Although you wouldn’t know it, at this exact moment in time, it’s almost summer.  A season where we eat as much raw food as possible, simply so we don’t have to heat the house. Chief among our strategies is an entree so beloved, so enjoyed, that it is simply known as “The Salad.” Packed with fresh produce, garnished with cold noodles, protein and heavily dusted with finely chopped herbs, this dinner entree is a powerhouse of nutrition and extraordinarily satisfying. We eat it at least once a week.

Dressing:

1/2 cup peanut oil

2 tsp dark sesame oil

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp mirin

2 Tbsp lime juice

Gather a bunch of salad greens: lettuces, spinach, turnip and radish greens, arugula, etc. Tear a healthy amount and toss with a few Tbsps of the dressing.

Make a base of the salad on your plate. Top with a handful of cooked soba noodles. Garnish with cooked chicken, pork, steak or vegan protein (leftovers from weekend grilling!). Top with chopped radish, turnip, snap peas, asparagus, or crunchy goodness of your choice. Dust with a healthy amount of chopped herbs: chives, basil, mint, cilantro, etc. Chopped nuts or seeds are welcome. Chive or borage flowers a decorative plus. Spoon more dressing on top. Take a picture. Eat. I like fish sauce as a condiment – the farmer likes sambal oelek. Make it your own! Enjoy!

$5 for tomato plants and $3 for tomatillos, eggplant, hot and sweet peppers, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, assorted greens and brassicas. We also have eggs!

Saturday and Sunday, 9am-3pm, 928 Wilson St. NE.  Follow the signs.

In honor of mothers everywhere, this weekend, all tomato plants are $5 and everything else is 25% off! Please know that these are not just any tomato plants, but sturdy, vigorous little trees. Pictured is Momotaro, a Japanese variety, with farmer to scale 🙂

Have a great weekend – and call your Mother!

Plant sale 9am-3pm, Saturday and Sunday. 928 Wilson St NE.
Next weekend is our last, so if you’ve been thinking of stopping by, now’s the time!

Our plant sale continues this weekend with the addition of the cutest little cucurbits you ever did see! 3 types of zucchini, 3 types of cucumbers, 2 summer squash and 5 winter squash varieties to choose from! $4 each!

Locally grown veggie starts: Saturday and Sunday, 9am-3pm. Urban Futures Farm, 928 Wilson St NE. Cash or check, please.

6-packs | $4 – Salad greens mix, Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Broccoli, Bok choy, Napa cabbage, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Swiss chard and Collard greens.

4″ pots | $4 – Hot peppers, Sweet peppers and Eggplant.

And in gallons, our farm specialty | $7 – 12 (twelve!) varieties of tomatoes.

Locally grown veggie starts: Saturday and Sunday, 9am-3pm. Urban Futures Farm, 928 Wilson St NE. Cash or check, please.

6-packs | $4 – Salad greens mix, Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Broccoli, Bok choy, Napa cabbage, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Swiss chard and Collard greens.

4″ pots | $4 – Hot peppers, Sweet peppers and Eggplant.

And in gallons, our farm specialty | $7 – 14 (fourteen!) varieties of tomatoes.

Locally grown veggie starts: Saturday and Sunday, 9am-3pm. Urban Futures Farm, 928 Wilson St NE. Cash or check, please.

6-packs | $4 – Salad greens mix, Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Broccoli, Bok choy, Napa cabbage, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Swiss chard and Collard greens.

4″ pots | $4 – Hot peppers, Sweet peppers and Eggplant.

And in gallons, our farm specialty | $7 – 14 (fourteen!) varieties of tomatoes.

Have you noticed how wet and chilly it’s been? Well, the baby plants have noticed, and are taking their sweet time growing because of it.  So we’ve bumped veggie start sales to next week, April 21 (Earth Day weekend!) – Saturdays and Sundays, 9am-3pm.

Here’s what we’ll have in 6-packs next week: Salad greens mix, Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Broccoli, Bok choy, Napa cabbage, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Swiss chard and Collard greens. In 4″ pots: Hot peppers, Sweet peppers and Eggplant. And in gallons, our farm specialty: 14 (fourteen!) varieties of tomatoes.

Come May, we’ll offer Basil, Cilantro, Zucchini, Summer & Winter Squash and Cucumbers.

See you soon!

If at all possible, I try to avoid investing in a product that can only do one thing. Hence, I have no ice cream maker. I do however, have a Vitamix, and while this is not a product placement ad, the following recipe needs a blender with a bit of power because – and here’s the cool revelation – you can use your powerful blender to make ice cream!

Or ice milk, or buttermilk ice – we haven’t really come up with a name for it. But it takes only three ingredients: 3 cups frozen fruit, 1 cup buttermilk, and 1/3 cup sugar. The original recipe called for peaches, which sounds divine. But we don’t have a lot of peaches in the PNW. What I do have in my freezer are lots and lots of berries. So I substituted strawberries. Yum! The buttermilk makes for a great mouth-feel, and the fresh strawberry flavor just leaps out. And so simple! Blend it up, scrape into a container (my pyrex bread pan lends a gelato look, no?), and freeze for a couple of hours. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can refreeze what you don’t consume right away and the texture doesn’t suffer. Other similar recipes I’ve tried have ended up a block of ice once fully frozen.

This time, I added some fresh thyme from the garden – just because, you know, why not be creative?  A great resource is Erica Strauss’s blog NW Edible Life, and even though we don’t make much jam, I find her jam flavor chart to be super-helpful for a myriad of other things, from baking to popsicles.

Enjoy!

Now that our CSA shares are sold out for the season, we have turned our attention to growing thousands of baby plant starts from seed – much more than we can use on our own farm. So, for the second year we are kicking off veggie & herb plant sales for our neighbors city-wide who prefer to grow their own. Over 2 decades of growing food on the eastside has refined our understanding of what thrives in our climate, and most importantly, what tastes good!

Plant start sales will begin April 14: Saturdays and Sundays 9am-3pm until we sell out!  If you happen to catch the farmer (not so much the farmer’s wife), you’ll also get free advise on the topic of growing a garden and specifics on each plant variety.

See you on the farm!

A while ago, I found this cool trick for single serve breakfast strata in the microwave! It’s been a go-to strategy ever since – and a really good way to sneak in veggies and use your day old bread at the same time!

Start with small chunks of bread to cover the bottom of your coffee cup. In the middle, layer your additions. Today it’s (raw) kale and cheddar, sometimes it’s a little ham or goat cheese – whatever is handy. Add a little more bread, and your additions to get it to the top of the cup. Whisk one egg, season how you like, and pour over the top. Microwave for 1 minute, 30 seconds.  Voila! For more veggie punch, I added some pickled carrot as a garnish. Enjoy!