Vegetable of the Week: Jerusalem Artichoke

Neither middle-eastern or related to the common artichoke, Jerusalem Artichokes are in the sunflower family.  Used primarily as a root crop, the plant, sometimes referred to as a "Sunchoke", has tall stalks and yellow flowers when fully grown.  

Resembling a common sunflower

Last Friday at Red Dog Farm I helped plant Jerusalem Artichoke starts.

Jerusalem Artichoke roots in the trench, ready to be covered, watered, and grow

 The roots are kind of bizarre looking, like a bunching of brown sweet potatoes or ginger roots.

Weird, right?

To me, they resembled that creepy animated Mandrake root from the movie Pan's Labyrinth.

What's cool about Jerusalem Aritchokes, Karyn told me, is that they produce inulin (yes, inulin, not insulin).  It's a natural carbohydrate/sugar and, when processed into fructose, is safe for diabetics to consume!  Though the plant is widely considered gross raw (by my informal polling of my co-workers), it's pretty good when seasoned properly and baked.

Hakureis and Hygiene

Today we harvested turnips and radishes for weekend markets and store deliveries.  There's a sort of science to radish and turnip harvesting.  On French Breakfast radishes you have to squeeze the end of each one to check for pith, a spongy texture indicating the radish has dried out and isn't marketable.  On Easter Egg, Pink Beauty, and Red radishes each one has to be checked for bolt - when the stems are conjoined at the base of the plant - which indicates the plants were overheated at one point, leaving the vegetable with a tougher skin and woodier texture.  Similarly, while bundling and harvesting vegetables, some I find are enormous and can't go to market due to their abnormal size.  Though these traits don't always often affect the flavor of the produce on the farm, people tend to buy more uniformly-sized and textured vegetables at markets.  It seems like somewhat of a waste to me to not sell oddly shaped produce but it works out in the end -- I get to take all of the misfit vegetables I want!

Perfecting bunch-size on Hakurei turnips

 Hakurei turnip slug

 Turnip bundles ready for washing

 Rinsing for market

The cleaned product

 Hail on Hakureis!

The weather has been crazy today.  Last night we had 55 MPH winds (I got to pitch my tent in the barn), this morning it was sunny for a bit, at lunch we had a torrential downpour, and after harvest it started hailing like mad.

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In other news, I haven't used hair conditioner in two weeks, my face is covered in grime, I shower every three days, I have a semi-permanent layer of dirt under my fingernails, and my cuticles have gone to hell.  I'm not a high-maintenance kind of person - I brush my hair every other day at most and the last (and only) time I got a manicure was in the eighth grade - but my nonchalance has reached new heights.  I kind of like it.  Except for the cuticles.  Even I'll admit those are a little gnarly.

Worse in person.  Click to enlarge and zoom in for the full effect.

Transplants

This morning I transplanted greens - lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli sprouts.  After the beds were flattened and tilled I measured out distances between sprouts and hand planted each one.

 

Flats of sprouts ready to be transplanted.

124 sprouts per flat, about dozen flats total.

 Freshly-tilled rows ready to be filled

Afterward, Karyn, the owner of Red Dog Farm, set up the irrigation line which we attached drip tape to in order to water our new transplants.

Drip tape along rows of cauliflower

 Small slits on the top of the tape allow water to drip out slowly, allowing plants to soak up water gradually instead of being drowned out.

 Ru inspecting my drip tape job

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Last night was the Red Dog vs. FinRiver Farm kickball game.  It was a close one - we lost 10-9 - but tons of fun!  I pitched and played first base and was unofficially deemed rookie of the game by my teammates.  There was some talk about flying me up every other Tuesday for kickball, but I'll have to consult with my agent first.  Perhaps I have a future on a co-ed kickball team at UC Berkeley.

Kickball on the back pasture of FinRiver farm.  A freshly mowed base path.

Rain and Kickball

My second full day of work is complete!  Since I'm a volunteer on the farm I only have to work 5 hours a day, Monday-Friday, but I still feel exhausted at the end of each day.  I've spent the last two days meticulously weeding beds of extremely fine carrot sprouts, hoeing rows of vegetables, and harvesting, bundling, and washing chard, lettuce, and radishes.  I'm always kneeling or squatting or bending over and I definitely feel the effects of it.  (A yoga class in Port Townsend yesterday helped to work out some of the kinks, though.)

Besides working with staff and one other WWOOFer, I worked on Monday with a woman who does 'work trade' on the farm every few weeks.  In exchange for four hours of morning labor, she gets to harvest several bags of vegetables from the fields.  It's an interesting system - reducing some of the farmer's costs in labor for a minor loss of product while involving community members.

Today I woke up to the patter of rain on my tent, which meant the day was going to be messy.  I donned my rain pants and jacket and heavy rubber fishing boots from my internship on a ranch last year.  After harvesting and washing all morning I was covered in dirt and extremely thankful for packing trash bags to stash my muddy rain gear in.

Naturally, the sky cleared up right when I got off work.


In other news, tonight Red Dog farm is playing FinnRiver farm, just down the valley, in kickball.  Tensions are running high.  The competition will be fierce.  I'm so ready.

