Blog

  • How is Red Wagon Able to Keep Farming Year After Year?

    If you’ve been with Red Wagon for a while you know what I’m going to say…the biggest thing supporting Red Wagon is our CSA! It might not be obvious why it helps us so much more to have you as a CSA member than to buy our vegetables some other way—like through another farm stand or market, at a local restaurant, or even at our own farm store! Don’t get me wrong, all of these things help but it’s our CSA members that keep us going.

    Our CSA gives us gives us predictability. You join early in the year then we can make a plan for the whole season based on our CSA membership numbers. We can’t change the number of tomatoes we have in August if we decided to start too many or too few plants back in March. Farming is all about the long game and we need to be able to plan in order to be successful.

    Our CSA also helps us to cover many of the upfront costs each year. There are a lot of expenses at the beginning of the season. So far this year we’ve spent over $90,000—and it isn’t even April yet! Some of the biggest expenses are seeds, organic fertilizers, irrigation water, payroll, rent, insurance, accounting, and fuel. You probably think of some of these when you think of a farm, but others are just part of having a business.

    Joining our CSA is about more than getting your weekly veggies. (Although, that’s a pretty fantastic part!) You’re supporting your values. It is difficult to farm anywhere but Boulder County has felt especially challenging the past few years. One reason is that it is expensive to do anything here whether you’re trying to run a business or just cover your living expenses. We are never going to win if you are just comparing prices at our farm versus the grocery store. That’s where putting money towards your values (in the form of a CSA membership) comes in. Instead of supporting large corporate farms you’re supporting a small family farm where we focus on sustainable practices and ecosystem health. You’re helping to keep money in our local economy. You’re preserving agriculture in our community and helping to strengthen our local food system (we all remember how important local farms were during COVID!). You’re supporting us while we try to navigate the challenges of our changing climate. The last handful of years have brought more frequent wildfires, hail, extreme heat, early snowstorms, and drought. We wouldn’t be able to try to adjust to these new challenges without our CSA members facing the risks with us. Do you think about all of these wonderful things you’re supporting when you sign up for your CSA share? You should!

    Many of you go the extra mile and contribute to one of our funds: Farm Worker Support (extra money for our farm workers), Sharing the Harvest (reduced-rate CSA shares), and Red Wagon Supporter (helping our farm to keep going!). I don’t acknowledge these contributions as frequently as I would like to. But my heart is truly touched by the fact that so many of you give just because we asked.

    Barn at Thomas Open SpaceI also want to give a shout out to Boulder County Parks & Open Space and the City of Lafayette Open Space Division. Did you know that we are tenant farmers? Red Wagon does not own any of the land we farm. Over time it has become more profitable to sell land to developers than to use land to produce food. That’s part of why farms have disappeared from so many parts of our country. But we are all lucky to live in a place where our local government saw this coming and had a vision of preserving our open spaces. The Boulder County Parks & Open Space department was created just over 50 years ago. One of the main things they did was purchase open space to preserve for recreation and agriculture. Our farm on N 63rd St is on one of those Boulder County Open Space properties! The City of Lafayette has also done its part to preserve local agriculture. They purchased Thomas Open Space about 20 years ago when a developer was planning to build about 100 homes on the site. The City had the vision to keep the land in agriculture and we are fortunate to be the current tenants. It’s now where we have a large part of our farm operation, including our farm store and largest CSA pickup. I don’t think Red Wagon would exist if it weren’t for the visionary people working for Boulder County and the City of Lafayette.

    Wow! It really takes a village to support a family farm like ours. You might ask why we put so much effort into our farm given the challenges. There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is simple. Wyatt and I and the rest of our team love growing food for our community. We are all connected through food and it feels good to be an important part of what keeps our community together. I ran into my good friend, Anne Cure (of Cure Organic Farm), the other day. We were commiserating about the many challenges our farms have faced recently. I told Anne I was determined to redouble my efforts to keep our farm strong and moving in the right direction. I said this is not the time to have small farms disappear from our communities. Anne agreed and added that our farms just make so many people happy. That feels pretty great. Well said, Anne!

