CSA Week 20

Our work on the farm is a healthy mix of the tasks that are daily (tending the chickens, watering whatever plants are in the greenhouse), tasks that are recurring (sowing seeds, transplanting crops, harvesting, weeding), and tasks that are undertaken only once or twice a season. In this latter category are things such as harvesting and cleaning garlic, a job that occupied some afternoons in late July and was followed by our annual harvest and cleaning of the onions, and which will directly lead to the one afternoon this fall that we spend planting garlic. The sweet potato harvest was also a once-a-year job. Over the course of several days--many of them conveniently timed to coincide with the final September heat wave--Joshua and I and a few occasional volunteers dug by hand the entirety of the sweet potato crop. Prior to this season neither of us had extensive experience with sweet potatoes, so it was without expectation that we planted two beds of the things this spring, weeded them twice, and then watched as their vines spread low along the ground to the complete occlusion of the soil. And it turns out beneath that soil monster sweet potatoes had been growing. To dig them was laborious, but each potato was a happy discovery. I collected those that were shaped and sized like human organs, and I arranged them on a table in the greenhouse in an approximate human shape that included two lungs, a heart, stomach, liver, intestines, something I decided to call the duodenum, and some miscellany. I also dug a hummingbird and narwhal for our sweet potato zoo, and Joshua dug a potato exactly the size and shape of a duck. It was my intention to learn to control lightning and then bring these things to life (I commented that once animated and ambulatory the collection of sweet potato organs would be sort of gross, but a friend of the farm pointed out that no, they'd be sweet), but before I could do so we moved all of the potatoes to the barn, where they have been curing and awaiting distribution. Along with the other items we have arranged in that dry place (garlic, onions, winter squash) they will contribute heft to the remaining shares, a weighty once-a-year harvest that we'll offer alongside the greens and peppers and all that we pick on an ongoing basis.

The share this week:

Lettuce

Mizuna

Red Russian Kale

Swiss Chard

Heirloom Tomatoes

Sweet Peppers

Hot Peppers

Parsnips

Sweet Potatoes

Onions

Garlic

Sage

You-Pick Tomatillos

You-Pick Husk Cherries

*The parsnips have been in the ground for a long time. We sowed them in April, they germinated slowly, they survived (rather, most of them survived) a brush with the rototiller, and they have been growing ever since. That's six months in the ground, for those keeping track. I don't know what to tell you to do with the green leafy tops, although it will be obvious that those have grown to be as abundant as the root. Feed them to your rabbit, if you have a rabbit, or add them to your compost, if you have compost. Like carrot tops, they can probably be cooked as part of a vegetable stock and then discarded. As for the root, here are a few suggestions:

Pureed Roasted Parsnips

From Simply Recipes: "The easiest way to prepare parsnips is to slice them, steam them, and dress with butter and salt. However, to get the fullest, richest flavor from the parsnips, they should be roasted. The browning caramelizes the natural sugars in the parsnips. In this recipe we first roast the parsnips with some butter, then puree them with added water. It's quite simple, but if you've never had parsnips this way, you're in for a treat."

2 lbs parsnips, peeled and chopped

3 Tbsp butter, melted

1 1/2 cups water

1/8 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400. Peel parsnips and chop them.

2. Place chopped parsnips in a medium-sized bowl, add the melted butter, and stir to coat. Lay the parsnips on a roasting pan in a single layer. Roast in the heated oven 20-25 minutes, until lightly golden, turning the parsnips once halfway through the cooking.

3. Put the cooked parsnips into a blender or food processor. Add the water and pulse until pureed to the desired consistency. Add more water if necessary. Add nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Or include the sweet potatoes in this version from Gourmet:

Sweet Potato and Parsnip Puree

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

4 parsnips, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick

3 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup whole milk

3 Tbsp packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and parsnips and boil gently until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain well and transfer to a food processor. Add butter and puree until smooth. Add milk, brown sugar, and salt, and blend well. Season with pepper.

*Mizuna is in the share for the third and final time this season. It's part of a small arsenal of greens that we are offering this week (along with the lettuce, swiss chard, and red russian kale), all appropriate for the season. For tips and recipes concerning mizuna, scroll to week 15.

*This week's heirloom tomatoes will be the last. The plants have finally been felled by the season, but to this point they have thoroughly exceeded our expectations. (Our expectations, admittedly, were reserved--blight eliminated the tomato crop of most small-scale organic farmers in the northeast last year, and in light of that disaster we were reluctant to raise our hopes for this year.) The hot and dry conditions were favorable, and each week we were happily surprised by the number of healthy tomatoes we were able to harvest for the CSA. It's hard to believe that during the last week of August Joshua and I agreed that if we had tomatoes for one more week we would be happy. That was eight weeks ago, and the fact that we have been able to offer tomatoes through the middle of October has been one of our happiest accomplishments this season.

