CSA Week 19 and Farm Stand Updates

It is week 19 of 20 for the Main Season CSA! Saturday, October 26th will be the last day of the Farm Store and the Main Season CSA for the season. Flex, Extended, and Late Fall CSA members have an additional 4 weeks of pick-ups: Thursdays and Saturdays from October 31st-November 23rd.

While it is nearing the end of the season, we still have plenty to keep us busy on the farm! The crew continues to harvest each morning to keep up with the CSA and farm store needs. When there is time our afternoons are spent cleaning up the fields to prepare for winter. We have been removing landscape fabric, plastic mulch, irrigation supplies, and tomato stakes in order to till the ground and plant cover crop while there is still time for it to grow. The clean-up is messy but satisfying as it is done with the knowledge that we are preparing the fields for yet another productive year. We also still have planting to do! The final planting projects of the year are coming up soon: garlic and tulips. For the first time we will also be planting a variety of daffodils for cut flowers. In the coming weeks we will also be weeding the 2020 strawberries, taking down some of our electric fences, covering leafy crops for protection against cold November temperatures, and continuing to clean and bag our storage onions to make space in the greenhouse for an upcoming straw delivery.

This week in the CSA:

• Butternut Squash - This classic winter squash is great for soup, roasting, or even in “pumpkin” pie!

• Brussels sprouts

• Spinach

• Hakurei salad turnips - This spring favorite is back! They look much like radishes but have a sweeter flavor.

• Mini daikon radishes - white mini mak and purple K-N bravo varieties

• Yellow Storage Onions - These onions have been cured so can be stored outside your fridge. They keep best in a cool, dark, dry place.

• Shallots

• Escarole - This cooking green is great in Italian soups and pasta dishes! It looks like lettuce but is best cooked. It has a bitter flavor, in a delicious way!

• Potatoes- Peter Wilcox (purple skin and yellow flesh) or King Harry (yellow skin, white flesh).

• Scallions

• Romanesco Cauliflower

• Cabbage

• Fennel

• Carrots

• Lettuce

• Baby bok choi

CSA Pick-your-own:

Frosts finished off most of the PYO field, but we still have some herbs for picking, including the following: parsley (it has made a resurgence), cilantro, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme and oregano.

CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

The PYO flowers were mostly killed off in the frost. There are still some cosmos, amaranth, strawflower, statice, gomphrena and verbena, so if you have a bouquet left in your PYO Flower share, and you’d like to make a bouquet for drying, you are welcome to come by!

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as tomatoes, salanova, lemongrass, kale, mustard greens, peppers, eggplant and decorative corn stalks. We will also have organic cranberries from Fresh Meadows Farm, Double B Honey (from hives on the property), jack-o-lantern pumpkins from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberries (definitely Tuesday afternoon, hopefully later in the week too), raspberry jam and vinegar infusion from Silferleaf Farm in Concord.

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts

ALISON ROMAN at NYTcooking

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

• 3 to 4 tablespoons fat (olive oil, schmaltz, duck fat or the fat rendered from 8 ounces of bacon, sausage or chorizo)

• A handful of aromatics, like chopped garlic, sliced onion, thyme sprigs or dried chiles

• Lemon juice, vinegar, pickled onions or shallots

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Chopped fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro or mint (optional)

PREPARATION

1. If using something like bacon or sausage, start by browning the meat in a large skillet (10 to 12 inches) over medium-high heat to render the fat. Once the meat is cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon, leaving behind the drippings. (You can add the crispy meat bits back later.)

2. Add halved brussels sprouts to the fat, shaking the skillet so that as many as possible land cut side down. Now, don’t touch! Disturbing the skillet at this point would prevent the sprouts from caramelizing. Cook until they have a nice sear on one side, 5 to 8 minutes. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, give them a stir and continue to cook until they’re nicely browned all over and just tender on the inside, another 5 to 8 minutes.

