Farm-fresh goodness from Johnson's Backyard Garden

My first few weeks here in Austin were filled with a lot of downtime. Like...a lot of downtime. More downtime than I knew what to do with. I'd applied to a few jobs, but for some reason, no one seemed very interested in hiring a recent college grad for just the summer (huh...), and as much as I loved lounging around the house, staring lovingly into the pellucid blue orbs that are my boyfriend's eyes, I needed something to do.

Enter Johnson's Backyard Garden.


On one fateful Kerbey Lane lunch outing, as I was bemoaning my unintentionally idle state over a plate of salmon eggs Benedict, Caufield's dad suggested I volunteer at a farm somewhere in town to gain a better perspective of where restaurants get their produce. As I sat there, pushing around bits of yolk-soaked English muffin, I thought to myself, 'No shit! Why didn't I think of that?!' The next morning, I frantically Googled organic farms in town, and found Johnson's Backyard Garden. A few exclamation point-laced e-mails later, I found myself on a thriving organic farm way out in east Austin.

JBG's presence is ubiquitous: not only do they supply a ton of the city's best restaurants (including Contigo and Barley Swine), but they also stock several grocery stores in town (Whole Foods, Wheatsville, Central Market), and can be found at the Austin Farmer's Market every weekend. After putting in a mere five hours sorting cucumbers and packing okra, I was rewarded with this:






































Just look at that big beautiful box! Carrots, green beans, squash, cucumbers, basil, kale...I was in veggie heaven. However, as my produce-induced afterglow subsided, I was left with the head-scratcher of figuring out what to do with all them veggies.

Fortunately for me, the Internet is rife with recipes. From the contents of my big beautiful box, I have, to date, created:

*kale and carrot slaw (to go on the most tender turkey burgers I've ever made)
*squash pancakes
*squash and zucchini quiche
*fennel cream (for butternut squash crêpes)
*patatas bravas (with some exquisite blue potatoes)
*gazpacho

Recipes coming soon!