CSA Week 6 and Farm Stand Updates

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

In the CSA this week:

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

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

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

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

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

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

• Garlic scapes

• Lettuce

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

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

• Mini Cabbage

• Kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers - It must be summer!

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

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

In the farm store:

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

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

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

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

Greek Cucumber Salad

by Katya, from littlebroken.com

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar

• 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

• 2–3 cucumbers, thinly sliced

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (full fat)

• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

• 1 clove garlic, pressed

• 1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

• 1 tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste

• fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

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

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

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

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

CSA Week 5 and Farm Stand Updates

We are happy to report that in the weeds vs. farmers competition the current score is at least a tie if not slightly in our favor! Last week we spent as much time as possible weeding and laying landscape fabric to make sure that our plants have room to grow. We also staked and trellised our field slicing and cherry tomatoes, as well as worked on pruning and trellising our sweet peppers in a high tunnel. As usual we worked on picking Colorado Potato Beetles off of our eggplant plants. We hope that was our last round of picking before the plants take off and outgrow their damage. This week we will be focusing our non-harvest time on fall plantings including seeding fall carrots and beets, planting Brussels sprouts and preparing the field for fall cabbage and kale. All that planting will require another deer fence on our last field across the street, as well as getting some irrigation set up (and hopefully some rain too!).

It is another week of great harvests with new items in the CSA and farm store, including fresh onions and purple carrots. We hope you had a great holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing you back on the farm this week!

In the CSA this week:

• Ailsa Craig fresh onions - These onions are harvested fresh which means they are sweeter and less potent than fall onions. They are not cured, meaning they do not have the protective dry outer skin, so they should be stored in the refrigerator and used within a week.

• Frisée - This is our first time growing frisée. It is a member of the chicory family like endive, and has a similar bitter, peppery taste. It is a great flavorful and frilly addition to salads.

• Mini Cabbage - A mix of caraflex (a sweet cone shaped variety), green and red cabbages. We grow these spaced closely together so that they stay “mini,” a prefect size for shredding for burritos or adding to a stir fry!

• Purple haze carrots - We grow these carrots for their fun purple color!

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers - slicing and pickling

• Beets - Golden and red

• Garlic scapes

• Fennel

• Lettuce - Green leaf, Panisse (oakleaf), and Red Leaf

• Salanova

• Baby bok choi

• Mustard greens

• Kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green beans! Please hold the plant gently and pull the biggest beans off the plant, leaving the smaller ones to grow for future harvests.

• Sunflowers - It must be summer!

• Herbs - Choose a mix of: basil, parsley, dill flowers, sage, and thyme

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have European style cucumbers from our high tunnel, green peppers from our high tunnel, scallions, and the first mixed flower bouquets. At the end of the week we will also harvest the first of our own blueberries for the farm store! We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm.

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

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

We are planning to open the flower field to Flower CSA members for picking starting next week, July 12th, and will likely be able to open the field to the public for picking by the jar by the following week (July 19th). We will provide additional details and an update on timing in next week’s newsletter, including a list of which flowers are ready for picking. Once picking begins, the flower field will be open for picking any time the farm stand is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm.

Zucchini/Summer Squash Ribbons

from Uncommon Gourmet, All-Occasion Cookbook

• 2   Medium-size zucchini                                

• 2   Medium-size summer squash                       

• 4   Tablespoons butter                                   

• 1   Medium-size clove garlic, crushed

• ½ cup finely chopped walnuts or hazelnuts

• salt and pepper to taste

• ½ cup grated Parmesan

Using a vegetable peeler, cut long ribbons of the zucchini and summer squash, reserving the seed core for another use (like soup). Heat butter in a large skillet. Add garlic, squash ribbons and nuts. Season with salt and pepper and stir-fry over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until vegetables are tender-crisp. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Stir well, remove from the heat and serve.

Frisée Salad

by Sonja Overhiser from A Couple Cooks

Ingredients

For the frisée salad

• 1 large or 2 to 3 small heads frisée (about 6 cups greens)

• 1 orange, plus zest

• 1 shallot

• 1 ounce Manchego cheese (or shaved Parmesan cheese; omit for vegan)

• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

• 1 handful fresh mint leaves, optional

For the dressing (makes ½ cup; use 3 to 4 tablespoons)

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey

• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

• 6 tablespoons olive oil

• Fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Wash and dry the frisée, using a salad spinner or clean towel. Tear or chop the frisee into pieces.

2. Zest half the orange. Then segment the orange, following the instructions in How to Cut an Orange.

3. Thinly slice the shallot. Slice the Manchego cheese into pieces.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk the white wine vinegar, Dijon, maple syrup or honey, salt. Whisk in the oil 1 tablespoon at a time until a creamy dressing forms. Add a few grinds of fresh ground black pepper. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 2 weeks (bring to room temperature prior to serving).

