Today, neighbor Tom is running the tractor and chopper, making sure that all the weeds are cut before they can flower and create seed heads, along with getting pastures ready for chickens.  The job creates not only clean looking pastures and field-drives, but imbues the air with a smell of green. My high school classmate Glenn Nelson wondered why they didn’t make perfume with the same fresh-cut hay smell. I’m not sure I’d dab it behind my ears, but would certainly purchase an air freshner so scented.

When Farmer Paul tills a field, there is a musty earthy smell that fills the air behind the plow.  He says its actually caused by the bacteria Actinomycetes, a type of filamentous bacteria that grows in soil, releasing spores and scents when turned or rained upon.

The scent of the neighbors’ cowyards and manure is an indication that rain is in the near forecast.  And while it sounds like something old people talk about after church, the science is such that the low barometric pressure keeps aroma/smells closer to the ground, thus allowing me to smell the barnyards. Plants release their waste in a low pressure atmosphere, while swamps release gases, all generating a smell indicating an upcoming rain.  Those same old people at church will remind you that “Flowers smell best just before a rain

There are times whenmy nose warns me of danger as well.  Driving through some parts of the Fox Valley, I’m assailed with a sulphur smell that becomes almost a taste, indicating the papermill smokestacks are in full swing.  And stepping onto a soccer pitch to watch a game, I’m easily warned of lawn toxins recently applied to control weeds and keep the field lush and beautiful.  A springbreak drive past a large livestock confinement operation in Oklahoma brought home the scent message of how a majority of this country’s meat is raised.  It helped remind our fast food companions that most burgers start out with an unhealthy stench.

This week on the farm it’s a good week for smells.  Tom on the chopper, Holly and the crew smell like tomatoes as they prune and trellis in the hoophouses (another smell my friend Jack thinks should be a perfume) and the scents that come from the packshed as Adrianne and the crew harvest and clean the green garlic and scallions.  Take time this week to use your nose.  Bury it deep into each item as you unpack your CSA share. Inhale the fresh smell of even the frozen strawberries and the roasted red peppers.  Add the sense of smell to your eating this week. And enjoy.

What’s Good to Eat
This week’s box:

• Lettuce Extravaganza
  Oakleaf
  Green leaf
  Red leaf
• Spinach
• Arugula
• Yellow Frilly Mustard
• Asparagus
• Hakuri Turnips
• Scallions
• Green Garlic
• Celeriac
• Frozen Red Peppers
• Frozen Strawberries

Early share 3 newsletter

CSA Produce Pictures and Labels – 051512 CSA pictures

Studies comparing farm and non-farm kids in Switzerland found similar evidence during the past decade.  And that research is reinforced with new results when Indiana Amish children are studied.  Oh, I know that there are still lots of variables and what ifs, but I think that eating a little dirt is good for you.  My 93-year old Grandma always said that you needed to eat a bushel of dirt before you died (didn’t seem to make much sense when I was 5-years old).

We live in a world that wants everything pristine and germ free. And I too want people to wash their hands before they prepare my food and after using the bathroom.  But I’m not sure that I’m as worried about touching doorknobs or handling envelopes with gloves.  I believe that drinking raw milk throughout my childhood strengthened my immune system and that my son’s many summers of a mud bakery feed his imagination as well as his stomach flora.

But sometimes people forget that our food comes from the earth, grown in soil and harvested covered in dirt.  We have good postharvest handling systems that allow us to cool and wash, but the reality is that there may still be a little dirt on your food.  It’s an imperfect, but perfectly balanced natural world where insects fly and worms crawl, where deer graze at the edges of fields and flocks of geese and cranes come in to rest and hatch their young.  What I am more concerned about than dirt, are the dangerous chemicals that is often used on food not grown organically.  Pesticides that coat leaves and drawn into the roots, that soak into porous skinned strawberries or are taken up by the roots of potatoes and beets.  That’s really what we should be worried about, not soil clinging to the potatoes or a spot on the lettuce.

And in light of that, we’d like to give you an opportunity to get a little organic dirt on your hands. We’re working with a group at the University of Wisconsin Madison to create a monthly JenEhr Farm Mob.  It’s an opportunity to come out and work on the farm.  Tasks will include everything from weeding to planting, harvesting to weeding (lots of weeding J).  The fourth Sunday of each month, 9AM to 4PM.  JenEhr will provide a simple lunch (that’s code for chicken and salad or soup).  If you’re interested, you can sign up now for the next JenEhr Farm Mob, Sunday, May 26^th. (http://farmwisconsin.weebly.com/527-jenehr-family-farm.html

Plus, we’re arranging for you to come out to dinner.  Sunday, June 3^rd is the first of a monthly on farm dinner, catered by the talented staff at 4 & 20 Bakery (305 N. 4^th St., Madison’s east side).  Limit of 40 people, $15 per person, includes three course farm produced meal and a farm tour by Farmer Paul.  5PM to 7PM.  CSA members have first dibs on the 40 spots.  Look for details and reminders on the website later this week.

