The fresh behind the flavor



For a little five-acre farm, we've got a lot growin' on, especially in our classic, old-world herb garden. You'd be hard pressed to find a wider variety of great herbs growing in one place, complete with a lotus-flower pond.

We owe many of our most famous flavors at Summer Jo's to the fact that fresh herbs are but a short stroll away from the kitchen. It's common to find someone from the kitchen in the garden harvesting the fresh herbs found in favorites such as our Creamy Tarragon Dressing, Rosemary Rolls, and Lavender Lemonade.

So the next time you're in for a meal, we encourage you to set aside a few minutes to amble around the herb garden where you'll find common classics like sage, oregano, sorrel, rosemary, lavender, and lemon thyme growing alongside herbal medicinals. Signs are posted near each plant that tell you what's what. You'll see why a good herb garden is Mother Nature's pharmacy.

Spring hard wheat comes in big!



Most folks around the valley know that Summer Jo's bakes some of the best artisan bread this side of the Rogue River, but what you may not know is that we also grow some of our own wheat, certified-organic of course. And while it's not enough to keep up with demand for our breakfast bagels, dinner rolls, pizza crusts, sandwich slices, and artisan loaves, you can almost always be guaranteed that there's a little local wheat in every bite of our bread. This year our beautiful stand of Spring hard wheat, a variety called Ingot, came in at almost 1500 pounds, four times more than before.

Summer Jo's is best known for gourmet food, artisan bread, Araucana eggs, and organic produce, but we also grow a dazzling array of flowers here on the farm. Take a stroll, and you'll see (and smell!) roses, gladiolas, coreopsis, lotus, sunflowers, and crocosmias along with edible flowers such as chive blossoms, dianthus, bachelor buttons, calendula, chrysanthemum, arugula blossoms, and more. We love to sprinkle edible petals on your plate for that extra splash of summer color!

In addition to serving three meals a day, four days a week here on the farm, and supplying fresh-baked artisan bread to grocers throughout the valley, we really love going to our great local grower's markets. Everything that comes out of the ground at Summer Jo's is certified organic. So the next time you're at the Saturday markets in Ashland or Grants Pass, stop by our stand for carrots, snow peas, mixed greens galore, and a dozen beautiful little blue eggs produced from our very own flock of Araucana chickens. We usually have fresh bread on hand too.

» Visit Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market
» Visit Grant's Pass Growers' Market

Hello lettuce lovers! Got Freckles? We do, along with Red Leaf, Parris Island Romaine, Red Salad Bowl, Green Salad Bowl, Tango Lettuce, Arugula, Shungiku, Osaka Purple Mustard, Mizuna, and Golden Thrill Tatsoi. That's our Mesclun Salad Mix and it's available at the farm or at the markets. The next time you're at the restaurant with family and friends, remember to take them on a quick tour of the farm to see where their greens were grown. It doesn't get any fresher.

Our new Aracauna chicks aren't the only winged ones we're welcoming to the farm this spring. This season, five hives will call our five-acre farm home, at least long enough to buzz about and do what bees to do best, keep the farm fertile and make some sweet stuff that we can stir into our tea.

Thanks to local beekeeper David Lytle, our old storeroom is about to become our new bee shop. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM, The Bee Shop will carry just about everything you need to keep bees and then some. We'll let you know when it's open. Just watch the eBee for updates.

Summer Jo's is happy to welcome some new winged members to our farm family. Our fertile little flock of Araucana chickens is now 140 strong, and we expect our lovely ladies to produce around seven dozen delicious blue-tinted eggs a day. Egg lovers, now is your chance to get dibs on a dozen. They are available at Summer Jo's as well as the Saturday Grants Pass and Ashland growers markets. They're so cute, you kinda don't want to cook them up.

Saturday, April 10 • 10AM - 4PM

The Southern Oregon Beekeepers presents Bee School: The Science and Art of Beekeeping in the Rogue Valley.

This is a course for everyone from beginning beekeepers to seasoned veterans featuring a lecture and hands-on demonstrations of the beekeeper's role during all the phases of the bee's lifecycle.

This year's topics include:

Bee Biology
Life Cycle, Seasonal Cycle, Flower Phenology Winter Preparation, Winter Cluter
with Dr. Lynn Royce,m OSU Entomologist

Queen Bee Selection and Overwintering
with John Jacobs, Old Sol Bees, Rogue River, OR

Prepaid registration can be made by calling Ann Padgett on (541) 592-4678 or emailing here on padgett25 [at] frontiernet.net. The cost is $25 for SOBA members and $35 for non-members which includes membership dues.