5. Serve the salad: place the greens on a large platter or separate plates. Top with orange slices, shallot, cheese, sliced almonds, orange zest, and mint leaves. Drizzle with about 3 to 4 tablespoons of the dressing, to taste.

CSA Week 4 and Farm Stand Updates

While the cooler temps and modest amount of rain on Monday were a bit of a reprieve for us, it is still very dry in the fields. We are looking ahead to some more hot and dry weather for the remainder of the week, so continuing to set up irrigation on all of our fields will be a priority. We need to extend irrigation lines from our well to our one field east of the farmstead that contains all of our spring brassicas. Our weekly field walk on Monday revealed that the spring cabbage in that field had not matured at all since our last walk (based on our walk last week we had expected to be harvesting it this week!). Getting water onto those plants should be fairly smooth and should resolve that problem pretty quickly.

Less straightforward is getting irrigation to our fall crops (winter squash, brassicas, carrots and beets) across the street. Because of the distance from the well we would lose too much pressure to be able to effectively irrigate over there. We also simply wouldn’t have enough time in the week to irrigate all the fields that needed water, as we have a limited number of irrigation lines we can run at once. Therefore, we use a separate source for crops across the street - the Assabet River. This involves getting a pump, filter and intake line set up at the river, as well as threading an irrigation line under the road. Once we can get water over there, getting our drip lines hooked up and our overhead lines laid out is the same process as what we do with crops irrigated from our well. However, this set-up is time consuming and comes at a time when we are already extremely busy with weed control and harvesting (not to mention we still have more planting and seeding, as well as potato beetle control and trellising in the fields and high tunnels)! It feels like a critical week - if we aren’t able to keep up with irrigation and weed control we could see the effects later this summer. We are maintaining optimism, though - it’s been a strong start in terms of harvests, and we are determined to keep that streak going for the rest of the season!

In the CSA this week:

• Summer squash - The summer squash and zucchini plants started cranking at the end of last week, so they will be featured heavily this week!

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers - More slicing cucumbers from the high tunnels, but hopefully soon we’ll have large enough quantities of pickling cukes for the CSA as well!

• Carrots

• Beets - This week we’ll be enjoying golden beets, which have an even sweeter flavor than red beets.

• Garlic scapes

• Scallions

• Fennel

• Lettuce

• Salanova

• Baby bok choi

• Mustard greens - A spicy green that is delicious sauteed and added to pasta or other grains!

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

PYO peas are done for the season, but the beans and sunflowers are coming along nicely and should be available for picking in the coming weeks!

• Herbs - choose from: Parsley, dill, dill flowers or basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have the first pickling cukes of the season, as well as European style cucumbers. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm.

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

Mushroom CSA Week 10: It is the last week of our 10-week spring Mushroom CSA from Fat Moon Farm and for the final week we will be enjoying a farmer’s mix! Stay tuned for information on a fall CSA offering! You may pick up anytime the farm store is open: Tuesday- Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. Just check in with the Shopkeeper at the farm stand when you arrive and they will retrieve them for you! We do still suggest a Tuesday or Wednesday pick-up for the freshest possible mushrooms.

Zucchini Muffins

from Love & Lemons

This recipe is a favorite in Lise’s household with one modification - mini chocolate chips instead of walnuts!

Ingredients

• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

• ¾ cup whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled

• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons almond flour, spooned and leveled

• 1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

• ½ teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil or neutral oil

• 2 large eggs

• ½ cup cane sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 cups shredded zucchini, no need to squeeze out excess water

• ½ cup chopped walnuts (or replace with chocolate chips!)

Mustardy Grilled Cheese

by: CrepesofWrath from Food 52

Ingredients

For the mustard greens

• 1 bunch mustard greens, cleaned and roughly chopped

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste

For the sandwiches

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

• 8 slices thick-cut bread (I prefer brioche)

• 6 tablespoons stoneground mustard

• 24 to 28 slices sharp cheddar cheese

• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

Directions

1. First, cook your mustard greens. Clean and trim the leaves, then heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add in the greens and stir until wilted, about 5 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then remove from the pan and set aside. Wipe out the inside of the pan with a paper towel.

2. Butter both sides of each slice of bread, then reduce the pan’s heat to medium and add in 4 slices of bread at a time (or however many slices your pan can hold) and toast one side. Flip two of the slices of bread (so that the toasted side is up) and add 1 1/2 tablespoons of mustard, followed by 3 to 4 slices of cheese, 1/4 of the mustard greens, a few slices of red onion, and an additional 3 to 4 slices of cheese. Top these two pieces with the other two slices of bread, placing them toasted side-down onto the cheese. Use a spatula to press down on the sandwiches, then cover the pan lightly and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

3. Remove the cover, flip the sandwiches, and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, pressing down again with a spatula. Remove the sandwiches from the pan when the cheese is gooey and melted, then finish with the remaining sandwich ingredients (you can keep the sandwiches warm in a 250° F oven). Serve warm.

