overwintered Arugula blossoming. The tiny flowers are great for beneficial insects, as it provides them with the nectar they need to stick around and protect the farm!

But summer is on its way, and we are looking forward to the first harvests, probably in early June now. It’s been a long winter waiting for those fresh veggies, and its been months of preparation on the farm tilling, planting, weeding, and more! We started in February with the first bits of work, getting the land ready and the first crops started. Overly cold, wet weather led to some poorer germination rates, but we persevere to get the urban farm moving. Every yard we grow in is a little different.

As the season approaches, we will be in greater contact with updates. It has been an extremely busy Spring, both on the farm and your farmer’s life. The economy has been personally hard, but the farm continues on, and growing. We have already filled the available spots in our CSA this Spring. Granted, we are a very small, hand managed operation with a very limited number of spots, but we have been growing thanks only to word of mouth and digital clicks despite the still struggling economy. That is a testament to your support of passionate urban growers such as ourselves. It is no small feat to turn some yards in West Seattle into a thriving urban farm with a growing CSA program!

And we thank you for your support as we grow whether the weather cooperates or not!

And glorious lavenders, fiery oranges, rich umbers and purples, decadent reds – color abounds amongst the green everywhere you look. Sunflowers burst with regal splendor, peering over the beds below. Juicy tomatoes transform, filling with fiery vibrance as if touched by the sun. Dragon carrots spray delicate wine stained foliage. And purple traces perplexing mazes over maturing Dragon’s Tongue beans.

Our variety of greens have not fared as well in the past heat, as the dry heat triggers their natural need to bolt and go to seed, ruining the harvest. They always like the lingering cool of spring and fall, a lingering cool that seems to have returned!

In fact, the natural tendency for plants to go to seed as the energizing sun blazes and dry heat stresses them into production is exactly what we want from the many summer fruiting plants and legumes! We want them to go to seed. We don’t eat their leaves, we crave their precious seeds and fruits. These are the very things they are stimulated into producing for their own lineage, continuing their species through the drought and freezes and into the new year. They burst forth from the ground in one frantic sprint of the year like fiery salmon swimming upstream to reproduce and perish, burning out in a glorious flame of delicious succulence!

And then be no more. As they know the frosts will come, the tender leaves and stalks will curl and die, with neither a resilient root system nor woody dormancy to carry them through the winter. They will leave their legacy in the scattered fermenting globs, in the droppings of birds, in the soil trampled by hooves and dug by scampering critters, and in the hands of their human nurturers.

But that is for another day. Even as the cool tinge of autumn starts to seep in, we do not say goodbye to any of these delicious joys of summer. We are just reaching the height!

“Hi Josh!
Thank you SO much for the produce. It is SO fresh and tasty. It feels so good to eat food knowing we are so close to who grew it and where it was grown. Honestly, it’s made me want to cook. Cooking has been a stressful part of my life. I can’t say I ever found true joy in it. I just never know what’ll go together. And with working, raising a kid, etc, it’s just added up to a necessary hassle (my one saving grace has been that I can’t bring myself to feeding my son crap so I buy organic and do the best I can.. Grudginly).

But receiving the box made all the difference. The beautiful produce just begged to be eaten with delight. The tomatoes were amazing, the sweet basil made for a dreamy Caprese salad that even my 4 yr old enjoyed (he dipped the leaves in the olive oil and soaked up the tomato juice and then popped the little tomatoes in his mouth and smiled, it was so fun to watch!). Then there was the red rubin basil.. OMG! I made an incredible pesto sauce and my son and I just devoured it. I haven’t even finished eating all the stuff, but really, I already know I’ll be tasting loveliness with every bite.

Above all, I just have to tell you that what you do has revolutionized my relationship to food entirely.
…
You guys rock!

Yen”

Ingredients:
• 1 – 1 1/2 lbs purple Peruvian and white fingerling potatoes
• 1 medium onion (finely minced)
• 4-6 cloves fresh garlic (minced)
• 1/2 lb smoked salmon shredded (hot smoked)
• Fresh chives (finely minced)
• Fresh flat leaf parsley (finely minced)
• Sea salt (to taste)
• Fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
• 1/4 C crème fraiche (sour cream okay)
• 1 C gruyere (shredded)
• 4 tbsp salted butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. With a sharp knife or mandoline, slice potatoes thinly (3/16” or the thickness of potato chips). Place in a bowl of ice water and set aside.

