August 22, 2011
Distribution Week #11
sunflowers

Waltham Fields Community Farm

CSA Newsletter

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What's in the share this week...

This list is prepared before we harvest your share. Some guesswork is involved! We do our best to predict which crops will be ready to harvest, but sometimes crops are on the list that are not in the share, and sometimes crops will be in the share even though they're not on the list.   

 

Mix-and-Match nine items this week from a list that may include:  

Pick-Your-Own Crops   

You are welcome to harvest the PYO portion of the share during any daylight hours, 7 days a week. Please check the board at the little red kiosk for information on amounts, locations and picking instructions. Remember, you can pick one time per week but it doesn't necessarily have to be at the same time you are picking up your share     

  • Husk Cherries
  • Raspberries
  • Chiles
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Plum tomatoes
  • Green beans
  • Cilantro
  • Basil
  • Dill
  • Parsley
  • Perennial herbs & flowers

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Quick Links

Upcoming events at the Farm

Empty Bowls Dinner
Saturday, Sept. 10th, 5-7pm
Rain Date: Sept. 11
$30/person 
Limited to 100 guests

 

A soup supper outside on the farm featuring handmade bowls by Farmer Andy for you to eat from and go home with.  All proceeds support our food access/hunger relief work.

 

Click here for full details and ticket purchase information.

 

Save the Date: 
Waltham Farm Day
Saturday, Sept. 24th, 2-5pm
FREE event, open to all
Join us in celebrating MA Harvest for Students Week and farming in Waltham!  More details to come soon.
Ripe Tomato Pie

 

Tomatoes in flatShareholder Cara writes in "...Made this Ripe Tomato Pie, from Teresa Kennedy's book Humble Pie, in the toaster oven with tomatoes from our share this week and it was to die for. Thought other folks might like to try the recipe. I adapted it for what we get in our share and the toaster oven for folks who might not want to fire up the big  oven in the summer.  Here it is."   

 

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 425F. If you don't bake in your toaster oven that frequently, start at 350 or 375F and check frequently to avoid burning in case your toaster oven runs hot!  

 

Easy Cheddar Cheese Pat-In-The-Pan Crust
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

¾ cup flour (all-purpose or whole wheat)

¼ cup olive or vegetable oil

1 T coarse-grained Dijon Mustard if you have it on hand


Put cheese in a bowl then add all of the other ingredients and mix until the mixture holds together when pinched with your fingers. Press dough into a 9 or 10 inch pie plate or pan with sides that fits nicely into your toaster oven. Bake crust at 425F or lower temp in toaster oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. While the crust is baking make the filling. 

 

Tomato Filling
4 large ripe tomatoes peeled and sliced. Very ripe tomatoes don't need to be steamed to be peeled. Simply cut them and peel the skins off with your fingers or with a little help from a paring knife.

4 scallions, including green tops, finely chopped (you can use onion greens or finely slice onions from your share)

¼ cup chopped fresh herbs 

Pepper

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

¼ cup mayonnaise


Remove the crust from the oven when done. Reduce the oven to 350F (or 275-300F if using a toaster oven that runs hot).  Layer the tomato slices in the pre-baked crust, sprinkle with the herbs and pepper. Mix the grated cheese and the mayonnaise and spread evenly over the top of the pie (it will be thick-just spread as best you can). Bake for 20 minutes until cheese on top is bubbly and golden. 

 

Do you have a favorite recipe you make with farm produce that you'd like to share!? Send it on in!

Preserving the Harvest #2: Lacto-Fermentation

CucumbersThursday, September 8th from 6:30-8:30pm


Learn to preserve a multitude of veggies using lactic acid fermentation! This is the technique used to make sauerkraut and kimchi, but will also make delicious dill pickles and more. In this workshop, participants will make lacto-fermented bok choy and pickles to take home and enjoy!

 

WFCF is happy to welcome back Audra Karp, veteran lacto-fermenter and Certified Professional Midwife, to teach this workshop. Fee: $25 members/$30 non-members. Register Today!

