01/13/08 - Dry Creek Farm Update

08/17/07 - Farmers' Market Update

• The Family Farm - Along with the usual vegetables, they have oriental green beans, broad flat romano beans, and New Zealand spinach.
• Rick's Organic Produce - They have great looking romaine, beets, garlic and more is coming.
• Elwha Apiary - Wonderful honey and honey based products.

06/05/07 - Dungeness Valley Creamery Development Rights

According to the Peninsula Daily News, Dungeness Valley Creamery should be staying a dairy for a while now. The Friends of the Fields and the North Olympic Land Trust say they've raised the money to buy the development rights! We've been following this for a while. There's a state matching grant involved, and most likely a number of hurdles remain, but the grant has been matched, and preservation is on the march.

05/17/07 - Peashoot Season at Johnston Farm

The peashoots aren't much to look at. The plants are still pretty small, but the flowers are blooming, and the shoots are still tender. We didn't even know that peashoots were edible until we had them in dumplings at Yank Sing in San Francisco. Pea vines seemed too fibrous for easy eating, and it seemed a shame to eat the shoots and then not have any peas. Now, we know that the young tendrils and leaves are delicious sauteed in sesame oil or olive oil, or just steamed. We add garlic or asian chives or soy sauce for a bit more flavor, but they are very simple to cook.

We can wait for the peas, but the peashoots are here now. They'll be at the Farmers' Market very soon, so keep your eyes open, or drop by The Johnston Farm.

05/05/07 - Peashoots and Asparagus at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

We are just back from the Farmers' Market, and we have to report that spring is moving along.

Westwind Farm has the most amazing asparagus. We've never tasted any this good before. Go for the big fat ones, if there are any left when you get their. When you get them home, peel them and steam them, or boil them. Also, this may be the last week they have their nettles, so hurry up if you want to dry making nettle soup or ravioli.

The Johnston Farm is selling pea shoots, a sure sign of the season. They also have their baby potatoes, lots of herbs, carrots and coriander.

Harley at Dry Creek Farm says that his salad greens are doing nothing, but he does have his eggs. His organic oats are also doing well, but the cold weather has slowed things.

Nash Huber has great looking Swiss chard and lots of little cauliflowers. We bought three bunches of the stuff, so we'll be making our Swiss chard and tuna spaghetti again real soon.

02/10/07 - Nash Huber In Seeds Of Change Catalog

This is the time of year that those "colorless green ideas dream furiously", and we are scanning our seed and plant catalogs. We were browsing through the excellent organic Seeds of Change catalog, and we couldn't help noticing a familiar face. That's Nash Huber on page 25. For cabbage and kale seeds, he's their man.

12/24/06 - The Dungeness Dike Trail

We were exhausted from all our Christmas preparations and just wanted a place to stretch our legs so we checked out the Dungeness Dike Trail off Towne Road. It is right near the Dungeness Valley Creamery and Nash Huber's farm stand, so we could get some exercise and do some shopping.

The trail is a little gem. We had seen cars parked at the dike access area, and we had heard that this was a good area for birding, but now we have discovered another little treasure. Read our report for more info.

12/02/06 - Dry Creek Farm Updated

We hadn't heard from Harley or seen any of his eggs at his stand or in the markets, so we were wondering. Luckily, Port Angeles is a small town, so we just ran into Harley at the local supermarket and got the story. Basically, it's the season. Less light and an aging flock mean fewer eggs. The big snow last Sunday was a big problem as well. Chickens are tropical jungle fowl, so they tend to stay in the coop when there is a foot of snow on the field. He hopes to have his new hens settled in and laying this January, so we have something to look forward to in the new year.

11/16/06 - A Few Words From Dungeness Valley Creamery

We've just gotten word from Sarah Brown on what's happening at Dungeness Valley Creamery:

Hello to all,

Things are going well on the farm and in the creamery and we thank everyone for their support!

Fall is in full swing and that means two things for us. One, the fields are muddy and cows must come in...and two, the Holidays will be here before we know it. Thanksgiving is next week! Can you believe it? Although we will be closed Thanksgiving Day, we hope that you bring your family and friends out to the farm and visit our creamery beforehand (or after). Come pet the new babies and visit the mamas who provide you with the freshest and creamiest raw milk. Along with the whole raw milk you'll find nummy cheeses made by Mount Townsend Creamery from our "girls'" milk. These cheeses are sure to delight the palette of your Thanksgiving meal guests. Special ingredients make the feast special. Be sure to pick up local foods including the raw milk (with cream on the top), eggs, and freshly baked breads and dinner rolls. Remember, Nash's organic produce store is just down the road from us for your Holiday veggie needs.

Our Creamery store also offers other locally made gift items. You'll find cards, scarves, lavender products, herbal salves, photographs, artwork(BarnArt) and more. For our first Christmas, we will be featuring handmade "KeyAngel" ornaments made by my sister, Kim Bergstrom! All proceeds from the "Key Angels" will go to benefit Children's Hospital. At birth, the Children's Hospital performed emergency surgury and saved her life! She was a patient at Children's for the first six months of her life and wants to support a cause that means so much to her!

Next Holiday season we would love to offer fresh raw jersey cream and that is one of our goals. Another goal is to start making an aged cheese. For this to be possible we must have more help! We need four night milkings covered and one or more morning milkings. Calf feeders are needed as well. We just cannot add on any more projects until this happens. If you or anyone you know is interested please contact us.

