend buying Lis Monahan's elegant Rio Santiam, along with her camembert styled cheese we have rhapsodized over earlier. These two Fraga Farm cheeses, not only certified organic but expressing an elevated style and craft, will grace our table over the holiday. Good preserves are not just for breakfast.

We will have popcorn, cornmeal, beans and cayennes, along with the first lot of Styrian-type hull-less pumpkin seeds.

Vegetables will include knob celery, black radish, spuds, sweet potatoes, winter squash and ash gourds. We will dig some fresh horseradish as well.

The weather precludes harvesting field-grown greens. If we tried, we would do more harm than good. Sauvie Island Organics and Gathering Together both have certified organic greens grown under cover, and we may pop over to buy some from them too.

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This autumn's special session of the Oregon Legislature was called to deal with urgent budget problems. Unfortunately, the legislature also passed SB 633, a bill that blocks local communities from regulating genetically engineered (GE) crops – the same bill that had been defeated earlier in the regular session. It stuck out like a sore thumb and garnered a measure of national attention. Its sole purpose was to sweeten the budget deal for the Republicans. It was a disturbing indicator of how powerful the biotechnology industry is, even in a state where GE crops play a minor to trivial economic role. As a general matter, we have a deep ambivalence towards local governments regulating agriculture as the laws have often been directed against organic gardeners and farmers. Ironically, even when such laws are prohibited, such as in the case of SB 633, it is still skewed against organic growers. The old heads we lose, tails you win game.

Plants that cross pollinate, whether by wind or insects, are vulnerable to contamination by nearby plantings of GE crops of the same type. Last Saturday, at the suggestion of Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds, a reporter contacted us regarding Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, touting the idea of "coexistence" between organic growers and the biotechnology sector. The USDA is in the comment period for rule-making on coexistence, another indicator of the industry's influence. After the market on Sunday, we sent the reporter this quickly drafted response, reedited a bit for clarity:
_________

When we hear people use the word "coexistence," we hear the language of the Prophet Isaiah 11:26: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat .  .  . " In life on earth wolves eat sheep and leopards eat goats, and quite happily, at least from the predator's perspective. We agree with Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds, the faith-based approach to controlling genetic trespass, cynically named coexistence, isn't reassuring unless the predator is caged, or defanged and declawed.

Parts of Oregon have a legal and social structure called "open range." Cattle are allowed to roam without fences and cow hands round them up in the autumn when it comes time to sell them. If you don't want livestock on your property, you have to put up a fence. Ownership is determined by the branding iron not the location of the beast. When you travel in the eastern parts of the state, highway signs advise you that there may be cattle in the road. You hit one, you have to compensate the owner for the dead or injured animal. In the more densely populated areas, that doesn't work; livestock must be fenced.

Up to now, the genetically engineered crops have had their grand romp across the nation with little resistance. Millions of acres in GE corn and soybeans cover the midsection of the U.S. It is the equivalent of open range; the pollen from these crops and the traits it carries can range freely. If your crop acquires a GE trait, even passively because the pollen lands on your crop, you have to pay the company that owns the trait if you want to use that seed. Yes, it is outrageous, and it is the law upheld by the Supreme Court.

In the Willamette Valley and Rogue Valley with their small area and dense pattern of cropping, open range rules for GE crops are economically destructive to certain sectors of agriculture, and not just the organic growers, also specialty seed growers and crops grown for the export markets. Those agricultural sectors are well established in the state. Oregon is fifth in the nation in terms of number of certified organic farms, and one of the top seed-producing regions in the world. We need the equivalent of a fenced pasture here, in other words keep your modified genes on your own land.

The inane argument that modified genes are legal doesn't cut it. Cattle and sheep are legal but the state does not sanction our neighbor's sheep trespassing on our land and destroying the value of our crops. In our part of the state, livestock must be fenced, and if one wanders in the road and we hit it, or damages our crops, the owner is liable for damage to our property. Drift from a legal pesticide onto a neighboring farm is likewise trespass if it causes economic damage, even if it is applied according to the label. Unfortunately, in the case of genetic trespass, neither the federal nor the state governments have shown leadership or concern for growers who are put at economic risk.

The next step of the argument is the foundering, hand-waving assertion that pollen is everywhere and no one can control it. This is wrong on its face. Almost every plant species has a mechanism for excluding foreign pollen when it lands on the stigma. That is why you can't cross lettuce with a tomato in classic breeding methodology. If the patent office hadn't granted utility patents on traits in established crops, we doubt we would be at this contentious moment. The industry would have found a way to protect their proprietary traits by preventing their replication in non-GE crops, utilizing one of the many exclusion mechanisms found in nature or maternal inheritance (no modified genes in the pollen). The EPA could have required that pollen from a modified plant be unrecognizable to plants in the same species as a condition of approval. With patent protection, the large corporations exploit the court system instead. The owners of the patent have no incentive to corral their traits so local governments have no choice but to step into the breach using what authority they can reasonably muster.  

For every economic crop that is genetically modified, the approving authorities should require that its pollen is unrecognizable to the crop so modified, or that plant is sterile. For example, GE beet pollen should not germinate on non-GE beets. There are many foreign gene exclusion models that occur in nature. Some strains of popcorn have a single gene, GAS, that stops the germination of the pollen tube if is from a different class of corn, and prevents pollination. Some organic seed producers are have incorporated this gene into their lines, using classic breeding techniques. In fact, domesticated corn cannot pollinate the wild corn plant, teosinte, which has a similar exclusion mechanism. The industry could also use traits that lead to sterile hybrids.

Just as with fencing livestock in the valley, that burden should fall to the entity profiting from the wandering genes. The companies producing GE seed have the tools and expertise at their disposal to produce seed lines that would not pollute non-GE seed lines with their pollen. But they are not going to do it if they don't have to.

As Frank noted, we produce a great deal of seed on our farm. If our neighbors upwind of us decided to grow GE corn, for example, we would lose that crop and a substantial chunk of income. We have been working on our seed lines for twelve years, adapting them to the climate and soil conditions on our farm. It is incredible corn and if you are in Portland, visit Pine State Biscuits and try their grits. We grow that corn.

