Waltham Fields Community Farm
CSA NEWSLETTER
     Week 5:  July 8, 2013                                        Like us on Facebook  Visit our blog 
 
In This Issue

Upcoming Events

  

Summer Programs for Youth in our Learning Garden!

Click here to learn more... 

 

Drop-In Volunteers welcome on Mondays (high school and older) and Saturdays (all ages), arrive at 9am sharp. 

Welcome Volunteers!

 

Dead Simple Slaw 

 

From Smitten Kitchen who was inspired by a recipe in Gourmet, June 2008.  

 

This slaw is both sweet and tart, surprisingly bold for the small number of ingredients. While it goes perfectly on top of pulled pork barbecue, I like it on the side as well.

 

2 1/2 lb (she says green, but wouldn't red work just as well?!) cabbage, cored and cut into 3-inch chunks, then finely chopped or shredded
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 large carrot, coarsely grated
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar

 

Toss all vegetables in a large bowl with 1 tsp each of salt and pepper. Whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, and sugar, then toss with slaw. Chill, covered, stirring occasionally, at least 1 hour (for vegetables to wilt and flavors to blend).

Do ahead: Slaw can be chilled up to 1 day.

 



Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? We love to include shareholder recipes in the newsletter! Please send it in to Susan Cassidy.


EGG SHARES STILL AVAILABLE!

David Petrovick at Caledonia Farm in Barre is willing to expand his flock of layers and build an additional chicken house if there is enough interest from folks at Waltham Fields.  He only needs about 15 more shares to get started!

If you would be interested in purchasing a 25-week share to provide 1 dozen eggs/week for $150, please indicate your interest by e-mailing farmer Dave at caledoniafarm@charter.net. If there is sufficient interest, Dave will visit with the shareholders in Waltham and initiate egg share CSA contracts to deliver to Waltham Fields Community Farm on your vegetable pickup day.  Caledonia Farm will consider delivering year 'round as well if the sharers express interest. Any and all questions would be welcome -- email Dave!
What's In the Share This Week 
Each week, we do our best to predict what will be available in the CSA barn and in the fields.  The CSA newsletter is prepared before we start harvesting for the week, so sometimes you'll see vegetables in the barn that weren't on the list, and sometimes vegetables will be on the list but won't make it to the barn.  
 
Lettuce: It's hard to grow lettuce in the heat of the summer.  We'll try to keep it coming!  Enjoy!

CarrotsOur first carrot planting is kind of a mess, with lots of wireworm and tiny carrots that have been in the ground way too long without sizing up.  Another farm mystery.  Luckily, we seed carrots every two weeks, and the next two plantings coming up look like they'll be beautiful! 
 zucchini pile
Zucchini and Summer SquashWe grow several types of summer squash and yellow and green zucchini at our Gateways field in Weston. Enjoy the beginning of what we hope will be a bountiful harvest of squash for the rest of the season.

Cucumbers:  Our first cucumber planting got hit hard by cucumber beetles over at the Gateways field in Weston.  It's been taking a while to recover, but we hope we'll see a few cukes in the share this week!

Fennelfennel This ancient vegetable was enjoyed by the Romans.  Now you, too can use it shaved in salads, grilled, roasted, or braised. Fennel can be an accent vegetable with greens and fruit in a salad, or it can be the center of attention in a simple arrangement with parsley and lemon. 
 
 
Kale It's back after a week's rest, a little fertilizer, and as much water as we could give it. 

Swiss Chard: A close relative of spinach, rainbow chard is a farmer's favorite. Chop fine, steam lightly or saute in olive oil and toss with pasta and parmesan for a simple, tasty meal. High in folate, vitamins A and C, chard is also wonderful in a frittata or omelet or as a wrapper for your favorite veggies or meat. This is a veggie with lots of options for quick meals or fancy dinners. 
 
Red CabbageColorful and tasty, red cabbage makes a good slaw (see the recipe at left) and is also delicious pickled, braised or simply sauteed.  

