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Waltham Fields Community Farm
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CSA NEWSLETTER 2016
Week 10 of 20
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YOGA ON THE FARM
September 17th, 8-9am
at Waltham Fields Community Farm
Join Farmer & Yoga Instructor Anna Kelchlin for an hour-long Iyengar-based yoga class. Geared towards beginners, this outdoor class will focus on correct alignment and will incorporate various families of poses, engaging all ranges of motion. This class is open to all abilities and levels.
Bring your own mat and towel.
Suggested donation of $10.
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CSA PICKUP DATES AND TIMES
COME ONCE EACH WEEK ON ANY OF THESE PICK UP DAYS
Wednesday, August 10-Oct. 19, 2:00-6:30PM
Thursday, August 11-Oct. 20, 2:00-6:30PM
Saturday, August 13-Oct. 22, 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.
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FRIENDLY CSA REMINDER
Each week when you check in, we tell you how many different items to take inside the barn. Unless indicated, taking twice the amount of what is labeled per item and considering it two items is not allowed. We have a carefully planned system in place to meet all the needs of the farm. The amounts of vegetables allotted for the CSA are determined from years of record keeping and what we have available from the harvests. At the end of each day the barn is open, the remaining produce is recorded and the farmers base this information towards their harvests the following day. Every week, our farmers are harvesting not only for the 445 CSA shares but also enough food for 100 low-income families to pick up at our Outreach Market, our Farm-to-School deliveries for 5 months of the year, as well as our planned, weekly donations to regional emergency food programs. Your CSA share is just that: you are sharing a part of the harvest with your greater community. We thank you for being a part of such a wonderful program and for honoring and respecting our system as we strive to make fresh, local food available to everyone. We hope you are enjoying the bounty of the season as much as we enjoy bringing it to you!
Pick Your Own
Please obtain your weekly PYO sheet at the PYO stand behind the barn (in front of the high tunnel) before you go out into the fields to pick. We ask that you read the sheet to ensure you are picking the correct amounts & crops in the right manner as each day the maps can change. Thanks!
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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)
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| | Anna harvesting lettuce in the morning. |
kale
chard
eggplant
green bell pepper
potatoes
tomatoes
scallions
fresh eating onions
summer squash
zucchini
cucumbers
beets
carrots
celery
Pick Your Own (PYO):
Parsley, basil, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, husk cherries, chiles & Perennial Herb & Flower Garden.
SPRING RECIPES
We have a ton of great recipes on our website, including many different suggestions for chard ! Click here to check them out! |
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NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Week 10: Farming Lessons & Learning
Janelle Plummer, Assistant Grower
I haven't been farming for very long, and I don't know what more seasoned folks would say, but I feel that farming is humbling work. Heck, I wouldn't even consider myself a farmer although my days (and nighttime dreams) are filled by this land. There are so many skills needed, so much memory and planning and strategizing, that I am in awe of our fearless leaders and farmers, Erinn, Dan and Anna. Personally, it seems that every week is somehow interesting, filled with new discoveries or challenges. I'm finding that small things hold so much weight - a seemingly little object, each and every piece, is crucial to the whole. Twice this week I learned that lesson, once with a clamp on those blue irrigation hoses you may have seen around, and once on a turn-buckle on a tractor. It's easy for something to snap, or get stuck, and have an otherwise simple, habitual task take a new turn. I think I learn new skills by the week. Like many people, I didn't grow up farming or working with tools and it's both exasperating and exciting to have my limits challenged by inanimate objects. I think most farmers live between...
...the balance of trying not to reinvent the wheel while trying to find fresh, efficient solutions. Sometimes I feel like a piece of steel is smarter than me - it certainly can be stronger. These (long) moments, when I'm sitting on the ground wrestling with a wrench, pushes me to be more creative in my approach. More thoughtful, as well, and to take a step back and look at a problem from a new angle. It's a lesson worth learning and relearning. It's a hard time of the year to actually take that backwards step and reflect. Yet, it's necessary and happens naturally - the tedious seems a little less so when I remember the reasons why I love to farm. The quiet spring evenings spent looking over the front field feel like forever ago, and it's funny to imagine that in just a few weeks the mornings will be cool again. I love hearing stories about WFCF and the community that peoples it; there are traces of everyone here. I love that feeling around five in the afternoon where the morning felt like it happened years ago, and I've used my body and mind well that day. It's been on my mind lately about how when we step off the farm road and into a field to harvest, it seems like all else slips away. The work we do is all-encompassing and when you let it, truly meditative. It is thoughtful and intentional work, and while a farmer can make a task her whole world, it is a task done for the world she lives in. Farming is something that we give ourselves to, and we just gotta embrace the ride. Enjoy the sunshine, Janelle
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| | Direct seeding in dry soil. |
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Field Crew member, Andre, cooling off with a very delicious homemade pop.
