Category: Newsletters

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The Best Word We Learned in the Netherlands

Tobin and I have been thinking a lot about community lately. About what community really is and means. Sometimes it seems that word can be thrown around, just to make you believe that whatever they are doing is good, because they believe in ‘community’. But we’ve been thinking about, and also seeing, what community is. For us, it has shown itself as support, friends reaching out for coffee or a conversation, or just checking in; knowing that there are people you could call to come help you move a piano, and they would show up; people who want to know you and who want to be a part of your life; people who go out of their way to be part of your journey, and people who support one another, in every sense; people who want to do good things, together.

We are delighted that you are a part of this community, a community that supports one another. Your intentionality to support and encourage local producers has a deep impact on their lives and I would guess that their hard work, dedication, and integrity to pursue their work has a significant impact on yours. That is the community that we have a privilege to be a part of and we are so appreciative to participate in it.

We had the opportunity last fall to travel to the Netherlands and spend some time with Tobin’s family. While there, we stayed with his cousin and had a wonderful few days sharing life with them. There was lots of talk about family and travel and they shared stories and memories with us. This cousin speaks Dutch as her first language and flawless English as her second. However, there is one word that she can never say in English, not because she can’t pronounce it, but because there isn’t an English word for it, it just doesn’t exist. This word is ‘gezellig’ (huh-zell-ikh). It means cozy, pleasant, sociable, or a warm feeling of conviviality. When she was sharing about a particularly sweet memory or a wonderful holiday they had, she would say ‘It was really…’ she would pause, breathe in, smile, then say, ‘gezellig’. This word conveyed the memory of a feeling. It wasn’t just a word that could be simply translated to English, gezellig is an experience.

I think that what we have been experiencing in our lives, but in this year in particular, is gezellig, we just never had a word for it. It’s far beyond community; it’s a feeling and an experience that permeates our hearts and minds and something that changes us. Something that makes us pause, smile, and remember. Our community is more than just that, it’s gezellig.

We are grateful to be entering this new year bringing with us the gezellig of last year and watching for more moments of it in the coming days. We hope that you experience many moments of gezellig this year and thank you for being an integral part of a vibrant, supportive, incredible community.

Sincerely, Emily

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The Best Things Are the Ones You Weren’t Looking For

Emily and I spent Father’s day with her family perusing around a used bookstore, and not just any used bookstore. The kind of bookstore where you must be careful where you walk, and keep your arms in tight, lest you knock over piles of books. I was not successful at this, as simply brushing one stack of books created a domino effect with the nearby stacks of books. And trying to fix that stack inevitably knocked over another stack. Thankfully, the owner was all too familiar with the commotion coming from my corner of the shop, and I did not get a talking-to. Every ledge, every nook, every spare inch on floor is covered with stacks of books, and only loosely organized or categorized. One block away, there is a very well-known bookstore that gets plenty of publicity, is centrally located on the main street, and is very organized. The aisles are clear, the signage is prominent, and the books are categorized, new, and neatly facing outward. And I find it terribly sterile, and even a bit boring. The books are exactly where you would expect them to be, the titles are about the same. I can easily find exactly the book I’m looking for, but it’s unlikely I’ll stumble upon an even better book that I wasn’t looking for. A book I wish existed for my little niche of hobbies, but didn’t know someone else had that hobby too, and enough to bring it to print. Often, the joy and connection we have with something has less to do with the actual content or substance, and more to do with the way we discovered the thing. 

My wife and I have strong ties to London through family and friends. Emily did her master’s program in London, and my family lived in Manchester for 4 years while my dad got his PhD, so we make it back over the pond to visit as often as we can. The streets of London are perfectly suited to exploring via bicycle, because there is no grid system, it’s mostly flat, and it’s very densely populated. The density allows for many little cities within the cities, where the culture and feel of the place changes every few blocks. This increases the ratio of discovery, as you never know what’s around the next corner, and the streets aren’t laid out in an “expected” formation. There is no point of reference like a mountain or an ocean to keep you oriented, the streets are straight, and the buildings are tall enough to block your view of the one defining feature: the Thames River. But even that is not straight, so it will easily leave you disoriented. Because of this, two of my favorite spots to visit are special to me purely because of how I discovered them. One day, I was riding my Santander bike around London, and I had not looked up where I was nor where to go. I just followed the flow of the streets and what looked interesting up ahead. The worst thing that could happen is I return my bike to the nearest Tube station and find my train back home. After riding for awhile, I stumbled across an amazing outdoor market. A quasi-European Pike Place Market, but with less Starbucks. Amazing food stalls, fresh produce, all the international treats you could ask for. I always return there. Later on, I discovered this incredible collection of little pedestrian streets that all fed into a central hub, filled with food courts, tea shops, alleyways, and little shops you’d never find anywhere else. There was character, there was a sense of place, and there was uniqueness, there was a reason to be there. I felt like I found a little secret gathering place, tucked in the alleyways, away from the hustle and bustle of 9 million people right nearby. 

