With all of the uncertainty in the world these days, wouldn’t be nice to know that you can count on eating delicious, safe, sustainable local food this year?

Urban Futures Farm has been providing the Olympia community with fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits since 2015. Members of our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program receive 18 weeks of sustainably-grown fresh produce beginning around June 1 ^st.

With the demand for affordable local food at an all-time high our CSA program is filling up fast.

To learn more, and to reserve your share click HERE.

Well, we made it! 18 weeks of nutrient-dense, delicious produce, as fossil-free as we can possibly make it. Many thanks to our customers, who make the work worthwhile.

Fall in the PNW is a season of turning in and that’s where we will be. The planting beds are turning in with their cover crops, so they won’t lose nutrients during the heavy rains. Come spring, that organic matter will be turned in to enrich the soil, and the cycle begins again.

As for the farmer and his dog? They’ll be resting up, working on another to do list, and planning for next year.

New flavors in your box this week! Roasted delicata is a farm favorite, and so easy! Leftovers are great with an egg on top (but what isn’t, really?). Last weekend, some of our carrots and daikon went into a quick pickle, which then became banh mi with leftover chicken that we took to an outdoor concert. Carrot and daikon seem a classic match, and this salad is one we plan to try.

Check out these sweet little pumpkins! The perfect size, not for carving but eating! If you only associate pumpkins with pie (or latte) you are in for a delicious surprise! Savory pumpkin recipes range from stews to curries, offering a world of flavor. A recent favorite (shout out again to Six Seasons and our customer who recommended it!), is Pumpkin Bolognese, which is a fresh take on a beloved classic.

With both potatoes and leeks in your box, you’ve got the foundation for a great soup! We prefer the rustic version over the pureed, which is a fall favorite. And with Labor Day upon/ behind us, school starting and a crispness in the air, soup is starting to sound good.

It’s happened. The slippers came on this morning; there’s a decided chill in the air. Suddenly fresh, crisp salads don’t sound as appealing as warm, roasted veggies. Yes, roasted. When we were first learning to cook, steaming was all the rage. So healthy! Maybe, but also lacking in flavor (and, quite frankly, joy). Roasting was a revelation, carmelized vegetables an epiphany. Pan or oven roasted, with some olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, hard, crunchy vegetables give way to sweet, melting flavor bombs. Works great with beets, potatoes or any other root veggie.

Today’s recipe is for Rosemary Carrots. Hang on to the recipe for next week and beyond when carrots will be in CSA boxes. If you’ve hated cooked carrots growing up, this is especially for you 🙂 Wash 2lbs of carrots (scale up or down), and cut at 1/2″ intervals on the diagonal. Peel or not, as needed. Heat 2 Tbsp oil (says veg, we use olive) until shimmering. Cook carrots until golden brown, stirring occasionally, 10-14 min. Stir in 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper (pinch of sugar if you like). Add 1 sprig of rosemary (no need to chop), put on a lid and simmer over medium low, stirring occasionally, 8-12 min. Remove lid, discard rosemary. Cook 1 min. Enjoy ❤

This photo made the social media rounds this week, and it really was a lovely dinner. Salad Nicoise is an annual event on the farm, to welcome new potatoes and green beans, along with quite a few other lovely veggies in your CSA box.

This is a great segue into the joys of eating seasonally, when a salad is elevated to a celebration when all the components are as fresh as they possibly can be. While it’s possible to have salad nicoise in February, it’s also quite unsustainable for the lettuce, green beans, tomatoes and other vegetables that don’t grow here that month to make an appearance on the table. By then, there are other dishes to celebrate! Lettuce makes way for chards and kale, salads become stews and soups. and warm, nourishing comfort foods again take center stage.

Celebrate the season, relish all the freshness and welcome the transition that’s already in the air as we start to don layers to take off the chill.

We’ve got ’em! $4/lb for the beans and $7/dozen for the eggs. Call the Farmer at 360.338.8654 to arrange pickup.

August is the month for canning, when the bounty of the farm is captured for the winter. Greg Brown croons “taste a little of the summer, Grandma put it all in a jar.” This weekend we canned dillys, jalapenos, pickles, salsa and whole tomatoes. Our interns and new WOOFER Lili quite literally invited themselves to the party (to learn the ropes), and it became an old fashioned canning bee, complete with music and lots of laughter.

If canning is not your thing, or you simply cannot stand a hot kitchen on top of all the other hotness, try refrigerator pickles! Easily scalable to handle however many cukes you have on hand, prep done in minutes, no special equipment other than a glass container, and your kitchen stays cool as a . . . . cucumber (ha!). So simple you may start quick pickling other produce just to have a crunchy flavor zing on hand. Pickled red onion comes in handy for everything from sandwiches to pizza, quick pickled turnips with a beet added for color are awesome on schwarma – possibilities abound!

Meet Amy and Maleah, our star interns this summer, and superb parking/security detail at last weekend’s FarmFest. I’m making popsicles for them at the moment, as it’s become farm tradition to keep our interns happy and cool with home made frozen treats. Not just any popsicles, ours are of course farm grown and bougie: raspberry/rosewater, blueberry/basil, plum/thyme. While I wish I could take credit for the flavor combos, I’m very indebted to Erica Strauss’ (NW Edible Life) flavor chart for jam. We of course steer clear of the boozy wet zings, but with Heat Dome II coming up, you may want to give it a try for popsicles, and save the jam for a cooler day. Also in anticipation of the heat, here’s my go to recipe for pasta salad, also here. Another chart format so you can mix and match to make the perfect combo from your CSA box. Stay cool!

Beans are back! One of the darlings of summer – green beans are highly adaptable and just plain delicious! Try them steamed, sauteed, roasted, and in salads. A quick search pulled a compendium of 35 recipes from the Pioneer Woman – from a simple saute with cherry tomatoes to grilled and even deep fried. Maybe try more than one!