Stone Soup Dinner, Farm Passports and CSA Week 16

The end of this week marks the beginning of fall, and the crop selection this week reflects that: carrots, cabbage, spinach and potatoes are making a return, while summer crops like tomatoes and zucchini are on their way out. (Tuesday’s predicted rains will likely finish off the plants, which were already on the decline after the 3 inches of rain we received last week!) One of the bonuses of fall is that each week’s to-do list steadily gets smaller. Unfortunately, the crew size also gets smaller, so for the first several weeks in September it still feels like we are moving at the same frenetic pace of summer! We are lucky that our full-season crew members happen to be so great - they even came in Monday afternoon (normally their day off) to help us bring in a few more crates of squash before Tuesday’s rain! Our fabulous field crew has also been helping out with coverage in the store this fall. It’s always really fun for us to be able to catch up with all the members and customers we have missed all summer, but of course the flip side is that we then have fewer people in the field to weed those last beds of beets and carrots, harvest the last bins of squash, or clean out plastic mulch and landscape fabric so that we can seed cover crops!

Still, in spite of the challenges to get everything done, fall is our favorite time of year. This week, there are a couple of great ways to celebrate the season. On Sunday, September 23rd, the annual Stone Soup Dinner is being held at Verrill Farm. You can sample the season’s bounty from Concord’s farms, all prepared by Concord’s chefs. Proceeds from the event go toward supporting Concord’s farmers through grants, publicity and a farmland acquisition fund. We were very lucky to receive a grant from Stone Soup at a really crucial time for the business several years ago, which we used toward our first cultivation equipment purchase - our beloved basket weeder! Tickets for the event are $40 and are available at our farm stand, as well as Marshall Farm, Hutchins Farm and Verrill Farm.

Also available this week at our farm stand are Concord farm passports! If you get your passport stamped at six or more of Concord’s farm stands by this Sunday’s Stone Soup Dinner, you can get a chance to win $50 worth of Concord Farm Bucks.

This week in the CSA:

• Carrots - our first 2 carrot planting struggled to germinate in the summer heat, and were then washed out by several downpours. The later plantings are finally ready and they look great!

• Cabbage - Tendersweet, which is a green cabbage that has - you guessed it - both tender texture and sweet (for a cabbage) flavor!

• Spinach - spinach is back this week!

• Buttercup squash - similar texture to Red Kuri, and like Red Kuri, the skin is also edible. Any easy way to prepare it is to cut in half, scoop out the seeds, and slice into 1/2” thick wedges to roast on a baking sheet with olive oil.

• Potatoes - We are now harvesting King Harry, which is a white potato with some amazing insect repelling qualities. It is cross-bred with a wild potato to produce leaves with sticky hairs that deter potato beetles and leafhoppers! It’s our first year growing this variety and I think we will be growing more of it next year!

• Onions

• Eggplant

• Peppers

• Red Kuri squash

• Spaghetti squash

• Kale

• Salanova

• Lettuce

• Arugula

CSA Pick-your-own:

Reminder: in the event of lightning storms, we close PYO fields for the safety of members. If we need to close PYO fields on Tuesday due to the weather, we will likely offer alternative picking hours on Wednesday.

• Green beans

• Husk cherries

• Herbs - cilantro, basil, thyme, oregano.

• As of now cherry tomatoes are still alive, but we’ll see whether they last through the week, especially after Tuesday’s storm.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. We are hoping to have raspberries again from Silferleaf Farm, but with the heavy rain forecast, it doesn’t look promising. We will still have their delicious raspberry jam and raspberry infused vinegar, which is fantastic on salads! Also, don’t forget to grab a farm passport and get it stamped while you are here!

PYO Flowers:

Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, verbena, cosmos, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.