Some of my most memorable foods, recipes and meals and follow this pattern of discovery, as I’m sure yours do too when you stop and think about them. Emily and I had banana cream pie at our wedding because my grandma made them important to me. We have tea and chocolate at night because my parents did. My favorite meal is Dutch pancakes because my dad made them for us on our birthdays. I’m always on the lookout for a Chinese porn bun because as a kid, my aunt and uncle lived 4 hours away, and we met them in the middle at a Chinese restaurant. My grandpa made nasi goreng because the Dutch adopted it from Indonesia, and he made it for my dad, and then my dad made it for us. There are foods that I think I’m sure I would not like, nor even try, if I had discovered them by myself, or in different circumstances, or with different people (or no people), or different times in my life. But some of my favorite foods are tied to the way I discovered them. This is encouraging to me because it infers that we have a certain amount of control over what we like to eat. We are not simply born with foods we like, and foods we don’t. Sometimes, we like foods because of how they came to us, not because of what they are.  

Some of you already experience this “discovery” when you open your Box of Good without looking at the week’s menu beforehand. Some of you are scared to death when you get an item in your box that you don’t know what it is, why it is, or where it should go. I would only encourage you to create a memory around it; ask a friend for a recipe, have neighbors over and try out your new dish, ask us for some tips and tricks, or just venture out on your own and discover how it works best for you. You just might discover that you like it. 

~ Tobin Fekkes 

 

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How to Use Your Box of Good

Working with What You’ve Got: Have you found yourself having to throw a meal together with whatever you have laying around?  We have a few tips we’d like to share that could help simplify healthy eating during every season.  As a matter of fact, we think you might even take a few of these ideas with you into the future.  

Some of our favorite recipes aren’t really recipes; they’re techniques. We love things like soups, stir-fries, roasted vegetables, salads and smoothies!  Once you understand the premise of creating each of these, you can alter the ingredients, use what you have on hand, and still come up with a delicious outcome!   

Soups: With soup, start with a good broth or create one as your base. Decide if you’d like to make a clear soup, a cream soup or a puree.  Clear soups will use the broth as the foundation and then vegetables and seasoning to taste.  Cream soups often use milk, cream or even cream cheese blended with a portion of the cooked vegetables.  Purees are smooth, thickened by blending things like potatoes, cauliflower, rice or beans.  Use salt, pepper and your favorite seasonings to finish to your taste. 

Stir-fries: Stir-fries are so versatile!  We use stir-fried vegetables as a base to go with meat, beans or vegetarian meals.   They’re great in wraps, over rice, with pasta or with salads.  Start with dicing your vegetables small!  We find that everyone eats more veggies that way.  Heat oil in a heavy skillet or wok, add minced garlic, ginger, onion, and chilis (if desired). Add protein, vegetables, salt, pepper and seasoning, and sauté until cooked to your preference. Use taco seasoning for Mexican dishes, Italian seasoning for pasta dishes, Asian sauce or spice to be used over rice.   

Roasted vegetables: Roasted vegetables are a favorite comfort food and so quick and simple!  No recipe required, and virtually every vegetable can be cooked in this way.  Root vegetables are old standbys for roasting, but you can also roast broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers and onions. Start by cutting vegetables into bite size pieces.  Toss them with a mild non-hydrogenated oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and seasoning of choice.  We use lots of garlic powder!  Spread them on a baking sheet and give vegetable pieces lots of space.  Roast at 425 degrees until veggies get a bit charred around the edges.  Some vegetables are cooked much sooner than others.  Start with the root vegetables and then add softer vegetables a bit after, or roast like veggies in separate baking sheets, to easily take out when finished. 

Salads: I think everyone is familiar with the versatility of salads. The rules are loose with salads, so get a little whacky and experimental with your bowl of greens. Consider adding blueberries or chopped walnuts, chunks of ham or hard-boiled eggs, or make your very own croutons from old bread. Eat your salad with chopsticks. In addition to mixing up your salad fixings, try different homemade dressings as a great way to add variety! 

Smoothies: Smoothies are a super way to get a boost of extra nutrients and have so many possibilities! A kid favorite is always peanut butter-chocolate banana.  We start with a big handful of spinach leaves (shhh!) blended with coconut water, then add frozen bananas, peanut butter, a high-quality chocolate protein powder, and milk.  You can also add collagen, flax oil or whatever supplements that blend well and don’t over-power.  Frozen strawberries, blueberries and bananas are great to have on hand and combine well with leafy green vegetables.  A favorite of mine combines frozen banana, strawberries, avocado, spinach, kale, juice from hand squeezed lemon and oranges, turmeric, and ginger, blended with coconut water.  Give different combinations a try.  

Rest assured; you can use what you’ve got, and it’s going to be good!

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Consistent, Yet Never the Same

Many years ago, I came across this lecture on the patterns and styles of architecture through the ages. Of course, I can’t for the life of me find it again, not even with the Mighty Google. The main point of the lecture was that the prominent pieces of each generation of architecture, the ones that stood the test of time both physically and emotionally, were both consistent and variable. The columns of stone had consistent spacing, but they also had offsets from each other to create a sense of depth. Mosaics and frescos had intricate designs with distinct lines to create order, but with sweeping beauty in curves and chaotic color. Windows, statues, paintings, and domes had their own balance of organization with artistic freedom. Order and Chaos, balanced. When the pendulum swings too far to the Order side, things become predictable, robotic, mundane, and we lose interest. However, when things swing over into Chaos, things become tumultuous, confusing, lawless. We like a degree of certainty, but not too much. We like an ounce of chaos, but not too much. The things that hold our attention, indeed, those that give us awe and wonder, are ones that are larger than ourselves, outside of our direct control, but still follow an unpredictable pattern. 