3. Just before removing from the heat, add in a handful of aromatics, like chopped garlic, sliced onion, thyme sprigs or dried chiles, tossing to coat and cooking only a minute or two. Stir in the reserved bacon or sausage bits, if using.

4. Finish with either a squeeze of halved lemon, a splash of nice vinegar or a handful of pickled onions or shallots. Because of the sprouts’ meaty flavor profile, it’s also nice to hit them with a smattering of fresh herbs, especially parsley, cilantro or mint. Salt and pepper to taste.

Peanut-Sesame Slaw with Soba Noodles

From Cookie + Kate

• 4 ounces soba noodles

• 1 small purple or green cabbage, sliced into quarters and core removed

• ½ pound (about 12) Brussels sprouts, optional

• 4 carrots, peeled

• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced in thin rounds

• ½ cup peanut butter

• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar or rice vinegar

• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

• 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari or other soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

• 2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced

• Sprinkle of coarsely chopped peanuts

• Handful of cilantro, coarsely torn

• 1 lime, sliced into wedges

Cook the soba noodles: bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water before returning to pot. If using a food processor, shred the cabbage and sprouts with the slicing disk, then grate the carrots using the grating disk. Or use a chef's knife to chop the cabbage and sprouts into thin strips, then coarsely grate the carrots. In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients until smooth. If the mixture should be thick but drizzly; if it's too thick, whisk in water in 1 tablespoon increments until it is. You might need to add a little salt, to taste, since the flavors have been diluted. In a large serving bowl, combine the cooked soba noodles, shredded cabbage and sprouts, grated carrots, and chopped green onions. Pour dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat (you may or may not need all of the dressing). For best flavor, let the slaw marinate for 20 minutes before serving. Serve slaw with a sprinkling of chopped peanuts, torn cilantro and a lime wedge

2020 Sign-ups, Week 18 and farm stand updates

As expected, Saturday morning we awoke to fields covered in white frost. This wasn’t our first frost this season - we had a very surprising light frost in mid-September - but it was the first killing frost. The only crops impacted were the summer crops that had already been limping along for weeks in the reduced daylight. An appropriately timed October frost is a bit of a relief to us, as our small fall crew no longer needs to scrounge for crops with rapidly dwindling returns. We spent Friday doing our best to clear out the eggplant and sweet peppers from the field and fill our coolers for distribution this week. Tomato plants in our high tunnels survived, but fruit ripens very slowly in these shorter days (we have well dipped below 12 hours of daylight by now!) so it is still only just enough to stock our store.

Though summer crops are finished, we are very excited about cooking with fall crops. It’s soup, stew, quiche, casserole and roasting season! Time to turn back on those ovens, plug in your slow cooker and simmer pots on the stove top. We’re also excited about some new crops we get to enjoy in the late fall. We just picked up a beautiful crop of organic cranberries from Fresh Meadows Farm in Carver, MA. We are also harvesting our first ever experimental crop of high tunnel-grown ginger this week. We had trouble sprouting it at the beginning of the season and then nowhere to plant them initially as we were still constructing the high tunnel where they were to go. We have a small yield, but we are better set up to try again next year. In the meantime, we’ll have fresh ginger for as long as it lasts this week in the store!

This week we will begin 2020 CSA renewals and sign-ups! There will be renewal letters and forms for each CSA membership when you check-in this week. Sign-up forms for new memberships will also be available in the farm stand this week and online (http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/sign-up). 2020 Barrett’s Bucks memberships are also now available with an early sign-up bonus credit until March 2nd, 2020. Next year will be our 7th season at the farm, we hope you will join us again!

This week in the CSA:

• Decorative Gourds - Just for fun!

• Yellow Storage Onions - we had a great crop this year and we solved our storage issue that we had last season, so looking forward to enjoying for the rest of the year!

• Escarole - This cooking green is great in Italian soups and pasta dishes! It looks like lettuce but is best cooked. It has a bitter flavor, in a delicious way!