Kale, Cabbage & Carrot Salad With Creamy Caper Dressing

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• ¼ cup grapeseed oil

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped

• 1 tablespoon caper pickling liquid

• 1 large clove garlic, smashed to a paste

• ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• Salt, to taste

• 2 tablespoons snipped chives (optional)

• ¼ head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

• 1½ large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into bite-size pieces

• 1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves thinly sliced or torn into bite-size pieces

• ½ yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced

• 2 tablespoons chopped mixed herbs, such as parsley, basil, chives or dill (optional)

In medium bowl, whisk egg yolk with mustard. While whisking constantly, slowly dribble in oils. Continue whisking until oil is fully incorporated and mixture is thick and pale in color. Whisk in capers, pickling liquid, garlic and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste and snipped chives, if using. In a large bowl, combine all vegetables and herbs, if using. Add dressing and toss, using both hands to mix until dressing coats all ingredients. Allow salad to marinate until vegetables soften, at least 10 minutes.

Farm updates and CSA week 15

 I like a week when we have a lot of “thank you’s” to do because it means we’ve had a lot of people in the mix! This week, with the addition of the Ag Day farmers’ market to a busy Saturday at the farm, we needed all the help we could get! The crew did a fantastic job holding down the fort at the farm, harvesting, stocking, and generally doing everything needed to keep the CSA and farm store running smoothly! The gigantic pile of bins they washed at the end of the day deserves mention (and a photo I regret not taking)! Lise’s dad loaned us his car for the Ag day market so we could transport everything, Jane worked at the farmers’ market helping out customers, Melissa’s brother delivered extra sunflowers from the farm to the market, Lise’s husband Matt brought us lunch, and Gretta watered the greenhouse. It was great to see many of the other farmers in town at the market and enjoy a festive day celebrating agriculture in Concord. The fact that agriculture is still a vibrant industry here in town is very much thanks to you all for support us!

We are looking forward to week 15 of 20 for the Main Season CSA season! The Main Season CSA runs until October 20th. The Late Fall CSA will run October 25th - November 17th (pick ups will be Thursdays 11am-6pm and Saturdays 9am-3pm). We have a couple of spots left in the Late Fall CSA, so if you have been planning to sign up, please let us know by the end of this week! If you are unsure whether or not you are signed up for the Late Fall, email Melissa (melissa@barrettsmillfarm.com) to check. Barrett’s Bucks may be used until the close of the Farm Store October 27th.

This week in the CSA:

• Red Kuri Squash - This colorful squash has an edible skin and is great for roasting or adding to curry. It is sweet like many other winter squashes but with a drier, nuttier flesh. We find it a little tricky to grow but we keep trying because it is one of our favorites! Transitional.

• Yellow Storage Onions- These onions have been cured in our greenhouse to dry out their outer skin, allowing them to keep well outside the refrigerator (they will keep for months in a cool, dry, dark place). Transitional.

• Collards

• Leeks - Transitional.

• Garlic - This is cured garlic so even if you don’t need it this week, store it in a cool dark place and it will keep for months.

• Slicing Tomatoes

• Green peppers

• Colored peppers - All of the peppers we put in the CSA distribution area are sweet peppers. Hot peppers are in the PYO field!

• Salanova Lettuce Mix

• Spaghetti Squash - Transitional.

• Beets

• Kale

• Arugula

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Green beans - A new planting is now ready just past the flower field.

• Sunflowers

• Cherry tomatoes

• Husk cherries

• Tomatillos

• Hot peppers - the fresno and ancho peppers are now open in addition to jalapenos and serranos.

• Herbs - cilantro, dill, basil, thyme, mint, oregano, sage.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also have organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (just down the road from us!) corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, calendula, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.

Blistered Beans With Tomato-Almond Pesto

By Chris Morocco, Bon Appétit November 2015

• 2 pints cherry tomatoes

• 1/4 cup unsalted, roasted almonds

• 1 garlic clove, grated

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• Pinch of cayenne pepper

• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

• 3 teaspoons vegetable oil

• 2 pounds green beans, trimmed

Preheat oven to 450°F. Roast tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet, turning once, until blistered and lightly charred, 15-20 minutes. Let cool slightly. Finely chop almonds in a food processor. Add garlic, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, cayenne, and half of tomatoes; pulse to a coarse pesto consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add half of beans; cook, undisturbed, until beginning to blister, about 2 minutes. Toss and continue to cook, tossing occasionally, until tender, 7–9 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Spread beans out on a platter; let cool. Repeat with remaining vegetable oil and beans. Toss beans with pesto; season with salt and pepper if needed. Add remaining tomatoes and transfer to a platter.