CSA Week 3 and Farm Stand Updates

Each day after bringing in the harvest last week the crew set to work weeding, cultivating, planting, seeding, pruning, trellising, and bug picking (we are determined to keep the potato beetles under control this year!) to ensure that we continue to have a great harvest in the months ahead. Right now, keeping up with the planting schedule is critical in terms of future crop selection. Some crops, like lettuce, are planted in weekly successions and therefore need to be on time in order to provide a continuous harvest. Other items, like winter squash, are only planted once a year (we do spread out the varieties over a couple of weeks), so it is important not to get too behind or there will not be enough growing days to get a harvest. I’m happy to say we are generally keeping up with the planting schedule, but unfortunately the weeds are giving us a run for our money right now. This is typical of late spring and early summer, when the long days provide optimal weed growth. We are going to buckle down on them this week with our hoes, hand weeding, and tractor implements, and we hope to report next week that we have come out ahead! Sadly, strawberries are done for the season, but other than that we couldn’t be happier with the veggie selection we have for you this week. We hope you enjoy it!

In the CSA this week:

• Carrots - The first of many plantings!

• Cucumbers - from our high tunnel.

• Garlic scapes- You can eat the whole scape which tastes like a mild garlic. Use one scape in place of one clove of garlic in recipes calling for garlic. We snap the scape stems off the top of the garlic plant once they form (if left to grow they would become the garlic flower), which helps the bulbs underground grow bigger. As a bonus are great for eating!

• Scallions - from the high tunnel and a field planting.

• Fennel - from the high tunnel and a field planting.

• Beets

• Swiss chard- likely the last week of Swiss chard for the season.

• Kohlrabi

• Radishes

• Salad turnips

• Lettuce- red leaf, green leaf, and panisse varieties

• Salanova lettuce mix

• Arugula

• Kale

• Yukina savoy or red mizuna

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

PYO items are limited to the posted amount for each CSA membership (the appropriate size container will be provided) but these items do not need to fit in your CSA bag. Handwashing sinks are provided at the entrance to each PYO field. For the sake of food safety, please wash hands before picking. The barn bathroom and wash area sinks in the barn are for employees only. There is a portable restroom behind the red barn and a portable hand washing sink available for member and customer use.

• Sugar Snap Peas or Shelling Peas - We hope to have a choice for members each day. These are in two different fields this year. Shelling peas are big sweet peas that must be “shelled,” which means you remove their pod.

• Herbs - choose from: Parsley, dill, basil, or cilantro

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have zucchini, summer squash, and European style cucumbers. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm.

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

Mushroom CSA Week 9: It is week 9 of our 10-week spring Mushroom CSA from Fat Moon Farm and this week’s mushrooms are an Oyster Mix (Blue Oyster, Yellow Oyster, and Black Pearls, maybe some Phoenix). Now that the farm store is staffed you may come anytime the farm store is open: Tuesday- Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. Just check in with the shopkeeper at the farm stand when you arrive and they will retrieve them for you! We do still suggest a Tuesday or Wednesday pick-up for the freshest possible mushrooms.

Kohrabi and Carrot Slaw

By Jennifer Chase for The Washington Post

Ingredients

• 3 medium kohlrabi stems, peeled and grated

• 2 carrots, grated

• 2 scallions, white and light-green parts, chopped

• Leaves from 10 to 15 stems parsley, chopped (1/3 cup)

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

• 4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

• 1 tablespoon Thai sweet red chile sauce

• 1 teaspoon sriracha hot chili sauce (optional)

Directions

• Combine the kohlrabi, carrots, green onions and parsley in a large bowl.

• Whisk together the sesame oil, vinegar and the sweet and hot chili sauces, if using, in a small bowl to form an emulsified vinaigrette.

• Drizzle the vinaigrette over the vegetables and toss to combine. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Variations

• Mix kohlrabi slaw with soba noodles, blanched snow peas and broccoli florets.

• Serve in a lettuce leaf with shredded cooked chicken or beef.

• Make a quesadilla with pepper jack cheese, kohlrabi slaw and corn tortillas.

White Bean and Garlic Scapes Dip

by Melissa Clark, NY Times Cooking

This was a favorite recipe last season - a perfect dip for the carrots and cukes we’re enjoying this week! We found that where it says “more to taste”, we definitely prefer it with more! (We also add more garlic scapes than suggested).

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup sliced garlic scapes (3 to 4)

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, more to taste

• ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt, more to taste

• Ground black pepper to taste

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

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling

Preparation

1. In a food processor, process garlic scapes with lemon juice, salt and pepper until finely chopped. Add cannellini beans and process to a rough purée.

