This past week we got to use a brand new planting tool for the first time. For most of our field transplanting we use a water wheel transplanter that is pulled on the back of a tractor (it has 160 gallon capacity, so it requires a strong tractor to pull it!). The water wheel is great for most of what we do, as it evenly drops water into planting holes to give the seedlings a strong start to life outside the greenhouse. The crew then follows behind dropping seedlings into the ground and planting by hand. It’s a system that works really well for us, but for crops that get transplanted really closely together this isn’t ideal, as it is quite labor intensive to plant anything spaced closer than 12 inches.
Because spinach is a crop that would ideally be planted much more closely together, we typically seed directly in the ground rather than starting in the greenhouse. However, spinach really benefits from a jump start in the greenhouse. Enter the paperpot transplanter that we bought over the winter! We seed the spinach into paperpot chains, and once the seedlings are big enough, we drag the planter through the soil and it unfurls the chain of seedling starts into a line. We were really excited at how well the first trial went, and we’re planning to utilize it more in our high tunnels this fall for early winter spinach harvests.
The spinach that we are now transplanting outdoors with our new tool will be included not only in our farm stand and regular CSA options, but also in our new Back-To-School CSA! The Back-To-School CSA is 10 weeks, running September 18th - November 23rd. It’s also time for Fat Moon’s Fall Mushroom CSA to start up again! This will be an 8-week offering running September 3rd - October 26th. Look for another email this week with more details about both, as well as links to sign up!
In the CSA this week:
Carrots - They’re back! We are nearing the end of our spring carrot plantings, but in a few weeks we will hopefully harvest our first fall carrots!
Colored peppers
Uncured garlic - Because it hasn’t dried out yet from the curing process, the flavor is less concentrated and a little milder.
Watermelon - We’ll have a new variety this week called Mini Love. They are a manageable size for fitting inside your fridge, but they have thin rinds, so you actually get more watermelon out of one small fruit than you might expect! We also may still have some Blacktail Mountain.
Slicing tomatoes
Specialty/heirloom tomatoes
Green and purple peppers
Cucumbers - Mostly slicing cukes, but we’ll also have some picklers mixed in.
Zucchini or Summer Squash - We’ve hit a point in the season when organically managed zucchini and summer squash yields naturally start to decline from pest and disease pressure, but this year the decline is being fueled in part by deer trampling! This is the same corner where deer decimated our lettuce last year, so next year we may just need to cede this section to buckwheat or something else deer love to eat so that they hang out there and don’t bother the rest of the farm!
Celery
Kale
Lettuce
Mustard greens
CSA Pick-Your-Own:
There are not huge quantities of Dragon Tongue beans, husk cherries and tomatillos at this point, so you’ll likely be able to pick just one of those!
Hot peppers
Cherry Tomatoes: varieties include Sungold, Jasper, Cherry Bomb, Yellow Mini, Chocolate Sprinkles, Pink Champagne, Citrine, Black Cherry, Moonbeam, Moonshadow, Nova, Apple Yellow, Clementine, Mountain Magic and more!
Dragon Tongue Beans - These fresh beans have flat pods speckled with purple and can be prepared just as you would regular green beans.
Husk cherries - These small fruit in papery husks are related to tomatoes and tomatillos and have a somewhat tropical flavor.
Tomatillos - Most well-known as the main ingredient in salsa verde. It’s early days, so will require some patience to find ones that are ready. But the ready ones are huge - we tried a new variety this year!
Herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, dill, mint, oregano, sage and thyme
In the farm store:
In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:
Sweet Corn from Verrill Farm. Not organic.
Arugula
Beets
Flowers
Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Farmer’s Mix and Shiitake. Certified organic.
Baer’s Best Beans - Black Turtle variety is organic, the other varieties are not.
PYO Flower Field
The flower field is in it’s prime! The field is open for picking for both PYO Flower CSA members and the general public. We still have a few PYO Flower CSA memberships available - visit http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/online-store/pyo-flower-csa if you would like to sign up!
Flowers available for picking this week include: sunflowers, zinnias, snapdragons, gomphrena, ageratum, celosia, ammi, rudbeckia, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, decorative grasses, decorative basil and strawflower.
Green Gazpacho
Adapted from “Plenty,” by Yotam Ottolenghi
INGREDIENTS
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
2 green peppers, seeded and roughly chopped
3 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 mildly spicy chili (such as jalapeño), roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups walnuts, lightly toasted
1/4 pound tender greens
1/2 cup basil leaves
1/4 cup parsley
1 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground white pepper
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 cups water
Ice cubes
DIRECTIONS
Combine the celery, green peppers, cucumbers, chili, garlic, sugar, walnuts, greens, basil, parsley, olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and 1 cup water in blender and puree until smooth. Check seasonings, and add more water if you feel it needs it. Let chill in refrigerator. To serve, divide into six bowls, and garnish each with a dollop of Greek yogurt, two ice cubes and a drizzle of olive oil.