More Spring Crops are ready for your Seasonal Menus
The annual May changeover of crops is always a challenge for us on the farm.Changeable weather makes it difficult to predict exactly how quickly these tender new crops will mature.But we want to get new items onto the Availability List as soon as possible.On top of all this, we don’t always predict your requests accurately enough, so we may have to inform you of shortages.In addition to all the new items, we are also running out of last fall’s crops.Nevertheless it is great to see that so many of our chefs are returning to the tradition of quickly changing specials as market availability changes. This certainly makes serving you more exciting.But please bear with us if we sometimes have to postpone delivering some of your requests.
With warmer weather we look forward to having even more White Asparagus.For the best of both white and green, our short Bi-Coloured Asparagus Tips cannot be beat.Then see if you agree our Green Asparagus isn’t the best.(Request a sample.)From our woods, Wild Leek Bulbs (Ramps) are reaching their peak.(This is a good time to make your winter Wild Leek Pickles.)Spruce Candles are also now reaching their peak.(This is a good time to prepare your winter spruce preserves in oil, vinegar or honey – or some of each.)Also from the woods we are bringing in some Wild Ginger.(Since we choose to harvest these sustainably, there won’t be a lot this year.)
From our gardens Breakfast Radish and Easter Egg Radish with their leaves are looking great.Please keep in mind that after the first blast of summer heat arrives, their flavour and texture deteriorates.(We will quickly pick before this occurs, but they will have to be sold without their beautiful edible leaves.)Next week you can look forward to fresh spring White Turnips.Yum.Another spring-time favourite, Green Garlic, also starts this week.And don’t forget that springtime Sorrel Leaves and Lovage are still at their peak.(Now that lovage is mostly stalks, the flavourful part you most want, we have been able to increase the pack size and keep the price the same.)Wow, all of us at Cookstown Greens are going to have a busy week!
Springtime French Breakfast Radishes and
Easter Egg Radishes are now at their peak
TED videos are fascinating
As you start watching these videos, the website suggests what else you might like to view.A good place to start might be NY chef Dan Barber's discussion of fish that he has loved.
Also from New York
New York Times columnist Mark Bittman recently visited Toronto and wrote about some of the great stuff going on here.
Sent: May 24, 2011
Spring crops are ready for your Seasonal Menus
Asparagus usually starts sprouting the first week of May.This year it is only getting started in the third week of May (our latest start ever).Spruce Candles, the tender spring shoots which sprout from each Spruce tree branch are now ready for the earliest harvest ever.Fiddleheads, on the other hand, had their latest start ever.Now we have already started our earliest ever outdoor Baby Salad Greens harvest.Just to keep a semblance of normality, Wild Leek Bulbs are plumping up right on schedule.Our winter rye cover crop is about 2½ feet tall (half the usual size for Victoria Day); but it is already forming seed-heads (which usually only happens after it reaches 5 feet in height).[Some Ontario wheat farmers are finding their winter wheat is already forming heads on 8 inch plants.]I am not sure what to make of all these anomalies!
Spruce Candles are traditionally infused in vinegar, oil or honey for adding an “Ontario” flavour throughout the rest of the year.Use these vitamin C rich greens raw in salads at this time of year.Note that we must cease supplying Spruce Tips for a month while the candles turn into new tips.Wild Leeks (aka Ramps) have been so over-picked in Quebec that they had to be banned in la belle province.To get the most from what grows here, we sustainably harvest full-size plants with green leaves and plump bulbs.
You now have a choice of three different forms of asparagus.Bi-Coloured Asparagus Tips are ordered by many of our chefs as “Tri-Coloured Asparagus”.It does have three colours when raw; but cooking turns the red portion green.We want to avoid over-stating the number of colours.These tips provide the best of both the white and the green flavours.Being only 4-5-inches long, their choice tips are a larger portion of each spear.When we started our asparagus beds 10 years ago, we buried the root crowns 18 inches below the surface.They took longer to begin full production, but this makes our Green Asparagus fatter, more flavourful and more colourful.Rather than growing a more bitter variety preferred by European White Asparagus aficionados, we have chosen to blanch the Ontario green variety (Millennium) to augment the creamy flavour preferred by Canadian White Asparagus lovers.
