CSA Week 15 and Farm Stand Updates

In spite of all of the clean-up many farms had to do after Friday afternoon’s storm, Ag Day on Saturday turned out to be a great success. The next thunderstorm on Saturday even held off long enough for us to put down some cover crop seed after the market!

Given some of the stormy weather forecast for the early part of the week, we are holding off on putting up our CSA tent until later when we will hopefully have some replacement parts. In the meantime, CSA pick-up will be in the greenhouse. The farm stand is operating as usual!

We have very little left to plant on our field schedule, but much of it is concentrated in this week. In addition to planting and fencing in our fall-planted strawberries (to protect them from coyotes), we are also transplanting kale and salanova in the high tunnel. We have had an exceptionally long run with the cucumbers in our high tunnel, but we need to start making way for our late season greens. Once planted, we will need to cover them immediately, as critters have already eaten all of our high tunnel fennel and a significant portion of our high tunnel cilantro! We have one last variety of winter squash to harvest from the field (tetsukabuto), which we will likely wait to do until the end of the week when it has dried out more. Our biggest ongoing project will be to roll up landscape fabric and pull up plastic mulch and drip irrigation lines so that we can seed more cover crop. We have lots to keep us busy and we’re crossing our fingers for no more significant weather events, though we’re not holding our breath!

In the CSA this week:

• Acorn squash - We’ll have both the regular dark gree variety, as well as the “Starry Night” variety, which look a little like a cross between acorn and delicata.

• Delicata squash

• Red King radishes

• Radishes

• Eggplant or Green peppers - The eggplant plants have looked beautiful for many weeks, but the eggplant themselves have been sizing up at a snail’s pace. Last week’s heat did give the eggplant a boost, but because of shorter days we are past what should have been peak production. Since field peppers are slowing down, we will have either eggplant or peppers available this week.

• Tomatoes

• Scallions

• Garlic - This week we will start to distribute our cured garlic. These store best in a cool, dark and dry place (so not the refrigerator, as it is too humid).

• Beets

• Carrots - We have moved on to our fall carrots, which are testing delicious and will only get sweeter as it gets colder! We are going back to bunched carrots for a few weeks, so if you are planning to keep them in your refrigerator for a while, removing the tops will help ensure they stay crispy.

• Kale

• Salanova or arugula - One of these salad greens will be available each pick-up day!

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes

• Sunflowers - Many of these got knocked over during Friday’s storm, but there are still some out there ready for picking!

• Shishito peppers or tomatillos or green beans- Because the newest bean planting got munched on by deer there isn’t as much available to pick as you would expect from this planting. Therefore members will be able to select one of these three items to pick.

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have potatoes, spaghetti squash, cucumbers and colored peppers in the store. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, honey from Double B (from hives on the property, 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 flower field is open to both Flower CSA members and the public for picking by the jar. The first of 4 varieties of sunflowers we seeded in the flower field are now blooming. Other varieties currently available for picking include zinnias, bachelor button, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points. 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.

Slow-Cooked Winter Squash with Sage and Thyme

By Claire Saffitz, from Bon Apetit, September 21, 2018

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.

Sunrise on Friday!

CSA Pick-up is in the Greenhouse and Ag Day is on!

Yesterday’s storm was wild, but we are all safe and ready for CSA pick-up today! Due to the damage to our CSA tent in yesterday’s storm, we have temporarily moved CSA pick-up into the greenhouse, which is attached to the farm stand. We hope to have the tent fixed or replaced soon!

Also, Ag Day is on today - come visit us in Concord Center 10am - 2pm! We will have access to our Barrett’s Bucks database, so if you are a Bucks member you will be able to use them at the market.

CSA Week 14, Farm Stand Updates and Ag Day!

This week we are looking forward to the annual Ag Day farmers’ market on Saturday 10am - 2pm in Concord Center (the farm stand and CSA will still be open regular hours). It has been a very challenging season for all Concord farms, so it will be nice to come together for a fun and celebratory event! We hope folks will come out and show support for their exhausted farmers!

In other exciting news, the Fall Fat Moon Farm Mushroom CSA will start September 19th! Sign-ups are available now in our online store. The cost is $127 and Fat Moon Mushroom CSA members will receive one pound of Fat Moon's fresh, organic mushrooms each week for 8 weeks.

