CSA Week 9 and Farm Stand Updates

Late July through early August are often viewed as a time that epitomizes summer bounty, but from a farmers’ perspective, we often view it as coming a little later. It’s true that we start to see many summer crops like peppers, tomatoes and eggplant, and ideally summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers continue to be in ready supply as well during this period. However, lettuce and greens are tough to produce in the heat of summer, solanceous crops (eggplant, tomatoes and peppers) generally aren’t producing in quantities that allow us to have unlimited supplies yet, and unfortunately the excessive rains in early July stunted the summer squash and zucchini successions we had been planning to harvest this week. This time of year we will often have a juggling act of switching back and forth between more exciting summer crops, hence you might see a choice of peppers OR eggplant in the CSA, or you might see items in the store that aren’t in the CSA, or vice versa. Usually by late August lettuce and greens are faring better, fall crop favorites are starting to be in supply, and we have more than we know what to do with of eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.

While it can be tricky to ensure a variety of popular crops this time of year, it’s getting easier to keep up with a lot of our field work! Last week we planted out the last of our fall broccoli and scallions, and most of what is left in our greenhouses now are lettuce successions. We also caught up on weeding and trellising tomatoes in both the high tunnel and field. Our fall carrot and beet seedlings got some much needed weeding attention, and with some drier weather we were able to cultivate many other fall crops with the tractors. We’ve been working on fencing too, with a barrier going up around our watermelon to keep the coyotes out (they had the audacity to eat unripe watermelon last week!) and the deer fencing across the street nearing completion. This week we’re looking forward to getting a lot of weeding done, as well as mowing and tilling in many finished plantings to prep for seeding cover crop!

In the CSA this week:

CSA pick up hours are Tues/Thurs 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. Face masks are required under the CSA tent during the first hour of each day. Please note we do our best to predict what will be available each week, but conditions change and there may be slight variations in what’s available!

• Tomatoes- slowly increasing in supply! These will still be mostly from the high tunnel. Our field tomatoes are just starting to produce, so we should see greater yields soon.

• Peter Wilcox Potatoes - Purple skin with white flesh.

• Peppers or Eggplant - don’t worry, peppers and eggplant will likely eventually be unlimited, but they are always a little slow to take off in August (and the cooler overnight temps we’ve been experiencing have meant also slower growth). When we are making our crop plans each winter, we have to resist the temptation to plant enough to have unlimited supply in late July and early August, otherwise we’d have a mountain of unharvested vegetables in late August!

• Mizuna - A frilly, mild salad green.

• Beets - Golden and red

• Celery - a new planting

• Fresh garlic - This garlic is used just like cured garlic but should be kept in the fridge until used.

• Fresh onions or summer leeks

• Cucumbers - mostly picklers, but there may be some slicing cukes mixed in as supply allows.

• Carrots

• Curly kale

• Lettuce - We now are seeing the result of early summer woodchuck feasting in our lettuce field. Half of two successive plantings were eaten as seedlings, therefore lettuce will be limited this week. However, the next few plantings are in great shape and should size up in the next week or two, so the shortage shouldn’t last long!

CSA PYO:

Handwashing sinks are provided at the entrance to each PYO field. For the sake of food safety, please wash hands before picking. The barn bathroom and wash area sinks in the barn are for employees only (we do now have a green porta-potty restroom by the tree behind the red barn for customer use with a portable handwashing sink just beside it).

*Please note that we close down the PYO fields for lightning storms.

• Hot peppers

• Sunflowers

• Green and purple Beans - Please hold the plant while carefully picking the largest beans.

• Herbs- parsley, basil, dill flowers, sage, thyme. The basil has begun to succumb to downy mildew so is tougher picking for leaves that do not have any brown damage.

We are giving cherry tomatoes a rest for a little bit, but picking will be plentiful soon!

PYO Flower CSA:

Picking is available any time the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Varieties blooming now include: zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, statice, gomphrena, celosia, decorative basil, frosted explosion, cosmos, ageratum, rudbeckia, bachelors button, ammi, scabiosa and more! Please pick stems above the first branching to encourage future growth. Picking is available for Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA the farm store this week will also have colored peppers, flower bouquets, mini cabbage, and summer squash. We also have eggs from Codman Farm and honey from Double B. There are no mushrooms available for the month of August, but we will have Fat Moon Mushrooms back in the stand again in September. No sweet corn from Verrill yet - the cool rainy weather in July has stunted several plantings - but we hope to have some in a week or so.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. Masks are required during the first hour of each day. Staff will continue to wear masks in the first hour of each day but will not be required to for the remainder of the day in keeping with our customer policy. We are keeping a chalkboard list of items available outside the store and our Shopkeepers would be happy to shop for anyone who is uncomfortable entering the store. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Green Gazpacho

adapted from a recipe by Jill Gibson, The Boston Globe, July 30, 2018

We’ve often shared a recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, but this version looks yummy too!

Ingredients

• 2 slices firm white bread, left out to dry, crusts removed, torn in pieces

• ⅓ cup plain yogurt

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 tablespoons lime juice

• 4 cups fresh spinach, tough stems removed (or try a mild green like mizuna!)

• 1 large slicing cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeded, and chopped (or use a couple of pickling cukes)

• ½ green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

• 1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted and peeled

• ½ jalapeno or other small green chile, seeded

• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil

• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

• ¼cup chopped fresh mint

• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

• 1½ cups water, or more if needed

• Salt and black pepper, to taste

• Extra olive oil (for sprinkling)

• 2 scallions, thinly sliced (for garnish)

• 1 lime, cut into 6 wedges (for serving)

Preparation

1. In a bowl, combine the bread, yogurt, olive oil, and lime juice. Mash until the bread is softened.

2. In a food processor, combine the spinach, cucumber, bell pepper, avocado, jalapeno or other chile, basil, parsley, mint, garlic, bread mixture, ¾ cup of the water, salt, and black pepper. Pulse until the mixture is well blended, scraping down the sides of the work bowl as necessary.

3. Add the additional ¾ cup water and continue to pulse until incorporated.  Add more water, ¼ cup at a time, if you like. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and black pepper, if you like.

4. Transfer to a plastic container and chill thoroughly.

5. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with olive oil and scallions.