Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section

2013 Marks 20 years at Tecolote Farm!

By on December 22, 2012 in

We are thrilled to celebrate 20 full years farming the rich blackland prairie soils of our beloved home farm this year.  So much has happened to us, to Austin, to eastern Travis County in two decades, not the least of which is the community of people that has in one way or another sprung up via an affiliation with our farm.  Buoyed by this network, we are ready to start the next twenty years strong, with many new projects in the wings, and a strong, committed team. Speaking of our Farm Crew of Destiny, we just received this lovely, hand-crafted Christmas present from 2012 crew member and rising manager, Earl, who put this enduring Tecolote Farm philosophy into a physical reminder for the wash area:

Nice work, Earl! Additionally, this pastry chef-turned-farmer co-wrote our grant application to the Austin Food and Wine Alliance , and we were selected! AFWA received 30 applications, from which they had to choose only 3 grant award winners. We were proud to accept the grant, which will help us get our longstanding plans off the ground to 1. raise heritage breeds of pastured pork and 2. offer subsidized CSA shares for low income families in the area. Thank you to the grant selection committee and to the Board of Austin Food and Wine Alliance- we know we were in good company and you had hard choices to make.

These are just a couple of the big things happening in 2013, our 20th anniversary year! We are accepting new CSA members for the 2013 season. Prices are not going up and we’ll be delivering the same Awesome, not Perfect vegetables that have kept Austin happy for 20 years! Check out our CSA page for more information.   Merry Christmas~ Happy New Year!

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

Field and Feast visits Tecolote

By on April 28, 2012 in

Image courtesy fieldandfeast.com

Cecilia Nasti came out to the farm on the same evening that our crew was shooting skeet after work. She wasn’t ruffled, however, to hear gunshots at an organic farm. Her “real job” at Texas Parks and Wildlife has her covering hunting issues as well as natural places of beauty for their radio pieces about Texas Parks.  She recently did a story on nothing other than… skeet shooting. It was a true pleasure to hang out on the back deck with this Austin original and our one-time neighbor. Her love of food, gardening, and cooking is evident: her Field and Feast show, which airs on KUT every weekend and took the place of Growing Concerns, is her own baby. She does it to spread the good word about farm-to-table connections. Her podcast about Tecolote is airing on KUT this Saturday, April 28, at 11:55 a.m., or Sunday, April 30, at 11:01 a.m. You can also hear the podcast anytime from her website.

Cecilia Nasti, fieldandfeast.com

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

Sorrel Soufflé

By on April 18, 2012 in

From Monday basketeer Stephanie Johnson.

Hi Katie, Here’s the recipe for the souffle.  It was really good; cheesy and tangy!  I love sorrel.  I had never even seen sorrel before I got my first Tecolote bunch however many years back it’s been.   It was actually quite easy to make, I hope lots of people will try it!   Love, Stephanie

Sorrel Soufflé   (Adapted from Mark Bittman’s Cheese Soufflé in How to Cook Everything)

4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick butter), plus 1 teaspoon

¼ cup flour

1½ cups milk, warmed until hot to the touch

6 eggs, separated

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Dash cayenne or 1/8 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup grated Parmesan or other hard cheese, like aged asiago, Pecorino Romano

I small shallot, minced

1 cup sorrel puree (1 bunch, stemmed and sautéed in 1 Tbsp. olive oil until it becomes a puree

 

Preheat the oven to 400°. Use the teaspoon of butter to grease a 2-quart soufflé dish or other deep baking dish, such as a Corningware-type dish. If you want to make individual soufflés, use a little more butter and grease four 1 ½ – to 2-cup ramekins.

Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the remaining butter. When it foams,add the flour and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring, until the mixture darkens a bit, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time to avoid lumps, and then cook until the mixture is thick, just a minute or two longer.

Turn off heat and stir in the egg yolks, salt, pepper, cayenne or mustard, cheese, shallots

and sorrel puree. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt, just until they hold soft peaks. Stir a couple of spoonfuls of the beaten whites into the batter, and then very gently—and not overly thoroughly—fold in the remaining whites using a rubber spatula. Be as gentle as possible.

Turn the batter into the prepared dish(es) and bake until the soufflé has risen and is browned on top, about 15 to 40 minutes (the lower timing is for smaller, individual soufflés; a single soufflé will take 30 minutes or more.) Use a thin skewer to check the interior; if it is still quite wet, bake another 5 minutes. If it is just a bit moist, the soufflé is done. Serve immediately.

