Blackberry & Pear Tart

Sometimes all you want to do is throw together a quick, delicious dessert, and that is exactly what our Blackberry & Pear Tart is. We made this three-ingredient tart the week of Thanksgiving and it was perfect to get into the holiday mood.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Pillsbury puff pastry sheets (or other puff pastry, this is just what we used)
• 10 oz jar of Sunset Valley Organic Blackberry Spread
• 4 pears, thinly sliced (we used a mix of red and green pears)

*Optional: 1 egg for washing the sides of the puff pastry

Directions:

1. On a parchment-lined baking sheet unfold puff pastry sheets. Set aside. 

2. In a bowl place sliced pears and carefully fold in blackberry spread, until pears are coated evenly.

3. Carefully pour pear and blackberry mixture onto the puff pastry sheets, and arrange to your liking. 

4. Optional: Wash sides of pastry sheets with egg for a golden brown effect. 

5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

6. Let cool 10 minutes & serve. 

Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week. 

U-Pick Updates For the Summer of 2017

What is happening this Summer?

As most of you are aware, last summer we were crazy busy during harvest. In the summer of 2016 we harvested about 2 million pounds of fruit, this year we are projecting at least 3 million. With that much fruit to be harvested we have had to make some hard choices. The biggest change is that we will no longer have a farm stand in the summer, nor will we have the U-Pick for blueberries.This also includes any pre-orders for Raspberries, blackberries, and black raspberries. We hope our loyal customers can understand our decision. 

Please know this was not an easy decision for us to make. We spent the better part of the winter and spring trying to work out how we could make a it work. And finally, we just had to face the truth, that we've reached a point that we have to make some cuts. Last year we had to cut back our U-Pick and farm stand to being open only for 2 weeks, and during that time we felt strained in making sure everything was getting the attention it needed. We take customer service very seriously, and we just felt like we were not meeting our expectations during those two weeks. Additionally, finding workers is becoming harder and harder, and this too has played a part in our choice of closing the farm stand and u-pick. 

We will still be offering already picked & washed blueberries in 30 pound boxes and 5 pound bags. Like in past years, for these you will pull around to our office and our office staff can help you there. The price for those this year will be the same as in the past at $100 (30-pound box) and 5 pound bags for $24.00. We will post here, on facebook, instagram, and twitter when these are ready to be picked up. You can also call us and place a pre-order if you are wanting to pick up two or more boxes at a time. Our office phone number is 541-752-0460. The hours for pick up will be Monday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm, our normal office hours. 

We would like to thank everyone who has come out and supported us over the years. We hope you will continue to enjoy our berries. 

Aronia Berry Oatmeal Cookies

Aronia berries are a fun ingredient to experiment with. Our Aronia berries are unique in that they are so packed full of nutrients that the brix (sugar content) is actually a lot higher than average and this makes the tannens in the berry not so much at the forfront of the taste. Instead a sweetness starts to come through.

Typically this is a good indication of nutrition in our foods accross the board; nutrition=more flavor.

Then when you bake, or heat the aronia berries their astrengent weakens even more. So we've been baking, like A LOT! So we've developed two yummy recipes for Aronia berry oatmeal cookies. Today we will be sharing our conventional recipe, and keep an eye out for our gluten free aronia berry cookies coming next week.

Ingredients:

• 1 C. All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 TSP Baking Soda
• 1/4 TSP Salt
• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened to room temp
• 1/2 C Brown Sugar
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 TSP Vanilla Extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups Old-Fashioned Oats
• 1 C Dried Aronia Berries

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined.
3. Slowly mix in the flour mixture and continue mixing until just combined, then mix in the oats and raisins until fully combined, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. 
4. Cover the cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 
5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside. 
6. Once the dough is chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and scoop out 2 tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough and dropped onto the prepared baking sheets. Make sure to leave a little room between each ball of cookie dough as they will spread a little while they bake. 
7. Bake in separate batches at 350 F. for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly golden brown and the top is set. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Notes: 

-Prep time includes 30 minutes of chilling time 

-Cookies may be stored on the counter in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

January 2017 Newsletter for SVO

Happy New Years! Happy 2017!

We hope everyone had a good holiday season! We enjoyed our two week break with a lot of relaxing and family time. We know 2016 wasn't the greatest year for the world but have hopes that 2017 will make up for it, and we hope everyone has a fantastic 2017!

We still have our annual survey available until the end of January. As a thank you there is a coupon at the end that can be used on your next order. We truly value your feedback, and it helps us improve where we can. 

Our next Instagram sale will be starting sometime during the week of the 16th. Be sure to be following us to know when the sale starts! 

The Pacific Northwest has been getting a good amount of snow. The snow has melted here in the valley; however, Portland still has a decent amount of snow which has been interfering with deliveries and shipments. We thank everyone who have bared with us. This is the first winter where the snow has actually effected more than a day of normal operations.

With the snow melted, we've been starting to prune our blueberries. If you have blueberries in your back yard now is a good time to start thinking about trimming them up, and be sure to check out our blog post on pruning.

