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The Fresh Picked
Issue 2, Winter
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CSA PRE-SEASON SIGN UP AND NEW LOCATION
| With the warm weather approaching, its time to start thinking about fresh produce! If this weather continues our pre-season in May will be bountiful!
We have added a new location this year in the N. Bethesda/Rockville area at Timberlawn Park, pass the word along to your friends and hurry before the season creeps up on us.
To sign up for the 2012 CSA click here.
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Institute for Integrative Nutrition Mega Conference
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The amazing ladies I met at the conference.
Last week John and I traveled to Long Beach, California for a Health Conference I attended. I am currently enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which I am training to be a holistic health coach.
We dropped our kids off at John's mothers house to spend the night (later to be watched by NFM's very own Anne) so we could wake up early in the morning for our flight to sunny LA! Five and a half hours later we landed, hopped in our rental car and drove 30 minutes to Long Beach to relax and check in to our hotel. Our "school" color is red, so they asked us to wear red so we know who is attending the conference, and boy the town sure was painted in RED! There was such a connection with all the current students and graduates of the program, you could go up to anyone and have a conversation. To be in a town filled with like-minded people was an amazing experience. We attended a happy hour that evening to socialize with everyone, this is the only event I made John come to with me and after this he was on his own to enjoy the white sandy beaches and play his guitar with random people on the streets.
The next morning as I was leaving for my first day to the conference, John headed out to Laguna Beach, only to come back later that evening with bronzed skin.
The conference was an absolute amazing experience, connecting with other health coaches and learning from each and every person I met, not to mention the relationships I forged with other DC students and one from Omaha!
All weekend people asked who my favorite speakers were, and what stood out in my mind was the amazingly energetic David Wolfe, a raw food guru! You could feel his passion for raw super foods through his speaking (and jumping around the stage). He demonstrated making a smoothie with cacao, maca, vanilla powder, mushroom powder with 24 varieties of mushrooms, chlorella, blueberries, honey and topped it off with fresh coconut water. It sounded so amazing, but unfortunately we were sitting in the nosebleed section and missed out on the samples.
My other favorite speaker was John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America. He is the son of Baskin Robbins co-founder. John Robbins learned the ropes of running the ice cream enterprise, even inventing a couple of their most popular varieties. Shortly after he realized how bad ice cream really is, he decided he wasn't going to sell people a product he didn't believe in, so he went a different route and wrote this book that changed lives, even his own father. It was a very powerful talk and I feel very fortunate to have been able to listen to all these wonderful speakers for two days.
I'm happy to incorporate my knowledge through our newsletters this season.
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MARCH MADNESS, FROM SEED TO SALAD
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 | Jeff seeding ground cover at dusk with our new John Deere X530
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During March, Our Farm has became a 3-ring circus consisting of greenhouse construction, seeding, and preparing the soil. It is exciting to be so busy and watching things take shape at such a fast pace. While Jeff Norman has been bonding with his two new best friends, our new John Deere X530 and his Mini-Wand Seeder, Godofredo & Jackson have been constructing greenhouses out of PVC tubing and building custom tables which we have designed for the benefit of our plants.
 | Building out level tables in our greenhouse. It is important the tables are level to insure equal distribution of water.
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Greenhouse Construction. This year we have constructed 2 50'X10' greenhouses in order to start our plants from seed during the month of March. For the most part these structures will house our tender vegetable and herbs until the threat of frost and cool temperatures have expired
subsided in early May. At that time they will be transplanted into the ground.
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Dylan Norman, our future engineer, giving his seal of approval of our custom plant tables with irrigation and special terra cotta marbles
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Our greenhouses are simple structures made primarily of PVC tubing with a plastic covering. During sunlight hours the houses may heat up into the 80's. At night the plant tables need to be covered within the greenhouse and a heating coil or electric blanket is placed under the plant trays to heat the soil. We have designed some custom tables filled with terra cotta pellets, and agricultural perlite. These tables contain irrigation systems which distribute heated water with organic nutrients to the plants via drip hoses. The water is aerated as it travels through the table then down a drain into covered storage containers. There it collects nutrients and heat before starting its cycle once again.
 | | Steady as it goes. Jeff loves his new Mini Wand Seeder to help with all these tiny seeds. |
Seeding Operation. Our seeding operation is taking place primarily in the farm house. Jeff has set himself up with a table and chair as well as his favorite music where he sits and meticulously seeds and labels tray after tray. Some of the seeds may be the size of dust particles. It is only with the use of his seeding wand that he has been able to complete this task. From my eyes the seeding wand is basically the marriage of a hypodermic syringe and a turkey baster. According to Jeff, "...dude this seeding wand is awesome!"
