Week 10 and Farm Stand Updates

Whew, last week was a hot one! We are happy to have made it to this week intact, but we do have to let go of our perfectionist natures and just be happy we are keeping up with the most urgent tasks. When it’s this hot the crew just does the best they can to stay hydrated and stay as on top of the to-do list as possible! There have been a couple of little rain storms which have provided a little relief as it was starting to become impossible to keep up irrigating everything that needs it. We will be working hard this week to keep up with the weeds (when we successfully irrigate we save the crop but also grow the weeds!), bring in the storage onion harvest, and get some of the last planting and seeding done while there is still time for full growth before the days get too short and frost threatens. I know - how could we mention frost?! But we have reached a turning point in the season as we are now half way through our 20 week Main Season CSA! Flex and Extended CSA members have an additional 4 weeks after the end of the Main Season on October 22nd. For now we will worry about keeping up with the needs on the farm for fall and you all can focus on enjoying these summer summer tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, watermelon and more that we have for you!

In the CSA this week:

• Beets - Our first “fall” beets are ready and the greens are beautiful! See recipe below for an easy and tasty side dish using beet greens.

• Watermelon! This variety is called starlight and has red flesh with seeds.

• Celery - Our celery tends to be small and strongly flavored so great for recipes (not as great for snacking unless you are a big celery fan!).

• Uncured garlic - While whole it can be stored in a pantry but once peeled or chopped it should be stored in the fridge. It will last about a week (once we cure the rest of the garlic it will last for months!).

• Mizuna or scarlet frills mustard greens - We will have one of the two each day this week.

• Slicing tomatoes - from the field and high tunnel. There will likely be a mix of red, orange and pink.

• Specialty/heirloom tomatoes - We are growing some true heirlooms in the field and some hybrids that look and taste like heirlooms (but are more productive) in the high tunnel.

• Peppers - green and purple varieties.

• Carrots

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers - pickling and slicing

• Lettuce - a mix of summer crisp varieties

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry Tomatoes - Varieties that are currently ripening include Sungold (orange), Citrine (orange), Cherry Bomb (red), Red Pearl (red grape), Valentine (red grape), Apple Yellow (new variety for us this year, and aptly named as it is an apple shaped yellow tomato!), Black Cherry (smoky purple) and Midnight Pear (smoky purple pear shaped cherry). Be sure to look low on the plants for the most ripe fruit.

• Shishito peppers - See the recipe below for a tasty way to make these peppers. They are generally mild but once in a while you get a hot one!

• Jalapeño peppers

• Herbs - choice of basil, dill, oregano, mint, sage or thyme.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have tomatillos, potatoes, colored peppers and mixed flower bouquets. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm, and Fat Moon Farm mushrooms. This will be the last mushrooms for the next month or so.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The PYO Flower garden is at it’s height so now is a great time to pick! The field is open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public for picking by the jar. Varieties available include snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, ageratum, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Blistered Shishito Peppers

Adapted from: Cookie and Kate

INGREDIENTS

• Shishito peppers

• Extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil

• Lemon wedge, optional

• Salt, preferably flaky sea salt or kosher salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rinse and pat the peppers dry on a clean tea towel. Transfer the peppers to a medium bowl, drizzle in the oil, and toss until the peppers are evenly coated. Set aside.

2. Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat until it’s hot enough that a drop of water sizzles and evaporates quickly on contact. Add the peppers and let them cook, stirring every minute or so (not too often), until they are tender with charred spots, about 8 to 12 minutes.

3. Transfer the peppers to a serving plate. Spritz with a lemon wedge, if desired. Sprinkle with salt, to taste (don’t skimp). Serve with a little bowl on the side for the pepper stems.

Sautéed Beet Greens with Garlic and Olive Oil

Adapted from New York Times Cooking recipe by Martha Rose Schulman

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch of beet greens

• salt

• 1 garlic clove

• 1/8 tsp dried red pepper flakes (optional)

• freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you stem the greens and wash the leaves in 2 rinses of water. When the water comes to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the greens. Blanch for 2 minutes, until tender. Transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water, then drain and squeeze the water out from its leaves. Chop coarsely.

