Late spring lovelies

Encouraged by the nicely-timed rains of the past few weeks, the onslaught of weeds has seemed unstoppable lately. But the farm crew has been out valiantly battling them every day, trying to beat them back with everything we've got. A walk through the fields this morning left with me the feeling that we're about to turn a corner, thankfully.  With good effort--and a new crop of volunteers slated to start this week--I think we can gain the upper hand, and hopefully keep it for the rest of the season.

Cabbage seedling in the greenhouse.
photo: Sophie Shillue

Our new crops this week--beets, fennel, and cabbage--have been a long time coming. Late spring crops like these take lots of patience. It feels like forever ago that we seeded them in the greenhouse, while we still had a blanket of snow covering the fields. Months have gone by--we planted, hoed, irrigated, hoed them again--and now they're finally ready. Enjoy!

In your share this week: chard, spring cabbage, the last of the garlic scapes for this year, fennel, beets, kale, a greenhouse cucumber, and a basil pot. Pick Your Own is your choice of sage, oregano, or dill, or a mixy bunch of the three.

Wondering what to do with the PYO herbs? If you don't have a use for them this week, they're so easy to dry and save for use later. You can use the oregano in August to make a tomato sauce, sage pairs well with winter squash in October (or make sage honey, sage butter, or sage maple syrup!), and dill with the new potatoes we'll have in a few weeks. This article has a full list of options for drying your herbs, but here's the quickest way. Find someplace warm and dry (like your pantry or broom closet), wrap your herb bunch very loosely with cheesecloth, or put into a paper bag and cinch the bunch and the top of the bag closed with a rubber band or twist tie. Hang upside down and come back and check it in a few days. When the leaves are brittle, it's done! Crumble the dried leaves with your fingers and store in a labeled jar.

Recipes of the Week 

This week we have some new veggies--some that aren't American staples like corn and potatoes. These three easy recipes are guaranteed to make you fall in love with these ugly duckling veggies.

Basic Roasted Beets
Never had beets and liked them? When you roast them they sweeten up and become really tender and delicious. It's easy and it's my favorite kind of cooking--set it and forget it.

1 bunch beets
1 Tbs of olive oil
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 425. Trim the greens off the beets, leaving about an inch of the stems on (save the greens to saute with your chard!), and trim off their roots. Scrub them well with a veggie scrub brush. Make 2 foil packets, put the beets in, drizzle with a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Put the packets on a baking sheet and roast for 45-60 minutes, until the beets can be easily pierced with a fork. Let the beets cool in their packets. Since a lot of the nutrition in beets is in the skin and in the layer right under the skin, it's best to eat them with the skins on. Slice them into wedges and serve as a side.

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Peanut, Carrot & Cabbage Slaw
from one of my favorite food blogs, thekitchn.com

For the dressing:
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice

For the salad:
3 cups cabbage, shredded (from one head of a cabbage)
4 large carrots, grated
4 green onions, sliced thinly
4 large radishes, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, to top
1/4 cup chopped peanuts, to top

To make the dressing, combine all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk vigorously to combine.

In a large salad bowl, combine cabbage, carrot, green onions and radishes. Toss with dressing. Top with sesame seeds and peanuts. Serve immediately or chill before serving. This salad is best the day it's prepared although it's just fine the next day if covered and refrigerated.

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Fennel Citrus Salad 
Giada de Laurentiis on the Food Network

This is favorite in my family. We save some of the wispy tops of the fennel bulbs, chop them small and sprinkle them as a garnish over the finished dish. The important thing with the fennel is to slice it super thin--if you have a mandolin, that works great. Otherwise use the large slots on a box grater, just watch your fingers!
Giada has a quick video of the recipe on the Food Network page.

1 large orange, peeled and ends trimmed
1 grapefruit, peeled and ends trimmed
1 large fennel bulb, very thinly sliced; reserve tops for garnish
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped (I've subbed in an 1/8th of a cup of mint, finely chopped and that worked too.. but you can use the basil in your share here!)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (hazelnuts work great a substitution here too!)
2-4 Tbs finely chopped fennel fronds for garnish

Place a sieve over a medium bowl. Hold the orange over the bowl, and using a paring knife, cut along the membrane on both sides of each segment. Free the segments and let them fall into the sieve. Repeat with the grapefruit. Squeeze the membranes over the bowl to extract as much juice as possible, reserving the juices in the bottom of the bowl. Don't squeeze the fruit segments you just created. Place the fruit segments and fennel in a salad bowl.

In a blender or the bowl of a small food processor, blend together the oil, basil and 3 tablespoons of the reserved juice until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour over the fruit and fennel. Add the chopped walnuts (or hazelnuts) and toss until all the ingredients are coated. Garnish with the chopped fronds.