3. In a sauté pan, melt 2 tbsp of butter and add onions, garlic, salt, pepper. Cook until onions are translucent and set aside to cool.

4. Drain the potatoes. Grease a 9 inch pie or casserole dish with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Layer the bottom of pan with 2 layers of the potato slices. Sprinkle the smoked salmon over the potatoes and then use half of the onion mixture and distribute over the salmon.

5. Sprinkle the gruyere over the mixture.

6. Dollop the crème fraiche evenly on top. Sprinkle the flat leaf parsley and chives over the sour cream and reserve a tablespoon for garnish later.

7. Place two layers of potato slices over the crème fraiche. Melt the last tablespoon of butter and brush on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle remaining onions over and add salt and pepper.

8. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes (or until potatoes are tender). Remove the foil and let bake for 15 more minutes.

9. Let the pie cool for 10-15 minutes. Garnish with the remaining parsely and chives. Cut in to wedges and serve.

Contributed by Melody Leung, ©2010 ~ Photos by Josh Parkinson, ©2010

The seeds taking center stage, and growing little seedlings in the greenhouse, have moved towards those who don’t prefer this heat as the summer loving tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and tomatillos do. In fact, peas can simply give up when the red line rises too high in the thermometer! But I do love the cool weather plants. Not boistrous as the haughty, decadent tomato, truly a fruit no matter what the supreme court says. They are simple, hearty, warm, and substantive. In fact, satisfying right to the soul in your favorite soup or meaty stew.

Not that my mind is all the way in fall, the summer harvest is on! And there is still a lot of summer work being done. The long belated task of building trellises and tying up tomatoes and cucumbers has been a recent process. The tomatoes are getting off the ground and tied skyward bit by bit.

We pound the stakes, mostly 2×2 lumber, into the ground at intervals, screw in stops to space the lines, and string up mason twine in diamond patterns across the stakes. With the trellis up, we can finally get to the task of tying the plants up. Carefully, the trailing vines are lifted vertical against the web of bright white twine and tied securely to begin its new heavenward path.

All of this is a very time consuming process. But then, tomatoes are always time consuming. So are other fruiting plants when it comes to harvesting, like the beans now flowering out, and the peas I always look forward to. But each branch of a tomato needs to be tied by hand as they grow as they have no tendrils to grab with, clinging as others do with curling tendrils.

Tomatoes are brambling beasts, lazily falling about in every direction without stern attention and support. But, no doubt, they are worth it!

The problem is the very weather conditions that keep us so moderate, combined with the perplexing juxtoposition between long overly wet months broken by a summer of virtual desert conditions! Not having the death toll of fall frosts so dire here, you would think it would be a paradise of constant growth and vegetation. And vegetation does love it a good portion of the year. Leafy greens love those cool, moderate temperatures that hung on for dear life until July.

I’ve found we are in constant meterological limbo here in the coastal Pacific Northwest. Always cool nights to temper the short summer heat that tomatoes, cucumbers, and many others so desperately crave. Clouds and an overabundance of moisture to temper the benefits of moderate winters. i can only lament that those moderate temperatures could grow so much more with a little more sun.

But I love it here, and I continue to do what I can. Over time, our methods and even more importantly our supplies will enable us to better deal with some of those conditions. But the sun is there or it isn’t. And when the sun does signal the summer, we still need water!

We are now looking ahead to methods to extend the harvest well into the winter. Limited largely by funds, we have many ideas to extend what we can grow well beyond that previously mentioned death toll of the winter frosts. One day, when we are able to get the supplies, maybe we can even extend the season for such things as tomatoes and cucumbers!

Despite what I’ve experienced, I am still determined to take advantage of our moderate weather to harvest year round! One day I will.

