Weekend one of our transplant sale was well attended, and Scott was there to capture the fun. Thank you to everyone who came out to the farm and snagged some plants! We're happy to report that we have PLENTY more, and we're excited for round 2 of the sale, happening this Saturday. Details on the sale here. 

Mushroom mafia, pepper patrol. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

If you're new to gardening or are overwhelmed by the number of varieties we have at our sale, each plant type is clearly labeled with a bit of information about the fruit you can expect to grow. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Start 'em young! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

How many peppers is too many peppers? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We will still be requiring masks at our transplant sale. Thank you for understanding! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We spy an herb garden in the making, and maybe a future farmer, too. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

No time like farm time to break out the sparkly rubber boots. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Or precious floral variety. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Friends don't let friends garden alone. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Did we mention there is lots of room to explore? And a trampoline to jump? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

And our mountain of a sand pile is just begging for attention. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We're keeping the number of people in the greenhouse to a reduced capacity, but if there is a line, it moves super quick! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

 

By Isaac and Heydon



This recipe is a punchy iteration of an orzo salad that Isaac likes to make for guests. We traded out some of the usual ingredients to make space for the kale in the taste profile. The jalapenos felt just right in this medley, adding crunch and punch. This is a loose guide, so switch out ingredients as you see fit. Design an orzo salad that works for you and what’s in your kitchen. This pasta salad was delectable when we threw it together last night at 10 PM and was just as good if not better when I ate it for an early lunch this morning. Pasta salad is such a lovely transitional weather meal. 

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup orzo
• 1 bunch of kale, chopped and blanched
• 5 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced / very finely chopped
• 2 pieces of bacon, cooked to your preference
• Parmesan
• 1 Lemon
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Prepare the orzo and blanche the kale. Combine the orzo, kale, green onions, jalapenos, and garlic in a mixing bowl. Pour a healthy amount of olive oil, juice half to a whole lemon, and add salt and pepper to taste over this delectable mixture. Stir and taste.

 

Plate the salad. Add 1 piece of crispy bacon per plate. Crush it up and add it on top as a flavor-packed garnish. Grate some parmesan and add some lemon zest, too. Enjoy!

Wow you guys. What a couple of weeks. Yes, a lot of our crops that were in the fields died, but our transplants survived. Again and again, we are overcome with extreme gratitude over two things: 1) at our supportive and kind community and 2)the fact that our transplants, both those we had destined for our fields as well as those we seeded for the Transplant Sale have survived.

Last spring when folks suddenly realized they were going to be spending more time at home than usual, our community flocked to our greenhouses making 2020 was one of our most successful transplant sales ever. (Here are some of the beautiful gardens that bloomed from JBG transplants.) We again planned for a “larger than usual” transplant sale, and considering our supply of vegetables to sell will slow to a trickle, we are seriously grateful for the revenue stream that this transplant sale will provide for our farm. It will hopefully be a success and help us keep our staff employed when vegetables are at a minimum. We hope you will support the sale this year… we promise you won’t regret it!

The 2021 Transplant Sale begins tomorrow (2/27) and there are two main ways you can get your transplants this year.

OPTION 1: Come to our Garfield Farm Transplant Sale happening on Saturday, Feb. 27, March 6, and March 13, March 20, March 27, April 3, April 10, April 17, and April 24 (or until transplants run out) from 9am-1pm. The address to our Garfield farm is 4008 River Road, Garfield, 78612. Make sure to use this address! Google may lead you to our other location. We will have our biggest selection of certified-organic transplants at this greenhouse sale, and will also be setting up a market stand so you can get some veggies, too! We will open all the doors to our large greenhouses, masks will be required, and social distancing procedures will be enforced. Luckily, there is plenty of space to spread out in. We will also have a selection of organic compost, soil amendments, and farm-grade tomato cages and stakes available for purchase. Farmer Brenton will definitely be around tomorrow, and maybe some other weekends as well, so if you’re looking for some planting advice, we’ve got plenty of that, too. If you're wondering what type of plants we'll have, you can peruse the online page, though there will be even more at the in-person sale that was not included online. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs, greens, and much, much, much more. We've only grown transplants that we know are well suited for Central Texas gardens.



Each spring we usually have a large party at our farm where guests can meander through our fields and check out the spring crops. Although we're not having a big gathering this year, we still would love for you and your family to come out and enjoy the farm. Bring a picnic, and feel free to walk around with your family and stay awhile. There are 200 acres of vegetables for you to explore! Truly. Join us, and explore the farm’s fields. When we first thought of this invitation, we anticipated you strolling through lush and verdant fields, but of course things look a little grim, right now. Nonetheless, it’s a poignant reminder of the risk (and future reward!) inherent in farming.

