CSA Week 19 and Farm Stand Updates

Last week we successfully completed our sweet potato harvest. It’s a multi-step process involving mowing the foliage, pushing the vines out of the pathways in between beds, rolling up the landscape fabric that covered those pathways, cutting the vines, and then pulling the vines off of the bed and out of the way of our mechanical digger. We then run our tractor mounted digger, which cuts underneath the soil and lifts the tubers up a conveyor belt, which sifts the soil out the bottom and then drops the sweet potatoes on top of the soil (We used to also dig both sweet potatoes and regular potatoes by hand, loosening the soil with a pitchfork. The mechanical digger has really saved us a lot of time!). After running the mechanical digger, we then come through and harvest the sweet potatoes into buckets, which we then transfer in to bulk crates in our greenhouse to cure for a week or two before they are ready to eat! Sweet potato harvest is always a time intensive project, but this year it was especially so, thanks to excellent yields. We had to make a lot of trips shuttling buckets back and forth from field to greenhouse. Not only were the sweet potatoes plentiful, but many were huge - two sweet potatoes weighed in at over 8 pounds each!

For those of you with a Main Season CSA membership, this is the second-to-last week of the Main Season CSA. For our store customers and Barrett’s Bucks members, this is also the second-to-last week that the store is open (2024 Bucks expire October 26th). If you are a Main Season CSA member or a regular store customer who would like to keep the bounty coming, you can sign up for the Extended Season Add-on CSA here:

http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/online-store/2024-extended-season-add-on-4-weeks

While summer field crops are finished thanks to two frosts last week, we are looking forward to even more delicious fall veggies and comfort food in the weeks to come!

In the CSA this week:

If you usually collect your CSA on Wednesdays between 6 and 6:30, please email the Shopkeeper (shopkeeper@barrettsmillfarm.com) to arrange a pre-packed bag this week. It is getting too dark to see under the CSA tent after 6pm. We will move CSA pick-up into the lit greenhouse once we have room in there!

• Broccoli - This year we pushed back all of our broccoli plantings later due to consistently having problems with heat during the head formation stage (which leads to malformed heads and rot). So while we are harvesting broccoli later than in years past, the heads look nicer and we are saved the frustration of having to discard half the heads in the field!

• Autumn Frost Squash - Appropriate timing considering we just had our first two frosts of the fall! This is a type of butternut that has ribbing and

• Yellow Potatoes from Atlas Farm in Deerfield, MA. Certified Organic.

• Beets from Atlas Farm in Deerfield, MA. Certified Organic.

• Carrots

• Fennel

• Green peppers - Many of these will now be coming from our high tunnel, as the field peppers died in the second frost on Saturday night. We’re going to clean out the green peppers from our high tunnel as well this week in anticipation of a harder frost in a few days.

• Colored peppers

• Salad Turnips

• Mini Daikon - multiple colors, including more Red King, plus purple and white varieties too.

• Savoy cabbage

• Kale

• Bok Choi

• Mustard greens

• Salanova

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

A second frost killed off most of the PYO crops this weekend, but we will have some herbs for picking. Please note that its getting dark earlier and earlier, so we will close the PYO at 6pm.

• Parsley

• Possibly also some chives, sage or thyme will be open as well

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:

• Tomatoes - The last from out high tunnel. There may be a frost this week that is hard enough to kill our high tunnel plants!

• Spinach

• Lettuce

• Dahlias - We harvested the last dahlias right before they were frost-killed Saturday night, so we should have a couple of bouquets Tuesday, but that is it until next year!

• Cranberries from Fresh Meadows in Carver, MA. Certified Organic.

• Honeycrisp Apples from Westward Orchard in Harvard, MA and Cortland Apples from Autumn Hills Orchard in Groton, MA. Not organic.

• Yellow Onions from Picadilly Farm in Winchester, NH. Certified Organic.

• Honey from Double B (from hives on the property). Not organic.

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Farmer’s Mix and Shiitake. Certified Organic.

• Raspberry vinegar, jam, and occasionally fresh raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord. Certified Organic.

• Eggs from Codman Farm in Lincoln. Not Organic.

Mushroom CSA:

It is the fifth week of the 8-week Fall Mushroom CSA. This week is Blue Oyster.

PYO Flowers

After multiple frosts, the field is now closed for the season!

Superfood Bibimbap with Crispy Tofu

by Tieghan Gerard from Half-Baked Harvest

Ingredients

• 1 block organic extra firm tofu

• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari

• 1-2 tablespoons Gochujang (Korean chili paste)

• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

• 1 inch fresh ginger, grated

• 2 cloves garlic, grated

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1 cup broccoli

• 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced or torn

• 1 bunch curly kale, roughly torn

• juice from 1 lime

• kosher salt

• 2 cups cooked barley, farro, or quinoa

• 4 fried eggs

• 1 avocado, sliced

• 1 cup fresh or pickled carrots and radishes

• toasted sesame seeds, for sprinkling

Instructions

• 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Press the tofu with paper towels to remove as much water as possible. Slice into 1/4 inch thick slices and add to a gallon size ziplock bag. 

  3. In a small bowl, combine the 2 tablespoon water, the soy sauce, Gochujang, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic. Add half the sauce to the tofu bag (reserve the remaining for serving), tossing gently to combine. Let sit 5-10 minutes. Remove the tofu from the sauce and place in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Transfer to the oven and bake 10 minutes. Flip and bake another 10-15 minutes, until the tofu is crisp.

  4. Meanwhile, toss the broccoli and mushrooms with 1 tablespoon oil and a pinch of salt. During the last 10-15 minutes of cooking, add the veggies to the pan with the tofu.

  5. In a bowl, massage the kale with the remaining 1 tablespoons olive oil, lime juice, and a pinch of salt. 

  6. To serve, divide the grains among bowls. Add the tofu, kale, broccoli, mushrooms, fried egg, avocado, carrots, and radishes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with the reserved sauce. Enjoy!