Eat Real Food in 2016. Join Root Bottom Farm's CSA!

Eat Real Food in 2016. Join Root Bottom Farm's 2016 CSA.

Who are we? Root Bottom Farm is a small organic farm located in Marshall, NC. We are dedicated to growing our produce the old fashioned way; by hand, with love & without chemicals.

What is a CSA? Community Supported Agriculture is a way for you to buy and eat local, seasonal and delicious produce directly from the farmer in your community. You receive a box of weekly veggies, greens and value added products. Pick up at the farm or from a Marshall or Hot Springs location each week.

How long does it last? How much does it cost? Mid May - Mid October
$500 for the season. Full payment is due by March 1st, 2016.

Payment plans are available.

What can I expect in my box? Produce and products vary each week. Boxes will include greens, microgreens, vegetables, root crops, berries and our value added products.

Greens: Lettuce, microgreens, kale, Swiss chard, collards, arugula & spicy Asian greens

Veggies: eggplant, tomatoes, scallions, peppers, cucumbers, peas, beans, broccoli, corn, summer & winter squash

Root Crops: carrots, beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic, onions & sunchokes

Other: strawberries, blackberries, basil, herbs, flowers, jam, pesto and garlic butter

What do I do next? Contact rootbottom @ gmail.com for more information. Limited spots available. We hope to see you for the 2016 season!

Where did Root Bottom Farm's Food Go in 2015?

As the farm transitions into Fall, we are grateful for our most successful year yet. 

 The diversity of food produced on this little strip of land continues to inspire us. We grew over 24 types of vegetables, and had our biggest yield for strawberries, blackberries, and garlic. With the addition of bees on the farm, our produce was noticeably happier and more productive. Love Life.

 

• So where did all of Root Bottom Farm's food go?

• Two local farmers markets each week

Mars Hill Market every Saturday 9-1

West Asheville Market every Tuesday 330-630

• Seven local restaurants each week

 

• Glass Onion
• Laughing Seed
• Cucina 24
• Plant
• Rosetta's Kitchen
• Farm Burger : We grew and harvested over 13+ lbs of lettuce for these fine folks every week. 
• Wicked Weed : 250 lbs of sweet potatoes went to our friend's brewery Wicked Weed for a seasonal beer! 

• Some of our garlic went into a new Asheville Product 'PFM Fire Tonic'

P.F.M. Fire Tonic is a centuries old apple cider vinegar based herbal infused tincture inspired and made popular by the "godmother of american herbalism" Rosemary Gladstar. Created by Planet Kitchen of Asheville, the tonic, relish, and spice are a powerful immune boosting, spicy circulatory moving, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-viral concoction of love. Based on a traditional recipe deeply rooted in folk medicine, our tonic contains locally sourced (when available) always organic, GMO FREE ingredients.

•  Our bulk orders went to one local food distributor, Mountain Foods, that connects Asheville area restaurants and farms

• Three Successful Farm to Table Dinners

  

  We are overjoyed with the response to these delicious meals. We could not have done it without the amazing collaboration with our friend, Dava Melton, of Blessed 2 Cook. We will announce our 2016 dates soon. We hope to see you around the table next year!

   .

  • 15 families on our weekly ESA delivery

What is an ESA? Similar to Community Supported Agriculture where you receive a box every week, we offer an 'Email Supported Agriculture' where our families receive an email each week and choose what goes in their custom delivered box. This year we will also offer traditional CSA shares to accommodate more families. Please contact us for more information.

•  To our fantastic farm volunteers who traded a shift of work for food   

Big thanks to Kris, Leigh, Meredith, Tyler, Meredith, Emma & Emily.

 

 

 

• To our awesome intern, Justin

Many, many thanks to the best intern, Justin. Nothing but love for this wonderful guy. He was our friend, coworker and all around farm ninja.

• Into our added value products for sale and on the tables at our farm dinners

Our popular Garlic Butter made with Root Bottom Farm garlic and herbs. Not pictured: Root Bottom Pesto

• Into Morgan's homemade wine for the farm dinners. This year he bottled dandelion, strawberry, blackberry and pear wine.

• And all the rest was eaten by us or canned, frozen or dehydrated for us for the Winter months.

This year I made blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry & mixed berry jam. I also canned tomato sauce, salsa, dill & sweet pickles, roasted tomato soup, applesauce, pear chutney, pears and peaches. 

tomatoes heading for the dehydrator

tomato sauce

honey peaches & spicy cinnamon peaches

Root Bottom Farm LOVES garlic

Our new license plate arrived.

We love garlic at Root Bottom Farm. Garlic Fest in Asheville was a huge success and a lot of fun.

