One Day Old

Happy March!

Spring is coming, I swear, and here's the proof:

Onion sprouts in the greenhouse!

Baby goats, born on Saturday 2/27/10!

Career Opportunities

We are always in search of hard-working individuals with an interest in being part of our team. We have several year-round positions in addition to employing seasonal employees during our peak season from April-November. While we actively recruit after January 1 of each year, we invite you to contact us any time of the year. Send us an email outlining your interest and experience as well as attaching your resume or a completed application from our website and we will let you know our current needs. Apply Now.

Please send inquiries to:
Harmony Valley Farm
S 3442 Wire Hollow Rd.
Viroqua, WI 54665
Phone: 608-483-2143
Email: bookkeeper@harmonyvalleyfarm.com

Benefits

In addition to an hourly wage, all full time employees are eligible to participate in our retirement benefits and health insurance programs. We also offer lunch for all employees prepared by our farm chef during the peak season, April-November. You will have access to produce from the farm when available. Opportunity for advancement always exists for individuals demonstrating a strong work ethic and superior performance.

Hours of Operation
During our peak season, April-November, work hours are 7:30/8:00 am-6:00 pm with a 1-hour lunch break. In the off-season, work hours are 8:00 am- 5:00 pm. Keep in mind this is a farm and there may be times when these hours will vary based on weather conditions, farm events, or other variable factors.

POSITIONS
Field & Harvest Coordinator—Hiring for 2010

We are looking for an organized, people-oriented individual who has a minimum of 2 years farming experience, with an emphasis on growing fresh market produce. In this position, you will work with the management team to plan field and harvest tasks and expedite job completion while working with a field/harvest crew of 20-25 people. You will manage quality control of product being harvested, supplies, and time usage. Basic tractor operation skills are required. Additional opportunities, based on experience, may include greenhouse management, planting, irrigation and other field work. Spanish language skills a plus. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
§ Daily & Weekly harvest scheduling
§ Manual & Mechanical harvest
§ Quality Control
§ Ensure appropriate post-harvest handling of product
§ Transport of harvest from field to packing shed
§ Record Keeping
§ Other production related tasks may include transplanting, weeding, mulching, pruning, mowing, and other field maintenance.

This is a year-round position. During the off-season, tasks may include helping as needed in the packing shed, doing inventory of seeds, seed ordering and receiving, germ testing and end of season record keeping and production reporting, time-studies evaluation, etc. Basic computer skills are a must (Outlook, Word, Excel), advanced computer skills a plus.
Position available March 1, 2010

Farm Chef—Hiring for 2010

Are you looking for a creative culinary challenge and a chance to connect directly with your source of organic ingredients? We are looking for a creative individual with cooking experience and an affinity for organic ingredients who is interested in writing and preparing their own weekly menus based on the seasonal produce available from our fields and meat from our pastures. Your primary responsibility is preparing lunch for our crew of 40-45 Monday-Friday. The sky is the limit as long as the meals are prepared on time and are nourishing enough to fuel the appetites of our hard working crew and emphasize ingredients from our farm, supplemented with staple organic ingredients from other local producers and our local food co-op.
You will also have the opportunity to serve as a resource for our CSA members by providing weekly recipes and information for our newsletters on vegetables they receive in their boxes, participating in and planning culinary aspects of on-farm events.

Additional responsibilities include weekly blog entries, food preservation, and managing food inventory and storage areas as well as purchasing.

You must have experience and references for previous work in the foodservice industry. Also must have basic computer and writing skills. This is a full-time, salaried, seasonal position. The Chef’s contract is for our peak growing season, April 5, 2010-November 20, 2010.

Assistant Farm Chef—Hiring for 2010
We are in search of an individual with cooking experience and an affinity for organic ingredients to assist our farm chef, prepare dinner for farm residents and guests, and contribute culinary information to our weekly CSA newsletters. Responsibilities include assisting with lunch prep and cleanup several days weekly, assisting with food preservation projects, assisting with maintaining neat, clean and orderly kitchen and storage areas, and filling in for the Farm Chef in their absence. You will also have the opportunity to interact with CSA members at our three annual on-farm events and through weekly written and recipe contributions to our vegetable, fruit and/or cheese newsletters for our CSA members. You will also prepare dinner 4-5 nights weekly for 3-5 farm residents and any guests of the farm.