It’s likely that, on first glance, we think of things being both Consistent and Variable much like oil and water; they don’t mix. How can something be the same and different? But in fact, the world around us is in a constant state of consistent variability. The waves crash on the beach consistently, day and night, but with varying frequency and intensity. We can’t say whether this wave will be bigger than that wave, but we know the waves are coming. The clouds roll in with some semblance of certainty, but not so much that we can bet the farm on it every day. The wind blows through, and the trees move mostly as expected, generally, but not exactly. We know what wind does, but we can’t know what it will do next. The four seasons come and go with a degree of predictability, but not so much that we can know exactly what any one day will be like. Our galaxy’s stars would be boring if they were laid across the sky as predictable as a city block in New York City, like when you fly to a major city at night and descend amongst a million little stars in a neatly packed grid. How many hours we have wasted invested staring at the flames in a campfire, drawn to the beauty of the current flame, waiting expectantly for what the next flame will do. Knowing the flame will come, but not knowing what form it will take. How similarly we behave around lightning strikes and thunderstorms! Even snowflakes fall consistently, but never the same. We can know that a leaf will fall, but we couldn’t reliably pick where on the ground it will land. When something balances a healthy dose of structure with a hint of uncertainty, we are drawn in.  

Thankfully, our food follows the same patterns of Order and Chaos. We know that too much order in food and too much automation in food production creates “things” that are frighteningly identical in size, color, and shape. When our food becomes too predictable and formulaic, then it’s a good sign that it’s not meant for us. Things like frozen pizzas, cookies, snacks, and pre-packaged vegetables have a heavy dose of “order”, while things at the drive-thru and county fairs lean towards chaos! I love our fresh bread from Rachael because every loaf is just a little different.  

A good rule of thumb to use with the food you eat is to make sure it has both Consistency and Variability. Shout for joy when two peppers are oddly shaped, when squash are different sizes, and bananas are different colors. Be thankful that head of broccoli will take some knife skills, and the carrots aren’t as straight as they could be. That’s how you know your food wasn’t optimized for packaging, nor is it fit for pig food. Right in the middle is food that’s fit for you to eat. 

May we spend more hours gazing at the stars, listening to waves crash on the beach, watching the clouds drift by, following the dance of a fire, and creating and cooking our own food.  

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Stomachs over Storage

A couple years ago, a friend of a friend (and fellow Box of Good recipient!) was moving her small business to Snohomish, and she contracted me to set up all the technology for her new retail store. Before the computers, printers, Wi-Fi, POS station, credit card readers, and receipt printer worked, we needed to get a new internet router. So I went where everyone else goes, and headed to our local family-owned shop around the corner called Amazon. I picked out the right router that covered the appropriate square footage of her store and purchased it on a Thursday afternoon, around 1pm. I only needed it to arrive at her store by Monday to start setting up shop. But later that afternoon, she texted me to say that the router arrived at the new store! I was flabbergasted. 

While this complex system of distribution works great for consuming more and more cheaper items, it’s not such a great system for food that we actually consume. A router is not bothered by sitting on a shelf for a year, or in a container for 6 months, or a ship for 3 weeks. Nor do cell phone chargers, tires, a broom, a book or a rowing machine! My 94-year-old grandpa just bought himself a rowing machine from Amazon on his cell phone, delivered to his nursing-home “studio” in 3 days, because it’s still not too late to start something new! How long was that rowing machine waiting on a shelf for him? Who knows. 

Unfortunately, we’ve made our food system more like our non-food system, rather than the other way around. We’ve pushed too hard on the “convenience” button and tried to make every food item available all the time in whatever quantity we can dream up. Prioritizing food for storage and transport has come at the cost of the very nutrients we should be consuming. Too often, the same nutrients that our bodies desire also make food expire, but those are replaced with items that enhance their shipping and storage lives. If we were blindfolded and released into a grocery store and told to grab a handful of items, it’s more likely that your shopping cart would be full of items designed for the shelf, not for yourself. The main intention behind the shape, color, texture, presentation, density, price, and ingredients of each product is that it needs to be in a truck, freezer, cooler, warehouse, or storage for an unknown amount of time. It’s made to sustain the temperature changes, shaking, and squishing, rather than sustain our stomachs. 

But fresh local produce and grocery items flip the tradeoffs in our favor, so the nutrients we crave are left in the food, and the costs of a complex storage system are removed. The single-use plastic is eliminated, the gas and electricity are minimal from storing and moving items around between distribution centers. The fresh bread in your Box of Goodis baked by Rachael the morning that you receive it. The raw milk in your delivery comes from Tilly the day before you receive it. The bar of chocolate is made by Kevin the same week you receive it. The kale and carrots are grown by Ray and John, picked a day or two before you get it. The blueberries from Karen are picked a day or two before you eat them. That’s why I can’t eat just one pint! 

A famous person once said, just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.  

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Life of Pie

The Food and Drug Administration publishes the changes to our nutrition laws on their website, and it can be a dull read sometimes. Each year, the FDA makes changes to the National Register, which makes them part of the Law across the Land. I don’t know many people that keep up to date with the FDA regulations, so you’d be forgiven for missing the FDA alterations amongst other things like Twitter changing their name, or the Paris Olympics memes, or any other Very Important News®. Most years, the FDA makes a dozen or so updates to the food regulations, but so far in 2024, there have only been 3. We are 1) reducing sodium use, 2) updating “health” claims on yogurt, but the most riveting one is 3) revoking the standards for frozen cherry pie. What?!? 

