This weekend, Coin and I went to the Seattle Tilth Harvest Fair. We took a little bit of everything, and a lot of potatoes and onions and garlic. We filled Big Red to the gills. Big Red is our regular farm truck, not the fancy box truck with the carrot art on it. Anyway, we sold most of what we took, and had a fun time together. While we were in the big city we contemplated the pros and cons of doing a regular farmers market in such a place. We get invited to sell at farmers markets all over all the time, but we don’t want to hit I-5 as part of normal life. I know people do it all the time, but I appreciate that we don’t. Many farms located between Seattle and Portland regularly attend markets in both cities, and Olympia as well. There is a little more business, more customers per hour, more dollars per pound in the city, but you have to get on the freeway to access it all. We love to be ultra local. All of our fields are located within the city limits of Tumwater. We can drive everywhere we need to without ever getting on the freeway. In the end we decided that for the hypothetical amount of money we might be “losing out on” by not doing a big city market, we would rather sell more CSA shares and remain “uber local”. So tell your friends how great it is to be part of the localest farm around and maybe they will want CSA shares, too, and we will only ever go to Seattle to sell once a year.

Years ago we used to cover every carrot planting to protect it from wireworms. One year we hosted a field walk learning event about pest management, and the scientists who came over told us that we don’t have any wireworms, and that they are not a mover kind of pest, either you got ‘em or you don’t and we don’t. so that was great news, and we have been enjoying growing carrots out in the open ever since. But now we encounter a pest far more devastating than even our worst wire worm nightmares…the deer. The deer are a family we think, mama, daddy and three babies, and they are all so so very hungry. Our farm is practically their personal buffet and they have zeroed in on the carrots. We decided the thing to do was to cover the carrots up with remay once more. Remay is like a sheet made of polyester tissue stuff meant to keep out bugs and moderate the temperature for the plants, but it should at least slow the deer down a bit. I’m sure they’ll figure it out and paw it up and chew holes in it to get at the carrots, but maybe it will be too frustrating and they’ll just go eat someone’s roses instead. Hope. Hope. Hope.

Storage tips for Celery:
Keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Retain maximum crispness by storing stems upright in a container with an inch of water.
For long term storage, celery can be frozen. Slice into rounds then spread out on a cookie sheet and place into the freezer. When all the chunks are frozen pack them into an airtight container such as a zip lock freezer bag and return to the freezer. Celery pieces will be soft when thawed and best used in soups and stews as opposed to salads.
Celery leaves can also be dried.

Try a quick salad of half inch pieces of celery tossed with feta cheese, black olives, tuna chunks, and a lemon vinaigrette with fresh mint or basil.

Leeks belong to the lily family, along with their close relatives onions, garlic, scallions, shallots and chives. The leek is a striking and graceful vegetable. The broad flat dark green leaves cascade like a fountain around the contrasted white of its base. Milder and more refined in flavor than the onion, leeks produce a pleasing aroma and sweeten as they cook. And there are no tears while cutting a leek!
To clean: remove green tops to within 2 inches of the white section. (we do this in the field for you) Peel off outside layer. Cut leek into half lengthwise and wash thoroughly under water to remove grit and soil.

Leeks may be eaten raw, chopped into a variety of salads.

Leeks may be cooked whole, try braising or baking.

Substitute leeks for onions in recipes and notice the subtle flavor changes.

Add cooked leeks to mashed potatoes.