On our way to the Weymouth Food Pantry with our first Food Access Fund delivery of the year.
Left to right: Isaiah, Casey, volunteer Katya, and Rory.
Photo: Sophie Shillue

Solstice share

Happy Summer Solstice! These long, lingering evenings we get in June are some of my favorite parts of the year. The sun sets behind the Boston skyline and the light on the crops in the field is just downright buttery.... yum. To celebrate these delicious evenings, we're delighted to host another Farm Fresh Yoga class this Thursday at 5:30 with Maureen St. Croix. Meet us in the CSA

Curled tendril on our greenhouse cucumbers.
Photo: Sophie Shillue

room of the Yellow House with your mat (if you have one--I have a few extras, but a mat isn't really necessary anyway), some water, and a sheet to spread out on the grass. Farm Fresh Yoga is FREE for CSA members and sliding scale donation (to benefit our Food Access Fund) for friends, family members, and neighbors---bring them all! Yoga on the farm is awesome--you'll love it!

Our share is a bit lighter this week, as we say goodbye to the spinach and lettuce--they've finally succumbed to the heat. But it hasn't been hot enough to bring on our summer squash and cucumber crop, so there's a bit of a gap. Next week is shaping up to bring us some new crops, but we'll have to wait for them 'til then. 

In your share this week: more garlic scapes (see culinary tips

Chard seedlings in the greenhouse back in April.
Photo: Meg Wilson

below), a box of microgreens, a greenhouse cucumber, kale, salad mix, a choice of chard or beet greens, popcorn, a potted herb plant for your window sill or garden, and Pick Your Own dill and sage. The popcorn is last year's crop and has been drying next to the heater in my office all winter. It's finally ready! Check the recipe section below for how to work with it. Choices for the herb plant include parsley, oregano, thyme, chives, rosemary, tarragon, and peppermint. If you choose peppermint, make sure to plant it somewhere it's OK to spread--it will grow vigorously and multiply quickly!

Recipes of the Week

Our popcorn this week was harvested back in October and has been sloooowly drying ever since. The longer you let it dry out, the better pop percentage you get. I think it's ready to go now, but if you want to keep it somewhere warm and dry for another few months, it won't spoil. There are two methods to pop--you can either push the kernels off the cob with your thumb and then place the kernels in a paper lunch bag, or you can skip that step and stick the whole cob right into the bag with the kernels still on. Fold the end of the paper bag over several times to ensure it's very firmly closed--this is important! Place the bag in the microwave and set for 3 minutes on high (or whatever setting you usually use for microwave popcorn). When you hear 3 second pauses between pops, it's done! If you chose the whole cob option, some of your kernels will have popped off the cob and some will have popped on the cob, which you can now eat like poppedcornonthecob. Butter and salt are all you need to add, or you can try some of the flavoring ideas below (from Food & Wine, Feb. 2013 issue):

Ranch Dressing Popcorn
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs buttermilk powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

In a food processor, pulse all of the ingredients to a fine powder. Toss with buttered popcorn. 

Spicy Japanese Popcorn
2 sheet nori (dried seaweed), crumbled
2 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 Tbs togarashi chile seasoning
1 Tbs kosher salt 

In a food processor, pulse all of the ingredients to a fine powder. Toss with buttered popcorn.

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A garlic scape--the stem and bud of the garlic plant--is a late spring treat that doesn't last for long. This might be our last week to enjoy them until next year, so don't miss out! You can use the scapes in place of regular cloves of garlic in any dish--sauteed, roasted, salsa, guacamole, and my most favorite of all, in eggs. The scapes are a little milder than a regular clove of garlic, so I always add a little extra when I'm subbing them in another recipe. The whole scape is edible, including the bud, but I usually don't eat the last few inches beyond the bud--too fibrous. 

Grilled Garlic Scapes
So easy and so yummy!

1 bunch garlic scapes
olive oil or another tasty oil 
fresh lemon juice
sea salt

Preheat your grill. In a bowl combine 1 bunch of garlic scapes with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Toss to coat. Cook the scapes directly on the grill, or on a piece of foil on the grill, until tender in some spots and charred in others. Remove from the grill when tenderness is achieved in the thickest part of the scape. Dress with a few healthy squeezes of lemon juice and sprinkle with a touch of sea salt. 

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Chard and beet greens can almost be used interchangeably in recipes, although the beet greens don't have the hefty stems that chard does (which may be a positive or a negative, depending on your taste). My favorite way to make these is just to saute them lightly in a 50/50 butter and olive oil mix, sprinkle with salt, and wait until they're wilted in the pan. Melt another pat of butter over them, dress them very lightly with lemon juice or vinegar (a flavored balsamic is my favorite) and serve. 

Enjoy your veggies this week!

Our tomato crop is looking healthy and setting fruit! We still have weeks and weeks between us and the first juicy, ripe tomatoes, but they're coming!
Photo: Sophie Shillue

Salad, anyone?