At Garlic Fest we sold garlic, garlic samplers, our homemade garlic butter, I LOVE Garlic buttons, Root Bottom Farm stickers and root crops.

Root Bottom Garlic Butter. Our organic garlic, our herbs. Great on EVERYTHING

The Spring and Summer gardens have been pulled out, tilled and composted in preparation for our big 2015 garlic planting this week (Projecting about 8,000 bulbs)

This weekend we cracked all 80 lbs into individual pieces to be planted. 

We currently grow 13 varieties for garlic. Above: (top L to R) Elephant, Red Russian, Music & Creole Red.  We sell our garlic at local farmers markets, Asheville restaurants and online.

Below is a great article from Earth Flavors about Root Bottom Farm and all things garlic. https://mountainx.com/food/hardnecks-and-softnecks-talking-garlic-with-root-bottom-farm/

Hardnecks and softnecks: Talking garlic with Root Bottom Farm

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Carla Seidl

THE SPICE OF LIFE: The two basic categories of garlic are hardneck and softneck, and there are numerous varieties running the flavor gamut from mild to spicy-hot. Photo by Carla Seidl

“Garlic can be hot or spicy,” says Sarah Decker of Root Bottom Farm in Marshall. “Or it can be hot AND spicy.” In their 12-variety garlic sampler, she and husband Morgan sell varieties with names like Thai fire, Sicilian silver and German red.
“I like the heat, and I like the robust flavor that you can get while cooking,” says Sarah. In contrast, the garlic you buy in the supermarket is milder, with a less complex flavor. As she puts it, it’s “consumer-safe.”
There are two general categories of garlic: hardneck and softneck. Hardnecks have an edible stalk, called a scape, growing through the center of the bulb. You can eat the scape raw or sautée it. “It’s almost like a bean — a garlic bean,” says Morgan.
Supermarket garlic is usually of the softneck type, which stores longer than hardneck and lacks the hardneck’s defining scape. California silverskin is the most common supermarket variety and has extra-good shelf life due to its tightly wrapped skins. Hardneck is more commonly found at farmers markets.
Garlic’s health-promoting reputation is deserved: It has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties as well as cardiovascular benefits. In addition, it’s rich in trace minerals manganese and selenium, as well as a variety of other vitamins.
In her book, Eating on the Wild Side, Jo Robinson recommends either eating garlic raw or letting it rest for 10 minutes after chopping or pressing before adding it to your cooking in order to reap maximum health benefits. While any kind of garlic is good for you, Robinson explains that hardneck garlic, being closer to wild garlic, may have retained more medicinal properties.
Before starting Root Bottom Farm four years ago, Morgan Decker farmed garlic in Vermont and Utah. Sarah was a photography professor and grew up on a small farm in Virginia, where her dad hunted and raised animals and had a small garden. “I like eating food that I know the source of,” she says.
The Deckers farm 5 1/2 acres of bottomland along a creek. Such flat land is rare in hilly Madison County. The property was formerly a tobacco farm, which the couple revitalized over a two-year period with, among other efforts, 65 trips to the landfill.
The couple farm organically, spraying nothing, and not even using a tractor. They even plant by the moon — a habit that comes from Sarah’s father and to which Morgan has agreed, though qualifying, “only if it works out.” So far, it’s always worked out.

VARIETY PACK: With their 12-variety garlic sampler packs, Root Bottom Farm owners Sarah and Morgan Decker hope to spread the word about the many types of garlic that can be grown in Western North Carolina. Photo by Carla Seidl

Still, the lack of a true cold snap in this area can be challenging for garlic, especially hardnecks, and the Deckers have found it’s best to leave some varieties to the folks in Maine and Minnesota. “This is kind of on the warmer side of the garlic-growing spectrum,” Morgan says, “so you have to choose the right varieties.”
Normally, garlic undergoes a curing process, in which the paper skins become fully formed for storage and the flavor intensifies. The Deckers cure their garlic in the rafters of the old tobacco barn, but they also start to sell garlic as soon as they dig it up (in June or July, depending on the variety). Morgan says fresh garlic is juicier. He explains that chefs, especially, like it because freshly dug garlic’s paper isn’t fully formed, so they don’t have to go to the trouble of peeling the skin off each clove.
Garlic’s ability to store means the Deckers don’t have to sell their garlic right away. Softneck garlic can be stored in a cold, dark, dry environment for six months, hardneck for three to five. With the right conditions, they can last all winter in a cellar or fridge. “We like the longevity that root crops provide,” says Sarah.
The couple specialize in root crops and grow carrots, potatoes and beets, in addition to garlic, but they also grow and sell other crops, including microgreens, berries, herbs and flowers.
“We like to use everything,” Sarah says. From leftover, small garlic bulbs not big enough to sell for seed or consumption, she started making an organic, herbed garlic butter, which is one of their main value-added products.
The Deckers want people not just to buy and eat their garlic cloves but also plant them. They sell their garlic sampler in part to spread the varieties of garlic that do well here and to keep the diversity of garlic strains alive.
Reading the descriptions on Root Bottom Farm’s garlic sampler, I’m especially intrigued by their Music variety: “An aromatic, slightly spicy, incredibly flavorful garlic. Potent heat that is balanced by the spiciness. Good in mashed potatoes.”
I will have to catch up with them again soon to try it out.
Find Root Bottom Farm at the West Asheville or Mars Hill tailgate markets, or visit rootbottomfarm.com.
This story was originally posted at Earth Flavors, a website profiling local ingredients in Asheville and Western North Carolina. Carla Seidl is the founder and producer of Earth Flavors.