In 1967, the FDA made a proposal to regulate the Standards of Identity for frozen cherry pies, meaning that the public was confused about what was and was not a frozen cherry pie. More specifically, the public was not sure whether the sweetener in the cherry goop was artificial or not.  A solid four years later, the proposal was finalized in 1971 and ever since then, we’ve had nothing but perfect frozen cherry pies. In 2020, the American Bakers Association (who else?!) petitioned to revoke the Standards of Identity around frozen cherry pies, asserting that “that non-standardized fruit pies have been sold throughout the country for many years without any evidence of public confusion”. So in March of 2024, the FDA relaxed the rules on frozen cherry pies, saying “the standards are no longer necessary to ensure that these products meet consumer expectations, and revoking the standards will provide greater flexibility and the opportunity for product innovation”. Keep an eye out for some innovative frozen cherry pies coming to a retailer near year! 

As we head into fall, we’re entering peak pie season. The usual pie suspects make this season go ‘round. The classic apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and chocolate pie are never far from reach. Or you can go the savory route and make sausage pies, delicata squash pies, turkey pies from Thanksgiving leftovers, cheddar pies, chicken pot pies. Quiche is even a pie! And don’t forget custard pies, meringue pies, or sweet potato pies. You name it, you can make a pie out of it! A pie is like the soup of the oven: throw all your extra ingredients in a pie crust, cover it with something, and bake it off! No one will be sure exactly what is in it, but it will taste good! 

If pies are not your thing or you need to be pulled away from the pies, Box of Good will begin offering nutritional classes In October. The class will be once a week for 5 weeks, and it’s a combination of 1 part nutritional education, 1 part sugar detox, and 1 part support group. Laura Conley is a Functional Nutritionist and will be leading the class through education around digestion, healthy fats, the impact of sugar and refined carbs, and how to fight back with whole foods, preferably local and organic when available. To register, look for more info on our website and the space will be limited. We will offer both daytime or evening classes to fit flexible schedules. 

A quick way to summarize the class is a great quote from author Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” 

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Too Big To Follow

Every once in a while, a phrase makes it into our global lexicon. These phrases are usually tied to an event or time that we all collectively associate. We can often remember exactly where we were and what we were doing. I remember learning a new phrase soon after September 11th, 2001, where all the newspapers and TV shouted “Shock and Awe” on repeat. I’d never heard that before, but suddenly, it was everywhere!  

Shortly before that, we added the “Dot-com Bubble” to reference the fall-out from very speculative tech companies after reality settled in that they may not be as important as they thought. Then we added “Great Recession” and learned all sorts of fun new financial words like derivatives, credit default swaps, and subprime. Without wasting time, we quickly added “Occupy Wall Street” and “Top 1%”. Then we moved on very quickly to “Black Lives Matter” and “Cancel Culture”. Finally, we’ve rounded out the last four years with a plethora of phrases regarding “Social Distancing” and “Flattening the Curve”. 

One interesting thing reading these phrases is that you can often recognize feelings, images, thoughts, or memories surrounding those very phrases, without me providing any further context whatsoever. With just a few words, we can all remember a singular season of life and where we were or who we spoke to. I remember exactly where I was for the first videos of 9/11, as well as when Washington State went into lockdown (if was half-time of my soccer game!).  

My favorite phrase is “Too Big To Fail” because it is accurate enough to cover all sorts of time periods and events. It’s a timeless truth that can apply to the railroads in the 1800s, the oil companies in the 1900s, the car companies after that, then the telephone companies in the 80s, then finally the banks in 2008. Even now, we could still apply it to the tech companies of 2020s, or CrowdStrike in July 2024. We could even apply it to the United States itself across many individual decades. We could also apply it to the Romans, the Dutch, the British, and many other empires in between. The underlying sentiment is that something becomes so critical, so dependent, that even if it fails (and fails those that depend on it), it lives on. Very few other aspects of life get to operate in this spectrum. When my peach tree gets too big, too heavy, too far out from its trunk, and I don’t trim and thin it, the roots give out and it naturally snaps and falls over. As it should, since it can’t support its own weight. Last week, a couple of famous arches in the Utah desert collapsed, and we, so far, have not spent a billion dollars to prop them back up to maintain an unsustainable structure. 

Eventually, some companies become a little too big, a little too important, a little too dependent, and a little too extractive. The tides slowly turn from producing lots of value for the local economy, to gradually sucking all the value in a larger and larger radius. When a company starts taking more value than it produces, people are left wondering where it all went, and is it still worth it to maintain it? The cure for this lose-lose situation is to notice these patterns early, get off the train at the next stop, and decide that these companies are Too Big To Follow. 

In late 2023, Seattle’s local organic chocolatier, Theo’s, was merged into the massive American Licorice Company. To “ensure the future of the company”, they closed their original Seattle manufacturing plant, laid off 60 of the people that got them there, and moved the operations out east. Meanwhile, our friendly account rep that worked with us turned into an automated inbox, our chocolate shipped from the East coast instead of Seattle, and the bars arrived further and further after their production date. They published an eye-opening press release of how they became too big and had to cut ties to their roots. That’s how trees fail too.  

