CSA Week 16 and Farm Stand Updates

We are so excited about our “new” truck, but it had to go back for some big repairs a few weeks ago, so we waited to share this photo until the truck was ready for action! Now that we have it back it has transformed our daily experience! We have been using it for harvests, transporting around bulky items, and taking it out on the road to get gas and diesel for our tractors (we had been using our personal vehicles for a long time, so we are happy to no longer worry about our cars smelling like fuel!). Now that we have spent some time with our new truck we were able to move onto important business - voting on a truck name. And the winner is…. Ruth Whitney Barrett!

This week is another classic September veggie selection, with a continued tomato harvest (the drought was good for one thing - reduced disease pressure!), more winter squash (pie pumpkins in addition to more acorn!), as well as the return of two CSA and store favorites: carrots and baby bok choy! Some years we get a frost around this time, but luckily that’s not the case this year! That means the pick-your-own green beans are still looking great and we will re-open the cherry tomatoes for a last little taste of summer.

The field crew will spend much of their days bringing in the harvest, as well as continuing fall clean up tasks like rolling up landscape fabric, pulling up plastic mulch and drip tape, and starting to put away irrigation lines. It’s a long process to clear the fields for cover crop, so these items will be on our to-do list for quite some time!

In the CSA this week:

• Pie Pumpkins - While many of us think of pie pumpkins as a Thanksgiving staple, they actually don’t keep well, so we are trying to start distributing them before we start to see some loss in storage. To use in any pumpkin bread, muffin or pie recipe, first roast the pumpkin by cutting in half, removing the seeds, and baking cut side down at 400 degrees for about an hour. Cool then scoop out the flesh and puree in a food processor. See the recipe below for more details!

• Escarole - A leafy green that is a member of the chicory family. Like other chicories, it has a slightly bitter flavor, so while it can be used mixed into a salad, most people prefer it cooked. It is especially good sautéed with olive oil and garlic!

• Baby bok choy -Baby bok choy does not like the heat of summer so we grow it only in the spring and then again in the fall when we know temperatures will cool down enough to keep it from bolting.

• Carrots! As we have mentioned before, we had a lot of trouble growing our fall carrots in this summer’s drought and extreme heat, so they will be limited this fall. The good news is we will have them in the CSA and farm store this week and next!

• Beets

• Tomatoes

• Scallions

• Garlic

• Acorn Squash

• Arugula

• Radishes

• Curly green kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green Beans

• Hot peppers- choice of Jalapeño, Aji Rico, Fresno, Hungarian Hot Wax, and Red Ember (cayenne).

• Herbs - choice of basil, oregano, sage, thyme or lemon thyme.

• Cherry tomatoes - Many of the tomatoes are split due to recent heavy rains (the drought this summer is starting to seem like a distant memory!), but the plants are still alive so we will open them up again this week to make sure that any last tomatoes are able to be enjoyed before the plants are no longer producing at all!

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will have tendersweet cabbage, broccoli, salanova lettuce mix and delicata squash in the farm store this week. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm, Double B Honey from hives here on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, raspberry jam and vinegar from Silferleaf Farm in Concord, and possibly fresh raspberries from Silferleaf when available.

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. 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.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The field is open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public for picking by the jar. The flower field will not continue to produce for much longer so we suggest Flower CSA members finish picking their allotted jars as soon as possible! Feel free to bring family and friends to help you pick! Bouquets that are not picked do not carry over to the next season. Varieties available include zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, rudbeckia, cosmos, verbena, decorative basil, and amaranth. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Fall Mushroom CSA

It is the second week of the Fall Mushroom CSA. The variety this week is Yellow Oyster mushrooms! For more information about each variety Fat Moon Farm grows check out their “Types We Grow” page of their website: https://fatmoonmushrooms.com/pages/types-we-grow! Pick-up for the Fall mushroom CSA is any time the farm store is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We are offering pro-rated memberships for anyone signing up this week to start the mushroom CSA next week! Sign ups are available here: http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/online-store/2022fall-mushroom-csa-from-fat-moon. The Fall mushroom CSA is one pound of mushrooms each week until November 19th.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins 

from ambitiouskitchen.com

•   1  1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour

•   1 teaspoon baking soda

•   1  1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

•   1/4 teaspoon ginger

•   1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

•   pinch of cloves

•   1 cup pumpkin puree (roast halved and de-seeded pie pumpkin until fork tender, scoop out flesh and puree)

•   1/4 cup honey

•   1 egg

•   1/2 tablespoon olive or coconut oil

•   1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•   1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt

•   1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

•   1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Add pumpkin, honey, egg, oil, vanilla, yogurt and milk to a blender. Blend on high for 1 minute or until well combined, smooth and creamy. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly into muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Cool muffins for 5 minutes then remove and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Muffins are best served warm!

Gingery Fried Rice With Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Basil

by Alexa Weibel, NY Times Cooking

Ingredients

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

• 4 cups cooked, day-old jasmine rice (or 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice; see Tip)

• 5 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

• ¾ pound mixed fresh mushrooms, such as shiitake and cremini, thinly sliced, or whole shimeji mushrooms

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• ¾ pound baby bok choy (about 8 small baby bok choy), trimmed, then sliced crosswise ½-inch thick

• 5 scallions, trimmed, greens and whites thinly sliced (about ½ cup)

• 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

• 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional)

• ¾ cup frozen peas

• 2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger (from one 2-inch piece)

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons sesame oil

• ⅛ teaspoon white pepper (optional)

• ½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Preparation

1. Take the cooked rice out of the refrigerator, and set it aside at room temperature.

2. In a large wok or nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons canola oil over medium-high. Add the mushrooms, season generously with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and tender, 5 or 6 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Wipe out the skillet, if needed, then add 1 tablespoon canola oil and heat over medium-high. Add the bok choy, scallions, garlic and jalapeño, if using. Season with salt and pepper and stir-fry, stirring frequently, until aromatic and barely crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the mushrooms.

4. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons canola oil to the skillet and heat over medium-high. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted and toothsome, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the frozen peas, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper (if using), and stir until rice is evenly coated in soy sauce mixture, and no uncoated rice grains remain, 1 to 2 minutes.

5. Stir in the mushroom and bok choy mixture and the basil until basil is wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper then divide among bowls; serve hot.

Tip: Leftover rice that has dried out in the refrigerator for a day or two works best for this recipe because it will crisp better than fresh rice. If you don’t have time to cook your rice a day in advance, you can cook 1 cup jasmine rice according to package instructions, transfer the cooked rice to a large baking sheet, spread it in an even layer and pop it in the freezer to chill it while you prepare the vegetables, then pull the rice from the freezer to cook it in Step 4.