CSA Week 10 and Farm Stand Updates

It’s been almost 2 weeks since our last rain, so as you might imagine, irrigation continues to be on our agenda this week! Although the last rain storm on July 31st was intense, that moisture doesn’t stick around for long, especially not when it’s hot and the soil is sandy. Many of our crops do well with 1” of rain per week, but that doesn’t mean that 1” of rain all at once is what we need. Severe downpours can in fact sometimes be more damaging than drought. Heavy and intense rain can wash away soil, cause flooding in the fields, flatten and shred greens, and crack tomatoes. Consistent and moderate rainfall is best - ideally overnight a few days a week so that we can have dry conditions for working and plenty of sunshine for our veggies, if that’s not too much to ask!

In the CSA this week:

• Colored peppers - We grow both sweet bell and sweet Italian peppers in our high tunnel (out in the field it takes longer for peppers to turn from green to colored, and they also seem to be more susceptible to pests as well).

• Potatoes - Peter Wilcox variety (purple skin with yellow flesh). This variety is high in vitamin C and antioxidants!

• Scallions

• Beets - These are grown by our friends Jenny and Bruce at Picadilly Farm in Winchester, NH and are certified organic.

• Watermelon - We are harvesting Juicebox, Mini Love, and Blacktail Mountain varieties. All are red with seeds. These will be available to both Small and Regular memberships this week.

• Tomatoes

• Green Peppers

• Zucchini or summer squash

• Cucumbers

• Garlic - Right now we are distributing smaller heads as uncured garlic and curing the larger heads for later. Some of the cured garlic will be in the CSA and farm store this fall and some of it will be used for planting next year’s crop.

• Lettuce

• Frisée and Endive- These are types of chicory and have similar flavor and texture.

• Mustard Greens

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Tomatillos, Dragon tongue beans or Shishito peppers- Tomatillos are an essential ingredient of salsa verde. They should be picked when the fruit fills our the green husk around it. Look low on the plants this week to find them. As the dragon tongue beans get bigger start to turn yellow they can be shelled for cooking. Shishito peppers are generally mild and sweet but 1 in 10 is a.hot pepper.

• Herbs: Members will have a choice of parsley, dill, dill flowers, sage, thyme, mint, cilantro and basil.

• Hot peppers - choose from jalapeno, aji rico, cayenne, Hungarian hot wax and fresno peppers

• Sunflowers

A note about cherry tomatoes: They are closed this week, but if you came on Saturday and were unable to get cherry tomatoes last week, we took down your name and you will be able to pick some this week if you’d like.

In the farm store:

Farm store hours are Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:

• Fresh onions

• Carrots

• Flowers - sunflowers, wrapped mixed bouquets and snapdragons.

• Peaches from Westward Orchard (not organic) - Available starting Wednesday

• Sweet corn from Verrill Farm (not organic).

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified organic

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property! Not certified organic

• Applesauce from Long Run Produce in Boxborough, MA. Certified Organic.

• Baer’s Best Beans: 1 pound bags. Grown in South Berwick, Maine. Certified Organic varieties available include: Cannellini, Black Turtle, Italian Cranberry and Light Red Kidney. Not organic: bumblebee, marfax, and flageolet.

PYO Flower Field

The flower field is open to both PYO Flower CSA members and the general public for picking by the jar. Please check in at the farm stand before picking. Flowers available for picking this week include: zinnias, snapdragons, gomphrena, ageratum, celosia, ammi, rudbeckia, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, decorative grasses, decorative basil and strawflower.

Classic Shopska Salata

adapted from Food52.com

Ingredients

• 1 cucumber

• 1/2 large red onion (or try using a few scallions for a slightly milder punch!)

• 1/2 large green bell pepper

• 2 tomatoes

• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar (optional)

• 4 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 1/2 cup finely crumbled Bulgarian feta cheese (sirene), or just Greek feta.

Directions

1. Half peel the cucumber by paring every 1/4 inch or so to create a striped pattern and then slice it into 1/2 inch rounds. Toss them into a medium mixing bowl.

