Thank you to everyone who came out for Concord Ag Day, the Concord Agriculture Committee’s annual farmers’ market on Saturday! It was great to be back on Main Street with our fellow Concord farmers and non-profit organizations in town celebrating local agriculture. The farm was bustling on Saturday as well, with CSA and farm store customers enjoying the beautiful September day. The CSA continues to be very busy on Saturdays (this week more members came on Saturday than Tuesday and Thursday combined!), so if you are able to come earlier in the week, you will be rewarded with a quieter experience and the gratitude of our Shopkeepers!
Somehow we pulled off our busy Saturday without a truck (see below for the image of the truck exiting the fields with assistance)! Our 1998 Chevy truck has served us well for the past 7 years since being gifted to us by Gaining Ground (when they got a grant for a new farm truck). However, now it seems like it might be down and out for good, so we have returned to our days of walking in the harvest, trading off bringing in vegetables 3 buckets at a time in our garden cart. Fortunately, Nigel lent us his van for Ag Day and Lise shuttled back and forth from the farm to Main Street with additional veggies and supplies in her tiny car. We were hoping to encourage the truck to limp along until electric trucks became widely available but we will likely need to come up with an interim solution. We are looking into electric golf cart options, but in the meantime we are all getting plenty of exercise bringing in the harvest!
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!
Scallions
Garlic
Broccoli- The first of 5 varieties we planted for this fall!
Mixed Winter Squash- Choices will include acorn, orange cutie (a mini red kabocha) as well as some butternut squash. We will have storage butternut squash later - the butternut we are distributing this week have some minor damage and will not hold for very long, so we encourage using them in the next week or two.
Fennel
Tomatoes - production is dwindling, but we’re going to eek out one more week for the CSA!
Eggplant
Peppers
Carrots
Beets
Kale
Lettuce
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.
Green Beans
Cherry tomatoes
Tomatillos or husk cherries
Hot peppers - jalapeño, cayenne, Hungarian hot wax, fresno and aji rico varieties are all producing. Signs in the field indicate what to look for in terms of ripeness, as well as how spicy varieties are.
Herbs- parsley, cilantro, basil, sage, thyme, oregano
PYO Flower CSA:
Picking is available for Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet. We will offer picking until our first frost (sometimes as early as mid September). Picking is available any time the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Varieties blooming now include: zinnias, marigolds, statice, gomphrena, celosia, decorative basil, frosted explosion, cosmos, ageratum, rudbeckia, ammi, scabiosa and more! There is also a bed of many varieties of branching sunflowers blooming that you are welcome to use to fill your jars. Please pick stems above the first branching of all flowers to encourage future growth.
In the farm store:
In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will also have tendersweet cabbage and salanova lettuce mix in the farm store this week. We will have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, honey from Double B, and eggs from Codman Farm. We will not have corn (from Verrill Farm) this week. We also have raspberry jam and raspberry vinegar infusion from Silferleaf Farm again, as well as fresh berries as available! If you miss getting berries in the store, head over to their farm on Strawberry Hill Road - they are open for PYO Tuesday - Sunday. It’s especially nice and plentiful on weekdays!
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 and are encouraged the remainder of the day. Staff will continue to wear masks inside the farm stand all day. 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.
Spicy Sesame Carrot Salad -shared with us by a CSA member years ago, still a favorite!
by Nicole Perry at https://www.popsugar.com/food/Spicy-Sesame-Carrot-Salad-30421461
INGREDIENTS
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled lengthwise into thin ribbons
1 cup tightly packed cilantro leaves
DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegars, honey, sesame oil, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Pour the dressing over the carrots, add the cilantro, and toss well. Season to taste with salt, and serve.
Pushing our broken down truck out of the field. We are not as happy as we look about the truck being out of commission!