Beets with Greens:  Beets are one of those things that most of us didn't grow up eating, but fall in love with when we first tasted them fresh from the farm.  The roots and greens are both edible and delicious (just what you needed, right?  Another green!).  Beets are versatile, whether you use them raw or cooked, in a salad or even a cake!

Fresh Onions:  We grow some beautiful varieties of fresh-eating onions on the farm that are perfect for salads, sandwiches, or anything else you can imagine.  We'll be harvesting them over the next few weeks.  They keep best in the refrigerator; you can keep their tops on or cut them off, but keep them in a bag for best results.    
And a few surprises from Picadilly Farm, the great New Hampshire family farmers who provide us with 100 shares each week!

 

Pick-Your-Own Crops This Week 
Pick-your-own fields are open to all shareholders any day of the week during daylight hours.  Please check the pick-your-own stand for maps and a list of available crops, along with amounts to pick. Please harvest only in labelled rows, and pay close attention to the amounts you harvest in order to ensure that there will be enough for all shareholders. 
     
Fava Beans:fava
These have many other names including broad bean, faba bean, english bean and horse bean. They are native to the Mediterranean and popular in cooking throughout the world. Young, fresh fava beans can be eaten raw or the pods prepared like green beans. Older, larger beans should be shelled, cooked (in boiling water for a minute or two), and if larger than a thumbnail also skinned. You can lightly salt cooked favas and eat them warm or add them to a myriad of dishes such as pasta sauces, soups, or salads. Or try them on the grill!

Green BeansThe first of the season, these green beans are tender and delicious. The fuzzy yellow bugs you might find on the underside of the leaves are the larvae of the Mexican bean beetle, and they are NOT friendly. We've released two rounds of parasitic wasps to try to help control them, but if you have the heart, squish a few -- the population of this pest builds up over the season, so anything we can do to cut down on them now will help us out later! 
 
Cilantro
 
Dill
Parsley
Basil

Perennial Garden Herbs and Frlowers: Please pick carefully (use scissors), pay attention to signs, and watch your step in the perennial garden.  There are many great herbs that are going to be ready later in the season!   
SATURDAY HELP WANTED!

One of our beloved longtime distribution coordinators, Eileen Rojas, is moving to Colorado with her family at the end of the month.  We are looking for someone to fill her shoes!

Distribution coordinators exchange work in the CSA barn each Saturday from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM for a free CSA share for the rest of the season.  A friendly demeanor is essential for this position; a strong back is helpful too.  If you are interested, or if you know anyone who might be, email Amanda!

NOTES FROM THE FIELD:  COYOTE
Many thanks to Saul Blumenthal for kindly sharing the exceptional photos below. 
 
SunflowerThe coyote is the trickster king.  He makes a scene to attract your attention to one direction and while you are looking that way, he plays a trick behind your back. 

 

Some of you may remember the terrible woodchuck problems we used to have here on the farm.  The forest that lines three sides of the farm fields, while beautiful and filled with diverse wildlife, was also home to one of the largest, boldest, and most well-fed populations of groundhogs I have ever come across. These things were mammoth, fertile, and hungry.  They laid waste to plantings of broccoli, munched their way down rows of lettuce, chomped our melons and tomatoes, dug under fences, laughed at scarecrows, and thwarted every attempt to distract or dissuade them from the fields. The only solution to our woodchuck problem that worked even temporarily involved scouting the field edges in February armed with marking flags, a shovel, a lighter, and a bag of giant smoke bombs to take out the groundhogs in their winter dens. This was not our favorite job. It also seemed like even if we did manage to empty a burrow, a new resident would move in shortly as the surviving woodchuck families expanded in late spring.  It was a constant headache, and worse, a real issue for the productivity of the farm.   