CSA Week 17

It's the equinox, the second time this year neither light nor dark has been stifled in favor of the other. We lose a few minutes of daylight each day, and to arrive at the farm when the sun rises is to arrive each day a few minutes later. The extra sleep is mandated by the season, and we appreciate it. When the sun does rise its light is soft and the air is cold, but it is a cold unique to the season, a cold that contains within itself the assurance of future warmth. These are the cold mornings of warm days, conditions that exist in measure as equal as the light and the dark and invigorate because they do not threaten permanence. For those of us who felt diminished during the hottest parts of summer, exposed by the brightness and enervated by the humidity, the gentle daily fluctuation is soothing. It's certainly worth another opening paragraph about the weather.

Here is what's in the share this week:

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomatoes

Carrots

Collard Greens

Swiss Chard

Lettuce

Parsley

Sweet Peppers

Hot Peppers

Garlic

Scallions

Husk Cherries

*During college I would often retreat to the home of my friends Mary and George. There, I could spend an autumn day doing schoolwork in the warmth of a household not at all reminiscent of the nearby campus, and I could end the day with a home-cooked meal. On at least one of these occasions I arrived to the sight and smell of tomatoes simmering on each of the stove top's four burners. George, who is an excellent cook, was making tomato sauce and tomato soup in quantities appropriate to freeze for the winter, and I spent the day in the midst of their preparation, in a haze of tomato-based aroma. With this in mind I called George and asked for tips and recipes concerning all things tomato. You're advised to heed his suggestions:

George Ferger's Tomato Soup

The quantities given here are for a 3-quart (medium-sized) saucepan. When I make this soup, I generally do so with the idea of freezing it in pint and/or quart containers for the winter, so I triple the measurements, filling the three pans in stages as I work through the cooking process. On a personal note, I like to save time so I am not fussy about tomato skins. I never skin a tomato I plan to cook. I do however at least slice each tomato open to be sure nothing objectionable is inside (you never know--one summer every 30th or so plum tomato had a moldy growth buried in its core). Most of the time I blend the cooked mixture once it has cooled sufficiently. If you want a coarser texture in a soup, dice everything a bit finer so any bits of skin will be unobtrusive. That will take longer, of course; a second strategy to add texture is to blanch diced vegetables (zucchini or yellow summer squash, bell peppers, etc.) in boiling water for a minute and then drain and add them to the blended tomato mixture. The times mentioned are for fresh organic vegetables. In my experience, they require less cooking time than most store-bought produce. Note: the bulghur acts to thicken the soup mixture. Tomatoes vary in their juiciness so you may need more or less. If the mixture is too thin, just add a bit more bulghur--it cooks in minutes. If the mixture is too thick, just add a bit of water. This can even be done at the blending stage if necessary.

2+ quarts coarsely chopped tomatoes

1 large onion, chopped

2 chopped carrots

3 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or minced

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt + black pepper to taste

2 heaping Tbsp medium-coarse bulghur

other diced vegetables of one's choosing

1/2 cup each chopped fresh herbs (basil, dill, parsley) or 1 tsp each dried

1-3 fresh hot peppers, chopped, or crushed chili flakes to taste, or cayenne or tabasco, or a jar of salsa (if desired)

Saute the onions and carrots over medium heat in the olive oil for a few minutes, then turn down the heat and stir in the garlic. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir frequently. Add all the other ingredients and cook for about another 20 minutes. (Total cooking time should be less than an hour.)

George's Tomato Sauce

This recipe is similar to the one in The Victory Garden Cookbook (Fall Freezer Tomato Sauce). Like the soup recipe above, feel free to either make the sauce smooth or coarse in texture. The same methods as above apply.

2 1/2+ quarts chopped tomatoes

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large chopped onion

3 cloves minced garlic

1 chopped carrot

1 1/3 cups vegetable broth

1 1/2 cans organic tomato paste (6 oz. can)

1 tsp each of these dried herbs: thyme, oregano, basil. And powdered bay leaf is fabulous if you can get it. If you use fresh herbs instead of dried, throw them in by the handful.

1 tsp salt + black pepper to taste

1-3 hot fresh peppers, chopped, if desired, or a jar of salsa (I like the medium hot), or cayenne or tabasco to taste. Some people may want to cut back on the herbs mentioned if you want the sauce spicy.

