CSA Week 12 and Farm Stand updates

Our summer crew has dwindled over the past week as folks return back to school as students or teachers. Last week we said goodbye to Rachael, Dave, Ione and Leah, and this week we will say goodbye to AnneMarie and Ali. We’re hoping to see many of them again next season on the crew (though if not we’d also love visits!). Thanks to the great summer crew and our strong core season-long crew of Sarah, Rebecca, Molly and Brian, we feel in pretty good shape with our field tasks going into September. We’ve already begun our fall clean-up project of removing plastic mulch and drip tape from finished plantings and seeded over 2 acres of soil-replenishing cover crops.

We’ve also made good progress in harvesting winter squash, which is a crew favorite activity as it involves tossing squash to another crew member, who drops it gently into a bulk bin being driven down the field on a tractor. We are hoping the butternut will be ready to harvest by the end of the week while we still have a few extra hands to help with the harvest. Once the squash is harvested, it will cure in our barn for a couple of weeks. The curing process sweetens the flavor and also improves it’s storage quality so that we can begin selling and distributing squash in the store and CSA over the remainder of the fall.

This week in the CSA:

• Tendersweet cabbage - we are moving on to our fall cabbage harvest! Tendersweet cabbage taste like they sound - sweet with a soft texture.

• Watermelon - We’re starting to harvest a different variety this week: Blacktail Mountain! The outsides look different (solid dark green instead of striped) but on the inside it is a similar red watermelon with excellent flavor. The Blacktail right now seem to be sweeter but the Starlight seem to have a more intense watermelon flavor.

• Sweet Italian and bell colored peppers - Yellow, Red, and orange peppers are starting to ripen! The red Carmen variety are my favorite! Their elongated shape leads some folks to think they might be spicy but they are sweet like red bell peppers!

• Spaghetti squash - Cut in half, remove seeds and bake in oven. When soft enough to easily pierce with a fork scrape, let cool and then scrape out the inner “spaghetti” and top with your favorite pasta topping!

• Heirloom tomatoes - We grow Striped German and Pineapple (yellow with pink stripes), Cherokee Purple (purple with greenish shoulders), Cherokee Green (greenish yellow) and Pruden’s Purple (actually pink).

• Slicing Tomatoes - Big Beef (red), Bigdena (red), Mountain Merit (red), Chef’s Choice (orange) and Damsel (pink)

• Green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Fresh Onions

• Cucumbers

• Carrots

• Beets

• Kale

• Yukina Savoy or arugula

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Edamame - pick pods that have filled out.

• Tomatillos - Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple.

• Husk cherries - Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery, to eat remove the husk, the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - We have longer beds than usual this season (about 250' feet long), but those who walk to the back of the beds will be amply rewarded with very fast picking (it’ll probably take less time overall than if you try to hunt for tomatoes at the front of the beds)! If you’re looking for a really quick pick, Mountain Magic will fill your quarts very fast.

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green), fresno (red) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Herbs: parsley, dill, dill seeds, dill flowers, cilantro, coriander seeds, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only so that the plants will branch and grow bigger.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as summer squash and bunches of Swiss chard. We are also excited to now have lemongrass from our high tunnel! This was an experimental project this year and one that we think we will repeat next year! Lemongrass generally grows in more tropical climates, but it has done well in our high tunnel. It is great in teas, sauces and stir fries. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Lemongrass Tofu

from 40aprons.com

Ingredients:

• 1- pound block extra-firm or firm tofu, cubed

• 2 stalks lemongrass, minced fine

• 2 teaspoons fish sauce

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

• 2 teaspoons chopped Thai red chile (or an other type of hot pepper)

• 1/4 teaspoon dried red chile flake

• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 2 teaspoons agave

• big pinch salt

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1/2 onion, sliced

• 2 teaspoons garlic, minced

• 4 tablespoons chopped peanuts

• chopped cilantro, for garnish

• steamed brown rice, to serve

Instructions

1. Combine the lemongrass, fish sauce, soy sauce, chilies, chile flakes, turmeric, agave and salt in a bowl. Add the tofu cubes and turn to coat them evenly. Marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Heat half of the oil in a medium to large non-stick skillet over moderately high heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.