2. Chop the onion/scallions, bell pepper and tomatoes and add them to the bowl.

3. Whisk the oil and vinegar together and add it to the mix. Toss the vegetables until they are coated with the dressing. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

4. Crumble feta on top of the salad and serve.

CSA Week 9 and Farm Stand Updates

Our agenda this week includes lots of weeding, especially of our fall carrots and beets. We’ve already plowed through more than two beds of fall carrots, but we still have 5 more to go. This season we vowed to use our flame weeder more because when we get the timing just right the payoff is big! We have a backpack flame weeder (which I like to call a flamethrower so my kids think I’m cool!), which we use to burn weeds one row at a time walking very slowly down the bed. The goal is to use the flame weeder after a lot of weeds have germinated, but just before carrots emerge. It’s a short window of time that seems to frequently fall on our day off, but the two beds that we managed to hit during the sweet spot this summer are significantly less weedy than the others. We’ll still have to hand weed and thin those beds eventually, but the flame weeder bought us a little extra time, which is precious to us this time of year!

In the CSA this week:

• Carrots - They’re back this week, but then will likely be on hiatus again until the summer-sown varieties size up.

• Watermelon - We are harvesting Juicebox and Mini Love, as well as the first of the Blacktail Mountain variety. All are red with seeds. This week they may only be in the Regular size CSA, but if we have enough we will try to include them in the Small CSA again.

• Tomatoes - These will again be a mixture of slicing tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes. They’re mostly from our high tunnel, but we are starting to harvest some varieties from the fields as well.

• Green Peppers

• Zucchini

• Pickling cucumbers

• Slicing or thin-skinned cucumbers - our field slicing cucumbers are starting to produce

• Garlic - Right now we are distributing smaller heads as uncured garlic and curing the larger heads for later. Some of the cured garlic will be in the CSA and farm store this fall and some of it will be used for planting next year’s crop.

• Fresh onions - These should be kept in the fridge. This is the last week for fresh onions, but we have our storage onions all harvested and curing in our greenhouse, and we will be distributing them later in the season!

• Lettuce

• Kale - This may be the last week that we have kale until our fall planting matures. These older plants aren’t producing very tender leaves anymore, but they still work well for kale chips!

• Frisée and Endive- These are types of chicory and have similar flavor and texture.

• Mustard Greens

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes - Varieties that are ripening now include Cherry Bomb and Jasper (red), Sungold and Citrine (orange), Moonbeam (dark purple) and Moonbeam (pale yellow). This week cherry tomatoes are only available for Regular size CSA memberships, but they will be an option for Small memberships soon!

• Tomatillos or Dragon tongue beans - Tomatillos are an essential ingredient of salsa verde. They should be picked when the fruit fills our the green husk around it. Look low on the plants this week to find them.Sunflowers

• Herbs: Members will have a choice of parsley, dill, dill flowers, sage, thyme, mint, cilantro and basil.

• Hot peppers - choose from jalapeno, aji rico, red ember, Hungarian hot wax and fresno peppers

Some herb harvesting information:

• Parsley: Pick only outer stems and leave the center stalks to continue to grow.

• Basil: please pinch the tops of the plants.

• Dill, Sage, Mint and Thyme: harvest stems at branching points

• Please do not clear cut herb plants or harvest from beds that are not yet open.

In the farm store:

Farm store hours are Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:

• Summer squash

• Colored peppers - These peppers are just starting to ripen in the high tunnel, so we will only start with limited quantities this week.

• Flowers - mini bouquets (option to purchase with or without the pint jar), sunflowers, wrapped mixed bouquets and snapdragons.

• Sweet corn from Verrill Farm (not organic).

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified organic

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property! Not certified organic

• Applesauce from Long Run Produce in Boxborough, MA. Certified Organic.

• Baer’s Best Beans: 1 pound bags. Grown in South Berwick, Maine. Certified Organic varieties available include: Cannellini, Black Turtle, Italian Cranberry and Light Red Kidney. Not organic: bumblebee, marfax, and flageolet.