OPTION 2: Pre-order your transplants through this page and pick them up at a participating farmers' market on the selected date. We will only be sending pre-orders to markets the weekend of March 6 & 7 and the weekend of March 13 & 14.

Just a quick view of what the online page looks like. Pre-order and pre-pay for a quick, contactless market pickup.

Our greenhouse manager, Giana, potting up some plants last year. Thanks Giana for again helping to organize such a wonderful sale!

Some closing thoughts: All of our transplants did not survive by chance, and some of the heroes of the past weeks are our staff that work in our greenhouse including Gianna, Adam, Isabel, and Ki who spend 2 frantic days moving thousands and thousands of transplants from our greenhouse into our office, warehouse, and the one greenhouse space with heated floors. Checkout this quick clip on our Instagram to see a shot of the warehouse, usually used to store soil amendments, empty cell trays, and equipment, covered floor to ceiling with trays of plants. Our office, a small 500 or so square feet, was also completely full of transplants. Computers and keyboards were draped with lettuce, and desks crammed with tomatoes. The transplants that couldn't fit in the office or warehouse were crammed into our one greenhouse space that has heated floors, that were then covered with burlap (leftover from seed potato deliveries) and two layers of frost cover that we luckily had hidden in a storage closet. Thank you Brenton for never getting rid of anything. Truly, the transplants looked as though nothing had happened, making our replanting and your spring gardens destined for success.

This one section of our greenhouse has a grid of copper coils underneath the concrete. The hot water heater in the corner pumps hot water through the coils, creating a heated floor. Transplants that wouldn't fit in the office or warehouse were covered in burlap, and then two layers of frost cover, and managed to stay nice and cozy. Photo snapped by Isabel.

As always, thanks for reading. Hope to see some of you at the sale! If you can’t make it out this weekend, no worries. We’ll be setup every Saturday in March, and into April, as well.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 19th

Friday the 19th was the first day that we had (some) staff at our farm in over a week. The farm fields were still completely navigable, but we had a skeleton crew come to our Hergotz Packing shed and prepare for a weekend of farmers' markets. At this point, we had plenty of harvest that we had picked pre-storm, and there were a lot of perishable crops that needed to be sold!

 

Shoveling snow to load market vans. This was a first for our Friday crew! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Brenton and Tracy's Friday... and weekend... and following Monday... was mostly troubleshooting repairs of our Hergotz well. Ultimately, this entire infrastructure and pump was replaced. The most difficult facet of this project was sourcing the parts. Water at Hergotz is supremely important to wash the veggies! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Beautiful greens harvested pre-storm, ready to go to markets. This will be the last of the romaine, collards, kale and cauliflower for quite a while. If you were lucky enough to get some of these items, we hope you're cherishing these veggies! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

A snow-covered bumper. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

 

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20th

On the Friday following the storm, our shoveled snow and prepared for the farmers' market. After so many grocery store shelves were barren of produce, we assumed markets would be busy, perhaps comparable to the businesses we experienced last March when Austin first issued a stay at home order due to Covid-19. We were surprised to see even longer lines than we could have imagined. A big thank you to: our staff for showing up, shoveling, and getting food out to the community after what was a personally challenging week for everyone. Thank you to all of the farmers market organizers who have continually provided the infrastructure to safely distribute veggies straight to the community, while understanding the needs of their vendors and doing things like waiving vendor fees and fundraising for recovery efforts. And last, thank you to YOU! The shoppers and CSA Members who visit us at market every weekend. You make it all worth it! So many of you were particularly excited to get veggies this weekend.

Lines for produce at SFC's Downtown Market. The thaw was in full-swing at this point, and ski clothes were replaced with lighter jackets. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Things were selling... quickly. Again, thank you to our rockstar staff who rose to the challenge. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Our market stalls are still operating under our altered COVID setups. Instead of perusing the bins of produce yourself, you place an order with one of our staff who then compiles your goods. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Our photographer Scott was market-hopping on this particular Saturday and headed to the Barton Creek market as well. Lines were even longer. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

CSA Members picking up pre-paid, and pre-packed boxes of veggies. Joining our CSA is a wonderful way to support our farm right now. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Long, long lines of patient, lovely patrons. Thank you! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