We will always operate “upside-down” and when something gets Too Big to Follow, we’ll go the other direction and look local, look small. Next week, we will begin offering Miodo Chocolate, from our own backyard of Camano Island. Our friend, Kevin Miodonski, has been making single-origin, small-batch, dark chocolate for over 20 years. Our new fresh bread starting this week from Water Tank Bakery follows a similar pattern, from a small local baker using all Northwest ingredients to get bread to your door right after its baked. Stayed tuned for more hyper-local producers of honey, pasta, meat, pizza dough, salad dressing, hummus, even dishware and nutrition classes! We’re gearing up for a full harvest season!  

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Cream on Top

Greetings and salutations from Tobin and Emily! We’re beyond grateful for the opportunity to serve all our local families with fresh local food, and we couldn’t be happier to be “back in the saddle” at Box of Good. 

Between the two of us, we’ve been raised in a long line of gardeners of veggies, herbs, and flowers, even berries and orchards. With all that food to harvest, it also brought with it a lot of canning, pickling, juicing, jamming, pressing, and preserving. I’ve had many late nights with the kitchen windows steamed up from the pressure pot and water bath, preserving that day’s harvest.

My grandparents moved to Camano Island from Kodiak Island, Alaska in 1977. My grandma, Vivian, was an avid gardener, so much so that when she was done managing her own garden in the morning, she would come over to our house and manage ours too! I would race to get my school done early so that I could go outside and join her.  

When my grandparents passed away 10 years ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire their home and keep it in the family. With that came a box of original pictures of them tilling and forming and shaping the barren grass slopes into neat aisles of raised beds. Then they planted a group of saplings for the start of an orchard. Those trees are now so large that I can barely keep up with trimming them! 

A few years before passing, Vivian planted a frost peach tree in the garden, and that has been my favorite and best-producing tree each year. Like clockwork, the first 3 weeks of August will be overflowing with peaches, and I know I need to be in Canning Gear or else I will lose out on that harvest. There are so many fun things to do with peaches, especially when they’re coming out of your ears.  

One of most satisfying things about the canning process is the “click” you hear when the jars start to cool off from the water bath. The lid pops into place. That’s how you know you got a good seal. However, if you have 10 jars on the counter, you can’t tell which one popped, specifically. However, a successfully sealed jar will cause all the peaches to rise to the top, leaving a few inches of peach syrup at the bottom. I think this is amazing! Naturally, the best bits always rise to the top! 

There are other things that rise this way, as well. Raw milk still has the stuff that conventional milk only dreams of: cream on top! In July, we started partnering with Justin and Katrina Seckel at Camano Creamy to deliver super fresh, local, raw milk. They got into dairy farming because of a similarly long and storied family lineage of dairy farmers paving the way for the next generations. I love seeing all the milk jars come and go with the thick layer of cream, naturally rising to the top. You can make your own butter or ranch dressing or clotted cream with raw milk, because the richest, creamiest part of milk always rises to the top. 

Rising is also the main feature of a yummy loaf of bread. Watching dough rise and rise, over and over, as you knead it into shape. As we prepare to start offering fresh local breads (teaser!), I’m again reminded that natural things rise, organically, without anyone telling it what to do. The best rises to the top. 

Of course, that makes one ponder the reverse: which things in life don’t obey this natural law? Do all the inorganic structures and complex systems and institutions that we humans create follow suit? Does the “cream of the crop” also naturally rise to the top of the systems we’re in control of? Or do we surpress the cream from rising to the top of our own systems in order to squeeze out more and more of a quicker, cheaper solution? Perhaps we’d get better results in our diets, districts, or diplomats if we choose to play in arenas that allow nature to take it’s course more often, where there’s space to grow slowly in their own way, rather than dictate an unnaturally quick pace for a subpar harvest. 

When my grandparents moved to little ole Camano in ’77, they barely knew a soul here. But they found a modest home to move into and good community. My wife and I get to enjoy that home 50 years later. A home that was built by a close family relative of Justin and Katrina Seckel. Good things take time. 

~ Tobin Fekkes

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Grapefruit and Citrus

This newsletter is going way back to 1979 to a time when I was kid. My children have had a distinct advantage over me when I was growing up. I was a Hamburger Helper and Fruit Loops kid and wouldn’t have known a Fuji from a Granny Smith apple or a Navel from a Valencia Orange. My only experience with fresh produce are fond memories of shelling peas on grandma’s back porch and carrying the 4th of July “seeded” Watermelon to the family picnic. 
Fast forward to 1994, happily married with 3 of our own kiddos. This is when I began a career in retail produce. It wouldn’t be for another 4 years until Joelle and I would launch the Organic Produce Shoppe and then a few more years before we added farming and home delivery.

Those early years are where I gained a lot of experience about the seasonality and quality of produce. I have trimmed tens of thousand lettuce and spinach bunches, handled even more apples and citrus. At my core, I am a good food advocate and love working with quality growers and fresh produce.

I remember it as if it was yesterday, I was interviewing for a manager position after a few years of working in the industry. It was a walk and talk interview. It is not uncommon for me to ask questions when one enters my mind. I am just curious and like to learn. As we were walking through the fruit displays, I asked, “Where did you get grapefruit this time of year?” The manager hiring me said, “California???” This is not the question a potential manager candidate should have asked (smile). 

