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Sent: December 21, 2009
All of us at Cookstown Greens sincerely wish all the best to you and your family during this very special time of year.
Our 10 year old windbreak trees have dressed themselves up as classic Christmas trees.
Sent: December 14, 2009
New packaging for our Seedlings
For more convenient service and extended shelf-life, we are now packing some of our more delicate seedlings (a.k.a. micro-greens) in easier-to-use clear acrylic trays. Since the leaves will remain fluffier, there will be less bruising plus plating can be more uniform. Plate costs may be reduced with less spoilage and less chance of serving too many. Some chefs have found our 100g pack too large, so we have cut some of the pack sizes in half. (Of course we have also cut the price in half!)
(Clockwise) Coriander, Fennel, Amaranth, Onion,
Mixed Seedlings and Popcorn in their new packaging.
“Farmwashing” is a needed new word
According Wikipedia, “greenwashing” was coined by NY environmentalist Jay Westerveld in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of placing green placards in each room, promoting reuse of guest-towels, ostensibly to "save the environment". Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward waste recycling was being implemented by these institutions, due in part to the lack of cost-cutting affected by such practice. Though Jane Black does not use the word, she has written an article about “farmwashing” for the Washington Post Take a look at the many comments about this article; then let’s bring this discussion to Ontario.
“Dumping” is a four-letter word
Dumping is selling to another country at a lower price than in the home market. This is an illegal and immoral trade practice. But our governments and our media are loath to use this word. Saying nothing about this practice gives Canada the dubious distinction of having the cheapest food in the world. It was refreshing to see a recent article in St. Catherines Standard brazenly use this four letter word.
Sent: December 7, 2009
Heirloom flavours shine through
If you have fallen to the belief that our taste buds decline with age, these heirlooms may change your mind. Every year we trial a number of vegetables to determine how they might fit into your culinary requirements, and into our cultural practices. Given the old-fashioned flavour of a couple of this year’s trials, we invite you to try a new (to us) beet and turnip. We do not have enough to put them on our availability list but we can provide you with free samples or we can sell you a bag for $15.00. Then please let us know if you would like to see more of these next year.
Raw and cooked Crapaudine Beets and Vertus Marteau Turnips
Crapaudine Beets (literally “toad” beets) (or we as we like calling them “black” beets) were used in the days of Charlemagne (1000 years ago). They are not as tender and smooth and sweet as modern day beets. But I prefer to describe them as having texture and a rich savoury flavour without any cloying sweetness. With a 15°Brix measurement and not terribly sweet tasting, this beet is clearly loaded with flavour and nutrients. The treebark-like skin is not so easy to peel, so you might prefer the traditional roasting or grilling until the flesh has softened and the skin slips off. With seeds still commercially available, this beet has certainly withstood the test of time!
Vertus Marteau Turnips were a popular 19th century French Market turnip. They have a distinctive bulge at the bottom of the roots. Seeds are still commercially available; and they are still popular in French markets. Sweet and mild they have a fine turnip flavour to be enjoyed at any age. Its 9°Brix measurement is twice that of a typical modern turnip. Yum.
Edible City
This new book might be just right for you holiday gift list. This is a compilation of essays on comestibles from many of Toronto’s thinkers about food. It is a nice change from practical recipes and beautiful pictures. Learn more.
Sent: Decemebr 2007
Celebrate the Holidays
The way the calendar works this year, it seems obvious how to schedule our Holiday deliveries. Our staff can enjoy the holidays with their families on the Tuesdays (Dec. 25 and Jan.1). Then we will be in on the Wednesdays to get ready for extra large deliveries on the Fridays. We wish you and your family a very, very special holiday season!
We recently received the Pinnacle Award for 2007 Supplier of the Year! A very big Thank You goes to all our staff for making this happen. And also big Thank You goes to all of you who have generously supported us week in and week out through the past 19 years.
This crystal trophy will be placed beside the golden toque from our Ontario Hostelry Institute Gold Award for 2002 Supplier of the Year. It is oh so wonderful to be generously honoured by our customers. Thank You!
David Cohlmeyer now has the pleasure of describing our gardening techniques in the terrific new quarterly local foods magazine, Edible Toronto. Pick up a free copy and look for “The Artisanal Gardener” article.
A drawback to freshly peeled garlic is small hard-to-peel cloves. Hard‑neck Garlic provides large easy-to-peel cloves and our bred-in-Ontario “Music” variety tastes just great.
Squash is another sign of winter. We continue providing our old standby Nugget Winter Squash. Its uniform small size makes it great as a container for hearty soups. We have a good supply this year, so we can select just the right uniform size for memorable banquet soups. We have brought back creamy rich Chestnut Squash. Kikzuna Squash is a fine Japanese selection with a delightful hint of “green-tea”. Golden Acorn Squash is a cousin to ordinary Pepper Squash, but oh-so smooth and moist.
