CSA Week 20 and Farm Stand Updates

This is the last week for the Main Season CSA! The farm store will be open this week and next, with the last day of the farm store for the season on Saturday, October 28th (2023 Barrett’s Bucks expire at that time). Extended and Flex CSAs continue for 4 more weeks, until November 18th.

It looks like a harder frost is almost certain for next week, but for now some of the more tender crops like peppers are hanging on out in the field. You can’t really fight cooler soil temperatures and shorter days, so an ever-increasing portion of our day is spent preparing for the end of the season rather than harvesting. We have been making a lot of progress in preparing the fields for the winter and next season, but there are a few more areas we are hoping to clear out and seed into cover crop this week. Cover crops aren’t the only thing we plant this time of year, though - we are excited that garlic and tulips for next season are also on the agenda!

In the CSA this week:

• Sweet Potatoes

• Tetsukabuto Squash - This winter squash has a smooth and creamy texture. It is not overly sweet and has a hint of nutty flavor. These usually store well long-term, but we are finding that many of our storage crops are not holding up as well as usual due to the unusually wet conditions in which they grew, so I wouldn’t recommend saving it until the holidays!

• Salad turnips - Tastes like a milder and sweeter radish with a little less crunch.

• Watermelon Radish - When you cut open these radishes you will find a gorgeous hot pink color!

• Cabbage - Green storage cabbage, as well as some savoy.

• Brussels Sprouts - We distribute these on the stalk - just snap the sprouts off at home to store in your refrigerator.

• Broccoli

• Carrots - We ran through all of our purple and red carrots, but we’ll have lots of orange carrots and we’ll even still have some yellow ones this week.

• Yellow Onions

• Garlic

• Green peppers

• Salanova

• Lettuce or Kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

The PYO fields are really winding down. Please note that although the CSA is open until 6:30 on Wednesdays, the PYO fields are closed when it gets dark.

• Hot peppers

• Tomatillos, shishito or husk cherries - there aren’t much left out in the field, but we’ll try to squeeze one final week out of them!

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, mint and parsley.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have lemongrass, beets, leeks, pie pumpkins, butternut and scallions, as well as limited quantities of eggplant, tomatoes and colored peppers. We will also have organic cranberries from Fresh Meadow Farm in Carver, MA, honey from Double B (from hives on the property), mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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 and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

PYO Flower CSA

The flowers are still hanging on, but because of dwindling supply, the flower field is open only to Flower CSA members. Available varieties include zinnias, celosia, gomphrena, verbena, strawflower, scabiosa, rudbeckia, ammi, 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.

Mushroom CSA:

It is the fifth week of the 8-week Fall Mushroom CSA. You may come to pick up your mushrooms anytime the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Your mushrooms will be kept in the cooler and retrieved by the shopkeeper when you arrive at the store.

Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries and Pecans

from Zest & Simmer

Ingredients

• 4 cups Brussels sprouts (approximately 1 lb)

• 2 medium sweet potatoes , peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

• 2 shallots , cut into wedges

• 4 tbsp olive oil

• 3 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1/4 tsp black pepper

• 1/3 cup pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425°f.

2. Trim ends of Brussels sprouts, remove any yellow leaves and cut in halves.

3. In a 8x13" casserole baking dish ad the Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, cranberries and shallots.

4. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, maple syrup, balsamic, cinnamon, rosemary, salt and pepper. Pour over the veggies and toss to coat.

5. Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Add in the pecans, toss, and roast for another 10 minutes. Sweet potatoes should be fork-tender. If not, roast another 5-10 minutes, keeping a close eye to ensure pecans do not burn. Enjoy!

