CSA Week 8 and Farm Stand Upates

While we are still caring for many of our summer crops - trellising, weeding, and even picking potato beetles off our eggplant and tomatoes - we are starting to shift towards more work on our fall crops. Last week we worked on thinning and weeding fall carrots and beets and we did a bit of weeding and cultivating of our fall brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale). We also began harvesting our garlic, which will mostly be a crop distributed in the fall after it is cured. However, since we have limited space for hanging garlic to cure, we will also be enjoying some uncured garlic this week!

In the CSA this week:

• Peppers - Mostly green, but we may also have a sprinkling of purple peppers as well.

• Uncured garlic - Most of the garlic we harvest in July gets hung up in the farm stand to cure, which takes several weeks. We set aside some, however, for eating before it is cured (a process that dries out the garlic and gives it a longer shelf life). Uncured garlic has a slightly milder flavor, but otherwise can be used just like cured garlic.

• Fresh Onions - In addition to the white Ailsa Craig variety, we’ll also have Red Long of Tropea. As the name suggest it’s a red torpedo-shaped onion. These fresh onions have a milder and sweeter flavor than the cured onions you get at the store. Since these are fresh rather than cured they should be refrigerated.

• Curlesi Endive - This endive variety looks a lot like the frisee we had last week, and it’s preparations are similar as well! It is a slightly bitter green that can go in salads or it can be seared or wilted.

• Beets.

• Carrots

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• Pickling cucumbers

• Cabbage

• Kale

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Snap beans - both green and purple!

• Sunflowers

• Herbs - sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, dill, and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have flower bouquets, tomatoes, eggplant and possibly some cherry tomatoes at the end of the week. In addition we will have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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

PYO Flower CSA

The PYO Flower garden is now open to both Flower CSA members and to the general public. Varieties available include snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points so that we can enjoy the plants for the next 2 months. 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.

Stir-Fried Garlic Green Beans

by Martha Rose Shulman, from NY Times Cooking

Ingredients:

• 1 pound green beans, trimmed

• Salt to taste

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce, low-sodium if desired

• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil or canola oil

Preparation:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, season with salt and add the green beans. Boil 1 minute, drain and rinse with cold water, then place on a kitchen towel to dry thoroughly. (If vegetables aren’t dry when you add them to the hot wok or pan, they will splutter and braise instead of stir-frying.) Place within reach of your wok or pan.

2. Combine the soy sauce and wine or sherry in a small bowl or measuring cup and place within reach of your wok or pan. Place the garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes in another small container near the burner.

3. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or a 12-inch skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and swirling the pan. Add the garlic and ginger, stir-frying for no more than 10 seconds, and then add the green beans. Toss together, then add the soy sauce and sherry and stir-fry for one to two minutes, until the beans are crisp-tender. Remove from the heat and serve.

ZUCCHINI GRIDDLECAKES

By Adam Ried from The Boston Globe, August 19, 2007

MAKES ABOUT 24
2 1/2- TO 3-INCH CAKES

See below for several variations!

• 2 1/2 pounds (about 8) small to medium zucchini

• 1 medium onion

• 1 tablespoon plus

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 large eggs, beaten lightly

• 1/2 cup milk or half-and-half

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper, or to taste

• 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons flour

• Corn, vegetable, or canola oil (for cooking)

Using the shredding disk in a food processor or the large holes on a box grater, shred or grate the zucchini (you should have about 8 cups) and the onion. Place the vegetables in a colander, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt, and mix. Place the colander over a bowl and let stand 30 minutes until mixture exudes about 1 cup of liquid. Rinse under cold water. Spread a clean dish towel on a work surface, place the mixture in the center, gather the corners of the towel, and twist to wring out as much liquid as possible. Transfer to a large bowl, and break up clumps with a wooden spoon.

Stir parsley, eggs, milk or half-and-half, baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper into the zucchini and blend. Add the flour, and, using a rubber spatula, fold it into the zucchini mixture.