What’s Good to Eat
This week’s box:

• Lettuce Extravaganza
  Romaine
  Oakleaf
  Red or Green Leaf
• Asparagus
• Hakuri Turnips
• Red Radishes
• Scallions
• Green Garlic
• Leeks
• Mixed Beets
• Black Spanish Radish
• Karola Potatoes (5lb)
• Tomato Puree

Early share 2 newsletter

pictures of csa items 050712

In order to share more of those stories and hopefully add more, we’ve added a JenEhr page on Facebook.  JenEhr Family Farm, where we’ll keep you updated on upcoming events, talk about the farm and most importantly ask you to contribute your thoughts, ideas and recipes – especially your recipes.  There are so many different options when preparing the items in your weekly share, a great technique from someone who eats only raw right beside the best grilling recipe for chicken and vegetables.  Fried leeks, beet chocolate cake and carrot mounted rissoto are just three of the most recent recipes that members have shared with me.  Here’s an easy place for all of us to share, continuing to build this incredible community of JenEhr eaters.

The early share CSA pick up has some nice changes as well.  Our beloved Jenifer V who has been the face of JenEhr at the Good Harvest pick up is moving on to a new position at Mount Mary College, working toward her master’s degree and spending more time with her growing girls.  We’ll miss her terribly, but you’ll love getting to know Sheldon, who cooks for the farm crew weekly, does wine and food samplings at a number of Milwaukee area stores and is a personal chef for hire.

The new renovations at the State Street Oupost Coop has made it difficult for them to host our early CSA share this year.  We thank them for their past kindness and move to the West Allis Farmers Market early.  All early shares will be ready for pick up this Saturday, 1PM to 5PM, and every Saturday for the next six weeks.  The good news is that it gets us to the West Allis Market earlier, with our chickens and full line of produce

Moving from Milwaukee to Madison, we’re so so happy to be working with Shaun and Rae at Waterhouse Bakery in Lake Mills.  After several years of being CSA members, they graciously agreed to host a Thursday pick up location.  What better share pick up than JenEhr produce and a great cuppa for the drive home (don’t forget their lemon curd wedges).

Two new companies are working with JenEhr in offering employees an on-worksite pick up.  We’re so happy to feed the folks at UW Credit Union in Madison and the staff at ManPower Group in Milwaukee.  How easy and convenient to stop and get your CSA share on the way out the door from work to home.  It’s a service we’d love to offer to more corporate campuses (or is that campi?)

What’s Good to Eat
This week’s box:

• All Lettuce Mix
• Panisse Lettuce Head
• Arugula
• Mizuna
• Red Frilly Mustard
• Yellow Frilly Mustard
• Red Radishes
• Scallions
• Green Garlic
• Leeks
• Mixed Beets
• Celeriac
• Frozen  Strawberries
• Frozen Roasted Peppers

JenEhr CSA Newsletter Link – Early share 1 newsletter

Come join us as we open the farm up to our annual Spinach Fest.  The warm weather means there’s lots of freshly harvested spinach along with our other great organic produce and pasture raised chickens.

Farmer Paul is conducting walking farm tours at 10:30AM and 1PM

Bring your GPS to find the farm’s geocache hides

Farmers Market set up in the packshed

Let us answer your questions about CSA

Coffee provided by Beans and Cream of Sun Prairie

Paul Ehrhardt and Kay Jensen began the JenEhr CSA in 1997 and achieved organic status in 2002. Today, the CSA serves 500 families in more than a dozen different cities.

The name JenEhr represents the melding of Paul and Kay’s individual talents and also honors the Jensens and Ehrhards, two Wisconsin farm families with deeply rooted land ethics and food traditions.

The farm is located in Sun Prairie on 110 acres of certified organic land.  Vegetable production accounts for about 25 acres, strawberries cover four acres, and one acre is newly used for blueberries.  The farm’s five hoophouses make in-ground, four-season growing possible, and the new “haygroves” (grow tunnels) are home to heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers.  Each year, the farm raises 5000 chickens and 200 turkeys on 20 acres of clover covered pasture.

Respecting the Land

When Paul and Kay first bought the land, it was a conventional corn/soybean farm. Over the past 15 years, they have restored the land’s waterways and revived the contours used for working the soil and planting produce. When Paul and Kay make decisions about tillage or buildings, they listen to what the lands speaks about site location, drainage and wind direction.  The land is alive – everything from the soil to the shape to the very breath of earth that blows across it.

