|
|
August 6, 2012
| CSA Distribution Week #9 |
|
|
|
|
Waltham Fields Community Farm
CSA Newsletter
 
|
|
|
|
|
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:
Kale: Kale should be around for most of the rest of the season. Since we don't have as much lettuce this week, you could try making one of these delicious kale salads for a quick no-cook meal, or try a smoothie with kale as a great way to get your greens on (you could substitute lambs' quarters for spinach if you want all local greens)!
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 -- good thing it's also one of the most tasty. Use it in frittatas and pasta dishes, soups and casseroles, or use the leaves to wrap rice and meat combinations or salmon.
IPM Sweet Corn: Last week Verrill Farm's corn was set back by the cool weekend temperatures (remember those?!) and some very significant deer and bird damage. They are hoping that they have some to send our way this week.
Beets: We have many plantings of beets and carrots throughout the season. We always harvest a planting with the tops on first, and then clear it by harvesting with the tops off. For that reason, you'll sometimes see beets bunched and sometimes loose by the pound; both types are fresh, sweet, and delicious.
Carrots: Take off the tops before storing them -- but we don't think you'll need to store them for very long.
Garlic: This is cured 'Spanish Roja' garlic, harvested the first week of July and stored in our greenhouse for the past month. It does not need to be refrigerated and should store well -- if you can keep from using it all to make pesto right away.
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.
Cucumbers: Still coming!
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 (see recipe at right). Try them all and see which one is your favorite!
Scallions: Back for a midsummer return engagement!
Celery: Our celery is smaller, greener and more strongly flavored than the blanched white celery you traditionally see in the grocery store. It is perfect in potato or pasta salads, where it adds a tantalizing crunch, soup stocks, or other recipes where you want the texture and flavor of celery.
Green Peppers: The beginning of a crop that should take us into early October. We planted our red peppers a little later this year to try to avoid the pepper maggot fly, so we're not planning to see those until September. For now, enjoy these beautiful green peppers in ratatouille or gazpacho!
Hopefully a few more tomatoes: Every time it rains, the late blight spreads through the tomato plantings. We're continuing to spray copper and to take all the precautions we can to try to get a harvest of tomatoes. They're still coming in slowly, and the forecast is not promising, but we're hoping that we'll see a few more delicious vine-ripened early tomatoes this week.
And a farmers' choice of a few other surprise items throughout the week!
Pick-your-own crops this week:
- Perennial garden herbs
- Basil
- Dill
- Cilantro
- Parsley
- Hot peppers: jalapeno and serrano
- Tomatilloes
- Husk cherries
- Possibly a few cherry and plum tomatoes -- please harvest only if plants are dry
- Flowers
|
|
 |
|
Quick Links
| |
|
|
Events and Programs
| |
Potluck and Stargazing w Astronomer Andrew West
Join us Tues., Aug. 14th 7:30-8:30pm Potluck 8:30-10pm Stargazing FREE public event - All are welcome!
Andrew will have a telescope set up - bring yours too if you have one!
Waltham Fields Day at ARTEFACT HOME/GARDEN
Wed., Aug. 15, 10am-6pm with mini farm stand 3-6pm
1000 Pleasant St., Belmont
Shop at Artefact with discounts on all store items throughout the day! 10% of proceeds will go to WFCF to support our food access and education programs.
Indian Vegetarian Cooking with CSA shareholder Meena Kothandaraman
Fri., Aug. 24, 5-7pm
Click here to learn more!
|
|
Kids Corner
|
NAME: Eggplant.
FAMILY: Solanaceae (aka nightshades).
NUTRITION: Manganese, potassium, Vitamin K, B, C, magnesium, and copper.
FUN FACT: Did you know that eggplants are a fruit? (Totally weird huh? I know I didn't know that!) Also did you know that eggplants were brought here by Thomas Jefferson? When they were brought here in the 18th century they were the size of a goose egg and were white and yellow, that is how they got the name eggplant! Now in our country they are lots of different shapes and sizes! Try to count how many types of eggplants you see on the farm this year!
RECIPE: Baba Yaga's Baba Ghanoush
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 lemon
- ½ cup sesame seeds
- 1 garlic scape
- ¼ cup olive oil
- pinch of salt
Cut the eggplant into sections and grill. Juice the lemon. Put the grilled eggplant, lemon juice, sesame seeds, garlic scape, olive oil, and salt into the blender and blend until smooth. If you don't have a garlic scape substitute the garlic scape and the salt with garlic salt. If you want to be fancy you can save a little of the sesame seeds and oil to the side and garnish the top of it once it's in the bowl.
 This is a great dip for veggies, pita bread, crackers, and you can use it in a sandwich as a spread also. Mom calls her recipe "Baba Yaga's" Baba Ghanoush. You have to be careful however not to say it three times in a row.
|
|
|
|
Winter Shares and Fruit Shares for Sale!
|  WFCF 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 please make sure we make a note of 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 as follows: Saturday, November 3, 1-4 PM
Saturday, November 17, 1-4 PM
Saturday, December 1, 1-4 PM Saturday, December 15, 1-4 PM Autumn Hills Orchard Fruit Share WFCF is partnering with Autumn Hills Orchard again this year to offer 9-week fruit shares, beginning around August 15. Autumn Hills, an 84 acre orchard operation in Groton, Mass., grows over 30 varieties of apples, as well as peaches, plums, pears and grapes. For $70, fruit share customers will receive 9 weeks of a half-peck (or equivalent value if not apples) of what's in season and picked to order. Here's a sampling of what CSA shareholders have received in past seasons: Early Season: Peaches, Bartlett Pears, Ginger Gold, Paula Red, Gala
Mid-Season: Italian Plums, Cortland, Macintosh, Empire, Cox' Orange Pippin, Spencer, Golden Delicious, Bosc Pears, Concord Grapes
Late-Season: Macoun, Mutsu, RI Greening, Spigold, Suncrisp, Red Delicious, Ida Red We typically feature two or three varieties each week - but sometimes we mix it up a bit depending on the week and what's available. Autumn Hills is open for pick your own during September and October. We also partner with CSA farms in Eastern Massachusetts and deliver fresh, picked to order, tree fruit as well as grapes to customers on a weekly basis. Our farm is three rolling drumlin hills and has panoramic views of the hills and mountains of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire - very good land for growing apples! Our staff has years of experience in farming responsibly and sustainably and we are careful to employ good farming practices. We are "extreme" followers of Integrated Pest Management techniques and consult regularly with UMass Extension and other agricultural experts to grow the best fruit possible. Learn more about us at
www.autumnhillsorchard.com. |
Notes from the Field
|
 This is a month of vacations for us here at the farm, as it hopefully is for many of you. Dan and Erinn went away last week, and Zannah and Sutton are off this week. I'll be gone for a week later in the month. It is a real privilege to be a farmer who can take a vacation in mid-season, and the following poem, by Marge Piercy, is dedicated to the incredible farmers, year-round and seasonal, field and weed crews, who make it all possible. To Be of UseThe people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half-submerged balls. I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again. I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident. Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real. Enjoy the harvest,
Amanda, 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
|
 |
|