PYO Flower Field

The flower field is open to both PYO Flower CSA members and the general public for picking by the jar. Please check in at the farm stand before picking. Flowers available for picking this week include: zinnias, snapdragons, gomphrena, ageratum, celosia, ammi, rudbeckia, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, decorative grasses, decorative basil and strawflower.

Quick Pickled Cucumber Tomato Salad

adapted from fakefoodfree.com

Ingredients: 

2 cups water
1 cup white distilled vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1-2 onions, thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 to 3 pickling cucumbers, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon peppercorns

Directions:

Add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt to a large saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer for 30 seconds, until the sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool. 

Using 2 quart jars or 1 large two-quart jar, layer the onions in the bottom of the jar(s). Add the cucumber slices and then the tomatoes. Sprinkle in the dill and then the peppercorns. 

Pour the liquid into the jar. Seal the jar and shake to mix the vegetables with the liquid. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, shaking once or twice as it rests, before serving. The salad is best eaten within 2 to 3 days of preparation. 

Mushroom White Bean Toasts with Frisée

from elliekrieger.com

Ingredients

4 large or 8 medium ½-inch thick slices crusty whole grain bread (8 ounces total)
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 teaspoons sherry vinegar, divided
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3 cups lightly packed, torn frisée (1 large head)
1 small clove garlic, minced
One 15-ounce can low-sodium white beans, such as cannellini, drained and rinsed
12 ounces mixed sliced mushrooms (such as shitake, cremini, oyster, button)
¼ cup chopped shallot (or try using a Red Long onion)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

Directions

Toast the bread in a toaster or toaster oven. In a medium bowl whisk 2 tablespoons of the olive oil with 2 teaspoons of the sherry vinegar, mustard, ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.  Add the frisée and toss to coat.

Place the minced garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of the salt; using the broad side of a knife blade, mash together the garlic and salt to form a paste. Transfer the paste into a medium bowl with the beans and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and mash with a fork until most of it is smooth but there are still some beans intact.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over a medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their water and begin to brown, 4-5 minutes. Add the thyme and remaining ¼ teaspoon of salt and cook for 1 minute more. Then stir in the remaining 2 teaspoons of vinegar.

To serve, spread each toast generously with the mashed beans; top each with the mushrooms and then a mound of the frisée salad.

The bean mixture, and the sautéed mushrooms may be made ahead and kept separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

CSA Week 8 and Farm Stand Updates

Watermelon harvest is the big event of the week! We check each melon for a brown tendril attached which indicates ripeness, then we line them all up in a row. Usually we pick them all up into a big squash bin but the tractor with the forks needs a new battery so we are hauling them out of the field and onto the truck this week! We will do less dramatic harvests this week as well, like cutting arugula and mustard greens. Our non-harvest focus this week is caring for our field tomatoes (slicing, heirloom and cherry tomatoes) which are behind this year. We will finish staking and trellising them, irrigate all beds, and hopefully we will seeing the first field tomatoes ripening for next week!

In the CSA this week:

• Potatoes- Dark Red Norland or Yukon Gold

• Watermelon - The first of the season! This week we are harvesting juicebox and mini love varieties, both are red with seeds. They are super sweet with thin rinds so they have lots of flesh per melon. While some weeks watermelon will be available for Regular Size CSAs only, however this week we will try to harvest enough for Small Size CSA members as well. There won’t be watermelon in the store this week but we will have it for sale in the future.

• Garlic - Right now we are distributing uncured garlic. We are distributing our smaller heads as fresh garlic and curing larger heads. Some of the cured garlic will be in the CSA and farm store this fall and some of it will be used for planting!

• Frisée - A type of chicory related to endive and raddichio.

• Pepper - Mostly green bell peppers with a few purple

• Tomatoes - These will again be a mixture of slicing tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes, all from our high tunnel.

• Fresh onions - These should be kept in the fridge.

• Zucchini

• Summer squash

• Pickling cucumbers - still limited quantities this week but more field cucumbers are coming on soon.

• Green Cabbage - This week or next will be the last cabbage harvest for the summer, we will have cabbage again in the fall (we are just planting our fall cabbage now!).

