October 24, 2011
Distribution Week #20
Winter Share Veggies_2008_11

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 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       

  • Chiles (until it freezes on Thursday night!) 
  • Cilantro
  • Dill
  • Parsley
  • Perennial herbs & flowers

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Quick Links

Events!

 

Dine at Elephant Walk in Waltham in October and support our charitable work! 

 

This month, The Elephant Walk in Waltham is donating 3% of all sales to Waltham Fields Community Farm. Eat lunch or dinner at the Waltham location anytime in October and your delicious meal will have the added benefit of helping our food access and education work! 

 

Click here to see menus & hours or to make a reservation! When you're there, please mention that you are thankful that the restaurant is supporting the farm this month!


Harvest Potluck &

Annual Meeting

Thursday, November 10

5:30-7:30pm

At the farm

 

SAVE THE DATE!

Green Chile Paste

Many thanks to the shareholders who shared their recipes this year!  This one was kindly sent in by Naomi.  

 

4oz fresh green chilies   1 t black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cumin seeds   1 t caraway seeds
1/2 t ground cardamom   1/2 cup corsely chopped parsley
1/2 cup corsely chopped cilantro   4 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
olive oil to moisten   pinch of salt

Remove seeds and veins from the chiles chop by hand or in a food processor and set aside. If using processor stand back oils can be irritating.

 

Crush the peppercorns and spices in mortar. Add the chopped chiles, parsley, cilantro and garlic and continue to work to make a smooth paste. Add oil to moisten, should have paste-like consistency and a pinch of salt. Keep refrigerated and use within a few days.

 

Notes from the Field: Week 20
"Let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up." 

tons of tomatoesThese words, one of my favorite lines from The Princess Bride, pretty much capture how I feel when I think about trying to put this season into words for this final CSA newsletter of the summer season.  This year has been a whirlwind, part comedy (Thousands of pounds of tomatoes!  Coyotes eating the watermelons!  Mud EVERYWHERE!  Two inches of rain a week!  No, seriously, two inches of rain a week.) and part tragedy, especially for farms that were hit hard by the fall rains and the flooding that followed.  It is a season that has seen several local CSAs end their seasons early as key crops are wiped out by diseases born of too much wet weather, and one that saw attendance at our Outreach Market, aimed at low-income people in our community, almost double from 2010. 

The face of the economic downturn, and its effect on the health of those who are vulnerable, is visible every week at this market, which distributed almost $27,000 worth of organically grown produce at $5 a bag from mid-July to mid-October.  This may seem like an odd number to quote to you, as shareholders, on the final week of your visits to the farm to pick up your share of our farm's harvest.   But I want you all to be aware, if you aren't already, of the food access efforts that WFCF carries on and that you help support through your memberships and tax-deductible donations.  And, as our former shareholder and friend John Cook said in his interview with Claire in our fall newsletter, we should all remember that the most important thing people with a secure food supply should know about people without one is that there is no difference between them and us. In the midst of the season of abundance and gratitude, it seem to me more important than ever that we keep this in mind, and to recognize that food access remains a major part of WFCF's farm production work.

green fieldsAt the same time, you have no doubt noticed the increase in the price of next year's CSA shares, both summer and winter.  I will tell you right now that I am the hardest person on our staff to convince that our share prices, or the values of the vegetables within the share that we use to help determine those prices, need to rise.  In general, over the eight years that I have been with WFCF, we've tried to keep our share prices and vegetable values as low as we can while covering our costs of production in a way that feels comfortable but not extravagant.  We have been able to pay our farmers' salaries and health insurance benefits, afford an annual investment in soil fertility that averages $1,000 an acre, and build up a capital account for the farm that makes it possible for us to add a few new pieces of equipment each year to improve our efficiency and take our production practices to the next level.  And we have kept our share prices squarely in the middle of the (ever-growing) pack of Boston area CSAs, which is where we, as a nonprofit community farm, are happy to be. 

For 2012, we are looking at some significant price increases in some of our most important inputs, including the organic potting soil we use to grow our transplants.  We are also doing our best to retain some long-time farm staff whose brains and bodies have made this farm what it has become over the past few years.  Andy Scherer, Erinn Roberts and Dan Roberts are as fine a team of farmers as I have ever met.  Our farm is incredibly fortunate to have had the benefit of their skills, talents, and personalities, and keeping them on our staff, with tolerable salaries and reasonable health benefits, was a major goal of mine in writing our farm budget for 2012.  Finally, we are getting better at recognizing and tracking our true costs of production, which, more than anything else, should help us determine our vegetable values and share prices.  As we get closer to these, we see that some of the values we've been placing on our crops are too low to reflect the true costs of growing the food, despite our best efforts to keep those costs down.  So, for next season, some of those values will rise; as a result, the overall prices of the shares will increase as well.  And while I am, as I mentioned before, very rarely happy about raising the price of any of our products, I have never felt more comfortable with a share price increase.

