In the Christmas Store NOW!!! Open daily 10-6 thru Dec 23rd

FARM STORE CLOSING NOV 24TH, CHRISTMAS STORE OPENS NOV 27TH

As the seasons change, so does our schedule.  The new hours and days as follows:

FARM STORE:
As of Nov. 12th, Farm Store hours will be
Saturday-Thursday  10am until 4pm
Friday 10am until 6pm
Farm store officially closes for the season on Nov. 24th.

CHRISTMAS STORE
Opens for the season on Nov. 27th and will remain open until Dec. 23rd.
Hours will be 10am-6pm seven days a week for those dates.

Thanks and come see us soon!!!

HARVEST SHARE 2015

We will be offering our wonderful Thanksgiving HARVEST SHARE again this year, in time for the holidays. Let us do the shopping while you spend that all important time with your family. We plan for this bountiful array of local, organic, fresh fall produce to be the basis for your Thanksgiving celebration. The share also makes a great gift for friends, co-workers and other family members!

The contents of our HARVEST SHARE are chosen from the highest quality produce available. We can’t say exactly what the share will contain until closer to harvest time, but the following is an example of the kinds of things that were included in the box last year: 

• Winter Squash (Delicata, Spaghetti, Butternut, etc.)
• Fall Cole Veggies (kale, red cabbage, kohlrabi)
• Broccoli, Kohlrabi or Brussels Sprouts
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Sweet Carrots
• Sweet Onions
• Golden and/or Red Beets
• Small Pie Pumpkin
• Sweet Potatoes
• Baking Apples
• 1 Dozen Fresh Free Range Eggs

The cost of the Share is $35.00*. Cut off for ordering is Wednesday November 11th .

Click Harvest Share to order or stop by the farm in person. Other items like cider, additional eggs, pies and honey are offered there as well.  HARVEST SHARES are available to anyone; you do not have to be a CSA member to purchase one. Shares will be available for pick up at the farm, at 15005 NW Cornell Rd, the week prior to Thanksgiving. Exact dates for pick up T/B/A.

Attention Fundraisers:  We also offer the Harvest Share at a quantity discount price or special order boxes to schools, scout groups, churches, etc. These make a great holiday fundraiser and practically sell themselves! If you have questions or need more information, call 503-432-6235, text or email suzanne.ballard@dinihanian.com

*We can also do special orders or larger sizes on request. Cost would be reflected accordingly. Contact Suzanne for more information. 

COME TO THE FARM SATURDAY TO MAKE BUG LIGHTS!!!

ON SATURDAY, OCT 10TH, WE WILL BE MAKING THESE COOL BUG LIGHTS.  PROJECTS SCHEDULED FOR 11 A.M. AND AGAIN AT 2 P.M.   WE WILL SUPPLY ALL THE MATERIALS. IF YOU ARE BRINGING A LITTLE PERSON, YOU MIGHT WANT TO BRING A CLEAR PLASTIC CONTAINER WITH A LID. WE WILL BE USING GLASS JARS. YOU ARE ALSO WELCOME TO BRING YOU OWN VESSEL. JUST MAKE SURE IT IS AT LEAST 7 TO 8 INCHES TALL SO THAT YOU CAN GET YOUR BUGS INTO THE JAR.

If you are into bread baking....

The article showed up in my inbox this morning and thought I would share it as well as a little story of my own.  I have a special connection to Chef Reinhart, the subject of the article. I used to have my own farm in NC and was the organic veggie vendor at a posh downtown farmer's market. It was for the tenants in the high dollar condos in downtown Charlotte, NC.   It was also adjacent to Johnson and Wales, the prestigious culinary school.  One market day, I was located next to the demo booth for that week (a chef from J&W always came and did a demo at this venue) and the Chef that day was making a delicious Italian Bread Salad using my organic heirloom tomatoes. Since we had a lot of time to kill, I started up a conversation with the demo'ing chef.  He said he was using day old bread from one of his classes for his recipe.  I commented that while I loved the idea of making my own bread, I was terrible at it. (I can make a souffle rise like a champ but not so much with yeasty breads...). He asked me some questions and made some suggestions about what I might could do differently to have more success and we had a great time talking about food and heirloom veggies, etc.  After his demo was over, he packed up and left. Later that afternoon, he brought me a copy of a book.  Written and signed by him with a note about our day.  It was Chef Reinhart, whom I had no idea who he was at the time.  I treasure this as one of my favorite "foodie" moments...a private lesson from a world class chef, all without me having a clue.