Buddha Bowl with Watermelon Radish

from Love & Lemons

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato, cubed

• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

• 1 watermelon radish

• 2 medium carrots

• 1 cup shredded cabbage

• Squeeze of lemon

• 8 kale leaves, stemmed and chopped

• 2 cups cooked brown rice or quinoa

• 1 cup cooked chickpeas or cooked lentils

• ¾ cup sauerkraut or other fermented veggie

• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds or hemp seeds

• Microgreens, optional

• Turmeric Tahini Sauce, for serving (see directions below)

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and spread onto the baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

3. Thinly slice the radish into rounds (this is best done on a mandoline), and use a vegetable peeler to peel the carrots into ribbons.

4. Toss the radish slices, carrots, and shredded cabbage with a squeeze of lemon. Set aside.

5. Place the kale leaves into a large bowl and toss with a squeeze of lemon and a few pinches of salt. Use your hands to massage the leaves until they become soft and wilted and reduce in the bowl by about half.

6. Assemble individual bowls with the brown rice, chickpeas, kale, carrots, radishes, cabbage, sweet potatoes, sauerkraut, sesame seeds, and microgreens, if using. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the Turmeric Tahini Sauce.

Turmeric Tahini Sauce: Stir together ½ cup tahini, ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, 6 tablespoons water (plus more as needed), 1 small garlic clove, grated or pressed, ½ teaspoon sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, 1 teaspoon olive oil, and 1 teaspoon maple syrup.

CSA Week 19 and Farm Stand Updates

Cover crops have always been an important piece of our plan for improving soil health, as they add organic matter, promote a healthy ecosystem (both above and below ground) and prevent erosion. The work of seeding cover crops begins much earlier in the season, but the pace picks up in September, and by mid-October we are furiously working to ensure that there is as little bare ground as possible over the winter. Typically we’ve found that cover crops sown after about October 20th don’t provide much coverage over the winter, which makes it difficult to get every acre covered (We are always still harvesting some crops from the field and we aren’t always able to get all the landscape fabric, plastic mulch and drip irrigation lines out of the field in time for that deadline). While it doesn’t work with every late fall crop, for several years we have been successfully sowing clover underneath our cabbages and kale in August. Since we reduced the total acreage in cash crops this year, we were able to see all of the white clover we seeded in 2022 return and flourish all season long, a nice reminder of the investments we make in soil health every year!

Next week is the final week of the Main Season CSA, with the last pick-up on October 21st. The Extended Season goes until November 18th. If you are a Flex member and are unsure of how many weeks you have skipped, be sure to ask the Shopkeepers when you check in so you can plan which weeks (if any) you still need to miss. Current CSA members should have received an email on Saturday with details on how to renew their membership for the 2024 season. If you didn’t get an email, please reach out and we will forward along that information! The farm store will be open until October 28th, which is also the date that 2023 Barrett’s Bucks expire.

In the CSA this week:

• Butternut squash - This week we’ll start distributing some of the smaller squash, as well as ones that have some superficial blemishes on them. These are all completely fine to eat, but they won’t store as long, which is why we want to start moving through them first. We will also have some larger blemish-free squash in coming weeks.

• Daikon radish - We’ll have a beautiful assortment of white, purple and red!

• Broccoli - We’ve been struggling with disease in the broccoli field this fall, so have picked the heads smaller than usual in order to avoid losing them altogether.

• Beets

• Carrots - We’ll be back to mostly orange carrots this week, but we should also have some rainbow carrots in the mix.

• Yellow Potatoes from Atlas Farm (organic)

• Yellow Onions

• Garlic

• Leeks

• Fennel

• Green peppers

• Eggplant

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

The PYO fields are really winding down. Please note that although the CSA is open until 6:30 on Wednesdays, the PYO fields are closed when it gets dark.

• As long as we don’t have a harder frost this week, we will have some hot peppers and basil available.

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, mint and parsley.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have the first lemongrass of the year as well as kale, tomatoes, colored peppers, salanova and scallions in the store. We will also have organic cranberries from Fresh Meadow Farm in Carver, MA, honey from Double B (from hives on the property), mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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 and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

PYO Flower CSA

Because of dwindling supply, the flower field is now open only to Flower CSA members. It’s possible we’ll have a hard enough frost that the field will be closed for the season, but if not, available varieties include zinnias, celosia, gomphrena, verbena, strawflower, rudbeckia, ammi, 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.