 

One beautiful year, the woodchucks abruptly disappeared. In their place, we saw the tracks of a new farm resident: as big as a large dog, leaving a trail of dug-up burrrows and scattered fur and bones. Coyotes had returned to the urban wilds of Waltham, and while our apparently inexhaustible vole population continued to thrive with a new predator in town, the woodchucks were suddenly a thing of the past. The coyotes ranged over the green space from the Lyman Estate to the Beaver Brook Reservation. We were delighted. 

 

In the very dry season of 2010, something began eating our watermelons. At first, it looked like the melons had just been turned over by a curious paw; then teeth and claw marks appeared. Before long, the just-ripe melons were gnawed open, seeds and juice spilling out, cantaloupes and watermelons alike made unharvestable. Though it seemed impossible, there was no mistaking the distinctive shape of the canine tooth imprints in the rind. Coyote, always a trickster, had shape-shifted from a helper to a hindrance.   

 

The melon crop was almost a total loss in 2010 because of the thirsty coyotes.  2011, despite the fact that we put up an electric fence, sprinkled the melons with cayenne, and literally camped out on the farm, was not much better. Last season, we moved the melon crop to the Gateways field in Weston, where it grew unmolested by coyotes.  For a moment, at least, our relationship with the trickster was a truce.

 

Green tomatoesLast week, after two weeks with a threat of heavy rain every day in the forecast, the weather turned hot and steamy. It quickly became clear that, despite our feeling like it had rained every day for the past two weeks, and despite our making rain plans every day for the past two weeks, it had not, in fact, really rained much at all. Although June was a rainy month overall, by the time the heat hit in early July, the soil was dry and we were unprepared, distracted by the coyote forecast, worrying about late blight and rainy day activities instead of irrigation and hot-weather plant care. The crops were as surprised as we were.  We ran drip irrigation.  We moved aluminum overhead pipe to water thirsty kale and collards, bulbing onions, wilty lettuce and delicate transplants which gained a couple of hours from a little water from the transplanter but needed a major infusion by the end of each day.  We tied tomatoes up, dripping with sweat and unconcerned about late blight, which does not thrive in hot weather.  We transplanted cucumbers, squash, lettuce and fall kale.  We drank gallons of electrolyte beverages of every description. We killed weeds and they stayed dead in the heat.  Slowly, we cleared our heads of the rain clouds that the trickster forecast had brought and focused on the real season at hand:  the hot one.   

 

Summer squashIt was good growing weather for eggplant and peppers, tomatoes and melons and beans. We all made it through the hot weather, tired but unscathed. We got a lot of work done while it was not raining. We remembered the old saying "be careful what you wish for."  And late last week, we saw a big mother coyote walk along the edges of the field, stopping to look at us every once in awhile, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she panted in the heat. She looked strong and healthy, with a shiny coat and very white teeth.  She paused at the treeline, looking behind her. We followed her glance to a movement in the grass-- a smaller coyote, with huge ears and paws, trotted behind her, pausing to sniff and scratch and explore.  The trickster's legacy continues on the farm.  Now if only the coyotes would eat up some of those bunnies...    

 

Enjoy the harvest,  
Amanda, for the farm staff: Andy, Erinn, Dan, Sutton, and Zannah
Quick Links

 

www.communityfarms.org

240 Beaver Street
Waltham, MA 02452 
Marla Rhodes, Development Assistant
Amanda Cather, Farm Manager
Erinn Roberts, Greenhouse and Field Manager
Dan Roberts, Field Manager

Sutton Kiplinger, Assistant Grower
Zannah Porter, Assistant Grower
Andy Scherer, Farmer

Hector Cruz, Maricela Escobar, Amber Carmer Sandager and Lauren Trotogott, Field Crew

Lizzie Callaghan, Sage Dumont, Jesse Santosuosso, Weed Crew

Mikaela Burns, Andrea Coughlan, Matthew Crawford,  Farm Educators
Waltham Fields Community Farm | 240 Beaver Street | Waltham | MA | 02452