Saute the onions and carrots in the oil for a few minutes, then stir in the garlic. Turn heat to low and stir in the tomatoes. Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Add herbs / salt / pepper / spices and stir. Drop the tomato paste in the center of the simmering mixture and blend it with a fork, then stir everything well. After it has all simmered slowly for a total of 45 minutes or so, turn off and let cool before blending and placing in freezer containers. If you like, add diced vegetables for variety and texture, stirring them into blended mixture after it has cooled a bit. Bell peppers and summer squash don't need to be cooked before freezing. Cut green beans (for example) will need blanching from 1-3 minutes, depending on their size.

*I have an inordinate affection for parsley. I eat it like a main course, but maybe you don't, and maybe you're wondering to do with it. Try this dip from Epicurious, it's easy:

Chick-Pea, Garlic, and Parsley Dip

a 19-oz. can of chick peas, rinsed and drained (about 2 cups)

2 garlic cloves, chopped and mashed to paste with 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup packed fresh parsley leaves, washed and spun dry

1/4 cup water

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

In food processor blend all ingredients except oil until smooth. With motor running add oil in slow stream. Season dip with salt.

*Pumpkins are available for sale at the farm stand. They are divided into three categories of size, and they're priced to sell. What you see is what's available--when they're gone they're gone, so consider us for all your pumpkin-related needs, and don't wait to celebrate the coming of autumn and "harvest season".

*You probably remember Krapp's Last Tape. It is good equinox literature, although in the play it's vernal:

Hm...Memorable...what? (He peers closer.) Equinox. Memorable equinox. (He raises his head, stares blankly front. Puzzled.) Memorable equinox? (Pause. He shrugs his shoulders, peers again at ledger, reads.)

CSA Week 16

Here is what's in the share this week:

Lettuce

Swiss Chard

Heirloom Tomatoes

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Eggplant

Sweet Peppers

Hot Peppers

Tomatillos

Husk Cherries

Fennel

Red Onions

Cilantro

Corn

*Each week we are happily surprised by the continued production of our heirloom tomatoes, but the week will come when the plants are no longer producing enough fruit to supply the CSA. If you want to use some of the current abundance to prepare for a day beyond the end of tomato season, consider making tomato sauce and either freezing or canning it. Here's a sample recipe, but experimentation is encouraged:

4 1/2 pounds heirloom tomatoes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup chopped garlic

4 cups diced onions

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup red wine

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 chopped fresh basil

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Submerge the tomatoes for about 10 seconds; remove and peel the tomatoes with a paring knife or your fingers. Don't remove seeds or juice--it's from these areas that a tomato gets a lot of its flavor. Coarsely chop the tomatoes and set aside.

Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes. Add onions and salt, stir to coat, cover and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat to prevent burning, until soft and golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and oregano and cook, stirring often, 2 to 4 minutes.

Pour in wine and vinegar; bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits with a spoon. Cook until reduced slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and any juice; return to simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are mostly broken down, about 25 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Stir in basil and pepper. Transfer the sauce, in batches, to a blender or food processor. For a smoother sauce, blend all of it. For a chunkier sauce, blend 1/2 and combine the the unblended portion.

This sauce can be eaten fresh, or preserved by freezing or canning. Freezing is the easiest and most risk-free option, but if you want to try canning, refer to this blog post by a friend of the farm. The post is specifically about fruit, but it mentions the basics and includes links for further information.

*The corn this week is from Sunshine Farm in Sherborn. We're happy to be supporting another local farm business; please see the Week 14 post for information about our decision to buy sweet corn rather than grow it ourselves.

*This is the last week that fennel will be in the share, which means it is the last time this season you will wonder what to do with fennel. Make amends for past uncertainty with either of these recipes, both from Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables:

Sauteed Fennel With Lemon

"As basic, useful, and versatile as simply sauteed peppers, mushrooms, or snow peas--any or all of which will enhance it, as variations."

2 medium fennel bulbs

2 Tbsp olive oil or butter

1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

pepper to taste

Trim and reserve fennel leaves (and cut off and reserve top stalks). Quarter each bulb lengthwise; cut each quarter crosswise in very thin slivers. Mince 1 Tbsp of the fine leaves.

Heat oil in large, heavy skillet; toss fennel slices to coat. Add salt. Continue tossing frequently over moderate heat, until tender--about 10 minutes.

Toss with lemon zest and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with minced tops.