See you Saturday!

Sophie Jo, the official Summer Jo's Labradoodle, will celebrate her first birthday on February 23rd. She invites you to join her Facebook page.

We just can't get enough of their delicious, nutritious eggs. We'll be bringing lots more to market. According to a study by Mother Earth News, free-range, pasture-fed eggs compared to eggs from confined birds averaged 3 times the vitamin E, 1.5 times the Vitamin A, 7 times the Beta Carotene, and 3 times the Omega-3s, with only 65 percent of the cholesterol and 75 percent of the saturated fat. Isn't that eggciting? And ours are Certified Organic.

Our new farm manager is a familiar face: Marggy Wheeler has been our Greenhouse Manager for 10 years. Now, as Matthew Molyneaux spends more time out and about certifying organic farms as an official inspector, Marggy is stepping up to the Farm Manager position. Thankfully, Matt is still going to be around though, as our highly valued organic consultant. Many of you may know Marggy from Southern Oregon Yoga Center.

We got an email from former farm manager Paul Hudak with a link to this excellent article on the high school CSA he's running in Portland.

Here at Summer Jo's, the bulk of our farming operations has moved inside the greenhouse now.

We're still sowing and harvesting salad greens but because the soil and air temperature is so low, growth has slowed considerably. Outdoors we still have calendula and kale and brussels sprouts, as well as some perennial herbs.

The chickens are laying between 16 and 25 eggs a day. They squawk about the cold but still come outside to play each day. And it looks like Sophie Jo has trained them to stay inside their pen. For awhile there, they were flying outside their pen in search of greener pastures, which makes them vulnerable to predators. But Sophie Jo regularly chased them back in the pen, and now they don't even try.

—Mike Swaine

Eggplants, tomatoes, sweet corn, melons, raspberries, peppers, cukes, and zukes! It's summertime and the livin' is yummy. Here's a recipe for you'all:

Ingredients

6 ears of corn
2 jalapeno peppers, roasted and peeled
2 scallions, minced
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1 1/2 cups of cherry tomatoes halved

Dressing

1/2 ripe avocado sliced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 cup buttermilk or Nancy's yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons ground cumin

Method

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the corn and let the water return to a boil. cover the pot, turn off the heat, and leave the corn for 10 minutes. Transfer the corn to a plate and let it cool. Scrape the kernels into a large bowl. Add peppers, scallions, cilantro, and cherry tomatoes. Toss.

In a food processor, combine avocado, mustard, garlic, lemon juice, buttermilk or yogurt, sour cream, and cumin. Process until smooth. Add the dressing to salad and toss. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours (so seasonings mingle) before serving.

Our Araucana chickens have just started laying! It will be a little while before we have eggs in production quantities, but when that happens, you'll be able to buy them at Grants Pass Grower's Market and Ashland Farmer's Market on Saturdays, and at the Summer Jo's Farm Stand right here on the farm. They're Oregon Tilth-certified organic, free-range, and -- we can now tell you from direct experience -- delicious!

— Michael Swaine

If you've enjoyed the decor of our entryway or our farm stand, thank Dwayne Lumpkin. His creations are for sale, but it's also acceptable just to enjoy looking at them. Now Dwayne has added to his collection of Anthropologie-catalog-like furnishings at the Summer Jo farmstand, spilling out into the patio area. Come check out the winsome wheelbarrows, work tables, picnic benches, and farmpails.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of farm art, you might enjoy the "gallery" of old farm implements Matt has set up alongside the greenhouse out on the farm. Not in the league of Dewayne's creations, but the term whimsy does apply. You did know that you're invited to walk around the farm while you're at Summer Jo's, didn't you?

-Nancy

There's a new face at Summer Jo's. Sophie Jo, our future Official Greeter, arrived on May 3 and has been spending the past few weeks getting acquainted with the farm and the staff and learning the kinds of things that an 11-week-old puppy needs to learn.

When she's a little older her serious schooling will begin. And she has a lot to learn: we want her to know to walk between the rows of plants, not through them. We want her to feel protective toward our chickens. And we want her to be able to interact with Summer Jo's guests on the front lawn in a respectful and dignified way, with no barking or begging. And that's asking a lot, because the temptations of all those people eating outdoors will be huge.

