CSA Week 19 and Farm Stand Updates

Well, we have officially had two frosts on the farm and it looks like we’ll get a third one Tuesday morning! Fortunately, it they were light and well predicted frosts, so we were able to clear fruit off of the pepper plants in the field beforehand (it’s a few degrees warmer inside our high tunnels, so the protected pepper plants are still fine). Light frosts can kill off tomatoes, eggplant, beans, basil and flowers, but almost everything else still growing on the farm can tolerate a light frost. Some things like sweet potatoes and broccoli are even said to get sweeter after a light frost! We have some crops that we have not even begun to harvest like Brussels sprouts, rutabaga, and storage cabbage that are meant to be grown into late October, so will do just fine as long as we don’t have a hard freeze. We will start to harvest some of these late fall crops next week for the last week of the Main Season CSA and will continue into the Extended Season.

There is just one more week of the Main Season CSA after this week for a total of 20 weeks. If you aren’t sure what membership you have check with the shopkeeper when you pick up! The Flex and Extended Season CSAs continue until November 19th, however CSA pick-up days change to Thursdays and Saturdays only after October 22nd (there are no Tuesday pick-ups starting the week of October 25th). The last day of the Farm Store for the season is Saturday, October 29th. Barrett’s Bucks expire on October 29th.

In the CSA this week:

• Sweet potatoes! The first beds we harvested have been cured in the greenhouse and are ready to eat! They will store best at room temperature in a dry, dark space.

• Scallions- We saved some scallions in the field to pair with sweet potatoes this week - see the recipe below!

• Garlic

• Salanova Lettuce Mix

• Broccoli

• Potatoes - The variety is called King Harry and it has yellow skin and white flesh.

• Fennel

• Peppers - We cleared the plants out in the field on Saturday before the frost, so we have green and purple peppers this week. We will likely run through those peppers this week, but we may have limited amounts of high tunnel peppers in the future.

• Butternut squash

• Beets

• Arugula

• Savoy cabbage

• Mustard Greens

• Radishes - White and purple mini daikon varieties

Pick-Your-Own:

There may be a few cherry tomatoes and hot peppers early in the week if they survive tonight’s frost (they do seem to still be standing after frosts this weekend!) . We don’t anticipate them lasting all week.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will have high tunnel tomatoes, acorn and delicata squash, lettuce, eggplant, carrots, corn stalks, and dried flowers in the farm store this week. We will also have Jack-o’-Lanterns from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm, Double B Honey from hives here on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, raspberry jam and vinegar from Silferleaf Farm in Concord, and certified organic cranberries from Fresh Meadows Farm in Carver, MA.

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. The Farm Store will be open until Saturday, October 29th, 2022. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The PYO Flower CSA is finished for the season as the last plants were done in by the recent frosts.

Fall Mushroom CSA

It is the fifth week of the 10-week Fall Mushroom CSA. The variety this week’s bags are a mix of king trumpet and blue oyster! For more information about each variety Fat Moon Farm grows, check out the “Types We Grow” page of their website: https://fatmoonmushrooms.com/pages/types-we-grow! Pick-up for the Fall mushroom CSA is any time the farm store is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm.

Sweet potato cakes

Adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

• 2 ¼ lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks

• 2 tsp soy sauce

• ¾ cup flour

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp sugar

• 3 tbsp scallion, chopped

• ½ tsp fresh chilli, finely chopped

• Lots of butter, for frying

For the sauce:

• 3 tbsp Greek yogurt

• 3 tbsp sour cream

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• Salt and pepper

• 1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Steam the sweet potato until soft, then drain in a colander for up to an hour. Meanwhile, whisk the sauce ingredients until smooth and set aside. In a mixing bowl, work all the fritter ingredients by hand - it should be sticky, so if it's a little runny, add some flour. Melt some butter in a nonstick pan. Use a tablespoon to put mix in the frying pan and flatten slightly with the back of the spoon. and fry on moderate heat until you get a nice, brown crust, turning as necessary - about six minutes. Place between two sheets of paper towels to soak up the excess butter. Serve hot or warm, with the sauce on the side.