Mushroom CSA:

It is the fourth week of the 8-week Fall Mushroom CSA. You may come to pick up your mushrooms anytime the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Your mushrooms will be kept in the cooler and retrieved by the shopkeeper when you arrive at the store.

Week 18 and Farm Stand Updates

Though we have now transitioned into October, we still have a several weeks-worth of yummy veggies left in the season! The farm store is open for 4 more weeks, with the last day for the 2023 season on October 28th. That is also the day 2023 Barrett’s Bucks expire (they do not carry over into next season). If you are a Bucks member and did not receive an email last week with your balance information, please either reach out to us (email is best) or check in with a Shopkeeper in the store. We are also now in week 18 of the 20 week Main Season CSA (Flex and Extended Seasons contiue an additional 4 weeks). Current CSA members should get an email later this week about sign-ups for the 2024 season!

It’s important to note that at this time of year a killing frost can happen anytime and can affect availability of certain crops. We’ve already had a few light frosts, but crop damage was minimal - mostly we’re just experiencing the slow growth and gradual dying back of plants that is typical for this time of year. This week’s forecast is pretty warm, and the overnight temperatures appear to be well above the danger zone for freezes (it’s unlikely this week, but we’ve definitely woken up in the morning to find that the forecast changed and a frost warning went out in the middle of the night!). While it is sad when the summer crops are finished for the season, I must admit that sometimes the first hard freeze of the season is a relief for us farmers. I think many of us have an affection for later season crops - we finally start to have time to cook them ourselves, and turning on the stove or oven is much more appealing when you haven’t been working outside in 90 degree heat all day!

In the CSA this week:

• Rainbow Carrots - People were excited about the limited amount we grew last year, so we increased the amount we seeded this year.

• Yellow Potatoes from Atlas Farm - We buy in these organic potatoes from Deerfield, MA every year for the Extended Season CSA, but we’ll also have them this week in the Main Season CSA!

• Savoy Cabbage - We’ll also have a few Tendersweet heads thrown in the mix.

• Yellow Onions - These are storage onions and should be kept in a cool, dark and dry place (so not in a refrigerator).

• Garlic

• Leeks

• Fennel

• Green peppers

• Eggplant

• Escarole - This green looks like it could be lettuce, but it has a more bitter flavor and should be cooked.

• Mustard greens

• Salanova

• Cherriette Radishes

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

The PYO fields are really winding down. Please note that although the CSA is open until 6:30 on Wednesdays, the PYO fields are closed when it gets dark.

• Shishito peppers, husk cherries or tomatillos

• Hot peppers

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, and basil.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have kale, tomatoes, colored peppers and flowers in the store. This week we are picking up organic cranberries from Fresh Meadow Farm in Carver, MA! We will also have honey from Double B (from hives on the property), mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s. Sweet corn is finished for the season and we will not be offering jack-o-lanterns this year. We normally buy in jack-o-lanterns (we do not grow them ourselves because of lack of space), but with the rainy season and flooding this year, many Concord farms lost their crops.

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 and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

PYO Flower CSA

Because of dwindling supply, the flower field is now open only to Flower CSA members. Available varieties include zinnias, celosia, gomphrena, strawflower, ammi, 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.

Mushroom CSA:

It is the third week of the 8-week Fall Mushroom CSA! You may come to pick up your mushrooms anytime the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Your mushrooms will be kept in the cooler and retrieved by the shopkeeper when you arrive at the store.

Roasted Rainbow Carrots

from Love and Lemons

Ingredients:

• 1 pound rainbow carrots with tops

• Extra-virgin olive oil

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• ½ recipe Tahini Sauce (see recipe below)

• Pomegranate arils, for garnish

Carrot Top Gremolata:

• ¼ cup chopped carrot tops

• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

• 1 small garlic clove, grated

• 1 teaspoon orange zest

• ½ teaspoon toasted cumin seeds, roughly ground in a mortar and pestle

• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Wash the carrots and their tops well and pat them dry. Slice the tops off the carrots and set them aside for the gremolata.