2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the garlic and hot red pepper flakes (if using) and cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant and translucent, 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in the greens. Stir for a couple of minutes, until the greens are nicely seasoned with garlic and oil. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the heat, and serve.

• Some people enjoy a few drops of lemon juice with their cooked greens, so you might want to pass a plate of lemon wedges.

Week 9 and Farm Stand Updates

Happy August! August on the farm means the beginning of bulk harvests so we get out our big plastic bins, put the forks on our International Hydro tractor from the 1970’s, and head out to the field! Last week we started with the quintessential summer crop, watermelon, but later this week we will finish up the garlic harvest, bring in the spaghetti squash, and start to harvest storage onions for curing. This week we will also continue to bring in the the current summer harvest of course, hauling 5 gallon buckets full of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots and more out of the fields each day. We try to get the harvest done in the morning before lunch so we can get to other tasks but this time of year we can often spend all day harvesting to keep up with the summer bounty! Other tasks we would like to get to this week include planting broccoli, scallions, fennel and lettuce, seeding radishes, greens, and turnips, trellising tomatoes, hoeing lettuce and cabbage, and hand weeding fall beets and carrots. We will work hard to get to those other projects to make sure the variety and quantity of crops continues throughout the season!

In the CSA this week:

• Watermelon! This variety is called starlight and has red flesh with seeds.

• Celery - Our celery tends to be small and strongly flavored so great for recipes (not as great for snacking unless you are a big celery fan!). Our favorite recipe using celery is the green gazpacho recipe listed below.

• Uncured garlic -While we wait patiently for most of our garlic to cure so that it will store outside of a refrigerators for months, we are giving out some of the garlic uncured for use right now! This garlic should be peeled and used just like regular garlic. While whole it can be stored in a pantry but once peeled or chopped it should be stored in the fridge. It will last about a week (once we cure the rest of the garlic it will last for months!).

• Mizuna or scartlett frills mustard greens - We will have one of the two each day this week.

• Slicing tomatoes - from the field and high tunnel. There will likely be a mix of red orange and pink.

• Specialty/heirloom tomatoes - We are growing some true heirlooms in the field and some hybrids that look and taste like heirlooms (but are more productive) in the high tunnel.

• Peppers - green and purple varieties.

• Potatoes - Yellow potatoes

• Carrots

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Baby leeks - Expect to see larger leeks later in the season!

• Cucumbers

• Lettuce - a mix of summer crisp varieties

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry Tomatoes - Varieties that are currently ripening include Sungold (orange), Citrine (orange), Cherry Bomb (red), Red Pearl (red grape), Valentine (red grape), Apple Yellow (new variety for us this year, and aptly named as it is an apple shaped yellow tomato!), Black Cherry (smoky purple) and Midnight Pear (smoky purple pear shaped cherry). Be sure to look low on the plants for the most ripe fruit.

• Sunflowers

• Herbs - choice of basil, dill, oregano, mint, sage or thyme.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have cabbage, colored peppers from our high tunnel, cherry tomatoes and mixed flower bouquets. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm and certified organic mushrooms from Fat Moon.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The PYO Flower garden is at it’s height so now is a great time to pick! The field is open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public for picking by the jar. Varieties available include snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, ageratum, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

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 green (mizuna would work well!)

• 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.

We have the best crew! They ran the farm Saturday without us and sent us this photo to let us know that the day went great!

Week 8 and Farm Stand Updates

If you drive down Lowell Road, you may have noticed a sign saying Barretts Mill Road will be closed Tuesday the 26th until 3pm. While it will be closed to thru traffic during this window due to road work, it will still be possible to get to the farm. We are told that there will be a police officer directing traffic at the intersection with Lowell Rd and with Strawberry Hill Road who will let through drivers heading to the farm stand. Coming from the Route 2 rotary there will be single lane traffic up to College Rd. Please plan for a little extra travel time on Tuesday before 3pm.