Sausage and Greens Southern Mac’ and Cheese
I love macaroni and cheese, and this is my modification to make it something more substantive than cheese and carbs! And it refrigerates and freezes fine for pop-in-the-oven meals later on, which is why I’ll make a couple kinds at the same time, such as another loaded with fresh spinach.

• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 8 oz hollow pasta
• 1 bag Magic Bean Urban Farm braising greens, or about 6 oz hardy greens
• 7 oz medium cheddar and jack cheeses, cut into 1/2” cubes,
plus 6 oz grated
• 3 or 4 Italian Suasages cut into 3/4” or so slices
• 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp flour (for gluten free I use sweet white rice flour)
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2/3 cup kefir cheese (or sour cream)
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups half and half
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/3 cup grated onion
• 1 tsp Worcestershire

1. Heat oven to 350°. Bring a 4-qt. saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until cooked halfway through, about 3 minutes (or until 3 minutes remain on gluten free pastas). Meanwhile, partially cook braising greens in butter or oil until just starting to soften.

2. Drain pasta and transfer to a greased 9” x 13” baking dish. Stir in the greens and the cubed cheddar cheese and set aside.

3. Combine 1 1⁄2 tsp. salt, flour, mustard, black pepper, nutmeg, and
cayenne in a large mixing bowl. Add the sour cream and the eggs and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the half-and-half, heavy cream, onions, and Worcestershire. Pour egg mixture over the reserved pasta mixture and stir to combine.

4. Sprinkle half the grated cheese evenly over the surface. Lay sausage pieces evenly over the surface, and continue sprinkling grated cheese.

5. Bake until the pasta mixture is set around the edges but still a bit loose in the center, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

SERVES 8 – 10

Based on a recipe in Saveur in Issue #129 – Southern Style Macaroni and Cheese

We continue to grow as well, adding more capacity through new land partners providing us land to grow, and converting those grassy lawns to fresh beds for planting. A long process commences as their time arrives, first removing the grass and the roots. We follow with the proper application of minerals, trace minerals, biological innoculants for healthy soil life, mycorrhizea, and food for all the biology. And when all is amended, we shape our beds and plant, spreading cover crop seed along the pathways and amongst some of the crops as well.

Planting continues for those delicious summer crops like purple and yellow striped Dragon’s Tongue beans and Soleil french yellow beans. The peas came out of the ground sadly, a favorite of mine, but haven’t been handling some of the recent heat well anymore. They are a cool season crop afterall. But beans are coming, along with basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, Rosa Bianca eggplants, and so much more as the summer goes on!

And while the summer seems to have just finally arrived, we are already having to plan for the fall and winter. Seeds for cool weather crops are being seeded in beds and in flats in our little greenhouse for transplanting. The procession never ends, until mother nature says so at least! The weather defines everything, and we can only hope to plan for the typical.

And an interesting little surprise this week, one of the guest chefs, Becky Selengut at the Queen Anne Farmers Market decided to use our lemon thyme in her dish. It is always fun to see what they do with it, and even more importantly taste what they do with it! And she has a new book coming out called “Good Fish”, which I’d love to check out.

Becky’s Scallops with Carrot Cream and Pickled Carrots
Serves 4
1 pound scallops
2 cups carrots, large pieces
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup colored carrots, peeled and sliced into long ribbons on a mandoline
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup basil, leaves picked from stems
1/2 cup Italian parsley
1 tablespoon marjoram, plus extra leaves for garnish
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon high heat vegetable oil, for searing scallops

Instructions:
Lay scallops out on a towel on a plate to make sure they are very dry. Hold in the fridge until you are ready to use.

Add the 2 cups of carrots to a medium sized sauce pan, cover with water and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and cook for about 7-8 minutes until the carrots are tender. Drain the carrots and add to a blender or food processor along with cream and a pinch of salt and some grindings of black pepper. Blend really well until it is a smooth puree. If you desire the smoothest texture, pass the puree through a fine-mesh sieve.

Quick pickle the carrot slices in the seasoned rice vinegar for at least 20 minutes. (Mix carrots thoroughly with the vinegar and set aside).