Root Bottom Farm at Asheville's Garlic Fest & Venture Local Fair

We are so excited to be a part of Asheville's inaugural Garlic Fest and Venture Local Fair. Come on down to the South Slope of Asheville Saturday 26 from 12-6pm. See you there!

Root Bottom Farm will be selling Garlic Butter, garlic, I ❤︎ GARLIC buttons & our Garlic Samplers.

Check out the Venture Local Fair site for more information: http://venturelocalfair.com/

September Farm to Table Dinner ~ A Taste of Fall

 

Our third and final sold out Farm to Table Dinner of the 2015 season was a huge success. The air was cool, the food deliciously showcased the flavors of fall (see menu below) and the evening was magical. The dinner was 100% Madison County, NC grown! We purchased local bread, salad dressing and sausage from our friends at Smoke Signals, Sunset Valley Farm and Mackey Farms. The rest of the food and all the flowers were grown with love on Root Bottom Farm. We were joined by friends, family and new faces around tables nestled in our renovated tobacco barn. We could not have done it without the talent of Dava Melton of Blessed 2 Cook, the magical performances by West of Roan and all our talented friends. We are overwhelmed with the success of our first dinner series on the farm and the support of the great community we are lucky enough to call home. 

 See you around the table next year? Dates to be announced soon.

Fall is in the air

We had very special helpers for this dinner. My sister in law, niece and nephew visited from Virginia!! Photo by Kelly Thompson

Raspberry pickers. Photo by Kelly Thompson

Flowers. One of my favorite parts. Photo by Kelly Thompson

In my happy place. Photo by Kelly Thompson

Photo by Kelly Thompson

 

Me & my favorite niece. Photo by Kelly Thompson

Photo by Kelly Thompson

 

 

Photo by Kelly Thompson

One day we will get more official name tags than masking tape..

Morgan starting the farm tour. Photo by Kelly Thompson

Photo by Kelly Thompson

Photo by Kelly Thompson

Friends gather.

Root Bottom Blackberry Jam, Blackberry Wine and Garlic Butter on every table.

 

Photo by Kelly Thompson

 

And it was all topped off with the music and magic of the talented West of Roan.

 

 

 

I was too busy eating to get pictures of ALL the delicious food! See menu below.
Smoke Signals bread with Root Bottom Blackberry Jam, root bake and stuffed acorn squash with Mackey Farms Sausage and Root Bottom kale, garlic & sweet pea microgreens. Photo by Kelly Thompson

Corn on the cob with Root Bottom Garlic Butter

A light dessert of Root Bottom watermelon, blackberries and a homemade mint drizzle.
Photo by Kelly Thompson

So many thanks to Dava of Blessed 2 Cook and her helpers, Emma & Teres!!

ROOT BOTTOM FARM SEPTEMBER FARM TO TABLE

Smoke Signal's bread with

Root Bottom Blackberry Jam or Root Bottom Garlic Butter

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Root Bottom Salad

Lettuce, sunflower microgreens, carrots, tomatoes

& Sunset Valley Farm Sweet Onion Dressing

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Homemade spicy pepper sauce is available on the table

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Acorn squash stuffed with Mackey Farms sausage,

onions, Swiss chard & sweet pea microgreens

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Ratatouille ~ stewed eggplant, Kabocha squash, tomatoes, sweet peppers, scallions, garlic & purple cabbage microgreens

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Root Bake ~ beets, carrots, potatoes, garlic, herbs & chives

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Corn on the cob with Root Bottom Garlic Butter

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Spaghetti squash with homemade basil pesto, roasted squash seeds

& spicy radish microgreens

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Dessert

Fresh watermelon with blackberries & homemade mint syrup

All vegetables, fruit, greens, herbs & flowers are grown on Root Bottom Farm.

We are dedicated to growing great organic food the old fashioned way.

By hand, with love and without chemicals.

Thanks for sharing the evening with us.