Sweet Potato Cranberry Casserole

from Aberdeen’s Kitchen, November 20th, 2020

Ingredients

For the casserole:

• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

• 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced

• ½ cup fresh cranberries

• ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped

• 1 tablespoon orange zest

• ¼ cup orange juice

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

• ¼ cup brown sugar

• ½ teaspoon coarse salt

For the Topping

• 1 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• ¼ cup brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons orange juice

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger

• ¼ cup pecans, roughly chopped

• ¼ cup pomegranate arils

• Fresh thyme leaves, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease or butter a 9X13 casserole dish.

2. Combine all the ingredients for the casserole in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed. Add to greased casserole dish in an even layer.

3. Whisk together all the ingredients for the topping (except the pomegranate seeds and thyme) in a small bowl until completely mixed. Drizzle evenly over the casserole.

4. Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until sweet potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. If the top starts to get too browned, cover with a piece of foil and continue to cook until fork tender.

5. Remove to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and serve.

CSA Week 18 and Farm Stand Updates!

We harvested our first two beds of sweet potatoes last week and they were filled with beautiful big - but not too big - sweet potatoes! Sweet potatoes are one of our fall crops that take some time to sweeten up, so after harvesting we laid them out in the greenhouse and turned the heat on to keep them at optimal curing temperatures to turn their starches to sugars. The curing process takes about 5-10 days, so we will begin to give them out next week in the CSA (week 19) and farm store when they are cured and ready to eat! We will continue to harvest the remaining beds and keep them rotating through the greenhouse to cure before being distributed. Before we get to the sweet potatoes next week we have a lot of great veggies this week, including more King Harry Potatoes, broccoli, and the return of Salanova lettuce mix! We also have a late-in-the-game eggplant field recovery! We lost about 70% of our eggplant plants to Colorado Potato Beetles, and the remaining plants were so damaged that we have only gotten a couple of small harvests for the store over the course of the season. We finally have a larger quantity this week, so CSA members will have the choice of eggplant or peppers at each pick-up this week. We are anticipating a frost this week, which feels fitting as many of the fields are in cover crop, the field tomatoes have stopped producing, and the crew is starting later due to the later sunrise. There are also just two weeks left after this one in the Main Season CSA!

In the CSA this week:

• Salanova Lettuce Mix - This will be limited this week to make sure everyone gets some after patiently waiting for our current planting to size up! We should have more again this fall before the end of the season because we have another planting under row cover, as well as a full high tunnel planted in Salanova for the Extended Season.

• Broccoli - The plantings that are ready this week are producing nicer quality heads than earlier plantings because the plants matured after the most severe heat of the summer.

• Potatoes - The variety is called King Harry and it has yellow skin and white flesh.

• Fennel

• Leeks

• Eggplant or peppers

• Butternut squash or Pie pumpkins - This is probably the last week in the Main Season CSA for pie pumpkins (there will likely be some in the Extended season).

• Beets

• Carrots

• Arugula

• Savoy cabbage

• Curly green kale

• Radishes - Red, white and purple mini daikon varieties

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes - They are ripening slowly lately so we have opened them every other week when we get enough to ripen for everyone to have some. If we get a frost this week it will be the end of the cherry tomatoes.

• Hot peppers- choice of Jalapeño, Aji Rico, Fresno, Hungarian Hot Wax, and Red Ember (cayenne).

• Herbs - choice of oregano, sage, thyme or lemon thyme.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will have tomatoes, acorn and delicata squash, and lettuce in the farm store this week. We will also have Jack-o’-Lanterns from Verrill Farm. We also have eggs from Codman Farm, Double B Honey from hives here on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, raspberry jam and vinegar from Silferleaf Farm in Concord, and possibly fresh raspberries from Silferleaf if available.

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. The Farm Store will be open until Saturday, October 29th, 2022. 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:

This is likely the last week for the PYO flower field, so we suggest Flower CSA members finish picking their allotted jars as soon as possible! Most flowers will be gone when we get our first frost, which may be this week. Bouquets that are not picked do not carry over to the next season. Varieties available include zinnias, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, rudbeckia, verbena, decorative basil, and amaranth. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Fall Mushroom CSA

It is the fourth week of the 10-week Fall Mushroom CSA. The variety this week is blue oyster! For more information about each variety Fat Moon Farm grows, check out the “Types We Grow” page of their website: https://fatmoonmushrooms.com/pages/types-we-grow! Pick-up for the Fall mushroom CSA is any time the farm store is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm.

