Weekly CSA Newsletter: September 3-9, 2006 (Week #13)

In This Issue:

  1. This week's share may include: ...
  2. Pick-Your-Own Crops and Information
  3. Notes from the Field: Just Add Water
  4. Many, Many Ways to Get Involved!
  5. Recipes
  6. Why I joined WFCF
  7. Reflections of a Farm Volunteer
  8. Upcoming Events: Third Sunday Gathering August 20th at 4 PM
  9. CFO Contact Information

1. This week's share may include

  • Kale
  • Collards
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Leeks
  • Peppers
  • Eggplant
  • Summer Squash
  • Cucumbers
  • Melons

Coming Soon: Winter Squash, Broccoli, Cabbage, Broccoli Raab, Lettuce, Spinach, Kohlrabi

2. Pick-Your-Own Crops

  • Herbs
  • Flowers
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Plum Tomatoes
  • Beans

All shareholders are invited to pick your own from 9 AM to 7:30 PM on Sundays and from 3 PM to 7:30 PM on Thursdays. Please visit the PYO station near the red shed for locations of crops and all PYO tools and materials.

3. Notes from the Field

Just Add Water

That's what Nate said when the eggplant started to produce like crazy. Our eggplant crop this year (along with our onions, leeks, pumpkins, some forlorn carrots, about half our potatoes and the cucumbers and summer squash you are eating right now) is planted at our Lyman Estate fields, about a mile down the road from the Field Station site where most of you pick up your CSA shares. These fields have no irrigation, and, like our Field Station fields, they have very light soils that dry out quickly. This is great for wet springs like the one we had this year, but terrible for dry summers like the one we had last year. and the one we were beginning to worry about two weeks ago. The direct-seeded fall turnips and radishes that we planted there at the beginning of August just did not come up well without the benefit of overhead irrigation. Even the weeds at the edges of the onion fields were wilting on the day that we harvested the storage onions. The eggplant was limping along, producing half-heartedly, but nothing like what we've seen now that it has started to rain on Friday the 25th. At the Field Station, our fall planting of chard took off after it rained, and so did the fall broccoli, arugula, and other greens. It's rare that we have a serious problem with lack of moisture from here on out, so it seems like our water worries may be over for this season.

On the other hand, the cool weather has not been good to our heat-loving crops. It seems like ever since that cool breeze blew through the distribution shelter on August 3, breaking the intense heat wave that threatened our staff's health, the days and nights have been cool enough to make us think of fall. That's great for those of us who work outside, but not so great for crops like tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, melons, cucumbers and summer squash, all of which prefer hot weather in order to really thrive. Not only does hot weather help these crops ripen up, cool temperatures promote some of the diseases that can decimate them and make them finish producing earlier than usual. That eggplant the rain just made so happy may succumb to a fungus before it can fulfill the promise of the past week.

As my husband Mark says, farmers are never happy with the weather. With his comments in mind, I try to think instead that things balance out to create different kinds of abundance in different seasons. Hopefully this cool wet weather will bring on some beautiful autumn veggies that we can all enjoy in warmth and good health. Enjoy the harvest.

Amanda Cather, for the farm staff

4. Many, Many Ways to Get Involved!

Our missions of hunger relief, education about farming and food, and preservation of farmland, happen as a result of the coordinated efforts of many, many generous people. If you'd like to get involved, here are some upcoming opportunities:

  1. Join the Harvest Potluck Committee, and help coordinate this celebration at the end of the growing season. Contact Nathan Weston at elbows@spamcop.net.
  2. Represent CFO/Waltham Fields at a town day or community service fair. We'll give you the materials, you just provide the enthusiasm. Contact Meg at megcoward@communityfarms.org.
  3. Connect us with new funding sources. Every year, we need to bring in a small but significant portion of our budget as donations from businesses, faith communities, and small foundations. We can always use new contacts! If you can make a connection for us, please get in touch with Meg at megcoward@communityfarms.org.
  4. Join our Board of Directors. We are currently recruiting new Board Members to join us in January 2007. If you are interested, please contact Judy Fallows at judyfallows@alum.mit.edu, or Kathy Diamond at kathydia@comcast.net. The next two board meetings, on the evenings of September 12th and October 10th, are open for visits by prospective board members.