That's the Boutard Manifesto I on the subject. See you all Sunday,

Carol & Anthony Boutard

Thawing Out December 2013

The deep freeze we experienced earlier this month affected every farm in the area. Hoop houses and greenhouses helped some. But as Kimberly Bolster at Deep Roots Farms shared in a newsletter sent out earlier this week, it can still get too cold.

We have been growing over-wintered vegetables for 15 years, and while it is not unusual for temperatures to dip into the teens for a few days in December, we have never experienced below zero temps before this year. We bottomed out at -2 degrees Farenheit. Thirty four degrees below freezing is extremely hard on even the hardiest of veggies. Like broccoli, poor, poor broccoli.

The outdoor kale and cauliflower is likewise melted.Heads of cabbage, which I’ve been told can completely freeze and thaw three times before they are considered bad, are as limp as they get when boiled. Tasty.

The biggest shocker for me is our greenhouse kale. We have three greenhouses of kale, two of which have been harvested a few times. At first glance we thought it looked fine—it just needs a few weeks for the leaves to grow to a harvestable size. Unfortunately, that won’t happen. The stems are completely mushy and starting to ferment on the inside—there’s no coming back from that. The kale in the greenhouse we have yet to pick looks less dead, but for the most part everything we had growing: broccoli, cauliflower, four kinds of cabbage, collards, all three kales, chard, parsley, kohlrabi, radishes, mizuna, turnips, red mustard, bok choy, and arugula will not recover.

Fortunately, the chickens survived just fine although keeping their water from freezing was a task unto itself. Deep Roots Farm will be coming once a month in January and February to sell eggs.

Stories like this one are repeated throughout the region. When shopping this weekend, ask the farmer how he or she is doing after the freeze.

- Eamon Molloy, Market Manager

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter December 15 2013

Winter Melon (ash gourd)We are back to slipping and sliding about in the mud today, and the Hillsdale Market tomorrow in time for the opening bell at 10:00 AM.

We will come well-stocked with preserves, including gift boxes, dried cayenne peppers, dry beans, popcorn, cornmeal and kernels for hominy. We will also have spuds, yams, knob celery, beets, cabbage and other sundry vegetables as well. A few good looking turnips as well.

We will also have squash and ash gourd. The ash gourd is also called wax gourd and winter melon. A more apt name would have been winter cucumber, as it it has the same fresh, crisp quality as a cucumber. At the Thanksgiving market, Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans of the Farmer's Feast (thefarmersfeast.me/) sliced the fruit thinly and dressed it with rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and some toasted sesame seeds. A fine side dish.

Our best,

The Boutards

Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter November 24 2013

We hope you all join us at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market this Sunday; the opening bell at 10:00 AM. Here is what we expect to have in the van.

The Sweet Underground at Ayers Creek FarmRoots & Tubers: black radish, knob celery, spuds, sweet potatoes, beets, horseradish.

Not just less than lovely to look at, black radish a strong, coarse creature with a harsh bite best tempered by salting first. It northern Europe, it is served in beer halls, where the root is sliced paper thin and generously salted for about 20 minutes to an hour. The Boutard children grew up eating it that way, even before beer graced their evenings. It is amazing what a transformation a sprinkle of salt accomplishes. We also prepare a couple of salads/relishes by running the radish through the medium julienne blade of a Benringer mandolin and salting it for an hour. We peel it in a desultory fashion, pulling off the coarsest parts but leaving some of the black peel as decoration. When wilted, we rinse off the salt and dress it with lemon juice and olive oil, or sour cream. Both are delicious. Anthony enjoys it by the plateful as a salad while Carol prefers it in smaller doses as a relish.

Black radish is one of those very healthful vegetables that has a dedicated subterranean following, but no commodity commission loudly promoting its benefits. For what its worth, the root is high in vitamin C and is regarded as a good stimulant for liver regeneration. Both welcome at this time of the year.

Knob celery, aka celeriac, was another regular winter vegetable in the Boutard house. Anthony's mother cubed and cooked the root until just tender, and then dressed it with a vinaigrette while still warm. At Ayers Creek we most commonly eat it as a raw salad. We julienne the roots and dress them in lemon juice and olive oil with a generous amount of freshly ground cayenne. We also follow James Beard's celeriac remoulade recipe where he dresses it with mayonnaise seasoned by three different mustards: sharp English, Dijon and sweet German. We make generous portions of these salads and enjoy them over a two or three day period. A sprinkle of caraway is also nice variation.

When it grows large quickly, the root can develop a pithy heart. We generally plant our knob celery later than recommended so it grows slowly in the cool autumn weather, giving it a crisp texture all the way through. In trimming the roots, we retain the topknot of greenery whenever possible. It is not just that it looks like standard desert island cartoon image from the New Yorker, we like to chop up the green part into the salad.  

The theme for the market chef this weekend is side dishes. Kathryn will likely prepare salads from black radish and knob celery, among the other sides.

Onions & Shallots

Dried Cayenne Peppers

Cucurbits: Sibley and Musqueé. We will bring some smaller specimens to sell whole as well as some really big fruits to slice. We will have the ash gourd or winter melon, also whole or by the slice. Lovely in soup or roasted along with your roots, spuds or sweet potatoes. Add it to the turkey's dressing where it will add the crispness of similar to apple. We are also thinking about julienning it for a cucumberish sort of winter salad, maybe a bit of mint or seaweed.

Corn kernels: Amish Butter for popcorn, and both Roy's Calais and Amish Butter for hominy. In addition to popping well, Amish Butter makes a very good hominy, especially in a stock rendered from the leftover turkey bones.

Cornmeal: Both Amish Butter and Roy's Calais Flint cornmeal will be available.

Beans: Full selection. We have added adzuki beans and a large red kidney bean, both from the Island of Hokkaido.

Greens: A good but uncertain mix of bits and pieces. Similar to last week but add some heads of escarole.

Preserves: Full and bewildering selection of 17 different fruits plus the ever useful gift boxes of four different types. This year, the gift box is made up of raspberry, purple raspberry, loganberry and golden gage plum. No need to fret about red or white, these are our most lovable preserves, and better yet they are never corked.

Some other stuff too.

See you Sunday,

Carol & Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter November 17 2013

Tomorrow morning, we will pull ourselves together and make slow ascent up Bald Peak, the first leg in our voyage to Hillsdale. Hope to see you all there after the 10:00 AM opening bell.