• Potatoes- Peter Wilcox (purple skin and yellow flesh) or King Harry (yellow skin, white flesh).

• Eggplant and/or peppers - We picked out what we could before the frost last Friday. We will have these items limited in the CSA, as we are hoping it will hold through the end of the week. However, it is possible that by Saturday we won’t have enough still in good condition after a week in the cooler.

• Winter squash

• Garlic

• Scallions

• Romanesco Cauliflower - With a fun green pyramid shape and a nutty flavor these cauliflower are a great addition to roasted veggies and curry recipes. Like our broccoli, they do have cabbage worms on them so soaking before cooking is suggested.

• Broccoli

• Cabbage

• Fennel - maybe the last week for fennel. It has truly been a lovely fall crop, but we have almost harvested out the entire crop, and it doesn’t hold up as well in colder temperatures.

• Carrots

• Beets

• Lettuce

• Salanova

• Baby bok choi

• Mustard Greens - We grow a purple variety called “scarlet frills.” It is spicy in salads but becomes more mild when lightly cooked.

CSA Pick-your-own:

The frost Friday night (and then another even harder one Saturday night) finished off most of the PYO field, but we still have some herbs for picking, including the following: parsley (it has made a resurgence), cilantro, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme and oregano.

CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

The PYO flowers were mostly killed off in the frost. There are still some cosmos, amaranth, strawflower, statice, gomphrena and verbena, so if you have a bouquet left in your PYO Flower share, and you’d like to make a bouquet for drying, you are welcome to come by!

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as tomatoes, our own high tunnel grown fresh ginger (Refrigerate or freeze it if you won’t consume within a week. Please note that fresh dug uncured ginger is milder than what you get in the store, so use more than recipes call for!), lemongrass, shallots, kale, and decorative corn stalks. We will also have organic cranberries from Fresh Meadows Farm, Double B Honey (from hives on the property), jack-o-lantern pumpkins and corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberry jam and vinegar infusion from Silferleaf Farm in Concord.

Roasted Carrot Ginger Soup

from themediterraneandish.com

• 3 lb carrots, peeled

• Olive oil

• Salt and pepper

• 4 garlic cloves, chopped

• 1 tsp grated ginger (our ginger is milder, so use two or three times as much, depending on preference)

• 5½ cups vegetable broth, divided

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp allspice

• 1½ cup heavy cream (or fat-free half and half, for a lighter version)

• Fresh mint for garnish

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Arrange the carrots on a large lightly oiled baking sheet. Season the carrots lightly with salt and pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil. Roast for 45 minutes, turning over mid-way through. When carrots are fork tender and nicely caramelized, remove them from the oven and set aside briefly. Once cool enough to touch, cut the carrots into chunks and place them in a large food processor with the garlic, ginger and 3 cups of the broth. Puree until the mixture is smooth. Transfer the carrot puree into a heavy cooking pot. Add the remaining broth, corridor and allspice. Place the pot on medium heat and watch carefully as the soup will bubble. Stir occasionally. Turn the heat to medium-low and stir in the heavy cream. Once heated through, remove from the stove. Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with fresh mint leaves. Serve with your favorite rustic bread.

Ginger Cranberry Sauce

by Sheila Lukins from Parade, November 2008

Yield: Makes 10 servings

Ingredients

• 16 ounces fresh cranberries, picked over and rinsed

• 2 cups granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger

• Finely grated zest from 1 orange

Preparation

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the berries pop open, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Skim foam off the surface with a metal spoon and discard. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate, covered, for up to 3 months.