Previous culinary/cooking experience and references required. Also must have basic computer and writing skills. This is a part-time (20-25 hours/week), salaried, seasonal position. The Assistant Farm Chef’s contract is for April 26, 2010-November 20, 2010.

Shop & Field Crew Member—Hiring for 2010
We are looking for an individual with 2 or more years of experience working on a farm to be part of our shop and field crew. Must be willing to learn organic farming methods and be a flexible, cooperative team member. Experience with operating tractors and implements required. Basic skills with preventative maintenance and repair of machinery and facilities, and computer skills are preferred. Depending on your skills & experiences, as well as the needs of the farm, you may work independently or as part of a team to perform any of the following responsibilities:
§ Soil preparation
§ Transplanting & seeding in the field
§ Mechanical cultivation & harvest
§ Seeding cover crops
§ Fertilizer, mineral and pest control application
§ Pasture management & caretaking of animals (cattle, pigs, chickens and goats)
§ Irrigation setup
§ Equipment & facility maintenance and repair
§ Turning and spreading compost
§ Record Keeping
This is a year-round position with tasks varying with the seasons. We are looking to recruit individuals with an interest in working here for a minimum of two years in order to build a strong team with continuity from one season to the next.
Position available March 1, 2010

Delivery Driver—Available for 2010 Season
We are looking for an experienced truck driver with a valid CDL and a clean driving record. You will drive a 27' straight truck on a delivery route to Minneapolis/ St. Paul or Madison. If driving to the Twin Cities, you will leave the farm Wednesday evening, stay overnight in the Twin Cities, and complete deliveries Thursday morning before returning to the farm in the afternoon/early evening. If driving the Madison route, you will leave the farm very early on Saturday morning, complete deliveries and return to the farm in the afternoon. We are looking for more than just a truck driver; you will be representing Harmony Valley Farm to our customers. Responsibilities include:
-Delivery of wholesale produce orders to warehouses
-Delivery of retail orders to stores and restaurants
-Delivery of Community Supported Agriculture boxes to home sites
-Meticulous set-up of CSA sites which involves neatly stacking the correct number of boxes, and set-up of a newsletter and brochure table.
-Keeping careful logbook entries
Position available May 2010

Packing Shed Coordinator—Position Available for 2010
We are looking for an individual with excellent communication and organizational skills to work in our packing shed. In this position, you will work with our current packing shed coordinators and management to plan, coordinate and supervise the flow of production to complete washing and packing of product for distribution to our CSA, wholesale accounts and farmer’s market and supervise packing shed crew members. Your primary responsibilities include the following:
Wholesale/Retail Sales: Receive orders, communicate with Sales Manager, Bookkeeper & WS coordinator in the packing shed to ensure orders are filled and shipped correctly. You will also schedule and plan trucking, coordinate consolidated shipping /cross-docking.
Market: Ensure product being harvested for Farmer’s Market is received from the field, washed, sorted and stored appropriately for market quality standards. Pack product for market and load the truck including all needed supplies. Complete inventory of product upon return from market.

General responsibilities include supervising wash/pack operations to ensure proper packing and maintain quality standards. Prepare packaging needs (labels, boxes, containers, etc). Wash and pack produce. Enforce and supervise sanitation practices, help maintain general orderliness of supplies, inventory and work areas.
Required Skills Include:
Computer Proficiency (Microsoft Word, Excel)
Able to work as a part of a team with effective communication
Experience operating fork lift and pallet jack
Previous supervisory experience
Spanish language skills a definite bonus

Position available March 1, 2010

Assistant Production Manager

We are looking for an individual with a minimum of 2 years experience farming vegetables to join our team as an Assistant Production Manager. In this position, you will assist with the planning and management of field operations including soil nutrition management, cover cropping, planting, cultivating, disease prevention and management, composting and maintaining surrounding field areas. Work will involve planning as well as execution of the plan, record keeping, and management of 3-5 crew. This is a year-round position. In the off-season, you will assist with record keeping, planning for the upcoming year, equipment maintenance and other related tasks.