peas in pint containerFor me it is, and has been for these last eight seasons, a great privilege to do the work that I love.  Yes, the work can be grueling, physically punishing, discouraging, even depressing; but as often, it is work filled with great beauty and deep satisfaction, endlessly fascinating and richly rewarding.  It is only possible because of you.  Even a challenging season like this one, where many things didn't go as planned, brings the strengths of the CSA model into sharp focus:  because of you, and your up-front commitment to the season's harvest, our farm is resilient and strong.  I hope that all of you know that we, as farmers, recognize the extra work that you go to each week to support the farm as CSA shareholders. You make an extra stop each week to pick up your vegetables.  You pick your own cherry tomatoes when you could so easily grab an extra plastic clamshell at Trader Joe's.  You deal with the harvest each week when you get home, washing and sorting and putting away each of the vegetables, and then seeking out recipes to help you consume them before they return to compost.  Many of you carry special "CSA organizer" containers in your cars with plastic bags, special containers for greens carefully saved from the winter, scissors, even extra shoes to wear to head out to the pick-your-own fields when the weather is bad, as it has been so often this year.  A very few of you have special aprons for pick-your-own crops, including pockets filled with clippers, carefully folded bags, rubber bands and twist tied for bunching herbs. You are genuinely excited about celeriac.  We do not take this for granted.

Lauren & LarisaThere is one more bit of summing up that I need to do:  thanking Larisa Jacobson and Lauren Weinberg for their work on the farm this season.  Lauren's reflection below begins to give you a sense of her approach to farming -- gentle and determined; very much in tune with the land and its rhythms and the way that they are reflected in our life as a community; thoughtful and committed and acutely mindful of her surroundings, both land and people. Lauren is a warm, caring, and careful farmer. She has helped all of us see things with a bit more clarity and affection this season. The most beautiful bunches on any CSA distribution table were often made by Lauren. Larisa is a highly intelligent, talented farmer with a wild sense of humor and a powerful commitment to social justice. She is quick-witted and fast in the field, with many surprising skills and hidden talents. We have all appreciated her sharp mind and her intense work ethic this season. The majority of the bunches on any CSA table this season were often made by Larisa. 

We also need to thank all of our farm work shares, our wonderful weed crew, our tireless field crew, and the volunteers and interns who made this season's harvest possible.  We could not do it without you.  

Enjoy the final harvest of the summer season.  We hope to see you again on the farm next season.

Amanda, for Erinn, Dan, Andy, Larisa and Lauren
More Notes from the Field:  End of the Season
Lauren

My hands are stained with dirt from each harvest, my nose is covered in freckles, and the cuffs of my work pants are filled with soil. I wake up, and am out the door before the sun rises. My day is made up of a million movements; I bend, I harvest, I lift, I carry, and then I repeat. I'm amazed by my own strength. I relish in the abundance of the season. I marvel at the potential of the tiniest seeds.

 

As I enter into the twentieth and final week of the CSA, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the passage of time, and reflective of my experience as an Assistant Grower. Last Friday, I joined the farm crew for a field walk. We planned for our last distribution, and discussed the winter share. While walking through each section of the field, I could vividly remember seeding many of the plants that are currently being harvested. I observed the remains of shriveled tomatoes and discarded kale leaves. I recalled conversations and jokes shared in the carrot beds. I was reminded of my first weeks of work spent transplanting seedlings, and learning how to drive and operate our tractors.

 

I arrived to Waltham Fields Community Farm in May as a newcomer to the crew, a stranger to the land, and an unfamiliar face to shareholders. Five months have passed, and Amanda, Dan, Erinn, Andy, and Larisa feel like family. I have cultivated and harvested our fields. I have spent every Tuesday for the past twenty weeks stocking and re-stocking distribution bins, and getting to know many of you. We've exchanged recipes and shared laughter while braving rainstorms and unbearable heat. My relationship to the farm and this community has grown tremendously.

 

Let us continue to celebrate this growth as we shift into a time of rest and dormancy. In the coming week, we will begin planting garlic. During the winter months, the garlic will slowly gather the potential energy needed to shoot up in the spring, and transform from one clove into an entire head. Who knew that garlic could serve as such a wise and patient teacher? Here's to learning from the land, taking time to stop and reflect, and looking forward to the possibility and flavor that each new season holds.

 

-- Lauren Weinberg, 2011 Waltham Fields Assistant Grower
 

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