  TUESDAY FEBRUARY 23rd

We'll start with some of the pretty things. We are SO grateful that our transplants all survived. Thank you to Adam, Giana, and Ki who busted it in the day before the storm to move thousands of transplants into our office and warehouse. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplants that remained in our 1 heated greenhouses were also triple covered with frost cloth. They are shining like nothing even happened. These plants are for our transplant sale happening that is beginning THIS WEEKEND! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

These flats of plants have been rotated, moved, covered, and uncovered so many times over the past two weeks. Kudos to our amazing greenhouse crew who kept all of these plants alive and healthy. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Luckily, we were a bit "behind" with some of our lettuce plantings. These transplants were supposed to have been planted before the storm. Had they been in the ground, the would have most certainly died. But because we were behind schedule, they stayed safe, tucked away in our greenhouse. Sometimes things just work out like that, no? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Transplants for our fields. Moved outside, to again harden off, and get ready for planting. Again, we're SO GRATEFUL that these survived. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Baby bok choy, ready to take root and start again. High five to our planting crew who have been working double-time this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Red and green leaf lettuce. These transplants are a few weeks old, getting us an important jump start on replenishing our fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Okay, now for the ugly. If you didn't read our blog post, here's the gist: We lost the vast majority of the crops in our field, like this dino kale. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

These pictures are sad, but we feel compelled to share them for posterity and transparency. Goodbye kale, catcha next time. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Angel wasted no time mowing over the dead plants to prep beds for re-planting. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

This dead culy kale looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, no? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Dead and gone. On a farm our size, using row cover in the fields is not feasible. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Once, was collards. One silver lining about the frost is that hopefully, the extreme cold killed off some pests that usually pester spring crops. Many bugs can survive these temps, but we're hoping the freezes will diminish the populations some. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Cauliflower blobs. When brassicas like cauliflower begin to rot in the fields, they can become pretty stinky. We'll remove, and compost, this dead plant matter as quickly as possible. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Once-were-cabbages. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Time to start anew! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We're unable to work in the fields when they are wet, and after all the snow and ice it has taken a long time for our fields to sufficiently dry out. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We hope you like carrots! Our carrot crop, which was tucked under the insulative soil, survived the freezes and so you can expect lots and lots of carrots in the coming weeks. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Thank you Austin, and all of our other CSA Members, who sent us kind words of encouragement and super cool cards. This one is hanging in the office for all to see!

Dear Valued Reader,

For the first time in 17 years, we closed the farm for an entire week. How could we not? The havoc that this storm has caused in our state, and at the farm, is overwhelming. We hope you and your family are okay. You may have noticed, but probably did not, that for the first time in our farm’s history, we also failed to send out a weekly newsletter. Power-outages will do that. We’ve finally caught our breath and wanted to update you on the state of things at JBG. Thank you from the bottom of our farmer hearts for the outpouring of support and kind words we have received.   Also, a very big shoutout to all the farm employees who braved the very cold weather to harvest, wash, pack, deliver, and setup at farmers’ markets despite the impending storm.

 

THE FARM: 

On a first pass, our fields look like a graveyard of leafy mush. There is a lot of loss. Lettuces, fennel, and all the brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower, and romanesco, are piles of stinky debris. The beets, despite being tucked into the ground, are mostly gone as well. But, there are some moments of resilience, too. The onions, which are a very labor-intensive crop to get into the ground, are laying flat on the plastic, but upon further inspection the bulb is firm, and the roots strong. We think the onions, along with the parsley, will bounce back. Oddly, the spinach looks *okay*. We’ve seen reports from other farmers in town that their spinach also looked *okay*. Who knew? Many of the carrots will be salvageable, and despite limp, dead leaves, the rutabaga themselves are surprisingly perky. Buckle up for some rutabaga, y’all. (Hint, just cook it like a potato). We are still assessing the overall damage, but we’re estimating a total loss of all greens and all Brassicas which constitutes the majority of crops in our field. It is very substantial. Before the freeze, we tried to slowly irrigate our crops as a way to protect them, but the freeze was simply too long. Even though the pumps were running, they ended up freezing and 2 of our 6 main irrigation pumps got damaged, which we are working to repair now. In addition to the pumps themselves, there were countless smaller leaks across our irrigation system, many of which are rearing their heads today. The pipes in our employee bathrooms also froze, and are also being repaired today.  