3. Wipe the pan down and heat remaining oil over moderate heat. Add the tofu mixture and, using chopstick or wooden spoons, turn the pieces so they cook evenly, about 4 - 5 minutes. Add the onion mixture and cook, uncovered, for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add half the peanuts.

4. Remove from the heat and transfer to serving bowls. Garnish with the remaining peanuts and cilantro and serve immediately over steamed brown rice.

Salsa Verde

from Cookie + Kate (cookieandkate.com)

• 1½ pounds tomatillos (about 12 medium), husked and rinsed

• 1 to 2 medium jalapeños, stemmed (omit for mild salsa, use 1 jalapeño for medium salsa and 2 jalapeños for hot salsa, note that spiciness will depend on heat of actual peppers used)

• ½ cup chopped white onion (about ½ medium onion)

• ¼ cup packed fresh cilantro leaves (more if you love cilantro)

• 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup lime juice (1 to 2 medium limes, juiced), to taste

• ½ to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

• Optional variation: 1 to 2 diced avocados, for creamy avocado salsa verde

Preheat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches below the heat source. Place the tomatillos and jalapeño(s) on a rimmed baking sheet and broil until they're blackened in spots, about 5 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, carefully flip over the tomatillos and pepper(s) with tongs and broil for 4 to 6 more minutes, until the tomatillos are splotchy-black and blistered. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine the chopped onion, cilantro, 2 tablespoons lime juice and ½ teaspoon salt. Once the tomatillos are out of the oven, carefully transfer the hot tomatillos, pepper(s) and all of their juices into the food processor or blender. Pulse until the mixture is mostly smooth and no big chunks of tomatillo remain, scraping down the sides as necessary. Season to taste with additional lime juice and salt, if desired. If you'd like to make creamy avocado salsa verde, let the salsa cool down before blending in 1 to 2 diced avocados (the more avocado, the creamier it gets).

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Spaghetti Squash

adapted from minimalistbaker.com

PASTA

• 4 red Carmen peppers

• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil

• 2 small red onions (finely chopped)

• 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

• Sea salt and ground black pepper (to taste)

• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder (or other thickener of choice)

• 1 pinch red pepper flake (optional // for heat)

• 12 ounces spaghetti squash (about 2 medium spaghetti squash)

FOR SERVING optional

• Vegan parmesan cheese

• Finely chopped fresh parsley or basil

Instructions

1. Cook spaghetti squash. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and place cut side down in a casserole dish filled with about 1/2 inch of water. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a fork easily pierces the skin. Remove and let cool.

2. Heat oven to 500 degrees F and roast red peppers on a baking sheet until charred - about 25-30 minutes. Cover in foil for 10 minutes to steam, then remove (peel away) charred skin, seeds and stems. Set aside.

3. While the red peppers are roasting, bring a large skillet over medium heat and sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until golden brown and soft - about 4-5 minutes. Season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper and stir. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Transfer sautéed onion and garlic to blender with roasted peppers, almond milk, red pepper flake, nutritional yeast and cornstarch. Season with desired amount of salt, pepper, and red pepper flake.

5. Blend until creamy and smooth, taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more salt and pepper or nutritional yeast for flavor.

6. Once blended, place sauce back in the skillet over medium heat to thicken. Once it reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and continue simmering.

7. Once sauce is thickened to desired consistency (see photo), scrape the spaghetti string out and add the “noodles” to the sauce.

