Strawberry Moon-CSA Week 3

 So Summer is officially here and the days are getting hotter and drier, and even though June's Strawberry Moon dawned full and red, the strawberries are quickly coming to a close. We are continuing to battle weeds while trying to get the irrigation lines into the beds as fast as we can. We are planning for the new well to help with our water needs, but we are still looking at more than a month of trying to water 12 acres with only 8 gals per minute (we need about 120). So we are getting creative and doing a lot of rain-dancing. We are putting off some direct seedings, such as more green beans and beets and carrots that really need to be continuously watered throughout germination. Mostly we are hoping for rain. So the next time there is rain in the forecast- do your farm team a favor and leave the windows open...or forget your umbrella...or any other little thing that might just bring that rain down onto our parched, dry soils. In the meantime, enjoy the gorgeousness of these perfect, straight from childhood memories sort of summer days/nights. I hope folks are spending some long days at the lake and getting out under the stars to watch the fireflies dance.

The goats are spending these hot days lounging under the shade of trees on the far side of the hill- you can take the pasture loop trail behind the hangar barn and see them eating juniper, buckthorn, roses and bittersweet under the white oaks and old apples. All the babes are growing quick and getting into long-legged gawky stages. They are losing their baby fuzz and starting to get sleak and shiny, but some are stuck in a bit of an awkward stage somewhere between.

In Your Share this Week (hopefully):

Lettuce (mixed heads this week)
Salad mix
Salad turnips
Mixed braising greens
Kale
I need to see if either the baby bok choi or the green cabbage are ready to go- so we might have those as well. If not, we will have chard available again.

Pick Your Own

ok. some of the flowers are ready for light picking. So we will open them up for mini-bouquets. 4-6 stems and we will start with Tuesday. If there aren't enough then we will close them for the rest of the week and reopen them to only Thurs/Fri pickers next week. We will make it fair for all. In a couple of weeks they will be full enough for all shareholders to take a nice bouquet home every week....(more rain would help them fill out faster).
Strawberries are drawing to a close. You may still pick this week, but there aren't many and most are hiding deep under the plants. We planted more for next year, the patch will be twice the size.

UPcoming events:

July is chock full of interesting programming. We have a new engagement director coming on board, so stay tuned to find out what our next round of fun activities is going to be.

There is a Meet the Farmer event this coming Saturday!!! July 2, from 10-12. We will milk a goat (kids will get to try it out!) and there will be a fun craft project! Let's talk about composting...meet the charismatic megafauna of your compost pile!!! Come on down to the farm, bring a picnic and hang out under the apple trees for lunch.

Save the date for our first Full Moon Dessert Potluck. Tuesday, July 19th starting at 630p (right after CSA). Bring your favorite dessert to share, we will have lawn games, guided moonlit hike, and more. Come hang out under the moon with us.

Recipe/Veggie of the Week: What is a SALAD TURNIP anyway?

A salad turnip is a delicious, crunchy, sweet, somewhat, but not too turnipy root veg that is bound to become one of your favorites. It looks somewhat like a white radish and has the texture of a crisp radish or daikon. We love these raw, sliced or grated into salad. Marinated in soy sauce and vinegar and ginger for a quick asian pickle. Or you can make an incredible slaw with carrots, scallions and tossed with Appalachian Naturals Ginger Miso dressing. So good. So easy. We also roast them- quarter and toss them with olive oil and salt and roast quick in a hot oven until they are fork tender. They won't make it to the plate. Just a warning. My kids eat them as a snack, like an apple.

We brought goats to the Pegan Hill Ribbon Cutting Ceremony this weekend in Natick. It's GORGEOUS up there! Go check it out.

Week 2: A Hot Dry Start to Summer

Welcome to the 2nd week of CSA and the first day of summer!

We hope you enjoyed your first week of summer greens- there are plenty more where that came from! Don't worry, we have recipes that will help you sneak (if you need to) these incredible greens into your daily diet and before long, you won't even wonder how you could possibly eat them all.

We are still in the midst of our hardest month- the farm crew is crunching the daylight hours trying to decide each day whether we should weed or transplant or stake tomatoes or lay irrigation line. With four harvest days per week, we are down to 1-2 full days of other work, so we are trying to cram in as much as possible. The dilemna of transplanting vs weeding and other things will go down once we get the second planting of tomatoes, the fourth of broccoli and the second of cabbage out of the way. Then we just have to make sure that the other plantings of lettuce go in every 2-3 weeks. There are some other bigger plantings, but they spread themselves out a little more as the summer moves along.

