Our big project last week was skinning one of our high tunnels (“skinning” a high tunnel or greenhouse means putting on a new plastic covering). The plastic needs to be replaced every 4 years, but in this case a burst of wind in late July caused the plastic covering to fly off. It had been home to our high tunnel cucumbers, but because the plants had already died off and the summer is a difficult time to take a full morning skinning a high tunnel, we decided to leave the covering off for the rest of the summer. We had actually been wanting to take the plastic off the high tunnel anyway to have a sort of fresh start by exposing the soil to the elements. Because the inside of high tunnels are not exposed to rain or snow, salts can build up in the soil of high tunnels over time, so it is recommended to leave the covering off of high tunnels for a couple of months to leach out some of that salt. Of course, we were in a drought this summer so we didn’t get as much rain as we’d like, but hopefully it was enough to help. Also, an aphid problem had been building up over the past couple of years in that tunnel. Conditions in high tunnels are protective not only to plants, but also to some pests like aphids! We hope exposure to the elements will knock back the population naturally.
While the wind burst definitely saved us some time taking the covering off, putting a new covering on is still an undertaking. We have to secure the plastic all around the edges and endwalls, which means working on ladders 14 feet in the air for some of it - not our favorite part of the process! Still, we’ve done it enough now we can usually complete it in a couple of hours. By last week we felt in a better position to take that time out of our day. Now the salanova lettuce mix planted in there will have some warmer conditions to grow in.
It look like we have some much colder overnight temperatures forecast for later this week, so it could be the end of some of our crops, including the PYO flowers. If you are a PYO Flower CSA member and still have a bouquet left to pick, we recommend picking Tuesday or Wednesday!
In the CSA this week:
Rainbow carrots - Always a hit, these rainbow bunches include purple, pink and yellow mixed in with some traditional orange ones.
Pie pumpkin - They may look like Halloween decorations, but unlike jack-o-lanterns, they are intended for eating. Not only can you make pumpkin pie with them, but you can also make things like pumpkin soup and pumpkin muffins!
Escarole - This bitter green is excellent in soups and stew like the classic white bean and escarole soup (see below for one take on it). It can also be sauteed with garlic and olive oil as a side dish.
Leeks
Fennel
Beets - from Atlas Farm in Deerfield, MA. Certified Organic.
Green and purple peppers
Tomatoes - Production is slowing down with shorter days and cooler temperatures, especially in the field (our high tunnel tomatoes enjoy warmer temperatures so are more productive than the field tomatoes in October).
Cabbage - Tendersweet variety. The name says it all!
Bok Choi - full sized heads
Mini Daikon - In addition to the Red King variety, we’ll have white and purple varieties available as well.
Kale - Curly green
Salad turnips
Lettuce
Arugula
CSA Pick-Your-Own:
The cold overnight temperatures forecast for later this week may affect availability of PYO crops for Saturday.
Hot peppers - Jalapeño, Fresno, Aji Rico, Cayenne and Hungarian Hot Wax.
Habañeros - We delivered two batches of hot peppers to Kenneth at Eastern Mass Provisions to turn into hot sauce, but there are still a lot out there, so members will have the opportunity to pick a larger quantity of these extra spicy peppers!
Herbs: parsley, cilantro dill flowers, sage, thyme, mint, chives and basil.
In addition, members may choose 1 of the following:
Husk cherries - These small fruit in papery husks are related to tomatoes and tomatillos and have a somewhat tropical flavor.
Tomatillos - They should be picked when the fruit fills our the green husk around it.
In the farm store:
Farm store hours are Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. Our farm store will be open until October 25th! This week in the farm store we plan to have:
The following items that are also in the CSA: rainbow carrots, pie pumpkins, escarole, leeks, bok choi, cabbage, mini daikon, fennel, salad turnips, green and purple peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, arugula, kale, herbs, hot peppers, husk cherries and tomatillos.
Garlic
Salanova lettuce mix
Mustard greens
Delicata -the last of this early season winter squash favorite!
Acorn squash
Dahlias - Wrapped bouquets as well as mini jars. We are going to try to keep them going by running sprinklers on them when it freezes Thursday night, but this may be the last week.
Raspberries - From Silferleaf Farm just down the road from us! Available Tuesday and Wednesday, TBD for other days. Certified Organic.
Yellow Potatoes from Atlas Farm in Deerfield, MA. Certified Organic.
Apples - From Carver Hill in Stow, MA (not organic). Macoun, Mutsu and Cortland varieties. Not organic.
Sweet corn from Verrill Farm (not organic)
Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified Organic.
Raspberry Jam and Raspberry Vinegar Infusion - Both from Silferleaf. Certified Organic.
Applesauce from Long Run Produce in Boxborough, MA. Certified Organic.
Baer’s Best Beans: 1 pound bags. Grown in South Berwick, Maine. Certified Organic varieties available include: Black Turtle, Italian Cranberry and Light Red Kidney. Not organic: marfax. We will have more varieties soon when Charley Baer is able to make our fall delivery!
White Bean and Escarole Soup
by Debra Klein
Ingredients
3 leeks thinly sliced
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
3 large cloves garlic pressed
1 head escarole roughly chopped
1 (14.5-oz) can diced tomatoes
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
2 (15-oz) cans cannellini beans
1 tablespoon light miso diluted with ¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Instructions
Wash and dry escarole. Roughly chop. Thinly slice white and light green sections of leeks.
Heat dutch oven or large soup pot over medium heat.
Saute leeks in olive oil or vegetable broth for 3 minutes.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add garlic, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Stir in escarole and cook for 2 minutes, stirring as it wilts.
Add tomatoes, beans, broth and water. Stir well.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low to simmer for 10 minutes.
Whisk miso with ¼ cup water and then mix into the soup until heated through.
Sprinkle with nutritional yeast, mix well and ladle into bowls while still hot.
Garnish with additional nutritional yeast and crushed red pepper if you like a little heat.
Notes:
Leeks: 3 large leeks with yield approximately 1 ¼ cups sliced leeks. Substitute 1 large or 2 small diced onion.
Escarole: Approximately 6 cups firmly packed after chopping. Can substitute with kale, collard greens, endive or Napa cabbage. You can use spinach, and reduce the simmer time to 5 minutes.
Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
from Ambitious Kitchen
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree (To make a pumpkin puree, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and roast. Once the flesh is soft, scoop it out and puree)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled (or sub melted butter)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or any milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or white whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners and spray the insides of the liners with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, maple syrup, coconut oil, eggs, almond milk and vanilla.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Evenly divide batter between 12 muffin cups. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until tester comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Enjoy!
Jake, Sue and Joe show off the Monday rainbow carrot harvest.