Next season sign-ups and CSA Week 18

Although there are still several weeks left for the CSA and farm stand, we are getting a jump on our planning for next season by preparing sign-ups for 2018. The CSA and Barrett's Bucks programs are really the backbone of our business: they are what has made it possible for us to scale up the farm to its current size, and they are what will keep our business stable in the longer-term. Because our members are so crucial to the farm's success, we want to make sure to try to adapt in ways that keep members coming back each season. This week we'll be handing out renewal forms for the CSA. We're trying out a couple of new things for 2018, including a 24-week CSA option and a trial Flexible CSA option open to a limited number of returning CSA members. Be sure to read the accompanying letter for more details! We're hoping to have 2018 sign-up forms for Barrett's Bucks and new CSA members available in the farm stand and online by next week. 

Don't worry - the season is not over yet! The last Main Season CSA pick-up day is not until October 21st, and the last regular store day is October 28th (that is also the deadline to use all Barrett's Bucks). The Late Fall CSA starts Thursday October 26th and runs every Thursday night 2-7pm until November 16th. We have a few spots left, but they are filling up fast, so if you are thinking about extending your Barrett's Mill Farm veggie-eating season, get int touch with us soon about signing up!

In the CSA:

• Potatoes - we'll have a choice between two late-season varieties: Peter Wilcox (purple skin, yellow flesh) and Kennebec (yellow skin, white flesh).
• Pie pumpkins - these small pumpkins are meant for eating. Instead of buying canned pumpkin for you pies or pumpkin breads, cut one of these in half, remove the seeds and roast in the oven until fork tender, then scoop out the flesh and puree.
• Delicata squash
• Buttercup squash
• Leeks
• Onions
• Garlic
• Carrots
• Beets
• Eggplant - in spite of a couple of light frosts over the weekend, the eggplant and pepper plants are still alive! Production is slowing down, though, so they may not be around for much longer.
• Peppers
• Broccoli or romanesco cauliflower - we're at the end of our broccoli plantings, but the romanesco cauliflower is starting to mature.
• Spinach
• Arugula
• Lettuce

CSA PYO:

Cherry tomatoes are done for the season, but there are still a few pick-your-own crops available.

• Husk cherries
• Tomatillos
• Hot peppers
• Herbs - cilantro, dill, parsley, thyme, sage, oregano and mint

In the store:

We will not have sweet corn this week, but now that it's October, we will have some interesting seasonal items, including our own gourds and corn stalks, as well as jack-o-lanterns from Verrill Farm. We are also really excited to start offering organic heirloom cranberries from Fresh Meadows Farm in Carver, MA starting on Wednesday! In addition, we'll have salanova lettuce mix, red kuri squash, tomatoes, and eggs from Pete and Jen.

Recipes

A CSA member shared the following recipe with us last year and we love it! My daughter is obsessed with them, so we make a batch (without the chocolate chips), cut them in half and freeze them to always have a quick breakfast treat or snack on hand.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Greek Yogurt Muffins 

by Monique from ambitious kitchen.com

Ingredients:

• 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
• 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

Instructions

1. 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.

2. 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. (Alternatively you can mix the wet ingredients together in a large bowl.) Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips.

3. 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!

Notes:

TO MAKE VEGAN: Replace egg with 1 flax egg and use applesauce instead of greek yogurt. Use vegan chocolate chips.

TO MAKE GLUTEN FREE: Use an all-purpose gluten free flour instead of whole wheat. 

Farm updates and CSA Week 17

Keeping up with bringing in the harvest for the CSA and Farm Store consumed most of last week! Spinach leaves were picked one by one, we walked through the broccoli plants cutting the heads just as they were ready while leaving the rest to grow, and we looked through each bed of tomatoes for just ripe but not yet damaged fruit. While a frost-free September postpones some clean up tasks, we do enjoy getting a longer harvest off of plants we cared for throughout the spring and summer. Of course we also appreciate the extended season of cooking and eating eggplant, peppers and tomatoes! Last week we found small windows of time to weed the last carrot planting, cultivate remaining beds of greens, and hoe lettuce. Not only is there no frost predicted this week but it continues to be hot summer weather so we will try to keep ourselves and the leafy greens as cool as possible while we also tackle weeding next year's strawberries, harvest gourds and acorn squash, and start harvesting storage potatoes for next week!