Our normal office hours are:

Monday - Friday 10 am to 4 pm PST 

Our Featured Products in the online Shop:

Freeze Dried Blueberry Powder

Freeze Dried Blackberry Powder

Dried Aronia Berries

New Products Coming Soon:

• Red Raspberry Powder
• Black Raspberry Powder
• Aronia Berry Powder

Cold Weather Shipping 

Cold Weather Shipping is back! For those who are new to this, every year when it’s cold (nation-wide) we are able to send our frozen berries by ground rather than 2 day air, which saves a lot of money! We can only offer this while it’s cold out, usually fall through the early part of spring. You do need to call us if you would the ground shipping though. Our online store is not set up for it. You can call us at 541-752-0460 Monday through Friday 10 am to 4 pm Pacific Standard Time.

**PLEASE NOTE: We are not responsible for shipping delays due to weather conditions**

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

A deliciously moist, lightly sweet "coffee" cake bursting with juicy ripe blueberries.

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• Zest from 1 lemon
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (divided)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups fresh, ripe blueberries
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar for sprinkling

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Lightly grease and flour an 8-inch springform pan. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Remove two tablespoons of the flour and set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter, lemon zest and ¾ cup of sugar. Beat for several minutes, scraping down the sides as needed, until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in the egg and vanilla just until incorporated.
6. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Beat on low until incorporated. Add ⅓ of the buttermilk and blend until smooth. Repeat adding ⅓ of the flour then ⅓ of the buttermilk until both are incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
7. Toss the blueberries with the reserved 2 tablespoons of flour. Gently fold the blueberries and any extra flour into the batter using a rubber spatula. Take care not to rupture the blueberries.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar and bake in a 325 preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean.

Saturday Morning Waffles

Saturday Morning Waffles

The weekend is always the right time for delicious waffles, so this morning we broke out the waffle iron and had some delicious nutrient dense blueberry waffles.

Now the rains have set in here in Oregon it really feels like fall, and waffle also tend to just fit in to a lazy rainy day feel.

We hope you enjoy the waffles as much as we do!

Ingredients

•  1 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1/4 c. corn starch
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 c. milk
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 c. frozen blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat your waffle iron.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, corn starch, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Add the wet ingredients and mix: eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla paste.
4. Fold in the blueberries.
5. (Grease waffle iron before each use) Pour approximately 1/2 cup batter onto the hot waffle iron, and cook for 3:30 minutes, or according to your waffle iron's instructions. (It really depends on your waffle iron size, one of our fits the 1/2 cup mentioned while we have another that is 1/4 cup)
6. Enjoy!

*Store leftovers in an air tight container*

September Newsletter from SVO

News From Around the Farm

Harvest is finally over for us, yesterday was our last day processing Aronia Berries. What a season we had! We harvested far more than we did last year, we did so much that we’re still doing the totals for inventories. The most improved crop we had were our Aronia berries. We had a brix (sugar content) average of 22%, last year we were under 20, this improvement has resulted in the Aronia berries not having that overwhelming astringent flavor, and being much more palatable. We are really excited to start drying these berries because we think that the improved flavor will translate well into the dried berries. When we have Aronia berry freeze dried powder it will be from this years berries, so we are also looking forward to getting that in stock.

Speaking of freeze dried powders, they have really taken off the last couple of months. Thank you to all who have bought it! We are excited to be bringing black raspberry, red raspberry, and aronia berry freeze dried powders to our shop. We are sending the fruit to be made into powder this fall, so it will be sometime in the winter when we will have it for sale. We do still have blueberry and blackberry freeze dried powder and will have it in stock all year round now.

Now that harvest is over, we are actually still moderately busy, getting the plants ready for winter. It’s in the fall when the plant decides how many fruit buds to set for next summer’s harvest. So we make sure the plants are healthy, and getting all the food they need before they start hibernating for winter. Another reason we feed after harvest is because if the plant has a lot of sugar in it then that can act as a natural anti freeze, and if we get some harsh winter weather the plants can pull through all by themselves. We are also cleaning up the fields, cutting back the weeds and doing some beautifying to the farm. Once the plants have berries on them we can’t run machines down the rows because berries will fall on the ground, so we can’t do our weed management like we would like to.

If you want to find out more about our farming practices then check out our blog through out the month! We are resuming our Biological 101 series and the topics we will be covering this month are: The Importance of the Ryzosphere, and Nutrient and Their function. We are playing catch up because we haven’t posted anything since April. Right now we are planning on have posts up on September 10th and September 24th, so be sure to check back often!

Did you know we have a YouTube? Well we do! Check out our interview with our Falconier who takes care of bird control for us in the summer. We have also been posting a lot to instagram, if you want to see some behind the scenes type stuff of what happens on the farm be sure to check it out. 

Cold Weather Shipping 

We will be able to bring back our Cold Weather Shipping special sometime in October. For those who are new to this, every year when it’s cold nation wide we are able to send our frozen berries by ground rather than 2 day air. Which saves a lot of money! We can only offer this while it’s cold out, usually fall through the early part of spring. You do need to call us if you would the ground shipping though. Our online store is not set up for it. You can call us Monday through Friday 10 am to 4 pm Pacific.