After two years of intermittently working, our farm truck has finally ceased to function. We had been hoping to extend it’s life until we could buy an electric truck, but wait lists are long and it isn’t an optimal time to take out a loan. Plan B was to buy a cheap used truck to get us through a couple more years, but that is proving difficult to do in the height of the season! Our days are quite full, so all of the truck searching goes on after hours and during break times (as does most of our office work at this time of year!). Melissa has been diligently hunting down trucks within our budget, but so far nothing has worked out. We’ll keep forging ahead and hope for better luck this week. In the meantime, we will continue to bring in harvests and move around supplies in our garden carts, using our tractor bucket loader for the really heavy items.

Last week’s extreme heat was probably the most sustained we’ve ever experienced on the farm. To try to avoid spending too long in the sun during the hottest part of the day, many of the crew started an hour earlier and left an hour earlier than usual. Afternoon popsicle breaks were also a key component of our plans! Anything under 90 degrees this time of year feels very manageable, so this week is looking better. Now let’s hope for a little rain relief too!

In the CSA this week:

• Baby leeks - We tried 3 different varieties of leeks this year as our old favorite variety is no longer available. This variety didn’t size up very well and then got out-competed by some perennial weeds, so we decided to clear them small rather than continuing to irrigate and devote energy to them. These leek bunches will look closer to scallion bunches, but you can use them the same as you would regular leeks. The other 2 varieties appear to have much fared better, so expect to see larger leeks later in the season!

• Tomatoes - Mostly from our high tunnels but we are starting to see more field tomatoes ripening as well. There will likely be a mix of slicing tomatoes (red, orange and pink), heirlooms and some hybrids that look and taste like heirlooms.

• Peppers - green and purple varieties.

• Potatoes - Dark Red Norlands or yellow potatoes

• Fresh onions - We’ll continue to have a mix of Red Long of Tropea and Ailsa Craig fresh onions.

• Carrots

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers

• Lettuce - a mix of summer crisp varieties

• Mini Cabbage

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry Tomatoes - Varieties that are currently ripening include Sungold (orange), Citrine (orange), Cherry Bomb (red), Red Pearl (red grape), Valentine (red grape), Apple Yellow (new variety for us this year, and aptly named as it is an apple shaped yellow tomato!), Black Cherry (smoky purple) and Midnight Pear (smoky purple pear shaped cherry).

• Snap beans - green beans as well as purple snap beans.

• Herbs - choice of basil, dill, oregano, mint, sage or thyme.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have escarole, frisee and mixed flower bouquets. We will also have sweet corn from Verril Farm, eggs from Codman Farm and certified organic mushrooms from Fat Moon.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The PYO Flower garden is now open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public. Varieties available include snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, ageratum, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points so that we can enjoy the plants for the next 2 months. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

ZUCCHINI GRIDDLECAKES

By Adam Ried from The Boston Globe, August 19, 2007

MAKES ABOUT 24
2 1/2- TO 3-INCH CAKES

See below for several variations!

• 2 1/2 pounds (about 8) 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.

VARIATIONS

Herb and Parmesan Substitute 6 tablespoons mixed chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, mint, chives, tarragon, basil, and chervil for the parsley and add 3/4 cup grated Parmesan with the flour.

Mint and feta Substitute 6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint for the parsley and add 3/4 cup of crumbled feta with the flour.

Thyme and corn Remove kernels from 2 ears of corn, about 2 cups. (See Fresh Corn Griddlecakes for instructions.) 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.

CSA Week 7 and Farm Stand Updates

We are bracing ourselves for the heatwave this week and trying to dust ourselves off after a crushing defeat in our eggplant at the hands of the Colorado Potato Beetle (CPB). We devoted a significant amount of time over the past 2 months to hand picking, burning and vacuuming (a new technique we tried out this year!), as organic pesticides are no longer effective against these bugs. We do think our potatoes managed to size up a little better than they have in recent years as a result of our efforts, but the CPB were relentless and the last potato plant holdouts succumbed over a week ago. Eggplant are a close second favorite meal for CPB and they were already doing significant damage in the eggplant before the beetles that had been feasting on our potato plants began migrating to the eggplant as well. We see a lot of damage to the eggplant every year, but they usually bounce back. This year we are missing large swaths of plants due to CPB pressure. They have been so pervasive that we have even been seeing significant damage in our field tomatoes as well!

