Red Wagon Farm

Garlic Chives vs Onion Chives

Posted on May 30, 2023 by mo

Every week we try to provide an herb choice with your CSA share. I think that herbs are an easy way to elevate a so-so dish to a ‘wow’ dish, so I really love that herbs are included in our CSA shares.

This week two of the herb choices are garlic chives and the more common onion chives.

In the photo below garlic chives are on the left. They are larger and have flat leaves and taste mildly of garlic and onions. The onion chives are on the right and are tube shaped and hollow and have a mild onion flavor and are very tender.

Garlic chives can be eaten raw but also hold up to cooking and are very similar in texture to leeks when they are cooked-kind of melting into a dish. Onion chives are almost always used fresh and raw and are bright and have a slight ‘snap’ when you bite them.

Lots of Asian dishes use garlic chives, they are great tossed last minute in soups or any sauteed meat, egg or vegetable dish.

I grilled some asparagus the other day and heated up some butter with garlic chives while the asparagus was cooking.

This simple side dish was totally the star of our meal.

If you haven’t tried garlic chives maybe grab some this week and give them a try and let us know how you like them.

Have a great week and I’ll see you at pickup.

Posted in 2023, Herbs, Recipes | Leave a comment

20th Season at Red Wagon!

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Amy

Amy and Wyatt our first season. Look at those baby faces!

We are entering our 20th season here at Red Wagon Farm! I don’t think I could have imagined that we’d be where we are now way back when we started our first season in 2004. I tell everybody that farming and gardening are all about trial and error. We’ve made a lot of errors! But Wyatt and I have always tried to learn from our farming mistakes so we can get better each season.

We started out by selling veggies at various farmers’ markets, having a farm stand in Lafayette, and selling our veggies to local restaurants. We waited a few years to start our CSA because Wyatt and I wanted to be confident that we could actually give our members a full season’s worth of veggies. So far we’ve never fallen short! Sometimes we’ve given out small shares for a few weeks due to challenges like hail storms or the flood in 2013. But we’ve always been able to make up for it with extra produce later in the season. We have a handful of CSA members who’ve been with us ever since our first year in 2007. We are so grateful to those members for their support all these years! It’s also been so nice to get to know them and see their families grow.

Red Wagon’s signature mix of cherry tomatoes.

We are always trying new varieties for each type of vegetable we grow–even things like zucchini and lettuce. Wyatt spends many days each winter pouring over the seed catalogs to pick out new varieties to grow the next season. He looks for varieties to try that might have great flavor, or better disease resistance, or different days to maturity. One of my proudest successes is our mix of cherry tomatoes. When people tell us our cherry tomatoes taste like candy, I tell them that’s two decades worth of us trying different varieties to find the best tasting ones!

Javier occasionally gets to bring his little helpers to the farm with him when they have a day off school.

Wyatt and I have had a lot of help to get Red Wagon this far. My best guess is that we’ve had about 800 employees over the years. A few of those people have stayed at Red Wagon for many years. I can’t even remember how long Javier as been at Red Wagon. It has to be 13 or 14 years! Javier grew up on his family farm in Mexico and I tell people that Javier can do anything! He does a lot of the large-scale work at the farm like plowing the fields in the spring, hilling the potatoes in the summer, or using the tractor to cultivate the winter squash. He also spends a lot of time fixing the farm equipment. There are a lot of pieces of machinery that need maintenance and repairs here!

Here’s Mo making our wedding dinner!

Mo has also been at Red Wagon for a long time. It has to be close to 15 years. The easiest way to describe Mo is that she loves to feed people! She started out by working in the fields at Red Wagon. She’s managed the CSA pickup at our farm on N 63rd Street ever since our first year of having a pickup here in 2012. She’s also been writing our recipe blog for 10 or 12 years. I love the meals that Mo creates for her blog posts. She makes approachable dishes with a “use what you have” attitude. Her recipes often give directions that say things like “use whatever greens you got this week in your CSA share”. Her photos give you a great idea of all the steps you’ll take to prepare your meal. (Although I confess that Wyatt is the one who actually cooks all those meals in our house. I just do the eating!) Plus the flavors practically pour out of her photos! When Wyatt and I got married I asked Mo if she would make our wedding dinner. I think that sums up how much I love Mo’s cooking!