PreservesPreserve production is when we reprise our summer, the good moments and the disappointments. All of the fruit we use, with the exception of lemons, comes from the farm. Many farmers contemplate preserve production as a way to capitalize on surpluses and low grade fruit, throw some sugar and pectin into a big pot and you have something to sell. Extension people call it "value-added." As we warn other farmers, the notion that making preserves is "value-added" is simply poppycock. We must purchase the jars, organic sugar, organic lemons and pay for the use of Sweet Creek's kitchen and staff. We have added an investment and value is added only if and when you sell the preserves for a profit, so there is no sense poking some low grade fruit in glass.

We started making preserves from the opposite end of the harvest. The very first berries to ripen in the field are the highest quality fruit. They set up well without any added pectin and the flavor is brightest due to their higher acidity. For us, taking the better part of the day to deliver ten flats of berries is a waste of time and fuel. So early in the morning, we bring in a few flats each day and freeze the berries. We never crush them; they are packed into buckets whole when frozen. This gentle treatment preserves the aromatics and acidity of the fruit, as many of you know because you handle our berries the same way.

Our preserves are very farmer-ish, just one type of fruit and no secret ingredients or surprising combinations. The preserves are cooked in 2½ gallon steam jacket pots, so the cooking surface is a gentle 270°F (132°C). We cook about a gallon at a time. Paul Fuller has three 275-gallon pots, but at that volume, you have to add pectin in order for the fruit to gel. Several years ago, Carol's brother, Bill, visited the farm and walked us through a series of very carefully documented variations. Tasting the various versions, it was clear to us that adding pectin robbed a vital part of the fruit's spirit, inconvenient and indisputable. Sweet Creek has just two of these small pots, but Paul is adding two more so we can increase production next year. There is no other co-packer in Oregon that would put up with our fussy demands, so as long as Paul and Judy own Sweet Creek welcome us back, we will make preserves.

The most important tool for us is Paul's Omega HH1501AJK digital thermometer. In cooking, the fruit goes through a series of temperature steps. The critical range is 220 to 222°F (104.4 to 105.5°C). The fruit sets up in that range, if you allow it bounce up to 224°F (106.6°C) the fruit has an over-cooked flavor and texture. One year, the cord to the thermometer frayed and we had to use a different one for the last run of the day. The calibration was off and the fruit over-cooked slightly. We now have our own Omega, so if one goes we have a back-up. It also allows us to conduct test runs at home.

As we noted earlier, we see the season reflected in the fruit. The heat wave that came through during our ramble in June destroyed much of the black currant, boysenberry and blackcap crop. We have some, not enough to for the stores. The early raspberry and loganberry crops preceded the heat wave, so they are in good supply. We have done an even better job with the tart cherry preserves, though they are inherently lower in pectin than other fruit and on the runny side. We have yet to perfect pit removal, so there will be an occasional pit in the jars. This preserve is an even greater labor love than the others and we should drop it but we like too much. This year, we have added a small run of grape preserves from the Veepie grape. The goal is a grown-up grape flavor with skins in the mix. The golden gage and mirabelle are back as well.

Speaking of labors of love, Aphrodite is often portrayed holding a quince. Our two small quince trees had such a heavy crop that the trees largely collapsed. We have a small run of quince jelly in memoriam for the efforts of those two unfortunate trees. They will recover eventually and we are planting more because we cannot imagine life without a bit of quince jelly. Eventually, we will add more jellies to the mix. We have several crab apples which should bear good crops in a year or two. The jellies will test Paul's patience even more, which should him some level of beatification among fruit lovers. Though we promise him that we will stop at 19 different preserves, a good prime number, so there are just two more types to go.

In addition to our 17 different fruit preserves, we will have a good supply of beans for the next two markets, as well as Roy's Calais Flint cornmeal and kernels for hominy. No popcorn yet, needs more time to dry.

We will also have a good selection of greens, including sorrel, which is virtually the same as lengua de vaca, the type of sour dock green used in traditional posoles. Kathryn will be demonstrating the fine points of posole construction at this week's market demonstration.

Winter squash has cured nicely and we will also bring in ash gourds, also known as winter melon, for the first time.

The cayenne peppers, Joe's Long and Aci Sivri are ready.

The roots include Yellow Finn spuds, knob celery, black radish, beets and the star of the farm, fresh horseradish. For those disposed towards a libation with Sunday brunch, imagine a Bull Shot or Bloody Mary with good dose of freshly grated horseradish. Might not even need the vodka to enjoy such a fine beverage. The salad and seafood are also improved with a grating of horseradish.

Finally, we will have some chestnuts. Remember, you have to pierce the shell to let the steam escape. There is no need to make a cross unless you want to, a slit is sufficient. When the chestnuts have finished roasting, generally when the kitchen smells like roasting chestnuts, put them in a bowl lined with a wet dishcloth. Cover and let them rest for a few minutes, and then shell while they are still hot. The task is easiest when it is a painful experience. If they get cold, the pelicle or inner skin, is harder to remove. Chestnuts are perishable, difficult to use once they dry. We cure them in our root cellar at 90% humidity where the sweeten up, they will last a few days on the counter, or longer in the refrigerator.

Enough, we will see you all tomorrow.

Carol & Anthony
Ayers Creek Farm

Vendor Profile: CGI Orchard

by Sarah West

Ed GeislerHaving grown up in the same house at the edge of Vancouver, WA where he now lives and farms, Ed Geisler of CGI Orchard cultivates his selection of specialty apples in a landscape that straddles new enterprise and nostalgia. Behind the old farmhouse where he lived as a boy, a handsome assortment of ornamental trees and shrubs snakes around the edge of the lawn. Two towering tree skeletons linger behind the newer plantings; long dead but not without sculptural appeal, Ed keeps them around for the wisteria vines to climb, flavoring the air with their sweet scent the way lilac fragrance filled that same garden in his childhood.

The small-acreage plot his parents purchased is largely still intact, though now surrounded by an ever-encroaching suburbia. The land was never farmed by his family, rather they leased it out in parcels to nearby growers for cutting hay, grazing animals or growing strawberries.