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

First Fall CSA ever off to a great start

By on November 10, 2011 in

We had a wicked 22° wake-up last Friday morning, which gave us quite a scare. Although we had much of the field covered in anticipation of the low 30s, we couldn’t possibly have covered everything. The cucumber and squash plants were flattened, and any pepper and eggplant rows we hadn’t covered were toast. Everything suffered a little-even the cold-hardy beet and turnip tops were cringing, but as you can see from today’s basket, plenty survived with nutritional and aesthetic radiance. Our fear was that the head lettuces would be history, but just look at that romaine! We’ll have red iceberg for you next week, and probably beets as well. As my father, a lifelong citrus farmer, tells us, “You know you’re the biggest gamblers there are.” That’s farming. But the payoff is worth it at dinnertime. Our eldest, Zachary, will come home from India next Sunday. We are daydreaming of our first meal all together again, sharing life over dinner.Thanks for your support & appreciation of good food. Now, may the freezes be light and the baskets be heavy.

October 24, 2011

Welcome to the First Ever Fall Tecolote Basket Season!

“Wonder of wonder, miracle, miracle!” Here we go with our first-ever Fall CSA at Tecolote Farm! It didn’t seem like such a bad idea at the time: taking July off of our regular basket season to celebrate our two eldest children’s graduations from High School and Middle School, to show them that even farm kids can  occasionally have a summer vacation worthy of a first day back –to-school essay.  It didn’t seem like such a bad idea that we would make up for this lapse from real life by having a Fall CSA season. But then September was in the 110s, or at least never below 95. Not a drop fell from the sky. Nearby Bastrop County burned. Our first plantings of salad greens, turnips, leafy greens were germinating poorly or being overwhelmed by weed pressure; our green beans couldn’t tolerate the heat; the struggle to keep the ground moist in high winds and record-breaking heat made it all seem for naught.  First plantings of many things were tilled in as failures. Yet here we are today: eating turnips roasted and greens braised, chard in our omelettes and squash fritters for dinner. It’s vibrant, nutritious, and delicious. Hooray for risks taken and harvests earned! Hooray for an inch-and-a-half rain that quells the despair and the soil temperature to boot!

Thanks for coming on board with us– we’re so glad you will be eating what we’re eating for the next 4-9 weeks of what’s got to be my favorite season in Texas: the one farthest away from the next hot spell! Your support of local family farms is an investment worth taking. Your choice to buy direct from a farmer cuts out some cost and definitely gets you the freshest, tastiest produce money can buy. We appreciate your trust & support, and appreciate your commitment to eating well.  Now, let’s eat!

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

Keeping the faith

By on September 16, 2011 in


We hope you have all survived the hottest, driest central Texas summer in recorded history! While our plans to take the kids on a road trip to the mountain ranges of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana preceded knowledge of the horrendous summer that lay ahead, in retrospect we feel very fortunate that we weren’t picking okra in 107° all July!! I know many of you missed the okra, melons, tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumber-melons that late summer baskets bring, but have no fear: we’ll be doing summer season as usual starting again in 2012.
The real question on everyone’s mind, though, is: “Will there even be a fall season in this dratted weather, and, if so, when will it start?” We planned and were excited about a fall CSA (our first ever), so we plunged right in- despite the daunting late August/early September weather- and got seeds started in plug trays (in the cooler!) and transplants in the hot ground. We wanted to start the first week of October, or last week of September. It has been an act of hope planting into hard, dry ground full of clods, and keeping the soil moist enough to entice germination and continued life. We sent Zachary, our eldest, up to Jarrell one day with the truck and trailer to purchase 3 round bales of corn stalks for use as mulch. The newly-transplanted peppers and eggplants wouldn’t have survived without protection, and there was not a stalk of untreated hay or straw to be had within all surrounding counties. Corn farmers who lost their crop still baled the stalks to sell for feed to hay-starved livestock, beneficial at least for caloric value.
So, the short answer is: “Yes, we still plan to do a Fall CSA, and hope to start in mid October.” The long answer is, “We are doing everything we can to ensure a varied and bountiful crop for fall baskets, but are losing a lot to the heat and low soil moisture. Baskets will be $33, as before, and a rough estimate now is a 4-6 week season.
Luckily, our new Bastrop County land was not touched by the fires. We have friends who have lost their homes, and a neighbor who lost her brother, to the wildfires. It is at times like these that we count our blessings and remember those who are suffering most directly. Thanks for keeping the wildfire victims and Texas farmers in your thoughts and prayers.

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

First ever Fall CSA

By on July 19, 2011 in

We will be inspired and refreshed for our first ever Fall basket subscription service- hope you can participate!

