Weekly CSA Newsletter:
In This Issue:
- This week's share may include: ...
- Pick-Your-Own Crops and Information
- Notes from the Field
- Book Review - An Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- Recipes
- Thursday Night Kid/Work Swap and Sunday Kids' Corner
- CFO Contact Information
1. This week's share may include
- Lettuce
- Swiss Chard
- Kale
- Savoy or Wakefield Cabbage
- Scallions
- Maybe... just maybe... Beets or Summer Squash
2. Pick-Your-Own Crops
- Fava Beans
- Snow Peas
- Sugar Snap Peas
- Herbs: Cilantro, Dill, Parsley
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
We hope you've been enjoying these bountiful first few week of tender greens and sweet and spicy root crops. With the hot weather, our salad days are drawing to a close. Our farm staff is working harder than ever to keep up with the weeds and the plentiful cucumber and potato beetles while harvesting three mornings a week and spending time in the greenhouse sowing the seeds for the fall harvests.
Many of you have asked us how this spring's rains affected our farm, and farms around the area. We subscribe to an email publication put out by the University of Massachusetts Extension Service, and I think they described the long-term impact of the weather very succinctly this past week:
"Each day of sunny weather boosts the crops, helps dry out soaked fields, and gives another chance to catch up. Last week, throughout New England, additional inches of rain worsened field conditions and delayed planting further. Since Sunday, sun returned and made it feel like June and made it possible to do what needs to be done in June. Heavy soils, whether near a flooded river or on a hillside, were saturated or had standing water. By contrast, light loamy or sandy fields were accessible. Trying to get into fields before they are dry can lead to deep ruts, compacted soil, bogged down equipment, and hot tempers (or a good story, depending on your point of view)..Because of early warmth in May, there will be sources of early. crops, but many growers will be waiting for crops that are late or had to be replanted. Major skips in planting dates will make regular harvests a challenge this season."
Here at Waltham Fields, we're very fortunate to have a light, well-drained soil to work with, with few restrictions on when we can get onto our fields. Farms with wetter soils, which might do better in a drought year, have had a harder time this spring than we have. Still, we have had weeks when we couldn't plant because of wet fields, and we're still playing catch-up with our transplanting and our weed control. We've had tougher than usual spring pest problems because cold, wet soil allows our maggot friends to hold on longer than usual, while beetles, usually summer pests, seem undeterred and are emerging at a rapid rate. You may be experiencing a slightly smaller share this week than last week because of all these spring issues. It just goes to show you that all the best-laid plans in agriculture can't compete with a couple of weeks of rain and some wet soil. Bear with us while we ride out the effects of the spring. We have some awesome warm-weather crops coming your way in just a few weeks, including carrots, beans, summer squash, cucumbers, and fennel (yes, it's one of my favorites). Enjoy the early summer harvests!
Amanda Cather, for the farm staff
4. Book Review - An Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
The Omnivore's Dilemma; A History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Submitted by Kathy Diamond
"The blessing of the omnivore is that he can eat a great many different things in nature. The curse of the omnivore is that when it comes to figuring out which of those things are safe to eat, he's pretty much on his own."
I acquired a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma at the CFO Spring Fling & Silent Auction, along with two tickets to hear the author speak in Harvard Square. Michael Pollan, a journalist, is also the author of The Botany of Desire, a fascinating book with essays on the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. His new book, an indictment of the American food system, is much more political. If you're a vegetarian, or even if you're not, parts of this book will be tough going. But it's a great read and a frightening wake-up call.
Both books make the case that human beings coevolved with other species, and that species that acquired traits desirable to humans were successful. The first section of The Omnivore's Dilemma focuses on corn, which is a raw material of 25% of the foods for sale at the supermarket. This is a great success story for the species Zea mays but a disaster for human nutrition. Corn is in the high fructose corn syrup that tops many an ingredients list. It is also the raw material for the lecithin, xanthan gum, caramel color, etc. at the bottom of the list.
But more insidious is the fact that almost all the beef cattle in this country are now fed a diet of corn. Cattle evolved as grass eaters. The reason there are so many pharmaceuticals in beef is that the rumens of the steers can't digest the corn, making the animals sick. So why are the steers fed corn? Because of the huge corn surplus in the U.S., caused by the huge monoculture of corn grown in the Midwest, fueled by the policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Another section of the book focuses on "big organic"-showing how stores like Whole Foods only buy from large farms that are technically organic but don't have free-range animals, use huge amounts of fossil fuels for shipping, etc. Did you know Cascadian Farm is owned by General Mills? At his talk in Harvard Square, Michael Pollan said that he's come to realize that "local" is the most important quality to look for in food.