    With gratitude,
    Amy

  • Windstorm Damage

    The windstorm on Friday, December 19th was the worst we’ve had at our farm on 63rd Street in the 16 years we’ve lived here! The wind tore the roof off of one of our greenhouses. Fortunately the metal structure is mostly intact but we will have to re-sheet the greenhouse.

    Wind damaged bok choi

     

    During January we normally harvest greens for our winter CSA from inside our greenhouse. It’s usually so cold by then that our greens that are growing outdoors or in our unheated tunnels are mostly dead. Unfortunately, the strong winds a few weeks ago beat up the tender greens like lettuce and bok choi that were inside the greenhouse. They might recover a bit. Or we might be short on greens in January. Fortunately, we have a lot of other veggies in storage so you won’t go hungry!

    However, another unusual weather pattern might mean we’ll have plenty of greens in January after all. It’s been so mild out that our field greens still look beautiful! As of today there aren’t any really cold temperatures in the forecast. This is only the sixth year we’ve had a winter CSA and each year seems to bring it’s own surprises. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks!

  • One-Pot Kale & Quinoa Pilaf

    This is a super fast and easy, one-pot light, citrusy, healthy, satisfying dish. The original recipe calls for kale but any leafy green vegetable will work. I used collards but I have used spinach and chard. It’s all good. *At the bottom of this post there is a photo of this dish I made doubling the greens and adding some clementine oranges. Feel free to play with this recipe.

    I pretty much follow the Food52 recipe with just a few changes. It’s so simple the changes don’t really matter though.

    Kale Quinoa Pilaf slightly adapted from a Food52 article

    • 2 cup salted water
    • 1 cup quinoa
    • 1 bunch of kale or any leafy green like collards or spinach, washed and chopped
    • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
    • 2 scallions, minced (I used onions)
    • 1 tablespoon oil
    • 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts (I used a mix of seeds, nuts and dried fruit)
    • 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese (I actually had this but  use any cheese)
    • Salt and pepper

    Bring the water to a boil in a covered pot. Add the quinoa, cover, and lower the heat until it is just enough to maintain a simmer. Let simmer for 10 minutes, then add the kale to the pot and re-cover. Simmer another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow to steam in the pot for 5 more minutes. (I let mine steam off the heat for more like 30 minutes and it was fine. The photo is when the quinoa has been simmering for 10 minutes and I just added the kale)

    While the quinoa and kale are steaming, take a large serving bowl and combine the lemon juice and zest, scallions (or onions), oil and goat cheese in a serving bowl.

    When the quinoa and kale are done, fluff the pilaf, and tip it into the waiting bowl with the lemon and oil mixture. As the hot quinoa hits the scallions and lemon it should smell lovely. Toss to combine, seasoning with salt and pepper, add more lemon juice and top with nuts and seeds if you are using them.

    Leftovers are great for several days. I like to add a little lemon and oil to freshen it up after a day or two in the refrigerator.

    • double the greens and added citrus

  • Cooking Beets in an Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker

    I am a recent convert to cooking beets in a pressure cooker. For years I exclusively roasted beets or stewed or braised them.

    I learned that cooking them in a pressure cooker or instant pot is so quick and the beets are tender and super easy to peel. The slight flavor boost you get from roasting is easily mitigated by dressing the beets in a beautiful dressing or sauce.

    Beets in an Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker.

    You’ll need some beets, scrubbed clean and roughly the same size. If not the same size cut them into similar sizes.  You’ll need a cup of water to add the to pot and if your pressure cooker or instant pot has a steam rack use that. If it doesn’t it’s fine. Just put the beets in the pot in the water.

    Add a cup of water and the rack if using and the beets. If you have more beets add them, it won’t change the cooking time. I only had 4 medium sized beets.