White Bean and Escarole Soup

from Bon Appetit | March 1996

•  1 tablespoons olive oil

•  1 cup chopped onion

•  1 large carrot, cut into small dice

•  5 large garlic cloves, peeled, flattened

•  3 cups (packed) 1-inch pieces escarole (about 1/2 large head)

•  4 cups (or more) canned vegetable broth or low-salt chicken broth

•  3 1/4 cups cooked Great Northern beans or two 15-ounce cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained

•  1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

•  2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch over medium-low heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic and sauté until onion is golden and tender, about 7 minutes. Discard garlic. Add escarole; stir 3 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, beans and tomatoes and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until escarole is tender and flavors blend, about 20 minutes. Thin with more broth, if desired. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing.) Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

CSA Week 17 and Farm Stand Updates

October means lots of digging on the farm as we work to bring in the sweet potato and potato harvest! Sweet potatoes are particularly important to get out of the ground soon because they need time to cure in warmer temperatures before they are sweet enough for eating! We should have the first batch in the farm stand and CSA next week. This week we will enjoy one of our favorite potato varieties, Peter Wilcox, which have a purple skin and a white interior. Our white skin, white flesh storage varieties are yet to come later in the season. We harvest all our potato varieties by hand, loosening the soil with a pitch fork and then digging down with our hands or trowels (careful not to damage any) to fill our buckets. There are tractor driven potato digging machines that can speed things up under the right conditions so we hope to own one some day, but for now it’s a slow but rewarding process!

It is week 17 of 20 for the Main Season CSA so there will be 3 more weeks of pick-ups after this one. Flex CSA members, you will get an update when you check in this week about how may pick-ups are left for your membership this season. Extended CSA members can continue to come for pick-ups once per week until November 23rd. Finally, sign-ups for the 2020 season will become available next week!

This week in the CSA:

• Pie Pumpkins - While these are fun for decoration they are also tasty in pumpkin bread, muffins or pie! We have a limited number this year due to loss after harvest. If you’d like to save your pumpkin for Thanksgiving then we suggest cooking your pumpkin now and freezing the puree.

• Romanesco Cauliflower - With a fun green pyramid shape and a nutty flavor these cauliflower are a great addition to roasted veggies and curry recipes. Like our broccoli, they do have cabbage worms on them so soaking before cooking is suggested.

• Peter Wilcox Potatoes- These potatoes have a purple skin and white flesh.

• Leeks

• Mustard Greens - We grow a purple variety called “scarlet frills.” It is spicy in salads but becomes more mild when lightly cooked.

• Buttercup, Delicata and Red Kuri Squash

• Shallots - Store in a cool dark and dry place (not the refrigerator).

• Garlic

• Broccoli

• Kale

• Savoy cabbage

• Fennel

• Carrots

• Lettuce

• Eggplant

• Baby bok choi

CSA Pick-your-own:

*Please note that at this time of year, killing frosts can happen at any time, which means that some of the PYO may not be available afterwards. This week it looks like a slight possibility of frost Friday night.

• Choice of tomatillos, husk cherries or cherry tomatoes. Tomatillos are still fairly easy picking. Husk cherries are plentiful if you walk at least halfway down the bed. It’s nearing the end for cherry tomatoes, but if you’re willing to hunt there are still some decent ones to be found, especially in the Sunrise Bumblebee, cherry bomb, grape, jasper, and black cherry.

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

• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage.

CSA Hours*:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

*We will continue to close the pick-your-own gates at 6pm as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts. If you cannot finish picking by 6pm on Tuesday/Thursday you are welcome to pick on Wednesday or Friday.

PYO Flowers

The PYO flowers are still blooming and will be open until the flowers are damaged by a frost! Flower picking is open any time the farm stand is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We will continue to close picking promptly at 6pm this week as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts.

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as tomatoes, peppers, salanova, spaghetti squash, lemongrass and onions. We will also have sweet corn and jack-o-lantern pumpkins from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm whenever available.

Fresh pumpkin Bread

by Stacia Hayes on food.com

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 cup cooked pumpkin, mashed

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup oil

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 cup water

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350°F Spray standard size loaf pan with cooking spray. Combine sugars, pumpkin, oil, vanilla extract, water, and eggs. Sift together dry ingredients. Slowly add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour 15 minutes. MUFFINS: Recipe makes 18 muffins. Reduce baking time to 35 minutes. Freezable for a quick, healthy alternative for dessert.