One thing that customers will probably notice this week is the limited leafy green options. While we might have enough under-sized arugula, salanova and lettuce to eek out a full week’s worth of store and CSA salad fixings (albeit in small bags), if we did so we would just find ourselves in a continuing cycle of borrowing from the following week’s plantings and never having quite enough. Our kale supply would be fine if we had a solid amount of salad greens, but to make it through the week with kale as the only leafy green, we would likely need to strip the plants, depriving us of kale for the rest of the Main season. As a result, we are going to rotate through different greens options for the week, trying not to over-harvest and shoot ourselves in the foot down the line! We might be in a different position if heavy rains hadn’t wiped out last week’s arugula planting and stunted this week’s, or if deer hadn’t started clearing entire lettuce beds a month ago! Fortunately, future plantings look good and we are hopeful we will be able to provide some more reliable salad greens going forward. The good news for CSA members this week is that we have purchased sweet corn to help fill in the gap created by a lack of greens. We still have many other veggies as well of course, including carrots, tomatoes and the first of our delicata squash!

In the CSA this week:

• Delicata squash - These are a customer favorite. They were harvested last week, so some paler ones might not have had a chance to fully cure. You can leave pale squash in a sunny window for another week or two if you want to make sure it lives up to its full sweetness potential!

• Sweet Corn - From Verrill Farm in Concord, MA, not organic. A special treat this week! Just like last year at this time, we have found ourselves in an in-between week, with summer crops fading and fall crops maturing slowly. Last year the drought was the source of our late August and early September woes. This time it has been caused by deer, coyotes and a cool, wet season! The corn will be under the CSA tent and included among your options for filling your CSA bag. As always you will get to select what you’d like to put in your CSA bag so if you don’t want the corn you will have more room for other veggies!

• Radishes

• Beets or leeks - We are aiming to have beets the whole week, but if we don’t have enough then we will start harvesting leeks to fill out the CSA.

• Green and purple peppers

• Tomatoes

• Potatoes

• Scallions

• Uncured garlic

• Carrots

• Cucumbers

• Kale or lettuce or arugula

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes

• Hot peppers - Check out the Aji Rico peppers at the back of the bed - they have a slightly citrus-y flavor and they are plentiful!

• Shishito peppers (see recipe below!), tomatillos or husk cherries - Members will be able to select one of these to pick.

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, dill, dill flowers, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have green beans, eggplant, colored peppers, and possibly summer squash. If the stars align we might have some limited salad greens at the end of the week in the store (we won’t have CSA quantities until next week). We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, honey from Double B (from hives on the property, 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 flower field is open to both Flower CSA members and the public this week for picking by the jar. The first of 4 varieties of sunflowers we seeded in the flower field are now blooming. Other varieties currently available for picking include zinnias, bachelor button, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points. 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.

Blistered Shishito Peppers

Adapted from: Cookie and Kate

INGREDIENTS

• Shishito peppers

• Extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil

• Lemon wedge, optional

• Salt, preferably flaky sea salt or kosher salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rinse and pat the peppers dry on a clean tea towel. Transfer the peppers to a medium bowl, drizzle in the oil, and toss until the peppers are evenly coated. Set aside.

2. Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat until it’s hot enough that a drop of water sizzles and evaporates quickly on contact. Add the peppers and let them cook, stirring every minute or so (not too often), until they are tender with charred spots, about 8 to 12 minutes.

3. Transfer the peppers to a serving plate. Spritz with a lemon wedge, if desired. Sprinkle with salt, to taste (don’t skimp). Serve with a little bowl on the side for the pepper stems.

French Grated Carrot Salad with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

By Jennifer Segal from Once Upon a Chef

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, peeled

• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, from one lemon

• 1½ tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1-2 teaspoons honey, to taste

• Heaping ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 finely sliced scallions (or 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots)

Instructions

1. Shred the carrots in a food processor. Set aside.

2. In a salad bowl, combine the dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey, vegetable oil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the carrots, fresh parsley and scallions (or shallots) and toss well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

3. Notes: Depending on the sweetness of the carrots, you may want to add more or less honey. Also, if you make this salad ahead of time, be sure to check the seasoning again before serving as the flavors tend to mellow.

CSA Week 13 and Farm Stand Updates

This season has been notable not only for the heavy rains, but also for the heavy wildlife pressure. The deer always love to graze on lettuce, beet tops, carrots tops, strawberry leaves, sweet potato vines, bean plants and edamame plants, but the pressure we’ve seen this season has been unlike any other year. Usually our electric fence does a good job deterring deer, but this summer it has been ineffective and we have had to put protective netting over all of our lettuce plantings for the first time (plantings that weren’t covered earlier this season ended up being almost a total loss). We’ve also seen the leaves of edamame plants completely stripped, and we are starting to see it happening on our newest bean planting too (fortunately the beans on those plants are looking beautiful!).