    Seal the pot and cook all beet sizes on high pressure
    * Very small (1 1/2” to 1 3/4” diameter) – 15 min
    * Small (2” diameter) – 20 min
    * Medium (2 1/4” diameter) – 25 min
    * Medium-Large (2 1/2” diameter) – 30 min

    When the time is up I like to allow the pressure to release naturally. I have never had my beets over cook to be too soft from allowing for a natural pressure release. I have had to cook them more because I released the pressure after a few minutes off the stove and they were still firm. So, I like to do a natural release.

    Here is a photo of them cooked. It’s hard to see ‘cooked’ lol.

    Here they are peeled. You can see how the skin slid off and they almost look like peaches.

    This is the big reason I like using the pressure cooker, it’s so easy and fast and the beets are done to perfection.

    Your beets are ready for using or you can store them until you need them covered in the refrigerator for a week.

  • Greens with Brown Butter, Raisins and Nuts

    A CSA member (Hi Nancy!) sent me a recipe from an old vegetarian cookbook. It sounded elegant, simple and delicious so I had to try to make it! It is basically sauteed greens tossed in a sauce of brown butter, currents (I used raisins) and nuts.

    Greens with Brown Butter, Raisins and Nuts Adapted from Field of Greens by Annie Somerville.

    • 3 Tablespoons Brown Butter
    • 2-3 Tablespoons raisins or any dried fruit
    • 2-3 Tablespoons any nuts or seeds, I used pecans
    • 2 large bunches of greens, kale, chard, collards, spinach or any mix (I used collards and spinach) washed chopped. I chopped up my stems, you can discard the stems if you don’t like them.
    • Olive oil for sautéing, salt and pepper and red pepper flakes if you want a little heat

    To make the brown butter put the butter in a deep sauce pan, deep so it doesn’t splatter everywhere and just heat it until it’s brown. Stand at the stove and watch it. If you walk away it might burn, the browning happens pretty fast. It goes from this…

    ….to this in a couple minutes. It doesn’t look that brown in the photo but you can smell the toasty nutty butter. Stop before it gets too dark or it might taste burnt.

    Chop your greens and cover your raisins with some hot water, just a little water, you want to plump them just a little you don’t want them mushy, and chop your nuts too.

    Get a big pan and heat your olive oil and add the greens.

    Let the greens cook a little bit until they wilt then add most of the brown butter, raisins (I added the soaking water, but you can drain it if you want) and nuts and toss until the greens are wilted/cooked to  your liking, taste it for doneness and if it needs salt and pepper or more of the brown butter and mix it up really well.

    This fork is loaded with a perfect bite, some greens with nice taste texture from the nuts and sweet chewy from the raisins and the brown butter is elegant in the background. Yum.

    I had some roasted cauliflower so I added that to the finished dish and it was soooo good. I think any vegetable would be great prepared with the brown butter and raisins and nuts as a dressing.

  • Wyatt’s Favorite Coleslaw

    This is Wyatt’s go-to coleslaw. It a really nice balanced-tangy, punchy, barely sweet dressing.

    You only need 6 ingredients, that I bet you have at hand.

    Wyatt’s Favorite Coleslaw

    • 1/2 to 3/4 cup any kind of mayonnaise, vegan or even full fat yogurt work here.
    • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 
    • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey, or more to taste-Wyatt said he uses powdered sugar sometimes to get the right consistency. You’ll have to ask him about that, I’ve never tried powdered sugar! I’ve used maple syrup or honey and it was just fine
    • ¾ (or more!) teaspoon celery seeds
    • Salt and lots of pepper to taste at the end
    • optional any other vegetables you want to add like radishes, carrots, jalapenos, onions, turnips. Oh! Nuts and fruit like apples and dried fruit are really good too!

    Shred some of your cabbage as thin as humanly possible and cut some of the cabbage in small bite size pieces, I like the contrast. You can use a food processor and make it all the same size of course, but I always just use a knife and cut different sizes. You’ll need at least 8 cups of shredded cabbage/vegetables for this much dressing.

