August 27, 2012
CSA Distribution Week #12
  squash party pack

Waltham Fields Community Farm

 

CSA Newsletter

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What's in the shares 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 the following list: 

 
KaleKale should be around for most of the rest of the season.  Enjoy all three 'Red Russian', 'Winterbor' (curly) or 'Dinosaur' (Tuscan) varieties! 

Swiss Chard:  Colorful and packed with folate, vitamins A, K and C, magnesium, potassium and fiber, chard is one of the healthiest vegetables we grow.

Collard GreensTender and delicious, collards are an underappreciated member of the greens family.  Give them a try -- they'll be around for the rest of the season. 

Lettuce:  A mix of greens and reds

Carrots:  The latest stand of carrots have tops that are poor for bunching, so you'll continue to see them loose.

Zucchini
We grow three different types of zucchini:  the traditional green, a beautiful gold variety, and an heirloom variety called Costata Romanesco ('Roman Rib'), which is tasty even when it's very large, which, because it can hide easily in the giant leaves of the plant, it often is.

Summer Squash:
The traditional yellow 'Slick Pik' is joined by the green and yellow patty pans and the beautifully striped 'Zephyr'.  All are delicious on the grill, sauteed in butter, or made into summer's best enchiladas for a special meal.
 
Eggplant Long, thin 'Orient Express', dark purple 'Italian' style globes, and tiny, beautiful 'Fairy Tale' eggplant are all tasty on the grill, in baba ganoush, or in ratatouille. All are on rotation on the stand this week. 

Maybe a few Green Peppers:  The planting may need a break to let smaller fruits size up.

TomatoesStill coming!
 
Okra: Delicious on the grill.
 
Mustard Greens:  The beginning of the transition from summer to fall crops is usually marked by these delicious "greens" (though some this week are purple...)  A spicy addition chopped into a salad, also great sauteed with some garlic, tomatoes and lemon juice!
 
Cabbage:  The harvest isn't getting any lighter.  We've got some beautiful heads of green storage cabbages ready to come out of the fields.
 
Radishes:  We'll have a few French Breakfast and alot more of the beautiful red round Rover variety.
 
Arugula:  Delicious in a salad with the mustard greens, nuts and cheese.
 
Potatoes:  Keep the taste of summer going with a delicious potato salad, or just stock up on this staple!
 
And farmers' choice of a few surprises throughout the week! 
 
Pick-your-own crops this week:  Please note that when harvesting pick your own, you'll often find the easiest and most abundant picking at the middles and far ends of the beds.
  • Perennial garden herbs   
  • Basil
  • Dill
  • Parsley   
  • Hot peppers:  jalapeno and serrano, maybe a couple new surprises this week
  • Tomatilloes 
  • Husk cherries
  • Cherry and plum tomatoes  -- please harvest only if plants are dry 
  • Flowers 

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Quick Links

Events and Programs

 

Save The Date(s)

 

Waltham Farm Day
Sat., Sept. 22. 2-5pm. FREE event, no registration required. All are welcome!

 

Seed Saving Workshop with WFCF member Brian Madsen. Sat., Oct. 20, 2-4pm. Registration required.

 

Recipe: Baked Zucchini Fries 
 
From Jaye S.

Mix up four egg whites with a little skim milk. Dip circles or sticks of zucchini (or summer squash) in, then coat in panko bread crumbs.

Put on cookie sheet.

Bake at 400, until crispy.

Serve with marinara - so good!!!

Recipe: Kale Crunch   
 
From One United Harvest cookbook.

Ingredients
A little bit of olive oil spray for the baking tray
Big bunch of kale, roughly cut into 2" X 2" pieces
3 Tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie tray with foil. Spray the tray with olive oil spray or spread a thin layer of olive oil across the pan with fingers.

Spread kale across pan. Bake 10 minutes, mixing once or twice.

Sprinkle Parmesan over kale, and bake for a few more minutes, to taste.

Cool on another plate or tray. The kale should be crisp and crunchy.

Store in a container in the
refrigerator and sprinkle over salad all week.
Winter Shares for Sale
Winter Share Veggies_2008_11WFCF has a very few of our own delicious winter shares for sale for $200!  Purchase one now to make sure you keep receiving tasty, organically grown veggies through the end of the year. 

Both primary shareholders and split share partners (secondary shareholders) can purchase their own winter shares, but make sure to note who is purchasing the share when you sign up!   