In the CSA

• Delicata squash - A crowd favorite for their sweet flavor and easy preparation! These small squash have an edible skin so to prepare simply slice in half, remove the seeds, slice into "smiles" and bake. 
• Onions - Our storage onions have cured in the greenhouse and are ready for eating! They should not be kept in the fridge, kitchen counter is great in the short term, longer term storage should be in a cool, dry place. 
• Garlic
• Broccoli - We haven't sprayed the broccoli at all this season, so we recommend soaking it at home for a few minutes in lightly salted warm water to help separate out any cabbage worms.
• Spinach 
• Buttercup or Red Kuri squash - The buttercup is sweeter with a very smooth texture. Red kuri is slightly drier with a chestnut-y flavor.
• Escarole - this Italian cooking green looks like lettuce, but it has a more bitter flavor. Use it to make white bean and escarole soup, or sautee it with garlic and olive oil for an interesting side dish.
• Savoy Cabbage 
• Mustard Greens 
• Peppers - purple, red, yellow and orange
• Eggplant
• Collards
• Tomatoes 
• Carrots
• Beets
• Lettuce
• Curly Kale

CSA PYO:

• Cherry Tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes - The plants are on their way out but there is still fruit on them for folks who would like one last week of picking!
• Hot peppers - serrano, jalapeño, ancho, cayenne and habanero (the spiciest one we grow)
• Purple tomatillos - pick when husks are filled out.
• Husk cherries- Pick dry husks that have fallen on the ground under the plants. To eat, remove the husk and eat the yellow fruit inside. 
• Sunflowers
• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, sage, thyme, mint, oregano, chives

In the store:

In addition to the items also available in the CSA, we will have baby bok choi, spaghetti squash and heirloom tomatoes. We will also continue to have Verrill Farm corn, Fat Moon mushrooms, and Pete and Jen's eggs. 

PYO Flower CSA: 

Flowers available for picking this week include zinnias, bachelors button, celosia, scabiosa, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, strawflower, snapdragons, gomphrena, sunflowers, sweet Annie, and broomcorn.

Winter Squash Curry

adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

You can use any type of winter squash for this recipe. You can add other veggies to the curry. My favorites are broccoli, peppers, and spinach.

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil (grapeseed, corn or canola)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 lb winter squash, peeled and roughly chopped
• chopped vegetables such as broccoli or spinach (optional)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

Put the oil in a pot or deep skillet with a lid over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion (or leek) and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add the curry and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the squash (and broccoli if using) and coconut milk and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Cook, stirring once or twice, until the squash is tender (about 20 minutes). If you're adding spinach, add this toward the end of cooking. If the squash is done and there is still a lot of liquid, remove the lid and turn the heat up to medium high until it's thicker than stew. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or quinoa. 

Farm updates and CSA Week 16

September is one of our favorite months on the farm. Fall crops are starting to mature, some summer crops are still hanging on, and the weather is starting to cool off enough that we actually don't mind spending time in our kitchens cooking the bounty! Aside from the food, though, fall farm tasks are pretty satisfying too. Some of the clean-up has pretty immediate results: a quick walk-through our Brussels sprouts to pull the last stubborn weeds produces a pristine looking field; 2 minutes on the mower cutting down picked-over lettuce beds creates an unobstructed view of the remaining colorful lettuce successions; a few passes with our discs to incorporate cover crop seed (Austrian winter peas and triticale) yields a clean bare field soon to be filled with bright green, nearly weed-free growth. Other clean-up tasks are not so quick - I'm thinking mostly of the lengthy project of pulling out all the plastic mulch, landscape fabric and drip tape from our summer crops. While those tasks are more physically demanding, they are nevertheless rewarding. Though our arms feel like jelly after carefully rolling up 200 foot lengths of landscape fabric (that we will unroll again next year!), we enjoy seeing our fields slowly return back to a simpler state.