“The strawberries,” Ed recalled, “gave me my first fortune,” earning him spending money as a picker, and likely a king’s portion of berries over the years.
After retiring from a career selling high-end men’s clothing, Ed planted a 100-tree apple orchard in 2008 where his family once had a stand of cherry trees, inspired, in part, by memories of the snow-like effect of that week in spring when the white petals cut loose and swirl in the breeze. His orchard is also a dedication to his family’s next generation, the initials CGI connoting the orchard’s three owners, his young grandchildren Charlie, George and Ingrid.

From the beginning, Ed had the intention of selling the best apples he could produce. To ensure their quality of flavor and market value, he worked toward organic certification while his trees matured. Within two years Ed was bringing his fruit to markets in the Vancouver, WA area.

Ed prefers to grow apples at the artisan scale, weeding the base of each tree by hand, carting in chipped prunings from the previous winter and manure from his flock of sheep to mulch the orchard in the fall, waiting for each apple to reach its peak ripeness, picking and cleaning the harvest the evening prior to market.

“These apples are in the moment,” Ed told me. “I don’t store them; they’ve never been in a refrigerator. When you buy them, they come to you directly from the tree.”

Ed has noticed some customers smell an apple before tasting a sample, looking for the delicate fragrance that lingers on a fresh, fully ripe apple. And he has chosen varieties that stand out. His orchard ripens in succession through the fall, moving from one variety to the next, most of them unfamiliar to market shoppers. Ed clearly delights in introducing shoppers to his more obscure apples.

“I grow Honeycrisp because they are so popular, but when someone comes to my booth to buy them, I give them a sample of the Pinova and they say ‘that’s like Honeycrisp, only better!’ Much of the time, they ask if they can put the Honeycrisp back.”

Pinova is a German-bred apple with a lineage of traits drawn from Golden Delicious, Cox’s Orange Pippin and Duchess of Oldenburg varieties. Its red and maple-leaf-orange skin draw you to his table while its crisp, juicy flesh and floral tartness may elicit your own childhood memories of fall drives and fresh apples at the orchard.

Elstar, a variety developed in the Netherlands, has soft flesh with an effervescence that hits the tongue then quickly fades into a hint of sweetness. Ed calls these his “champagne apples” because of their unique flavor profile.

Belle de Boskoop, originating in a Dutchman’s orchard as a chance seedling in 1856, is perhaps Ed’s most visually striking apple. The russet coating through which its yellow and red hues peek out gives this heirloom apple the appearance of a dusty antique. Tart, aromatic and crisp, it is appealing both as a fresh-eating or cooking apple.

Because Ed’s orchard is small and he does not store his harvests more than one night, you must act quickly to get your preferred varieties. Most of his apples have already come and gone for the season, some lost in the strong winds of September’s unusually turbulent weather. Like all good things worth having, they are worth waiting for, too. Snag a taste of his final harvests, and keep an eye out for his return next fall.

Vendor Profile: Savory et Sweet

by Sarah West

You never know how shopping at your neighborhood farmers’ market may influence your life’s path. Since their son, Max, began volunteering at Hillsdale Market back in its formative years, Chris and Gary Douglas have found themselves intertwined in the weekly ritual of farmers’ markets. After a few seasons as a HFM volunteer herself, Chris and fellow volunteer Joan Quinn hatched a plan to start a business selling crepes at the market. Though Joan has since bowed out of the project, Savory et Sweet remains a market fixture, serving their crepes to a loyal following of market vendors and customers alike. Now with many years of crepe-slinging under their belts, Chris and Gary are embarking on the project of opening their own restaurant, a café they’ve named Arugularium.

Any Hillsdale vendor would confess to fantasizing of walls and a roof on days when the wind kicks up or the rain comes down steadily. Chris began looking for a permanent space a few years ago, choosing instead to purchase a portable food trailer that makes the task of preparing and serving hot food at their three year-round markets more manageable. The idea of a restaurant never left her, however, and when a lease became available at the perfect café space in the Sellwood neighborhood, Chris jumped at the chance.

She signed the lease in July, and has been working tirelessly to prepare for opening day (which was October 3^rd) ever since. Located at 8337 SE 17th Ave, three blocks south of Tacoma St, the Arugularium space is cozy and bright with sun-drenched windows and butter-colored walls. Chris’s previous career as an interior designer shows in the meticulous attention she put into creating a space that embodies functional elegance while resisting the Francophile impulses usually associated with creperies.

Chris’s recipes trend toward the non-traditional as well. She boldly translates flavor combinations from various cuisines into the crepe format and has created her own gluten-free batters, one utilizing buckwheat flour and another polenta. Chris continues to experiment with new ingredients and combinations, inspired by the bounty of products she sees at her markets.

“I have always liked uncommon things in décor, style and food,” Chris told me, and at market she is “especially inspired by miniature vegetables.”

Over the years, she has amassed a collection of 200 crepe combinations and designed a popular grab-and-go meal she sells at the lunch-focused Lloyd Market that she’s dubbed the Menagerie Snack Plate, which features, among other items, an artistic assortment of those beloved mini vegetables.

“Even though my new brick and mortar kitchen is large enough to support a full restaurant menu, I've opted to keep it true to my roots of crepes, soup and salads. I will be developing new items within this genre. I'm also hoping to do more baking in the new space, something I wasn't able to do in a tent or a concessions trailer.”

Arugularium, as the name implies, is an ode to arugula, one of Chris’s favorite ingredients. Arugula holds a prominent place on her menus, showing up in soups and salads, crepes, her signature arugula pesto and a super-food drink she calls Green Therapy. Along with arugula, Chris has always incorporated seasonal ingredients in her menu, often shopping the market for fruits, vegetables and fresh inspiration just before starting service.

Most recently, Chris brought her farmers into the kitchen as well, hiring a fellow vendor from Oregon City Farmer’s Market to cook at the café (a first-year farmer named Brett Caldwell) as well as two folks from Hillsdale, Haley Lusby (employee of Pesto Outside the Box) and myself. In the spirit of full disclosure, should you visit Arugularium on an upcoming Friday or Saturday, I would likely (and happily) be your server. Chris was delighted to source her employees from the same markets where she buys her ingredients and from which her “little food hobby,” as she calls it, grew into a life-changing business.

Follow Chris and Gary’s progress at Arugularium on their Facebook page, including hours, menu updates and more!

