Farm to Table the Whole Year Round

As the days shorten and grow cooler and the flames of fall color light up the hills around us, we are still keeping busy at Even Pull Farm. Our fields are full of hearty greens, leeks, root veggies, and lettuces in beautiful shades of green, blue, purple, and red. We spend our days on a myriad of tasks: planting garlic, weeding, digging root veggies and dahlia tubers, planting cover crops, organizing the barn, and digging into some long delayed building projects.

While it is true the heavy harvest season is behind us, we don’t have a real “off” season on our farm. Even after Farmers Market and our main season CSA* end, we continue harvesting all the way through winter; delivering to chef clients around the county twice a week & providing fresh produce to our Winter CSA members twice a month.

(*CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, where farm members pay up front for a season’s worth of tasty veggies from the farm. They invest in the farm and we repay that investment with seasonal, delicious produce!)

Our choice to farm year-round is made possibly by the incredible growing climate we enjoy here in western Oregon. Even in the harshest winters, most of the cold hardy crops will survive out in the field. And with the addition of greenhouses we are able to grow a deliciously wide variety of veggies all winter! That plus the storage crops we grow in the summer and squirrel away for winter (squash, beets, carrots, turnips & more) means we have a really nice range of veggies available from November to April.

The cornerstone of our business in winter is the amazing cadre of chefs running true farm-to-table restaurants in our county. We are so lucky to be able to work with these folks who understand and respect seasonality. It is not an easy thing to do to change your menu constantly based on what is available from your farmers, and serve restaurant guests squash or beets instead of tomatoes come deep winter. Let alone a chicory salad instead of lettuce!

Winter foods are almost totally unfamiliar to many eaters today because we have the luxury of importing food from all over the country and world. Just a couple of generations ago, this was not possible. Instead, in winter we ate whatever would store in the root cellar or survive in the garden (or we had preserved during the summer). Because these winter veggies are unfamiliar some have an undeserved bad reputation: but when eaten in season, these veggies are frost-kissed, sweet & so flavorful!

To learn more about which restaurants we supply (year-round!) with produce & to plan your next meal out in McMinnville, visit evenpullfarm.com/dine-out and help support the chefs that keep small local farms alive in the cold months of the year!

To celebrate the tastes of fall & winter, we want to share an awesome recipe from our pal Jesse at Valley Commissary for roasted root veggies. He made these for a Farm to Table dinner we did at our farm back in September, and I think it was everyone’s favorite dish of the night! Serve it up with a glass of local Pinot & enjoy!

Roasted Roots with Sage & Cider
Jesse Kincheloe of Valley Commissary

For the dressing:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 shallot minced
1 bunch of sage (blanched and shocked in ice water)
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
3/4 cup canola oil or extra virgin
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients except the oil, salt & pepper in a bowl or in a food processor until blended.

Slowly add in oil, whisking or processing well to emulsify the dressing.

Finish with salt and pepper to taste.

Set aside. (The dressing may separate while you work on the root veggies: when you’re ready to dress the roots simply whisk well to reincorporate.)

For the roasted roots:
1 lb each:
Celeriac peeled and large diced
Beets peeled and large diced
Turnips large diced
1 head of escarole diced in 1” pieces
4 tablespoons canola or coconut oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Toss diced roots with oil to coat and place on a sheet pan (or sheet pans if needed) in a single layer.

Roast the root veggies for 10 minutes or until they have browned nicely and are soft all the way through.

Toss in a large bowl with the escarole and the dressing.

Optional: top with a crumbled cheese like Briar Rose’s Creamery Feta (be more cautious with seasoning your veggies if using cheese because it will add to the saltiness).

Serve warm or room temp.

By Beth Satterwhite of Even Pull Farm.  You can follow Beth, Erik, and the farm all year long at @evenpullfarm.