Holiday Gift Boxes:

The Holidays are coming! It’s weird that it is already that time of the year again, right? We have gift boxes!If you want a gift box, but don’t see anything you like on our site, give us a call, we are more than happy to do custom gift boxes! If your thinking about ordering a bunch of them please keep in mind that if you want us to ship them to multiple address the order does NOT qualify for free shipping if it goes over $225.00. But if we ship it all to one address then it can qualify for free shipping, as long it’s more than $225.00. We are also offering if you buy 10 gift boxes you get one free (excludes shipping). Our gift boxes are great for birthdays, house warming’s, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years. Basically anytime you need a present or a nice gesture, we’ve got you covered.

Office Hours

Monday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm PDT. 

We are observing Labor day, and will be closed Saturday September 3 through September 5, and will be resuming normal hours on Tuesday September 6. 

Blackberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.25 ounce) box super moist yellow cake mix
• 1 stick or 8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts
• Glaze:
  2/3 cup powdered sugar
  2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. In a large bowl using a mixer combine the yellow cake mix, butter, eggs, milk and sour cream. In a smaller bowl combine the blackberries, sugar, cinnamon and nuts.
2. Gently mix together with a spoon. Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with cooking spray.
3. Pour in the cake mix batter then gently swirl in the blackberries until covered. I use a kitchen knife to do this.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes checking to make sure cake is done in center.
5. Let cool 10 to 15 minutes and remove from cake pan. You can just sprinkle with powdered sugar or add the glaze.
6. For the Glaze: Whisk together and drizzle over cake.

Biological Farming: Why farm Biologically? + What is Biological farming?

Welcome to our first post in our series of Biological Farming 101, in which we will be looking at lots of areas of our farming practices and how we tackle tasks around the farm. Such as pruning, pest control, science of remineralizing our soils, and many more. We will be posting a new entry every month (near the end), so be sure to keep coming back!

In this first post we are going to cover why we have chosen to farm biological, what it means to us, and what it means to you, our customers. If you have any questions at the end, please leave us a comment, we would love to answer your questions!

Why We Farm Biological

In 2003 we decided to go certified organic. After three years of transition, in 2006, we became Certified Organic. But that wasn’t enough for us. We wanted to do more, to do better, for our customers, and for our soils. Today, we are Biological Farmers using certified organic inputs. Just because a farm is certified organic, that doesn’t mean the farmer is embracing the soil biology or minerals. What certified organic does is guarantee that your food will be free of GMO’s and pesticides. We wanted more, we wanted Nutrient Density.

What is Biological Farming?

Biological farming is like going back to old school, to a time before NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) fertilizers were common place instead are used more judicially. Biological farming looks at the whole picture in a holistic way. Examining exactly what is in the soil; considering all 79 minerals, and the delicate balance of them in the soil food web. An end result that can be directly seen by the farmer and consumer is the final products improved Nutrient Density.

What we found when we first started farming biologically was that our soils were deficient of all 79 minerals including soil carbon, which is the food and shelter for microbes. It’s necessary to have minerals to feed microbes, the microbes in turn solubilize the minerals. Making them available to the plant. It is these 79 minerals in a balanced for in the plant that make Nutrient Dense food.

A Note About Nutrient Density

I’m sure we’ve all seen things in the super market with the labeling of “Nutrient Dense” but what does that actually mean? In Biological Farming it means more minerals per ounce of food and that requires active biology in the soil. Those “Nutrient Dense” labels you see in the supermarkets are often labeled that way because of the absence of problematic ingredients- fat, sugar, and sodium- not for the inclusion of of beneficial nutrients they might contain. This is because there is no regulated way for food labeling of Nutrient Density, even though there are regulated ways for testing for it.

The difference between Biological Farming and Certified Organic Farming?

The simplest way to think about the differences in the two farming practices is that Certified Organic Farming doesn’t use salt based fertilizers, or pesticides. Biological farming is taking it to the next level in looking at the whole picture and how to improve, and restore the soil biology and mineralization.

Benefits of Biological Farming the farmer sees

Biological farming is not the short term solution most farmers are use to. These farmers are use to going out applying a fertilizer or pesticide and seeing results in a few days, this can make them impatient with how Biological farmers handle the same problems. Biological farmers see long term solutions to their problems, which is also tied into their holistic approach. Another benefit we’ve already touched on is Nutrient Density, having a higher nutrient density can be seen through BRIX- sugar content and soluble solids- which also means higher yields. Most crops are sold based on a measurement of weight, and the heavier crop, the more yield the farmer sees. In biological farming quality drives yield where as in conventional farming (or even certified organic farming) yield drives dilution of nutrition.

What this means for consumers?

The biggest way that consumers are going to see a benefit is the nutrient density of biologically grown foods. We hope that this also results in, instead of taking vitamins and supplements everyday, you get to eat a delicious bowl of berries, or other produce that your body can get all the minerals and vitamins from, to keep you healthy in a natural way; in other words, food will replace supplements.