What are you grateful for? Focusing on the aspects of your life that you’re grateful for is a wonderful way to invite a sense of joy and a practice of mindfulness into a busy and sometimes difficult season. This November, we asked our staff what they’re grateful for, and we wanted to share their responses with you.

1. 1. We are grateful for all of the people out there who buy our vegetables - whether it be at the farmers’ markets or through our CSA Program. We are grateful you are choosing to support our farm with your dollars. Without your support, we would not be able to provide jobs for our employees and nutritious food for our community.
   2. April: I am thankful for new life in the midst of so much heavy. Baby plants growing for this new season, my new niece Grace who was recently adopted by my brother, first-time family camping trips, new friends who cook with new veggies and spices I get the blessing of tasting! Thankful for selling wonderful produce for JBG and sharing health and happiness with other Wacoans.
   3. Steph: I am thankful for being able to work from home with my full-time job and spend more time with family. It's giving me time to reflect on what's important and what's not. I am also thankful that people understand the importance of the environment and that we really can make a difference with small changes. Lastly, I am very thankful for the fact that people are understanding the importance of our food system, its quality, and inquiring about where it comes from. I am hopeful for some lasting changes in the future.
   4. We are grateful for everyone who has donated CSA shares to our Sponsored Share program which sends fresh produce boxes to the Settlement Home and Safe Alliance.
   5. Jack: I am thankful for the health of my family, the opportunity and ability to buy my first house, and to have a job that challenges and rewards me every day. Thanks, that was a nice affirmative exercise.
   6. We are grateful for a mild fall season without any early freezes.
   7. Tom: I feel like I’ve been working so much lately that I’m thankful for meditation and candles. Also, I’ve been really into the habit of doing something musical throughout the week which has been really grounding - thankful I can drive around and practice singing at the top of my lungs all day (lol). Thanksgiving has such a violent origin, but I think practicing gratitude is incredibly important. I always find myself listening to this song this time of year.We are grateful for our operations manager, Krishna, who works tirelessly to make sure farm logistics, and our working environment, are running smoothly.
   8. We are grateful for Brenton and his wacky idea to start a farm all those years ago.
   9. Fawn: This year, I have been extra thankful for the stability and safety of my family and home. I am thankful for the farmers market community, for providing me with a safe social network, as well as a bounty of food to keep me and mine healthy. I am also thankful for my garden, which grounds me and grows my herbal allies.
   10. We are grateful for the health of all the JBG staff, and for everyone’s willingness and cooperation to follow strict procedures which has kept us all safe, and at work.
   11. We are grateful for the health of the JBG farm’s soil, and its ability to grow thousands of pounds of vegetables every year.
   12. Lauren: I am grateful for my partner and for our four cats who keep us constantly entertained. I am grateful to everyone who wears masks for each other's health. I am grateful for CSA customers who stop to chat after picking up their veggies--I love getting to know them--and I'm grateful for all the farmers who keep us fed!
   13. We are grateful for the safety of our delivery drivers, who drive hundred of miles every week schlepping veggies.
   14. Adam: My Thanksgiving shout out has to go to Texas' fall weather!! After working in the 100+ degree scorchers this past summer the more mild days are a well appreciated break. With everything finally cooling off, the guys out here at River Road are all in a great mood and looking forward to some big building plans!
   15. Scott: So many things to be grateful for. To start I’m grateful to be alive and to be relatively healthy. I’m grateful for my family and friends. I’m grateful for all the opportunities that are in this world, to connect with other people, and to travel and explore this beautiful planet. All of the knowledge in books, on websites, and stories told by elders. All of the beautiful art and architecture created over 1000’s of years. All of the love, caring, and compassion given to each other. And lastly I’m grateful to Brenton Johnson, who so many years ago started this farm which now has employed hundreds of people, and has fed thousands of people.
   16. We are grateful for the knowledge and wisdom of all the farmers’ at JBG who are able to work the land, tango with pests, and care for a bountiful fall crop.
   17. Rebecca McChesney: I am thankful for family and friends, good health, and employment (That is not something to take for granted these days.). The innovative spirit of Austin's film, food, and drink industry. Spending more time with my kids and husband and the bonding that has brought us closer.
   18. Andrew: My mother’s health and a job that’s steady and rewarding. Being cooping up in the house with my partner Nikki is honestly pretty awesome and a gorgeous doggo… I do miss playing live shows, though.
   19. A: I'm grateful for: A supportive partner who never fails to support me and two best friends who are basically my sisters. My job, where I'm surrounded by the most kind and intelligent people. My creative eye, that helps me find the beauty in the smallest of things. And finally for all the lessons I have learned in the past year -- Both about myself and about the world around. May we never return back to "normal" and always keep pursuing a better tomorrow.
   20. We are grateful for all of our CSA Members, especially those of you that have been around for years (!), who put faith in our farm operation and empower us to do what we do.
   21. We are grateful for all of the organizations in town that operate the vibrant farmers’ markets we attend. These folks understand the needs of local growers, and make sure we have a place to sell our produce, rain or shine, pandemic or not.
   22. We are grateful for all of the restaurants in town who choose to fill their menus with local ingredients, especially in this difficult year for the industry.
   23. Mike Mo: My Health and democracy!
   24. We are grateful for our employees and their courage as essential workers to continue farming, no matter what.
   25. We are grateful for grocery stores like Wheastville, Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, and Central Market that stock their shelves with our products.
   26. Mackenzie Kelley: I am grateful for my health, and steady work this year. For mild weather. For the democratic process, which has allowed the people to choose new leadership. I am grateful for our two-year-old, is making sentences that leave us in stitches. I am grateful for the essential workers who keep us fed and safe.
   27. We are grateful for the health of our business and our ability to employ so many Austinies.
   28. Gianna: I got a full greenhouse full of baby leeks I'm thankful for! Also a sweet new pink car!
   29. Lori: A few things: flannel weather, all of the JBG cabbage hat is becoming kraut on my kitchen counters, and our harvesting and packing crews who are working so hard right now to get such a huge variety of veggies out into the world.
   30. Brenton: My partner, Kimberly.
   31. Ada: I'm grateful for my physical and mental health. I'm grateful for cool weather and the flexibility to spend so much time outdoors. I'm grateful for my nieces and nephews and all the videos they text me. I am grateful for access to nutritious vegetables, in abundance. I am grateful for my family, for the precious time I get to spend with them, and for my partner, Regan.
   32. Jon-Mark: I'm grateful I still got all 11 fingers after half a year of working at JBG.
   33. We are grateful for kale, and broccoli, spinach, chard, carrots, radishes, lettuce, beets, cauliflower, all the herbs, and all of the plants that we're able to cultivate at the farm. What a colorful bounty of food we can grow. As always, thank you for reading! We're grateful for that, too.