Bi-Coloured Asparagus Tip, Green Asparagus, and our White Asparagus
Better Food can Reduce Taxes and Reduce Insurance Rates
It’s nice having fresh greenhouse salad greens throughout the winter.But it is even nicer to have outdoor salad greens for as much of the year as possible.For an early start we need well drained soil that can be dry enough for an early April seeding.During our first few years this was just not possible.As with most farms in the area, we had to wait until the end of April before seeding.But with steady careful organic soil management, we are now able to start a few weeks earlier than our neighbours.Your spring produce can now start earlier.Coincidently, organic practices make healthier plants (needing fewer pesticides), longer shelf-life (meaning fewer imports), and more flavourful (needing less deleterious salt, fat, and sugar) in your recipes.
Organic matter (Carbon) is excellent for absorbing moisture (preventing floods); and for continuously releasing moisture (preventing draughts).As we are hearing in the news these days, floods are causing a lot of property damage.Insurance companies pay for this and must increase insurance rates for all of us.Since this water has quickly run off into the rivers, it does not remain in the ground to prevent any forthcoming draughts.Our governments must bail out the draught-stricken farmers so they can remain in business.If these expenses were to be included in food costs, farmers could take better care of their soil and we would have healthier food – and fewer disasters.
As food costs rise, so does land value
Crop disasters around the world are 10 times more frequent than 30 years ago.Much of this is caused by cheap food forcing farmers to take shortcuts which lead to more disasters.This is leading to food shortages and resulting in higher prices.Canadian food prices have not yet risen as dramatically as they have in poorer countries.But in less than one year, good rural land has risen 25% in the US and 13% in Canada.Do we have enough experienced farmers to fill the coming demand?For comprehensive summary of the precarious world situation, please read the following article about the World Food Program.
Sent: May 16, 2011
To Assure you of the Best Quality
Soon after the summer sun and heat hits our leafy greens, quality starts to decline.To avoid this, we need to start harvesting at sunrise and finish by mid-morning.To reduce our guessing what will be ordered on the day before delivery, we feel it isfor your benefit that we receive orders by 10:00am in the morning before your delivery. Thank you for your assistance.
A topsy-turvy Spring
Aside from all the rain, this May has a very unusual on-going event.On a clear day, set your alarm for 5:00 (or better yet, listen for the first bird song of the morning – the cardinal.If you look to the East just before sunrise, you will see Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter all as morning stars.(This very unusual event will not happen again until 2040.)
We have noticed that many indicators of spring have been early this year.However, there has been one important culinary exception.Asparagus has the latest start we have ever seen.Finally, our exceptionally delicious Green Asparagus and Bi-Coloured Asparagus are gradually becoming available.We hope to have enough to send you samples this Friday so that you can experience their tightly closed tips, attractively short spears and of course the noticeably more intense flavour.They cost a bit more, but you will have less waste and your customers will surely notice their rich flavour.It will be another 10 days or so before the White Asparagus is ready to harvest.
We have already filled so many orders for Welsh Onions Bulbs that we have already pulled out all of this spring’s large enough shoots.But fortunately a fine substitute, Baby Leeks, are now ready for harvest earlier than usual!The Welsh Onions will keep on growing to provide you with golf-ball-size white flowers which cook up to provide an absolutely delicious late spring “vegetable”.If you are looking for more garlic flavour than the leeks provide, we will soon have Green Garlic for all your committed garlic lovers.
Right on schedule, fresh herbs such as Chocolate Mint, Lemon Balm and Tarragon are now ready to grace your plates.Also right on schedule, we will soon be starting to harvest Baby Salad Greens from this year’s outside salad garden.If you are considering a custom salad for a summer menu, now is a good time to discuss what you would like for us to do for you.
The Spring harvest of Baby Leeks is happening now.
