Waltham Fields Community Farm
CSA NEWSLETTER 2017
Week 12 of 20
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In This Issue
CSA PICKUP DATES AND TIMES

COME ONCE EACH WEEK ON ANY OF THESE PICK UP DAYS
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2-6:30pm
Thursday, August 24th, 2-6:30pm 
Saturday, August 26th, 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.
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): 
Varieties of lettuce.




Arugula
Beets
Carrots
Cucumbers
Collards
Kale
Lettuce
Chard
Loose mustard greens
Summer squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Celery

Pick Your Own (PYO): 
Chiles, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, tomatillos, husk cherries, green beans, dill, cilantro, parsley & Perennial Garden herbs. 

SPRING RECIPES
We have a ton of great recipes on our website, including many different suggestions for mustard greens! Click here to check them out!
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Week Twelve: Farm Solace
by: Erinn Roberts, Farm Manager

As I sat down to write the notes this week, it was with a heavy heart.  The news and reality of the state of our nation is difficult to reconcile with the abundance and hope made manifest that this time in the farming season represents.  I find that I'm thinking about all the setbacks our crops still have the potential to be struck down by and struggling to locate the reassurance and comfort that the jungle of late-summer ripening crops can bring me.  I'm unsettled at a time of year when the farm is beginning to settle but it would be hard to feel otherwise. 

Ivory, Janelle & Tim washing & packing the kale harvest.

Mid-August is when New England farms start to really reap what they sow.  You'll be seeing one of our favorite things of the season as stacks and stacks of black crates filled with tomatoes begin to take up serious real estate in the barn.  (Unfortunately, we've had our share of theft when we leave the tomatoes outside and most staff have had some encounter with an uninvited person rifling through the crates or even putting whole crates in their vehicles.  Please ignore the unappealing signage we feel we've had to resort to.)  With multiple reports of late blight coming out of western Massachusetts, the length of tomato season remains precarious, so take full advantage and enjoy them while they're here.  It feels like it would take the veggie spirits looking after us if most farms in this part of the state did not succumb to late blight at some point in the season.  We can't take anything for granted in this line of work; we try to harness the forces within our control and cross our fingers for those that are beyond our control.  We've weeded, trellised and sprayed our tomatoes with an organically-approved copper product to keep the devastating disease at bay, but a couple good storms could override all that work and deliver late blight inoculum in the blink of an eye.  Those of you who were shareholders in 2009 remember the Year of No Tomatoes, as late blight arrived on this farm just as we were about to start harvesting and took out all the plantings within a week.  For now, we've at least gotten 3 weeks of harvesting under our belts.

 
We're in the midst of some storage crop harvest, and 2017 is shaping up to be the Year of the Allium.  The onion family is making a strong showing across the board: garlic is solid, shallots are stunning, red and yellow storage onions are larger and more consistent than I've seen in years, leeks are tall and proud, and the fresh-eating onion varieties have been unstoppable.  The late spring and early summer weather with the weekly inch of rain and mild conditions were perfect for these crops and we're relishing the results.  If you don't yet have a winter share, sign up for one now as these crops look like they're going to be the star of the show.  And under the heading of "new and exciting for 2017", we planted our first ever delicata winter squash patch, and the potential is looking strong for a robust harvest.  I've been warned by a seasoned and smart farmer that delicatas can turn on a dime and succumb to disease and rot right before they're ready to harvest, so I'm keeping a keen eye on them every couple of days, anxious to get them out of the fields as soon as possible.  Hopefully they will be showing up on your dinner plates soon!

This week we say goodbye to Luna, Cristin, Clare and Zane, who made up our stellar weed crew.  They have hand weeded and hoed miles and miles and we can't thank them enough.  We'll be entering the fall in cruise-control, weed-wise, which is just where we strive to be.  The final planting of carrots is weeded clean, celeriac has room to breathe and grow, fall brassicas have enough leaf canopy to start shading out small weeds and hopefully by the end of next week our strawberry planting will get the final cleanup they need to continue to establish for a good crop next season.  It's no exaggeration to say that without these 4 we would barely have enough food to harvest for a CSA of 450 people, so if you happen to be here between 8am-noon, give them a thanks.  We couldn't have gotten this far without them.
Weed Crew members from left to right: Clare, Luna & Cristin (missing Zane).

I heard a lot of talk on the radio recently about what people are hopeful for in the coming weeks and months.  For you, I hope that the farm can provide a place of solace and quiet and reflection at a time when it's hard to come by.  And of course, delicious meals to satisfy you.

Enjoy the harvest,
Erinn, for the farm crew
PRE-ORDER "GRADE B" PEACHES

Interested in "Grade B" peaches for canning or freezing? Now is your chance!

Place your order by Thursday, August 24th at 4pm for pick up during week #13 CSA hours. Indicate how many pounds of "Grade B" peaches you'd like (minimum of 10 pounds). Pick up & purchase must occur during week #13 CSA hours. 

Price = $1.50 / pound

Peaches are from Autumn Hills Orchard in Groton, MA. 
WHAT'S IN THE BARN 

Ice Cream from Tipping Cow Ice Cream
  
The 4oz individual serving size ice cream cups are back! Flavors include Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, Earl Grey & Lemon, Espresso, Strawberry Basil & Vanilla Buttermilk. 

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)
.
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.
 
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled, sliced
  • 1/4 cup white miso (fermented soybean paste)
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
  • 1 eggplant (about 1 lb.), cut into 1 inch wedges
  • 4 firm ripe plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
  • Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
Ingredient Info
White miso, also known as shiro miso, is available at Japanese markets, natural foods stores, and in the refrigerated Asian foods section of some supermarkets.

Instructions
Blend ginger, miso, vinegar, sesame seeds, 1 Tbsp. oil, and 1/4 cup water in a blender, adding water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is too thick, until creamy. Set ginger-miso dressing aside.

Prepare grill for medium-high heat. Rub eggplant and tomatoes with remaining 2 Tbsp. oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill vegetables until charred and tender, 4-6 minutes per side. Serve vegetables with ginger-miso dressing.
Quick Links
Waltham Fields Community Farm Staff

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

Seasonal Staff:
Assistant Grower: Janelle Plummer
Greenhouse Production Supervisor: Naomi Shea
Equipment Supervisor: Dan Roberts
Tractor Operator: Tim Cooke
Field Crew: Stacey Daley, Ebony Nava, Ivory Nava, Allison Ostrowski, Bekah Waller
Weed Crew: Luna Goddard, Zane MacFarlane, Cristin Sloan, Clare Stephens
Distribution & Outreach Assistant: Owen Weitzman
Learning Garden Educators: Autumn Cutting, Annie Fortnow, Jack Leng, Zack Lennon-Simon, Lauren McDermott

www.communityfarms.org
240 Beaver Street
Waltham, MA 02452