We’ve also seen a higher amount of coyote incursions in our fields, and while they don’t eat our crops aside from carrots and watermelons, they do love to play in our fields in ways that are very destructive. This season in particular they have loved to play fetch with the watermelon, roll around in freshly prepared seedbeds, dig up strawberry plants and drip irrigation line, bite through our deer fencing and rip up the (brand new!) coverings we put on all our lettuce plantings to protect them from deer!

We have already gone on and on about the Colorado potato beetles wreaking havoc on potatoes, eggplant and tomatoes in previous posts, so just suffice it to say we’re feeling a bit under attack! We’ve had to divert energy away from important tasks like weeding, trellising, mowing and seeding cover crops in order to pick bugs off plants, put up secondary fences around the strawberries and watermelon, chase off destructive geese, and shuffle around netting and the sand bags used to hold it down. We are looking forward to researching and brainstorming new wildlife deterring strategies this winter, as well as taking a little break from constantly worrying about who (other than our customers!) are eating our crops!

In the CSA this week:

• Beets - From our fall planting!

• Spaghetti squash or eggplant - Our spaghetti squash really struggled this season, likely in part because of too much rain, so we’ll have a choice between squash and eggplant this week. We’re hoping other winter squash varieties fared better!

• Sweet colored peppers

• Green and purple peppers

• Tomatoes - Slicing and heirloom types.

• Potatoes

• Scallions

• Uncured garlic

• Carrots

• Cucumbers

• Kale

• Lettuce or arugula or mustard greens - a combination of rain damage, flooding and deer pressure have made salad greens a challenge this week. Future plantings are looking better!

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes

• Green beans - They’re back!

• Shishito peppers, tomatillos or husk cherries - Members will be able to select one of these to pick.

• Hot peppers - One per membership to spice up your cooking this week.

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, dill, dill flowers, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have the last of the summer squash and zucchini, as well as flower bouquets later in the week. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, honey from Double B (from hives on the property, 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 flower field is open to both Flower CSA members and the public this week for picking by the jar. The first of 4 varieties of sunflowers we seeded in the flower field are now blooming. Other varieties currently available for picking include zinnias, bachelor button, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points. 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.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

from Taste of Home, July 12, 2023

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked brown rice

• 3 small tomatoes, chopped

• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed (or use fresh corn!)

• 1 small sweet onion, chopped

• 3/4 cup cubed Monterey Jack cheese

• 1/3 cup chopped ripe olives

• 1/3 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

• 1/3 cup canned red beans, rinsed and drained

• 4 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 6 large peppers

• 3/4 cup meatless spaghetti sauce

• 1/2 cup water

• 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Directions

1. Place the first 12 ingredients in a large bowl; mix lightly to combine. Cut and discard tops from sweet peppers; remove seeds. Fill peppers with rice mixture.

2. In a small bowl, mix spaghetti sauce and water; pour half the mixture into an oval 5-qt. slow cooker. Add filled peppers. Top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.

3. Cook, covered, on low 3-1/2 to 4 hours or until heated through and peppers are tender. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.

Fall Mushroom CSA sign-ups now open!

We are now accepting sign-ups for the 2023 Fall Mushroom CSA from Fat Moon! The CSA starts Tuesday, September 19th and includes one pound of Fat Moon’s fresh, organic mushrooms each week for 8 weeks. Sign-ups will be open until September 14th or until the CSA is full.

Sign-up

The cost of the CSA is $127. Sign-ups are available here on our website.

Schedule

The Fall mushroom CSA begins Tuesday, September 19th. For the first 6 weeks of the CSA mushrooms will be available for pick up at the farm stand any time the farm store is open: Tuesday-Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. After the farm store closes for the season on October 28th, mushroom pick-ups will be during the Vegetable CSA hours, Wednesday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm.

Mushrooms

The mushrooms are grown by Fat Moon Farm in Westford, MA and they are certified organic. Over the course of the CSA, expect to get a taste of varieties like Shiitake, Blue Oyster, Yellow Oyster, Chestnut, Lion's Mane, King Trumpet, Black Pearl, and Pioppino. For more information including variety descriptions, recipe suggestions, instructions for storing and more, visit Fat Moon’s website page: Make the Most of Your Mushroom CSA!