8. Serve with vegan parmesan, red pepper flake, and fresh chopped parsley or basil.

CSA Week 11 and Farm Stand updates

Much of the farm crew gathered for a photo last week before Rachel, Leah, Ann Marie and Ione head back to college and Dave and Ali return to their school year jobs! In a couple of weeks there will be just a small but experienced group remaining - Molly, Sarah, Brian, Rebecca, and Melissa and Lise of course. We will also have part-time help from Ari and Debbie as well as help from Jane and Kathy (Lise’s Mom) who continue to earn their reputation for saving the day when we are shorthanded. We are trying to get big weeding and harvest projects done while we still have a larger group: carrots and beets have been weeded, we are working on the leek field, all the storage onions have been harvested, and we have begun the winter squash harvest. While we will be sad to see much of the crew go (and hope they come back next year!), September is a great month for veggies and we also have the 14th Annual Concord Ag Day to look forward to Saturday September 14th!

Concord Ag Day Farmers’ Market

Saturday, September 14th

Concord Center, 10am-2pm

Come visit us at this annual producer-only market in Concord Center featuring Concord farms and the food, flowers and plants we grow right here in town! Visit www.concordagday.com for more details! There will also be music, games, a mobile garden book library and tickets for afternoon Kitchen Garden Tours (1pm-4pm). We'll have a booth at the market selling our veggies and we'll have a tally sheet at the market, so if you're a Barrett's Bucks member you can do your shopping there! Meanwhile, back at the farm both the store and CSA will still be open regular hours Saturday, 9am-3pm. The Concord Ag committee is also gearing up for the Farm Passport drawing at the Stone Soup dinner September 22nd at Verrill Farm so September will really be a celebration of the agricultural community of Concord!

This week in the CSA:

• Sweet Italian and bell colored peppers - Yellow, Red, and orange peppers are starting to ripen! The red Carmen variety are my favorite! Their elongated shape leads some folks to think they might be spicy but they are sweet like red bell peppers!

• Kale - Our fall kale is ready now, it is bright green and tender

• Spaghetti squash - The first of our winter squash. These are ripe when bright yellow. Cut in half, remove seeds and bake in oven. When soft enough to easily pierce with a fork scrape out the inner “spaghetti” and top with your favorite pasta topping!

• Watermelon

• Heirloom tomatoes - These tomatoes are odd looking but have the best flavor and are gorgeous when cut up into tomato salads. We grow Striped German and Pineapple (yellow with pink stripes), Cherokee Purple (purple with greenish shoulders), Cherokee Green (greenish yellow) and Pruden’s Purple (actually pink).

• Slicing Tomatoes - Big Beef (red), Bigdena (red), Chef’s Choice (orange) and Damsel (pink)

• Green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Fresh Onions

• Cucumbers

• Carrots

• Beets

• Yukina Savoy

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Edamame - pick pods that have filled out.

• Tomatillos or husk cherries - you’ll have a choice between either of these. Both have husks. Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple. Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery, to eat remove the husk, the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - We have longer beds than usual this season (about 250' feet long), but those who walk to the back of the beds will be amply rewarded with very fast picking (it’ll probably take less time overall than if you try to hunt for tomatoes at the front of the beds)! We’re picking all varieties right now: Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink), Jasper (red), Bumblebee (yellow with pink stripes), Lucky Tiger (oblong and green with pink stripes), Black cherry (purplish brown), Mountain Magic (red “cocktail” size) and Wapsipinicon Peach (yellow cocktail size with fuzzy skins). You can also check signs out in the fields for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green), fresno (red) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Herbs: parsley, dill, dill seeds, dill flowers, cilantro, coriander seeds, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only so that the plants will branch and grow bigger.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as summer squash and cabbage. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Wondering what to do with all your cherry tomatoes? This recipe was suggested by one of our crew members!

Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad

from NYTimes Recipes for Health

LIDEY HEUCK

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon pepper

• ¾ cup very thinly sliced red onion (about 1/2 a small onion)

• 1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic (about 1 large clove)

• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1 (15-ounce can) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

• ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley

• ½ cup shaved Parmesan (about 2 ounces)

PREPARATION

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir in the red onion and garlic and set the dressing aside to marinate for 15 to 30 minutes at room temperature.

2. Place the tomatoes, white beans and parsley in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad, toss well, then gently fold in the Parmesan. Serve at room temperature using a slotted spoon.