3. Place the whole carrots on the baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat and spread evenly on the baking sheet. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, or until tender and browned around the edges.

4. Meanwhile, make the gremolata: Chop the carrot tops and measure ¼ cup. Save the remaining carrot tops for another use, such as homemade vegetable broth.

5. Place the ¼ cup chopped carrot tops in a medium bowl and add the parsley, garlic, orange zest, cumin seeds, and salt. Stir to combine.

6. Toss the rainbow carrots with the gremolata while they’re still warm from the oven. Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle with the tahini sauce, and garnish with pomegranate arils. Season to taste and serve.

Basic Tahini Sauce (for carrot recipe above)

• ½ cup tahini

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

• 6 tablespoons water, plus more as needed

• 1 small garlic clove, grated or pressed

• ½ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

• In a small bowl, stir together the tahini, lemon juice, water, garlic, and sea salt. Season to taste. If you find the tahini sauce too bitter, add ¼ to ½ teaspoon maple syrup or honey to balance the flavor. If it’s too sharp, add ½ to 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil to mellow the flavor. If it's too thick, add water, as needed, to reach your desired consistency.

Week 17 and Farm Stand Updates

With some nice weather leading up to this past rainy weekend, we were able to accomplish a lot of items on our to-do list. We finished thinning and weeding the last of our fall beets and carrots, which always feels like a milestone. We also cultivated the remaining lettuce and salanova in the field, and then put row cover on top to try to speed up growth. One of our top priorities last week was to finish turning over our cucumber high tunnel to salanova. It was hard to let go of those cucumbers, but when we’re harvesting salanova in there in November it will feel worth it. Forking and raking and planting by hand even got a little sweaty some of those sunny days!

This week we still have some weeding to wrap up (especially next year’s strawberries), but we should also have some time to work on pulling up landscape fabrics and mulches and irrigation so that we can seed more cover crops. We have a good amount of clover and ryegrass mix, as well as pea and oat mix growing already, but we are looking forward to seeding Austrian winter peas, triticale and winter rye in the coming weeks. We are also working on CSA renewals for the 2024 season, so CSA members should keep an eye out for those details next week!

In the CSA this week:

• Pie Pumpkins

• Yellow Onions - These are storage onions and should be kept in a cool, dark and dry place (so not in a refrigerator).

• Leeks

• Fennel

• Green peppers

• Eggplant or Tomato or Colored Peppers - Summer is starting to feel like a distant memory!

• Garlic

• Carrots

• Kale or Broccoli - We had hoped to have a larger volume of broccoli this week, but temperature swings and wet weather did in our first broccoli succession. The second succession looks better, and hopefully we’ll have a nice amount next week.

• Escarole - This green looks like it could be lettuce, but it has a more bitter flavor and should be cooked.

• Arugula

• Lettuce

• Cherriette Radishes

• Red King Radishes - A type of red daikon.

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Shishito peppers, husk cherries or tomatillos

• Hot peppers

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, and basil

• Sunflowers - We will have them on Wednesday, but there’s a chance they won’t make it until Saturday.

• We are closing the cherry tomatoes this week as the plants are in rough shape from all the rain and it just takes longer for the remaining tomatoes to ripen. If we don’t get a frost, there’s a chance we will be able to reopen them next week.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have potatoes, delicata and salanova in the store. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, honey from Double B (from hives on the property), mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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 and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

PYO Flower CSA

The flower field is open to both Flower CSA members and the public for picking by the jar. The rain has not been kind to the flower field, but we do have some pretty vibrant looking celosia this week! Other varieties available include zinnias, gomphrena, strawflower, ammi, 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.