One addition to our farm that has helped a lot is our new manure separator! This may sound strange to most of you but this is a huge relief to us as my dad usually spends most of the winter making the separator work. Well, our new one actually works...by itself! That means more time for our new creamery and also more manure solids for your gardens.

On a side note, a few new stores are carrying our raw jersey milk! They are The Olympia Food Co-ops east and west, Nash's (Sequim/Dungeness) and The Gifting Place (Port Angeles). We also have new drop points in Bremerton (Evergreen Market in Bremerton went out of business), Mercer Island, Poulsbo, and Quilcene. Please feel free to contact us with questions about any of these locations or possible new drop points!

Thanks again for supporting local farms and farmers! A community that depends on and supports one another is a healthy community!

Sarah Brown

Dungeness Valley Creamery
1915 Towne Rd.
Sequim, WA 98382
360/683-0716

11/07/06 - Nash Huber's Farm Stand

We recently paid a visit to Nash Huber's farm stand in Sequim, not far from the old Dungeness School House. Farm stands are always at their prettiest in the autumn, which is, for us, the time to round up the usual vegetables. That is, the brussels sprouts are in, as are the lacinato kale, the collard greens, the mustard greens, the beets, the cauliflower and even the cabbages. There are some pictures of some of the goodies and one of all our loot down below.

Also noted was the new sign on the door announcing that Nash's farm is salmon friendly. That's a big thing out here since Clallam County is sort of fish crazy. There are signs with little fish on them along the road side, usually at bridges. They mean that someone is likely to brake hard, leap out of their car and throw in a line to try their luck, so you had better drive carefully. Salmon channels are important out here too, and not just the kind they carry on cable. The county recently rebuilt route 112 where it crosses Salt Creek to give the fish a better shot at spawning.

11/01/06 - Dry Creek Farm: The Chicken AND The Egg!

We had not been seeing Harley at the Farmers' Market so we dropped by the farm and checked out the farmstand. We didn't see Harley, but the farmstand was there, and someone was gathering the eggs, greens and other goodies. The eggs were as good as ever, and having loaded up on these wonderful certified organic eggs, we decided it was time to take one of our Dry Creek Farm stewing hens out of the freezer and cook Moroccan.

The dish you see on the right does not look like much. Yes, that is a later of eggs and herbs on top. The black things sticking out of it are kalamatas olives, and the yellow things are bits of pickled lemon. Underneath it all lies the savory cooked hen. We use the recipe in Paula Wolfert's immortal Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco, but in some ways ours is more farm house authentic. After all, what sensible Moroccan house wife would serve up a hen who was still laying eggs. Sure, the local emir might serve up some spring chickens, but the real home recipe was probably a version adapted for stewing hens.

The secret is simple. Just ignore Paula Wolfert's timing and cook the hen until the meat is tender, about two hours in our case. We've adapted her recipe for Djej Masquid Bil Beid:

We rub our stewing hen with garlic and salt then put it in a big pot with 1 cup chopped parsley, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 cup grated onion, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/4 cup of butter, a pinch of saffron, and 3 cinnamon sticks. We fill with water to cover the bird and then bring it to a boil and simmer it forever, maybe two hours, maybe longer. The meat should be tender, taste it.

Then, we put the chicken in a deep baking dish, tossing any loose skin, bones and the cinnamon sticks and we cook down the boiling liquid while we crack and beat a dozen eggs and add two dozen split, pitted kalamatas olives, a couple of salt cured lemons and 1/2 cup of chopped parsley. When the liquid has cooked down perhaps by a factor of two, maybe a bit more, we pour it over the chicken and then pour on the egg mixture which will comprise the upper layer.

To finish, we put the casserole covered in a 350F oven with the lid on for about 20 minutes. Then we take off the lid and let the eggs brown, raising the oven temperature if we are in a hurry.

10/01/06 - BLTs and Fire

When there are good tomatoes, there are good BLTs. There is nothing like a well made bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. We at Kaleberg Research have been episodically tinkering and improving this good thing, and our latest product is a winner. In a recent breakthrough, we have applied our experience working with nature's perfect food, pizza, and produced what may be the perfect BLT.

Our grilled pizza experiments, building on the work of others, have demonstrated the superiority grilled pizza crust. Grilled pizza crust is just grilled flat bread, and with a topping of olive oil and chopped garlic, what could make a better base for a BLT? So, we made up a batch of pizza dough, fired up the charcoal grill, and set to work. The olive oil and garlic served as the traditional mayonaisse, comprising 2/3 of an aioli, and with fresh local salad greens, Sunny Farms' bacon and our own tomatoes, we produced the masterpiece on the right.

10/01/06 - Goodbye To All That

We were so busy eating tomatoes, we haven't been updating our website. This picture is of some prize winners at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. Needless to say, we went crazy.

08/23/06 - Summer Harvest - Johnston Farms

We were out at Johnston Farms today and decided to grab a few items that don't even make it as far as the Farmers' Market. To start with, we grabbed some pumpkin flowers, and we plan to fry them tempura style. We also grabbed their entire basket of Costoluto tomatoes, fresh from the greenhouse. These are a relatively dry, firm tomato, with an incredibly rich, summery flavor. We just had to fire up the grill and make pizza with minced garlic, olive oil, basil, Costoluto tomato slices and grated parmesan cheese. If you have never had a grilled pizza, you don't know the heights to which pizza, nature's perfect food, can ascend. We'd do an entire web page on these pizzas, but the fire is hot, and our hands are full grilling them. We couldn't resist. Check out our grilled pizza guide.