In the CSA:

• Broccoli - it's looking beautiful! We haven't sprayed the broccoli at all this season, so we recommend soaking it at home for a few minutes in lightly salted warm water to help separate out any cabbage worms.
• Spinach - spinach tends to perform much better for us in the fall than in the spring. We're hoping to get a couple of harvests from each planting.
• Buttercup or Red Kuri squash - the skins of both these types of squash are thin and edible, so no need to peel them if you don't feel like it! Our favorite way to eat them is to slice in 1/2" thick half moons and roast on a greased baking sheet. The buttercup is sweeter with a very smooth texture. Red kuri is slightly drier with a chestnut-y flavor.
• Tendersweet Cabbage 
• Mustard Greens or Red Russian kale
• Peppers - green, purple, red, yellow and orange
• Eggplant
• Tomatoes - we will have red slicers available for sure on Tuesday. With the heavy rains predicted it's possible they won't hold through the end of the week, though.
• Carrots
• Beets
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Kale

CSA PYO:

• Cherry Tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes - Sungold, jasper, black cherry, yellow mini, cherry bomb, red grape, Juane Flamme, pink boar, bumblebee, and Wapsipinicon peach will hopefully hold up through the rains this week.
• Hot peppers - serrano, jalapeño, ancho, cayese and habanero (the spiciest one we grow)
• Purple tomatillos - pick when husks are filled out.
• Husk cherries- Pick dry husks that have fallen on the ground under the plants. To eat, remove the husk and eat the yellow fruit inside. 
• Sunflowers
• Herbs: dill, cilantro, sage, thyme, mint, oregano, chives

In the store:

In addition to the items also available in the CSA, we will have baby boo choi, salanova, escarole, potatoes and leeks. We will also continue to have Verrill Farm corn, Fat Moon mushrooms, and Pete and Jen's eggs. Fat Moon shiitakes are abundant this week, so we will likely have 8 oz shiitake mushroom bags on sale!

PYO Flower CSA: 

Flowers available for picking this week include zinnias, bachelors button, celosia, scabiosa, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, strawflower, snapdragons, gomphrena, sunflowers and more. There is also Sweet Annie and broom corn.

Green pancakes with lime butter

from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

INGREDIENTS

Lime butter

8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Grated zest of 1 lime
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 tsp chile flakes

Pancakes

1/2 lb (about 8 cups) spinach, washed
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
2/3 cup milk
6 medium green onions, finely sliced
2 fresh green chiles, thinly sliced
1 egg white
Olive oil for frying

PREPARATION
To make the lime butter. Put the butter in a medium bowl and beat it with a wooden spoon until it turns soft and creamy. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Tip onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a sausage shape. Twist the ends of the wrap to seal the flavored butter. Chill until firm.

Wilt the spinach in a pan with a splash of water. Drain in a sieve and, when cool, squeeze hard with your hands to remove as much moisture as possible. Roughly chop and put aside.

Put the flour, baking powder, whole egg, melted butter, salt, cumin and milk in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Add the green onions, chiles and spinach and mix with a fork. Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and gently fold it into the batter.

Pour a small amount of olive oil into a heavy frying pan and place on medium-high heat. For each pancake, ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan and press down gently. You should get smallish pancakes, about 3 inches in diameter and 3/8 inch thick. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until you get a good golden-green color. Transfer to paper towels and keep warm. Continue making pancakes, adding oil to the pan as needed, until the batter is used up.

To serve, pile up three warm pancakes per person and place a slice of flavored butter on top to melt.