Set the oven rack to the center position and heat to 250 degrees. In a large, nonstick skillet, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Measure 2 or 3 tablespoons zucchini batter and pour into the pan to form a disk 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Repeat until the pan is filled, leaving about 1 inch between cakes. Cook cakes without moving (adjusting heat if pan becomes too hot) until the bottoms are golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the cakes and cook until the second side is golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes more. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and set in the warm oven. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm.

VARIATIONS

Herb and Parmesan Substitute 6 tablespoons mixed chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, mint, chives, tarragon, basil, and chervil for the parsley and add 3/4 cup grated Parmesan with the flour.

Mint and feta Substitute 6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint for the parsley and add 3/4 cup of crumbled feta with the flour.

Thyme and corn Remove kernels from 2 ears of corn, about 2 cups. (See Fresh Corn Griddlecakes for instructions.) Follow the Zucchini Griddlecakes recipe using 4 zucchini instead of 8. Add the corn and 3/4 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme to the squeezed zucchini along with the parsley, eggs, milk or half-and-half, baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper.

CSA Week 7 and Farm Stand Updates

This time of year one of the most frequent questions we get from CSA members is whether or not they can donate their veggies while they are away on vacation. The answer is yes! Every week after closing on Saturday, we put together a donation for the Boston Area Gleaners including any surpluses from both the CSA and the farm store. The Gleaners are a great non-profit organization based in Acton that collects produce from area farms to distribute to many food pantries in Greater Boston. We have been partnering with the Gleaners for many years now and find that is an easy way for us to give back. We don’t have to coordinate with multiple agencies to figure out what they are willing to take, and we don’t have to make any deliveries - the Gleaners come to us! As an added bonus, it helps us to clean out our coolers to make way for the next week’s harvest!

In the CSA this week:

• Ailsa Craig Onions - These fresh onions have a milder and sweeter flavor than the cured onions you get at the store. Since these are fresh rather than cured they should be refrigerated.

• Frisée - This is a slightly bitter leafy green that can add nice crunch to salads. It has some crunch, so it can also stand up to some wilting or sautéeing if you want to mellow the flavor.

• Mustard greens or Yukina Savoy - Because of the hotter temps we typically experience in July it is difficult to consistently produce greens because heat stresses these plants, negatively impacting both flavor and texture. Mustard and yukina both stand up better to heat than many other greens, so we will have one of these each pick-up day!

• Beets - we’ll have some golden beets and some red beet bunches.

• Carrots

• Potatoes - we continue to have red potatoes this week.

• Fennel

• Garlic scapes

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• Pickling cucumbers

• Cabbage

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green beans

• Sunflowers

• Herbs - sage, thyme, oregano, chives, parsley, dill, and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have the first of our own tomatoes, eggplant and pepper (all will be small quantities while production is ramping up), as well as mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s. We hope to have Verrill Farm sweet corn soon!

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

PYO Flower CSA

This week the PYO flower field will only be open to Flower CSA members only until we have a higher quantity of blooms. However, we plan to have the field open to the general public by next week! PYO Flower CSA members should have received an email earlier today with more details.

Quick Pickled Cucumbers

by Melissa Griffiths from Bless this Mess

Ingredients

• 1 cup water

• ⅓ cup vinegar (apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good)

• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

• 1 to 2 teaspoons salt

• sliced garden cucumbers (about 2 cups)

• sliced onion or green onion (about ½ cup)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.

2. All the cucumbers should be covered in the brine, if you have lots of cucumber or are making a big batch, make more brine.

3. Let the mixture rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The flavors develop over time, so an overnight soak is great but mine are normally gone by dinner.

CSA Week 6 and Farm Stand Updates

Every day we have been progressively chipping away at our to-do lists, with our rock star crew pushing through difficult hot and humid weather conditions last week. We have been weeding, trellising, seeding and more, but it is our heavy summer squash, zucchini and cucumber harvests that have perhaps eaten up the largest portions of our days. Because of how quickly the fruit grows, we need to harvest at least 4 or 5 days per week. The work doesn’t end with the harvest, though. Next we need to bin the harvest up into crates (and oftentimes we need to condense and wash bins in order to have something to put the harvest into!) and then we shuffle things around in the packed cooler to make space so that it’s organized for the person stocking the store and the CSA. After the squash, zucchini and cucumbers are all binned up, then we usually have a mountain of harvest buckets to scrub. Fortunately, bin and bucket washing is a highly desirable task on hot summer days!