Weekend in Chimacum

After arriving on Friday and working for a few hours in the afternoon I had Saturday and Sunday off to explore the local area.  On Saturday I explored the local OlyCap thrift store and drove into Port Townsend for the last day of the 75th annual Rhododendron Festival.  That evening I cooked some balsamic chard and lentils and listened to a local zydeco group with other people who work on the farm at Underground Cafe - literally underneath the streets of Port Townsend. 


This morning I went with another WWOOFer to the Olympic National Forest and hiked Mount Zion.  

 The hike was just under 4 miles out and back, but was fairly steep going up.  The views from the top were incredible - Puget Sound and the islands were right below us and Mt. Rainier was visible off in the distance.  

View from 4,262 feet

  

 Back to work tomorrow!  Rain in the forecast for early next week.  Hopefully my rain fly holds up!

Farm Photos

As promised, here are some photos of the farm!  Again, you can click on any of these pictures for a larger view.  Enjoy!

Down the road to the farm

Dandelions outside of my tent and some light left at 9 PM

Mason jars of food staples

Ru, the namesake of the farm

A foggy morning in the valley

If anyone is so inclined you can send me a letter, postcard, care package, first born child, etc. to me general delivery at the Concrete, WA post office to pick up next week when I get to my second farm.  Tell me if you send anything so I know to pick it up!

Address things as follows:

Natalie Holt
General Delivery
Concrete, WA Post Office
45650 Main Street
Concrete, WA 98237-9689

Drive Up/First Day at Red Dog Farm

I've arrived at my first farm!  All of the people I worked with today -1 other WWOOFer, 3 permanent staff, and the owner - were all exceptionally nice.  I worked harvesting and bundling radishes and turnips for farmers markets tomorrow morning.  After, I used a hoe to weed rows of onions and weeded patches of strawberries.  The valley that Red Dog is in is filled with pastures, other farms, and private homes.  From my tent I have a clear view of the surrounding mountains and a field of cows neighbor me to the west.  Today it was sunny and warm, perhaps unseasonally so, which made working outside awesome.  I'll take pictures of the farm this weekend and post them soon.

In the meantime, I have some pictures from my drive up here with my dad.  You can click on any of these for a larger image.

View of Mt. Shasta in northern CA

Siskiyou Summit on I-5 just across the California/Oregon border

Driving on the beach in Ocean Shores, WA

On Highway 101 on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula

La Push beach on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula

Panoramic view of Port Townsend harbor, WA

On the ferry to Edmonds this morning to drop my dad off at the Seattle airport

I love the first farm so far!  I'm excited to enjoy some local hiking this weekend and work more come Monday. 

WWOOF News!

A quick update about WWOOF in the news -

• The WWOOF USA website has a swanky new layout and several bonus features, including the option to leave reviews for farms and post information on a discussion board.  Check it out here!

• A few people are in the final stages of editing a documentary on WWOOF farms set to come out later this year.  Interviews, footage of WWOOFers and their work, and insights of the filmmakers are included.  The trailer is available on the WWOOF! The Movie website here!

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In other news - I have made it to Washington state safe and sound!  My car clicked over 82,000 miles today without any hitches (as of yet - fingers crossed!) after a bucolic drive through the back roads and logging towns of southwest WA.  Tomorrow I'm taking the Olympic Peninsula by storm and promise to post photos of my finds.  Lets hope for clear skies, roads, and minds.

"Congress Created Dust Bowl"

Last week I was in a packing, buying, and organizing frenzy attempting to get everything in order for a month long WWOOFing trip.

The morning after senior prom I went on a bike ride with my mom for mother's day and threw my life into the trunk of my Subaru Forester.

Yesterday I drove with my dad from San Diego to Sacramento through hundreds of miles of massive agribusiness farms in the San Joaquin valley.  Between fields and fields of crops was the occasional "Congress Created Dust Bowl" road sign on barren fields which had once been farm land.

Back in 2007 restrictions were imposed on water diverted from the Sacramento rive delta to protect the dwindling habitat of the endangered Delta Smelt, a small native fish.  Agribusinesses were furious they they no longer could irrigate their fields of water-intensive crops and began a campaign of protest which included the signs.

For years agribusinesses and their respective lobbyists have secured the political leverage needed to divert all of the water from northern California they need to irrigate their crops in the dry southern valley.  Left to its own devices, the San Joaquin valley would be full of grasses, occasional oaks, and chaparral.  With modern water diversion techniques, however, the valley is filled with lush, green fields of crops and endless groves of nut and citrus trees thanks to water pumped down from Sacramento.  

It was jarring in a sense to see a grove of perfectly aligned nut trees standing dry and lifeless in a sea of weeds. It almost looked as if fall had come, stripping the trees of leaves and nuts - but oddly in May, when every other grove in the valley was just entering the growing season.  The remnants of orchards were a reminder that many of the crops grown in the southern valley aren't capable of growing in its near-desert climate without the help of human-imposed water diversions.  No matter how hard man can try to alter some ecosystems - like turning desert valleys into fertile farm land - some will flatly refuse to cooperate with corporate demand.

Read about the initial water restrictions which prompted the road signs here.

Google Calendar

Below is my Google Calendar recently updated with my driving plans to get to my first WWOOF farm in Chimacum, WA.  Click the right blue arrow to flip between May and June where my plans are posted.  Click on each event for details of where I'll be driving each day, mileages, etc.  In the pop up window, you can click "more details" and can find a link to the Google Maps route I'll be taking in the description section.