  

Winter shares consist of four distributions of a range of seasonal vegetables, including winter greens, cabbage, onions, leeks, carrots, turnips and other storage crops and include a selection of winter squash and potatoes from Picadilly Farm. These shares are a delicious way to celebrate the late-season harvest!

Note:  Winter shares are distributed on Saturday afternoons in November and December.  Please make a note of the distribution days to make sure you will be available to pick up your winter share!

 

2012 Winter CSA Share pick-ups will be from 1-4pm on these Saturdays: November 3, November 17, December 1, and December 15.

Notes from the Field  
 

zucchini pile As Dan noted last week, on Friday we said a sad goodbye to our weed crew, a group of women who quickly bonded and took on a strong shared mentality of teamwork and dedication coupled with the levity essential in this line of seemingly endless work. Luckily, our field crew could be described similarly, and we have the good fortune of working with them until the end of September. Anna, Dave, Alison and Kat all trekked out to the farm for springtime interviews from as far away as Maine & New York and as close in as Somerville, looking for ways to get their hands dirty, work hard and learn more about non-profit production farming. In them, the farm has gained a tremendous amount of integrity, spirit, optimism and laughter.

 

The field crew as a whole has become strongly invested in the workings of the farm, and it is a sight to behold when they set to a task. Not unlike the rest of the staff, they seem to love the transplant-racing game, where you push and are pushed by the person transplanting across from you. Kat has justified doing a little bit less running this summer (but not much) because of "farmer jogging" from field to field, task to task, even jogging her compost out to the ends of the property after a long day. I'd like to say it's her youth, but I'm pretty sure Kat is someone who will have boundless energy & curiosity well into her golden years. Dave has a mental list going of every task that will become part of Farmer Gym, which Crossfit has nothing on. Partner-irrigation set up, where speed and synchronized movements are key along with melon tossing have recentlybeen added to the list. There has been no task presented to Dave where his response has not been "love to do it"; loyalty and commitment do Radicchionot appear to be things he takes lightly. Alison's laugh is infectious yet she brings a no-nonsense & deeply caring approach to all of her work, as in her life. Her quiet times seem to be spent keenly observing, her more gregarious moments often serve as a comedic highlight of the day. The frenetic energy on a farm needs to be balanced with grounding forces, and Anna has been one of our sources for that this year. Anna has proven herself to be a woman who can and will do whatever she sets her mind to (hello, Scorpio). With experience in building community through agriculture in her work with Groundwork Somerville, she came to the farm to hone techniques and experience agriculture on a larger scale; her observations and inquiries help to keep the "why" of what we do on my mind daily.


In the end, all of them have those wonderful intangibles that you hope to find in new staff. It's often said that you can't teach work ethic, and we've been so grateful that we have not been in the position of wishing we could-this crew has what it takes. Always up for a challenge, always asking the good questions, always intrigued by new information, we truly couldn't do it without them. Thank you Kat, Alison, Dave and Anna.

 

Enjoy the harvest.
Erinn, for the farm crew

Waltham Fields Community Farm Year-Round Staff  

Claire Kozower, Executive Director

Kim Hunter, Education & Volunteer Coordinator

Amanda Cather, Farm Manger   

Andy Scherer, Gateways Field Manager

Dan Roberts, Field Manager

Erinn Roberts, Greenhouse & Field Manager

Marla Rhodes, Development Coordinator

Deb Guttormsen, Bookkeeper & Tech Coordinator

 

Assistant Growers

Sutton Kiplinger, Zannah Porter   

Field Crew

Alison Denn, Anna Linck, Katherine Murray, David Taberner 

Weed Crew  

Becca Carden, Kathryn Cole, Annabelle Ho, Meghan Seifert

Learning Garden Educators

Rebecca Byard, Alison Dagger, Ian Howes

 

Work Sharers

Graphic Design, Neva Corbo-Hudak

CSA Newsletter, Susan Cassidy

Learning Garden Maintenance, Rebekah Carter

Container Garden, Dede Dussault

Perennial Garden Maintenance, Sabine Gerbatsch and Amy Hendrickson

Farm Work, Naomi Shea

CSA Distribution Coordinators: Joy Grimes, Natasha Hawke, Deepika Madan, Eileen Rojas, and Aneiage Van Bean  

www.communityfarms.org          781-899-2403  

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