I have a few more details and some instructions and how you can order your organic roots and tubers directly from the farmer in Eastern Washington.
Sustainable Greenlake Buying Coop is organizing a bulk buy of roots and tubers directly from the farmers in Eastern Washington. Please visit http://sustainablegreenlake.com/ for more information on this awesome group.
Christian will be driving to eastern Washington on Saturday to pickup the produce so if you want to participate in the order please mail checks for the amount of produce you want to:
Christian Rusby
1128 N. 80th St.
Seattle, WA 98103
Make your check out directly to Christian.
Items available as long as supplies last:
Potatoes. 80 cents a pound.
Yellow Finn, Alby Gold (yellow potato), purple
Winter squash. Various varieties. 75 cents a pound.
Spaghetti squash, Butternut, smaller amounts of Blue Hubbard, Sweetmeat, Buttercup
Delicata ($1 a pound)
Beets (Golden, Detroit, Cylindrica) $1.50 a pound, limited amounts
Carrots (Nantes). $1.75 # limited amounts
Christian will need your check by Friday at 8pm in order to purchase produce for you but please also email your order directly to me, annette (at) pollywogbaby.com so I can update the master spreadsheet. Please specify variety and quantities for your order. Special thanks to Christian for setting this up and delivering for us!
I’ll be posting recipes for borscht, beet and/or carrot kvass, lacto-fermented beets and carrots, beet/carob muffins (you would never know the secret ingredient, I promise!), Swedish Christmas Salad (Jullsalad) and beet/carrot juice in the coming weeks.
Both beets and carrots dehydrate quickly when grated or sliced and can be later added to soups, muffins, quickbreads and cakes.
To store beets and carrots in your garage for several months twist (not cut which can damage the tuber) the greens off about an inch above the crown and store in slightly damp sand in a wooden box or rubber bin. Potatoes will last many months when stored in paper, mesh or burlap bags in a garage but be sure they are kept dark or the skins can green which can be toxic.
Winter squash can be stored in cardboard boxes or on wooden shelves with good air circulation in a garage. Delicata (aptly named) will not last quite as long but the others should last 3-5 months. You can also roast and puree then freeze or can the squash to use in baking and soups throughout the winter.
Check any stored produce semi-monthly and remove any that are rotting or the whole bunch will begin to rot.
Thanks again Christian for making this happen!
4 responses so far ↓
1 Auburn // Oct 22, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Seattle is such a nice and cozy place to live. Not only the weather is warmer out there (compared to New England), you know.
BTW, I’ve been meaning to tell you that, through realmilk.com, I found a CSA farm that’s just a 20 minute drive away
. We were lucky they still had a share available and the people are SO nice. Lovely couple with five gorgeous kiddos. The CSA box includes milk, eggs, chickens, pork and goat meat.
I wish there were more organic/sustainable farms around here. The very few local organic farmers I know of only grow a very limited range of crops and none of them grow heirlooms.
For the past nine years we’ve been buying great produce from a farmer 25 miles south of here but it isn’t organic
. He offers and amazing variety of heirlooms but he says he can’t maintain such diversity farming organically because of our weather – short season, very rainy springs and most years it stays too wet well into mid summer. In these past nine years only two seasons (2001 and 2006) were dry enough for most crops. This year he lost two thirds of his crops, the blight was everywhere…
Anyway, thanks to the CSA farm, most of the food we are eating now is organic and local. We also buy raw honey by the pail (60 lb), which is the only sweetener we use now, from a (kinda local – he’s 75 miles west of here) beekeeper.
In a couple of months hubby will fell about a dozen of the oaks and pine trees that cast the most shade on our yards so, hopefully, I’ll be able to grow some veggies next year.
I’d love to be able to do what you do but, unfortunately, here things are so different in every aspect…
Big hug.
2 Auburn // Oct 23, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Thanks for the book recommendation, Annette. I’ll check it out.
BTW, today I went to the farm to pick up milk and eggs for the week. We were talking about their wonderful eggs, which reminded me of your sweet Pot Pie so I told them about your chickens not laying eggs and Patrick, the farm owner, said “it’s the light.” He said that chickens will lay eggs through the winter if you mimic summer light conditions by placing one or more lamps on a timer. I realize that the problem with your chickens has more to do with their being inexperienced than with not enough daylight (plus the days are not yet that short) but I thought it’d mention it, in case you didn’t know.
3 pete croppi // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:54 pm
hello, iam interested in yellow finn potatoes. i live in maple valley washington, and would like to find a place close . to purchase them . thank you.
4 admin // Jul 28, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Hi Pete, this was last year’s but we will be doing the same thing again with the same farmer this year. Keep reading for updates later in the summer. There will be a large tomato buy soon, and then the fall squash and taters.
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