Kai is able to keep smiling through almost whatever chaos the farm brings for the day!

Kai hasn’t been at Red Wagon quite as long–this is her fifth season. Many of you know her from being our CSA manager for three years. She started bringing her baby, Ash, to work with her last summer just a few weeks after he was born. It wasn’t practical to load him into the CSA truck with her every afternoon so she started orchestrating things at the farm from her post in the “barn” at our new location at Thomas Open Space in Lafayette. Her “we’ll make it happen!” attitude is what makes it so our veggies get out the door and to your CSA pickup each day.

We’re so happy to be starting another season at Red Wagon and we’re looking forward to feeding all of your families for another season!

With gratitude,
Amy

Posted in 2023, Farm, Newsletter | 1 Comment

Swap Kohlrabi for Artichoke Hearts

Posted on December 28, 2022 by mo

I saw an intriguing kohlrabi article in Food52. It said, ‘When kohlrabi is boiled whole and then peeled, the flesh of the vegetable somewhat resembles artichoke hearts, both in flavor and texture.”

I had never heard of this analogy so of course I had to try it, and you know what? Boiled Kohlrabi does indeed have a similar taste and texture to that of artichoke hearts!

I made the recipe referenced in the article, except I didn’t boil the kohlrabi whole. My kohlrabi were really big so I halved or quartered them which was super easy to do, then I boiled them. When you boil them you peel them after they are cooked (all the way through) instead of trying to peel them before cooking or cutting them. Because my kohlrabi were so big, the biggest trick with these is to cook them so they are soft all the way through, it took about 40 minutes.

Here are some photos. Boil the kohlrabi until it is completely cooked through.

It becomes sort of translucent when it is thoroughly cooked. Drain it and cut it into bite size pieces.

I did make the marinaded kohlrabi in the recipe I posted at the beginning of this post. I only made half the amount of marinade it called for.

I also made this spinach ‘artichoke’ dip a couple times over the Christmas holidays. It was a huge HUGE hit at both gatherings. I simply swapped the kohlrabi for artichoke hearts and kale for the spinach (that’s what I had). I made this dip last night, doubling the amount of artichoke hearts called for with lots of chopped boiled kohlrabi. Easy peasy and so good.

I had some extra boiled kohlrabi so we just at it like we would artichoke hearts, dipped in lemon butter.

This might be my new favorite vegetable to play with. I want to try it in a creamy pasta like ceci de pepe sauce.

Well Friends, another year is in the bag. You are all so great and supportive of all we do, thank you so much.

I hope to see next year. Until then, be well and happy.

With gratitude.

Posted in 2022, Kohlrabi, Recipes | Comments Off

Baked Winter Squash Oatmeal

Posted on December 21, 2022 by mo

I like to make this on Christmas morning. It’s easy to throw together, only takes a few minutes to make and the house smells great while it’s baking. I set out different toppings like yogurt, butter and maple syrup, nuts, fruit, chocolate, nut milks and even eggs. Everyone can customize their own bowl. This oatmeal isn’t too sweet but taste ‘special’ and is nice and filling; like pumpkin pie married and oatmeal cookie.

This recipes serves 4 or 5 people, but you can easily double it and bake it in a 9 X 13 pan if you are serving a crowd. Leftovers are great so if you don’t have a crowd, you will have an nice breakfast ready for a couple days.

This baked oatmeal uses any type of roasted orange squash or pumpkin you have. I used kabocha this time I had extra from a soup I made earlier. Here is what you need to make the oatmeal.

- 2 cups Old Fashioned Oats or instant or steel cut
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or just cinnamon if you don’t have pumpkin spice
- 1 1/2 cups milk regular or any oat or nut milk
- 1/2 cup roasted squash, any orange squash will work, pumpkin, kabocha, butternut
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, agave or honey
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons melted butter cooled to room temperature (or coconut oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup dried raisins, cranberries or nuts (optional)

Instructions

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8 square baking dish and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients
- In another medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients
- Pour the milk mixture over the oats mixture and stir until combined and pour it all into the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden and oatmeal is set. Let cool for 5 minutes. Spoon into bowls and serve warm.
Top it with whatever makes you happy.

In bowl in the back right of this photo I added a couple of squares of chocolate to the warm oatmeal and almond milk (swoon). It was so good. Eggs are always good with oatmeal too.