• Lettuce - This time of year due to the heat we grow exclusively summer crisp varieties of lettuce. Over the years we have been trialing many different varieties and planting times to have lettuce in the heat of mid summer.

• Arugula

• Mustard Greens

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers - a new bed is now blooming!

• Green beans or Dragon tongue beans - Dragon Tongue beans are plentiful right now and easy to find. The green bean beds are weedy so require more searching but the beans are very nice!

• Herbs: Members will have a choice of parsley, dill, dill flowers, sage, thyme, mint and basil.

• Hot peppers - choose from jalapeno, aji rico, red ember, hungarian hot wax and fresno peppers

Cherry tomatoes are coming soon - our plants are a bit behind this year so they are not yet producing. Cilantro should also be available next week.

Some herb harvesting information:

• Parsley: Pick only outer stems and leave the center stalks to continue to grow.

• Basil and Mint: please pinch the tops of the plants. We need the mint to last all season (and hopefully for many seasons beyond!) so please use care and do not cut long stems.

• Dill, Sage, and Thyme: harvest stems at branching points

• Please do not clear cut herb plants or harvest from beds that are not yet open.

In the farm store:

Farm store hours are Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:

• Flowers - mini bouquets (option to purchase with or without the pint jar), sunflowers, wrapped mixed bouquets and snapdragons.

• Sweet corn from Verrill Farm (not organic).

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified organic

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property! Not certified organic

• Applesauce from Long Run Produce in Boxborough, MA. Certified Organic.

• Baer’s Best Beans: 1 pound bags. Grown in South Berwick, Maine. Certified Organic varieties available include: Cannellini, Black Turtle, Italian Cranberry and Light Red Kidney. Not organic: bumblebee, marfax, and flageolet.

PYO Flower Field

The flower field is open to both PYO Flower CSA members and the general public for picking by the jar. Please check in at the farm stand before picking. Flowers available for picking this week include: zinnias, snapdragons, gomphrena, ageratum, celosia, ammi, rudbeckia, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, decorative grasses, decorative basil and strawflower.

Mustard Green and Sausage Orecchiette Recipe

By Rachel Hartly

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces orecchiette pasta

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

• 12 ounces sweet Italian sausage

• ½ onion, peeled and thinly sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, minced (garlic lovers might want to use more when using fresh garlic)

• ½ cup chicken or vegetable broth

• 8 ounces mustard greens

• Parmesan, pecorino, or mizithra (a semi-hard Greek cheese), grated, for serving

Instructions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook orecchiette according to package instructions. Drain, reserving ¾ cup starchy cooking water, and set pasta aside until ready to use.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add sausage, crumbling with the back of a spatula, and cook until browned. Carefully remove cooked sausage from skillet and transfer to a paper towel lined plate.

3. Heat remaining olive oil in the same skillet on medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic cloves and cook for a minute. Add broth to the pan, scraping up any browned bits at the bottom to deglaze. Cook until liquid is mostly absorbed.

4. Add mustard greens to the skillet along with ¼ cup of water. Stir, cover and cook 6 minutes until greens are tender and wilted. Uncover, add sausage, and continue to cook until most of the water is absorbed.

5. Stir in cooked pasta and enough starchy cooking liquid to make a sauce. Serve garnished with grated cheese.

CSA Week 7, PYO Flowers and Farm Stand Updates

Last week it felt like all that we could accomplish was saving our crops from the constant assaults by the local wildlife. The deer have been going after their usual favorite snacks of lettuce, beans, carrot tops, beet tops, and sweet potato vines, but also for the first time our tomato plants! Our usual deer fence system no longer seems to work - at lunch time on Monday a buck and doe were hanging out inside the main fence and seemed completely unfazed by a loud tractor driven by an angry farmer! Fencing in smaller areas does seem to be more of a visual deterrent, but it is time consuming and challenging to work around with tractors. For the first time ever, we set up a small fence just around our field tomatoes and peppers last week.

We have also employed netting on top of lettuce and sweet potatoes for the past several seasons. This works fine for sweet potatoes because they are left in for the entire season are mulched for weed control, so the netting can stay on until harvest. Lettuce, however, is a different story. We plant new lettuce successions every week, weed and tractor cultivate most weeks, and harvest at least twice a week. This all means that we need to spend a lot of time setting up and removing netting.