Fennel a la Grecque

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup dry vermouth

2 large garlic cloves, halved

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf, crumbled

1 tiny dried hot chili-pepper, or 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes

1 tsp coarse kosher salt

1/2 tsp sugar

2 medium fennel bulbs

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Lemon Slices

Combine water, vermouth, garlic, fennel seeds, thyme, bay leaf, chili (crumbled), salt, and sugar in saucepan. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Let stand, covered, until ready to use.

Trim and discard fennel stalks, saving feathery leaves. Trim base of bulb slightly without removing core. Cutting across as you would a loaf of bread, progressing from one short side to the other, make even slices 1/4-1/2 inch wide.

Heat oil in wide skillet (12 inches or more). On moderately low heat brown slices lightly in single layer, turning once, about 10 minutes.

Remove garlic from prepare bouillon and discard; add liquid to fennel with lemon juice. Cover and simmer very gently 5 minutes. Uncover and simmer about 15 minutes, or until fennel is very tender.

Cool. Gently lift slices into serving dish. Pour liquid over. Cover and chill.

To serve, snip fennel leaves and sprinkle on top. Arrange lemon slices over all.

CSA Week 15

The quality of today's harvest is belied by the picture at the left, which was taken with a cell phone and makes our bell peppers look like they are in an aquarium or something. I'm including it anyway, because I like the murky luminescence of the produce, and the way the peppers appear to be situated in defiance of gravity. The image is a striking contrast to the reality of our recent days on the farm: The air is clear, the light is clean, and our produce is copious. It is September, and although we are psychologically accelerating toward the end of the season and a time when growth is slow, our harvests have been getting bigger, and with a total of fifteen items (not including you-pick snap peas) this is our largest share thus far.

It comes at a time when we truly are thinking of the season's end. With the tractor we erased half a field's worth of cucurbits (squash, cucumbers, melons), and many of our empty beds have been sown with cover crop. And each week our astonishment at the date is renewed: The calendar is moving while our hands and minds are on vegetables, and the conversations that last week began "I can't believe it is the last week of August" this week begin "I can't believe it is the first week of September," with no diminishment of actual surprise. Time is moving fast, it's past before we realize it is present. Here's a lot of produce for ballast:

Lettuce

Mizuna

Heirloom Tomatoes

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Beets

Summer Squash / Zucchini

Bell Peppers

Fennel

Scallions

Jalapenos

Garlic

Tomatillos

Husk Cherries

Parsley

Sweet Corn (from Volante)

*Is it obvious that I'm not really a cook? We spend the majority of our time growing food, and it would make sense if we were accomplished preparers of the food we grow. Joshua, I think, has some kitchen experience and enough intuition to make consistently good meals, but for me food preparation is a regular source of shame. I eat a lot of vegetables (I don't think we grow anything that I don't like to eat), but my preparation methods are rudimentary, to say the least. So it is with some irony that I provide a few recipes each week. Some of them I've made, but many of them have been sent to me by friends of the farm or culled from an internet search. I try each week to select recipes that prominently feature at least one item from the CSA share, and ideally include a few items. If you have a favorite way to prepare anything we grow, please be in touch, and we'll share the tips and recipes with the CSA community. Until then, I'll keep providing the recipe findings of a kitchen incompetent.

*It was a cursory internet search that helped me find these two recipes that include mizuna, the spicy green in the share the past two weeks. The first is from the Whole Foods website (I have mixed feelings about this) and the second is from epicurious.

Wok Sauteed Mizuna with Minced Chicken

1 egg white, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp tamari or soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, finely chopped

2 tsp canola or peanut oil

1/3 cup finely chopped carrot

1/3 cup finely chopped yellow onion

1/4 cup finely chopped water chestnuts

1/2 tsp chile paste

1 tbs lime juice

1 pound mizuna

1/4 finely chopped scallions

In a medium bowl, mix egg white with 1/2 tsp of the tamari, garlic, and chicken. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. Heat 1 tsp of the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add chicken mixture and cook, stirring constantly, 4 to 6 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside. Heat remaining 1 tsp oil in skillet or wok. Add carrots, onion, and water chestnuts and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add remaining 1 tsp tamari, chile paste, lime juice, and mizuna and cook, stirring often, until slightly wilted. Return chicken to wok and toss well. Garnish with scallions.