So although you may meet her in the parking lot when she's out for a scheduled walk, don't expect to see her roaming freely just yet. But she'll be around and we'd be happy to introduce you to her. Just ask.

-Nancy

Spring planting time is upon us. Days are much warmer and nights are staying out of the 30's here, so it's time to plant. Cloudy and cooler days are good for setting out small transplants, but watch out for overheating and sunburn on the leaves when it's hot. We have been selling lots of our gourmet salad mix at the Saturday growers market, along with baby spinach, arugula, radishes, and cilantro. We are also selling certified organic heirloom tomato plants, eggplant, and pepper starts. These are also available at Summer Jo's during business hours.

It's exciting that so many people in the community are growing vegetable gardens this year. I see a lot of interest in saving money and living more sustainably. Let's hope more organic gardening catches on, as home gardeners are moving away from using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. A good place to start is buying local organically grown plants for your garden.

While we love to see our customers growing their own, it does require us to examine our market strategies. I am encouraged to plant more unusual varieties to offset the garden-variety stuff. We are trying some new eggplant varieties (5), lots of winter squash, purple potatoes, burdock root, and 4 types of dry beans. Hopefully folks will be interested in expanding the variety of local produce they buy, picking up things they are not growing themselves.
We will have strawberries and blueberries to add to our raspberry and blackberry crops this year. Providing much of the abundance to the restaurant kitchen for preserving and freezing allows for year 'round treats. It's almost time for lavender lemonade, as our hundreds of plants are showing signs of budding. Fresh lavender bunches are a great compliment to any dinner table.

Many of our culinary herbs are also available soon, as we usually have thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint, dill, cilantro, parsley, and chives available.
Well, it's back to setting up the drip irrigation for now. I always make sure to have the water in place and working properly before planting, so there are no chances for dying out on these windy and warm spring days. Keep planting!

-Matt Molyneaux, farm manager

(Update: new pix)



They were a bit jetlagged, having spent more than half their young lives in transit, but they were soon eating, drinking, and hanging out together in the brooder. See the gallery. Update: we've added some pix to show how they've grown.

A long-time customer told me a story about a friend of hers who had retired and moved to a small town. The friend had chosen her retirement home for its small-town charm: she said she just loved the little shops.

Flash forward a couple of years. Now the charming little mom-and pop shops are gone, victims of the economic downturn. And my customer's friend is wondering why she is even there.

Or rather, she knows why she's there: her home value has dropped so low she can't afford to leave.

As I listened, my heart skipped a beat. I thought, "there but for the grace of God go I." We moved to this small town ten years ago, not to retire but to start a business.
To me, the owner of one of those small local family businesses, the moral of the story seems perfectly (and painfully) clear: we should all be supporting local businesses if we want this kind of community to survive.

But in these tough economic times families have to tighten their belts. I certainly understand that.

I guess I just want to say, if you do have dollars to spend and you care about the character of our community, do think about supporting local businesses.
It makes a difference.

-Nancy

Sam has been hard at work building the chickens their new home.

We grow all kinds of good things on the farm, but most of them keep their feet on -- or rather, in -- the ground. But we've been wanting to grow our own farm-fresh, pastured, organic eggs. And that means chickens. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In our case, it's the chicken. Chickens. Lots of them. So this spring you'll be seeing a bunch of baby chicks running around the farm and looking cute. We're building our flock a grand, movable home so they can explore our fields, eat bugs and weeds, and lay us some certified organic eggs. Look for the eggs soon at Growers' Market and come on out to the farm and watch the chicks grow.

As we do every January, Mike and Nancy made a pilgrimage to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit friends and family and to do what we like to call fine dining research.

This year we researched lunch at Greens and Slanted Door. Slanted Door specializes in small plates, something we plan to do more of in 2009. And the legendary Greens restaurant is an inspiration for all we do at Summer Jo's.

Touring the 5-story recreation of a tropical rain forest at the California Academy of Sciences was inspiring in a different way, reinforcing our recognition of how dependent we all are on the elaborate and subtle balance of nature.

Slanted Door is in San Francisco's Ferry Building, and while there we checked out all the markets that do business there. Acme Bread Company, Cowgirl Creamery, Prather Ranch, Gary West Meats, and Anderson Ranch had a presence, and there was produce from local Bay Area farms.