Eggplant Tricolore

adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

•   3 medium eggplants

•  Minimum 4 tbsp of Olive oil

•   Sea salt and black pepper

•   1 yellow pepper, cored and finely diced

•   10 cherry tomatoes, quartered

•   1 tbsp of Red Wine Vinegar

•   3½ tbsp capers plus 1 tbsp of the brine

•   5 oz buffalo mozzarella

•   1 cup basil

Preheat the oven to 375F. 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. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper, then roast for 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden-brown. Allow to cool down. 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). 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.

CSA Week 10 and Farm Stand updates

After two straight difficult watermelon seasons, it looks like we finally have a decent crop! Disease pressure (anthracnose) appears to be reduced, perhaps in part because we threw out all old seed, sanitized our seed storage bins over the winter, took a break from cantaloupe (which appeared to be more disease-prone), and got lucky with weather the past couple of weeks. We’ve definitely spotted some diseased plants in our melon planting, but so far it is less widespread than in the past two years.

We also tried out a new system for deterring crows from pecking open our watermelon: a scarecrow and old CDs strung above the planting (the flashing movement of the CDs blowing in the breeze is supposed to be a deterrent). It’s hard to say definitively if this system worked, or if the less diseased plants have created better cover for the melons, or if the crows have just moved on. Either way, we are very happy about it, as the old system involved stretching berry netting over the entire planting and crawling around underneath to harvest the watermelon. This year we only have coyote fencing in the way. This means we are able to drive a tractor with a bulk bin just outside the fence and toss melons into it, changing the watermelon harvest from a dreaded activity to a crew favorite. Sarah even got to use some of her volleyball skills to save an errant watermelon or two from landing on the ground!

While August is a time when we start enjoying classic summer veggies and fruit like tomatoes and watermelon, it is also a time when we begin to harvest some of our fall storage crops for curing. At the end of last week we pulled all of our shallots into the greenhouse and all of our spaghetti squash into the barn. Onions will probably be harvested later this week or next, and we’ll begin harvesting the rest of the winter squash by late August!

This week in the CSA:

• Watermelon - this variety is called Starlight. It has seeds, but the flavor is amazing! (We had researched and planned to trial a seedless variety this year, but we were notified late in the season the seedless variety we had purchased was not going to be available afterall, so we will try again next year!)

• Heirloom tomatoes - These tomatoes are odd looking but have the best flavor and are gorgeous when cut up into tomato salads. We grow Striped German and Pineapple (yellow with pink stripes), Cherokee Purple (purple with greenish shoulders), Cherokee Green (greenish yellow) and Pruden’s Purple (actually pink).

• Slicing Tomatoes - Big Beef (red), Bigdena (red), Chef’s Choice (orange) and Damsel (pink). We think the orange and pink tomatoes have the best flavor of the slicers!

• Peppers - green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers - picklers are much more plentiful than slicers right now. They don’t have to be pickled - you can use them in place of slicers anytime. They sometimes have slightly thicker skin, but if you peel them they taste virtually the same!

• Zucchini and summer squash - the plantings we are currently picking from aren’t producing very well - hopefully the final planting will be a little more productive.

• Carrots

• Beets

• Cabbage

• Celery

• Swiss Chard

• Arugula or Yukina Savoy

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Edamame - Pick pods that have filled out. See the recipe below for a simple boiled or steamed preparation!

• Tomatillos or husk cherries - you’ll have a choice between either of these. Both have husks. Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple. Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery, to eat remove the husk, the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - We have longer beds than usual this season (about 250' feet long), but those who walk to the back of the beds will be amply rewarded with very fast picking (it’ll probably take less time overall than if you try to hunt for tomatoes at the front of the beds)! We’re picking all varieties right now: Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink), Jasper (red), Bumblebee (yellow with pink stripes), Lucky Tiger (oblong and green with pink stripes), Black cherry (purplish brown), Mountain Magic (red “cocktail” size) and Wapsipinicon Peach (yellow cocktail size with fuzzy skins). You can also check signs out in the fields for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Dragon Tongue beans- Look under the foliage to find beans. Dragon tongue beans are white with purple spots and can be prepared like green beans. To pick, hold the plant just above the stem of the bean and gently pull the bean off.