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Burrata Cheese and Kalamata Dressing

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

5 tbsp red wine vinegar

5 ounces mizuna

3 pounds heirloom tomatoes (assorted colors and shapes), cut into slices and wedges

1 pound burrata cheese (burrata is a fresh mozzarella filled with cream and curds)

1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Puree oil, olives, and vinegar in blender. Season to taste with pepper. Scatter mizuna over large platter. Arrange tomatoes over mizuna. Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper; drizzle with some of the dressing. Cut burrata into 1-inch slices; scatter over tomatoes. Sprinkle burrata with salt and pepper; drizzle with some of the remaining dressing. Scatter sliced basil over salad. Serve salad with remaining dressing.

CSA Week 10

Our farm is surrounded on all sides by thin woods or by suburban lawns that are surrounded by their own thin woods. So we are situated below the horizon, and as the sun rises and lights the sky our fields are a rectangular cup that holds shadow until the sun rises higher and the morning light moves down the trees and across our crops. The cool and shaded early morning of a bright August day contains its own sort of quiet, and it is a good time to work. It is the warm and sun-filled days, though, that have been good for the things we grow. Melons, tomatoes, and peppers are all hot weather crops, and all are included in the share for the first time this week. It is hard to overstate the satisfaction we felt harvesting such things this morning: their availability to us means that the farm has fully entered its summer season, and has done so with the sort of abundance we are scared to hope for, but hope for anyway.

The success of these crops has also pleased the crows. You'll notice that we have strung VHS tape across several beds of tomatoes and melons: This is because as those fruits ripened they were--without exception--pecked and sampled. (A former teacher of ours would refer to fruits destroyed in this way as "bird-certified ripe".) To prevent further loss we collected old videos from the Dover dump, and we dismantled them for the tape. Unspooled and strung above our crops, it moves in the wind and catches the light, and its flicker and glimmer deters the birds. So far it has worked: we haven't found a pecked tomato since it has been there, and because one of the videos is Hercules we're able to say--finally--that our farm is adorned with images of Greek gods doing battle, albeit in the form of Disney animation, preserved on magnetic tape.

Here is what's in the share this week:

Cherry Tomatoes, sungold
Slicer Tomatoes, oregon spring
Heirloom Tomatoes, prudence purple -and/or- paul robeson
Green Peppers, ace
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Broccoli
Scallions
Garlic
Cantaloupe
Basil, genovese

Notes about the food:

*Heirloom tomatoes are notable for their bulbous shapes and for the variety of colors in each fruit. Don't be put off by their appearance! They look exactly as they should, and we assure you they are some of the best tomatoes you've had. Because of their odd construction they don't stack or ship well, which is why heirloom varieties of tomato are almost exclusively available direct from farmers--large scale growers have no recourse for distributing such unpredictable fruit, which is why grocery store tomatoes are uniformly red and round.

You'll notice that we harvested some with green shoulders. We do this because we don't want to risk allowing the tomatoes to over ripen and crack on the vine. A tomato with green shoulders will be good eating now, but it will also continue to ripen if you leave it on your counter for one or two days. If you plan to eat the tomato today, take one that is fully colored. In this week's share the pinkish heirlooms are a variety called Prudence Purple, and the deep orange-red heirlooms are a variety called Paul Robeson.

*The Cantaloupe, too, can be allowed to sit on the counter for a few days. Test the melon for firmness, and eat it before it is too soft. Melons cause us a little bit of trepidation, because there is no way we can know what the inside of every melon that we distribute is like. We harvest them when we are confident they are ripe, but there is a certain amount of educated guesswork involved.

*The CSA email included "broccoli leaves" as an item in this week's share. Joshua and I both like the idea of providing a leafy green in the share whenever possible, and at this point in the season the leaves of our broccoli plants are the best that we have. As I mentioned in a previous entry, the leaves of broccoli plants are under appreciated, but they are nutritious and can be prepared like other greens in the brassica family (kale, collards, etc). After assessing the crop, we realized that many of the plants had produced florets, so we changed the item to full-fledged broccoli, and we harvested stems and florets of various sizes, and bunched them with extra leaves. I like to prepare the broccoli leaves as I would prepare collard greens:

Freshly harvested greens
olive oil
sesame oil
hot pepper oil
garlic
sesame seeds
soy sauce or salt

Carefully stack and roll leaves, and cut into 1/2-inch strips. Heat olive oil in frying pan or wok. Toss in coarsely chopped garlic, a dash of hot pepper oil, and a dash of sesame oil. Quickly saute garlic until lightly browned. (Scallions can be included as well.) Over medium-high heat, throw in the greens and toss to uniformly mix and cook. Add a dash of salt or soy sauce and the sesame seeds, and stir to mix. Lower heat, add a few tablespoons of water, cover and steam for several minutes until tender.