Waltham Fields Community Farm
local food for everyone
Waltham Fields Community Farm
CSA Newsletter 2018
Week 1 of 20
CSA BEGINS THIS WEEK!

PICKUP DATES & TIMES

COME ONCE ON ANY OF THESE PICK UP DAYS
Wednesday, June 13th, 2:00-6:30pm
Thursday, June 14th, 2:00-6:30pm
Saturday, June 16th, 9am-2pm

Any shareholder is welcome to pick up on any of the above days! You don't have to let us know when you're coming. Feel free to switch back and forth from week to week if that works best for you, or choose a day and stick to it for most of the season. We'll be happy to see you whatever day you come to the farm.

Please be prepared to pay check or cash at the first pick-up if you still have an outstanding balance. Credit card payments are no longer accepted for share payments. You can also send in or drop off your check made out to WFCF at our office, located at 240 Beaver Street in Waltham. Park behind the red brick building, enter the single red door and you'll find our office inside the first door on the right.
WHAT'S IN THE SHARE - Our Best Guess
This is our best guess at this point. Actual crops may vary from what's listed here due to a variety of factors. 
  
In the Barn (Picked for You):
Lettuce--butterheads and romaine
Kale- Red Russian, Winterbor, purple and green stemmed Toscano
Collards
Swiss chard
Spinach
Bok choy
Garlic scapes
Rhubarb

Pick Your Own (PYO): 
Perennial Garden
MEET
YOUR FARM STAFF
AND TOUR THE FARM!

During the first week of pick-ups, we'd love for you to join us for an orientation and tour. We don't require new shareholders to come to an orientation but you'll be more prepared for your first pick-up if you are able to participate. This is a chance to chat with your farmers, meet other farm staff members, find out how the CSA and Pick-Your-Own work, walk around the fields to see what's growing and learn about our nonprofit work. You don't have to do the tour on the same day as you pick up. Come to either one of these that suits your schedule! 

ORIENTATION OPTIONS:  
Wednesday, June 13th at 5:30pm (Thursday, 6/14 rain date - look for a social media update)
Saturday, June 16th at 10:00am

WHERE TO MEET: At the Distribution Barn of Waltham Fields Community Farm, 240 Beaver Street, Waltham. The Barn is located behind the red brick UMass building (we lease land and office space from UMass). 

BRING: Bags and/or boxes if you're picking up your share, friends, children, questions, and sturdy shoes to walk around the farm.
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Week One: The Rising
by Erinn Roberts

Welcome to the first week of Waltham Fields CSA! We have been busy tilling, planting, seeding, fencing, watering, mowing, jump-starting, running, hilling, weeding, troubleshooting, all the while alternately freezing and sweating and we couldn’t be happier to add harvesting to the list. This is what we’ve been building towards for the past 3 months, and this week we are fully staffed and ready to go! Despite a slow start to the spring, the weather of the past few weeks has been very amenable to growing and planting vegetables. Anna, Naomi, Janelle, Ivory and Tim have been the hard-working (and amazing) core spring crew and we’re excited to welcome the Field Crew this week, comprised of Ebony, Ezra, Phil and Annastasia for a dose of fresh energy. We were re-invigorated by the addition of Weed Crew 3 weeks ago, and we can all give Chelsea, Emily, Hassan and Jesse a hearty thank you for cleaning up the endless farm rows.

In your first share you’ll be receiving plenty of greens, so get ready for some lovely salads, stir-fries, sautes and smoothies. The kale and collards had their annual day of beauty in late May and you can expect to see them on the stand weekly as long as the planting stays healthy. We think of Swiss chard and lettuce as another kitchen staple, so same plan with them. We struggle with a couple different spring pests that adore crops in the cabbage family, and bok choy is a top delicacy for them, so while we do plan on having it available, it will be on the smaller side for now. Rhubarb and garlic scapes will be making brief appearances for the next couple of weeks, stealing the stage of late spring/early summer. If you are new to garlic scapes, throw them on the grill, puree them into a pesto, chop them into a stir fry or use them as you would garlic for a less pungent but equally delicious bite. 

Thanks to our perennial garden workshares, Kristen, Emily and Elena, that oasis is looking lovely and tidy. Any herbs that are ready for harvest will be labelled, and our website has a great handbook to reference when you come upon an unfamiliar plant. Right now, the chive blossoms are abundant, alongside the oregano, thyme, and savory.