• Herbs: parsley, dill, dill seeds, dill flowers, cilantro, coriander seeds, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only so that the plants will branch and grow bigger.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Watermelon Cucumber Mint Cooler

from honestcooking.com

• 4 cups of watermelon, de-seeded and chopped

• 2 cup of cucumber, skinned and sliced

• juice from ½ lime

• 1 large spring of fresh mint

• ½ cup of honey

• 2 cups of ice

• cucumber slices for garnish

Instructions

1. Puree the watermelon in blender.

2. Pour the fruit juice into large pitcher through mesh sieve.

3. Push fruit with wooden spatula as needed to remove all of the juice.

4. Repeat process with the cucumber.

5. Add in the lime juice and honey to pitcher.

6. Stir well.

7. Drop in the mint and ice.

8. Let sit in fridge over night.

9. Stir again.

10. Serve over more ice and a few slices of cucumber.

Edamame in the Shell

by Mark Bitman

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12796-edamame-in-the-shell

Ingredients:

• Salt

• 1 pound fresh or frozen edamame in their pods

• Black pepper to taste

Preparation:

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it generously. Add the edamame, return to a boil and cook until bright green, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain. To microwave: Put the edamame in a microwave-safe dish with ¼ cup water and a pinch of salt, cover partly and microwave on high until bright green, 1 to 5 minutes, depending on your microwave power.

Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and a little or a lot of black pepper. Toss and serve hot, warm or chilled with an empty bowl on the side for the pods.

CSA Week 9 and Farm Stand updates

We are in the thick of harvest season! This time of year we spend our days harvesting as fast as we can to keep up with ripening crops, trying to get them at just the right time for optimal size and quality. Any remaining time we have is spent weeding and irrigating the fall crops to keep them happy during hot summer days. After a very rainy spring and early summer we are now in a dry spell and hoping for rain. Our sandy soil drains out quickly and it becomes a full time job to set up irrigation on all our crops. Our transplanting is almost done for the year (with only lettuce, spinach and herbs left to go), and we have only a few crops left to seed directly in the field such as turnips, radishes, greens, and some late fall beets and carrots. With the end of veggie planting in sight we can start thinking about our other main planting project: cover crops! Lise diligently mows and disks in any areas where we are done harvesting vegetables to make way for the planting of cover crops so that we will be sure to have a nice stand before the winter to protect our soil. We will be ordering the seed this week and next thing you know we will be seeding field peas and triticale to prepare fields for next year!

This week in the CSA:

• Tomatoes - In addition to our high tunnel tomatoes are field tomatoes (pink damsel, one of our favorites!) are starting to ripen

• Peppers - green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Red Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers - slicers and picklers

• Zucchini

• Summer Squash

• Carrots

• Beets

• Cabbage

• Kale

• Swiss Chard

• Arugula

• Celery

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Cherry tomatoes - Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink), and more are ripening. Check signs for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Hot peppers - these got damaged by Colorado potato beetles, but there are still some nice jalapenos (green) and fresno chiles (red) out there.

• Green and Dragon Tongue beans- Look under the foliage to find beans. Dragon tongue beans are white with purple spots and can be prepared like green beans. To pick, hold the plant just above the stem of the bean and gently pull the bean off.

• Herbs: parsley, dill seeds, dill flowers, coriander seeds, thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, buttercream sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as baby boy chow. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Green Gazpacho

Adapted from “Plenty,” by Yotam Ottolenghi

• 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 arugula or other tender green

• 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

Combine the celery, green peppers, cucumbers, chili, garlic, sugar, walnuts, spinach, 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.