To make the herb oil:

Combine basil, parsley and marjoram in a blender along with the extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oil and blend well until puree turns a vibrant green color, about 3 minutes. Add a pinch of salt to season. You can strain if you’d like or leave the oil with some texture. Transfer to a bowl, or if you’d like to be all fancy-pants, feel free to transfer into a squeeze bottle.

Season scallops generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil over high heat in a large saute pan. When pan is extremely hot, lay scallops carefully into the pan and cook, undisturbed, on each side until deeply caramelized, about 2-3 minutes on each side for larger scallops, 1-2 minutes per side for smaller scallops.

Lay some carrot cream down on a plate. Top with scallops. Garnish with herb oil, drained curls of the carrot, and marjoram leaves.

(Our lemon thyme used in the demo at right)

“A personal chef, instructor, author, and sustainability advocate, Becky Selengut has a new cookbook called “Good Fish” due out in April. She gave us an enticing teaser with this recipe, which takes just a few ingredients to new heights. The carrots are from Alm Hill Gardens and the herbs from Magic Bean Farm, whose owner Josh Parkinson took these photos.” – Queen Anne Farmers Market

Sprigs of color have been popping up to brighten these blues, however. If nothing else, blossoms of vibrant color speckle the landscape of our farm plots. Cover crops established early in the year now bloom, from the whites of Sweet Alyssum to the fuchsia of Purple Vetch. Borage and Broccoli Raab bloom, along with the large, short lived yellow lily-like blossoms of squash, and the small overlooked blossoms of tomatoes and peppers planted from the greenhouse.

In the meantime, we have been busy continuously converting land from lawns to mineralized beds. That is, whenever it is dry enough to do so! It is a constant process of making new beds just in time to be planted, struggling to gain the land mass of crops that we need to support ourselves. Progress slowly moves us forward as we anxiously await the maturing of our seedlings into harvestable produce.

Nonetheless, we have managed to get out our first CSA boxes out due to a flush of new items in limited quantity, satisfying needed variety to fill some boxes. These new items are too limited to go to market yet, but are suitable for our CSA subscriptions. Some of the unique items that had trickled in included Cheddar Cauliflower, Miniature White cucumbers, Cube of Butter zucchini, Mexican Sour Gherkins, deeply colored edible flowers, a variety of herbs including Chocolate Mint and Curly Golden Oregano, and a colorful mix of micro-greens. And of course, there were our gourmet salad mixes, our tender, delicious broccoli Raab, French Breakfast Radishes, and vibrant, gorgeous braising mixes. The braising mixes are a beautiful mix of colors and textures including varieties such as ‘Magenta Magic’ Orach, bright fuscia Red Chidori Kale, Purple Wave Mustard, deep green and spoon shaped Tah Tsai mustard, and the bumpy, dusky green Nero Di Toscana kale, sometimes called dinosaur kale due to its unique look!

And in recent events, in the Queen Anne Farmers Market chef demo tent, Chef Seth Caswell of Emmer and Rye used our mint in his Fromage Blanc Ice Cream with Strawberries and Mint! Absolutely delicious! I would have tried his main course demo, but the grains were a problem with my gluten intolerance, although I hear it was incredible.

The ReFresh Southwest festival was a wonderful event for us as well! A beautiful day, lots of interesting booths and workshops, and we had a mural event going. We were creating a backdrop mural for our market stall by inviting the community to contribute. We were flooded largely with toddlers, creating a very abstract chaos of marks, drips, and colors with recognizable shapes scattered throughout. In the process, I was painting the very top with the sky and clouds where Magic Bean Farm name and logo will be, among other things. I have since been working on turning it into a work of art for our backdrop, and plan to unveil its final incarnation in the coming weeks. The mural was certainly a hit and very popular! We would like to do more community art projects and exhibits in the future, hoping to work with artists as well.

And last but certainly not least was our front page feature in the Seattle Times, which we had posted all about on our page on Facebook! We were completely surprised to find out we were on the front page, and I was quoted and highlighted right there. The article looked into urban farms going commercially in Seattle, and we were included. A great quote that sums us up pretty good in there was “It’s all about biology.”! All and all, extremely exciting for us!