Down on the Farm

CSA Week Seven

News from the field:

What goes around comes around. One of the things that is interesting about growing 30-40 different vegetables for market is that every year some things do well, and every year there is a crop that seems cursed.

This year, we are having a great tomato year, but the salad greens are star-crossed. The two weeks of rain we had a couple of weeks ago means that we lost most of a lettuce planting to rot. So while we like to keep some type of salad greens in the basket, we don't have any this week.

But we are making up for it by more tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. If it seems like a lot of tomatoes now, just think about those store bought tomatoes we will all be eating in December. Yum!

In the Basket:

Sun golds!! – At least one CSAer has said she joined to make sure she got her sun golds this year. A lot of folks say they never even make it home with the sun golds, they eat them all in the car. Do they live up to the hype? Yes!!!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!!!

Eggplant - We’ve tried a bunch of different eggplant varieties this year and so far have gotten a lot of positive feedback on them. Tiny purple and white fairy tale eggplant (great grilled whole), long thin Asian eggplants (no bitterness), familiar big ones, even white and light bulbous Rosa Bianca. Everyone is getting different kinds this week, let us know what you think of the kinds you got. Lots of recipe ideas on the back.

Cucumbers - Another four cukes. Cucumber salad?

Yellow and green zucchini - The yellow ones are technically zucchini, though many people treat them like summer squash. Use them in the eggplant Parmesan or the grilled stacked eggplant recipes on the back.

Green beans - First of the season. Long, thin and crunchy. We like them raw. Our Providence cousins like to grill them after tossing with olive oil, salt and pepper. Which is messy, and hard to not have thenm fall through the cracks, but so worth it!!

Eggplant recipes

Andrea Searls’ Eggplant Caponata
CSAer Andrea adapted this from The Italian Ingredients Cookbook by Kate Whiteman

3/4 lb eggplant (the amount in the basket this week)
1/8 cup olive oil
grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
1TBSP capers
6 pitted green olives
1 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper
toasted pine nuts
Parmesan

1. Cut eggplant into cubes. Cook in olive oil for about 10 min, until golden and softened. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with a little salt.

2. Toss eggplant other ingredients.

This is good just as a side salad, as an app with bread, or with pasta.

Eggplant Parmesan also by Andrea

I also really like eggplant parmesan. I don't have a real recipe but I bread eggplant slices using egg then breadcrumbs then bake them till they're tender and a little crispy. Layer tomato sauce, eggplant, mozzarella, till I fill up my pan, then top with mozzarella and lots of parmesan. Bake till bubbly, an hour? Other veggies are really good mixed in there too.

Grilled Eggplant Stack
originally by CSAer Lisa Whitney based on a recipe in Cooking Light but mutilated by me to make it fit on the back of the CSA flyer
dressing:
3/4 lb eggplant 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 small green zucchini 1 tbsp brown sugar
1 small yellow zucchini 1/4 dry red wine
1 large red bell pepper
1/4 cup goat cheese Salt and pepper
olive oil 1 tbsp each chopped basil and oregano

Slice the eggplant ½ inch thick (salt, rinse and dry if necessary), slice zucchini ¼ inch thick, flatten pepper piece with a hand. Brush with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill 8 mins - until tender. Combine dressing ingredients and boil dressing to reduce it to 1/4 cup (about 8 minutes). Mix goat cheese and herbs. Stack: eggplant, cheese, both color zucchinis (side by side), drizzle with dressing, then pepper, eggplant and more dressing. Let sit 5 mins before serving.

Some unfortunate news

For the last three years we have sold a bunch of veggies through a farmstand on our property. The farmstand is housed in a freestanding shed by the barn, and directly across the yard from our porch. We have set it up as a self-help stand, meaning that people take veggies, write down what they took and the amounts, and then leave money in a change bucket. A couple times a day we stock the stand and clear out the money, but otherwise, we haven't staffed the stand. It has worked out pretty well, all things considered.

But in the past two days we have had two unfortunate instances. In the first, someone took a bunch of veggies, and most of the money in the change bucket. And they did this while we were sitting about 50 feet away on the porch. Maryellen even talked to the guy to make sure he got everything he wanted! And the second incident today involved three people who were so drunk they could hardly walk. They tried to steal a huge bunch of veggies, and Maryellen and I had to both confront them, and "help" them add up their totals. In the end, it was a borderline scary scene, and they only left fraction of the money they owed.