Notes from the Field

 

Order from chaos. That's what we do. At least that's what we attempt to rows of greendo on a daily basis. (This is an uphill climb.) We take a field and cut it into small squares and say "you here...and you here...and you here". We cut those squares into even smaller component parts and assume that the soil will understand that it is now blocks of crops and beds and rows and we coax and plan and design strategies for each species and cross our fingers and hope against hope. We try to be attentive to the wants and desires of the plants, to be respectful of their nutritive needs and environmental preferences. We prepare what we can best imagine to be a lovely place for each plant to be and try with all of our powers to keep it that way.

 

We kill small weeds with tractors. We confuse insects. We hide plants from insects under covers and clay masks. We kill insects. We kill medium size weeds with hand tools. We curse insects. We inspect for disease, treat disease, curse disease. We pull large weeds by hand with help from anyone we can find. We plant successions to hedge against the conspiratorial force of chaos that lurks in the wings the second that we sow seeds in the greenhouse in the spring. We curse weeds. We sometimes wonder why we do this. We laugh with volunteers as we weed beds for the second and third times and remember why we do this.

 

Summer squash mixWe harvest, and I'd be lying if I told you that it didn't stun me every year, the beauty of the bounty and its colors and smells and volume and force. The fields that we've spent the last year planning so precisely, each square inch in such high demand, in places now a near perfect reflection of how it looked on paper with other spots handed over to a roiling madness of green and fruit. Some plants that were planned for, some plants interlopers, having escaped the steely edge, careful hands and watchful eyes of our crew.  We haul it in, clean it up, eat some of it quickly and send the vast majority on its way. To the CSA distribution, the Outreach Market, The Salvation Army, Food For Free, our education programs. Out into the world to nourish and bring joy to people in our community. Chaos held at bay long enough to sneak the harvest out of the fields one more time, encroaching again now as we head into the depths of August and the angle of light begins to change and we start to scheme about better ways to do things next year.

 

We're through the halfway mark and our greenhouse seeding is done for the year. We've begun our final big wave of transplanting for the summer. This is the time in each season when things may come into focus briefly and one may be able to see the season's start, middle and coming end all at once. It's a time for a deep breath and a summoning of energy to begin the march through August into September, reining in the wildness that summer brings for a few more months.

 

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I would like to take a few lines here to humbly thank our 2011 Weed Crew from the bottom of my heart for 12 weeks of stalwart service and almost unimaginable high spirits. This is their last week here and to say simply that they will be missed would be disrespectful. The crops that would not have been harvested without their help are too many to list. They were indispensable

and the most joyful bunch of weeders I've ever come across. Laura, Rachel, Shira, Courtney, Jess, Sam, often Joanna-we can't thank you enough.

 

And thank you as well to the many volunteers who worked beside them this summer.

 

Enjoy the harvest!

 

-Dan for Amanda, Andy, Erinn, Larisa and Lauren

Waltham Fields Community Farm Staff  

Claire Kozower, Executive Director

Jericho Bicknell, Education & Volunteer Coordinator

Amanda Cather, Farm Manager

Andy Scherer, Field Manager

Dan Roberts, Field Manager

Erinn Roberts, Greenhouse & Field Manager

Marla Rhodes, Development Coordinator

Deb Guttormsen, Bookkeeper & Tech Coordinator

 

 

Assistant Growers/Farmers in Training:

Larisa Jacobson, Lauren Weinberg

 

Farm Crew:

Rachel Dutton, Andy Friedberg, Courtney Giancaterino, Rachel Kaplan, Sam Powers, Shira Tiffany, Laura Van Tassel

 

Learning Garden Educators:

Marie Benkley, Rebekah Carter, Kristin Cleveland, Dede Dussault, Paula Jordan

 

Summer Fellow (from Stanford's Center for Public Service):

Joanna Rosene-Mirvis

 

www.communityfarms.org          781-899-2403  

Waltham Fields Community Farm | 240 Beaver Street | Waltham | MA | 02452