Quality Food or Cheap Food?
Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, assures us in The Washington Post that foodies are not elitists.A few days later this Comment was published.It is good to see that the conversation about quality food continues despite all the talk about the “need” for cheap food.Wayne Roberts, retired President of the Toronto Food Policy Council, has said that history demonstrates cheap food is a terribly expensive way to help those who fall through the cracks in an industrial society.The problem is that everyone receives the subsidy whether needed or not.Subsidizing housing is a much more practical way to help those in need.Since everyone purchases food every few days it is entirely too difficult to support only those with real need.Housing is typically leased only once a year, so it would be relatively easy to provide supports for only those in need.It pains me to see us squander our valuable food resources when investing in housing could provide such a higher return for our support.
Putting Culture in Agriculture
Wayne Roberts is never short of good ideas.Always looking for ways to nourish agriculture and agri-tourism, this article in Now Magazine suggests we could well do something the Europeans have been doing for years.
Sent: May 9, 2011
The swallows have arrived; Spring is here!
Everyone has their own favourite marker for the advent of spring.On the farm we have many.But one of the most definitive signs is the return of the barn swallows.Usually their arrival is doubly appreciated because it typically occurs at the peak of the black-fly season and the beginning of the mosquito season.Their arrival last Friday afternoon was a surprise because we had not yet seen even one black fly.But by Sunday afternoon, those pesky black-flies were easy to find.
Black-fly season also marks the arrival of many spring-time specialties.But this year’s many cold rains have delayed some favourites:We did not have enough fiddleheads to supply all your requests for traditional Mothers’ Day Brunch.Only a handful of asparagus spears have popped through the ground.[Not enough to sell; but enough for each of us to enjoy a couple of flavourful spears – and they are once again exceptional!]Wild Leek leaves are up, but we like to wait until the bulbs fatten up enough to make the best use of this wonderful wild vegetable.But if you cannot wait for the bulbs, let us know.
On the other hand, other springtime favourites are ready to harvest:Lovage with its enchanting floral aroma is now at its springtime best for making magic in soups and sauces.Sorrel with its refreshing tartness is the perfect ingredient to have on-hand for those first sweltering days (that will be coming soon).Tulip Chives have delicate onion flavour with tender fleshy stems (yet firm enough to stand up to brief cooking).For more information and to see what else will soon be coming, please take a look at Spring Vegetables on the Cookstown Greens’ website.
Lovage now graces our early spring garden.
You too can fall in love with its fabulous aroma.
Prince Charles criticizes Big Agriculture Subsidies
With all the hubbub about the Royal Wedding, many missed the Prince’s recent visit to Washington.He continues to question the logic of spending over $20 billion per year (in the US) on supporting polluting and obesity inducing Big Ag; while virtually ignoring considerably less energy intensive organic agriculture.Please read the Huffington Post’s summary of his speech.I am regularly asked, “Why is organic food so expensive?”My answer is, “You asked the wrong question.You should have asked:Why is conventional food so cheap?”The answer is:For every dollar we spend for “cheap” food, taxes pay another two dollars.This form of “capitalism” is certainly not sustainable.I pray that common sense returns before we lose too many more farmers who understand the intricate practices of sustainable agriculture.
Sent: May 2, 2011
Spring keeps getting closer
Most of our birds have already arrived.Many have even started building their nests with whatever trash they can find.Crows, the first to hatch their eggs, are now busy stealing eggs from the nests of smaller birds to feed their hungry chicks.[It’s cruel world out here.]I can determine where to find the Redwing Blackbirds’ nests because the mothers keep hovering over my head and calling “Warmer, warmer, and warmer” the closer I get to their well camouflaged nests.In our pond there is an ongoing challenge to decide whether a pair of Canada Geese or a pair of Mallard Ducks will set up a nest there.However, whichever pair wins will ultimately be scared off when the neighbourhood dogs run by to chase them away.This will then leave room for the lone Blue Heron to fly in to his fishing station every morning and evening; and the Kingfisher during the middle of each day.Before they are even close enough to identify, I know the stunning Gold Finches have arrived due to their distinctive swooping flight and in flocks of three – two males and one female!We will know the growing season is ready to begin in earnest when the Barn Swallows return.They do a great job of controlling black flies and mosquitoes throughout the summer.