Required skills include:
Experience operating tractors, skidsteer
Basic computer skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)
Able to work as part of a team with effective communication
Willingness to learn and contribute to the success of the farm

Spanish language skills, experience with specialized vegetable implements, machine repair and maintenance skills are a plus, but not required.

The potential for ownership in shares of the farm exists for the right individual who demonstrates a strong work ethic and contributes to the success of the farm.

Position available immediately.

Snow Day!

So far we've had about a foot of snow and it's still coming down. We told the packing shed crew not to come in today, but the guys who live here in the valley came in to help us clear some snow. I'm not sure how much experience any of them have with the snow - I know José Manuel has worked winters in Canada, so he's probably non-plussed, but Danielo, Vicente, Antonio & Juan may have not worked this far north, this late in the year. Danielo goes home on Monday and the rest of remaining H2A visa workers leave December 20, hopefully making it home for Navidad/Christmas with the family.

(Most of the H2A crew left mid-November, we just had a few stragglers who wanted to work another month, for various reasons. Here they are on the way to the airport or waiting at the airport)

We're snowed in for the day, so we'll have to delay our Twin Cities CSA meat delivery until Friday. Other than that slight inconvenience, we'll do some office work, have some cocoa & let Jack the dog out as much as he'd like - he loves the snow! Stay safe & warm and enjoy the snow!