We also attended (more research) the Fancy Food Show in the city, where we tasted (researched, that is) many cheeses in anticipation of adding a cheese menu to the restaurant's offerings in 2009. And as we roamed the aisles of fancy foods, we were pleased to run into a number of friends from here at home, including the folks from Cary's, Gary West, Lillie Belle Chocolates, and The Rogue Creamery.

In "The Soul of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman, Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry tells his rabbit story. The story is about the pursuit of perfection and a moment of epiphany that defines Keller's philosophy of working with food. Here is the rabbit story:

In his desire to work with the freshest ingredients possible, Keller asked his rabbit purveyor to bring his next batch of rabbits live. So there he was, with a cage full of cute little rabbits, dinner service only hours away, and as he grabbed a rabbit, the rabbit screamed and struggled, breaking its leg. It kept screaming louder and louder and only after some effort did Keller manage to kill it. There were ten more rabbits to go. Keller stunned, killed, skinned, gutted, and butchered all ten rabbits that week and in doing so came to revere the lives of those rabbits. Their lives would not be meaningless. Their parts would not go to waste. And it was Keller's responsibility to make the best rabbit dish EVER. This philosophy, with its honoring of the gift of life and its deep respect for ingredients, nourishes and invigorates Keller today and is reflected in his cooking.

I was thinking of the rabbit story as I picked blackberries the other day. It isn't easy work: you get scratched and poked and only one out of every ten you touch is ready to be picked: only the ones that come off easily will be the perfect sweetness. If you have to tug too hard, the berry will be sour, not quite ready, save for the following day. So it took me awhile to get a bowlful. But as I picked, I imagined the perfect blackberry jelly, oozing in its blackberryness.

Nancy Groth

Thursday. The heat is on. Time to take a break from the 100+ temps this afternoon, saving energy for tomorrow, our busy harvest day. All day Friday we are picking for the restaurant and Saturday Growers Market. This week brings raspberries, blackberries, haricots vert (french filet green beans), summer squash, basil, colored carrots, and of course our famous salad greens. There are a few broccoli shoots, some melons starting to ripen, and the tomatoes are slowly turning red. The cherry toms have been weighing down the vines for a few weeks now.

Our salad mix was absent from the market last week due to a dip in production and increased demand at the restaurant, where they had a couple near-record nights for the number of diners. I know our regular market customers were sad, but they understood and we're back on line this week.

Our mix contains only the best baby lettuce greens, arugula, tat-soi, mizuna, shungiku, purple orach, a 3-mustard mix, with various other greens when available. This gives us a good balance of crunchy, peppery greens with mild baby lettuce.

It is grown in hand-turned beds in our 100-foot-long greenhouse. A large shade cloth covers the entire greenhouse during the summer months to keep the greens cool and allow the seeds to germinate. Often it is difficult to grow quality lettuce in the heat of summer.

Once harvested by hand, it is soaked immediately in water, where we wash it and remove any weeds. Then it is loaded intol a 5- gallon salad spinner to remove excess water. Next it is put into bins, often segregating the different types of greens so I can mix them proportionally. After mixing and removing any yellow leaves or "off" greens, it is weighed and bagged for the market.

This process happens March through December, ensuring a steady supply. We rotate between each of the 5 beds, planting a new crop every 10-14 days. Whew, a lot of work to get it done, but we know how much it's appreciated and why it stands out above the rest.

The wheat harvest was finished a few weeks ago, with help from Pacific Botanicals just outside of Grants Pass. Owner Mark Wheeler was kind enough to let us use his combine to remove the grain from the stalks. Our HUGE pile of cut wheat plants was reduced to just the grain in only a few hours. As we invest in equipment, our grain growing side of the farm will produce more with less effort. We are in contact with wheat researchers at WSU (Washington State University) to obtain higher yielding varieties in our organic fields of the Rogue Valley.

Thanks for reading... and stay cool.

Matt Molyneaux
Farm Manager

First trip this year off the farm and where do we go?

Sauvie Island, near Portland, where every acre is either fertile farmland or protected wilderness. Acre upon acre of amber wheat waving in the wind. Husky cornstalks standing tall. We saw berrypickers picking raspberries and blackberries and women hand-picking bouquets. We ate juicy peaches paired with Willamette Valley artisan cheese on a beach looking at Washington from the middle of the Columbia river.

Lying on the beach we let the day's experiences wash over us, hoping to gain insights on how to make the Summer Jo farm and restaurant experience better.