Mushroom CSA:

It is the second week of the 8-week Fall Mushroom CSA! You may come to pick up your mushrooms anytime the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Your mushrooms will be kept in the cooler and retrieved by the shopkeeper when you arrive at the store.

Pumpkin Soup

By Jenn Segal, from Once Upon a Chef

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 2.5 pounds leeks, white and light green parts only, washed well and thinly sliced (about 6 cups)

• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

• 15 oz pumpkin purée (see last week’s blog for directions on how to make pumpkin purée)

• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped

• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

• 5 tablespoons maple syrup

• 1½ teaspoons salt

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

• ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste

• 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, plus more for garnish

• 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh sage

• ¼ cup heavy cream, plus more for garnish

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a medium soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the pumpkin, apple, broth, maple syrup, salt, cumin, cayenne pepper, thyme and sage. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes more.

3. Add the heavy cream. Use a stick blender to purée the soup until completely smooth. (Alternatively, cool the soup slightly and use a blender to purée in batches. Be sure to remove the center knob on the blender and cover with a dishtowel to avoid splatters.) Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a swirl of cream (see note below) and fresh thyme leaves, if desired.

4. Note: To add a swirl of cream that floats on top of the soup, whip a few tablespoons of cream with a whisk until ever so slightly thickened. Then use a teaspoon to drizzle and swirl the cream over the soup.

5. Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The soup can be frozen, without the cream, for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the refrigerator for 12 hours and then reheat it on the stovetop over medium heat until hot. Once heated through, add the cream and bring to a simmer before serving.

Escarole and Bean Soup

by Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 garlic cloves, chopped

• 1 pound escarole, chopped

• Salt

• 4 cups low-salt chicken broth

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

• 1 (1-ounce) piece Parmesan

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 6 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

• Serving suggestion: crusty bread

Instructions

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add the escarole and saute until wilted, about 2 minutes. Add a pinch of salt. Add the chicken broth, beans, and Parmesan cheese. Cover and simmer until the beans are heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

2. Ladle the soup into 6 bowls. Drizzle 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil over each. Serve with crusty bread.

Muddy carrots pre- and post- washing!

CSA Week 16 and Farm Stand Updates

A season like this one really highlights how critical a component high tunnels are to our operation, particularly in a changing climate. With the cooler temperatures and higher precipitation this year we have seen slow growth, rot and stunted plants out in the fields. The high tunnels provide extra warmth for more quickly maturing plants and fruits, while offering some protection from excessive rain. Rain storms can bring plant diseases from elsewhere and the splatter from rain drops spreads diseases within plantings.

Our soggy field tomato plants are a slimy and rotten mess, but we are still harvesting enough from the high tunnel for our farm store. Likewise, the last of our field cucumber plants stopped producing and died several weeks ago, but our high tunnel cucumbers were still producing (albeit more slowly) last week and would likely still be producing longer if we didn’t need to rip the plants out of the ground to make way for late-season Salanova. The pepper plants sheltered in our high tunnel are far lusher than in the field and have much larger fruit.

Most of our crops are still exclusively grown out in the field, but it would be very hard to reliably grow tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers every year without the high tunnels. Given how valuable the high tunnels are to us, we were certainly relieved that we escaped damage during the surprisingly violent storm on the 8th and the much milder tropical storm on Saturday!

In the CSA this week:

• Pie Pumpkins - These are for eating rather than decorating. See the recipes below for directions on how to make pumpkin puree from you pie pumpkins and for an idea of what to do with your puree (other than pumpkin pie).

• Winter squash - We’ll have a bin with a mix of delicata, acorn and “Starry Night” to choose from.

• Leeks

• Tendersweet cabbage - This cabbage is a fan favorite! Sweeter and not quite as crunchy as late season cabbage varieties.

• Green peppers

• Eggplant or Colored Peppers - These crops have finally begun to ramp up in production a little. Pepper maggot pressure has noticeably decreased (previously we were discarding about 75% of colored peppers due damage), which has helped us out a lot! The Carmen peppers (a red Corno di Torro type) are doing particularly well.