 

Over the next 2 months, we will have to get very creative on ways to keep our employees who work on our Harvest Team (around 20 people) with work until the crops we’re busy re-planting this week can come into maturity. Speaking of planting, our farm manager Jack has spent the past 4 days hurriedly re-seeding crops, and this reseeding and replanting work will be a main focus for the next 7 days. We are very very grateful that our greenhouses stayed above freezing and the transplants all survived. We will plant on! (Stay tuned for updates about the Transplant Sale). 

 

HERGOTZ: 

Luckily, we did not lose power for an extended period at our Hergotz barn. All of the produce that we scurried to harvest before the storm remained safe and sound in our coolers, and we will be filling CSA shares and market stalls with this produce in the weeks to come. Tender vegetables like lettuce and herbs will run out first, but we’re hoping that some of our root crops that we harvested before the storm will last us for the coming month (or two). The biggest hurdle we now face at Hergotz is water. We do have some water, but it’s currently not enough to wash the produce to the standards we are used to. Our pump house wasn’t protected as well as it should have been, and our booster pumps completely ruptured. We’re working today (Monday) to rebuild this entire infrastructure, but the scarcity of parts is making it a difficult job. We are encouraging all customers to rewash their produce with potable water before consuming. 

 

CSA: 

The CSA is the most important source of cash-flow for our farm. Your partnership with our farm is what keeps our harvest demand churning and our delivery drivers going. Our CSA Program must chug along; we can’t lose the momentum. CSA Members, please see our email with information about changes to the CSA that will go into effect this week, and continue for at least the next 4 weeks. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Our vegetables are obviously the main source of cash flow here at the farm. It’s going to be a few weeks until our fields shine with the spring bounty we all expected. If you’d like to help us out, consider purchasing our Market Bucks or a CSA Gift Certificate. Ideally, you can wait until late April or early May to redeem these.  By then, our fields will again be producing. You can also purchase vegetables and contribute to our Sponsored Share Program.  Purchases through this page get funneled into our donation program wherein we deliver weekly vegetables to The Settlement Home and Safe Alliance. Usually, annual donations to this page equate to just enough to make these weekly donations happen (we cover the rest if there is a shortage), but should there be surplus donations, we will add on an additional weekly recipient and start making deliveries as soon as our fields are full again. Last, if you’re a current CSA Member with a 4 or 10 week subscription and have the financial capacity to signup for one of our long-term (26 or 52 week) subscriptions, making this switch now will also help us out. Just email A to make the change - farm@jbgorganic.com. 

 

We are still assessing the individual needs of our employees. Some are still without water, at least one still without power, and at least one other recovering from a flooded apartment. There are many relief funds available to small farmers in the area (this is a good one to contribute to, if you’d like) but our employees are not eligible for many of these funds because they are not the farm owners. If we come to understand that this storm has caused any financial devastation for some of our employees, we may consider reaching out to our members for support. Also, if you wanted to buy the farm crew lunch, we would not say no. (Email Ada - ada@jbgorganic). There are long, head-scratching days ahead. 

 

DO YOU NEED HELP? 

We know many, many of our CSA Members are likely still without water. Here is a list of Travis County’s water distribution sites and here is a list of restaurants and breweries offering water. 

If you or someone you know are in need of food, the popular When Where What Austin Instagram account has created a spreadsheet listing many free meal options in town, many of which are being prepared and distributed by some of our restaurant partners. 

A few photos from the past week:

Kale, covered in snow, on Monday, February 15th. Photo taken by Jack, JBG's Farm Manager.

Shoveling snow to prepare a safe path to load market vans during the weekend of February 13th and 14th.

The pump house at our Hergotz Barn did not fare well, and many of the components in this photo needed to mended or totally replaced. The scarcity of parts in Austin has made this a difficult task, but Farmer Tracy isn't deterred. Photo by Krishna.

Another shot of a snow-covered farm. Photo by Jack, who was able to safely drive from his Bastrop home last weekend and survey the farm.

Throwing a few snowballs in the freezer... for posterity. Photo, and memory bank, by Jack.

Text updates from jack from Saturday, February 20th. It wasn't until this past weekend that we could begin, after things thawed, that we could begin to assess the damage to our crops. Brassicas did not fare well.

Onions, which we're hoping will surprise us and bounce back. It's still too early to tell, but the bulbs and roots seem to be vigorous. Photo by Jack.

Spinach, which actually looks *okay*. Photo by Jack.

All greens and lettuce crops are completely devastated. Photo by Jack.

Text and dinner updates from Jack. Despite limp greens, the rutabagas themselves seemed like they will be totally salvageable. Be like Jack, and make mashed rutabagas. For the meat eaters among you, might we recommend a liberal addition of bacon.