Anyway, if you are a Local Harvest user, you can probably get this deal. If you, you can still check into Craftsy and what they offer.  Enjoy!!!
~Suzanne


"Dear LocalHarvest Community,
I'm an occasional bread baker and until now have always stuck to a basic sandwich loaf. A friend of mine is a more adventurous bread baker and she swears by Peter Reinhart's books, so when our friends at Craftsy offered to let me take their online class Artisan Bread Baking with Peter Reinhart, I was very curious. Within moments of settling into the videos, I knew this class was going to help me improve my breadmaking immeasurably. Peter Reinhart is a master.
Overall, the thing I appreciated most about this class was how it demystified a sometimes intimidating craft. Peter teaches students how to think about bread making, step by step. The instruction goes well beyond learning how to follow a bread recipe, to really understanding how bread works. After that, Peter shares many of his favorite recipes for a wide variety of breads including baguettes, focaccia, marbled rye and chocolate babka. This class is so packed with information that I know I'll be going back to the videos and class materials again and again. One thing I noticed about this Craftsy class in particular is that there is a lively online discussion among students and the instructor, which adds to the learning. I feel confident that both beginning and experienced breadmakers will be pleased with what they take away from the course. The people you share your homemade bread with will be pleased too!
Fall is a great time to learn to make artisan breads. What could be better on a crisp Autumn night than a big bowl of soup and a loaf of crusty homemade bread? To learn to make great bread, enroll in Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Baking. By enrolling, you will receive lifetime access to this class and enjoy the flexibility of watching online or through Craftsy's mobile app. Craftsy is offering LocalHarvest users a special price on this class of $14.99 - that's *63*% off for you. Enroll! You'll be glad you did.

Happy baking!
Kerry

Kerry Glendening
Community Coordinator
LocalHarvest

IT IS OFFICIALLY FALL!!!

Fall officially arrived at 1:22 PDT this morning!  For some unexplained reason, I woke up at exactly 1:22.  I guess my circadian clock wanted to remind me of how much I had been looking forward to this season!

I posted this passage on my FB page this morning and I think it is so good I am sharing again.  I can just picture my agrarian ancestors when I read this. And I like the idea of those relationships with neighbors. 

So commence the feasting!!!

"The harvest is a time of thanks, and also a time of balance -- after all, there are equal hours of daylight and darkness. While we celebrate the gifts of the earth, we also accept that the soil is dying. We have food to eat, but the crops are brown and going dormant. Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead."

"Early agricultural societies understood the importance of hospitality -- it was crucial to develop a relationship with your neighbors, because they might be the ones to help you when your family ran out of food. Many people, particularly in rural villages, celebrated the harvest with great deals of feasting, drinking, and eating. After all, the grain had been made into bread, beer and wine had been made, and the cattle were brought down from the summer pastures for the coming winter."

~Suzanne

    Forest Walk Cabbage Salad  (this is link to recipe)

Purple Power Salad  (this is a link to the recipe)

Veggie Humor for Today

Hope this puts a smile on your face!  

(p.s.   We harvest gently, by hand here....)

Sometimes the things we grow here take my breath away. This is an arrangement I made yesterday for a local event I attended.  This almost doesn't look real. Sweet Peppers are "Jimmy Nardello", Golden Corno Di Toro.   Tomatoes are Indigo Rose, Gold Nugget and Sweetie.   We have them all in the store!!!

APPLES ARE IN THE HOUSE !!!

Actually, they are in the store so come and get 'em!

HONEY CRISP

These will be in the store by this weekend! 8-29-15

GINGERGOLD APPLE

GREEN GRAVENSTEIN

RED GRAVENSTEIN

AKANE HEIRLOOM  A/K/A TOKYO ROSE

Tomato-Beet Salad

Click this link for the recipe!

2 1/2 lb. Brandywine Tomato!!!

Picked this beauty this morning

Tipped the scale at 2 1/2 lbs

There are bigger ones coming on, too.  

Woohoo! Now that's a tomato!