Once the trays are seeded and watered they are moved to the "Seed Germination Room", basically a dark storage closet maintained at 75 degrees. Here they set for 3 to 5 days until the seeds have sprouted. Then they are moved into the greenhouse where they can start "catching some rays."
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| | Our newly sprouted Conestoga Tomato seedlings catching some rays |
Preparing the Soil. This mild winter has been great for getting into the fields early. Since mid-February we have been getting behind the "mule" in the morning and plowing, as well as spreading compost, discing, seeding ground cover, and tilling the fields.
We still have a ways to go but have our first couple plots ready to be seeded this week with carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, chards, kales, mustards, and asian greens. The past few days have been a bit windy for laying down seed but we are hoping to begin in the next day or so.
Our plots are arranged in roughly 50'X50' sections.
The section pictured below is one of our tomato plots. The tilled rows will be seeded with carrots, beets, radishes, and onions while the untilled sections will be planted with tomatoes in May. These root crops grow well with tomatoes. In addition we will be planting basil and borage in these beds which are great companion plants for tomatoes. They contribute important nutrients to the soil, as well as deterring and confusing pests. Some research claims basil and borage contribute towards a better tasting tomato as well.
 | | Our first plots are tilled and awaiting seeds. |
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CORNED BEEF WITH GUINNESS AND CABBAGE
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Recipe Courtesy Steamykitchen.com
Visit this blog for beautiful step by step directions.
Servings: 6 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 4 hours
Author's Note: Normally, brisket for corned beef is packaged suspended in some kind of brine and may come with a small pickling spice already. You want to make sure you rinse the brisket well, removing the thick brine. Pat very dry. You can use the small seasoning pickling spice in the package, but I prefer to use my own spices.
Ingredients:For the Corned Beef 2 bottles Guinness beer (or other dark beer) 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar 3 1/2 pound uncooked brisket for corned beef, rinsed well and patted dry 1 tablespoon pickling spice 1/2 onion 1 head garlic, halvedFor the Vegetables 1 head cabbage 1 big spoonful of lard or bacon drippings (you can substitute simply with just cooking oil) a few carrots, cut into 3/4-inch chunks 1 pound of red potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch chunks 2 tablespoons freshly minced fresh parsley
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300F. In a large pot, whisk together the beer and the brown sugar. Snuggle in the brisket, it should almost be completely covered by the beer (see photo). Add the pickling spice, onion and the garlic. Bring to a simmer on the stovetop, uncovered is best so you can keep an eye on it. Boiled-over beer is no fun to clean.
2. Once it begins simmering, cover the pot and place in oven to roast for 4-6 hours, flipping meat once during halfway point. Remove from oven. Spoon out 2 cups of the corned beef braising liquid to cook the cabbage.
3. To make the vegetables, cut the cabbage into 8 wedges. In a separate large, wide pot, heat up the lard/bacon drippings/oil on medium-high heat. When hot, swirl the pan around to get the fat to evenly coat the pan. Add the cabbage wedges, carrots and potatoes and cook until browned, about a 3-4 minutes. Turn to brown the other side. Pour in the reserved corned beef cooking liquid, bring to a simmer and cover the pot. Turn the heat to low and let cook for 10-15 minutes. Use tongs or a large spoon to carefully remove the cabbage and reserve. Continue cooking the carrots and potato another 5 minutes or cooked though (pierce with fork to check doneness). Sprinkle with parsley and plate out with the cabbage.
4. Slice up the corned beef and serve with the cabbage and vegetables. Pour a bit of the sauce over the corned beef just before serving.
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At The Root of the Farm to Table Movement
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Enjoy and have a wonderful week!
Jeff, Eris and John Norman
Norman's Farm Market
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PRE-SEASON NOW OPEN! 