And in a classic example of burying the lead, some of you may have noticed last fall that we planted strawberries in place of our long-suffering raspberry canes. This is a trial run for us to re-introduce strawberries, so please keep that in mind when we have them on offer through the PYO. A substantial percentage of the plants did not survive the winter (thank you very much, voles), so the overall size of the planting itself is smaller than we had planned on. But the plants that are there look fantastic (thank you very much, weed crew). Please be respectful of the quantities we post on the PYO sheet and know that we are doing our best to provide enough strawberries for the 450 families that participate in the CSA. Also, this variety of strawberry is super tasty, but also very perishable. As in, they will be mush by the end of the day that you picked them, so you will have to suffer through eating them ASAP.

Are you new to the CSA this year? We have two orientation dates to give you a chance to meet some of your farmers, get the low-down on pick-up and PYO logistics, and enjoy a tour of the farm. We’ll be meeting in front of the distribution barn at 5:30 pm on Wednesday night (6/13) (Thursday, 6/14 rain date) or 10:00 am on Saturday morning (6/16).

This week you also have the fantastic opportunity to join us at our annual silent auction, Sprout, at the Charles River Museum of Industry this Friday, June 15th. If you haven’t attended Sprout in the past, I couldn’t recommend it more. As our biggest fundraising event of the year, our staff has been working hard to make it a fun and memorable night with fantastic items to bid on, delicious food, an open bar and music (and did I mention delicious food?). If you participate in our CSA partly because you are allied with our food access and education mission, there is no better way to show your support than to join us on Friday night.

Seasoned shareholders know that the early weeks of the CSA are on the lighter side, but there’s something both nostalgic and inspiring about the first harvests and first tastes of the season that make it memorable and fulfilling. Take home your food, share it with people you love, rejuvenate and satiate a craving you might not even know you had for the deep satisfaction of your first CSA share.

Thanks for joining us this season!

Enjoy the harvest,
Erinn, for the farm staff
WHAT'S IN THE BARN 

Cheddar Cheese Sticks from Smith's Country Cheese
  
Available in Plain and Chive for $2.55 each, adults and children love them as a quick snack or sample!

Due to Board of Health guidelines, Chestnut Farms is unfortunately no longer able to accept used egg cartons. Please find another outlet to reuse your egg cartons as we will no longer be collecting them in the CSA barn. 

All of our retail products are available for sale to the public. For our own produce offerings, we prioritize giving shareholders a good return on their investment and meeting our food assistance goals (20% of what we grow - which should amount to $80,000 of produce for low-income households this year). Cash, check, Mastercard & Visa ($10 minimum for credit) are all accepted for retail items.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
  • ¼ cup unsalted, shelled raw pistachios
  • ½ cup Medjool dates, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons honey, divided
  • 3 large rhubarb stalks (about ¾ lb.), cut into 2” pieces
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/3 cups plain nonfat Greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°. Toast pine nuts on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing occasionally, until golden brown, 8–10 minutes; let cool, then chop.
Meanwhile, bring dates, zest, vanilla, 1 Tbsp. honey, and 1 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, reduce heat, and simmer gently until dates are very soft and liquid is reduced by half, 8–10 minutes. Place rhubarb in a small baking dish and toss with cinnamon and date mixture. Roast, turning halfway through, until rhubarb is tender but not falling apart, 25–30 minutes.

Whisk yogurt and remaining 1 Tbsp. honey in a small bowl. Serve spiced rhubarb and any juices with yogurt and pistachios.
IMPORTANT SHAREHOLDER INFORMATION

What's in the Share  
Each Tuesday, we'll send out a CSA newsletter letting you know our best guess for what will be in the share, both in the barn and pick-your-own crops. All shareholders need to check in with us in the Distribution Barn before picking up their share. 

Our first shares will start out smaller and grow with the season. The choice will be more limited in these earlier weeks but you will start to see more later in the month as the crops really get growing. We'll send out your first official CSA newsletter Tuesday, June 12th (June 19th for EVEN 10-week shares) with a crop list and more information, so watch your email inbox!

If it's your first time picking up a CSA share with Waltham Fields, we strongly encourage you to join us for one of the orientation tours listed in the section above. If you can't make it to any of the dates or times, let us know when you check in and we'll help guide you through your first pick up. Also, please feel free to ask us questions anytime. We're here to help you!
 