Leek, Cherry Tomato and Pecorino Pizza

Adapted from Food & Wine, October 2009

• All-purpose flour, for dusting

• 1 1/2 pounds pizza dough, cut into 8 pieces

• 1/4 cup plus olive oil, plus more for brushing

• 2 large leeks, sliced 1/4 inch thick

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 32 cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1/4 pound truffled pecorino cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 500°. Heat a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes. (Alternatively, heat a large inverted baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven for 5 minutes.) On a lightly floured work surface, roll out each piece of dough to a 7-inch round. Oil 3 large baking sheets and place the dough rounds on the sheets. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Add the leeks, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Generously flour a pizza peel. Place a dough round on the peel and brush with olive oil. Top with some of the leeks, tomatoes and pecorino cheese. Slide the dough round onto the hot stone or baking sheet and bake for about 4 minutes, until bubbling and crisp. Repeat with the remaining ingredients and serve.

Winter Squash Curry

adapted from How to Cook Everythingby Mark Bittman

•   2 tablespoons neutral oil (grapeseed, corn or canola)

•  1 onion, chopped (or you can use leeks!)

•  1 tablespoon curry powder

•  1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

•  1 1/2 lb winter squash, peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 cup coconut milk

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

Put the oil in a pot or deep skillet with a lid over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion (or leek) and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add the curry and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the squash and coconut milk and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Cook, stirring once or twice, until the squash is tender (about 20 minutes). If the squash is done and there is still a lot of liquid, remove the lid and turn the heat up to medium high until it's thicker than stew. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or quinoa. 

Farm updates, Ag Day Farmers' Market and CSA Week 14!

We've got a big weekend coming up for Concord farms and farmers with the Food Farm and Garden Fair! This Saturday, September 8th, 10am - 2pm we'll once again be participating in the annual Ag Day Farmers' Market on Main Street in Concord Center. This producer-only market features Concord farms and the food, flowers and plants we grow right here in town! There will also be music, games, breakfast treats, ice cream, and an interactive display from the Concord Museum about Concord's agrarian past. We'll have a booth at the market selling our veggies and we'll have a tally sheet at the market so if you're a Barrett's Bucks member you can do your shopping there! Meanwhile, back at the farm both the store and CSA will still be open regular hours Saturday 9am-3pm.

On Sunday, September 9th, 10am - 11am, as part of the Food, Farm and Garden Fair weekend, we will be hosting a Meet the Machines tour at the farm. We'll demo a piece of tractor equipment and talk about how we use our equipment to get everything done! There will also be time for questions and for kids to explore the equipment with parental supervision. For a full schedule of farm tours, visit https://www.ccfoodcollaborative.org/farm-tours.

This weekend at the market and at the tour, you'll also be able to pick up a farm passport book. Visit Concord farm stands September 9th-22nd, get your passport book stamped, and submit it for a chance to win $50 in farm bucks to spend at your participating farm stand of choice in Concord. 

We'll be busy this week not only prepping for the market, but also harvesting more winter squash, thinning and weeding carrots, irrigating some fall crops, prepping to plant our fall-planted strawberries, breaking new ground at the Corey Meadow and putting together our brochure for the 2019 season!