Food Lovers

All the staff at JenEhr think of the CSA boxes as “treasure chests” of food that they love growing, eating, and sharing with their members. They are passionate about our produce: from the brassicas that Paul so expertly grows – broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi – to the strawberries and blueberries that Kay and the kids love for their summer-ripe sweetness. Nothing compares to stepping into the sunny hoophouse in the middle of winter and harvesting spinach so sweet it tastes like candy, and the crew literally rejoices every year when the first tomato finally blushes red. Paul, Kay, and the JenEhr staff care deeply about the food they grow, and it fulfills them to nourish your bodies with the fruits of their labors.

Kay and Paul like to say that the most stunning piece of art in their home is the big kitchen window overlooking the farm.  It’s a living picture, one that changes by the day, moved by the weather and the seasons. What they see through that window in summer – fields green and full, farm workers bustling to finish the tasks of the day – is very different from the winter scene: snow that looks like a blanket of peace and quiet rather than a picture of rigid cold.  There are moments when you’ll find any one of the family gazing through this window: at the way the light plays on the trees just outside the packshed, or at deer grazing on the far side of the property, or at the whooping cranes landing in the wooded area at the back of the farm. Though the farm demands much physical labor, Paul and Kay think of the land as part of their family and care for it with respect.

• 1 chicken leg and thigh                        $2.25
• 1/4lb radish slaw                                 $ . 50
• 1 cup roasted veg mix                          $1.00

Grand total for a meal with a healthy protein – $3.75 – less than a kid’s meal at any of the fast food joints.  And if I’d been thinking, I’d have deboned the thigh, accumulating chicken bones for stock later.  A nice 2 cup side spinach salad would have added about $1, still totaling less than $5, cheaper than a latte at your favorite coffee shop.

Winter Thaw

When Farmer Paul was growing up on the family’s dairy farm, his Dad would always be ready for the January thaw.  The one or two days during the cold month when temperatures would hit between 35 and 40 degrees. Those were the days when everyone worked outside to get frozen driveways, barnyards and gutters cleaned out.  The scraping, chopping and loading happened with the warm weather while the hauling to fields with the tractors occurred once the ground was again frozen solid.

Yesterday, Farmer Paul had his winter thaw experience.  Instead of cleaning barnyards, he was out frost seeding pastures with clover.  The concept is that by getting the seed on the ground when it’s frozen, it will lay their waiting for the wet warm spring when it will germinate, bury it’s root into the field and start growing.  Never before have we been able to frost seed this early, usually it’s later in March.  It was perfect day to get the chicken pastures seeded.  Next week, we start seeding the tomatoes for the hoophouses.  In the meantime, the spinach continues to be sweet with the below freezing nights.

• Kitchen Express by Mark Bittman – This is the guy from the New York Times Food Section with a number of really good cookbooks and ideas for meals (his most recent bestseller is How to Cook Everything).  The cookbook is arranged by season and presented in a very non-traditional style.
• The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.  Rossetto Kasper does a weekly food radioshow on Public Radio.  The pictures are a nice addition, but the easy to read recipes with commonly found ingredients make suppers delicious and satisfying.   I can’t wait to see her new cookbook – How to Eat Weekends.
• Brownies from Good Housekeeping – because every 15-year-old teenager should spend vacation trying out different brownie recipes, allowing the rest of the family to be the taste testing guinea pigs J.

Everyone on the farm has been preparing and planning for this year-end share, from last January when Farmer Paul put the farm’s seed order and planting schedule, to the harvest and packshed crew as together they went over lists of items for the share, scheduling harvest dates and procedures followed by meticulous washing and packing plans.  The folks who staff the pick-up locations for your share pulled out their notes from last year, tweaking procedures and setups so that picking up your share is as pleasant and uncomplicated as possible.  It might be one big day for you in retrieving your share, but it is a culmination of many hours of planning and hard work by everyone on the farm to get to this point.

And congratulations to the family, friends and loved ones who will surround your table as you join together sharing in meals prepared from your fall storage share.  I can see the surprised faces of small faces as they delight in the oddly shaped carrots or snap the brussel sprouts off the stalk.  The savoring joy of parents and grandparents as they bite into roasted beets or sample the creamy mashed potatoes made with the German Butterball potatoes.  And your own satisfaction as you heat up the kitchen, whether it’s making a soup and salad for lunch, a fresh vegetable platter for an upcoming football game or that full-out holiday feast for the holidays.