To be completely honest my only experience was in boutique high quality produce markets. The owner of the company where I started my career never carried grapefruit from California. He was partial to Texas and Florida, which are harvested at a different time. And for sure, those are two really good grapefruit growing regions, but California also grows some outstanding citrus. 

This week we are featuring some of that beautiful grapefruit from California. When I eat grapefruit, I am less likely to use a grapefruit spoon, but opt for cutting it into wedges and eating them like that. 

I did still get that job, because the manager was looking for a person with an eye for quality. Quality is still a driving factor for our small business and customer satisfaction. 
– Thank you for allowing our family to serve yours,

Tristan, Joelle, and the Box of Good crew

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Spinach and Shallots        

Spinach and Shallots                              Week of January 26th, 2023        

This week we are offering a great menu. As I was looking over the menu, I really enjoyed the nice assortment of fruits and vegetables that are featured in your Box of Good that Alaina and Kelsey selected. I was immediately drawn to the shallots and spinach. Of course, it is not the local farm season for spinach, but when I saw spinach on the menu, my mind drifted off to a cool fall morning in late September a decade or more ago. 

  We were on “bolt” alert for this crop. It was a variety that often could grow twice the size of normal spinach if the right conditions were present. I was nervous that we would lose the crop if we waited much longer. The leaves were huge, so big I remember my daughter holding up one leaf and she hid her entire face behind it 🙂. Everything had to line up perfectly for this to happen and that Fall season it all lined up. 

Bolting is a term used to describe when a plant goes to seed. You see this in a lot of vegetating crops like spinach, chard, kale, etc. A change in weather or prolonged heat can cause stress and because the plant’s primary goal is reproduction at some point it will switch from growing to seed production. When a plant thinks it has enough reserves, it can at any moment start bolting and switch to making seeds. My goal is to help the plant stay in growing mode. Yes, you can often eat plants in the bolting stage, but normally they are getting tougher and can have a bitter taste. This stage is usually called Raab, like Broccoli Raab or Kale Raab.  

This week California “non bolting” spinach is on the menu with WA shallots. Here is my take on spinach and shallots. After I had washed the spinach and discarded the stem ends. I would chop it up, add blackberries, raw shallots, thinly sliced, and drizzle with a fruity vinaigrette. Or if I was looking to cook a quick meal, I would sauté the shallots and red pepper with some garlic in some butter or olive oil until they were translucent and then toss in the spinach and wilt it down. Season with salt and pepper or your favorite seasoning and serve ASAP.  
 

Lastly Spinach is great added to soups, smoothies and salads.  

Thank you for choosing Box of Good for you and your family. 

  • Tristan, Joelle, and Alaina and the Box of Good Crew  
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Broccoli and Asparagus    

                Week of February 12th, 2023        

The Spring Broccoli coming out of California has been absolutely, hands down, super fresh and tasty. I know after years of farming, some things just get my attention. And the Broccoli has been front and center. Personally I love to boil broccoli. “What did he say ‘boil’ broccoli?” I absolutely said boil. I did not say, “Boil to oblivion!” I like to add a generous amount of salt to the water, so it tastes salty. Then I cut up the stems into 1/4”x1/4” chunks and then add the florets. I will then toss all of the broccoli into the water. If I had an hour or more I would let the broccoli sit and then bring it to a boil. It will take only a few minutes to cook once the water begins to boil, but check with a fork or knife for your desired tenderness. When it is perfect for you, strain and eat. I don’t think you need to add anything but you could season it with butter or some parmesan or whatever your family’s go to seasonings are.  

Asparagus (resharing from last week) 

When I first started in the produce industry it was in NW Portland in 1993. I was a produce clerk, learning the difference between butter lettuce and leaf lettuce or navels and valencias. I remember my first Thanksgiving Holiday asif it was yesterday. In those days, we would work overnight and get the store ready for holiday shoppers. The owner came wandering through at 4am and I was on the other side of the produce rack and I heard him say, “The grass display is a little light”. I set that side of the rack and after he left I asked the manager, “Where is the grass?”  When I walked over I did see the wheat grass that we were selling to pet owners and juicers, but that wasn’t what the owner was referring to. My manager smiled one of those Cheshire cat grins and he pointed to the Asparagus, of course Grass = Asparagus, duly noted.  

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Chicory    

                                         Week of January 15th, 2023                                               

What is Chicory? I am glad you asked. This is a large group of vegetables that graces the tables of many Europeans, but tends to be less popular on this side of the “pond” with Americans. There are as many types of chicory as there are lettuces and they range the gamut from sweet to bitter tasting. Some of the most common names are Belgian Endive, Escarole, Curly Endive, Frissee and Radicchio. However, the most well known chicory plant is the Dandelion! I swear I grow acres of dandelions every year in our pastures. Sometimes I have even considered mowing 2 foot strips and pretending I have fields of Daffodils (Big Smile). Ironically the Dandelion is an important plant as it has a deep tap root that mines nutrients and brings them to the service so that when the plant dies back or gets mowed those nutrients are added to the top of soil structure.  

