January
January 1, 2010
“It all started with arugula…” my husband, Stewart likes to say when asked how he got into farming. His mother, Regina had returned from Europe in the early 90’s yearning for the hot, flavorful green she had enjoyed while on her trip. She found a small seed company and ordered a few packets and planted arugula in and amongst her flowerbeds. The result was a bumper crop of greens that she washed and bagged and gave to friends. When she still had some left over, she asked her friend Ellen March if she could sell her arugula outside the Tubac Market. Regina ordered more “European” greens and recruited her son to build some raised beds in the backyard. I think Stewart was looking for an excuse to get back to the farm. He had followed me to Tucson while I went to the University of Arizona and had been working with a film studio in town. We were a young couple, just starting out and making big decisions, planning our future. Originally Stewart wanted to get into the film or sound industry. His father, grandfathers and great grandfathers had been monumental figures in the Hollywood film business so this seemed like a logical choice for Stewart. Every weekend, however, after my last class finished on Friday, I would cycle back to our apartment in the Tucson barrio where Stewart would fire up our V. W. van (often a very time consuming task and one calling for the crossing of fingers…) and we would head back down to the farm. This was where Stewart wanted to be and, with the lure of the country and horses and a very fun family to visit, it was also where I wanted to be.
It was on a casual tour of the original 800 acres one day that Stewart told me that he had always wanted to farm his families’ property. He was showing me the old operation, pointing as he described the scene he recalled from his childhood “…the grain silo was over there… that was the office … these adobe walls were where employees lived…” He showed me old irrigation ditches, remnants of which went right into the Santa Cruz River bed. We bush-wacked through overgrown mesquites to find the foundations of structures long gone. It was fun, like we were archeologists recreating the past. But – a farmer?
Stewart had a hard time convincing me that farming was a good idea (sometimes he still does…). My distant memories of living in a farming community in Maine as a child had somehow engrained in me that farmers struggle. He had an even harder time convincing his parents. I thought the idea was ludicrous but I also believed that Stewart should follow his dream.
I arranged to do my student teaching in Rio Rico instead of Tucson and Stewart and I moved back to the farm. Stewart bought a variety of how-to books and started to pick the brains of the very few farmers left in the area. Unlike most folks who farm, he didn’t have knowledge passed down to him from his father, but his parents reluctantly helped him buy his first tractor and Stewart broke ground!
The first crop was the European lettuce in the raised beds commissioned by Regina. We harvested the greens with ridiculous care; leaf-by-leaf and carefully washed and spun dried the delicate greens. Since then, Stewart and I have grown a variety of vegetables – squash, cucumbers, beets, radishes, corn, watermelon, okra, kohlrabi, onions, garlic and much, much more, but our favorite crop continues to be those leafy greens!
It is this time of year – winter – when lettuce does best here. You can plant a little now, then wait a week or so and plant a little more and continue for the next eight weeks or so, therefore staggering the growth and prolonging the harvest. There are countless varieties that you can grow and it isn’t hard. If you have a pot in your yard or a little space in the ground, you can grow your own lettuce. We like having a nice mix of reds and greens. Arugula grows faster and will out-compete other lettuces, so plant it separately. You don’t need to cover the plants at night, but they will grow faster if you do. A piece of clear plastic tented over the seeds until they germinate, then a cloth white row cover over the plants once they have started is all you need if you choose to cover them. You can sow the seeds by sprinkling them lightly over loose soil, then gently rake the surface – they don’t need to be buried deep. Water frequently. Use a sharp knife to harvest the leaves when they are big enough, about four inches tall. This takes 4-5 weeks, depending on temperatures. Wait to wash lettuce until you are ready to eat it (and harvest it when it is dry) as water breaks down the leaves causing decay (this is why “table ready” lettuce in the grocery store turns slimy so fast). You can get 3-4 harvests out of each plant.
One of our favorite dinners is a big salad. By adding the additional ingredients, it can be very filling:
- Mixed European lettuce, about 1⁄4 pound, washed and dried
- 2 Green apples, sliced in bite-sized pieces
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 3 tablespoons or so of feta cheese (or gorgonzola)
- Hand-full of sharp yellow cheese, bite sized chunks
- A sprinkling of nuts (pine nuts, pecans or walnuts)
- 2 boiled, peeled, diced and chilled potatoes
- 3-4 hard boiled eggs, chilled and sliced
- 1-2 cans white tuna or 1 pre-grilled tuna steak, chopped or chicken breast, shredded pre-cooked
Toss all ingredients with a mild vinaigrette dressing. Pair with a crusty baguette.
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