Harvest Pumpkin Leek Soup

from Little Spice Jar

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 2 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced

• ½ cup chopped onions

• 1 stalk celery, chopped

• 1 large carrot, chopped

• 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

• 15 oz pureed pumpkin (cut pumpkin in half, roast both halves, scoop out the middle and puree)

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 tablespoons maple syrup (more to taste)

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage AND fresh thyme

• ¼ teaspoon EACH: ground cinnamon AND cayenne pepper (omit for a mild soup or use more if you want it spicier)

• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

• 6 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

• ⅓ - ½ cup heavy cream (or coconut cream)

Instructions

1. SAUTE: Melt the butter in a 4-quart pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the leeks, onions, celery, and carrots, cook until they soften a bit, about 7-8 minutes. Season with a small pinch of salt and add the garlic, continue to cook for 1-2 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant.

2. SIMMER: Add the pumpkin puree, bay leaf, maple syrup, herbs, spices, and chicken stock. Bring the soup to a boil and allow it to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the flavors develop.

3. BLEND: Fish out the bay leaf, then pour in ⅓ cup of the heavy cream and stir to combine. Using a blender stick, blend the soup or by transfer the soup to a traditional blender, blend the soup until it’s smooth. Taste and adjust with additional cream if desired. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with pepitas and a drizzle of cream.

CSA Week 17, Farm Stand updates, end of season details, and plans for 2023!

As we are approaching the end of this season we have been doing a lot of planning for next season, which will be our 10th year on the property! In 2023 we will be keeping our Farm Store open 5 days a week: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. As usual, we will be offering Barrett’s Bucks for 2023 starting in January. We will also continue to work with Fat Moon Mushrooms to offer a Spring and Fall mushroom CSA, as well as provide their delicious mushrooms in the Farm Store. We will also continue to offer Main Season, Flex and Extended Season CSA memberships. Current CSA members will be receiving a detailed email on Tuesday about renewing memberships for the 2023 season, along with a link to the sign-up page. This information will also be available in a printed letter this week during CSA pick-ups. We will be offering new memberships beginning January 15th, 2023.

The 2022 season is not over yet! It is week 17 of 20 for the Main Season CSA, so there are still 3 pick-ups left in the Main Season after this week. The Main Season CSA ends on October 22nd. Extended CSA members have an additional 4 weeks of pick-ups for a total of 24 weeks, ending November 19th. Flex members have 20 weeks of pick ups over the 24 week season, so please talk with the shopkeeper or email Melissa if you have any questions about your number of remaining pick-ups! There are no Tuesday pick-ups for the last 4 weeks of the Extended/Flex CSA so starting the week of October 25th CSA pick-ups will be Thursdays 11am-6pm and Saturdays 9am-3pm. The Farm Store will remain open through October 29th. Barrett’s Bucks expire on the last regular day of the farm stand, October 29th, and balances do not carry over for winter sales or for next season. We do not anticipate having a bulk sale this year due to limited supplies, however, it’s possible we will be able to offer a Thanksgiving or an early December pop up for later maturing high tunnel grown items.

In the CSA this week:

• Rainbow Carrots! We grew 4 different varieties of carrots to create rainbow bunches! One variety is our tried and true orange bolero carrot, the three others are very aptly named for their colorful additions: ruby red, purple haze, yellowstone!

• Broccoli - We have seen a lot of heat stress damage in our first broccoli planting. High temps like we saw this year into late August and early September can cause uneven development well before you even see a crown developing, and this uneven head formation creates prime conditions for rot to develop. Fortunately, it looks like in later successions the temperatures were lower during this critical development stage, so we hope to have some prettier broccoli soon! This week’s broccoli is still perfectly edible, but we would recommend consuming it earlier rather than later, as it will not hold it’s freshness as long.

• Potatoes - We’ll be enjoying King Harry potatoes (yellow skin, white flesh) this week! This variety is interesting because it’s leaves are “hairy”, which acts as a deterrent to our primary potato pest - Colorado potato beetle!

• Tomatoes - Our high tunnel and field tomatoes are still producing, but production is slowing dramatically with the shorter, cooler days. Still, this is the latest we’ve had tomatoes available in the CSA!

