Some Exciting Stuff

I have a bunch of things to share, and they don’t seem to fit anywhere else, so all together, I’m calling them exciting stuff. Here we go…

Sterken Farms – For those of you in my area, I want to mention a local U-Pick farm, Sterken Farms. They came to the Sutherlin Farmer’s Market a couple times last summer. But recently, they added their farm to LocalHarvest.org. They have items available year-round and a great selection of fruits and veggies – all naturally grown. I’ve never been to the farm to do the U-pick; I only bought when they came to the Market. But I hear they’re not always available to go to the market, so I am going to go to them this year. Hopefully starting tomorrow. I could use a better selection of local, seasonal veggies. I’ll let you know! They are open April through October, from 9am to 7pm.

North Douglas County Farmers’ Market – This is for you local friends, too. A new Farmer’s Market in Drain, Oregon. It is only 12 miles from my house; we went on Sunday. Read the listing at the News-Review. It is early yet for produce; only one farm had produce last weekend and they sold out by 11:30am, a half hour after opening. Many vendors had plant starts. I’m thinking things will pick up and if you want me to let you know what we find on future Sundays, I will. The salad pictured was made from the salad mix and broccoli we brought home last Sunday – to which I added carrots and our sprouts. The dressing was fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, dill, sea salt, pepper, and garlic.

Starter Cultures – I am very excited to try culturing foods! (See my Resources page for starter sources of yogurt, kefir, sourdough, buttermilk, and Kombucha). These starters are not manufactured but rather represent the traditional/historical methods for making yogurt, kefir, kombucha and sourdough. For example, most yogurt starters culture at room temperature. You don’t need to heat milk or use a yogurt-maker! The starters work quite well with raw milk and allow people to create truly raw yogurt, buttermilk and kefir. There are 17 different varieties of sourdough starter from all over the world. Soon, I’ll be getting water kefir grains and the New England sourdough starter. I’ll be sharing my experience of working with these starters, so watch for that.

And I think that’s all! Let me know if you have questions or comments about any of these things-