2. With motor running, slowly drizzle olive oil through feed tube and process until fairly smooth. Pulse in 2 or 3 tablespoons water, or more, until mixture is the consistency of a dip. Add more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice, if desired.

3. Spread out dip on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with more salt.

CSA Week 2 and Farm Stand Updates

It was great to welcome our CSA members back to the farm last week! In terms of farm work there’s not much to report - it was a blur of harvest, rinse, fill the coolers, display, stock, empty the coolers, and wash out all the bins! We fit in planting any afternoon we could and managed to get some winter squash, sweet potatoes, celery and cucumbers in the ground. Both the vegetables and the weeds took off in the heat and rain (yay for timely rain!) last week so this week we have a great crop selection which we will harvest as quickly as possible in the mornings to get to weeding, cultivating and planting for the rest of the day! We hope you enjoy what is likely our last week of strawberries in the CSA and farm store. While we know this is a farm favorite, we have other highlights yet to come including the first carrots of the season next week!

In the CSA this week:

• Cucumbers! From our high tunnel.

• Green garlic - To use this early garlic, chop the whole bulb and the tender part of the stem.

• Fennel - These are grown on the outside edges of our cucumber high tunnel! We grow this planting in our high tunnel to get it as early as possible. These bulbs are also bigger than what we typically can grow in the field!

• Swiss chard - We grow a variety called Bright Lights for it’s colorful stems! This can be used instead of spinach when a recipe calls for cooked spinach, as they are in the same family.

• Yukina Savoy- This is a brassica green with a very mild flavor (as opposed to spicy arugula!). It can be used in place of raw spinach.

• Beets

• Kohlrabi

• Radishes

• Salad turnips

• Mini daikon radish

• Lettuce - We’ll have romaine, butterhead, panisse (oakleaf) and green and red leaf lettuce available.

• Salanova lettuce mix

• Arugula

• Kale

• Red Russian kale or red mizuna

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

PYO items are limited to the posted amount for each CSA membership (the appropriate size container will be provided) but these items do not need to fit in your CSA bag. Handwashing sinks are provided at the entrance to each PYO field. For the sake of food safety, please wash hands before picking. The barn bathroom and wash area sinks in the barn are for employees only. There is a portable restroom behind the red barn and a portable hand washing sink available for member and customer use.

• Strawberries! All beds are producing. They are particularly plentiful at the back of the beds.

• Sugar Snap Peas or Shelling Peas - We hope to have a choice for members each day. These are in two different fields this year. Shelling peas are big sweet peas that must be “shelled,” which means you remove their pod.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have bok choi, scallions, seedlings, and our first ever crop of European thin skinned cucumbers (we are trying them out in our high tunnel as a result of customer requests!). We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm. We will be harvesting some strawberries for the store most days.

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

Mushroom CSA Week 8: It is week 8 of our 10-week spring Mushroom CSA from Fat Moon Farm and this week’s mushrooms are shiitake and chestnuts. Now that the farm store is staffed you may come anytime the farm store is open: Tuesday- Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. Just check in with the shopkeeper at the farm stand when you arrive and they will retrieve them for you! We do still suggest a Tuesday or Wednesday pick-up for the freshest possible mushrooms.

Garlicky Swiss Chard

By Melissa Clark, from NY Times Cooking

Serve it as a side to any roasted or grilled meat, or over a mound of creamy polenta that's been crowned with a fried egg.

Ingredients

• 2 bunches Swiss chard, stems removed

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 garlic cloves, minced (or dice up one bunch of green garlic!)

• Large pinch crushed red pepper flakes

• Salt

Preparation

1. Stack chard leaves on top of one another (you can make several piles) and slice them into 1/4-inch strips.

2. Heat oil in a very large skillet (or use a soup pot). Add garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté for 30 seconds, until garlic is fragrant. Stir in the chard, coating it in oil. Cover pan and let cook for about 2 minutes, until chard is wilted. Uncover, stir and cook for 2 minutes longer. Season with salt.

Pickled Daikon

from Just One Cookbook

Ingredients 

• 1 lb daikon radish

• 1 dried red chili pepper

• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)

• 1 tsp sake (optional)

• 1 Tbsp kosher salt (Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)

• ⅓ cup sugar

Instructions 

1. Gather all the ingredients.

2. Peel daikon and cut into ¼ inch (6 mm) slices.

3. Cut the chili peppers into small pieces and discard the seeds if you prefer less spicy.

4. Put all the ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and rub well.

5. Remove the air from the bag and close it. You can start enjoying it after 2-3 hours.

To store: You can keep the pickles in the refrigerator for a month. When the flavor is getting strong, remove the solution and store the pickles in an airtight container.