• Savoy or tendersweet cabbage - Both varieties are thin skinned cabbages, which are great for making fresh slaws!

• Fennel

• Peppers

• Onions

• Pie pumpkins

• Arugula

• Beets

• Radishes

• Curly green kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green Beans

• Hot peppers- choice of Jalapeño, Aji Rico, Fresno, Hungarian Hot Wax, and Red Ember (cayenne).

• Herbs - choice of oregano, sage, thyme or lemon thyme.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will have baby bok choy, acorn and delicata squash, and lettuce in the farm store this week. New this week: Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins from Verrill Farm! We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm, Double B Honey from hives here on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, raspberry jam and vinegar from Silferleaf Farm in Concord, and possibly fresh raspberries from Silferleaf if available.

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

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The flower field is still open for Flower CSA members to pick but it will not continue to produce for much longer so we suggest Flower CSA members finish picking their allotted jars as soon as possible! Feel free to bring family and friends to help you pick! Bouquets that are not picked do not carry over to the next season. Varieties available include zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, rudbeckia, cosmos, verbena, decorative basil, and amaranth. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Fall Mushroom CSA

It is the third week of the Fall Mushroom CSA. The variety this week is shiitake mushrooms! For more information about each variety Fat Moon Farm grows, check out the “Types We Grow” page of their website: https://fatmoonmushrooms.com/pages/types-we-grow! Pick-up for the Fall mushroom CSA is any time the farm store is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm.

Cabbage Salad with Apples and Walnuts

By Sonja Overhiser at https://www.acouplecooks.com/apple-walnut-savoy-cabbage-salad

Ingredients

·      ⅓ cup olive oil

·       3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

·       3 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

·       2 pinches kosher salt

·       Fresh ground black pepper

·       ½ cup walnuts

·       1 head Savoy cabbage

·       2 apples

·       ½ cup Parmesan cheese shavings (or Pecorino Romano)

Instructions

1.    For the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, cider vinegar, honey, kosher salt, and fresh ground black pepper.

2.    If desired, toast the walnuts by placing them in a dry skillet over low heat for several minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly browned and fragrant. Immediately remove from the heat into a bowl.

3.    Thinly slice the cabbage. Core 2 apples and chop them. (If not eating immediately, sprinkle the apples with a bit of lemon juice to prevent browning.) Using a vegetable peeler, shave the Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese.

4.    To serve, place cabbage on a serving plate, then top with apples, walnuts, cheese, and dressing.

CSA Week 16 and Farm Stand Updates

We are so excited about our “new” truck, but it had to go back for some big repairs a few weeks ago, so we waited to share this photo until the truck was ready for action! Now that we have it back it has transformed our daily experience! We have been using it for harvests, transporting around bulky items, and taking it out on the road to get gas and diesel for our tractors (we had been using our personal vehicles for a long time, so we are happy to no longer worry about our cars smelling like fuel!). Now that we have spent some time with our new truck we were able to move onto important business - voting on a truck name. And the winner is…. Ruth Whitney Barrett!

This week is another classic September veggie selection, with a continued tomato harvest (the drought was good for one thing - reduced disease pressure!), more winter squash (pie pumpkins in addition to more acorn!), as well as the return of two CSA and store favorites: carrots and baby bok choy! Some years we get a frost around this time, but luckily that’s not the case this year! That means the pick-your-own green beans are still looking great and we will re-open the cherry tomatoes for a last little taste of summer.

The field crew will spend much of their days bringing in the harvest, as well as continuing fall clean up tasks like rolling up landscape fabric, pulling up plastic mulch and drip tape, and starting to put away irrigation lines. It’s a long process to clear the fields for cover crop, so these items will be on our to-do list for quite some time!

In the CSA this week:

• Pie Pumpkins - While many of us think of pie pumpkins as a Thanksgiving staple, they actually don’t keep well, so we are trying to start distributing them before we start to see some loss in storage. To use in any pumpkin bread, muffin or pie recipe, first roast the pumpkin by cutting in half, removing the seeds, and baking cut side down at 400 degrees for about an hour. Cool then scoop out the flesh and puree in a food processor. See the recipe below for more details!

• Escarole - A leafy green that is a member of the chicory family. Like other chicories, it has a slightly bitter flavor, so while it can be used mixed into a salad, most people prefer it cooked. It is especially good sautéed with olive oil and garlic!