This week in the CSA:

• Leeks - A flavorful veggie in the allium family (along with garlic, onions and scallions). Use the white part and pale green part for most dishes. Leek tops can be used to make vegetable stock (you can freeze them to use later if you don't feel like making soup stock in 90 degree weather!). Transitional.
• Garlic
• Slicing Tomatoes - red, orange or pink.
• Heirloom tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Green peppers
• Colored peppers - Carmens, which are red frying peppers, are pretty abundant right now, but some of the bell pepper varieties are picking up in productivity too! All of the peppers we put in the CSA distribution area are sweet peppers. Hot peppers are in the PYO field!
• Summer Squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.
• Spaghetti Squash - Transitional.
• Beets
• Kale - this week we'll have Toscano kale, also known as "dinosaur kale" because it looks a little like the texture of reptile skin! It's a flat variety and thus really great for making kale chips.
• Baby Bok Choi
• Arugula - no lettuce or lettuce mix in the CSA this week, but arugula and Yukina make a really great salad!
• Yukina Savoy - milder flavor than arugula. Can be eaten raw in a salad or you can cook it like you would spinach.

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Husk cherries
• Tomatillos
• Hot peppers - the fresno and ancho peppers are now open in addition to jalapenos and serranos.
• Herbs - cilantro, dill, basil, thyme, mint, oregano, sage.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as salanova, head lettuce, and bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also have organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (just down the road from us!) corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, calendula, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.

Here are two ways to cook your spaghetti squash!

Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Leeks

• 1 cooked spaghetti squash, halved, seeds removed
• 1 medium leek, sliced thinly (white and pale green part)
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tomatoes, chopped (4 cups)
• 1⁄4 cup basil
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1⁄4 cup grated parmesan
• 2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled for topping (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Trim the ends from the squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard. Use a deep baking pan and fill with about an inch of water. Place the squash cut side down in the water. Bake for about 30 mins or until the squash is tender and can be easily pierced with a knife. Let cool.

Sauté leek and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, salt and pepper, and basil. Simmer together about 5 minutes more.

Shred the spaghetti squash flesh with a fork, keeping it inside the shell. Toss with butter. Spoon mixture on top of shredded squash, top with parmesan and bacon.

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Mushrooms and Leeks

Cathy Roma | whatshouldimakefor.com

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp extra virigin olive oil divided
• 1 large spaghetti squash about 2 1/2 lbs
• 8 oz mixed mushrooms oyster, cremini, shiitake, sliced into 1 inch pieces
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 large leeks white and pale green parts only, sliced thinly into half moons and rinsed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 parmesan cheese + for garnish
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp fresh thyme minced
• Kosher salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a sheet tray with nonstick aluminum foil.

2. Trim the ends from the squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard. Drizzle with one tablespoon olive oil and place cut side down on the tray.

3. Roast for about 30 mins or until the squash is tender and can be easily pierced with a knife.

4. Cool slightly and use a fork to shred the squash into spaghetti strands. Set aside.

5. On a separate sheet tray lined with nonstick aluminum foil, toss the mushrooms with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

6. Roast for about 15 mins or until the mushrooms are browned and a little crispy.

7. While the squash and mushrooms are roasting, heat the butter in a large saute pan until melted.

8. Add the leeks and cook over medium/high heat until golden and tender. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more mins.

9. Add the wine and cook for 2 mins. Add the squash, parmesan cheese, lemon zest and thyme and toss together. Season to taste with kosher salt and pepper.

10. To serve, top the spaghetti squash with the roasted mushrooms and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Farm updates and CSA week 13

We are in the thick of summer tomatoes and heat these days but the start of the winter squash harvest makes it feel like fall is just around the corner! The kickoff for fall for us each year is the annual Ag Day Farmers Market! This year it will take place on September 8th 10am-2pm on Main Street in Concord Center. Stop by and say hello to us and our fellow Concord farmers! We will be there selling vegetables and flowers, and in addition there will be kids activities and music. We hear that Concord farmer Bill Kenney might be coming by with his green bean picking machine so we can all check it out! 

In the meantime, we are busy cultivating our fall brassicas and lettuce plantings, clipping and binning up winter squash as it ripens, and continuing to weed the carrots. Right now we are experiencing a break in the carrot harvest with the end of the spring carrots and a delayed harvest for fall (our first couple of plantings got scorched by the midsummer heat and then washed out in the rainstorms) but we are continuing to enjoy a bountiful tomato harvest, just brought in a great crop of spaghetti squash, and are excited to be distributing the first of the cured garlic harvest this week!