And as always, we welcome your help in the fields. Many thanks to everyone who helped out this past Sunday - an amazing amount got done on a very wet day!

-Meg Coward, Executive Director

5. Recipes

Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

One of our favorite things to do with farm vegetables throughout the summer is make stir-fry, and we particularly like the following sauce recipe: Peanut sauce

(from The Bride & Groom First & Forever Cookbook, by Mary Corpening Barber & Sara Corpening Whiteford)

  • ˝ cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
  • 1 ˝ teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic (or a couple of minced garlic scapes)
  • pinch of cayenne pepper (or one hot pepper from the farm)

Stir-fry a bunch of vegetables (some of our favorites are bok choy, snap peas, green beans, zucchini, and Japanese eggplant) in a little vegetable oil, toss the cooked veggies with peanut sauce, and serve over noodles or rice.

We used this recipe for our first meal of the One Local Summer Challenge, a challenge to make at least one meal from all local ingredients in each week of the summer. You can find out more about the One Local Summer Challenge at http://www.pocketfarm.com/?page_id=319. You can find photos of our local meals, as well as some photos of the farm, on our blog at http://jensandsteves.blogspot.com.

Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski

Mexican Polenta-Stuffed Peppers

We tried this recipe the other week and it was INCREDIBLE. I couldn't find Spanish olives, so we used Greek kalamata olives instead, and it added the needed (but not overwhelming) punch. The recipe is from Moosewood Restaurant: Simple Suppers ~Katrina Donovan and Ryan Fleming Serves 4-6 Time: 45 minutes

  • 5 large bell peppers (any color...we tried green and yellow and they were equally wonderful)
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • sprinkling of salt

Polenta:

  • 4 Cups water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1 Cup polenta cornmeal (available in Bulk Bins at Whole Foods)
  • 1 1/2 Cups corn kernels
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil or butter
  • 1 1/2 Cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 Cup chopped Spanish olives

Salsa:

  • 1 16-oz jar of your favorite salsa
  • 1 15-oz can of black beans, drained
  • 1/4 Cup chopped cilantro (optional)

Preheat the oven to 450. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove the seeds, but leave the stem ends on so the peppers will hold their shape. Brush the pepper halves with oil, inside and out, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place cut-side up on an oiled baking sheet and roast in the oven until tender but still holding their shape, about 15 minutes.

While the peppers roast, in a heavy saucepan, bring the water, salt, and red pepper flakes to a boil. Add the polenta in a slow, steady stream while whisking. Cook on medium heat, stirring often, until thickened. Stir in the corn, oil or butter, 1 Cup of the cheese, and the olives. Remove from the heat.

Fill the roasted pepper halves with the polenta mixture. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining cheese and return to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Meanwhile, combine the salsa, black beans, and cilantro in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.

To serve, spoon some of the black bean salsa on each dinner plate and place one or two pepper halves on top. Incredible stuff!

Green Pozole Stew

"Here's what ya do wit tomatillos" ~ Joel Patterson

Blanch tomatillos in boiling water for 10 min before you start this recipe.

  • 2 T canola oil
  • 3/4 pound boneless pork loin, diced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, seeded, diced
  • 2 stalks celery chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, mince
  • 2 serrano or jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
  • 15 oz. crushed tomatoes
  • 1 can (14 oz) corn hominy, drained
  • 14 oz. stewed tomatoes
  • 12 oz. tomatilloes, diced
  • 1 T dried oregano
  • 1/2 t black pepper
  • 1/2 t salt

In a skillet with 1 T oil, brown the pork for about 7 minutes. Set aside. In a large saucepan, heat the remaining 1 T oil. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and chili peppers and cook, sitrring for 5 to 7 minutes over medium-high heat. Stir in the tomatoes, hominy, tomatilloes, oregano, black pepper, salt and pork. Simmer fo 15 to 20 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, let stand 5 min before serving with warm tortillas. From Jay Solomon's "Great Bowls of Fire" Serves 4.

6. Why I joined WFCF

We joined because we could get fresh vegetables and because of an increasing frustration with not being able to get "fresh" vegetables at the store. Just being at the farm to get the vegetables is a spirit lifting and a refreshing change from our city environment. Thank you for the opportunity. Sincerely, Laura Hayes

8. Reflections of a Farm Volunteer

by Helene Newberg

Smelling (and then seeing and hearing) rain as I hauled out of bed this morning just before six, I smiled at my house full of sleepers and made a silent wish that the rain would go on for hours. Ordinarily, in the summer with a young child to entertain, rain would unravel me. This morning, I was thinking of the farm.

