Prairie Heritage Farm

5 Reasons to Join a Farm Share (CSA) Program

The Prairie Heritage Farm Vegetable Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) is a unique way to get local, seasonal, healthy, organic vegetables to your table every week.

We offer two types of shares: A full share (delivered every week) and a half share (delivered every other week). A full share will feed a family of 3-4, or a couple who eats a lot of vegetables. A half share is great for a light-veggie-eating couple or one person.

A typical July share.

See more information here.

Now, to the 5 reasons you should join...

1. Eat local.

Eating from your “foodshed” has many benefits. The first one is easy to quantify because it's economic. Each dollar you spend with a local farmer multiplies as we send it back into our community via stores, suppliers, mechanics and the like. The next benefit is a bit more nebulous, but just as powerful: taste of place. When you eat locally, you are cultivating a taste of where you live – putting the “culture” into agriculture. And, the closer your food is, the less fuel it takes to get to you and the fresher it is. Which brings us to ...

2. Eat fresh.

And by “fresh” we mean truly fresh – as in picked that morning. Fresh food not only tastes better (and we're talking way better), it lasts longer, which means you waste less and save money.

3. Eat organic.

Organic is about more than just what a farmer doesn't do. Of course, we don't use synthetic fertilizers or chemicals of any kind. But, being certified organic doesn't stop there. It means we are caring for the whole ecosystem in which our farm operates, doing things like rotating crops to build the soil, planting trees to keep erosion down and making sure that our seeds were also developed organically, among many other things. We take the extra steps to certify ourselves because even though we have a relationship with most of the people who eat our food, (and thus, they know how we farm) we believe that the checks and balances and education that certification offers helps the organic community at large – and that means we are supporting the promise that when you buy anything “organic” you can be certain that it lives up to that name.

4. Eat creatively.

Each week, you'll get something new in your share – maybe even something you've never had before. Eating in season means you get to be an “Iron Chef” of sorts. When you start a meal based on what's best and fresh right now, it changes the way you see food. It changes the way it tastes. It's endlessly fun to experiment and create when the food is this good and fresh. And, we all get to be creative together. We love sharing recipes from our own kitchen as well as those of our customers. Each week, you'll get lots of ideas for how to use all these veggies in our newsletter.

5. Know your farm, your farmer and your food.

Knowing your farmer means you get to create a different kind of relationship with your food. When you get to really be a part of a farm, as you are with a farm share, you get an important connection. Not only do you get an upfront look at the health and safety of your food, but you also share in both the bounty and the risk of farming. And because of that, food becomes something more than just a means to an end, more than just fuel or a commodity. It becomes personal. You start watching the weather. You start thinking differently about soil and fertility and the seasons.

Find out more and how you can join the Prairie Heritage Farm CSA here.

Happy Earth Day: Celebrate by Supporting Local Food in the Great Falls Area!

Happy Earth Day! To celebrate, we planted hundreds of trees today to build the shelterbelt along the South side of the vegetable garden.

And, today also kicks off a great promotion with 2J's Fresh Market in Great Falls in which the market is giving away farm shares from Prairie Heritage Farm and our friends at Groundworks Farm up the road. To enter, you need to "like" 2J's Facebook page and comment on the picture announcing the contest.

2J's has been a big supporter of what we do. In general, they do a lot to help promote local food in the Great(er) Falls area, but they also buy and sell quite a few of our veggies.

This year, we're planning to produce even more for the market. We will be at the store on Friday afternoon to sample a few of our favorite dishes and talk to people about local agriculture and Community Supported Agriculture farm shares. Come by and say hello if you're in the neighborhood.

And, now, in other news from the farm.

We have pigs. (Thanks to the pork operation over at Groundworks. Hoo boy. They raise some good pastured pork.)

And sheep.

And sheep with baby lambs.

And on the grains front, we've started working with this ahhh-maze-ing coffee shop in Great Falls, The Crooked Tree. They've been experimenting with some of our flour and will be using some of our veggies this season as well in their baked goods.

And we've been doing some experimenting on our own. Sonora Heritage Wheat makes super good whole-wheat tortillas. It's truly incredible how different something can taste when you use fresh, high-quality ingredients. (I detest flour tortillas normally.) We're thinking of calling these Willa's Tortillas. (See what I did there?)

Farro Recipe: Prairie Farrotto

The last two weekends, we've been offering tastings of our favorite ancient grain: Farro. As I've mentioned before, our Prairie Farro is quite versatile. It's great in soups, salads or as hot cereal. It's a big, nutty, flavorful grain that feels hearty and healthy.

Lately, I've been making quite a bit of "Farrotto" -- like risotto, only with Farro. The trick here is to pre-cook the Farro a little to open up the grain and get it ready to absorb all the goodness in which you're about to simmer it. (Our Prairie Farro takes a little longer to cook because it's the whole grain. Most other Farro or Emmer you might find in stores is cracked or pearled, which is fine if you want to shave off a little cooking time, but pearling does strip away some of the nutrients and fiber and flavor of the grain. We're big proponents of eating truly whole grains so we everything is there to do as nature intended it to do, so our grains are always whole.)

Here's a favorite version, but feel free to play around with spices, etc.

Prairie Farrotto

1 cup Prairie Farro (Email us at farmer -at- prairieheritagefarm.com to order some. We ship!)

1 Tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic

½ onion, chopped

1 Stalk celery

1 medium carrot

1 cup broth

½ c dry white wine

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp dried sage (or basil or whatever strikes your fancy)

Parmesean cheese (for the top)

Fresh parsley (for the top)

In large pot, boil Prairie Farro for 45 minutes to an hour, until tender and chewy. Drain. (I boil our Farro like you would pasta – in lots of water and then drained.)

In heavy-bottomed large saucepan or pot, saute onions and garlic in olive oil until softened.
Add celery and carrots and saute until glistening.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper and sage.
Add Farro and stir, gently sauteeing the grain until shiny.
Add wine, broth and bay leaves and turn heat down to a low simmer.
Simmer for about 30 minutes to an hour, adding more broth and stirring as needed if grain gets dry.
Serve hot and sprinkled with good, strong Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

The 2013 Season (Year 5 of ?)

By far, the biggest news of 2013 was the birth of our second child, a son we named Elias Leavy, who was born on May 9th. As I write this, he's a smiling, giggling, crawling, solid-food-eating little 8-month old. As when Willa was born (who is now 3), every day is an entirely new experience, fraught with challenges, but also delights. Sleep and routine are relative terms.

Courtney continues her part-time work in addition to teaching an online class for the University of Montana. I lobbied at the state legislature for a farm organization from January through April and taught an online class for UM as well. I also took on work as a substitute Postal Service rural mail carrier. That means that I deliver the mail when the main carrier is sick or takes vacation (about 30 days a year).

2013 was our first full season on our new farm. We had broken ground for the vegetables the previous fall, but felt we needed just a bit more room, so worked more ground in the spring. We have about 4 acres under cultivation. That ground also includes cover crops, milk thistle, our heritage and ancient wheat trials, and our dry flour corn.