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

Summer goodness…. in more ways than one!

By on June 27, 2011 in

[Gallery not found] photos courtesy of ACC photography student Chelsie Ybarra

We will still be at the Austin Farmers Market Downtown and the Cedar Park Market on Saturday, July 2nd, then we’re loading up the kids for a 4th of July food fest with friend and farmer Loncito, of Loncito’s Lamb fame, before heading out of town for a little graduation (wow, you grew up fast!) celebratory road trip. The kids sure are growing up fast, and farm life doesn’t leave much time for summer vacations. Our kids work hard right alongside us, and we’re treating them to a real summer vacation this year for a change: a little road trip, complete with camping and backpacking in cooler elevations!
In spite of the relieving effect of last Tuesday night’s wonderful, seemingly miraculous one inch rain, I still think we picked a good year to let the fields rest in July and August, and take up again in September. What a summer we’ve had already, and here Tuesday, June 21st’s Summer Solstice supposedly just marked Summer’s First Day. Ha! Although we don’t have too many summer crops planted, we do have a few that were intended to help us get through our CSA deliveries. Well, they were a little late in making, so come down to the market for the only tastes of Tecolote Summertime you’ll have this summer! David and I will each bring a taste of TOMATOES and tomatillos, and we’ll have just a sampling of gorgeous purple eggplant. Still lots of great late spring goodness happening too-here’s what you’ll find on our tables at  the Cedar Park Farmers’ market (Lakeline Mall parking lot, behind Sears and Dillards) and at SFC Farmers Market Downtown (I’m at 5th/San Antonio corner of Republic Square Park).

Please check out our Facebook Page  and like us there so you can see all the great photographs customers have been taking of their veggies and CSA baskets. Speaking of CSA, we are going to start our First Ever Fall CSA this October- drop me a line at tecolotefarm@gmail.com if you’re interested!

Continue Reading · Comments { 1 }

Green beans, romano beans, puffy clouds, and growing teens

By on May 26, 2011 in

Took seven of us almost three hours to pick all the green beans the other day. Hot- 104 degrees yesterday- when the first relatives came in to celebrate the two graduations happening this and next week. Here’s the cloud that ended the 104 degree day, and the kids who played below it.  8th grade and 12th grade graduations coming up- big times around here. I forgot to take a picture of all the green beans and romano beans in the cooler. Hundreds of pounds! Thanks to Texas French Bread, Monument Market, Eastside Showroom, and Farmhouse Delivery and Greenling for taking some of these off our hands! Also, our CSA customers have been ordering extra! There will be lots more for YOU at the markets this weekend!!

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

Pretty pretty

By on May 16, 2011 in

Whether you’re visiting Farmer Dave at the Cedar Park Farms to Market or Katie at the Downtown market, you’re sure to find the prettiest, crispest, tastiest, freshest produce anywhere. And, if that’s not enough, it’s certified organic and certified good! Let us hear from you if you want us to continue at Sunset Valley…[Gallery not found]

Continue Reading · Comments { 0 }

May 14th is Three Market Saturday

By on May 11, 2011 in

You can find us at three Saturday farmers markets starting May 14th. All three go from 9 am to 1 pm, but be sure to arrive by 10:30 a.m. for the best selection. You can find us at the downtown Austin Farmers Market, the Cedar Park Farms to Market at Lakeline Mall, and back again at Sunset Valley Farmers Market, We’ll be bringing gorgeous red turnips like those pictured below, as well as our wildly beautiful Tecolote “Fiesta Beets”~ a riotous color splash of golden, blood red and hot pink Chioggia beets in mixed bunches. Salad mixes and large leafy greens are still here- enjoy them before the summer devours their splendour!

In addition to beets, turnips, watermelon radishes, DAIKON radishes, escarole, radicchio, flat-leaf parsley and lots of leafy greens, we are still selling some of our hand-drilled birdhouse gourds. If you’d like to pre-order some of these lovely garden adornments or would prefer some gourds without amendments, email us at the farm at tecolotefarm at g mail dot com and we’ll set some aside for you.  Lebanese summer squash are coming in like wildfire, and they are super tasty in all their thin-skinned flavor. Our friend Emmett Fox at Asti likes to slice them thinly on a mandolin, long-ways, and dress them a ricotta salata, lemon, oil, and basil-mint drizzle. Simply divine.

Please come find us at a market this coming Saturday! We’d love to share the freshness of the garden with you.

Continue Reading · Comments { 1 }
Older posts