• Baby bok choy -Baby bok choy does not like the heat of summer so we grow it only in the spring and then again in the fall when we know temperatures will cool down enough to keep it from bolting.

• Carrots! As we have mentioned before, we had a lot of trouble growing our fall carrots in this summer’s drought and extreme heat, so they will be limited this fall. The good news is we will have them in the CSA and farm store this week and next!

• Beets

• Tomatoes

• Scallions

• Garlic

• Acorn Squash

• Arugula

• Radishes

• Curly green kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green Beans

• Hot peppers- choice of Jalapeño, Aji Rico, Fresno, Hungarian Hot Wax, and Red Ember (cayenne).

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

• Cherry tomatoes - Many of the tomatoes are split due to recent heavy rains (the drought this summer is starting to seem like a distant memory!), but the plants are still alive so we will open them up again this week to make sure that any last tomatoes are able to be enjoyed before the plants are no longer producing at all!

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will have tendersweet cabbage, broccoli, salanova lettuce mix and delicata squash in the farm store this week. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm, Double B Honey from hives here on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, raspberry jam and vinegar from Silferleaf Farm in Concord, and possibly fresh raspberries from Silferleaf when available.

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

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The field is open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public for picking by the jar. The flower field will not continue to produce for much longer so we suggest Flower CSA members finish picking their allotted jars as soon as possible! Feel free to bring family and friends to help you pick! Bouquets that are not picked do not carry over to the next season. Varieties available include zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, rudbeckia, cosmos, verbena, decorative basil, and amaranth. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Fall Mushroom CSA

It is the second week of the Fall Mushroom CSA. The variety this week is Yellow Oyster mushrooms! For more information about each variety Fat Moon Farm grows check out their “Types We Grow” page of their website: https://fatmoonmushrooms.com/pages/types-we-grow! Pick-up for the Fall mushroom CSA is any time the farm store is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We are offering pro-rated memberships for anyone signing up this week to start the mushroom CSA next week! Sign ups are available here: http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/online-store/2022fall-mushroom-csa-from-fat-moon. The Fall mushroom CSA is one pound of mushrooms each week until November 19th.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins 

from ambitiouskitchen.com

•   1  1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour

•   1 teaspoon baking soda

•   1  1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

•   1/4 teaspoon ginger

•   1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

•   pinch of cloves

•   1 cup pumpkin puree (roast halved and de-seeded pie pumpkin until fork tender, scoop out flesh and puree)

•   1/4 cup honey

•   1 egg

•   1/2 tablespoon olive or coconut oil

•   1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•   1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt

•   1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

•   1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Add pumpkin, honey, egg, oil, vanilla, yogurt and milk to a blender. Blend on high for 1 minute or until well combined, smooth and creamy. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly into muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Cool muffins for 5 minutes then remove and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Muffins are best served warm!

Gingery Fried Rice With Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Basil

by Alexa Weibel, NY Times Cooking

Ingredients

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

• 4 cups cooked, day-old jasmine rice (or 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice; see Tip)

• 5 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

• ¾ pound mixed fresh mushrooms, such as shiitake and cremini, thinly sliced, or whole shimeji mushrooms

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• ¾ pound baby bok choy (about 8 small baby bok choy), trimmed, then sliced crosswise ½-inch thick

• 5 scallions, trimmed, greens and whites thinly sliced (about ½ cup)

• 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

• 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional)

• ¾ cup frozen peas

• 2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger (from one 2-inch piece)

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons sesame oil

• ⅛ teaspoon white pepper (optional)

• ½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Preparation

1. Take the cooked rice out of the refrigerator, and set it aside at room temperature.

2. In a large wok or nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons canola oil over medium-high. Add the mushrooms, season generously with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and tender, 5 or 6 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Wipe out the skillet, if needed, then add 1 tablespoon canola oil and heat over medium-high. Add the bok choy, scallions, garlic and jalapeño, if using. Season with salt and pepper and stir-fry, stirring frequently, until aromatic and barely crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the mushrooms.

4. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons canola oil to the skillet and heat over medium-high. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted and toothsome, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the frozen peas, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper (if using), and stir until rice is evenly coated in soy sauce mixture, and no uncoated rice grains remain, 1 to 2 minutes.