Bring Your Own Bags or a Box 
We don't keep a stock of plastic bags. Please remember to bring your own bags or a box to the farm to pick up your CSA share! We strongly encourage the use of reusable bags/boxes for all vegetables on the farm. If you forget your bags or want some really great ones, we have reusable Waltham Fields Tote Bags for sale in the barn for $4, with proceeds supporting our food assistance and education programs.
  
Pick-Your-Own Crops
All shareholders are welcome to pick-your-own anytime during daylight hours.  10-week shareholders may PYO at anytime during their assigned week and may not switch weeks. Stop by the PYO station for a list of what's available, how much to take, and a map of where to find it in the fields. Take these maps into the fields with you & respect the quantity limits so that there is enough for everyone! When you head out into the fields, a sign will help you to know which rows are ready for picking and will also include harvest tips.  The PYO station will also provide scissors and pint boxes, but it never hurts to bring your own.

There will be two weeks at the end of the 20-week season when vegetable shareholders are given access to our annual flowers for picking. If you have a 10-week share, you will have 1 week of access to the flower fields, during your assigned week. 

If You Need to Miss a Pick Up
If you can't pick up a share one week, we are not able to allow you to double up on another week. You can send friends or neighbors to get your veggies on any week you can't make it yourself. Have them check in at the CSA barn under the last name of the primary shareholder for your share. You don't need to let us know they're coming. 10-WEEK SHARES cannot switch weeks. You must stick to your assigned even or odd weeks. If no one picks up your share, the veggies will be included with our weekly donations to hunger relief organizations. (Remember to forward the weekly newsletter to your sub and to tell them to bring their own bags/boxes!) 

Balances Due
All fees were due by June 1st, including share balances and maintaining current membership with our non-profit organization. If you're not sure if you still owe money for your CSA share or membership, check your email for a notice from our Bookkeeper and Office Coordinator, Kamelia Aly (or Admin@communityfarms.org).  Please be prepared to pay check or cash at the first pick-up if you still have an outstanding balance. Credit card payments are no longer accepted for share payments. You can also send in or drop off your check made out to WFCF at our office, located at 240 Beaver Street in Waltham. Park behind the red brick building, enter the single red door and you'll find our office inside the first door on the right.

For Those Splitting a Share
If you are splitting a share, please remember that you need to pick up the whole share at one time each week. It is NOT acceptable for one partner to come at one time and pick up half of the share and another to get the other half later, even if during the same day. You'll need to coordinate with your share partner to figure out how to divide the share up, either by taking alternate weeks or meeting up at the farm to pick up the share together.  

Dogs on the Farm
Dogs are welcome on the farm but are not allowed in the CSA barn or in the vegetable fields per health department regulations. Dogs must be leashed and owners must clean up after them.  
  
Share Pick Up Questions
More questions about share pickup? Check out our CSA FAQs! You can also contact Lauren Trotogott, our Distribution Coordinator.
Waltham Fields Community Farm Staff

Year-Round Staff:
Stacey Daley, Interim Executive Director
Marla Rhodes, Volunteer & Development Coordinator
Erinn Roberts, Farm Manager
Anna Kelchlin, Assistant Farm Manager
Alexandra Lennon-Simon, Education Director
Lauren Trotogott, Farm Stand & Distribution Manager
Kamelia Aly, Bookkeeper & Office Coordinator

Seasonal Staff:
Equipment Technician: Tim Cooke
Assistant Grower: Ivory Nava
Field Manager: Janelle Plummer
Greenhouse Manager: Naomi Shea
Field Crew: Ezra Nava, Ebony Nava, Phil Musen, Anastasia Strayton
Weed Crew: Hassan Ragy, Emily Saperia, Jesse Simmons, Chelsea Wang
Distribution & Outreach Assistant: Janet Calcaterra
CSA Distribution Team: Joy Grimes, Jessica Kauffman, Olivia Newhall-Thayer, Emily Saperia, Edward Wakefield
Learning Garden Educators: Autumn Cutting, Sarah Scheinfeld, Anna Vellante
Waltham Fields Community Farm
(781) 899-2403
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Waltham Fields Community Farm | 240 Beaver Street, Waltham, MA 02452