    In a bowl mix together the mayo, vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, celery seed and a little salt and pepper. Taste it before you add it to the cabbage and make sure it tastes balanced. It should be tangy and just a little sweet and you should barely taste the mustard and celery seeds. If you want to taste more of anything add it now. It’s easier to get it right before you add it to the cabbage. Grab a piece of cabbage and dip it in the dressing to see if you are happy with the sweet-tangy-creamy-punchy dressing goal.

    Mix it all up when you are happy with the dressing and add any other vegetables if you want to now.

    Serve it right away or keep it covered in the refrigerator for about a week. It will collapse a little and need to be mixed to refresh it but, honestly I like it as much if not more after a few days ‘marinating’ in the refrigerator.

     

  • Creamy Dreamy Cauliflower Soup

    Fast and easy, 6 ingredient soup. No roasting anything, just dump-simmer-blend-eat.

    What’s not to love?. You cut up your vegetables and add-in whatever liquids you like, simmer for about 30 minutes, blend it and dinner is ready!

    You can add roasted vegetables like leeks and make cauliflower leek soup or serve it with grilled cheese ‘croutons’ or leftover rotisserie chicken for a hearty meal. I chopped up some roasted green chilies and added cheese for a really delicious souper (haha) easy meal.

    Cauliflower Soup slightly adapted from a recipe by Recipe Tin Eats.

    • 1 medium cauliflower, florets broken off
    • 2 small potatoes (peel if you like) roughly diced
    • 1 onion peeled and chopped
    • 2 cups milk any kind, non dairy or dairy
    • 2 cups broth, any kind or even water will work
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • endless optional add-ons like roasted leeks or any other vegetables-carrots, leeks, rutabagas, celeriac. Top it with cheese, herbs, roasted chilies or even things like apple slices would be great

    Put everything in a pot and bring it to a simmer for about 30 minutes (that round thing at the top of the photo is frozen chicken stock and some milk splashed on it…just reference for what you are looking at)

    When the potatoes and cauliflower are soft enough to mash use and immersion blender or just a potato masher and blend the soup. This photo is before I blended it when the vegetables were all done.

    Taste the soup and add salt and pepper and if it is too thick add more milk or just water and anything else you want to make it your own creation. I doubt it will be too thin. If it is just simmer it a little longer.

  • Thank you for another season!

    To be honest, I am normally burned out by this time of year. There are so many ups and downs throughout the season. The hail storm in July was a big loss for the farm. We (mostly Wyatt) have been struggling with big irrigation problems for the past two years. I’m exhausted from working the last 4 months at our farm store with only 2 or 3 days off. There have been some large unexpected expenses and this is the time of year when I sit down to the unnerving task of figuring out if we made enough money to cover our expenses. And there are more and more headwinds for small farms and small businesses in general. You would think it would be easier to run a farm after doing it for 22 seasons but it feels like it’s only gotten harder.

    All of the struggles can overshadow the many bright spots. We had a great crew again this year and I am so thankful for our workers from Tapias de Santa Cruz, Mexico. Growing our cucumbers in our screened-in greenhouse successfully protected them from the cucumber beetles that have been decimating our crops for a number of years. Our caterpillar tunnels protected the plants inside them (mostly tomatoes) from hail and we’ll likely continue to grow more crops in tunnels. I had a lot of fun working on our u-pick flowers with Mo and we’re already making plans for improvements next year. I’ve learned that high school boys make good, reliable farm store employees and I’ve had fun working with my nephew and his 10th grade friends at our store.

    The biggest thing that lifts me out of my end-of-season burnout is going to the last week of our CSA pickups. I went to the pickup at Nevei Kodesh last night and my attitude was completely turned around in about 15 minutes. People talk about all of the great food they’ve made over the summer and tell us that the CSA pickup is the highlight of their week and they tell us how much they will miss us over the winter. I get to see how much the kids love the food and I feel like we’re helping to teach them to be good vegetable eaters!

    My job feels like a public service to me and I am proud of the work that we do at Red Wagon. Our CSA members are our partners in making this wonderful thing happen–local food and family farms. You have my sincerest gratitude.