It’s discouraging to see a crop fail in spite of our best efforts, but when you grow about 50 different types of crops, you’re guaranteed to have at least one fail every year (and you’ll usually have multiple fail!). We just have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s been an exceptionally good year in spite of a serious drought, and some key equipment failures. To keep ourselves going, we start to make plans for how next year will be different. So we are planning to rotate our potatoes across the street again next year, because the further away you can get from the previous year’s spot, the better. We are also strongly considering taking a a year off from growing eggplant ourselves to try to break the cycle of the ever multiplying CPB population. Trying to control the beetles drains energy from other essential projects that would probably have a bigger payoff! It’s no fun to admit something you worked really hard on didn’t go well, but one of the great things about farming is that you get to learn and try new strategies the next year!

In the CSA this week:

• High tunnel tomatoes! We are very excited to have enough tomatoes this early for every membership to have one this week!

• Peppers - we’ll have the first green and purple peppers in the CSA this week. They’ll be limited, but expect more soon!

• Escarole - We tried out a new heat-tolerant variety, as this is the time of year when it is tough to grow leafy greens. Escarole has a bitter flavor and is usually cooked. This may not be the week most people were hoping to turn on their stoves, but see below for a recipe idea that involves minimal cooking time!

• Potatoes - more Dark Red Norlands this week!

• Fresh onions - We’ll continue to have a mix of Red Long of Tropea and Ailsa Craig fresh onions.

• Carrots

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers

• Lettuce - For the first time this season we will have to limit lettuce heads. We had a section of lettuce that we had to plant outside of our regular lettuce field, which made it tricky to get irrigation set up on it. That lettuce was due to be harvested this week, but it has struggled in this drought. Future plantings are looking really good though!

• Mini Cabbage

• Kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry Tomatoes - Just a taste this week, but it’s only the beginning so expect much more to come! Varieties that are currently ripening include Sungold (orange), Citrine (orange), Cherry Bomb (red), Red Pearl (red grape), Valentine (red grape), Apple Yellow (new variety for us this year, and aptly named as it is an apple shaped yellow tomato!) and Midnight Pear (smoky purple pear shaped cherry).

• Snap beans - green beans as well as purple snap beans.

• Herbs - choice of basil, dill, parsley, dill flowers, sage or thyme.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have salanova (early in the week only) and mixed flower bouquets. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm and likely Verrill Farm corn by the end of the week.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The PYO Flower garden is now open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public. Varieties available include snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, ageratum, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points so that we can enjoy the plants for the next 2 months. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Sautéed Escarole

from SimplyRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1 clove garlic, sliced

• 1 small pinch red pepper flakes, optional

• 1 head escarole, well rinsed (and still a little wet), leaves removed from core, torn or chopped into 3 to 4 inch pieces

• 1 generous pinch sea salt or kosher salt

Method

1. Sauté the garlic: Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the sliced garlic and red pepper flakes (if using).

2. Add the escarole leaves, turn with tongs: Once the garlic starts to cook and is fragrant, add the escarole leaves to the pan. The leaves should still be a little wet from rinsing. They'll sizzle as they hit the pan, but if you add them all at once, the oil shouldn't splatter. Use tongs to turn the escarole over in the pan as it cooks. Sprinkle with a little salt.

3. Wilt the escarole: When the escarole starts to wilt and is barely cooked through, remove from the heat. Remove from the pan immediately to serve.

Zucchini Salad

from LoveAndLemons.com

Ingredients

• Lemon Vinaigrette, plus 1/4 cup minced shallot mixed in

• 3 small-medium zucchini

• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

• 1 tablespoon chopped chives

• Handful of basil

• Shaved Parmesan, optional

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the zucchini into thin strips. Place the zucchini in a large bowl, toss with drizzles of the dressing, then transfer the zucchini to a platter.