5. Stir in the mushroom and bok choy mixture and the basil until basil is wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper then divide among bowls; serve hot.

Tip: Leftover rice that has dried out in the refrigerator for a day or two works best for this recipe because it will crisp better than fresh rice. If you don’t have time to cook your rice a day in advance, you can cook 1 cup jasmine rice according to package instructions, transfer the cooked rice to a large baking sheet, spread it in an even layer and pop it in the freezer to chill it while you prepare the vegetables, then pull the rice from the freezer to cook it in Step 4.

Week 15 and Farm Stand Updates

Carmella at our stand at the annual Ag Day Farmers’ Market on Saturday! We had a blast connecting with community members and our fellow farmers!

Our farm store and CSA will be looking decidedly fall-like this week! We are bringing in more winter squash, the first of the fall cabbage is ready, and red onions are cured and ready for distribution. Yum! This week also brings the return of arugula which had a summer hiatus because it does not grow well in the heat. This is the first of a few arugula seedings that we have coming up this fall. The salanova is sizing up but growing slowly so we will have a limited amount in the CSA and farm store this week in an effort to make it last for a couple of more weeks.

Cover crop is coming up nicely in many of our fields but we will be continuing to clear as many areas as we can by pulling up plastic mulch and rolling up landscape fabric in order to seed as much cover crop as possible before it gets too cold for it to germinate. Our big planting project this week is our fall planted strawberries! These are generally the strawberry beds we pick from for the farm store but we are experimenting with also planting some of this type in our CSA’s pick-your-own this year. Other items on our to-do-list this week other than harvest is clearing high tunnel beds for an experimental planting of cilantro for this fall, topping our Brussels sprouts, and putting fences up to protect our fall spinach. We will also be testing and baiting our electric fences, as the deer footprints inside our fence are making us nervous that they might start munching soon!

In the CSA this week:

• Scallions - They are back after a summer hiatus. We should have them for a couple of weeks!

• Acorn Squash

• Tendersweet cabbage - Because it is softer and sweeter than storage cabbages, this is a great variety for eating raw rather than cooked.

• Red onions - These are cured and can be kept on the counter rather than in the fridge.

• Arugula

• Radishes - Red king (a long red radish) or Rover (a round red radish)

• Delicata squash

• Tomatoes

• Garlic

• Beets

• Salanova Lettuce Mix - A limited quantity to make the beds we have last now that the cooler days have slowed new growth.

• Curly green kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers!

• Green Beans

• Hot peppers- choice of Jalapeño, Aji Rico, Fresno, Hungarian Hot Wax, and Red Ember (cayenne).

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

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA we will have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Codman Farm, Double B Honey from hives here on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm, raspberry jam and vinegar Silferleaf Farm in Concord, and possibly fresh raspberries from Silferleaf if available.

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

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

The field is open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public for picking by the jar. Varieties available include zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, rudbeckia, cosmos, verbena, decorative basil, amaranth and sunflowers. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Fall Mushroom CSA

The Fall Mushroom CSA starts this week! Pick up is any time the farm store is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. If you missed sing ups this week there is still time to join in on the fall mushroom CSA! We will be offering pro-rated memberships for anyone signing up this week to start the mushroom CSA next week! Sign ups are available here: http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/online-store/2022fall-mushroom-csa-from-fat-moon. The Fall mushroom CSA will be a pick-up of one pound of mushrooms each week until November 19th.

Slow-Cooked Winter Squash with Sage and Thyme

BY CLAIRE SAFFITZ

Douse squash in lots of oil and let it slow-roast to golden-deliciousness in this hands-off dish.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. delicata or acorn squash, halved lengthwise, seeds removed, sliced crosswise 1/2" thick

• 1/2 head of garlic

• 2 sprigs sage

• 2 sprigs thyme

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt

• 1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

Preparation:

1. Place a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350°F. Toss squash, garlic, sage, thyme, oil, and salt in a shallow 2-qt. baking dish to combine.

2. Turn garlic cut side down, then roast vegetables, tossing 2 or 3 times, until golden brown, very tender, and edges and cut sides are crisp, 60–70 minutes. Let cool slightly, then add vinegar and toss to coat.