In the CSA this week:

• Potatoes - This week we’ll be enjoying “Dark Red Norland” variety, which has red skin and white flesh.

• Cabbage - we’ll have both the regular round green heads as well as the conical green heads (“Caraflex” variety).

• Pickling cucumbers - These can be eaten fresh like slicing cucumbers, but they are especially suited for pickling as they will maintain crispness better than other types of cucumber.

• Carrots

• Celery

• Fennel

• Garlic scapes

• Scallions

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• “Burpless” cucumbers - thin-skinned and seedless

• Carrots

• Curly kale

• Lettuce

• Salanova lettuce mix

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green beans

• Sunflowers

• Herbs - sage, thyme, oregano, chive, parsley, dill, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have beets, as well as mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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

Fennel-Apple Salad With Walnuts

by Melissa Clark, from NY Times Cooking

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice, plus more to taste

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 3 large fennel bulbs, thinly sliced on a mandoline

• 2 Granny Smith apples, halved and cored, thinly sliced on a mandoline

• 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced on a mandoline

• ⅓ cup fennel fronds or roughly chopped parsley leaves

• ½cup toasted walnuts

• 2½ ounces Parmesan, shaved with a vegetable peeler (about ⅔ cup)

Preparation

1. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in oil, continuously whisking, until dressing is emulsified. Taste and add more lemon juice and/or salt if needed.

2. In a large bowl, toss the dressing with fennel, apple and celery. Fold in fennel fronds or parsley and walnuts. Top with Parmesan just before serving.

Tip: Dressing can be made the day before serving. Store in the refrigerator. Toss with salad ingredients up to 1 hour before serving.

July 4th hours and CSA Week 5

The forecast of constant thunderstorms last week didn’t completely pan out, which we are grateful for! We did fortunately get enough rain to allow us to defer setting up more irrigation until this week. That meant we could keep plugging away at trellising tomatoes in our high tunnels and putting down landscape fabric in tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers to keep down weeds. This week we will try to put down the last of the landscape fabric in our eggplant, peppers and watermelon, as well as move on to trellising our high tunnel peppers and field tomatoes. We will also continue to pick Colorado potato beetles off of our eggplant and tomato plants, and we will put in one last effort at burning the bugs on our potato plants. Because organic pesticides are not very effective in controlling potato beetles, we have to resort mostly to time consuming control methods like picking off bugs by hand and burning the larvae once populations increase. We could have everyone on the crew spending an entire day picking bugs by hand off the potato plants and still not make it all the way through, so this time of year burning the bugs is faster! It is a huge challenge to keep up with potato beetles and we know we will eventually lose, so we try to strike the right balance of keeping our plants alive long enough to produce harvestable yields while not taking up so much time that other crops suffer. We feel like we’re as successful as we can be in striking that balance, but it’s still pretty deflating to see a field you’ve worked on for weeks completely defoliated in a matter of days!

The farm stand will be closed Tuesday July 4th for the holiday, but we will be open regular hours again on Wednesday. Happy 4th!

In the CSA this week:

• Purple carrots - We grow a bed of purple carrots every spring to add a little excitement to things!

• Scallions - Back after a short hiatus!

• Celery - Ours tends to be less watery than grocery store celery, so it has a more concentrated flavor.

• “Burpless” cucumbers - We tried out a new variety in the high tunnel called Katrina. These are short thin-skinned and seedless with a very mild flavor (like a Persian cucumber).

• Garlic scapes

• Fennel

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• Carrots

• Beets

• Curly kale

• Lettuce

• Salanova lettuce mix

• Mustard greens

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Herbs - sage, thyme, parsley, dill, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have pickling cucumbers and radishes. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm (closed Tuesday July 4th this week). We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

Mushroom CSA:

Last week was the final one of the Spring Mushroom CSA. Stay tuned for sign-ups for the Fall session!