Farm Updates and CSA Week 15

It took most of our time and every bin we have to harvest and pack the cooler last week in preparation for the Ag Day Farmers' Market as well as our regular Farm Store and CSA pick-up on Saturday!  It turned out to be beautiful fall weather, perfect for a busy market and for our members out in the pick-your-own fields enjoying the cherry tomatoes and sunflowers.  By the end of the day on Saturday it was like the flurry of activity had never happened - the cooler was close to empty and the bins were clean and stacked in the wash area ready for the regular harvest this week! Much of our week will be devoted to keeping up with the farm store and CSA harvest list which still includes summer crops like eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. We will also bring in the remaining winter squash from the field for later this fall. Lise's dad made us some new bulk bins so now we have somewhere to store it all! While we wish we had more red kuri and buttercup squash this year, the quantity of pie pumpkins, acorn, delicata, gourds and butternut squash is looking good. Two of our few remaining planting projects will also take place this week- the last of the lettuce as well as our fall planted strawberries which arrived today from Illinois. 

In the CSA:

• Garlic- we will continue to distribute cured garlic. They are ready to eat now but will also keep well if stored in a dry, dark place. 
• Tendersweet Cabbage - This cabbage is aptly named as it is very sweet and tender making it great for shredding raw in coleslaws and other salads. 
• Salanova Lettuce mix
• Nicola Potatoes- yellow outside and inside. Great for roasting!
• Leeks
• Mustard Greens- These spicy greens are more mild after cooking. 
• Baby bok choi
• Peppers - green, purple, red, yellow and orange
• Eggplant
• Tomatoes - mostly red and orange slicers but there may be a few heirlooms. 
• Carrots
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Curly Kale
• Toscano Kale - also called dinosaur kale

CSA PYO:

• Cherry Tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes - Sungold, jasper, black cherry, yellow mini, cherry bomb, red grape, Juane Flamme, pink boar, bumblebee, and Wapsipinicon peach!
• Hot peppers - serrano, jalapeño and ancho. Some cayenne are also starting to turn red!
• Purple tomatillos - pick when husks are filled out.
• Husk cherries- Pick dry husks that have fallen on the ground under the plants. To eat, remove the husk and eat the yellow fruit inside. 
• Sunflowers
• Green and Yellow Beans 
• Herbs: Basil, parsley, dill flowers, sage, thyme, mint, oregano, chives

In the store:

In addition to the items also available in the CSA, we will have radishes, escarole, yukina savoy, paste tomatoes, spaghetti squash, some zucchini, and beets in the store. We will also continue to have Verrill Farm corn, Fat Moon mushrooms, and Pete and Jen's eggs.

PYO Flower CSA: 

Flowers available for picking this week include zinnias, bachelors button, celosia, scabiosa, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, strawflower, snapdragons, gomphrena, sunflowers and more.  

Kale, Cabbage & Carrot Salad With Creamy Caper Dressing

•  1 egg yolk

•  1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

•  ¼ cup grapeseed oil

•  ¼ cup olive oil

•  2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped

•  1 tablespoon caper pickling liquid

•  1 large clove garlic, smashed to a paste

•  ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

•  Salt, to taste

•  2 tablespoons snipped chives (optional)

•  ¼ head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

•  1½ large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into bite-size pieces

•  1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves thinly sliced or torn into bite-size pieces

•  ½ yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced

•  2 tablespoons chopped mixed herbs, such as parsley, basil, chives or dill (optional)

In medium bowl, whisk egg yolk with mustard. While whisking constantly, slowly dribble in oils. Continue whisking until oil is fully incorporated and mixture is thick and pale in color. Whisk in capers, pickling liquid, garlic and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste and snipped chives, if using. In a large bowl, combine all vegetables and herbs, if using. Add dressing and toss, using both hands to mix until dressing coats all ingredients. Allow salad to marinate until vegetables soften, at least 10 minutes.