Our Winter Root Cellar is Now Full
Waxy and luscious Fingerling Potatoes are deservedly our most popular. Starchy Ratte Potatoes are ready to absorb rich sauces and drippings. Ask for large ones to prepare classic mashed potatoes. Stunning and luscious Black Fingerling Potatoes maintain their colour and texture. Maybe consider them as a garnish. Blue Potatoes are pale blue when freshly cooked; then turn a stunning royal blue after a few hours in the fridge.
Red, Purple, Black, Yellow, White, and Orange Nantes Carrots are at their luscious best (raw or cooked). For colourful preparations consider presenting them as a local alternative for imported peppers.
Golden Beets have a mellow flavour – even confirmed by “beet haters”. Candy Cane Beets look beautiful and taste great pickled in a marinade. White Beets make great “stainless” Borscht, Pickles, and Salads. Red Cylinder Beets can be cut length-wise for mysterious red strips; or quickly cut cross-wise into even slices.
White, Red, and Amber Turnips are all much more accepted than folk-wisdom would suggest. Just take care to avoid overcooking them. Our new Japanese Turnips are the totally delicious carrot-shaped heirloom Hinona Kabu. Closely related to turnips, is our selection of winter radishes. Red Valentine, Green Flesh, Black Icicle and Red Icicle Radishes are all lovely accompaniments in colourful winter salads, stunning garnishes, quick pickles, or amazing grilled vegetables.
In celebration of the season, get to know even more root vegetables. Parsley Roots grew quite large this year. So they are a most convenient flavouring for your soups and sauces. White Salsify is likewise conveniently large. Introduce your customers to its lovely delicate oyster-like flavour. Dahlia Root has a bright aromatic tang you can enjoy raw or cooked. Fuseau Artichokes are the French Jerusalem Artichokes with very easy to peel skin (with no knobs).
Add our Website to your “Favourites”
It has been a long-time coming. But now you can begin exploring our extensive site. See our Now Available complete with colour photos of our many new seedlings and vegetables. Then read descriptions in Your Best Buys. You can review our Ordering Procedure to learn why we need to be a little different. See luscious colour photos of each of our varieties in Product Illustrations. Take a peek at our staff as you learn About Us. Read How We Do What We Do to learn some of what we go through to steadily bring you premium produce. For a virtual tour click View Our Farm. A special feature is Maps and Directions to print out directions from where you are to visit our farm. A feature many of you have been asking for is Future Availability consisting of an Annual Timetable and recent monthly Now Available listings. These will be a helpful aid in preparing new menus. Then there are many past Updates (our periodic newsletters) and some newspaper clippings. Please read or reread them – or pass them on to new cooks. Or periodically slip one onto your owner’s desk. If you have any comments, we will appreciate hearing from you.
Annual Review of Prices
It just never gets easier on the farm. But we have chosen to continue providing you the very best quality produce and the most consistent service we can. To continue doing this we must pay our staff fairly, heat our greenhouses and cool our storage rooms, maintain and replace equipment, purchase and cultivate our specialty seeds, continue feeding our soil with organic matter, keep our van on the road to deliver just what you need every week, and make up for further reductions in Canadian and Ontario agricultural subsidies.
A 4% overall increase should get us through the coming year. Thank you for your understanding and generous support.
The Roots are in!
September, when we began this year’s harvest seems a long time ago. But steady work by our crew of eight has carried over 80 tons of colour and flavour into our root cellars. This should be enough volume with enough shelf-life to keep you supplied through next Spring.
Unfortunately many of the interesting new potatoes we had had great hopes for did not perform so well. Fortunately our Fingerling, Ratte, Roseval, Black Fingerling, Blue, and SP2 Frying Potatoes fared much better.
Carrots grew straight and evenly and became enchantingly sweet when the cool weather finally came. But more than 35% of the Red Carrots were a loss due to “bolting” to seed. Our favourite deep Yellow Carrot seed was not available this year so we had to choose a paler variety. I have been told by our Bulgarian Black Carrot developer that next year’s crop will have their dramatic colour going much deeper into the flesh.
Beets did well this year in our biologically active soil. As often happens, the Golden Beets with their exceptionally expensive seed germinated poorly. Yield of the Candy Cane Beets was down because they failed to size-up due to all the cool and cloudy October weather. White Beets and Cylinder Beets yielded very well.
Winter Radishes and Turnips finished unusually early due to the cool October weather. Jerusalem Artichokes kept us waiting for the first hard frosts which did not come until late November. The same is true for the beautifully “carved” Crosnes. The “oyster” flavoured White Salsify and Black Salsify and the “artichoke” flavoured Burdock Root also kept us waiting until December.
Earlier in the season we completed harvesting our Torpedo Onions (a.k.a. turkey-leg shallots), Cipollini Onions (which became deliciously large), Long White Leeks (with their clean white shafts and tender creamy texture), Japanese Sweet Potatoes (with purple skin and luscious yellow flesh) and Dahlia Root (with an amazing aromatic crunch), and Ontario’s Dr. Music’s Hard-Neck Garlic Bulbs (with their rich flavour and easy-to-peel skin).
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