Upon first review, we thought our beet crop would survive. But beet after beet was harvested to reveal a mushy mess. Photo by Jack.

Due to the winter storm, we are experiencing different harvest numbers and availabilities for certain veggies. Although this list is our best guess of what will be available, the following contents are not guaranteed. (But we will try our best!)

Individual: Romaine Lettuce, Farmer's Choice Green, Carrot, Cauliflower, Farmer's Choice Herb, Citrus

Small: Beet, Carrot, Farmer's Choice Herb, Watermelon Radish, Citrus, Collard Greens, Farmer's Choice Green

Medium: Beet, Carrot, Farmer's Choice Herb, Farmer's Choice Green, Collard Greens, Cabbage, Farmer's Choice Lettuce, Cauliflower, Rutabaga

Large: Beet, Carrot, Herb, Cabbage, Roasting Bag, Rutabaga, Cauliflower, Farmer's Choice Green, Dino Kale, Radish, Citrus

Frost covered Brussel sprouts from a 2018 freeze. This one is slated to be much worse.



Hello Readers! It’s about to be very cold over the next few days. We’re tucking our crops in the best we can at the farm, but on a farm our size, it’s not feasible to use useful tools like row cover or tarp to protect the plants. We just don’t have enough cover, nor labor, to make this happen. Our biggest defense against temperatures like this is our irrigation, which we will keep on a steady drip throughout the freeze. Unfortunately, many of our leafy greens will probably die, but we're hoping that some of our root crops that are tucked away under ground will stay insulated enough to come out okay. Our entire planting schedule was put on hold for the week, and young transplants that had been hardening off on our plant trailers were returned to their greenhouse home, where we will crank some heaters to keep them toasty. Farmer Brenton actually went on KXAN this week to chat with meteorologist Mark Peña, and discussed the upcoming arctic blast. Check that out here.



What happens to leafy greens during a freeze? When ice forms between plant cells, the water inside the cells is drawn out through the cell walls, causing the cells to shrink. This pressure can cause the walls to break. Hopefully, crops like carrots will keep their quality. Photos from 2018.



Some of the other measures we’re taking: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week were BIG harvest days. The biggest we could muster. Many of the very tender crops we have in the fields won’t survive this freeze, and so we’re picking as much of it before the killing frosts descend. What does this mean for you? It’s possible that your CSA box contents may have to shift a bit to incorporate some of this extra harvest. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding! Another measure we’re taking is to pack CSA boxes and wholesale orders inside our walk-in coolers, whose temperatures are significantly warmer than the outside air. Once temps dip to freezing, we will also have to be very diligent about not leaving harvested bins of produce outside for too long for the same reason that you wouldn’t store your lettuce in the freezer. Our delivery drivers are being very careful on the roads are taking things slow. We don’t expect any delays in deliveries, but if you’re expecting a delivery sometime in the next 4 days, keep a lookout on your email just in case. So far, the only official market closures that have been announced are for the Waco Farmers Market. If you’re a CSA member who usually picks up at a farmers’ market, keep an eye on your email - if any markets decide to close for the day, we communicate via email. At this point, we plan to attend all markets unless they are officially closed by the market organizers. As for Monday, our harvest crew will be taking the day off, and most of our Barn Crew will be cozied up at work, but inside our (relatively) warm coolers.

Click on the link below to see Nicole from Herban Austin's advice on how to protect your plants.

If you’re looking for some more practical advice on how to protect your own garden, plants, and trees, checkout this video Nicole from Herban Austin put up on her Instagram yesterday. And if you’re looking for something to warm you up, here is a list of 21 soup recipes worth simmering.

Our harvest crew, who works completely in the elements, are working very short days on Thursday and Friday, and will have Monday completely off. Our barn is partially protected from the elements with a metal roof, but as this ice shows, it will be extremely cold working conditions over the next few days.

The cold front is at top of mind for all farmers’ in the area, and most residents also. Quite oddly, sunnier days are ahead, and despite this freeze, it’s the perfect time to think about your spring garden. If you’ve made it to the bottom of this post, congrats. We’ve got a sneaker announcement for you: our highly-anticipated online transplant sale is now live!!! Pre-order for pickup at market, or simply come out to our greenhouse sale. More details on the greenhouse sale are coming. Stay warm, stay safe and stay soup.

We've got thousands of spring transplants in our greenhouse, all seeded for our community transplant sale. Luckily, the greenhouse should keep these seedlings nice and toasty over the coming days.