The author did find a farmer in Virginia growing plants and animals in a closed cycle where the waste products of the animals enriched the plants they were eating. This is the most hopeful section of the book. In the final section, the author finds people to teach him hunting (of wild pigs) and gathering (of wild mushrooms) in northern California, and includes a discussion of the ethics of eating animals.
At the talk in Harvard Square, someone asked Michael Pollan how his eating habits had changed since he wrote the book. He said, "I've joined a CSA."
5. Recipes
CSA Happy Meal Recipe - Hippy-food Style by Marla Rhodes
Here is what I ate today, an hour after my first CSA pickup at Davis Square of amazingly fresh and bountiful greens! Everyone was strolling up the sidewalk, some with babies, looking happy, figuring out the escarole or is it bok choy and there's three kinds of kale here look at that pretty radish.....
Oh it's blue, the sky, at seven p.m.
and it's sunny and breezy and
the cardinal's going crazy and the catbird too
and I'm eating one whole head of chinese cabbage
one whole onion
stirfried in grapeseed oil, with tempeh chunks,
splash on some tamari,
some rice vinegar
add sea salt and fresh ground pepper, at the end, don't forget
and cook it and eat it
listening to Billy sing happy
to Ingrid Bergman
on Mermaid Avenue.
Steamed fish and Bok Choy - from Marla's Mom, Parrish Rhodes
...on the assumption you all have your bamboo steamers...and if not, run, run and buy one... This is for those who moan they don't have time to cook. Serves 4.
Layer in steamer:
- 1 thinly sliced onion,
- bok choy,
- 2c. thick sliced mushrooms,
- fish (any firm type).
Steam 3-5 minutes. Yes, you heard me - dinner in 3-5 minutes!.
Drizzle over the cooked meal the following dressing:
- 1/3c. diced small scallions (small dice, not small scallions),
- 1/2T. finely chopped ginger
- 3T lemon juice.,
- 1T. soy sauce,
- 1T. EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).
I double or triple the recipe, because it freezes beautifully. I put a single serving of the dressing in a snack zip-lock bag and freeze that, too, as well as a single serving of the recipe. Enjoy!
Marla's note: This one's from my mom, Parrish Rhodes, who is an excellent cook (and has a CSA share in Asheville, NC). She sends out a monthly recipe to a group of far-flung friends.
Linguine with Kale and Sausage
Submitted by Amy & Brian Maltzan
Serves 4-6
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb sausage (can use any kind you like - hot or sweet, could also sub. turkey sausage)
- 1 lb kale, leaves coarsely chopped and ribs discarded
- 1 lb linguine
- 2/3 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, plus additional for serving
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Remove sausage from casings and brown, crumbling with a fork, about 5-7 minutes.
Meanwhile, blanch kale leaves in a pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove cooked kale with a strainer, and bring the water back to a boil. Add the linguine and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.
While pasta cooks, add kale to sausage in skillet and sauté, stirring frequently, until just tender, about 1-2 minutes. Add broth, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet, then add pasta and 1/2 cup reserved cooking water to skillet, tossing until combined. Stir in cheese and thin with additional cooking water if desired.
Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.
Gourmet - March 2006
6. Thursday Night Kid/Work Swap and Sunday Kids' Corner
One of our shareholders mentioned that she'd be interested in working during our evening volunteer hours on Thursdays, but that she comes to the farm with two young children who like to stay nearby. Since there are lots of shareholders with small kids, she wondered if anyone would be interested in meeting up to trade time hanging out with kids and meditatively weeding and planting. If so, send us an email at csainfo@communityfarms.org and we'll pass the information along.
Also, some Sunday shareholders have lamented the fact that Imgrid, our Sunday kids' corner coordinator, has moved to Canada. Ingrid just kept a bin full of kids' toys and fun things to do in the shed and brought it out on Sundays. If anyone is interested in doing that, just let us know!
7. Contact Information
To reach us: Farm Staff: csainfo@communityfarms.org Meg Coward: megcoward@communityfarms.org Volunteer Coordinators: volunteer@communityfarms.org Newsletter Submissions: soosting@yahoo.org CFO Board of Directors: board@communityfarms.orgCommunity Farms Outreach is a nonprofit organization dedicated to farmland preservation, hunger relief, and education.
