July 4th hours and CSA Week 5

The forecast of constant thunderstorms last week didn’t completely pan out, which we are grateful for! We did fortunately get enough rain to allow us to defer setting up more irrigation until this week. That meant we could keep plugging away at trellising tomatoes in our high tunnels and putting down landscape fabric in tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers to keep down weeds. This week we will try to put down the last of the landscape fabric in our eggplant, peppers and watermelon, as well as move on to trellising our high tunnel peppers and field tomatoes. We will also continue to pick Colorado potato beetles off of our eggplant and tomato plants, and we will put in one last effort at burning the bugs on our potato plants. Because organic pesticides are not very effective in controlling potato beetles, we have to resort mostly to time consuming control methods like picking off bugs by hand and burning the larvae once populations increase. We could have everyone on the crew spending an entire day picking bugs by hand off the potato plants and still not make it all the way through, so this time of year burning the bugs is faster! It is a huge challenge to keep up with potato beetles and we know we will eventually lose, so we try to strike the right balance of keeping our plants alive long enough to produce harvestable yields while not taking up so much time that other crops suffer. We feel like we’re as successful as we can be in striking that balance, but it’s still pretty deflating to see a field you’ve worked on for weeks completely defoliated in a matter of days!

The farm stand will be closed Tuesday July 4th for the holiday, but we will be open regular hours again on Wednesday. Happy 4th!

In the CSA this week:

• Purple carrots - We grow a bed of purple carrots every spring to add a little excitement to things!

• Scallions - Back after a short hiatus!

• Celery - Ours tends to be less watery than grocery store celery, so it has a more concentrated flavor.

• “Burpless” cucumbers - We tried out a new variety in the high tunnel called Katrina. These are short thin-skinned and seedless with a very mild flavor (like a Persian cucumber).

• Garlic scapes

• Fennel

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• Carrots

• Beets

• Curly kale

• Lettuce

• Salanova lettuce mix

• Mustard greens

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Herbs - sage, thyme, parsley, dill, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have pickling cucumbers and radishes. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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 (closed Tuesday July 4th this week). We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

Mushroom CSA:

Last week was the final one of the Spring Mushroom CSA. Stay tuned for sign-ups for the Fall session!

Caramelized Zucchini Pasta

by Ali Slagle, from NY Times Cooking

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 pounds zucchini, coarsely grated (about 3 large zucchini)

• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed (or use scapes!)

• ½cup basil leaves, stems reserved, plus more for serving

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• 1 pound ridged or curly pasta (like medium shells or casarecce)

• ½ cup finely grated Parmesan or pecorino (about ½ ounce), plus more for serving

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

1. In a large (at least 12-inch) cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter and oil. When it’s foaming, add the zucchini, garlic, the basil stems and half the basil leaves. Season with 1¼ teaspoons salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cover and cook until pooling with liquid, 5 to 7 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid evaporates and the zucchini starts to sizzle, 7 to 10 minutes.

2. Continue to cook until the zucchini is very soft, dark green, and reduced to about 1 cup, another 20 to 25 minutes. When you see a build up of browned bits on the skillet, add a couple tablespoons of water and stir, scraping up the browned bits. Repeat anytime more browning occurs. If you see burning, deglaze with water and lower the heat. (Caramelized zucchini can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to a week; it also freezes well.)

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the zucchini is about done, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve 2 cups of pasta water, then drain the pasta. If the zucchini is ready before the pasta, keep cooking it; the zucchini will only get better the longer it cooks.

4. When the pasta’s drained, remove the herb stems from the zucchini. Reduce the heat on the zucchini to medium, then add the pasta, 1 cup pasta water, and the Parmesan. Stir until the pasta is glossed with sauce. Add more pasta water as needed to thin the sauce. Stir in the lemon juice and remaining basil, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with more basil, Parmesan and black pepper.