Every warm evening we are hearing more and more Spring Peepers.At first their evening chorus is so enchanting that we keep the bedroom window open to better hear them; later so many have joined the choir that they become deafening.(An open window makes sleep a challenge.)Soon after hearing the first deep-throated bullfrogs, the peepers will become quiet for another year.
On the land, bright yellow Marsh Marigolds are the first flowers to interest the hungry bees.The bright yellow Dandelion Flowers are next.But right now the True Dandelion Leaves are reaching their delicious peak.This cousin of chicory [frequently called Italian dandelion] has its own distinctive flowery aroma.If you feel the bitterness is too much of a challenge for your customers, this taste can be ameliorated with a few roasted beets, toasted walnuts, or perhaps some caramelized onions.But I think the best strategy is to just inform your customers that this is a flavour Italians and other Mediterranean connoisseurs love.
True Dandelion Leaves are the harbinger for the coming joys of spring
such as Asparagus, Fiddleheads and Ramps.
Take a look at your Party’s Food Policy
Before you vote on May 2, please consider the Food Policy in the party platforms.The rest of the developed world has long benefited from National Food Strategies.It is indeed good that everyone who eats is becoming concerned about food security – how their food is grown, where their food comes from, and that everyone receives all the nutrition they require (but is not compelled to eat in excess).This Federal Election is just a start for this interest.You can expect to hear a lot more about this important conversation in the upcoming Provincial election.The opinions of professional chefs need to be heard."Recipe Cards" from the People’s Food Policy Project are a simplified introduction to what food policy might look like in Canada and Ontario.
Sodexo Chef wins a Gold Ribbon
Chef Suman Roy (www.chefsuman.com) has recently won the award “Best Culinary History Book” at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris.This is a history of Canadian Cuisine and Culinary History.Any chef building an historical Canadian Cuisine Menu will find this book most helpful.
Sent: May 31, 2010
It may feel like Summer; but some Spring crops are just coming
We are now harvesting all our salad greens outside!So nearly everything is available in ample supply.Now is the time to think of Asian Greens (for salads or cooking), Purple Mizuna (for stunning garnishes), Hot Mizuna (for an delicate-looking wasabi-like zing), Fordhook Mustard (for rich heirloom mustard flavour), Tat Soi (for sturdy dark Oriental greens), and Bulk Lettuce (a colourful blend of sweet and tender lettuce leaves).Plan your menus to use this beautiful blend as a convenient and inexpensive base for Cookstown Greens’s summer salads.(Baby Arugula and Bulk Arugula should become available next week then all through the summer.)
Also starting this week is our full complement of Spring Radishes – “milk-dipped” Breakfast Radishes, multi-coloured Easter Egg Radishes, and easy-to-prepare Red Icicle Radishes.All these are now at their lower outside-grown prices.Related to radishes, we now have the long awaited springtime Baby White Turnips.As with just about everything this year, we have a record early start for Welsh Onion Flowers.Steam or sauté these for an amazing sweet onion flavour with a delightful texture.Our very popular creamy tasting White Asparagus, Green Asparagus, Tri-Colour Asparagus are ready for your spring-time specialties.Our tiny Asparagettes are now ready for garnishes that say, “asparagus”.
As the new crops commence, some of the earlier ones cease.The Chicories, Kales, Sorrels, Wild Leeks and Spruce Candles are all coming to a seasonal end.We are also running out of Fingerling Potatoes, Parsley Roots, and Parsnips.
Michael is cutting some Fordhook Mustard for a special order.
Polyester blankets protect our mustard from buckshot-like flea-beetle holes.
Sharing what we know
As we all rebuild our hospitality industry, we all depend on each other.This includes:
·Farmers who reliably grow or raise food with steady seasonal availability