Cucumber Yogurt Raita Salad

by Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 long, English-style cucumbers (2 pounds total)

• 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, diced

• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped small

Dressing:

• 1 cup (227 grams) plain, full-fat yogurt

• 1 garlic clove, peeled

• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled

• 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

• Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

• 1 tablespoon minced mild or hot fresh chile (I used a jalapeno)

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, black or yellow mustard seeds or nigella seeds (I used black mustard seeds)

• 2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves, divided

• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves, divided

• Kosher salt to taste

Make the dressing by placing yogurt in a medium bowl and using a very fine grater to grate the garlic and ginger over it. Stir in sugar, lemon, chile, seeds, half of the mint and cilantro and season it with salt to taste. Set aside until you’re ready to serve the salad.

Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise, then each half three more times into long wedge-shaped pieces (i.e. 8 long pieces per cucumber). Cut them into 1 to 1 1/2-inch lengths on a diagonal and add them to a big bowl. Pile tomatoes and onion on top and when you’re ready to eat, mix half of the dressing with the salad. Sprinkle with remaining mint and cilantro and serve with extra yogurt dressing on the side.

CSA Week 8 and Farm Stand updates

Every week we update our to-do list on a whiteboard in the barn, but in July many things remain on the list every week. Some stay on the list because they are maintenance tasks we accomplish but need to repeat, like cultivating weeds with the tractors or mowing and weed-whacking around the property. Others stay on the list because they are much bigger projects than the length of their line on the to-do list implies. “Weed carrots” sounds like a pretty straightforward and innocuous task, but it feels never-ending as new carrot successions germinate (unfortunately not as quickly as the newly churned up weed seeds germinate). Weed control in general has overtaken transplanting as the most time-consuming non-harvest task. Perhaps we should consider breaking our weeding to-do list down into 50 foot increments so that we could have the satisfaction of crossing things off more frequently!

While we are still in the midst of a pretty intense stretch of the season, we take comfort in the projects we do get to cross off (garlic harvest - check!) and the fact that we are more than halfway through the hardest four months of the year. We also find relief in the crew’s energy and sense of humor. They push through hard tasks like weed-whacking in the heat, they keep each others’ spirits up as they chat while making their way through long weeding projects, and sometimes they even show up with a scarecrow sitting in their passenger seat ready to guard the watermelon (and make us laugh)!

This week in the CSA:

• Tomatoes - The tomatoes from our new high tunnel are coming in, so we’ll have a mix of red and orange slicers, as well as heirlooms available!

• Peppers - green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Red Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers - slicers and picklers

• Zucchini

• Summer Squash

• Carrots

• Mini Cabbage - Green, purple and Caraflex

• Kale

• Chard

• Mizuna or Baby bok choi

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Tomatillos - pick when the tomatillo fills out the entire papery husk around it. Great for roasting and making salsa verde.

• Hot peppers - these got damaged by Colorado potato beetles, but there are still some nice jalapenos (green) and fresno chiles (red) out there.

• Cherry tomatoes - Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink) and more are ripening. Check signs for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Green and purple snap beans - Look under the foliage to find beans. To pick, hold the plant just above the stem of the bean and gently pull the bean off.

• Herbs: parsley, dill flowers and dill seeds, cilantro and coriander seeds, thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, sunflowers, decorative basil, zinnias, and more this week. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store, as well as our own blueberries, flower bouquets, and arugula. We’ll also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

This eggplant and tomato recipe was suggested to us by a CSA member!

Persian Seared Eggplant and Tomato Beef (Gheimeh Baademjaan)

from HonestandTasty.com

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 large Eggplant or the equivalent amount of the smaller eggplant variety

• 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1-1.5 pounds of Lean Ground Beef

• 1 White or Yellow Onion, pureed in a food processor or shredded with a box grater

• 1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

• 2 teaspoons Sea Salt

• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper

• 5 ounces (⅔ cup) of tomato paste

• 1 large Tomato (or 2 small/medium ones), rinsed and cut into thick wedges

• 1 cup of Greek Yogurt

• 1 tablespoon (approximately 4 to 5 cloves) of freshly Minced Garlic

Instructions

1. Rinse the eggplant. Remove its stem and slice the eggplant into ¼-inch thick slices. Then cut into a bit larger than bite-sized pieces.