2. Top with the pine nuts, chives, basil, and a few shavings of Parmesan, if using. Drizzle with more dressing and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

CSA Week 6 and Farm Stand Updates

We have made it into the portion of the season when almost every day we look at our to-do list and think “that seems manageable” until we remember we have cucumber, squash and zucchini harvest to keep up with! It really is a marvel how quickly these fruit grow, requiring daily harvests in order to avoid baseball bat-sized zucchini and pickling cukes that are almost spherical. Today we found that our second zucchini, summer squash and pickling cucumber successions have started maturing. It is good timing, as the first successions are starting to fade, but we always have a week or two when we are still picking from both successions. With our truck being only intermittently functional, it means we have all gotten strong arm muscles hauling full buckets across the farm in our garden carts!

In the CSA this week:

• Potatoes - Dark Red Norlands (red skin, white flesh) are the first variety we’ll be harvesting. We’re excited to start using our potato digger again this season!

• Fresh onions - This week we’ll have a mix of Red Long of Tropea and Ailsa Craig fresh onions. The Red Longs are similarly sweet and mild, and they should be stored in the refrigerator as well.

• Beets or Scallions - We don’t have large enough quantities of either to last the full week, so we’ll have one of these available at each pick-up.

• Carrots - we’ll have a choice of either purple or orange bunches. The green tops have been breaking more easily, so we will have some carrots that are bunched around the actual root. We do strongly recommend removing the tops when you get home, as the carrots have a tendency to get floppy in the refrigerator if the tops aren’t removed.

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers - In addition to slicing and pickling cukes, this week we’ll also have some European style cukes! We tried a small amount out in the high tunnel and in the field. We only had enough high tunnel European cukes for the store, but the ones in the field became abundant towards the end of last week. While these are thinner skinned than the regular slicing cukes, they are not quite as thin skinned as the ones we grew in the high tunnel (everything in the field just ends up a little hardier than in the high tunnel!). We are happy with how these turned out and plan to grow them again next year.

• Garlic scapes

• Lettuce

• Salanova - It is likely the last week for salanova before the fall. Salanova quickly bolts (which means they start to go to flower) in the summer months, so we take a break until the weather conditions are more favorable!

• Frisée - Not to be confused with lettuce. It is frillier and more bitter.

• Mini Cabbage

• Kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers - It must be summer!

• Herbs - choice of basil, parsley, dill flowers, sage or thyme

Green bean update: Picking last Thursday was very rough and we ended up having to close the beans for Saturday. The drought has slowed the maturation of beans (because of limited irrigation supplies, we prioritized getting irrigation on a later planting that was in closer proximity to existing irrigation set-ups). We are going to do our best to try to get green beans to folks who missed out on green beans on Thursday and Saturday, but it may end up that we don’t have an abundant green bean supply until next week.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have green peppers, high tunnel tomatoes and mixed flower bouquets. Blueberries are suffering in the drought, but we hope to be able to harvest some more at least a couple of days this week. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

We will open the flower field to Flower CSA members for picking starting Wednesday, July 13th, and we will likely be able to open the field to the general public for picking by the jar next week (July 19th). Varieties available this week for Flower CSA members include snapdragons, marigolds, gomphrena, celosia, statice, ageratum and amaranth. It is still early in the season, so please pick flowers above branching points so that we can enjoy the plants for the next 2 months. This means that for now stems will be on the shorter side, but as the plants branch and mature the stems will get a little longer.

Greek Cucumber Salad

by Katya, from littlebroken.com

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar

• 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

• 2–3 cucumbers, thinly sliced

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (full fat)

• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

• 1 clove garlic, pressed

• 1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

• 1 tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste

• fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine the red onion, olive oil, vinegar, and oregano. Let the onions marinate at room temperature while preparing the rest of the salad.

2. Place the sliced cucumbers into a large salad bowl.

3. Combine the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, dill, salt, and black pepper. Add to the cucumbers, along with the marinated onions, including the liquid from the onions. Toss everything together really well. Taste for salt and pepper.

4. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate for up to 30 minutes before serving.