All About Parsnips

While many CSA farms are winding down their season and tucking away their farm for the winter, at Harmony Valley Farm we are still hard at work harvesting and packing vegetables! It’s always exciting to be a part of the fall harvest….the culmination of a season’s worth of work to produce a crop. But there’s also some nervousness as this time of year can be rather unpredictable. Richard tells stories about the year they got 3 feet of snow on October 29. Just two weeks ago, we scrambled to get the sweet potatoes harvested and put covers on lettuce, fennel, chicories, and mini-sweet peppers before the frost arrived. The weather turned cold quickly with freezing temperatures over the weekend and we were fearful that the daikon, turnips and other crops would be damaged, but thankfully they were not. The cold snap was followed by more cold along with rain. It’s hard to harvest roots in slippery mud; it just doesn’t work. How many more days do we have to get everything done? You never know so you just keep forging forward—you can’t wait for the perfect day. On the flip side, we could get a couple more weeks of nice, dry days with moderate temperatures. We aren’t counting on it this year, but there have been years when we’re able to harvest salad greens until the end of October/first of November!
We still have daikon and turnips that need to grow, but they’re growing slowly in the cool weather. We have parsnips that are getting too big, but the forecast for the rest of the week is for rain so we’re not sure we can get the rest out of the ground. We still haven’t harvested the sunchokes and we are only in the middle of garlic planting. We’ve never missed a garlic planting, but we have planted into mud just to get it in the ground before it’s too late. The beauty heart and black radishes need to be dug as do the rest of the rutabagas. In the meantime, we can’t forget about the cabbages or the rest of our responsibilities. We’ve had to change our strategies along the way. Instead of relying solely on our FMC (the machine typically used for harvesting roots), we’ve brought the old potato digger and another piece of machinery into the picture along with a lot of hand harvesting. We had a digger breakdown yesterday and we are down two tractors right now…we are praying we don’t have any more breakdowns. The coolers are filling up fast….where are we going to store all these veggies until they are washed and packed for their final destination!?
Since this is the first week you have parsnips in your box this fall and this is “parsnip push” week here at the farm, we thought perhaps you might enjoy learning a little more about this interesting white root. Parsnips are one of our major crops—this year we planted 8 acres. Since they have a long growing season, it’s important to plant them early. If you miss the window of opportunity, you miss having a crop for the year. The parsnip seed is very interesting—a small, flat disk referred to as a winged seed. Don’t cough, sneeze, or stand near a fan while you are dealing with these seeds, they are so lightweight they can easily blow away. It’s important to plant them into moist soil at just the right depth—1/4” deep. Plant them too shallow and they might just lay there. Plant them too deep and they might not be strong enough to push through. It takes 2-3 weeks to germinate a parsnip seed, partly because the soil is still cold at that time of year. In the meantime, a blanket of spring weeds can sprout up all around the little seeds. One of the first methods of weed control we use for this crop is called flaming. We literally burn off the weeds in the bed to get rid of them. But you have to do this right before the parsnips pop from the ground. Do it too early and more weeds will grow up, do it too late and you burn your crop as well. This year we had a field of parsnips planted on one of our newly acquired fields. What a nightmare of weeds! The weeds seemed to grow three times as fast as the parsnips! We mechanically cultivated as much as we were able and then sent a hand weeding crew through twice. We debated if it was even worth investing the time and effort into to save the crop. In the end we decided to keep it, and invested the labor to remove the weeds to improve the land for future years.
We won’t harvest all the parsnips this fall—just enough to hold us through January. We will leave two acres to overwinter until the spring. Not only do parsnips tolerate the colder weather, but they actually improve in flavor and texture after a freeze. Our sweetest parsnips, in fact, are the overwintered parsnips that are left in the ground throughout winter, and dug in the spring. Don’t get me wrong, they are pretty tasty right now. Before refrigeration, parsnips were a wintertime staple that could be stored for months in a root cellar or packed in a mound of sand. So, if you find yourself accumulating parsnips throughout the upcoming deliveries, don’t worry—they won’t spoil quickly. Store them loosely wrapped in a plastic bag with some moisture and they will hold just fine for several weeks in your refrigerator. Parsnips may lose moisture over time and become shrunken and rubbery, but this is no reason to discard them. Go ahead and add them to your next soup, and they will perk right up.
Like the other members of the Umbelliferae family we have featured this year (such as celery and celeriac, fennel, carrot, etc.), parsnips originated in the Mediterranean basin and have been cultivated for several thousand years. They have been a fixture of European cuisine, particularly the northern countries with cooler climates and shorter growing seasons.
Parsnips are closely related to carrots, with an arguably more complex flavor. They can be prepared in many of the same ways as carrots, although eating raw isn’t nearly as common. Parsnips need not be peeled, but depending on the usage you may wish to, if the skin is thick or stringy. With their high sugar content, parsnips caramelize well. Roasting them at a high temperature, then reducing heat slightly and finishing cooking with a lid will create a chewy, browned exterior and a soft interior. Steaming is also a good way to retain and concentrate all of the parsnip’s flavor and create a soft, smooth consistency. Besides for soups and stews, boiling isn’t recommended because the parsnip will lose flavor (and nutrients) into the cooking water. In American cuisine, the most common uses of parsnip are in purees and root mashes, either alone or with other roots and tubers, and simmered with soups, stews, and roasts. In her book Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, Elizabeth Schneider notes that although American recipes from the 19th and 20th centuries have tended to use parsnips in rich, heavy preparations such as creaming and frying, the versatile parsnip really shines in more complex preparations as well. Records of ancient Roman recipes show that parsnips were sometimes combined with white wine and olive oil, fresh coriander and pepper, cumin and chives, celery seed, honey, and nuts, among other things.
So whether you jazz it up with exotic spices, or simply toss it in the pot with the Sunday roast, it’s hard not to enjoy the sweet flavor of parsnip.

Sweet Potatoes: They're Not Really Potatoes & they're not Yams Either

Written by Farmer Richard and Chef Bri

As the first snow of the year falls on the valley this week, our newest vegetable to reach your box is of tropical origin. (Strange!) Sweet potatoes are native to tropical areas of South America and were first cultivated there about 5000 years ago. They like hot, sunny days and warm nights, growing best at an average temperature of about 75°. Even with the great diversity of foods we have learned to grow here in our region, sweet potatoes are a remarkable accomplishment.