Orecchiette With Mustard Greens and Sausage

by Anna Painter from Real Simple

Ingredients

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

• 2 bunches mustard greens, stemmed and coarsely chopped

• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

• ¼ teaspoon black pepper

• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

• 1 pound cooked orecchiette

• Toasted bread crumbs and grated Parmesan, for serving

How to Make It

Step 1 Cook the sausage in olive oil in a large skillet over medium until browned. Add garlic, mustard greens, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Cook until the greens are wilted, about 2 minutes.

Step 2 Add orecchiette and toss to combine. Serve topped with bread crumbs and Parmesan.

CSA Week 16 and Farm Stand updates

In spite of the recent warm weather, the days are getting shorter and summer crops are winding down. We even had our first frost last week! Fortunately, it was a light frost and sensitive crops like beans and peppers held on through the cold night. Other summer classic crops like zucchini and cucumbers succumb to disease or significantly slow production by the beginning of September. Our high tunnel tomatoes are still alive (and quite a bit healthier than our field tomatoes). But even the added warmth and protection in the high tunnel can’t make up for the shorter growing days, so harvests have dropped off significantly.

As we see fewer tomatoes and more winter squash, we have been getting more questions about the end of the season, so we thought we’d share a few reminders of upcoming dates. The farm stand is open until Saturday, October 26th. 2019 Barrett’s Bucks expire after this date - if you have any questions about your balance, check in with the Shopkeeper or email Melissa. The CSA also continues for another month or two depending on which option you have chosen. Including this week, there are 4 weeks left in the Main Season CSA (which ends October 26th), and 8 weeks left in the Extended and Flex CSAs (which end November 23rd). The Late Fall/Extended CSA is sold out. If we end up with extra produce, we may be able to offer a pop-up sale in November, so if you are a Main Season CSA member wishing you had done the Extended CSA, stay tuned! We are also working on putting together our brochure and offerings for the 2020 season. All current CSA and Barrett’s Bucks members will receive notification as soon as sign-ups are available.

This week in the CSA:

• Delicata and Honeyboat squash - these small striped squash are a farm favorite for their sweet flavor and ease of cooking (you can eat the skin). The simplest way to prepare them is to cut them in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and then slice them into half moons about a quarter inch thick. Bake them on a lightly oiled baking sheet until the undersides are golden. You can sprinkle with cinnamon or salt if you like before baking, but they are pretty tasty plain as well!

• Buttercup squash - another winter squash with edible skin. It has a creamy texture similar to red kuri, but with a more sugary flavor.

• Red Kuri Squash - The skin is edible on this orange squash making chopping for cooking easier! The sweet, nutty flavor of red kuri squash makes it a favorite for adding to curry, as well as simply slicing and baking.

• Shallots - these are like a cross between garlic and onions. You can cook them just like you would an onion. They’re also delicious diced finely in salad dressings. Store in a cool dark and dry place (not the refrigerator).

• Garlic

• Scallions

• Broccoli - the heads look gorgeous, but there are definitely more cabbage worms in them than the broccoli we harvested two weeks ago. Soak in warm water for a few minutes to entice the worms out before preparing.

• Kale

• Savoy cabbage

• Fennel

• Carrots

• Peppers

• Eggplant

• Arugula

• Baby bok choi

• Mizuna

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers

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

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

• Cherry tomatoes - they are almost done for the season, but there are still some decent ones to be found, especially in the Sunpeach and Sunrise Bumblebee.

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

• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage.

CSA Hours*:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

*We will continue to close the pick-your-own gates at 6pm as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts. If you cannot finish picking by 6pm on Tuesday/Thursday you are welcome to pick on Wednesday or Friday.

PYO Flowers

The PYO flowers are still blooming and will be open until the flowers are damaged by a frost! Flower picking is open any time the farm stand is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We will continue to close picking promptly at 6pm this week as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts.