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 22 2013

Tucked between your blankets tomorrow morning, you will hear the drip, drip, drip of the rain drops and the chill of the southwest wind through the open window and you will be tempted to linger in bed. If you choose to sleep, you will miss a very unusual market. When the bell rings at Hillsdale at 10:00 AM tomorrow, it will be summer, but the market closes in the autumn, which comes with the equinox at 1:22 PM. Who can resist the opportunity to shop at the last market of summer and the first of the autumn all in one day. Ages hence, you can tell the tale of time you started shopping in summer and didn't stop until autumn.

If you need a little more convincing, the Linda Colwell's lunch menu for the Organic Seed Production workshop should give you cause to shed those blankets and don your slicker and wellies. Linda structured the menu around the grains, pulses and vegetables grown from seed produced and improved on the farm. We started with a light posole using as stock the tomato nectar from canning tomatoes earlier in the week and the vary last handful of Amish Butter corn for the hominy. Next we had flint corn mush with roasted Astianas and borlotti. That was followed by a salad made from Peace, No War purple hominy, purple tomatillos, coriander greens, and grey shallots dressed with lime and olive oil. We ended with fresh shelled Tarbais with roasted onions and fenugreek. Popcorn, roasted pumpkin seeds and grapes provided the snacks.

Most of the ingredients in Linda's lunch will be available tomorrow, alas no pumpkin seeds or popcorn, but they will appear again at the winter markets. We will have a lot of the Astianas and boxes for bulk purchases; it was another excellent week for the tomatoes. We will bring Roy's Calais Flint and the last of Peace, No War kernels for making hominy, along with slack lime. We will also have soft red wheat kernels for grain salads as well. Freshly stone ground cornmeal and chick peas, of course.

We will also have some freshly shelled demi-sec Borlotto Lamon and Tarbais beans. These must be stored in the refrigerator and are perishable. This is the only week we will have them, another reason to shed those blankets. We have been working to adapting these beans to our region for over a decade and it is time for us to give them names that reflect our efforts. From now on, it will be Borlotto Gaston, a nod to its Italian cultivators but also crediting its new home. The Tabais is also due for a name change as we are a long way away from the fields of Tarbes in southern France. They will be labeled Tarbesque, recognizing that they are in the manner of the famous beans from Tarbes, but grown here at Ayers Creek.

Finally, we will bring grapes, beets, onions, garlics, shallots and preserves.

We will see you all tomorrow, either in the summer or the autumn.

Carol & Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 15 2013

Each summer has its own character and pace. After a few years where summer languished long after its official end, this year summer reminds us of James Dean, running fast and furiously to an early end. Fruit ripening is truncated, a matter of missing it if you blink. Already, we are starting to bring in the first flint corn and dry beans, preparing the ground where the garlic and wheat will be planted. In past years we have irrigated into October; next week, a month earlier than normal, we will dismantle the smaller pump and move it out of the floodplain.

This has been a particularly good month for the tomatoes as the night-time temperatures have been unseasonably mild. Tomatoes fare better with warm nights, and with chilly nights held at bay the quality is high. We will have another good harvest of Astianas for tomorrow. Once again, we will have the scale and boxes available, or you can bring your own boxes and fill them, either way for the great price of $1.75/LB.

The grapes include the celibate Canadice, and the fecund Price and New York Muscat. The latter is best characterized as an adult grape, to be savored one by one. It is a hybrid between a muscat and an American grape. It has a good measure of the muscat complexity. The skin is a tad thick, but that means we can grow it organically without it succumbing to mildew.

We will also have our stone ground flint corn, chickpeas, preserves, onions, beets, tomatillos and some fenugreek. The plums are nearly at their end, but we will have some golden transparent gages and damsons. And yes, Damacus is in Syria and Oregon, not Lebanon. The saber rattling earlier this month, now muted, left us unable to think straight.

We will see you all tomorrow,

Anthony and Carol

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 8 2013

Mirabelle de NancyTomorrow, as we wend our way Bald Peak, for the first time in two months we will not be immersed in the fragrance of caneberries. Instead, the van will be redolent with late summer mix of onions, plums, grapes, tomatoes and the earthiness of beets ready to be purchased at the Hillsdale Market when the bell rings at 10:00 AM.

People often ask us where they can buy seeds for the our Astiana tomatoes. The fact is, you are buying seeds when you buy the fruits at the market. That is how we started with the tomato, just 15 seeds from a tomato purchased in the market of Asti, a town in the Piedmont of Italy. It is a representative of a cooking tomato landrace from the Po River Valley. The fruits are large, green-shouldered, pear-shaped and often pleated. A landrace is a population of fruits, vegetables or livestock that is shaped by the environment and culture of the region to which it belongs. Representative of the race will vary from village to village, but they have similar qualities. These tomatoes are selected for the quality of their flavor and texture after their encounter with the stove.

We never use the word heirloom in reference to the varieties we grow. We dislike the term, and the last time it was used in this newsletter was to explain our dislike of the word best applied to fragile, inanimate objects handed down generation-to-generation. Beautiful Corn (link) was written without using the word at all. Heirlooms are defined as named varieties that have been around for 25 years. Seeds are living plants, reshaped by their cultivators year-after-year, and landrace is the better term. It recognizes the living organisms are constantly changing and adapting to new environments and cultures, this applies to their cultivators as well. The fact is, we have reshaped that tomato we purchased in Asti seven years ago, but we have carefully kept its fine cooking qualities foremost in our efforts.

Approximately 80% of the legumes, vegetables and grains we bring to market are grow from seeds we produce on the farm. Another 10% are grown from Wild Garden Seeds (http://www.wildgardenseed.com/) in Philomath, about 60 miles south of Gaston. Producing our own seed allows us to draw out traits valuable for successful production in the Willamette Valley.

This month the Organic Seed Alliance (www.seedalliance.org) will hold organic seed production workshops for farmers at Adaptive Seeds in Sweet Home on the 17th and at Ayers Creek on the 19th. Veteran seed producer John Navazio will lead the workshops. He is both practitioner and theoretician, an important source of information and inspiration to those of us who grow our own seed. Linda Colwell will prepare a lunch for the participants that will include the fruits, vegetables and grains we grow at the farm, underscoring the link between the seeds and food. It will be a fun day for all and we expect to learn a lot from Navazio.
Adopting the name Astiana for our tomato, we honor the long tradition of naming varieties after the location of their origin. This week, we will bring to the market a delightful, spicy grape called Canadice. It is a celibate variety from New York State research station in Geneva, New York. Until recently, they named all their varieties after places in New York; Candice is one of the Finger Lakes in western New York. Other varieties that we grow from that program with a New York tag include the grapes Interlaken, Sheridan and Steuben, and the plums Seneca and Stanley. Sadly, they have abandoned this tradition and now names are developed through "consumer testing." Two recent releases are called SnapDragon and RubyFrost. Perils of callow thinking.