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WHAT'S IN THE BARN
Need a pick-me-up while you're picking your veggies from the CSA? Try this delicious cold brewed coffee from Wenham based brewers. Mojo is cold pressed over a 24-hour period, so the coffee is more flavorful, not as bitter, and more concentrated than hot-press coffee. Check out the different flavors we carry in the 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 (22% of what we grow - which should amount to $80,000 of produce for low-income households this year)
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Early in the season, crops for sale to the public will be those that we have an abundance of, and later in the season, if production is going well, we hope to operate as a full-fledged farm store with a wide range of vegetables available to the public during our weekly CSA distribution hours.
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Grilled Long Eggplant with Yu Xiang Sauce
Serves 2 to 4
Ingredients 
- 2 Chinese (long) eggplant
Sauce
Prepare sauce
- Mix Chinkiang vinegar, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, spicy fermented bean paste, and sugar in a small bowl.
- Heat peanut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat until warm. Add ginger and garlic. Stir and cook until fragrant. Turn to medium low heat. Add the vinegar mixture. Stir and cook until bringing to a simmer. While grilling eggplant, put the saucepan on the grill, over indirect heat to keep warm. Add a bit of water if the sauce gets too thick.
Cook eggplant - Halve the eggplants lengthwise. Score the inside flesh in a criss-cross pattern using the tip of a small knife. Cut as close to the skin as you can without cutting through it.
- If using a gas grill, set all the burners to high heat and preheat for 15 minutes. Clean the cooking grate. Make sure the grill has reached medium-high heat.
- While waiting for the grill to heat, brush cut sides of the eggplant slices with peanut oil. Season with salt.
- Grill eggplant over medium-high heat with the lid open, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the surfaces are charred with dark grill marks. Flip once in the middle. If the eggplant gets charred too quickly, move to the cooler side of the grill, but not too far from the fire. Cook until the texture becomes creamy. Transfer to a plate to cool.
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Pour sauce onto eggplant right before serving. Serve warm, or at room temperature.
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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, for the items we're harvesting for you as well as for pick-your-own crops. All shareholders need to check in with us in the Distribution Barn before picking up their share.
If it's your first time picking up a CSA share 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
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 & education programs.
Pick-Your-Own Crops
All shareholders are welcome to pick-your-own anytime during daylight hours, and you don't have to do your PYO when you pick up the rest of your share. Like last year, each PYO crop will have a number assigned to it. We'll have sheets of paper available each week with a map and a list of crops that are available to harvest on it, along with where the crops are located and the amount allowed and harvest tips. PYO sheets will be available at all times at the PYO stand on the south side of the Distribution Barn. Please respect the quantity and limits so that there is enough for everyone!
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. But you can send friends or neighbors to get your veggies on any week you can't make it yourself. Have them check in under the last name of the primary shareholder for your share. You don't need to let us know they're coming. They will just check in under your name at the CSA barn. If no one picks up your share, the veggies will be included with our weekly donations to hunger relief organizations.
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 the share and another to get the other half later. You'll need to coordinate with your share partner to figure out how to divide the share up, either by taking alternative weeks, meeting up at the farm to pick up the share together, etc.
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
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Waltham Fields Community Farm Staff
Year-Round Staff:
Seasonal Staff:
Assistant Grower: Janelle Plummer
Greenhouse Production Supervisor: Naomi Shea
Equipment Supervisor: Dan Roberts
Field Crew: Heidi Blake, Stacey Daley, Allison Ostrowski, Andre Tufenkian
Weed Crew: Annie Carter, Jenny Grossman, Jack Spiva, Rebekah Waller
Learning Garden Educators: Autumn Cutting, Alannah Glickman, Jack Leng
CSA Assistant: Danielle Barmash
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