As evening arrives we arrive at Higgins, a Portland restaurant known for its support of local artisans, to nosh on vine-ripened tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, burrata (buffalo mozzarella), and basil. Sauvie Island supplies many of the higher end Portland restaurants with super-fresh produce and we were super-happy to experience the field-to-plate connection.

Back on the Farm: We've opened a farmstand and giftshop now, across from the restaurant and, while our real harvesting (corn, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers) is just around the corner, we've set up a U-pick bouquet and U-pick picnic area.

Chef Joy is in her element now, busy working on the summer menu, which will feature our own version of ratatouille (did you see the movie?); organic field green salad with smoked chicken, raspberries, candied walnuts, and Rogue Valley bleu cheese; fresh fruit tarts; and weekly farm-inspired specials. We just love summer, the long lingering days so full of promise and possibility -- it is, by the way, also the perfect time to visit Summer Jo's, to ramble through the fields and gardens before sitting down to what we hope is a transcending meal experience.


Cheers,

Nancy

The heat is returning. We should hit 100 degrees next week, which will end our below-average June weather. This means the plants will start catching up, as the days are longer and nights warmer. A few early veggies being harvested -- broccoli, field greens, summer squash, fava beans, basil, and loads of flowers. We are looking forward to raspberries, strawberries, beans, onions, and melons later this month. Our wheat harvest begins next week, and we are gearing up for literally thousands of pounds of grain. I will post again as the processing continues.

Weeds anyone? The cooler spring has brought back the plants we love to hate, and there is no shortage here. Many weeds are edible and some can tell us things about our soil. Our helpers on the farm are getting to know them very well. Most summer annuals like pigweed (Amaranth sp.), purslane, nut sedge, crabgrass, and bindweed are making their annual invasion. Weeds continue to be the #1 issue for organic farmers everywhere, as the increased labor time necessary to deal with them by hand or with tools adds greatly to the cost of each crop. So when you pay a bit more for organic produce, remember that it's not just because it's "better" for you. There is more energy devoted to growing these crops by hand. Only the best from the fields at Summer Jo's will make it to the table or the market, ensuring quality, healthful produce for our local customers. And we know they enjoy, because they keep coming back!

During this busy time at the restaurant, the chefs are scooping up all the salad mix, squash, herbs, and other greens I can grow. Our booth at the Saturday growers market also gets bought out within the first few hours, which is great for us, but is delaying the farm-stand opening. The inevitable overproduction of our favorite summer produce is still a few weeks off, but stay tuned for our upcoming availability of tomatoes, melons, herbs, flower bouquets, corn, potatoes, and so on....

Matt Molyneaux, Farm Manager
P.S. We got the house!!!

Spring on the farm provided some good early planting weather. All of our cool season favorites are planted and growing well. Cabbage, broccoli, chard, lettuce, kohlrabi, shallots, and leeks among others are dotting the fields. As the cover crops are plowed down and the soil turns bare again, this year's crops are always a perfect vision in my mind. I can see this winter's pencil-drawn plans taking shape, before the first summer plants are set out. There are no pests, or heat, or weeds galore at this time of year sitting on top of the tractor. Just the horizon and fresh aspirations of the long days of work ahead. This year will be much like seasons past, with a few refinements. Some new varieties of tomato, a few less bell peppers and cucumbers, and plans for more copious amounts of our best-selling salad mix. Of course, there will be loads of specialty flower bouquets, freshly bunched herbs every week, and our famous melons. We have also added blueberries and strawberries to complement our blackberries, raspberries, and grapes. This summer should provide the best yields and best variety of local, certified organic produce, grown right here at Summer Jo's.
 
Our wheat harvest will begin in mid-June, and should be processed for baking by the end of the summer. That means when you buy our artisan breads later this year, you will be eating the locally grown organic wheat that you can see growing in our fields right now. Giving the freshest of flavor in our truly local product. We have lots of folks on board to help us with this process, as growing your own grains catches on in the organic farming community. Stay tuned to our site for updates and chances to be involved.
 
As we line up our volunteer workers for the farm this year, we still have room for folks to join us later in the summer. Or, if there is anyone with a year of experience interested in being an intern this season, inquire within. You will be learning directly as my assistant, and providing a crucial role on the farm and at the growers' market this year.
 
There will be lots more to come on our farm page, so keep checking back. The progress throughout the season with be posted here along with what's fresh at our farm stand, and tips on drip irrigation, composting, and seed saving. 
 
Looking forward ....
 
Matt Molyneaux, Summer Jo's Farm Manager