• Garlic

• Cucumbers or Carrots - We’ve moved onto the second bed of fall carrots now, but they are still a bit small so we will either have carrots or the last of the cucumbers in the CSA this week.

• Kale

• Baby bok choi - These are tender enough to eat raw, but they can also be steamed and then stir fried!

• Salanova

• Lettuce

• Radishes

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes - They wind down naturally this time of year, but the plants are looking especially sad from excessive rains. We still have them this week, but they are on their way out!

• Sunflowers

• Shishito peppers, husk cherries or tomatillos

• Hot peppers

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have potatoes, broccoli, green beans, scallions and tomatoes in the store. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, honey from Double B (from hives on the property), mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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 and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

PYO Flower CSA

The flower field is open to both Flower CSA members and the public for picking by the jar. TVarieties currently available for picking include zinnias, bachelor button, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points. 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.

Mushroom CSA:

It is the first week of the 8-week Fall Mushroom CSA! You may come to pick up your mushrooms anytime the farm store is open (Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm). Your mushrooms will be kept in the cooler and retrieved by the shopkeeper when you arrive at the store. This week is a Farmer’s Mix of 3-4 varieties, likely with Blue Oyster, Black Pearl Oyster, Yellow Oyster, Chestnut, and/or Lions Mane

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

from The Pioneer Woman

1. Select a couple of small sized pumpkins. Cut the pumpkin in half. Using a spoon or a scoop, scrape out the seeds and pulp from the center. You don't have to be too thorough with this.

2. Reserve all of the seeds in a separate bowl. Repeat until all the pumpkin pieces are largely free of seeds and pulp.

3. Place the pumpkin pieces on a baking sheet (face up or face down; I've done both) and roast in a 350°F oven until the pumpkin is fork-tender, 45 minutes. They should be nice and light golden brown when done.

4. Peel off the skin from the pumpkin pieces until you have a big pile of the stuff. If you have a food processor, throw in a few chunks at a time. A blender will work, too, if you add a little water. Or you can simply mash it up with a potato masher, or move it through a potato ricer, or process it through a food mill.

5. Pulse the pumpkin until smooth. If it looks too dry, add in a few tablespoons of water during the pulsing to give it the needed moisture. (Note, if the puree is overly watery, you should strain it over cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer to get rid of some of the liquid.)

6. Dump the pureed goodness into a bowl, and continue pureeing until all the pumpkin is done.

7. You can either use this immediately in whatever pumpkin recipe you'd like or store it in the freezer for later use.

8. To store in the freezer, spoon about 1 cupful of pumpkin into each plastic storage bag. Seal the bag with just a tiny bit of an opening remaining, then use your hands to flatten out the pumpkin inside the bag and push out the air. Store them in the freezer until you need them.

Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes

by Yossy Arefi from NY Times Cooking

Ingredients

Yield: 12 to 14 (3½-inch) pancakes

• 1½cups or 192 grams all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1½teaspoons baking powder

• ¾teaspoon baking soda

• ¾teaspoon kosher salt

• 1½teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 1½cups buttermilk

• ¾cup pumpkin purée

• 2 eggs

• 3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for greasing the skillet

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together until well combined.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk, pumpkin purée, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract until well combined.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently fold with a rubber spatula until just combined. (A few small lumps are O.K.)

4. Heat a lightly greased griddle or nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Drop the pancakes into the pan by the ¼ cup, making sure to leave plenty of room in between for the batter to expand.

5. Cook for a minute or two, until the batter bubbles at the edges and browns on the bottom, then carefully flip. Cook another minute or two, until the batter is completely cooked through and the pancakes are puffy and deep golden brown. Repeat until all of the batter is used. Serve the pancakes as you make them or keep the pancakes warm as you cook them by setting them on a baking sheet in a 250-degree oven.