A few weeks ago, our supplier had sent us a mislabeled case of lettuce. It doesn’t happen often, but Curly Endive showed up serendipitously. Since we normally don’t have chicory’s on the menu, I noticed the interloper straight away. If I could do cartwheels, I would have probably tossed in a back flip, too. I was that excited!  

In fact I was so excited that I grabbed a head, some onions, mushrooms, garlic and broth and proceeded to cook up a quick lunch for the team. Now if you have been a customer for a while, you know that I am a big fan of simple, quick and one pot meals! I firmly believe that nutrition is minutes away and cleanup should be quick and easy too.  

The Curly Endive in some of your boxes this week and can be used as a salad item or as a vegetable like kale, chard or spinach. Use the whole thing in a pot of soup. Because the Curly Endive has an open structure it is easy to clean with a quick rinse, then pat it dry and lay the whole head on its side and cut it into 1-2” strips all the way down to the stem end. For me, I look to saute the onions and garlic and then add broth and everything else. Add the greens at this point, season and cook for 30 minutes on medium. Don’t be afraid to add other vegetables or proteins. Soups are a great way to eat healthy and eat your veggies! 

Here’s to a healthy 2023! 

  • Tristan, Joelle and the Box of Good crew 
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One Pot Meals               

                                   Week of January 22n , 2023  

Joelle and I attended a trade show in South Carolina last week. Our oldest son and his wife live only a couple hours from there. I attended the show and talked to other small businesses (one of my happy places) and Joelle explored the trails (her happy place) in and around SC and NC. Micah and Elise picked up Joelle and they hiked all morning and I was able to join them for the afternoon. Then Joelle and I did more hiking and exploring the next day in the Brevard area of NC.  

Transylvania County in NC is definitely the land of waterfalls. We visited Rainbow Falls, Triple Falls, Hooker Falls, Table Top State park, Wild Cat Falls, and Devil’s Kitchen in Caesar Head. Pretty Place outdoor chapel was definitely a highlight and a must see if you are in the area. This was an epic spot to sit and ponder the Creator amidst breathtaking views.  

When traveling it’s fun to try unique and cultural foods. We expected Southern cooking, but Greenville also had quite a broad range of foods we were able to enjoy. I’d say we probably fall into the category of “foodies” and enjoy researching and finding restaurants, farm stands and whole food markets that invest in the local economy and local farms. As fun and delicious as the food was on our getaway, coming home to our kitchen was…well…home.  

After having not been in the kitchen for almost a week, I was eager to get my creative culinary juices flowing. I’d been wanting to try the Curly Green Endive from last week’s box. I went to the shop and I grabbed that, along with some other staples. We cooked not one, but two one pot meals. The first was a Quinoa Sweet Potato casserole and the other a Salmon with Bok Choy and Endive. And while those two were cooking on the stove top we cooked one of our mouthwatering Brown Sugar Pear Pie from Wild Crow Pies. A couple friends joined us and everyone left satisfied and full! There’s nothing like home-cooked tasty, healthy meals! I love being a part of my meals from start to finish.  

It was good to visit our out of state kids and to experience SC and NC, but it’s also good to come home. There’s no place like home or like home cookin’! 

Enjoy this week’s box and cook up something healthy and delicious! 

  • Tristan 
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Assorted Bags     

                                           Week of January 29th, 2023        

Years ago, we added three assorted bags to our offerings. Several folks wanted an extra head of lettuce or carrots or some apples and bananas. But way back in the beginning when online shopping was just getting going the shopping platforms were not as easy to navigate. During these early years we created “curated” mini menus, AKA the Assorted Salad, Assorted Veggie, and the Assorted Fruit bags. Our assorted bags are great additions to supplement your Box of Good. Think of these as similar to “mini” Essential boxes that contain 3-5 types of produce.  

Because many of you love more salad or cooking vegetables or some more in season fruit and are happy with a grab bag approach these were the perfect addition. These assorted bags are easy to order and can add a little extra of a certain type of fruit or vegetable quickly and easily but save time not having to order items individually. It is also a great way to get an extra type of produce (salad, cooking veggies or fruit) without having to order another box. The assorted bags pricing is $7 for the Assorted Salad and Assorted Vegetables and $11 for the Assorted Fruit bag. 

Of course, today you can order one of our Assorted Bags, or you can just easily add any item to your delivery by shopping online at Box of Good. We are happy to hand pack your fresh produce however you prefer to order them – so shop away! 🙂 

If you would like to have some extra produce weekly or every other week and are happy with a grab bag assortment of produce, consider adding an assorted bag with your next delivery.  

Thank you for choosing Box of Good for you and your family. 

  • Tristan, Joelle, and Alaina and the Box of Good Crew 
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Seedless      

                                      Week of January 8th, 2023                                                 

As we move through citrus season and add a variety of oranges, mandarins, grapefruits, and pummelos to your boxes, we sometimes have people wondering about something: How are seedless oranges, well, seedless? Does it take genetic modification to create seedless oranges? 

This is a fair question! After all, with what we know about biology and the furthering of plant species, a fruit not having seeds seems contrary to everything we’ve been taught. Thankfully I can assure you that seedless oranges are in the category of non-GMO and every orange we send in our Box of Good is organic as well. Let’s take a moment to look at the history and biology of seedless citrus! 