The deer aren’t the only wildlife that are on our bad side, though! The local coyotes have developed a taste for watermelon, and so for the past 10 years or so we have set up a temporary Tenax fence to protect that precious commodity. Rabbits and chipmunks also love to nibble on the tomatoes in our high tunnel, but that seems like (hopefully!) a short-term problem, as the plants are growing quickly and the lower hanging that is within their reach fruit is getting picked out. Don’t get us started on insects like Colorado potato beetle, tomato hornworms, and aphids! It’s certainly a never-ending battle!

In spite of all this, we’ve got a great assortment of veggies this week, as well as PYO Flowers! PYO Flower CSA members got a chance to start picking over the weekend, but the PYO flower field is now open to the general public during regular farm store hours. Picking is $17/bouquet (bouquets are picked into a wide-mouth quart jar). Jars are available in the farmstand for purchase, or you may borrow a jar and return it after you have finished picking. The field looks amazing, but if PYO is not your thing, many days we have Catherine’s beautiful arrangements available in the farm stand.

In the CSA this week:

• Garlic - Right now we are distributing uncured garlic. Because it hasn’t dried out yet from the curing process, the flavor is less concentrated and a little milder. We are also hanging a bunch of garlic in the farm stand to cure for a few weeks, and that garlic will be available in the fall.

• Frisée - A slightly bitter leafy greens that can add a nice crunch to salads. It can also stand up to some wilting or sautéeing if you want to mellow the flavor.

• Pepper - Green or purple bell peppers

• Tomatoes - There will likely be a mixture of slicing tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes from our high tunnel.

• Fresh onions - We grow a white variety (Ailsa Craig) and a red variety (Red Long of Tropea). These fresh onions are sweeter and milder than cured onions, and they should be kept in the fridge.

• Carrots - Orange or purple will be available.

• Zucchini

• Summer squash

• Cucumbers - Both thin-skinned cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. While our field cucumbers are starting to produce we are still feeling the effects of our loss of our high tunnel cucumbers so these will still be limited.

• Cabbage - Caraflex (conical shape), and Green.

• Kale

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers

• Green beans or Dragon tongue beans - Dragon Tongue beans are a flat speckled bean that can be eaten fresh or sautéed. An new planting of green beans will be open this week, they are weedy but the beans are very nice!

• Herbs: Members will have a choice of parsley, dill, dill flowers, sage, chives, thyme, mint and basil (Genovese and Thai).

Some herb harvesting information:

• Parsley: Pick only outer stems and leave the center stalks to continue to grow.

• Basil and Mint: please pinch the very tops of the plants. We need the mint to last all season (and hopefully for many seasons beyond!) so please use care and do not cut long stems.

• Dill, Sage, and Thyme: harvest stems at branching points

• Chives: cut stems high enough that a 3-4 inches of plant remain at the base, and do not cut all of the stems on a plant.

• Please do not clear cut herb plants or harvest from beds that are not yet open.

In the farm store:

Farm store hours are Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:

• Beets

• Salanova (Tuesday)

• Herb bunches

• Flowers

• Sweet corn from Verrill Farm (not organic) should be available by Wednesday afternoon.

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified organic

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property! Not certified organic

• Applesauce from Long Run Produce in Boxborough, MA. Certified Organic.

• Baer’s Best Beans: 1 pound bags. Grown in South Berwick, Maine. Certified Organic varieties available include: Cannellini, Black Turtle, Italian Cranberry and Light Red Kidney. Not organic: bumblebee, marfax, and flageolet.

PYO Flower Field

Starting this week the flower field is open to both PYO Flower CSA members and the general public. Flowers available for picking this week include: zinnias, snapdragons, gomphrena, ageratum, celosia, ammi, rudbeckia, verbena, amaranth, cosmos, decorative grasses, decorative basil and strawflower.