Cole getting the hang of cultivating. Note that the cultivator is behind him.

This is the Williams Tool System rake and knives we use.

 I spent the first part of Monday beginning to train Cole how to use the tractor to cultivate. He was a natural- taking it slow and easy and asking a ton of good questions before rocking and rolling through all the melons/watermelons and winter squash/pumpkins. He moves on to two row and three row next!

Meanwhile, Kirsten made raised beds so that we could spend the afternoon transplanting the bulk of the fall broccoli and cabbage. We didn't quite get it all in, but we will finish it up after harvest tomorrow (you might even see them at it during Tuesday CSA pick-up) if we don't get too much rain. We desperately need the rain so I won't mind if we get drenched! 

Our farmstand is adding more things this week and hopefully we even be able to take CREDIT CARDS by the end of the week. Look for Deborah's Kitchen fruit spreads from Littleton, MA in Peach Melba, Forest Berries, Mango Tango and more.  These are so so good and they are more than just a jam you pair with nut butter on a sammie. Try them paired with roasted meats, drizzled over goat cheese, stirred in rice with feta cheese, black beans and  braised escarole. This ain't your grandma's jam. We also have chickens, but they are still just teenagers and aren't laying yet. Until they are laying we won't have eggs available for sale. Waiting for a young hen to start laying is kind of like waiting for a pot to boil.....

Also, we will have reusable mesh produce bags for sale in the store in another week! You can sometimes find them at a local grocery store, but I was asked about them during last week's pick-up and figured we should add them to our selection of products in the store.

This is what the bed looks like when we finish- see all the tiny weeds with their little roots in the air......they are done!

The goats are up on the back hill behind the 'hangar' barn on the north end of the farm. It is a gorgeous walk up the pasture loop trail from the trailhead parking area so make it an adventure to find the goats this week.

We are always looking for volunteers to help out around the farm throughout the week!!!! Harvest help, weeders, carpentry, whatever works for you- we can make use of your skills. Please contact Annie Wolf, our volunteer coordinator and she will get you started. 

In your Share (hopefully):

Scallions

Chard

Garlic Scapes

Lettuce: Romaine and Leaf

Salad mix

Escarole

Braising Mix (mustards, spinach, baby kale, arugula, asian greens)

Broccoli Rabe (Rapini)

Honey Lemon Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Wow.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Chicken breasts, finely diced
2 Tbsp soy sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
3 Tbsp Honey
1/2 tsp Poppyseeds
6 Butter lettuce leaves
1 CUP Julienned carrots
1/4 CUP Microgreens or cilantro
1 1/2 CUPS cooked jasmine or sticky rice (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt coconut oil.
2. Add garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30-45 seconds.
3. Add diced chicken and soy sauce to the pan, saute just until chicken is barely pink.
4. Add lemon zest and honey, turn heat to medium and cook just until honey is caramelized.
5. Toss in poppyseeds.
6. Serve in lettuce leaves (with rice, if desired). Top with julienned carrots, a fresh squeeze of lemon juice and microgreens as garnish.
7. Enjoy!

Alternates: You don't need to use butterhead lettuce for wraps- any lettuce will do....You can sub in your favorite pulled chicken or pork with BBQ and throw in lettuce wrap with cole slaw/avocado/salsa.

Vegetarian options: You can substitute strips of eggplant or white beans for the chicken.

This is the week of bitter greens- not spicy, but bitter and wonderful. Escarole is a green head that looks like lettuce that you've either had and lovelovelove or you've never ever heard of it....it is similar to endive and chicory and has that same bitter flavor. I love it. It is a vegetable that I look forward to every year. I think it is best sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice and tossed with white beans and goat cheese and garlic. I could eat a whole bowl. However, most folks are daunted by its bitter tendency- they feel the same about broccoli raab which is also in your share this week and is also another favorite. If you aren't familiar with bitter greens, they are wonderful- full of folic acid and tops out spinach for Vit A & D. You have to be pretty hardcore to eat them raw (though they are great in a mixed salad- like radicchio in flavor). Mellow them out by eating them with creamy sauces such as alfredo and hollandaise. Add them to soups such as Italian Wedding soup. Check out CookThink for more info about escarole and I found a gorgeous recipe for broccoli raab here.

