News from Terra Firma Farm

   In parts of the Midwest right now, some people are learning that a weather event hundreds of miles away can wreck their lives. The Army Corps of Engineers has breached certain levees, indundating entire communities and thousands acres of farmland to save larger cities downstream. This puts into perspective another distant weather disaster, almost two years in the past, that is still affecting us at Terra Firma -- and by extension, you, our customers.
    The December freeze of 2010 in California affected our farm directly for many months. Of course, it ruined our mandarin and several other citrus crops as well as many winter vegetable fields. But it also caused extensive damage to the plants grown by nurseries for the 2011 strawberry season.
   Strawberries are technically perennial crops -- the plants grow for over a year before they start to produce fruit. In the "old days", berry farmers always had at least two patches: one that was producing fruit, and one that hadn't started yet.   At some point, farmers figured out that you could grow the first year plants in tightly spaced "nursery" fields for a season, then dig them up in the fall or winter, keep them in cold storage and then plant them further apart the next year. An acre of nursery plants might yield ten acres worth of fruiting plants, saving a lot of space, water, fertilizer, etc.
   Very few strawberry farmers in the 21st century grow their own plants. Most buy them from one of a handful of specialized nursery operations, and we are no exception. Each year we receive one year old plants (actually mostly just roots with a leaf or two still attached) in late August that were harvested the prior fall and kept in cold storage to fool them into thinking they had gone through winter in the ground. We plant them in September and they produce a few berries in the fall before going dormant for the winter. They wake up again in February and produce fruit in late April.
    After more than ten years of growing strawberries, we have pretty well settled on two varieties that seem to produce more reliably than any other given the extreme weather variations we experience in the spring. Chandler is the perennial favorite, the soft and intensely flavored berry that melts in your mouth. It also melts in hot weather, often before it is fully ripe -- thus necessitating our second variety. Camarosa is larger and firmer, with a bigger plant that helps protect the berries from the sun during heat waves. Camarosa often produces flavorful berries until the end of June, long after the Chandler plants have withered in the heat, the fruits shriveled and burned.
   In June of last year, the nursery we have always procured our plants from informed us that their Camarosa crop had been damaged by the December 2010 freeze and had literally disintegrated in cold storage. They tried to source the plants from other nurseries, but there were none to be found. Instead, they recommended two other promising varieties. We decided to try some of each.
We didn't expect either variety -- San Andreas and Camino Real -- to be as sweet as Chandlers, and at this time they are not. However, they also seem less tasty than the Camarosas normally are. We hope that their flavor will improve with the warmer weather we're having this week, but we don't know. As we always do, we will try our best to get you the berries that taste the best. In the longer term, we have already laid claim to our plants for the coming planting season -- both Chandler and Camarosa. If by the end of this harvest season either of the new varieties proves itself superior, we will try to adjust accordingly.

Thanks,
Pablito

In your boxes
    All subscribers this week have a basket of Chandler variety strawberries in their boxes (see above). These strawberries are extremely perishable, and should be eaten within two days of receiving them (not usually a problem...) They keep best in the fridge, stored in a sealed plastic container. If you keep them in the plastic basket they come in, they will start to shrivel within 24 hours.
   Medium and Large box subscribers also receive a second basket of berries, either San Andreas or Camino Real varieties. These are much firmer, darker colored, and usually larger than the Chandlers. They have a firmer texture. And for now, they are not as sweet as the Chandlers. You may want to use them in a tart, make smoothies, or even toss them in a salad with your salad mix.
   Another of our spring season crops has finally arrived in your boxes this week: Sugar Snap Peas. We're a little late with peas this year because we completely missed the first planting due to constant rain in December. Still, it appears that the remainder of the crop will be bountiful until it ends sometime in mid-June. We hope to start harvest of Fresh Shelling peas, which take longer to mature, in two weeks or less.
Sugar Snap Peas can be eaten raw as a snack or quickly sauteed/stir fried. They have a small "tab" or stem that should be pulled off, which is usually attached to a thin, tough string.

The cure for Asparagus Fatigue

We're five weeks or so into Northern California's 8-10 week asparagus season. If you're like me and you don't eat the stuff any other time of year, you may still be psyched about every bunch you get. Others may be starting to find themselves challenged to come up with things to do with it in the kitchen.
Mark Bittman of the New York Times recently put together a helpful "Asparagus Flow Chart" with several variations on each of the primary ways to prepare the vegetable -- steamed, stir fried, roasted, and grilled. The recipe below includes one of those preparations.

Recipe -- Stir-Fried Spring Veggies with Scallops and Black Beans

I took the liberty of adding a few other ingredients from this week's box into Bittman's recipe.
Soak 2 T. fermented black beans in 3 T. white white.
Trim 1`bunch of asparagus, then soak in water and drain. Cut into 2 inch pieces. Slice any pieces thicker than your forefinger into half lengthwise.
Pull the strings off 2 C. sugar snap peas.
Thinly slice 2 small spring onions and mince green garlic to make 3 T.
Heat 2 T. peanut oil in a wok or skillet until hot. Stir fry all ingredients except the peas on high heat.
When the asparagus and onions are dry and beginning to brown, add the peas, 4 T. water and 2 T. soy sauce.
Cook another 2-3 minutes.