This week in the CSA:

• Spaghetti squash - Cut in half and bake. To serve, use a fork to scrape out the "spaghetti" inside and top with your favorite sauce! These are ripe when the outside is bright yellow. 
• Garlic - This garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge. Store in a cool dark place.
• Kale - Our fall crop is now ready!
• Yukina savoy - A tasty salad green. It can also be lightly cooked. 
• Salanova Lettuce Mix - a farmfavorite is back for the fall!
• Colored sweet peppers 
• Green and purple bell peppers
• Slicing tomatoes - Mountain Merit (red), Damsel (pink) and Chef's Choice Orange (orange of course!).
• Heirloom tomatoes - Pruden's Purple, Striped German, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green and Carbon. These have been sprayed with organic copper to prevent late blight, so be sure to wash them before eating.
• Fresh onions - Transitional.
• Eggplant
• Summer squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.

CSA Pick-your-own

• Cherry tomatoes - all are ripe. Also the cocktail size tomatoes (Mountain Magic and Wapsipinicon Peach) are ripe.
• Husk cherries
• Hot peppers - jalapeño and serrano.
• Cilantro, basil, sage, mint, oregano or thyme.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also have organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (just down the road from us!) corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, calendula, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.

 

Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce

DAVID TANIS

• YIELD About 2 1/2 cups
• TIME 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 5 pounds tomatoes
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• 1 basil sprig
• 1 bay leaf

PREPARATION

1. Cut tomatoes in half horizontally. Squeeze out the seeds and discard, if you wish. Press the cut side of tomato against the large holes of a box grater and grate tomato flesh into a bowl. Discard skins. You should have about 4 cups.
2. Put tomato pulp in a low wide saucepan over high heat. Add salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer.
3. Reduce the sauce by almost half, stirring occasionally, to produce about 2 1/2 cups medium-thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt. It will keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator or may be frozen.

Salsa Fresca

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

• YIELD 2 cups
• TIME 10 minutes

• ¼ small white or red onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 pound fresh, ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 to 3 jalapeño or serrano chiles, to taste, minced (and seeded, if you would like a milder salsa)
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, more to taste
• 1 to 3 teaspoons fresh lime juice(optional)
•  Salt to tast

PREPARATION

1. Place minced onion in a bowl and cover with cold water. Add vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes or longer. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir in onions. (If your tomatoes are full of flavor, you won’t need lime juice.) Ideally, let stand at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes before eating so that flavors will blend and ripen.

Farm updates and CSA Week 12

The cooler weather forecast for this week is very welcome after what has been a particularly hot and humid summer. It's not only a pleasant time weather-wise, but vegetable-wise too, with tomatoes in abundance and some fall crops on the horizon. There is one aspect of this time of year that we don't like: schools start up again, meaning we have to say goodbye to our employees who are teachers and college students. Molly and Dave had their last days this past week, and soon we will say goodbye to Emma as well. Both Jacob and Rebecca will soon be cutting back hours as they return to school and teaching, but we are grateful that we will still get to see them on the farm (albeit a little less regularly) through the fall. We will miss the spark they all bring to conversations in the fields, as well as the immense amount of work they help us get done!

School departures mean that the rest of the crew will have plenty to keep us busy in spite of the fact that there is very little left to plant and weeding pressure is diminishing. Harvesting will take up a lot of our time - not only summer crops like tomatoes, melons, zucchini and cucumbers, but also fall storage crops like onions and winter squash. We harvested all of our shallots and half of our storage onions in the past week and half. They are now curing in our greenhouse and we are looking forward to harvesting the rest of the onions, as well as spaghetti squash and pumpkins this week! There are also still fall carrots, beets and brassicas to be weeded, garlic and strawberries to be planted, plastic mulch and drip tape to be pulled, new ground to be broken for next season, cover crops to be seeded and hoop houses to be built. Fortunately, our Assistant Growers Janel, Katherine and Zach are still here to help us accomplish all that! We are so lucky to have such a great crew - all these things would be physically (and psychologically!) impossible on our own.