WELCOME to the first CSA distribution of 2016

As you all know- CSA is starting a week later than we originally planned. Super sorry folks, we know exactly how frustratingly patient you have all been; waiting for that first bite of gorgeous, delicious fresh from the farm salad. BUT. You may have noticed that the weather had been a little strange the last couple of weeks? 50 degrees one day, 90 degrees the next and in May/June....???? I'm still wrapping my head around that weather shift- what it means for our plants is that they go into stress mode and shut down. They just don't grow very much because they don't know what's coming (no, they don't have brains, but they do have complex defense systems that are combined with the soil food web of bacteria and fungi who don't function well in dramatic temperature shifts). So baby plants go out in the field and don't do much. They are growing when the weather holds steady, so hopefully we will see them put on some good growth in the next couple of weeks.
Our CSA has grown a whopping 400% this year with over 200 shares going out locally (and some delivered to sister farm Weir River and to our Trustees Boston offices). Instead of the 2 acres we had last year, we now have 12 acres in production. Whew! It's a big jump, but we are still having fun and laughing despite the hectic nature of our work this season. The farmstand is getting a makeover during the next month or so and we are adding local products to the mix! We have Birds and Beans organic, fair trade coffee; Appalachian Naturals Salad dressings, BBQ sauces; and Holiday Brook Farm Maple syrup. We will be adding more products as the weeks go on, so keep peaking in the farmstand every week!
Our farm team is all here and working like gangbusters. This year we have Cole Trager, Kirsten Kampmeier and Gabe Brower. Make sure and introduce yourselves to our great crew.

Week 1 Share: What to expect this week (as always, there could be some variability due to conditions of the crop when we get out there)
Per usual, the first weeks of the season are greens, greens and more greens. In seasonal eating, the first greens of the season are meant to jumpstart your body after a winter of eating comfort foods rich in starch, fats and proteins. Greens are for cleansing all the gunk out of the body that has built up; hence they tend to be either bitter (mustards) or thick and mucilaginous (chards, spinach, kale). They are filled with trace nutrients, calcium, iron, Vit A, E and more to clean you out and give your body exactly the nutrition it needs for summer's headlong sprint into action.

Arugula
Radishes
Braising mix/mixed mustard greens/mesclun- however you like to eat em
Spinach
Head Lettuce
Salad mix
Kale
Green Garlic

Strawberries are happening already!!!! They will be open for picking this week!

Recipes:
So, I have a confession. I've never been all that fond of radishes. But I love this spread and it is so easy. I've even done the same with fresh goat cheese and it is equally amazing.

Radish Butter with Lemon Zest and Sea Salt
Ingredients:
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
5 fresh radishes (use more if you really like radishes!)
1 tsp of fresh lemon zest
1/2 tsp sea salt (or salt to taste)
Directions:
Chop the radishes very fine by hand or use a food chopper and mix with the lemon zest and sea salt. Mix thoroughly into the softened butter and chill until firm but not hard. Spread liberally onto your favorite crackers, French Bread, bagel- preferable warmed but not hot (better creamy like cream cheese than melted).

The BEST salad.
Farmer's favorite way to eat salad first thing in the late spring is when the lettuce, mustards and spinach are sweet and the strawberries are warm from the field. We tear the lettuces, mustards and spinach into bite sized pieces and toss with Maple balsamic vinaigrette (you can make your own or buy in the farmstore). We throw in quartered strawberries, herb toasted croutons and feta or goat cheese. This is so good that we eat huge bowls of it with nothing else for dinner, but it makes a great side salad as well.  

Washing Veggies:
Here at the beginning of the season, we just want to remind you that while we quick rinse and cool all the veggies that we harvest for you- we ALWAYS recommend that you also re-wash your veggies again when you get home. There is a great guide in our CSA handbook that talks about the best way to store various veggies, but always feel free to ask again for quick tips at distribution.


UPCOMING Events:
Check our Facebook page- Friends of Chestnut Hill Farm and MySouthborough.com for updated schedules of everything happening on the farm.

 Storytime at the Farm starting on Fridays in June. Starting on Friday June, 10th at 10am we will read some fun stories, do an activity or craft or get up close and personal with chickens, goats or rabbits. Come explore the farm with us! $5/kid (adults are free).

Fathers Day Bluegrass and BBQ. Join us this Sunday, June 19th for bbq and music in the orchard to celebrate our dads. Starting at 4pm! Check out http://www.thetrustees.org for more information.