Fresh: Orchard farms good source for burdick, salsify

When you are looking for burdock root or salsify, you’ll find it at Orchard Farms booth at the Sebastopol Farmers Market on Sunday. If you subscribe to the farm’s CSA program, you have already gotten some this season.

If, on the other hand, you’re shaking your head and wondering just what burdock root and salsify are, let me explain. Salsify, sometimes called oyster plant or vegetable oyster, is a pale-skinned root that looks like a long, weird carrot. It is high in fiber, very low in calories and contains iron, calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, potassium and other trace minerals. It can be eaten raw but is more commonly peeled, poached and served as a side dish; it is also good poached and sautéed in brown butter.

Burdock root has a similar nutritional profile and also contains magnesium and phosphorus. It is often steeped to make a tea and is included in a wide array of Asian soups. It can also be peeled, cut into matchsticks and poached or sautéed.

In addition to these two delicious and nutritious roots, Ken Orchard and his crew are currently harvesting celery root, golden beets, Red Ace beets, leeks, mache, celery, Scarlet cauliflower, Romanesco broccoli, head lettuces, turnips, thyme and both Italian parsley and curly parsley. There’s bok choy, too, and Brussels sprouts, sold loose, not on the stalk.

The farm produces year-’round, but things have slowed down in the last couple of weeks.

“The Sebastopol farm is completely saturated right now,” farmer Ken Orchard said last week, “to the point that it is tricky to walk through it.” He’s not complaining, just explaining.

Ken Orchard farms 8½ acres in Sebastopol and another 25 acres in Calistoga and has long had a passionate commitment to producing certified organic foods for as many people as possible.

About a dozen restaurant chefs buy from him regularly, at the markets he attends.

Currently, the farm has a number of openings in its subscription program. Charges vary a bit by month and location. A January subscription, for example, is $57 for Sebastopol members and $63 for Santa Rosa members. Prices rise and fall based on the month’s bounty. Produce is delivered either to your home or to a nearby pick-up location. There is also a farm pick-up option. The best way to sign up is to read about the CSA at orchard-farms.com and then call 823-6528, rather than mailing in your sign-up form or signing up on line.

Orchard Farms, founded in 1994 and owned and operated by Ken Orchard, attends the Marin Civic Center Farmers Market on Thursday and Sunday and the Sebastopol Farmers Market on Sunday.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 18 books to date, including the new “More Than Meatballs.” Email Jordan at michele@saladdresser.com. You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.