Caramelized Zucchini Pasta

by Ali Slagle, from NY Times Cooking

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 pounds zucchini, coarsely grated (about 3 large zucchini)

• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed (or use scapes!)

• ½cup basil leaves, stems reserved, plus more for serving

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• 1 pound ridged or curly pasta (like medium shells or casarecce)

• ½ cup finely grated Parmesan or pecorino (about ½ ounce), plus more for serving

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preparation

1. In a large (at least 12-inch) cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter and oil. When it’s foaming, add the zucchini, garlic, the basil stems and half the basil leaves. Season with 1¼ teaspoons salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cover and cook until pooling with liquid, 5 to 7 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid evaporates and the zucchini starts to sizzle, 7 to 10 minutes.

2. Continue to cook until the zucchini is very soft, dark green, and reduced to about 1 cup, another 20 to 25 minutes. When you see a build up of browned bits on the skillet, add a couple tablespoons of water and stir, scraping up the browned bits. Repeat anytime more browning occurs. If you see burning, deglaze with water and lower the heat. (Caramelized zucchini can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to a week; it also freezes well.)

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the zucchini is about done, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve 2 cups of pasta water, then drain the pasta. If the zucchini is ready before the pasta, keep cooking it; the zucchini will only get better the longer it cooks.

4. When the pasta’s drained, remove the herb stems from the zucchini. Reduce the heat on the zucchini to medium, then add the pasta, 1 cup pasta water, and the Parmesan. Stir until the pasta is glossed with sauce. Add more pasta water as needed to thin the sauce. Stir in the lemon juice and remaining basil, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with more basil, Parmesan and black pepper.

CSA Week 4 and Farm Stand Updates

It’s been a wetter season so far than we’ve been used to in recent years, so we took advantage of a couple of warm and sunny days last week to kill some weeds! Carmella, Siobhan and Anna all got some quality time atop our cultivating tractors. We also made a big dent in putting down landscape fabric in between beds (the landscape fabric prevents weeds from growing so that we don’t have to hand weed, hoe or cultivate with tractors all season long). This week we are bracing for some stormy weather. While thunderstorms can make it challenging to safely accomplish important field tasks like harvesting, they do force us under cover for some equally important tasks like seeding in our greenhouse and trellising in our high tunnels!

In the CSA this week:

• Beets - The variety that we are harvesting this week is a classic red variety.

• Red mizuna - a mild green with pinkish-red stems. These leaves are large and best for cooking.

• Mustard greens - Usually these are cooked, but they can also make a colorful and spicy addition to a salad!

• Garlic scapes

• Fennel

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• Carrots

• Radishes - We’ll have both the red cherriette variety as well as a new purple variety we are trying out this year!

• Salad turnips

• Curly kale or Swiss chard

• Lettuce

• Salanova lettuce mix

• Arugula

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Shelling peas - Unlike snap peas, you do not eat the pods. You “shell” them (remove the pods) and enjoy the fresh peas inside!

• Herbs - sage, thyme, parsley, dill, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have seedlings, pickling cucumbers, seedless thin-skinned cucumbers, kohlrabi, bok choi and daikon radish. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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

Mushroom CSA:

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

Sautéed Summer Squash & Zucchini Ribbons

from America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 small garlic clove, minced (or use garlic scapes!)

• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon juice

• 4 (6- to 8-ounce) yellow squash or zucchini, trimmed

• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

• Salt and pepper

• 1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Before you begin:

To avoid overcooking the squash, start checking for doneness at the lower end of the cooking time.

Instructions:

Combine garlic and lemon juice in large bowl and set aside for at least 10 minutes. Using vegetable peeler, shave each squash lengthwise into ribbons: Shave off 3 ribbons from 1 side, then turn squash 90 degrees and shave off 3 more ribbons. Continue to turn and shave ribbons until you reach seeds; discard core.

Whisk 2 tablespoons oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and lemon zest into garlic/lemon juice mixture.

Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add squash and cook, tossing occasionally with tongs, until squash has softened and is translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer squash to bowl with dressing, add parsley, and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to serving platter and serve immediately.