 

This week's recipe was submitted by our friends at Austin All Day, an local podcast full of culinary tales. The podcast chats with local chefs, and gives a behind the scenes look into their kitchen, and who the chefs are as people. If you fancy yourself a foodie... and a podcast listener.. we strongly recommend checkout out some episodes! Thanks to their hosts Jason and Danny for getting together this awesome carrot recipe! They have a great video of the cooking process on their Instagram. Check it out here. 

SOUP:

• 1 medium Sweet potato peeled and cut into medium dice.
• 1 bunch carrots, greens removed and set aside, washed not peeled, cut into medium dice.
• 1 bulb of garlic, chopped
• 1 large onion cut julienne
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 4 cup veggie stock
• 1 tbs good olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts sautéed in light oil
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions for soup:

Olive oil in sauce pan. Add onions and cook until translucent then add garlic and thyme. Cook until garlic is fragrant. Add carrots and sweet potatoes. Cook over high for 2 minutes and add apple cider vinegar stir to release anything from bottom of pan then add veggie stock. Let simmer until potatoes are soft up to 30 minutes. While simmering sauté peanuts in hot pan with light oil until nicely toasted.

When veggies are soft add everything to blender (hopefully a vitamix try ALLDAY at checkout Black Friday is coming) start low speed and work up to high until smooth. Once smooth stream olive oil while blender is still on (high). Check and adjust seasoning if needed.



CARROT GREENS OIL

• Reserved carrot greens
• 1 tbs Apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbs water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt to taste

Direction for greens oil:

In blender add chopped carrot greens, add 2 tbs water, tsp salt, 1 tbs Apple cider vinegar and stream 1/4 cup olive oil while blending. Once puréed strain through fine strainer and discard solids.

