Week 14: Fall Greens Return

The return of cooler nights and more temperate days heralds in our resurgence of greens to the table. While we will try not to overwhelm you: the CSA will be greening up as we say goodbye to summer squash and zucchini and other summer fruits. Tomatoes will linger until frost and the eggplant & peppers are starting to rejuvenate in the field a little with some of the rains we've had here and there, but they won't be as abundant as we could have hoped.

These greens will be crisp, bitter and sweet and in my opinion, waaaayyyy better than in the spring when the heat turns them limp and bitter too quickly in June. Pair them raw with olive oil and lemon juice and a dash of sea salt or barely braise them in a little peanut oil with chilies and lime. Toss them with white beans and grapes, cherry tomatoes, roasted beets and pears. Add bacon or prosciutto, feta or goat cheese. There are so many ways to eat them every day. They are the fall tonic you need before we settle into a winter of hot cocoa, baked goods and holiday meals. 

We spent the last week getting in the winter squash and starting the process of putting spent fields to bed for the winter. We are mowing, turning, and turning again, laying fertilizers, seeding cover crops and planning next years layout. Hoping still for the rain we need to rot down old stems and fibrous leaves to hurry this whole process along. You may have seen the last of the transplants going in- we hope to have those baby beets big enough to give out the last two weeks of CSA. 

Anna Banana's Chocolates in the Store! Including her amazing caramel apples- a fall treat that she only

makes when she can get the fresh apples. These are a decadent masterpiece- not something you eat all at once, but a dessert you buy to share among friends and family. We also have some gorgeous marshmallows in different flavors, toffees and dark chocolate. Buy at the store!!!!

Volunteers Needed: Harvest mornings and Harvest Fest. We had an amazing crew of volunteers helping out in the mornings to get the harvest in. They showed up in the burning sun and pulled basket after basket out of the fields and washed produce until their sneakers were soaked. But- they've all gone off to college or back to High School and now we are down to the bare minimum of helping hands. So we are asking if you have a couple of hours to help us out in the mornings on Tues, Weds, Thurs or Fridays. We could even use your help for an hour if that is all you have to spare. We get started on Tu, Th & Fri at 730-745 but are harvesting until at least 11am so could use help anytime in between. Weds we start a little later around 830a and go until lunchtime. You can sign up for a shift on our trustees.org website or you can just talk to Des or you can just show up. 

Harvest Fest volunteers need a little more coordination- so contact Annie Wolf or talk to her on Thursdays when she is our CSA Coordinator. Our harvest festival is a major production and we have all sorts of positions that we need help with, from handing out honey sticks to maze runners to helping with the pumpkin carving and more. Let us know if you can help out for a few hours!

What's in Your Share (maybe):

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Pac Choi

Arugula

Cabbage

Kale

Swiss Chard

Winter Squash: Delicata/Acorn

Lettuce (hopefully)

Pick Your Own:

Chilies

Beans

Herbs

Cherry Tomatoes

Mini-Marzanos (these little tasties are a little larger than a grape tomato, are packed with flavor and caramelize beautifully for a fresh tomato sauce that will make your mouth sing. They are located in the bed just past the cherry tomatoes).

Events:

Still some spots open for our Farm Dinner this Friday!!!!! Register online here.

L'il Goats Club: We had a couple of cuties arrive last Wednesday to hang with our beautiful goat ladies.
They did some grooming and were able to feed and hang with the goats. We would love to have some more attendees for this club- come on out to learn all about goats. This week we will be getting some of the ladies ready to attend an outing- they are going to the Boston Local Food Festival this Sunday on the Greenway in Boston!!!!! They need mani/pedis, their hair done, and some unsightly hair removed. Help us get them all dolled up on Wednesday morning from 10-11a. 

Recipes:

So Wegman's is my hero this week. I'm not kidding, I opened their newest menu mag hoping for halfway decent coupons and found TWO recipes for escarole. I am in love. I'm sharing one of them with you and can't wait to try it myself because it sounds amazing and I can make it with amazing veggies from my fields RIGHT NOW. (ok. I actually bought prosciutto, I can't help it, I adore those lovely air-cured meats). 

Utica Greens (amended to omit pre-packaged, precut vegetables and some of the chilies so it wouldn't be mouth-desicating, crying hot and to add in cherry tomatoes)

1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

2 Tbsps olive oil

2 Tbsps greated Italian blend cheeses

A large handful of cherry tomatoes

1 Hungarian Hot Wax pepper

1 large head escarole, chopped, washed and rinsed

2oz of chopped, diced prosciutto

3 cloves of garlic, diced

Salt and pepper to taste.

Optional: Add 3 Cherry hot peppers for extra heat!

Directions

Preheat oven to broil. Add bread crumbs, 1 Tbsp olive oil and cheese to a small bowl, stir to combine and set aside. In 12 inch cast iron skillet, add Hungarian Hot wax (and other peppers if using) to pan and cook, stirring on Med-High until slightly softened, about 5 mins. Quarter the peppers, discarding stems and seeds (WEAR GLOVES or OIL YOUR HANDS when handling hot peppers and DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE!!!!) Slice the pepper on the bias and set aside.

Blanch the escarole in a large pot of boiling, salted water for 2 mins. Drain and set aside. Add the remaining oil, prosciutto, garlic, chilies to the skillet. Cook, stirring on Med- High heat for about 5 mins. Add escarole; stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1/3 bread crumb mixture and stir. Top with remaining bread crumb mixture and Broil for 2 min. Enjoy!!!

Tuscan Style Farm Greens with White beans and sausage.....or something like that.

I also make the following with escarole or kale or arugula or cabbage or pac choi or any combination of those. 

Ingredients:

1 large colander of greens, chopped and rinsed. 

1lb package of good, local, pastured pork sausage, mild italian or hot or chorizo depending on how you roll.

1.5 quarts of stock (homemade, boxed, canned, etc. up to you)

3 cloves of garlic

Fresh celery, parsley

1 can cannellini  or butter beans (or favas if you can find em....)

Olive oil, salt and pepper

Optional: cut wedges of mini-marzano grape or Mountain magic tomatoes

1 lemon, cut into wedges.

Shaved parmesan

Directions:

In a large deep dish skillet (and I mean a big one, use a heavy bottom stock pot if you don't have a deep skillet large enough to hold the greens) saute the pork, uncased if it came cased until just browned on medium heat. Add chopped garlic and olive oil, and stir to combine, turn the heat down and add in greens and stock. Stir to combine until the greens wilt.Add in beans, celery/parsley. Cook until warm and flavors meld, taste for salt (depends on your stock) and add black pepper (about 15 mins on low). Serve with wild rice, crusty bread, wedges of tomato and lemon juice squeezed on top and shavings of parmesan.