This week in the CSA:

• Colored sweet peppers - Mostly Carmen (a sweet red frying pepper, also known as a "bull's horn" type due to it's pointy shape) and Flavorburst (yellow bell pepper). Colored peppers are slow to ripen in our climate. We've picked many of them this week while they are still partly green (if you wait until they turn fully colored they unfortunately often have pepper maggot damage and rotten spots).
• Green and purple bell peppers
• Slicing tomatoes - Mountain Merit (red), Damsel (pink) and Chef's Choice Orange (orange of course!).
• Heirloom tomatoes - Pruden's Purple, Striped German, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green and Carbon. These have been sprayed with organic copper to prevent late blight, so be sure to wash them before eating.
• Eggplant
• Watermelon - Starlight (striped skin) and Blacktail Mountain (solid dark green with a yellow spot on the skin). Both varieties have red flesh and seeds.
• Summer squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.
• Cucumbers - slicing and pickling. Transitional.
• Fresh onions - We are now cutting the tops off, but you should still refrigerate these onions as they are uncured. Transitional.
• Potatoes - Carola (yellow skin and flesh). Transitional
• Beets
• Chard
• Arugula

CSA Pick-your-own

• Cherry tomatoes - all are ripe. Also the cocktail size tomatoes (Mountain Magic and Wapsipinicon Peach) are ripe.
• Husk cherries
• Edamame - steam them, shell them and season them with a little salt for a delicious snack.
• Basil
• Cilantro, sage, mint, oregano or thyme.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also still have corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, snapdragons bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, orlaya, calendula, ammi and more.

Tomato and Squash Gratin

by Sara Kate Gillingham, from thekitchn.com Jul 20, 2015

Serves 4

• 5 to 6 medium yellow squash, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 3 to 4 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
• 15 to 20 whole basil leaves
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Place one layer of sliced squash in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Top with a layer of sliced tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and a few basil leaves. Generously drizzle olive oil over everything and sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top. Repeat in the same order until you run out of vegetables. The top layer should be tomatoes.

Add a final toss of Parmesan and a generous coating of breadcrumbs and more olive oil. Bake until everything is soft, bubbly and brown on top (about 30 to 40 minutes). Serve as a side dish with whatever you’re grilling or with a bean salad or pasta dish for a complete meal.

Zucchini Grilled Cheese

from smittenkitchen.com

SERVINGS: MAKES 4 SANDWICHES
TIME: 45 MINUTES

You can use a mix of any cheeses — although a couple that melt well is ideal for sandwich adherence — you like with zucchini, I’ve suggested three here. All gruyere (2 cups) works well too.

• 1 pound (about 2 large) zucchini or other summer squash, trimmed
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea or table salt, plus more if needed
• 1 cup (3 ounces or 85 grams) coarsely grated gruyere cheese
• 3/4 cup (2 1/2 ounces or 70 grams) coarsely grated fontina or provolone cheese
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 8 thin slices bread of your choice, I used a country-style white bread
• A couple tablespoons softened butter or olive oil for brushing bread

Prepare zucchini: Use a food processor with a grater attachment or the large holes of a box grater to grate the zucchini. In a large colander, toss together the zucchini and salt. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes, until the zucchini has wilted and begun to release liquid. Drain the zucchini in a colander and then use your hands to squeeze out as much water as possible, a fistful at a time. Place wrung-out zucchini on paper towels to drain further.

Make filling and assemble sandwiches: Mix zucchini with grated cheese, a lot of freshly ground black pepper, and more salt if needed. 

Brush or spread the bread sides that will form the outsides of the sandwiches with olive oil or softened butter. Spread zucchini-cheese on insides and close the sandwiches. 

Cook the sandwiches: Place sandwiches on a large griddle or frying pan over low-medium heat. I like to cook grilled cheese slowly to give the centers a chance to really melt before the outsides get too brown. When the undersides are a deep golden brown, flip the sandwiches and cook until the color underneath matches the lid. Cut sandwiches in half and dig in. Perhaps some pickled vegetable sandwich slaw on the side?