Seedless fruits originate from plants that are, for all intents and purposes, “infertile”. This means that the plants or trees produce fruit but the fruit itself has no way of then creating a new plant to continue the genetic line. Instead of planting seeds to obtain seedless fruit, they are instead grown through a process called grafting, in which a shoot from one tree is attached in a specific manner to another tree and then the shoot grows as if it were originally part of the tree. This is how we get many varieties of fruit (you may have heard of this particularly related to apple trees as this is quite popular in the apple industry). In this case, shoots from a seedless orange tree are grafted, or propagated, onto another tree, and so on to continue growth. 

Historically speaking, a tree that produced seedless oranges was discovered in the 19th century in South America. From there, grafting was used to begin the process of growing what we now know of as navel oranges! Similar processes have been used for other seedless fruits as well, such as grapes and watermelon. Not a product of genetic modification, but rather inventive growers capitalizing on unique mutations in fruit to provide enjoyment and convenience to the consumer! 

I love learning more about the processes of growing the food that we are so quick to enjoy. As a culture, we tend to be so separated from the food we eat and lack knowledge about its origins, the time and care that it took to grow it, and how it makes its way to our plates. The more you know about the food you eat; the more appreciation you have for it and the greater intentionality you will have with ensuring that what you eat is what’s best for you! 

As we continue to strive to offer you the very best of food options, we will also strive to provide resources, tips, and education about that food.  

-Emily and the Box of Good Team 

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Spinach and Shallots                  

                             Week of January 26th, 2023        

This week we are offering a great menu. As I was looking over the menu, I really enjoyed the nice assortment of fruits and vegetables that are featured in your Box of Good that Alaina and Kelsey selected. I was immediately drawn to the shallots and spinach. Of course, it is not the local farm season for spinach, but when I saw spinach on the menu, my mind drifted off to a cool fall morning in late September a decade or more ago. 

  We were on “bolt” alert for this crop. It was a variety that often could grow twice the size of normal spinach if the right conditions were present. I was nervous that we would lose the crop if we waited much longer. The leaves were huge, so big I remember my daughter holding up one leaf and she hid her entire face behind it 🙂. Everything had to line up perfectly for this to happen and that Fall season it all lined up. 

Bolting is a term used to describe when a plant goes to seed. You see this in a lot of vegetating crops like spinach, chard, kale, etc. A change in weather or prolonged heat can cause stress and because the plant’s primary goal is reproduction at some point it will switch from growing to seed production. When a plant thinks it has enough reserves, it can at any moment start bolting and switch to making seeds. My goal is to help the plant stay in growing mode. Yes, you can often eat plants in the bolting stage, but normally they are getting tougher and can have a bitter taste. This stage is usually called Raab, like Broccoli Raab or Kale Raab.  

This week California “non bolting” spinach is on the menu with WA shallots. Here is my take on spinach and shallots. After I had washed the spinach and discarded the stem ends. I would chop it up, add blackberries, raw shallots, thinly sliced, and drizzle with a fruity vinaigrette. Or if I was looking to cook a quick meal, I would sauté the shallots and red pepper with some garlic in some butter or olive oil until they were translucent and then toss in the spinach and wilt it down. Season with salt and pepper or your favorite seasoning and serve ASAP.  
 

Lastly Spinach is great added to soups, smoothies and salads.  

Thank you for choosing Box of Good for you and your family. 

  • Tristan, Joelle, and Alaina and the Box of Good Crew  
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Brussel Sprouts       

                             Week of December 4th 2022                                                          

 These tiny cabbages are in a class all by themselves. Brussels Sprouts are one my favorite vegetables and are a staple all winter long. As a farmer, I’ll just say, growing these beauties are not for the faint of heart. I usually defer to my neighbors who enjoy the challenge. The goal is to transplant in late July so that they can get well established, and then when the cold weather sets in they are mostly mature and will continue growing at a slower rate. And since we live in the floodplain, that isn’t protected by dikes, coupled with the fact that they take months to grow, I have left this veggie to other farmers to supply the Box of Good. The cold weather is what imparts a sweetness to the Brassica family (Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts).   

I am including a link to a YouTube video with 3 different ways to prepare Brussels Sprouts by Brian Lagerstrom. He has a French feel to his cooking and an easy-to-follow style.   (youtube.com/watch?v=1LlZJFfJyxk)  

I am going to try blanching them this week. I don’t usually blanch my vegetables, but after watching him do it, I am all in. I am not sure why I haven’t blanched much before, but I can definitely see some advantages. It can help vegetables to not get overcooked (which I think overcooked Brussels Sprouts have given them a bad rap). I also loved his take a on a grated Brussels Sprouts salad and for sure his recipe could easily be adapted for broccoli or red or green cabbage. Having a few techniques to draw upon that can work across many different veggies is important knowledge to have in your cooking repertoire.  

However, blanching full size cabbages is not recommended, but for sure grating them makes a lot of sense (think fancy coleslaw). The other night Joelle and enjoyed an Apple Ginger Cole Slaw at the Blue Heron on Camano Island. I like ginger and apples, so combining those flavors with cabbage provided a light and refreshing appetizer.  

This week I will be blanching up some Brussels Sprouts. How about you?  

Walnuts  

On the home farm, our walnuts are ready to enjoy! We will be putting them into a menu shortly, but for now you can add them to your order. 

  

-Tristan, Joelle and Box of Good Crew