We have put a lot of work into this stand -- new roof, new paint, lots of clean up -- but we can't afford to have such scary people at our home, particularly since the stand is right out where our children play. It is unfortunate, because the stand has worked great for 99.999% of our customers, and it has provided us with a couple of thousand dollars in revenue each year, but we can't continue having it open everyday for self-help customers.

So here is what we are going to do. The farmstand will be open Wednesdays and Fridays from 4pm to 7pm. During those hours it will be staffed, and we hope to expand the staffed hours we have it open in the future. But for now, the stand will be closed the rest of the week. We apologize for this inconvenience, and our regular customers and neighbors should feel free to call us for special orders. But we will only be stocking the stand for Wednesday and Friday nights for the foreseeable future.

CSA Week Six

News from the field:

This is what we wrote in the flyer last year for week six. Remember this: Hail. You probably heard that a tornado touched down in Barnet. We did not get that but we did get a big dose of hail. Things look pretty bad up there right now. We may lose a whole generation of mesclun, corn is flattened, winter squash and melons are in tough shape. Oh that was awful. So awful.

This year things are growing well. The weather has actually been pretty good to us. We are in fact having a bit of a tomato freakout around here. We grew a bunch of “determinate” varieties of tomatoes, which produce the bulk of their crop all at once, in our hothouses, so as to have a lot of tomatoes in July, which is when demand is strongest (before anyone has tomatoes in their garden). Anyway, it worked! We have tons of beautiful tomatoes!!

The farmstand at the farm is now open, every day 10-7, serve yourself, so if you know anyone jonesing for some good homegrown tomatoes, please send them our way!

In the Basket:

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!!! Tis the season . . .

New potatoes and parsley – Recipe on the back.

Cucumbers - The field cucumbers are in!! So we gave you four to celebrate. How about some tabbouleh with the tomatoes and parsley?

Lettuce - We’ve been doing more lettuce than mesclun in the basket this year, in response to feedback from CSAers last year. It seems like people are enjoying it so here are two more small heads.

Cabbage - This seems like the perfect weather for cole slaw.

Chard - Delicious and nutritious!

French Potato Salad with Parsley

adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Summer Grilling issue

1 1/2 pounds new red potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 ½ tablespoons salt
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 ½ teaspoon dijon mustard
1 ½ tablespoons shallot (I skipped because I didn’t have one)
1/4 cup parsley, or mix of parsley, chives and fresh tarragon

Put the sliced potatoes in a pan with 5 cups cold water and salt, bring to a boil and simmer potatoes, uncovered until tender but still firm, about 5 minutes. While they are boiling, spear garlic with a fork and put in the boiling water for about 45 seconds (to slightly blanch) then run under cold water and set aside. Drain potatoes, reserving 3 tablespoons of cooking water. Put the potatoes close together in a single layer in a lasagna pan.

Mince garlic. Whisk with reserved potato cooking water, oil, vinegar, mustard and pepper in a small bowl until combined. Drizzle over warm potatoes and let stand 10 minutes.

Put potatoes in a large serving bowl, add parsley and shallot (if using) and mix gently with a rubber spatula to combine. Serve immediately.

Tomatoes

It is tomato season here now. Yum!

Be where I am

Garlic hanging in the shed to dry

Garlic hanging in the barn to dry

Garlic garlic garlic!

They have music on the green on Sunday nights in Danville, which is the next town over. I was lying there tonight, staring up at the blue evening sky and white puffy clouds through a canopy of green green maple leaves, listening to a very silly country western swing band, and I thought this is exactly what I want to be doing. Which is pretty remarkable really. I had been pulling garlic all day, I was up at 3:30am yesterday for what turned out to be the busiest market day of the year to date, and I was up at 3:30am on Friday for what has become a 16-18 hour routine of harvesting, CSA distribution, and then back to harvesting. So I was tried, and new week looms ahead with its emergency weeding needs, and its urgent field prep needs, and its must-get-transplanted-today seedlings, etc. But such is life on a vegetable farm in mid-July in Vermont. And this is what I want to be doing. And these are the people I want to be doing it with. Which is a nice feeling.