    Amy

  • Instant Pot Chicken Chile Verde

    Pretty much every Colorado Native, most Transplants and every Red Wagon CSA member and employee I know has Green Chile running through their veins. We eat it on, and with everything!

    There is no wrong or right way to make or eat it. This is just one simple recipe I like that is adaptable and really fast because it uses an Instant Pot/Pressure cooker and only 4 ingredients if you don’t count salt and spices.

    Chicken chile verde is a great base for lots of quick meals like burritos, nachos, tacos or tostadas.

    You can substitute the tomatillos with fresh or canned tomatoes if you like, and you can substitute pork for the chicken.

    Chicken Chile Verde

    • 1-2 pounds chicken thighs or breasts. You can also use any cut of pork, though perhaps that might be a different blog post…?
    • 1 pound of tomatillos or tomatoes, fresh or canned
    • 1 pound, about 6 or 7 roasted green chilies
    • 1 medium onion
    • garlic and spices are optional, I used 1 teaspoon each of cumin and oregano
    • salt and pepper to taste

    I used a pressure cooker, the times and directions are pretty much the same for Instant pots.

    1. Place the chicken in the instant pot or pressure cooker to brown the skin, you aren’t cooking it, just browning it. You will remove the skin and any bones after cooking but I like to leave it in now for more flavor. If you are using skinless/boneless just brown the meat.

    2. Put the rest of the ingredients into a blender or food processor and whiz that up for a minute or so.

    Hey look, you made salsa verde!

    3. Dump the salsa verde in with the chicken and cook it under medium to high pressure for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes slowly release the pressure. Remove the meat and when it is cool enough to handle discard the bones and skin and shred the chicken.

    In about a 1/2 hour you have some lovely chicken chile verde delicious as is or ready to make into any number of meals through the week.

    This is easily doubled or tripled and freezes beautifully.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Cauliflower with Béchamel Sauce

    *this is an updated post by Mo. The original was posted 2014 by Amy.

    This recipe is adaptable to using Romanesco and or cauliflower. Both are very similar in texture, flavor, cooking methods and time. Béchamel is a basic creamy sauce that is used in many classic dishes. When I worked in restaurants we called Bechamel sauce ‘Culinary Duct Tape’. It pulls textures and flavors together, and upgrades dishes from simple to special, like magic.

    This is super simple and fast dish to make. Gather your (very white if not using Romanesco) ingredients.

    Recipe

    1-2 heads Romanesco and/or cauliflower cut into manageable sizes
    2 Tbsp butter
    1/4 cup flour any flour will do, even gluten free or corn flour
    1 1/2 cups milk, any type of milk works
    1/2 cup grated cheese, plus more to sprinkle on top. This is optional again, any cheese works here. This is where you can get really fancy, try Blue cheese or Brie or English Cheddar or whatever you love. It’s super fun to customize.
    White pepper
    Salt

    Steam the Romanesco and cauliflower until almost tender for about 5 minutes in a covered pan. They will cook more in the oven, so you want to leave them a little bit firm. Romanesco takes a little longer to get tender so check after 5 minutes for cauliflower and 7 or 8 for Romanesco.

    To make the Béchamel sauce. Melt the butter over medium-low heat then whisk in the flour to make a roux.

    Add 1/2 cup milk, whisking constantly. Whisk until the lumps dissolve and you have a smooth, thick paste. Add the remaining cup of milk, 1/2 cup at a time. Each time you should whisk until the sauce thickens. When you can draw a line that stays on a spoon the sauce is the right consistency.

    When the sauce has thickened (roughly the consistency of thin gravy), stir in the cheese, white pepper, and salt to taste. Remove sauce from heat.

    Place half of the florets on the bottom of your baking dish and half of of the Béchamel sauce.

    Put the remaining half of the florets on top of the first layer and cover with the remaining Béchamel sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

    Bake in a pre-heated 375F degree oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

    This is a great side dish for simple weeknight meals or a fancy holiday celebration.