Sweet potatoes are traditionally a southern crop, requiring high heat units to produce a sizable/marketable crop. It is not recommended to grow sweet potatoes in Wisconsin – after all, they are a tropical plant! There has never been a commercial sweet potato industry anywhere in the Midwest, and for good reason. Almost all sweet potato varieties have been developed in the south and will not produce sizable tubers in the Midwest. So once again, your contrary farmer, who ignored and defied conventional wisdom (remember when they told me “you can’t make a living growing organic”?) said, “I’ll give it a try!” After several years of experimenting, we found two varieties that would produce sizeable tubers in a normal year, in a special production system. Georgia Jets are the most productive for northern climates but oh are they ugly! Our choice is Beauregard, which does fairly well in the north, but tends to set fewer tubers per plants. They often get very large (think scary 3-5 pound potatoes) in a normal summer, so based on advice from growers we visited in Livingston, CA we went from 12” to 8” spacing in rows to get more modest sized tubers.

In the sweet potato growing regions of the south, they select planting stock and plant those tubers in outdoor beds of peat moss to grow the “slips” for planting in the field. The “slips” or sweet potato plants are cut off above the original tuber to prevent diseases from the seed tuber from transferring to the new plant. Those slips are planted into the field to produce a crop. The only way we could produce slips of our own would be to store tubers and plant them in a greenhouse, meaning a huge new and expensive greenhouse just for sweet potatoes. So we depend on our southern friends to ship us slips that grow up after they have planted their fields. Our Livingston, CA organic growers are very inconsistent but the new organic growers in Delaware had a very good price. Sadly, they were plagued by wet weather and delivered poor quality plants too late. Thankfully, our friends at Steele Plant Company in Gleason, TN once again came through for us with a second late supply to fill our field.

We plant in late May or early June, just before the heat of summer. We plant the slips 8” apart on a raised bed, covered with dark green plastic to absorb and hold the sun’s heat and mimic the hotter southern soils where sweet potatoes are traditionally grown. But this year we didn’t have the summer heat they needed and our fear was a low yield of small tubers. I had dug a few potatoes out around the edges and thought there was just not much there. I even told the harvest party tours that they should not expect to find much, but when we dug a couple dozen plants, we found some very nice sweet potatoes. Not jumbos, but nice size and shape!
I started to think more positively about the whole crop, but only digging them would tell the whole story. When the weather forecast called for a week of freezing nights, we knew it was time to get them out of the ground, since they are very sensitive to any temperature approaching freezing.

So on Wednesday of last week, we tackled the 1+ acre field with all the crew we could manage to spare from other harvests and set a must do goal of all out of the ground before the freezing forecast for Friday night. Angel & Nestor started mowing vines and leaves, then cutting the stems off from the vines, using their own homemade invention of a vine lifter stick to lift the vine and cut it off without cutting the largest sweet potatoes that stick up out of the ground.
A crew of 7 or more followed, walking behind the digger, gently pulling the banana like clumps off the digger and onto the bed so they did not get buried in muddy clods of dirt. Oh, did I mention that it rained every day? Not too much though, and we continued non-stop until Friday at 4pm, when all the sweet potatoes went into the greenhouse to begin the curing process.
Sweet potatoes come from the field at only 4 or 5 brix, which translates roughly to that percentage of sugar. The 5-6 day cure at high humidity and 85° F temperature will double the sugar content to 10-12%. Now that is a sweet potato that tastes good and sweet without adding anything!

So dig samples as you will, but it is the actual field dig that shows you what you really have for the season. I was nervous and I felt foolish, a grown man who has raised sweet potatoes for 20 years, and yet the morning of the dig I could not wait to see them come up and over the digger. I walked the first four beds with Lucio, grabbing banana shaped bunches and gently tossing them on top of the moist earth. After those four beds, I was ready to leave catching them to younger hands. I hauled loads home and stacked the pallets close and high for curing.

The final estimate: 23,000 pounds of sweet potatoes! Just over the national average yield, and not bad at all for a heat loving crop during a record cool summer.