Warm Frisée and Mushroom Salad

by Kylie Perrotti from Tried & True

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons plant-based or dairy butter (plus more if needed)

• 1 pound mixed mushrooms (torn or sliced depending on the variety)

• 3 shallots (peeled and quartered lengthwise). Or use our Red Long onions!

• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

• 1 head of frisée (torn)

• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook the mushrooms:

• Melt the butter in a wide pot or skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the mushrooms in an even layer and cook for 8–12 minutes until well-browned—season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl.

• If the skillet is dry, add another tablespoon of butter. Once melted, add the remaining mushrooms and cook for 8–12 minutes. Season with salt and

• pepper and transfer to the bowl of mushrooms.

Cook the shallot (or Red Long of Tropea Onion):

• Add the shallot to the pot and cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring often. Next, add all mushrooms to the pot and cook for 1–2 minutes.

Prepare the sauce:

• Whisk together the maple syrup, Dijon mustard, and white wine vinegar in a bowl.

Cook the frisée:

• Turn the heat on the mushrooms to high. Pour in the sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add the torn frisée. Cook for 5 minutes until wilted—season to taste with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat.

To serve:

Serve with cooked rice or noodles or alongside your favorite meat or plant-based protein. Enjoy!

Zucchini Parmesan Crisps

from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

Olive oil or cooking spray
2 medium zucchini (about 1 pound total)
1 to 2 egg whites
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup plain, dry breadcrumbs, such as panko
A couple pinches sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Coat two baking sheets lightly with cooking spray or thinly with olive oil. Slice zucchini into slightly-less-than 1/4-inch thick rounds; if they feel especially wet, spread them on a towel while you prepare the other ingredients. In a small bowl, lightly beat first egg white with 1 teaspoon water to loosen it. Combine cheese, crumbs, salt and pepper in a separate bowl. Dip each zucchini coin in egg white, letting excess run off before gently dipping them in parmesan mixture. Arrange in single layer on baking sheets. If additional egg white is needed, prepare it the same way, with 1 teaspoon of water. If additional crumb mixture is needed, make a few spoonfuls at a time, matching the volume of crumbs and cheese.

Bake zucchini rounds until browned and crisp, about 25 to 30 minutes, flipping each over halfway through. Please keep an eye on them; they may need to be moved around on the tray so the ones at the edges don’t bake more quickly than the ones in the center. Take them out only when they’re golden all over and let them cool on the tray on a cooling rack or a plate.

Keep at room temperature until needed. Crisps are best on the first day.

CSA Week 6 and Farm Stand Updates

Things are growing fast right now - it’s the time of year when if you don’t look at a crop for a week, it seems completely transformed when you come back to check on it. When field crew take a week off for vacation in July, they often come back and remark on how it seems like a different farm. Tomato plants will seem to have grown a foot, watermelon vines have completely overtaken pathways and have baseball sized fruit forming, and fall carrot seedlings are pushing up out of the ground and are calling to be weeded. All this means that we are (as usual!) going to be busy this week! On top of trellising and weeding (because the weeds grow just as fast as, and often faster than, our crops) it is time to start harvesting our garlic!

In the CSA this week:

• Purple carrots - These taste the same as regular carrots, but they’re a fun color! The skins are purple, but inside the flesh is orange.

• Potatoes - This variety is called Dark Red Norland, which has red skin and white flesh. We always struggle with Colorado Potato Beetles, and so the plants tend to die before the tubers reach full maturity. However, this means we have lots of lovely baby potatoes that are perfect for roasting whole!

• Tomatoes - Production is still ramping up, so as per usual during our first week of CSA tomatoes, there will be a limit of one tomato per membership. We expect them to be more plentiful starting next week!

• Fresh onions - We grow a white variety (Ailsa Craig) and a red variety (Red Long of Tropea). These fresh onions are sweeter and milder than cured onions, and they should be kept in the fridge.

• Zucchini

• Summer squash

• Thin-skinned cucumbers - These are coming from the field rather than the high tunnel, and while the exterior appearance is imperfect, they taste just the same (the more polished looking high tunnel ones are limping along after the aphid infestation, but production is way down from previous years).

