Kale raab may look like spindly, wilted kale, but it's actually the tender flowering tops of overwintered kale. Image: Kristin Belz

With spring bringing on plentiful supplies of raab, we thought it was a good time to revive this article. There's still work to be done helping eaters understand the super nutritious and delicious qualities of raab and how to best cook with it!



Please Do Eat the (Kale) Flowers




"Kale raab" is just the fancy name for the tender spring flowers of vegetables in the cabbage family.



Portland Monthly l by Kristin Belz l April 7, 2013




Don't let the name intimidate you: "raabs" - be they kale raab, broccoli raab, or any other kind of raab - are just flowers with a funny name. Raabs are the tender flowering tops of the bolted Brassica genus, i.e., the cabbage family. But more important, these are flowers you can, and should, eat. You'll be glad you did.  When the brassica vegetables bolt after the long winter, the flowers they produce are tender and delicious.



When you think of how that hardy kale plant has been producing its super nutritious (and super popular) leaves all soggy winter long, it's especially remarkable (maybe even miraculous) that the tiny little yellow blossoms that show up in early spring are so sweet. Raab is a tangible, edible sign that not only has the kale (or broccoli or what have you) "overwintered" and survived into spring, but so have we.



Of course, when these plants bolt, they're at the end of their life cycle, sending out their seeds to produce the next generation. By contrast, we humble humans hope spring brings more life. Savoring a new vegetable can be a part of that spring ritual of rebirth, if only with a meal to mark the passage of time and wonder of nature. Serve up the raab!



Find the rest of the article here.



Buck Brand organic seedless lemons are in house! It's a very pretty and fun natural hybrid variety with a high floral aromatic. No seeds means less prep time and waste. Spa water anyone?

Produce Report 
 
April is upon us, and as always there's just a snap of excitement in the air with trees and plants blooming all over the Pacific Northwest. After what was by many accounts a more challenging winter, although tell that to anyone from the upper Midwest or New England and they may chuckle some, for food lovers there's a lot that we can begin to bask in. Enthusiasm in the produce department is about change. While year-round supplies have tempered some of this, when the season shifts to local or regional production, the mood shift is notable.



Among the many, many offerings that will begin to come our way here on the West Coast over the next several weeks, we'll see peaches, cherries, melons, grapes, berries and local veg. kick in.  Rhubarb, Purple Sprouting broccoli and a handful of unique raab options are in fact already here. Asparagus is slowly moving its way north, with California volume steady and the first NW harvest slated for mid-month. How about an ode to sugar snap peas? Is there anything like eating these fresh off of the vine? A spring produce department should wholly encompass this feeling of excitement!



Merchandising plans should include items such as fresh daffodils, tulips and seeds wherever possible. Large ice tables with asparagus, rhubarb, spring onions, garlic greens, Purple Sprouting broccoli and whatever else the team is passionate about, will absolutely set the tone and strike the right note of abundance and excitement. For spring, much like produce, is every bit as much about the joy of anticipation as it is the experience itself. A merchandising plan that acknowledges both will capture the hearts and minds of the eater.



Find the rest of the Produce Report here.

 

Bill Sweat, one of the founders of Winderlea Vineyard and Winery in Dundee. Photo by Stephanie Yao Long/Staff.

Oregon Farmers Scrambling As Labor Shortage Collides With Trump Immigration Crackdown



The Oregonian l by Gordon Oliver l April 3, 2017



Oregon's long winter has given way to a springtime of fear in farm country, with farmers and orchardists bracing for a widespread immigration crackdown that could worsen an already chronic labor shortage in the state's $5.4 billion agricultural economy.



Providers of fruits and vegetables, nursery stock, produce, and meat products say the skilled workers who put food on our tables and plants in our yards can't easily be replaced. Their speed, dexterity, and crop knowledge of crops, as well as their willingness to work long hours and unpredictable schedules in isolated areas makes them vital to the industry.



The Trump administration's vows of aggressive enforcement against undocumented workers -- many of whom are longtime residents of the state -- and the companies that employ them could create chaos from farm to market and all points in between, industry leaders say.



"It's a big deal for us," said Bill Sweat, co-owner of Winderlea Vineyard & Winery in Dundee who has served on the Oregon Wine Board and as board president of the Oregon Winegrowers Association. On a 1 to 10 scale, he said, he'd put worry about an enforcement-induced labor shortage "at about an 8."



Find the rest of the article here. 
 
Mapping the Benefits of Biodiversity



Scientists are finding that simply growing more kinds of food (and rotating crops) can make farms less reliant on pesticides - and more financially solvent.



Civil Eats l by Liz Carlisle l April 3, 2017




Ninety miles south of San Francisco, the farm town of Watsonville looks like it may have been the inspiration for the Beatles hit "Strawberry Fields Forever." In wintertime, long strips of black plastic cover the earth, as growers fumigate next year's strawberry beds with compounds like chloropicrin, which has been designated by both the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation as an air contaminant.



Because strawberries are so often planted on their own here, year after year, the industry has resorted to these chemicals to control soil-borne fungal diseases like verticilium, which thrive in the company of their strawberry hosts. But organic grower Javier Zamora has a different strategy.



"I make sure before and after strawberries there's always something different," said Zamora, whose JSM Organic Farms has expanded from 1.5 acres to over 100 acres in just five years. "I normally plant broccoli right after-no potatoes, no tomatoes, no eggplant in the three years between strawberries. Those things host the same diseases." Diversifying his crops hasn't completely eliminated pests, Zamora said, but it's made them easier to manage so they don't damage his harvest. It also relieves the pressure of soil-borne diseases.

 

Find the rest of the article here.

 
Trivia!



Keep playing for a chance to win! 




From Last Week:    
This member of the chicory family has a crisp texture and a sweet nutty flavor with a pleasantly mild bitterness and can be eaten cooked or raw. It is said to be 'so special, it's grown twice' meaning it requires a two-step growing process. The first growth takes about 150 days in the field, where the chicory grows from seed into a leafy green plant with a deep tap root. At harvest, tops of the leafy chicory plant are cut off, roots dug up, then placed in cold storage where they enter a dormancy period. As demand necessitates, roots are removed from cold storage for a their second growth, which takes about 28 days in dark, cool humid forcing rooms, similar to a mushroom growing facility. This process essentially tricks them into thinking they've transitioned from winter to spring and force a bud to grow out of the root again becoming the vegetable we know and love. What is it?



Answer:     
Belgian Endive



How does trivia work? 
Each week we tuck a juicy bit of organic knowledge into our produce report. Everyone who answers will be entered into our monthly drawing. Then, the first week of every month we'll pick a winner and contact them to choose between an OGC t-shirt, apron or hat. Reply with your answer by Wednesday after receiving your Market Report to be entered in the drawing.



Send your answers to: [email protected]



We encourage everyone to join in the fun--the more the merrier! 


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