Here in the U.S., sweet potatoes do not represent a food crop of great significance. Most Americans think of sweet potatoes as a Thanksgiving accessory and not an everyday food. But in other areas of the world, particularly certain countries in Africa and Asia, sweet potatoes are a staple crop and represent one of the largest sources of caloric intake. The various cultivars of sweet potatoes grown throughout the world vary in color, texture, sweetness, moisture content, etc. It seems that the bright orange varieties most enjoyed in the U.S. are really only popular here, as well as Canada and Australia. Most of the rest of the world likes to grow sweet potatoes that are white, and also a bit starchier and less sweet. This is a shame, because it is the bright orange color that makes sweet potatoes such a nutrient-dense vegetable. In a 1992 study that compared fiber content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron, the Center for Science in the Public Interest ranked the sweet potato as the most nutritious vegetable.

The possible preparations for sweet potato are as diverse as the cultures that eat it. As a moist, firm starch with smooth texture, it lends itself to both dry heat and moist heat cooking methods- basically, nearly anything you can dream up. Some of the most popular preparations for sweet potato are baking, frying, and mashing. For some, it may take a small leap to get past sweetened dishes that involve sweet potatoes doused in butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows. To start out, you can substitute sweet potato for nearly any dish you’d otherwise use potato, and in doing so you reap the benefits of all the extra vitamins. Sweet potato also lends a rich flavor to savory preparations and pairs well with cheese, garlic, herbs such as rosemary, and spicy or smoky flavors. They can be cooked either peeled or with the skin left on. Although sweet potato skins are considered edible, the skins can sometimes be tough or fibrous depending on the plant. Try it to see if you like it.

Tropical as they are, sweet potatoes do not like to be cold. Refrigerating them will damage the flavor and texture. They are best stored in a cooler spot in the kitchen, well ventilated, not wrapped in plastic. A hanging basket is great if you have one. If you choose not to eat them right away (but why wouldn’t you want to?), they should keep for up to two or three weeks as long as they don’t become overly dry. Do keep an eye on them to watch for moisture loss or mold.

Try this recipe!
Sweet Potatoes in Curried Coconut Sauce over Kale
From Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider


1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes
½ celeriac root if you have one, or 1-2 celery stalks
1 ¾ cups water
1 or 2 small fresh green chilis
¾ tsp kosher salt
½ Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp minced or coarse-grated ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ to ¾ cup coconut milk
1 bunch kale, collards, or similar cooking greens
Lime wedges

1. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into ¾” dice. Chop enough celery/ celeriac to make ½ cup. Stem chili, seed, devein, and mince.
2. Combine chilis, water, salt, curry, ginger, and garlic in a pot and bring to a boil. Add sweet potatoes and celery and simmer, covered, until tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover and simmer to thicken sauce somewhat, about 5 minutes. Add ¼ cup coconut milk and cook at a bare simmer about 5 minutes to blend flavors. Taste and add more coconut milk to taste.
3. Meanwhile, strip off and discard kale stems. Thin-slice leaves. Set on a steamer rack over boiling water. Cover and cook until tender, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Arrange kale on a serving plate and spoon the sweet potatoes over. Serve hot, garnished with lime.

Serves 4 as a main dish. Serving with cracked wheat, millet, or quinoa is suggested.

Know your Winter Squash

Here are some pictures of the varieties we grow - Kabocha (orange & pumpkin looking), Butternut (pear shaped), Festival (squat striped) & Delicata (long striped)

Check out this week's super informative newsletter, all about Winter Squash.

Tuesday highlights

Washing dishes today, I noticed that we had dirtied (and I was washing) all 7 hotel pan lids that the farm possesses. Seven lids, new record! I got a little bit geeked about this, thought about posting a blog, and realized that this is why I never post blogs. Inane. Hey readers out there in readerland, today at lunch we used seven lids! Also, your hardworking farm crew put away 98 burritos today. Way to go, team!

In other news, I just cut into my first winter squash of the year. Heavenly. I love that smell. It reminds me of jack-o-lanterns. Tonight for dinner I am making the roasted corn pudding in squash recipe from Heidi Swanson's recipe blog, 101 cookbooks. It looks like it will be pretty awesome.

The farm continues to be busy. Always busy busy busy. Fall is elbowing its way in.