Besides all the good eating and knowing that your fall storage share is delicious and nutritious, congratulations on making an economic choice that matters.  We know that it’s so much easier to go to the grocery store to do your shopping.  The hours are more flexible and can be more convenient and the range of produce is much more extensive (we have no bananasJ).  But when you make your eating choices local and organic, you are also sending a message about what you believe is important.  You are saying that you prefer the best flavor and nutrition over convenience, that you’d rather use your dollars to support local farmers who not only take better care of the land, but employ local people to run the farm.  You are saying that you want to see the face of those who grow your food, ask questions and get real answers, That you want a relationship with the local food economy, not simply bring a bag of highly packaged food items home.

Thank you for that confidence. Thank you for putting your money where your beliefs are.  And thank you for eating locally grown organic produce.  It makes a difference in the world, one meal at a time.

JenEhr CSA Share fall share newsletter 2011

Quick note on the German Butterball Potato- a round to oblong tuber with lightly netted golden skin that wraps around deep yellow flesh. Slightly mealy, this beauty is superb for everything – frying, baking, mashing, soups – you name it. Resistant to scab and viruses; some field resistance to late blight, but susceptible to rhizoctonia. Large upright vigorous plant with white blossoms.

You should not be surprised by two upcoming emails:

• JenEhr Season-End Survey – look for it in your email box within the next 7 days.  Please take the ten minutes required to fill it out.  We really appreciate your input, what we did well and how we can improve.
• 2012 Season Sign Up Form – I’m putting the final touches on the enrollment form for the 2012 season.  We’ll be offering a few bonus incentives for early sign up, including the popular oopsie pass and a discounted price.  Signing up by January 1^st would greatly benefit the financial stability of the farm as we order seeds and potting mix, make needed year-end equipment repairs and restock the box and supplies inventories.

And finally, Farmer Paul and I would like to extend two big thank you’s: First to you our members.  During the season you have been our comfort and motivation each day.  Every decision made on the farm, from what to plant and when to harvest is with you in mind.  We thank you for allowing us to be a part of your daily meals and for trusting us to feed your families.

And to the year end staff – Thank you.  It’s been a tough year at the farm, with many a hot hard day.  Your generous spirits and hard work allowed us all to eat well.  From farm crew and farm chef to farmers’ market staff and CSA pick up help, we say thank you for a job well done.  We look forward to having you back for another season in 2012, after you’ve had a much deserved rest.

What’s Good to Eat
This week’s box:

• Arugula
• Celery
• Leeks
• Hakuri Turnips
• Celeriac
• Beets
• Butterball Potatoes
• Winter Squash
• Brussel Sprouts
• Garlic

JenEhr CSA Share newsletter 22

One would think that with just a couple weeks of harvests remaining, we’d start to coast downhill, taking things a little easier, maybe even sleeping a little longer in the morning.  But alas, that is not the case here at JenEhr.  While the days shorten, the work of getting in the rest of the winter storage vegetables is hot and heavy.  At the twice-weekly meeting this morning we laid out plans for not only harvesting the weekly items, but harvesting potatoes, beets, celeriac, leeks and brussel sprouts.  Fitting in between those big harvests are the planting of garlic, rolling up the plastic on the 2.1 acres of three-season Haygrove houses, continued fall tillage and planning for the mulching of strawberries.  See, you’re tired just reading the list from the meeting J.

And there is the preparation for the winter jobs, such as getting equipment undercover, but in the right order so each piece can be pulled out for maintenance and repairs.  Continued watering and TLC for the hoophouse radishes, greens, fennel and spinach vies for Farmer Paul’s attention as well.

In the office, I’m starting the work for the Fall Storage Share (still about 10 shares still available, but you need to bring the check for the fall share – $120 – to your next CSA pick up).  Also putting the finishing touches on the turkey orders, matching turkey weights with each person’s request (yep, still have some turkey’s remaining, please bring your turkey order form along with deposit to your next CSA share pick up, drop at the farmers markets or mail in today).

At the same time we’d like to encourage you think about signing up for the 2012 CSA season as early as possible.  The 2011 season was a tough one for the farm because of weather and fewer CSA shares than in years past.  Many of our CSA members didn’t sign up this year amid the turmoil over the budget bills and unease about what their paychecks would look like later in the year.  The 2012 prices will remain the same, but early sign up helps us better plan for the 2012 season along with helping the cash flow of the farm during the leaner winter months when we’re still writing large checks for seed orders, potting mix, winter macherinery repairs and staff working through the winter.  The 2012 enrollment form will be up on the website December 1^st and you’ll receive an email remainder with .pdf enrollment attachment about the same time.

Until then, it’s back to work, a stack of things in front of me and several boxes of garlic needs to be sorted and separated so we can plant it next week.

What’s Good to Eat
This week’s box:

• Mizuna
• Spinach
• Celery
• Carrots – 5lb
• Leeks
• Hakuri Turnips
• Sweet Potatoes
• Red Potatoes
• Blue Ballet Squash
• Brussel Sprouts

JenEhr CSA Share newsletter 21