• Cabbage - Savoy, Caraflex (conical shape), and Green

• Lettuce

• Kale

• Salanova lettuce mix

• Arugula

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers!

• Green beans

• Herbs: Members will have a choice of parsley, dill, dill flowers, sage, chives, thyme and basil (Genovese and Thai).

Some herb harvesting information:

• Parsley: Pick only outer stems and leave the center stalks to continue to grow.

• Basil: please pinch off leaves from the tops of the plants.

• Dill, Sage and Thyme: harvest stems at branching points

• Chives: cut stems high enough that a 3-4 inches of plant remain at the base, and do not cut all of the stems on a plant.

• Please do not clear cut herb plants or harvest from beds that are not yet open.

In the farm store:

Farm store hours are Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:

• Celery

• Garlic Scapes

• Beets

• Green and purple peppers

• Herb bunches

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified organic

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property! Not certified organic

• Applesauce from Long Run Produce in Boxborough, MA. Certified Organic.

• Baer’s Best Beans: 1 pound bags. Grown in South Berwick, Maine. Certified Organic varieties available include: Cannellini, Black Turtle, Italian Cranberry and Light Red Kidney. NEW: Additional varieties now available, all grown by Charley Baer but these are not organic: bumblebee, marfax, and flageolet.

Cabbage, Carrot and Purple Kale Latkes

Instead of purple kale (which we don’t grow anymore), try using your purple carrots!

by Martha Rose Shulman, from NY Times Cooking

Ingredients

Yield:About 30 latkes, serving 6

• 5 cups finely shredded cabbage (about 1¼ pounds, or half of a small cabbage)

• 2 cups finely chopped purple kale or curly kale

• 7 to 8 ounces carrots, peeled and grated (about 1½ cups)

• ½ cup chopped cilantro

• 1 serrano chili, seeded and minced

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• Salt to taste

• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and coarsely ground or crushed

• 3 tablespoons oat bran

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 3 tablespoons cornmeal

• 2 tablespoons buckwheat flour

• 3 eggs, beaten

• About ¼ cup canola, grape seed or rice bran oil

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Place a rack over another sheet pan.

2. In a large bowl mix together the cabbage, kale, cilantro, chili, baking powder, salt, cumin, oat bran, flour, cornmeal and buckwheat flour. Taste and adjust salt. Add the eggs and stir together. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then stir again.

3. Begin heating a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Take a ¼ cup measuring cup and fill with 3 tablespoons of the mixture. Reverse onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining latke mix. You should have enough to make about 20 latkes.

4. Add the oil to the pan and when it is hot (hold your hand a few inches above – you should feel the heat), slide a spatula under one portion of the latke mixture and transfer it to the pan. Press down with the spatula to flatten. Repeat with more mounds. In my 10-inch pan I can cook four at a time without crowding; my 12-inch pan will accommodate four or five. Cook on one side until golden brown, about three to four minutes. Slide the spatula underneath and flip the latkes over. Cook on the other side until golden brown, another three minutes. Transfer to the rack set over a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.

5. Serve hot topped with low-fat sour cream, Greek style yogurt or crème fraîche.

Baby Potatoes with Butter & Fresh Herbs

from Recipe Tin Eats

Ingredients

• 2 lb baby potatoes / new potatoes

• 1 tbsp salt , for cooking (Note 1)

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter (no need to melt)

• 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper

Fresh Herbs:

• 2 tbsp fresh dill , finely chopped

• 1 tbsp chives , finely chopped

• 1 tbsp parsley , finely chopped

Instructions

1. Boil potatoes: Place potatoes in a large pot of cold tap water with 1 tbsp salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower heat to medium so they're simmering gently (this stops skin splitting). Cook for 10 – 15 minutes until there's no resistance when pierced with a knife. Alternatively, steam the potatoes.

2. Steam dry: Drain in colander then leave for a minute to let the potatoes steam dry (if wet, butter won't stick).

3. Toss with butter: Transfer to a bowl, add salt, pepper and butter. Toss to melt and coat.

4. Add herbs just before serving. Stir through, transfer to serving bowl and serve warm!