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as tomatoes, leeks, potatoes, spaghetti squash and lemongrass. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm whenever available.

Sautéed Shallot and Yogurt Dip

from Saveur, June 30th, 2015

Yield: makes 3 cups

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1⁄4 cup olive oil, plus more for serving

• 3 shallots, chopped

• Pinch of sugar

• 6 scallions, chopped

• 1 oz. chives, chopped, plus more for garnish

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 2 cups strained greek yogurt or labneh

• Sumac (or substitute with lemon zest), for garnish

• Potato chips, preferably Ruffles, to serve

• Crudités (carrots, broccoli, fennel, etc.), to serve

Instructions:

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high; cook shallots and sugar until shallots are soft, 5 minutes. Add the scallions and cook 3 minutes more, until soft. Remove from heat and stir in chives and salt; allow onions to cool.

Mix onion mixture and labneh in a bowl with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate 1 hour. Drizzle with olive oil, chives, and sumac (or lemon zest) and serve with chips or vegetables.

Mushrooms With Caramelized Shallots & Fresh Thyme

by Josh Cohen from Food52.com

• 4 pounds of your favorite varieties of mushrooms (can be some combination of crimini, royal trumpet, maitake, and oyster mushrooms)

• 1 grapeseed oil

• 1 pinch salt

• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1/2 pound shallots, cleaned and sliced thin

• 1 splash olive oil

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Directions

1. Set a large skillet over medium heat. Add enough olive oil to thinly coat the surface of the skillet. Add the shallots, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring regularly, until the shallots soften and begin to turn translucent. Turn the heat down to low, and continue stirring occasionally, until the shallots are soft, sweet, and caramelized. This may take 30 to 45 minutes.

2. If your mushrooms are gritty or dirty, use a damp rag or paper towel to gently wipe them clean. Cut the mushrooms into large bite-size pieces. Some mushroom varieties can be torn with your hands rather than cut with a knife. For example, I like to break maitake mushrooms into large chunks and tear oyster mushrooms into slivers. These hand-torn pieces should approximate the original shape of the mushroom.

3. While the shallots are cooking, set a large skillet over high heat. Add enough grapeseed oil to thinly coat the surface of the skillet. When the oil begins to smoke, add enough mushrooms to fill the skillet in a single even layer. Let the mushrooms sear, undisturbed, until the bottoms of the mushrooms begin to caramelize. Toss the mushrooms in the skillet and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are browned and beginning to crisp around the edges. Transfer the hot mushrooms to a mixing bowl, and using a fine microplane, grate half a clove of garlic over the mushrooms. Toss the mushrooms with the microplaned garlic, and season with salt. Repeat this step with subsequent batches of mushrooms until all the mushrooms have been cooked.

4. Combine the mushrooms with the caramelized shallots. Add the thyme, cayenne, and vinegar. Taste, and adjust the seasoning as necessary. This dish can be served hot or at room temperature. To reheat the mushrooms, transfer them to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook at in the oven at 350° F for approximately 5 minutes.

Winter Squash Agrodolce

adapted from Bon Apetit, November 2015

• 1 red kuri or buttercup squash, seeds removed, cut into 1-inch wedges

• 2 delicata squashes, seeds removed, cut into 1-inch wedges

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

• 2 Fresno chiles, thinly sliced

• ¾ cup red wine vinegar

• ¼ cup honey

• 2 tablespoons golden raisins, chopped

• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400°. Place red kuri and delicata squash on separate large rimmed baking sheets. Drizzle with oil; season with salt and pepper. Roast, tossing occasionally, until squashes are golden brown and tender, 30–35 minutes for red kuri and 20–25 minutes for delicata. Meanwhile, bring chiles, vinegar, honey, raisins, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until syrupy, 8–10 minutes. Spoon warm agrodolce over squash and serve.