CSA Week Five

News from the field:

Maryellen and I joked about how we should complain about the wetness this week, because we complained about the dryness last week. But it is hard to complain because we need the rain.

The real news is that they are here!! The tomatoes have arrived, and I suspect we are still on the upswing in terms of our production for the year. So enjoy! And the new potatoes too! And the last of the snap peas for the year! Summer is here!

Update on Old Shaw Farm hiring: We were really floored by all the people who responded to come weed at our farm, or who had ideas for other people to approach. We ended up with a UVM ecological agriculture major who happened to have a free week and a love of weeding in hot humid weather. So I think we are in the process of catching up. Thank you everyone!

GreenNEKS The Green Northeast Kingdon Society is a local grassroots group promoting sustainable living. At least two CSAers are active in the group, and I thought some other CSAers might be interested as well, so Sharon made up beautiful flyers for everyone. Thanks Sharon!!

In the Basket:

Tomatoes – Big red slicers for summer fun, and plenty of them too!

New potatoes – A big sack for potato salad or boiling with butter on top. These potatoes are so tender that their new skins get scoffed up in the harvest process.

Snap Peas - Back to the snap peas this week after the shell peas last week – just pull the string and pop the whole thing in your mouth. Enjoy these because these will be the last of these spring treats until next year.

Lettuce and radishes for your salad or sandwiches.

Fresh garlic – This garlic is pulled straight from the ground and hasn’t been dried yet, so it needs to be refrigerated instead of living in the cupboard. But if you peel back the layers on the bulb, you will find some of the freshest, best tasting garlic you have ever had. The variety we grow is a “hardneck” -- the tough stem in the middle of the bulb is not for eating.

Eggplant – These early eggplant are an Asian variety that are long and skinny, with very few seeds and no hint of bitterness.

Zucchini - More baby and small zucchini for grilling, steaming, sauteing.

Mimi's lasagna

Mimi is one of our wonderful interns. She and Claire both have done amazing work on the farm and are a joy and a pleasure to live with!! Mimi is learning to make cheese and one batch came out more like ricotta, so she made it into an awesome veggie lasagna. Mimi says the lasagna was not much work to make, just a lot of waiting around because you have to roast the veggies first.

Mimi’s Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

1 medium or two small eggplants
3 medium yellow zucchini
2 pounds tomatoes
olive oil
½ pound ricotta
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan
½ pound mozzarella cheese, grated
½ pound lasagna noodles
½ cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Slice the eggplant and zucchini into rounds ½ inch thick. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the tomatoes in half crosswise, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and put in a separate pan. Roast the two pans of veggies for 45 minutes or so at 450 till the eggplant and zukes are browned and soft and the tomatoes are soft and slightly golden. Mix all the veggies, including any tomato juice and oil, in a bowl.

Stir together ricottta, eggs, half the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Boil the lasagna noodles until barely tender.

Layer as follows: noodles, 1/3 ricotta mixture, 1/4 mozzarella, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, 1/3 roasted veggies. Repeat until all used. Sprinkle top with remaining parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and then sprinkle on breadcrumbs.

Cover with aluminum foil, bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until golden and bubbly, about 15 more minutes. Let sit before 15 minutes (if you can stand it) before eating.

Goofing at market

Claire (in Henry's hat) and Henry

Peter's cousin Liza, a student at NECI, came by. We all really enjoyed her company, especially Waverly!!

Photos by Auntie Jess

Henry in the tomato jungle.

Tractor implements in the fog.

Carolyn helping with the harvest.

Broccoli.

Our kittens like to follow us on walks, as if they were dogs. Here's Rainbow with Auntie Jess and Waverly.

Tractor parade

Peter and Henry rode in Peacham's Fourth of July Tractor Parade this year for the first time!!!

CSA on the rise

Interesting article my Mom found in the Boston Globe saying that there is increased demand for CSAs and that this demand is making local organic farms in Massachusetts much more viable. As my brother, wrote, "It is great to think that CSA may be catching on."