GARNISHES

• Charred Broccoli
• Chopped peanuts
• Fresh cracked pepper
• Olive oil

PLATING

• Soup in bowl
• Garnish with a floret of charred JBG broccoli
• Drizzle with carrot greens oil
• Drizzle with olive oil
• Sprinkle with chopped peanuts
• Fresh cracked pepper

Kind Regards,

Jason M Powers Host Austin All Day - Culinary Tales Podcast

 

 

CSA Box Contents Week of Nov 16th

Individual: Romaine, Sweet Potato, Collards, Broccoli, Carrots, Mulitplying Onions, Radish

Small: Sweet Potato, Collards, Broccoli, Carrots, Mulitplying Onions, Romaine, Bok Choy

Medium: Sweet Potato (Double), Collards, Broccoli, Carrots, Mulitplying Onions, Spinach, Turnip, Bok Choy, Farmer's Choice Lettuce

Large: Sweet Potato (Double), Collards (Double), Broccoli, Carrots (Double), Mulitplying Onions, Romaine, Spinach, Turnip, Radish, Bok Choy

Hey Y’all, Farmer Brenton here. Ada asked me to check in and say hello, which I’m happy to do because it’s literally the BEST FALL SEASON ever. Things are looking so amazing at the farm right now. Somedays, I think about how I wish we could have volunteers out to the farm right now or even host a big event and just show the beautiful fields to everyone because they really are looking amazing. Does anyone out there want to take a short video of the fields right now? Maybe that’s a way that we can show you all just how amazing the crops are looking. Maybe I say this every year, but this really is the best season.

Scott shoots Brenton, Brenton shoots Scott. Even these cell phone pictures capture the broccoli's grandeur!

Dark, leafy, glossy broccoli greens. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

It’s been a very mild and consistent fall - not too much rain which, because we irrigate our farm, isn’t a problem. Also, the temperatures: we haven’t had a freeze yet, and the plants are loving the cool and steady morning temps and the warm (but not hot) afternoons. Not too hot, not too cold… the optimal growing conditions for all of our fall crops. Just check out the size of these broccoli plants in the picture I took of Scott this Tuesday (above). The heads of broccoli are sized to match! Huge! In late summer and early fall, I found myself on the tractor almost every day, working honest farmers’ hours from sunrise to sunset to make sure we meet all of the planting windows for our fall crops. Perhaps more than ever before, we were on-time and on-schedule, and we’ve got the beautiful vegetables right now to show for it. All this to say, right now I’m able to truly sit back, “relax”, and breathe a very big sigh of relief. The plants are growing, the pests are under control, and the tractors and delivery vehicles are humming. I’m so proud of the farm right now and of each and every employee who has been working so hard this past year to make this thing happen. Our team feels very in sync these days.

As much as they can ever be, things are on autopilot at the farm, which gave Temo and Vicente the opportunity to work on a project that’s been on the to-do list for quite some time: building a perimeter high-fence on the north side of the farm… where the hogs like to sneak in. We’ve been pretty lucky for the past two months, suffering minimal hog damage, but we’re building this fence to hopefully keep it this way. We aren’t able to fence the entire farm, but we’re hoping we don’t need to: one side is a high bank of the Colorado River (which they can’t really climb up), the other side is a neighborhood (which they avoid), but the final side is where we’re looking to keep them out. It’s amazing what damage a group of hogs can do to a field of beets, for example, in one night. We’re talking acres and acres of destroyed crops. Temo and Vicente are doing an awesome job at the fence… doing it right and not doing a sloppy job at all. They’re so skilled at so many things.



In addition to the fence, we’re getting closer than ever to being able to start construction for the barn facilities in Garfield. This project has been a dream, very slowly in the works, for 3? 4? 5 years? We’re inching our way to being able to start things. I can’t wait to share more about this project with you when the time is right. For now, check out this new sink we installed near our lunch barn. Little improvements like this really help the work environment for our crew. More sinks, means more people can wash their hands at once, meaning a longer time to kick back and enjoy your lunch break.

Brenton, Adam, Jack, and checking out the future plans for the barn. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

New sinks might not seem like a big deal, but they're somewhat of a lunchtime game changer! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Other projects at the farm right now? Well, I know Tracy and Andrew and Krishna are working hard at Hergotz to get everyone awesome Thanksgiving boxes. Aside from the busy harvest schedule over here, we’re also really tied up getting onions and leeks into the ground. If you’re a gardener reading this, it’s time to plant garlic right now, too. In order to have big beautiful onions in the spring, we have to get them in the ground now so they can over-winter, develop strong root systems, and be ready to bulb up in the spring. We’re also cropping planning for the spring, and believe it or not, planning for the Spring transplant sale. It’s almost time to order those seeds.