I knew that as I was getting up our farm crew was already at work. The day before, between my chores, dropping and picking up from day camp, and my part-time work hours, I spent a few hours volunteering at the farm.

Yesterday just thinking about walking a step was heavy enough to raise a cloud of dust. That dust mixed with sweat and sunscreen and remained on my hands through nearly a dozen handwashings and a dunk in a swimming pool.

I've been a CSA shareholder for about five years, three years in Waltham. Our first farm included a work requirement. Though it was further from town, I managed to give the farmer about twelve hours over a summer, more than asked for but less than needed. Even though our CSA has no work requirement, over the last several weeks, as my available time has shifted like blue sky on a partly cloudy day, I've been able to give a morning a week for a few weeks in a row.

Not that I'm any great hero. I like getting dirty and I like making food happen. Perhaps I like being told what to do for a few hours a week. I know I like having an abundance of work to challenge me. And I like hard work. Some would say it's cheaper, and more useful, than therapy.

When I'm working by myself, I reflect on the intense weed pressure Amanda talks about and what metaphorical weed pressure needs attention in my own life. I listen to some children singing in Hebrew and recall, with some difficulty, a word or two I forgot I knew. And sometimes, I just work.

I love what I see on pickup days: folks of all stripes collecting big, beautiful and tasty veggies grown with a minimum of chemistry (and a lot of artistry) on a few acres of land close to home. On harvest days, I've helped to pick and wash hundreds of pounds of produce then stacked dozens of boxes to be taken to feed the hungry, reward enough in itself.

I'm physically able to do the work though I might groan upon straightening up from half an hour of weeding onions. I imagine many of the hunger relief recipients wouldn't be able to withstand even this exertion. The work isn't that demanding — some carry one box at a time, some three. But, just like anything, many hands lighten it. And certainly make for better conversation.

Yesterday, my schedule had me at the farm a little ahead of the drop-in hours. Which was okay — somewhere in our farm crew's contracts must be a clause that instructs them to deal graciously with whatever time a volunteer can or can't spend helping.

With half an hour available between moving irrigation pipes through the squash and when drop-in volunteers would be shuttled to the Lyman field, the task that made sense was hoeing cucumbers. The assignment resulted from a typical calculation involving the number of bodies on hand, the size of the weeds, the size of the plants, what the tractor's cultivator would do, what else needed weeding but was soaked and muddy from irrigation, whether anything needed to be planted or harvested, how close to the end of its harvest cycle was each crop (and therefore, would pulling weeds make any measurable difference) and other factors I can't even imagine.

Doing the work isn't difficult: if weeding, get a good look at what not to pull up and then destroy anything that's not that. If harvesting, find the ripest veggies on the plants meeting some basic criteria and remove them as instructed. Figuring out what's to be done, that's the real heavy lifting, knowing that hundreds of the poor and the families of 250 shareholders will know sooner or later how well those decisions went.

As I hoed cucumbers and was asked to shuttle any latecomers over to the auxiliary field, I found myself starting to hope for the cavalry (and for cooling rain, which continues as I write). Knowing that no one had to turn up, and knowing that our farm crew had the work to do regardless of how much help was offered, made me treasure most excessively those who did come out.

Rather the same way I feel about the rain.

Saskia's note: This article was written over a year ago, but could easily have been about the great volunteer turnout last Sunday in the rain...

9. Upcoming events

Sunday, September 17th, 4:00 pm Third Sunday Gathering

Third Sunday Gatherings: The third Sunday of every month we host an informal gathering of members, shareholders and supporters. This is a chance to connect with other farm-friendly folks. The gatherings are scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. Meet near the distribution shelter. Third Sunday Gatherings begin in May and are held through the third Sunday in October. The Third Sunday of November will be a harvest potluck and CFO's Annual Meeting will now be held in January 2007 (date TBD).

10. Contact Information

To reach us:

Community Farms Outreach is a nonprofit organization dedicated to farmland preservation, hunger relief, and education.

back to top Δ