CSA Week Four

News from the field:
Dry. In our five years of veggie farming here, it has never been this dry. The weird part is that it is raining all around us, but our little farm keeps getting passed over by the cloudbursty-like weather we have been having. The results are not disastrous, but they are frustrating. We have spent more time than we would like moving irrigation pipe, and without a real soaking, the plants just aren’t maturing as fast as they normally would. But since this is Vermont, it seems unlikely that it will stay dry forever, and later this week we are supposed to get some relief, so keep your fingers crossed.

Old Shaw Farm is hiring (sort of):
Due to some completely unforseen circumstances, one full time person we hired has not been able to join us for the past few weeks. The result is that we have stayed on top of the harvesting and planting, but the weeds are starting to overtake us. In the past, we have had CSAer’s offer to volunteer to help out on the farm for free, but for the next 3-4 weeks we would like to hire a weeding crew, which would be 4-5 people to come in one morning or afternoon a week for 4-5 hours to hand weed a different part of our field. We would pay $8 per hour. Anyone who is interested should email peter at oldshawfarm.com. To get the job, you would need to be in decent physical shape, have nimble weed seeking fingers, be unafraid of dirt, and be willing to talk while you work because silence seems to make the hand weeding hours creep by.

In the Basket:

Fresh garlic – This garlic is pulled straight from the ground and hasn’t been dried yet, so it needs to be refrigerated instead of living in the cupboard. But if you peel back the layers on the bulb, you will find some of the freshest, best tasting garlic you have ever had. The variety we grow is a “hardneck” -- the tough stem in the middle of the bulb is not for eating.

Shell Peas - Last week we gave you the snap peas that you can eat whole. This week, it is the shell peas where you need to remove the pod and eat the sweet tender peas inside. You can use the shells to make delicious stock. You want to cook the peas super gently, if at all. Risotto recipe on the back.

Pesto Basil – These bunches are for making pesto. These plants have been picked over once or twice, and the basil on them may not be pretty in spots, but it sure is tasty. Pesto recipe on the back.

Salad fixins – Leafy lettuce, napa cabbage, cucumbers, and salad turnips. Salad turnips do not do well in the summer heat, so these are the last salad turnips until it starts to cool down again after Labor Day.

Tomatoes! These are the first tomatoes of the year! A warning: the quality is borderline, but we are so excited to have them, that we decided to distribute all the ones we could find. They are still better than the supermarket, and the quality will only improve from here.

Zucchini - More baby and small zucchini for grilling, steaming, sauteing.

Basil Pesto

2 cups basil leaves (strip off stems - use stems in stock if you want)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts, sunflower seeds, walnuts or pecans
1/4 cup parmesan cheese or mix of parmesan and romano
3/4-1 cup olive oil

Wash and dry the basil in a salad spinner. Toast the nuts – I toss them in a hot, dry, cast iron skillet. Put the garlic in the food processor and chop fine. Add the basil and most of the olive oil. Chop finely. Add parmesan cheese and nuts. Chop just a bit – I like the nuts to be still chunky. Taste. Add salt if desired. Add olive oil if thinner consistency desired.

Green Pea Risotto

Adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

1 pound shell peas (that’s how much are in the basket)
3 cups stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 pinch saffron threads
3/4 cup arborio rice
1/4 white wine
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, plus extra to finish
2 small tomatoes, diced
4 large basil leaves, thinly sliced

Shell the peas. Bring stock to a simmer on the stove. Add the empty pea pods (and basil stems, if available) to flavor the stock. (Scoop the pods out before using the stock.)

Melt butter and cook onion and saffron in the butter over low heat until the onion is softened, about three minutes. Stir in the rice and cook for one minute. Raise the heat, add the wine, cook till absorbed. Add 1 cup stock, cover, simmer till absorbed, start adding stock in ½ cup increments, stirring each constantly until absorbed, then adding the next. When rice is nearly done and only one more addition remains, stir in the peas, last of the stock, parmesan, tomatoes and basil. Season and serve.

Really fresh salad turnips

Waverly's been really enjoying the salad turnips lately. Yesterday we were walking through the field, she found one left in a row, pulled it out, dusted off most of the dirt, and started eating it.