Dragon Tongues

We have an abundance of Dragon Tongue Beans fresh from our fields in the store 

this weekend! Learn more about these unique heirlooms here  

Dragon Tongue Beans

Tomato Sale Continues

MID-SEASON HARVEST SALE AT THE FARM STORE!!

Buy 2 pounds of any of our farm grown organic TOMATOES and get 1 pound  FREE!!!

* *Cherry Tomatoes     *Slicing Tomatoes *Heirloom Tomatoes ** 

We harvest every day so selection may change daily. 

Other items will be on sale in the store, also.

Come to the Farm  and check it out!

Open Daily 10-6

 Dinihanian's Farm Market is located at  

15005 NW Cornell Road, Beaverton, Oregon  97006

Just updated our Pinterest SQUASH page...in case you are running out of ideas...

(PS the word SQUASH is a link to the page...)

WE HAVE CORN IN FROM SAUVIE ISLAND THIS WEEK!!

First corn for the season came in this week. BiColor from one of our partner farms out on Sauvie Island.

Also, we got blueberries in this week directly from the grower.  I am traveling on the East Coast this week, so I don't know the exact variety but I hear they are beautiful.

Come to the FARM!!!  Open daily 10-6   EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK!

EVERYBODY IS WELCOME AT DINIHANIAN'S

PRESERVATION SALE THIS WEEKEND!!!

Thinking about canning or freezing green beans or making pickles?  Dilly beans in your future? Just feel like cooking since the weather is cooling off?

THIS WEEKEND (FRI-MONDAY)

GREEN BEANS ARE $2.50/LB  FOR 5 LBS OR MORE.  THAT IS HALF OFF OUR REGULAR PRICE!  (that is cheaper than the sale flyer price I saw at the super market the other day...)

Also, we have pickling cukes for $2.00/lb

Certified organic, of course, grown here on our farm!    

Open Daily 10-6

We have squash blossoms for sale!  If you would like some, please call or email or PM me here to pre-order so we can pick them for you. We don't pick and store them, so this is how we do it.  Blossoms are $.50 each.  503-432-6253 or email csainfo@yourcsa.com or PM here.

I recently overheard a conversation between two shoppers at a local supermarket, remarking on how expensive the organic items were compared to others. They then conjectured that the reasons for the higher prices was all hype, implying that there was no real reason for organic items to cost more. It was all I could do to hold my peace and not explain to them that while that might be true for large scale organics it certainly was not/is not true for small scale farms like this one.

Local and organic is the best of all worlds, when it comes to food. Buying locally saves fossil fuels, reduces carbon emissions, encourages and strengthens the local economy. Buying local food gives jobs and stability to an enterprise that would likely not survive without your support. Paying a little bit more for what we do here is a small price to pay for what you get in return.

My crew is here at 5am, working in the field, sweating in the heat, bending over all day long to weed, water, plant or harvest.  We don't have big pieces of equipment that we can just run up and down the rows to pick things.  Each and every thing that is picked from our field is touched by one of those guys, which is why the quality is high.  They visually inspect what they pick so things are picked with a kind of precision that a mechanical picker would miss.  Blemishes are inevitable, that is how things grow in the field. Nothing is perfect but we can choose the best of what there is, at its peak, which is something you won't find on large production farms, organic or not.

Because our field is just a couple hundred yards from the store, we simply walk across the parking lot to fill our bins with fresh food.  The fact that sometimes what you get in our store has been picked for less that a few hours means that the nutritional value is still very high (nutritional values can wane as produce ages).  Our farm store is stocked with items from other farms, yes, but only for items that we cannot or do not produce ourselves and only to meet customer demand. Because we are so conscious of the value of local food, we try to support other farms/producers in our region so that the impact of long distance movement of food products is minimal.

We donate our excess to local food pantries and organizations that feed the food insecure.  We are your neighbors and your friends.  You can come to this farm and ask us anything and we will answer you to the best of our ability.   You can't do that to the person who is producing food in California, Mexico, Canada, etc.  Sometimes food store chains will advertise that they have local food but that is meaningless without a definition. Because people are more aware these days of the idea of local food, many of these chains spin their advertising to make it their products more appealing to that idea. Some food store chains consider anything within a 750-1000 mile radius as "local".  Not my definition by a long shot.

So our produce prices may be a little higher than what is in the supermarket. We worked hard for it. We earned it.