2. Put water into a large pan to an inch deep. Add in the eggplant into a single layer. Turn heat to high and place cover over pan. Once the water starts seeming like it wants to boil, reduce heat to a simmer (most likely medium heat). After a couple minutes, flip them to cook the other side for another 2 minutes or so. The eggplant should soften and may slightly change in color. Remove the eggplant to a clean plate. Work in batches if needed.

3. Rinse and dry the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan on med-high heat. Swirl oil around in pan to coat the surface.

4. Add the eggplant to the pan in a single layer and don’t touch the eggplant for 2 minutes while it sears on one side. After 2 minutes, flip the eggplant and allow to cook for another 2 minutes before removing to a clean plate. Work in batches if needed (add more olive oil for each new batch).

5. In a mixing bowl, combine the beef, onion, turmeric, salt, and pepper.

6. Add the beef mixture to the pan on high heat and use a spatula to break up the beef into small pieces.

7. Allow to cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the beef has browned and begins sauteing in its own natural fat.

8. At this point, mix in the tomato paste.

9. Mix in the eggplant and fresh tomato.

10. Turn heat to med-low and mix occasionally for 5 minutes.

11. To make the garlic yogurt, mix the garlic into the yogurt. Serve a large dollop of it on top of the beef mixture in your own plate that you’ll enjoy with bread, pasta, rice, or quinoa.

ZUCCHINI GRIDDLECAKES (and variation with corn)
By Adam Ried, Boston Globe August 19, 2007

• 2 1/2 pounds small to medium zucchini

• 1 medium onion

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt

• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 large eggs, beaten lightly

• 1/2 cup milk or half-and-half

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper, or to taste

• 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons flour

• Corn, vegetable, or canola oil (for cooking)

Using the shredding disk in a food processor or the large holes on a box grater, shred or grate the zucchini (you should have about 8 cups) and the onion. Place the vegetables in a colander, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt, and mix. Place the colander over a bowl and let stand 30 minutes until mixture exudes about 1 cup of liquid. Rinse under cold water. Spread a clean dish towel on a work surface, place the mixture in the center, gather the corners of the towel, and twist to wring out as much liquid as possible. Transfer to a large bowl, and break up clumps with a wooden spoon.Stir parsley, eggs, milk or half-and-half, baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper into the zucchini and blend. Add the flour, and, using a rubber spatula, fold it into the zucchini mixture.

Set the oven rack to the center position and heat to 250 degrees. In a large, nonstick skillet, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Measure 2 or 3 tablespoons zucchini batter and pour into the pan to form a disk 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Repeat until the pan is filled, leaving about 1 inch between cakes. Cook cakes without moving (adjusting heat if pan becomes too hot) until the bottoms are golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the cakes and cook until the second side is golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes more. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and set in the warm oven. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm.

VARIATION:

Thyme and corn Remove kernels from 2 ears of corn, about 2 cups. Follow the Zucchini Griddlecakes recipe using 4 zucchini instead of 8. Add the corn and 3/4 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme to the squeezed zucchini along with the parsley, eggs, milk or half-and-half, baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper

Tarator - Bulgarian Cold Cucumber Soup

By Nelka on May 15, 2003 on food.com

• 2 cucumbers (about 1 lb)

• 1 lb plain yogurt

• 3 -4 garlic cloves

• 2 -3 tablespoons of crushed walnuts (optional)

• 1 bunch fresh dill

• olive oil

• salt

• about 1 cup water (optional)

Cut the cucumbers into cubes and put them in a bowl. Beat the yogurt with a fork until it gets liquid and pour it over the cucumbers. Add the crushed garlic, the walnuts and the minced dill as well as salt and oil to taste. Add some water to make the soup as liquid as you like. Put into the refrigerator to cool or add ice cubes. Serve cold.