This week, we will have an abundance of plums, including Prune d'Ente, Prune d'Agen, Fellenberg (a.k.a Italian), Brooks, Damsons and Mirabelle de Nancy, all bearing the name of their origin. Damson is an English corruption of Damascene; that is, from Damascus – Lebanon, not Oregon. In addition to the grape Canadice, we will have the incomparable Price, named after a real person, another naming convention that meets our approval. Expect onions, garlic, shallots, cornmeal (doubling down on the tradition as it is named after Roy Fair of Calais Vermont), popcorn, chickpeas and preserves, as well. Oh yes, tomatillos and maybe cucumbers.

We will continue to offer the Astianas at $1.75/LB when 20# or more are purchased. We will have some boxes at the market, or bring a milk crate or wine box of your own. We will have a self-service scale on hand. Of course, if you want to purchase them as heirlooms, we will be obligated to charge the going rate for such special tomatoes, $3.50 or more if we recall correctly. Heck, they are certified organic, so maybe more . . .

See you all tomorrow,

Carol & Anthony
Gatson, Oregon

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter September 1 2013

This weekend marks the sartorial end of summer, and we have had this feeling for a couple of weeks that autumn is close at her shoulder. It is almost as if the fruit is racing to beat the changing weather. As if to underscore this point, we sent our goodbye Chester note to the produce managers and stopped delivering the blackberries on Thursday because the fruit is too fragile to sit in a store display.

This is the earliest end to the Chester season in the 12 years we have been selling fresh market fruit, and the first time that it has fallen in August. We will have some at the market tomorrow, but treat them with care as they are very thin skinned. Just as autumn leaves change color when the chlorophyll disappears, as the acids and pectins fade from the fruit different flavors come to the fore, and you might discern a hint of resin in the fruit. It is there in the fragrance as well.

Just as the swallows have departed the farm, the frikeh is gone, too. If time permits, we will grind some corn and start hauling in preserves again. We will have a lot of Astiana tomatoes for those who want to start putting some up for winter. Tomatillos, beets, onions, potatoes will join the cucumbers, garlic and shallots in the mix. The stone fruit will be represented by Prune d'Agen and Mirabelles. The pulses are the chickpeas.

The grape of the moment is Price. We regard it as the Chester of the grapes. This berry came out of the breeding program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The grape has a complex and obscure lineage, perhaps with a bit scuppernong or some other muscadine among its genes given its southern ancestry. The grape is named after Harvey Lee Price who was the Dean of Agriculture at the institute from 1908 to 1945. The flavor is complex and the delicate crunchy seeds have a delicious spicy flavor, so don't hesitate to chew them. As those who attended the ramble know, it is also a first class juice grape. Like Chester, Price is of its own kind, there is no confusing it with other grapes.

We will also have some seedless grapes on hand as well, including Jupiter and Interlaken. Along with Price and the plums, good fruit for the kids to take to school, or to nibble on as they ponder their first homework lessons. And let's hope summer keeps autumn at bay for a while longer.

Our best,

The Boutards
Ayers Creek Farm
Gaston, Oregon

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter August 25 2013

For years, we have strongly suspected that Tito was once a dog model who finally chucked the fast life and, after a streak of hard luck, wound up in the Newberg pound where we met him. The chief bit evidence of his former life was a spread on urban picnics in the New York Times fashion supplement. The dog in the Open Bar picnic is sitting on a $495 Luxembourg bench with an open bag of chips next to him, and looks just like our lovable cur, except he lacks Tito's black toenails. There were also some chips left uneaten, very un-Tito. But you can never trust digital photos completely, maybe they added the chips later or he was more disciplined in his modeling days.

Regardless of his past, Tito's modeling chops can be seen in this month's issue of Cucina Italiana ( http://lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/article/this-thing-of-ours ), where he appears with the Cameron Winery's Jackson. The article is about a special tradition we have enjoyed since Cathy Whims and David West opened Nostrana, the farmers' dinner. Every October, Cathy and David invite a group of us for dinner and we meander our way through their menu and wine list. They, along with the staff at the restaurant, make it a fun and relaxed evening for the gang that spends most of it time at the back door. Nostrana is comfortable place for a farmer at either door, and that is due to the respect Cathy and David have for our ilk.

We deliver to a variety of restaurants. Each place has its own culture and expression of generosity. A container of tart cherry ice cream from Lovely's, a bit of cured pork from Greg Higgins, a jar of miso from Chef Naoko, or a pastry with our plums from Giana at Roman Candle, these gestures all make the effort a little bit easier and fun. Good restaurants also make us better farmers by drawing us into the process. For example, the incomparable Borlotto Lamon is one of Cathy's contributions.

Shopping list for Hillsdale Farmers' Market:

1 bag of frikeh
1 bag of the newly harvested chickpeas
1/2 flat of Chesters
1/2 flat of Mirabelle plums
1# ea. Seneca & Doneckaya Konservnaya prunes
1# tomatillos
2# of those really tasty cucumbers
2 heads garlic and a handful of shallots
Couple of Astianas, if I get there when the market opens at 10:00
2# of the Grape with no Name

When we settled into the trailer at Ayers Creek, we decided we would be there for a long, long time so, heeding Malvina Reynolds' advice, we planted an apple tree and a couple of grape vines. One was Interlaken and the other was sold as 'Sweet Seduction'. We hated the silly name. In grapes as in other fruits, the character of the grape is defined by the blend of acids in the fruit as opposed to simple sugars. We felt if cute was needed, then 'Acid Assignation' would be a more apt name.