Ag Day and Farm Tour this weekend, plus CSA Week 14

This week is a busy one as we prepare for the events surrounding this year's Farm and Garden Fair. As usual, we'll have a stall at the annual Ag Day Farmers' Market on Main Street in Concord Center on Saturday September 9th, 10am - 2pm (the farm stand and CSA will also still be open regular hours). We'll also host a Meet the Machines tour at the farm on Sunday September 10th at 10am! Drop by for one or both events to say hi!

The Farm and Garden Fair weekend marks an important turning point in the season for a number of reasons. By this time of year, our crew has dwindled to a few core members (this year: Rebecca, Dave, Shaun and Alexis!). The Fair weekend also signals to us that it's time to begin planning for next year! Because we like to be able to try to recruit new CSA and Barrett's Bucks members for the following season at Ag Day, we have been busy preparing our brochure and sign-up forms for 2018. In order to do that, we write a draft budget to figure out the prices for the vegetable, late fall and flower CSAs. We also take the time to figure out our store and CSA hours, the number of members we need for our CSA and Bucks programs, and the staffing needs to make it all happen!  

While we're getting ready for Ag Day and the farm tour, we've also got a number of regular farm tasks to keep up with. We still have some butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata and gourds to bring into the barn for curing. We also need to top our Brussels sprouts (clip the tops of the plants to encourage sprout growth), pull up landscape fabric and plastic mulch from our earlier cucumber, melon and squash plantings, seed cover crop, and transplant our fall-planted strawberries (which should arrive later this week from Illinois). Of course, there's also still the daily harvest!

In the CSA:

• Garlic - after curing for about 6 weeks hanging in the farm stand, they are now ready to eat (and should be good for storage longer-term as well). We will continue to dole out garlic through the fall, and we will also set aside about 20% of it as seed for next year's garlic!
• Swiss chard
• Baby bok choi
• Spaghetti squash- Ripe when bright yellow
• Peppers - green, purple, red, yellow and orange
• Eggplant
• Tomatoes- heirloom and slicing 
• Carrots - we are now into the fall planting of carrots! The variety this week is Bolero, which is one of our favorites.
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Radishes
• Curly Kale
• Toscano Kale - also called dinosaur kale

CSA PYO:

• Cherry Tomatoes and cocktail tomatoes - Sungold, jasper, black cherry, yellow mini, cherry bomb, red grape, Juane Flamme, pink boar, bumblebee, and Wapsipinicon peach!
• Hot peppers - serrano, jalapeño and ancho. Some cayenne are also starting to turn red!
• Purple tomatillos - pick when husks are filled out.
• Husk cherries- Pick dry husks that have fallen on the ground under the plants. To eat, remove the husk and eat the yellow fruit inside. 
• Sunflowers
• Beans - Dragon's tongue are still going strong, and we may have some green beans as well at the end of the week.
• Herbs: Basil, parsley, dill flowers, sage, thyme, mint, oregano, chives

In the store:

We will have the last of the summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers in the store, as well as green beans and edamame. We will also continue to have Verrill Farm corn, Fat Moon mushrooms, and Pete and Jen's eggs.

PYO Flower CSA: 

Flowers available for picking this week include zinnias, bachelors button, celosia, scabiosa, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, strawflower, snapdragons, gomphrena, sunflowers and more.  

Eggplant Tricolore

adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

• 3 medium eggplants
• Minimum 4 Tablespoons of Olive oil
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 1 yellow pepper, cored and finely diced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 TB of Red Wine Vinegar
• 3½ TB capers plus 1 TB of the brine
• 5 oz buffalo mozzarella
• 1 cup basil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Slice the eggplants widthwise into ¾ inch-thick pieces, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and brush generously on both sides with plenty of olive oil.
3. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper, then roast for 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden-brown. Allow to cool down.
4. Mix together the pepper, tomato,vinegar, capers and brine, and add two tablespoons of olive oil. Set aside for a minimum of 30 min (can actually be refrigerated for several days).
5. To serve, arrange the cooked eggplant slices, slightly overlapping, on a big serving platter. Break the mozzarella into chunks and scatter on top, spoon over the salsa and garnish with basil.