Thousands and thousands of onion and leek transplants in the greenhouse, getting ready to make their debut in the field. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Leek transplants hardening off outside before getting put into the ground.

I’m not yet sure what I’m going to be cooking for Thanksgiving, but as usual, I’ve been cooking lots of Thai food at home lately. This week I made a really awesome beef curry…. I don’t normally use beef in my curry. This one included beef, coconut milk, plus added some peppers and ghost peppers from the farm. I used jarred curry sauce this time.. I usually make my own, but it can take so long. But I did toast up some coriander and cumin seeds, and made a paste with those and some almonds, and then added that to the store-bought sauce which amped it up. It was so good.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to check out Scott’s pictures of the farm this past month.. Things are looking so awesome. I’m so proud of our farm team, and all the managers working together to make this a smooth and bountiful fall season. Thank you, also, for supporting JBG. We’re so glad you’re here!

 

Reminder: the farm will be closed next Thursday. Please note the changes to our CSA Delivery Schedule.

Perfect green cabbage heads. Photo by Scott David Gordon.     

Scott David Gordon has been taking pictures at the farm for over 10 years now. Each fall season, he inevitably points his lens towards rainbow chard. With leaves ranging from dark emerald to electric grass and stems the actual color of the rainbow, it's hard not to wanna photograph this plant. This week's chard photos, and chard harvest photos, are particularly stunning. When people ask us how to cook their chard, we sometimes refer to it as the sexier, silkier, spinach. Take a look at the photos below and you'll see why.

The loveliest rainbow chard, showing off in the first morning light. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Early morning chard dreams. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Some mornings glow brighter than others. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Bands, stripes, sun, and chard. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Good morning, farm. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Fresh lemongrass delivers a bright, complex, and zingy flavor to whatever dish it visits. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

A forest of lemongrass. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Recipe and photo by Mackenzie Smith Kelley. 

This picture is an ode to meal prep, and the highest form of self-care for me. It’s a colorful, nourishing, party-in-a-bowl that happens best when I am in a creative rut with a fridge full of already cooked veggies.

Pinto beans, farro, vinegary mustard greens, coconut braised red cabbage with miso and garlic, turnips boiled in salty water, then mashed with labne or greek yogurt, pomegranate seeds, fresh dill, pumpkin seeds, toasted pecans, and aloo bhujia. My cooking style is guided by the idea that leftovers can be used as brand new components for our next meal. At our table, cooked veggies will always have a place in a pot of beans, a quesadilla, a sandwich, a grain bowl, pasta, taco, dumpling, dip, enchilada, the list goes on. This bowl of beans and things came together on a Thursday, with farro I had made on Tuesday, and veggies I had made on Monday of the same week. The beans were fresh out of the pot, hot enough to warm farro and veggies straight from the fridge. When I’m making something I intend to put in a bowl, I try to hit as many flavor zones as I can think of. See below for a list of those zones, and how each veggie fills that space.

 

• Chewy: farro, buckwheat and freakeh are my favorite
• Soft: beans
• Tangy: vinegary mustard greens
• Bitter: mustard greens
• Creamy: yogurt turnips and coconut braised cabbage
• Crunchy: nuts, bhujia, chips
• Sweet, juicy: pomegranate
• Zingy: herbs (I use dill, cilantro, mint and parsley interchangeably)
• Spicy: chili oil, hot sauce, peppers, etc

 

Now, think about what veggies you have on hand, how you will season them with a big pot of beans in mind. If you are looking for inspiration, see the JBG archives, where you will find many ways we have talked about wrangling the veggies in your CSA over the years. Happy cooking!

CSA Box Contents Week of Nov 16th

Individual: Romaine, Sweet Potato, Collards, Broccoli, Carrots, Mulitplying Onions, Radish

Small: Sweet Potato, Collards, Broccoli, Carrots, Mulitplying Onions, Romaine, Bok Choy

Medium: Sweet Potato (Double), Collards, Broccoli, Carrots, Mulitplying Onions, Spinach, Turnip, Bok Choy, Farmer's Choice Lettuce

Large: Sweet Potato (Double), Collards (Double), Broccoli, Carrots (Double), Mulitplying Onions, Romaine, Spinach, Turnip, Radish, Bok Choy