When we decided to scale up our table grape production, we retained the late Lon Rombaugh to give us advice on varieties to plant. We mentioned Sweet Seduction as one variety we would plant. Almost two years ago, we enjoyed a early autumn dinner in the Hungry Gardener's yard and had some time to visit with Lon. That evening, he told us the grape we were growing had been mislabeled, was not Sweet Seduction, and he would get back in touch with us with the correct name. We were glad to be rid of a name better suited to chocolates or lingerie than fruit. Winter descended and Lon died too young. You can call it what ever you want, but for us it is now a grape with no name, a bittersweet remembrance of an inquisitive and kind fruit grower who we were lucky to have known as an advisor and friend.

We will see you all Sunday,

Carol & Anthony

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter 11 August 2013

Feeding the Dog:

A good watch dog is well-fed and cared for, and spends its time protecting the premises rather than thinking about its next meal or wondering whether people appreciate its snarling diligence. This applies to watch dog groups as well as the canine sort. On 25 August, you all have an opportunity to feed the best watch dog on matters pertaining to small farms in Oregon, Friends of Family Farmers, and tuck into a meal prepared by Chef Dave Anderson. Nothing one-sided about that deal.

Shiri Sirkin and Bryan Dickerson of Dancing Roots Farm will host the benefit dinner at their farm in Troutdale. And there is not just a great meal in store for you, Bryan's jazz trio will soften the night air, and you will get a tour of a very different farm. We are not all stamped out of the same mold. Just to underscore this point, we have never been civilized enough to serve cocktails at an Ayers Creek ramble, but you will get them up there at Dancing Roots, and a bit of auction action.

In the thicket of groups claiming to be advocates for family farms, Friends of Family Farmers are the real deal, standing head and shoulders the rest. They are not trying to tell a story, the warm and fuzzy approach that accompanies the usual table in a farm event where people dress up in stylish boots and nuzzle chickens and pigs. This dinner is a celebration of real accomplishments in Salem this session, including a temporary ban on rape seed production in the Willamette Valley, something near and dear to the hearts of seed producers, as well as a vehicle to pump up their coffers before the next session.

It is a tough business being an advocate and lobbyist for the larger public good, and it helps the soul to have friends celebrate successes. Also, Wednesday 14 August, dine at Lincoln Restaurant and they will contribute 10% of the tab to the Friends. A chance to enjoy magic Jenn and her staff create with frikeh. If you can't attend the event or dine at Lincoln, we would endorse sending an encouraging note and a bunch of greenbacks as a fine alternative.

Information on the event is found at their website: http://www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org/?p=2306

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Back to business:

This Sunday, you will have yet another sterling opportunity to pick up some victuals for friends and family at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market. You have left a big hole your life if you haven't tasted Lis Monahan's new cheeses at Fraga Farm, especially her camembert-style cheese. Lis produces her milk and cheeses just a bit north of us in Gales Creek arm of the Tualatin Valley, and like us she is certified organic, pure and simple. An achievement, not a mere aspiration wrapped up in slogans. We will be up for the tail end of the Perseid shooting stars as they sink over the Coast Range, and ready to transact business by 10:00 AM.

Here are some items for your shopping list: Chester & Triple Crown blackberries, green gage plums, frikeh, summer squash, garlics & shallots and opa. If you need preserves, popcorn or cornmeal, we can bring them in on request. Email us before 10:00 AM on Saturday with your order.
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The members of the cucumber family produce a distinctive berry called the pepo. Opa is the immature berry of the calabash or bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, thought to have originated in Africa and wound up in the Americas through ocean currents. The plant has lovely white flowers and long soft vines. Although bottle gourds are the oldest domesticated plant in the Americas, a couple of millennia before corn, there is not much of a tradition of using them as a vegetable here.

In Asia and Africa, varieties have been selected specifically for their culinary qualities. The fruit has a discrete and pleasant bitterness, similar to the escarole and chicory. The bitterness works well with the combination of sweet and heat offered by Asian and Indian curries, just as the bitterness of chocolate is transformed by a bit of sugar and fat. The texture of these fruits remains firm when cooked. We have been cooking them in Thai style curries with a coconut milk base. There are also many Indian dishes that use them. In the mix, there may be some luffa gourd as well. Used in a similar fashion, they are a lovely change from the summer squash. Luffas are sometimes called Chinese okra because cut up in a curry they look like that vegetable and have similar flavor without the mucilaginous dimension.

There is a tendency among food writers to offer an equivalency when describing unfamiliar foods. In describing the calabash or luffa, people often described them as a zucchini-like vegetables. This is the same as treating another set of berries, the eggplant, tomatillo and tomato as equivalents. If you treat the luffa or opa as zucchini, you will be disappointed and miss the fine character of these pepos. Go Indian, Asian or African, not European.

The Pepo Project is an experiment in terms of growing, selling and using the fruits. The supply will be erratic and unreliable. Any feedback will be most gratefully received. We don't know what we are doing and having fun in the process. We are also working on the Hokkaido Project, which we will describe later in the year.

We look forward to seeing you all Sunday fresh from staring up at the Perseid shower.

Carol & Anthony Boutard
Ayers Creek Farm

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter August 4 2013

Thursday marked Lammas Day, the day of the loaf mass. The mass celebrates the first loaf baked from the new wheat harvest. The wheat harvest was a time consuming effort involving all members of the community, from the elderly to young children, each playing a specific role. The grain could be cut at maturity and raked into cocks like hay, but more commonly wheat and other small grains were scythed just shy of maturity, at the hard dough stage, bundled in sheathes and tied. The sheathes were carefully stacked for shocking. The structure of the shock varied by region and environmental factors. There were round shocks, capped shocks and Dutch shocks for very wet areas. Shocked grain was easier to thresh as it pulled away slightly from the hull as it dried, and had better color. In the more remote regions of the west, barley and wheat were also "hogged off" by turning pigs into the field, pork being easier to transport than grain. The combine eliminated the shock as a form of regional architecture.

For those of us with a background in tree and other woody plants, Lammas growth is the second growth of shoots that takes place in midsummer, sometimes in response to hail or some other damaging event. In our climate it not a problem, we sometimes encourage it with summer pruning, but in colder areas Lammas growth may fail to harden off properly and suffers frost damage.

We are a bit tardy on our wheat harvest, but it is not that we have been loafing around as will be abundantly clear when we arrive at the Hillsdale Farmers' Market this Sunday. Following ancient practice, the market opens with the chime of a bell at 10:00 AM, or thereabouts.

