Urban Farm School » local food

10 things we love about autumn

urbanfarmschool — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:39:31 +0000

from the garden

We LOVE autumn at Urban Farm School. And in honor of the changing season that occured this week and in celebration of the 2008 autumn ahead of us we have decided to share our 10 favourite things about this wonderful season.

We hope to see you at our upcoming workshops in October and December as well as at our November “New Thanksgiving Traditions” Tasting Party. Workshops this time of year are especially dear to us because of the importance in caring, preparing, and maintaining your vegetable gardens for the next year. Many a garden is neglected in the autumn months and leads to pest, disease, and soil problems later down the road. Please, take care of your garden now for a healthier and more bountiful harvest next year; trust us, it’s worth it!

10 things (or so) that toree loves about autumn
my fall sale
round orbs of pumpkin goodness
leaves blowing off the trees
sweater weather
haresting fruits and vegetables from the garden
glass jars full of garden canning goodness
fall road trips
red trees
pulling everything out and cutting things down in the garden
soup
chipping

10 things (or so) kendra loves about autumn
fresh pressed apple cider
canning, baking, slow-cooking
the smell of the air, the crispness of it on my skin
leaves, glossed by rain, sticking to the sidewalk
heavy sweaters and socks
fires in a wood stove
first tracks on the mountain
reading in the window seat while watching and listening to the rain
pumpkins, gourds, & winter squash
bare, gnarled branches against the sky
stormy weather

In all that you do this autumn season get out and enjoy the bounty of clark county. there are apples, pears, squash and a bevy of other foods waiting for you. Get out there and take advantage of the unique gifts that our region offers!

The Great ’08 Tasting Event

urbanfarmschool — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:56:11 +0000

Hostess and UFS owner, Toree Hiebert

Toree and I love great, fresh-from-the-garden food. In talking about our love of beets, and parsnips, and all things yummy from the earth we got to talking about how many of our friends get frustrated in not knowing what to do with a lot of the things from the garden. Here the “Table to Garden Tasting Party” was born. We wrote down some common veggies that are easy to grow but limited in the preparations most people typically have in their repertoire, talked a local chef into participating, and went to work. The result was a glorious summer evening with friends and Urban Farm School followers in Toree’s glorious garden. We hope you will join us at our next Garden to Table event in November themed “New Traditions for the Thanksgiving Table.”

columbia gorge wines

charming bouquets from the garden

The table was set for an evening of food, education, and friends

and we talked into the evening hours

The Menu prepared by A Dinner Together
Cucumber Course ~
Lime Cucumber Salsa
Cherry, Tomato, Fennel, and Cucumber Salad
Cucumber Goat Cheese Spread

Summer Squash Course ~
Dilled Summer Squash
Tomato and Grilled Summer Squash Salad
Summer Squash and Buttered Onion Glaze

Beet Course ~
Beet and Carrot Slaw with Honey and Cinnamon
Beet and Spinach Salad with Lemon, Cilantro, and Mint
Baby Beets Glazed with Orange, Vanilla, and Cardamom

chef and sous chef, anna petruolo and darla smith showing their admiration for one another

Garden to Table Party Testimonial ~
“I completely loved the Garden-to-Table event put on by Urban Farm School. It was amazing well done! Our time was filled with just the right mix of education, food and fun. The quality of the food far surpassed my expectations – giving us numerous varieties of ways to prepare vegetables – including recipes! Pace yourself…the food is aplenty! With each course we were given fascinating history and tidbits about the food course at hand…along with the chef willing to engage us before each presentation! This was truly a quality event, from the minor details to the major pieces of the presentation – it was an incredible evening filled with interesting people, fun and amazing food expressions.” ~ Steve Valenta, Vancouver

peas ~ then and now

urbanfarmschool — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:06:49 +0000

I love peas. read my garden journal and you’ll see why. I have a favorite picture of pea haying from the mid-40′s that is near and dear to my heart. In that simple photo I see a whole different world, one that I am slightly envious of and one that I question whether I could stand up to in today’s world. The pea fodder they are raking is to be used for feed during the winter months as alfalfa and hay are today. They used what they had to the greatest benefit and the thought of the butter and cream that the dairy cows produced after being fed that sweet pea fodder makes my mouth water. I love real cream almost as much as fresh picked peas, the deep yellow color, the sweet, rich smell, the thickness of it as it coats a bowl or spoon before being mixed into batter or ice cream. It is difficult to find good, simple cream anymore but it is worth the effort!

In honor of the great simplicities in the garden Toree and I have decided to throw are own GardenforLife Party in her glorious garden at the end of July. We are featuring three vegetables that are commonly thought of as either difficult to prepare or limited in their uses: beets, eggplant or cucumbers (depending on how the garden grows, of course) and summer squash. We are excited to bring local, seasonal produce to the forefront of this tasting party, where we will discuss the merits of each from seed to harvest and will provide recipe cards for preparations options and a brief outline of the vegetable itself. We are so excited to invite friends and family into Toree’s wonderful garden for an evening of like-minded people, education, and the garden’s bounty!

Food of Plenty

urbanfarmschool — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:17:21 +0000

The garden is flourishing once again despite the weather and its seemingly ceaseless greyness this spring which led to a food conversation over Toree’s perfectly prepared English tea this morning. Although we compost our food scraps in our worm and compost bins and chicken coops it never ceases to amaze how much food is going out the door instead of in our stomachs. Granted, our ladies of the fowl in nature, do produce orange-yoked eggs for our consumption from some of those scraps and the compost is added to our vegetable gardens yet the act of disposing of food still strikes us as so wasteful.

In the spirit of our grandmothers and their depression-creative souls we have challenged one another to a summer of zero food waste including packaging. That means that anything that is still edible will be eaten in the home in some form. Stems, stale bread (the green stuff will still entertain the worm palate), cheese rinds, and all will somehow by integrated back into the kitchen menu. I have the cookbook that my great-grandmother Mamie gave to my grandmother in 1934 and another that was given to her for her marriage in 1944 with recipes such as apple griddle cakes and chocolate crunch cookies marked with notes. This cookbook also has the “Wartime Supplements” section in it that is absolutely fascintating, talk about creative cooking. What so many people have forgotten is that not only can a zero waste system be done but just 65 years ago it was how it was done everyday, just as “organic” gardening was a way of life prior to WWII, food responsibility was as well.

I am mindful of the things I purchase at stores, what they are packaged in, how they traveled, where they orginated from, and who they were distributed through. I am proudly, a food system geek. It isn’t neccessary to be a geek to shop differently though. All it takes is a little time to think about what is in your basket and where it will go on the next leg of its travels. There are three things that I try to really remember when purchasing food – 1) fresh trumps packaged, local trumps organic, organic trumps conventional 2) reduce, reuse, recycle is designed as a hierarchy with recycle as the last resort and 3) every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists today (and I won’t jump on my soapbox about health, pollution, and plastic). The bulk bags that have been used and reused will continue to be and the canvas and oilcloth bags that have been used since . . . I was a teen will continue to be as well.

Can we go the summer with zero food waste? We’ll give it a valiant effort. Join us in challenging yourself, if not to a zero food waste summer than to a reduced food waste summer. Buy locally, take your own bag, and explore the wonderful world of fresh produce, experiment with things you have never eaten before! Plant a salad garden on your patio, add thyme to nearly everything (you can never have enough thyme!) Enjoy the flavor of food again and find your creative side in the kitchen.