CSA Week 15 and Farm Stand Updates

Despite some clouds and rain, last Saturday turned out to be a great day both on the farm and at the Concord Ag Day Farmers’ Market! The farmers’ market was a great chance to connect with other farmers in town as well as visit with new and returning customers. The farm was also bustling as everyone enjoyed the combination of late summer and early fall crops now in season in the CSA and farm store, including sunflowers!

The crew kept everything going smoothly in the CSA and Farm Store while Melissa was at the market and Lise was shuttling items back and forth between the farm and market. Molly and Rebecca checked folks in and rang up purchases, coordinated the part time field crew, and made decisions about stocking and harvest needs while forever being their cheery, kind selves to both customers and co-workers. Meanwhile, Ari washed the seemingly endless stream of bins on Saturday morning with both attention to detail and an upbeat attitude. Brian oversaw high tunnel irrigation as well as kept up with harvesting and other field work, and Abby who recently joined us for the fall season jumped right into helping wherever needed! Another new crew member, Matt brought his skills and energy to packing for and assisting at the market. Friends of the farm, Jane and Kathy (Lise’s mom), saved the day as usual, splitting their time between the farmers’ market booth and farm store to make sure we were able to keep up and that everyone got a lunch break!

This week while we will continue our usual daily harvests, we will also try to find time to finishing weeding a few crops for later this fall such as the later lettuce and spinach, harvest the popcorn crop and hang it in the greenhouse to dry, and work to clean up and bag the shallots and onions that have finished curing. Whenever possible we will clear fields of irrigation supplies and mulch to make way for cover crop.

This week in the CSA:

• Scallions

• Red Kuri Squash - The skin is edible on this orange squash making chopping for cooking easier! The sweet, nutty flavor of red kuri squash makes it a favorite for adding to curry, as well as simply slicing and baking.

• Kale - Toscano and a new variety, Dazzling Blue, which is like toscano but with a purple stem. We thought it looked fun and tasty, let us know what you think!

• Savoy cabbage

• Fennel

• Salanova Lettuce Mix

• Lettuce

• Garlic- The garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge in a cool dark place.

• Peppers: Green, Sweet Italian, and bell colored peppers

• Tomatoes - We are nearing the end of tomato season but our red slicing tomatoes are still producing some.

• Eggplant

• Carrots

• Baby bok choi

• Mizuna or yukina savoy - Both mild brassica greens, great in salads, sandwiches, or very lightly cooked.

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers - a new bed is blooming this week and another should be ready by the end of the week!

• Green beans - a new (and final) planting is ready near the sunflowers

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

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

• Cherry tomatoes

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

• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only.

CSA Hours*:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

*We will continue to close the pick-your-own gates at 6pm as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts. If you cannot finish picking by 6pm on Tuesday/Thursday you are welcome to pick on Wednesday or Friday.

PYO Flowers

We’ll have bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers, zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!). The PYO flowers will be open until the flowers are damaged by a frost. Flower picking is open any time the farm stand is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We will continue to close picking promptly at 6pm this week as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts.

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as leeks, potatoes, spaghetti squash, lemongrass, and broccoli. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm whenever available.

Red Kuri Squash Soup

By Alice Waters in Food & Wine February 2012

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds red kuri or butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (3 cups)

• 1/2 medium onion, coarsely chopped

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 medium fennel bulb, cored and cut into thin wedges

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• Chopped toasted pecans and small marjoram leaves, for garnish

How to Make It

Step 1 Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large saucepan, combine the cubed squash with the chopped onion, bay leaf and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer over low heat until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.

Step 2 Meanwhile, on a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the fennel wedges with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss well. Roast for about 25 minutes, until the fennel is tender and starting to brown.

Step 3 Discard the bay leaf from the soup. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender. Return the soup to the saucepan and warm over low heat. Stir in the butter and season the soup with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the roasted fennel, pecans, marjoram leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.

The soup can be refrigerated overnight. Reheat gently.