Coincident with the Lammas, Jeff Fairchild, the produce buyer for New Seasons Market visited the farm on the first of August as Carol was making the first round of deliveries to the various New Seasons stores. Josh Alsberg, the Produce manager at Food Front, has also visited us many times. As members of the Coop, we are one his many of bosses, and when he sells lots of our berries, no only do the stores pay us, but we also get a better patronage check. Some deal. Buffy Rhoades of Pastaworks put in her order as well, and we are waiting for her to visit us someday. Fortunately, all of these stores carry the Chesters, so there is no need to get cut short midweek, stuck with a bunch of grumpy Chester lovers bemoaning your lack of foresight. We enjoy working with Jeff, Josh, Buffy and their staff. As they say in fair Gaston, "Chester, it's the blackberry people ask for by name."

We will also have a good supply of Triple Crowns on hand. The season is shorter for this variety, and they are in the top of their form this week.

In addition to the berries, we will haul in our last Imperial Epineuse prunes. Next week, the green-fleshed plums will take over for a spell. This is the likely the last week we will haul in the preserves, popcorn and dry beans for a while. Real estate in the van is getting scarce and fresh fruits and vegetables need the space. We will have frikeh.  Good looking heads of lettuce and the very first Opo fruits of the Ayers Creek Pepo Project will be added to the mix. More on the ACPP later.

Oh yes, a bit of garlic and shallots as well. Carol spends a lot of time prettying up the garlic, limiting how much we can bring to the market. Yes, it looks lovely, but it will soon be stripped of its blushing raiment so another voice might ask why not let the customer decide whether they want to buy pretty garlic, or just rip off the field covering and enjoy its lusty flavor. If you are disappointed because the last pretty garlic has left the basket and your next meal will be a little less satisfying, tell us whether a dull bulb would meet your culinary needs just as well. The author is spoiling for dismissal and will leave it at that.

With affection,

The Boutards of Ayers Creek

Ayers Creek Farm Newsletter July 28 2013

High summer is the season of dust – the wind, the combines, the plows and traffic all keep the air well endowed. Even walking across the field sends up clouds. It penetrates the clothing and clogs the nasal passages. Every year, as the main berry season approaches, we order in three or four truckloads of crushed rock to dress the road from the field to the farm buildings. This fresh band of rock helps reduce the dust when we bring the berries to the packing room.

Thursday we set up the 50 horsepower pump in case we need to increase the humidity the field so as to prevent damage by ultra-violet radiation when the field temperature passes 90°F (32°C). It ran for a few minutes and then we got the dreaded ALARM 14 EARTH FAULT on the variable frequency drive, the pump's brain. The drives were programmed in Denmark so they use the British term for the ground. We battled this problem last year, but it was erratic and the resetting the computer worked. This time the gremlin settled in and resetting did not work. Spent a couple of hours troubleshooting the problem with the electrician on the phone, connecting and disconnecting leads on the 430 volt system. It was not a temperamental drive or a bad cord, the motor was simply toast. Once again, Ernst Irrigation pulled through and we have new motor on the pump in less than 24 hours after diagnosing the problem. Credit also to our staff who know how to scramble when we need their help, making it easier for the technicians to carry out the swap.  

Nicely groomed and ready to yield us her fruits, the field looks beautiful. It is a farmer-ish thing to have one eye on the current harvest and the other on the primocanes that will produce fruit next year. They are strong and growing vigorously. Last year, a frost in mid May killed the first flush of primocanes and we will have a lighter crop as a result. In the swirl of dust and pump drama, we sowed the the chicories, escaroles and other cool season greens.  

We will have a good load of Chesters this Sunday at Hillsdale. The market runs from 10 AM to 2 PM at the lot near Wilson High School. Several years ago Kathleen Bauer posted an essay about the Chester blackberry for those unfamiliar with the berry:

http://www.goodstuffnw.com/2010/08/farm-bulletin-pt-2-taxonomy-of-chester.html

In addition to Robert Skirvin's fine berries, we will have new potatoes, Imperial Epineuse prunes, frikeh, amaranth greens, purslane, popcorn and a bit of cornmeal.

The storage of fruit is worth considering. In our industrial age, the tendency is to jam it in a refrigerator set at temperature best suited to storing meat and dairy products, under 40°F (4°C). This temperature damages the fruit. The better temperature is around 55°F (13°C), the night-time temperature in the field. The primary spoilage factor in fruit is moisture, not heat. You can dry fruit to preserve it, but if it rains for an extended time, the fruit is soon a moldy mess. True, refrigeration cans slow the progress of spoilage organisms, but at the expense of flavor and aroma. If you want to store berries for a week, it is better to put the fruit into a freezer immediately.

Fruits are best kept in a cool, dry room with good air circulation. Put it in a wire mesh colander, not a bowl or plate. Unlike meat and dairy products, fruits are living tissues and they are respiring. If you put your cherries in a bowl, the moisture generated by respiration collects at the bottom of the bowl and the fruit starts rotting from the bottom up. In a colander, the heavier, moisture-laden air can drain away. We store tomatillos harvested in September until March stored in this manner. Peppers, tomatoes, plums, melons, squash all store better at a moderate temperatures provided they have never been refrigerated. Peppers will last several weeks on the counter.

Our fruit is brought from the field to a cool, dehydrated room with a fan running to keep the air moving. Overnight, the dehydrators draw from the air between two and five gallons of water, depending upon how much fruit we harvest. As long as there is no free moisture on the fruit, and no existing mold, they will not mold. This gentle treatment maintains high fruit quality. Because the fruit is not chilled, when we bring it to the market, no condensation is formed on its surface when it meets the warm, humid air.

This early season fruit is the sturdiest and most intense. It has the highest levels of pectin and acidity, and is well constructed. If you are making preserves, this is the fruit to use. As the season progresses, the pectin and acidity levels drop. Because pectins can mask some of the components of flavor, later season fruit has a different character. For some, the reduced acidity makes the late fruit sweeter on the palate even though it has lower sugar levels. Many of you have heard our warning as the harvest of a fruit winds down: it is more delicate now and won't store well. For the Chester that warning will come about five weeks from now, or following a rainy period.

See you all Sunday,

The Boutards
Ayers Creek Farm
Gaston, Oregon