Our leafy crops are loving this wet weather! Last week's high temps had them a

Harvesting spinach in the field
photo: Meg Wilson

little stressed out, so we dedicated all irrigation resources to our salad and greens crops. It looks like it did the trick and we get another week of spinach and lettuce (and salad mix too!). The cooler weather will also be welcomed by our farm crew, including our newest member, Isaiah McCarthy. Isaiah did a 3 week internship here this spring as part of his senior project at the South Shore Charter School, and now he's on board full time. We're happy for the extra pair of hands and the sunny attitude!

This Saturday (June 20th) is the Fresh Bite 5k in Wampatuck, a fundraiser for the Weymouth Food Pantry (WFP). The WFP is our new food pantry partner this year and we'll be out supporting them on Saturday. If you'd like to get your exercise in for the weekend while helping a great cause, sign up and come run or walk with us! Email me if you're interested!

This year, thanks to your generous donations to the Food Access Fund at signup, WFP will join our old friends at Father Bill's/Mainspring, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and the Boston Area Gleaners in receiving produce donations from the farm. You've enabled us to try a new kind of relationship with a hunger relief organization like WFP--one that's

Salad mix ingredients
photos: Meg Wilson

molded more by the needs of the participating families at the food pantry. Instead of donating only our extra bits and pieces of crops or orphaned CSA shares, with this new project we'll also be supplying specific crops in specific quantities, as ordered weekly by WFP to meet their variable demand. We're all excited to try out this new model. I'll have more updates later in the season, so stay tuned!

In your share this week: more spinach and lettuce, mustard greens, kale, a

perfect kale leaf
photo: Meg Wilson

greenhouse cucumber, cilantro, garlic scapes or bunched green garlic, and salad mix. No PYO this week.. maybe next week!

Recipes of the Week

The New York Times' Garlic Scape Pesto recipe is hard to beat in terms of ease, time, and most importantly, taste! This is fabulous on buttered pasta, with maybe a shot of limoncello for dessert to assuage your garlic breath. You can halve the recipe for the single bunch of scapes we have this week, or take the green garlic option for your share and it'll work perfectly.

1 cup garlic scapes, sliced crosswise (about 10 to 12 scapes)
 ¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
 ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
 ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
 ½ cup basil leaves
 Juice of one lemon

Place the garlic scapes in a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds. Add the sunflower seeds and pulse for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the olive oil and process on high for 15 seconds. Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse until the ingredients are combined. Add the basil and lemon juice, and process until reaching the desired consistency. Add salt to taste and serve immediately.

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Elise at simplyrecipes.com is one of my favorite food & cooking bloggers--she's always a never-fail option. Her recipe for sauteed mustard greens is very simple and delicious, but I think it's even better with 1/2 mustard greens and 1/2 spinach. The mustards cook slightly faster than the spinach, so put the mustards in one minute earlier than the spinach to give them a head start. Here's my amended version of her already excellent recipe.

1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced and rested for 10 minutes
1 Tbsp olive oil,  or a 50/50 mix of olive oil and butter or ghee
1 pound mustard greens, washed and torn into large pieces
2 to 3 Tbsp chicken broth or vegetable broth (vegetarian option)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dark sesame oil

In a large sauté pan, sauté onions in the olive oil and butter over medium heat until the onions begin to brown and caramelize, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook a minute more, until fragrant.
Add the mustard greens and broth and cook 1 minute. Add the spinach and continue cooking until both the mustard greens and spinach are just barely wilted. Drizzle with sesame oil, add salt and pepper to taste and toss. Serve immediately.


Thanks to our very talented photographer-in-residence, Meg Wilson, for the gorgeous photos this week!

Enjoy your share!

Our awesome harvest volunteer Lindsay helping us pull in the harvest last week.
photo: Meg Wilson

It's easy being green

The farm crew spent Monday staking and trellising our rows and rows of rapid growing tomato plants: red tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, plus tomatillos and husk cherries. With good weather and good luck, we'll be enjoying this crop by the end of July!

Spinach rows bursting at the seams in front, newly staked tomatoes in the background.
photo: Sophie Shillue

More hoeing and planting projects are scheduled for the rest of the week, in and around our harvest and CSA days. For this week's share we're doubling down in spinach (again) and lettuce, as both these crops are looking great, but the hotter weather predicted for the end of the week might be a little too much for them. Sweet and spicy hakureis are here! These Japanese veggies are related to radishes and are best eaten raw with a pinch of salt. Seriously, they're delicious and make a great snack while you're cooking dinner. Also new in the share this week is bunched green garlic. These are baby garlic plants that look a lot like scallions. The white and light green parts are what you want to eat. Use them any way you normally use garlic, though you might want to use a heavy hand as

Spinach
photo: Sophie Shillue

green garlic is a bit milder than fully mature garlic. This week we have two varieties of kale coming in from the field--the sweet and tender Red Russian we had last week, plus a curly variety that's awesome for making kale chips. The curly one has more sturdy leaves that stand up to the baking better, plus lots of little nooks and crannies to hold salt..yum! Last but not least, the star of the week is a cucumber from our greenhouse cucumber jungle. We planted these cucumber seeds back in March and they've been growing happily in crates inside the greenhouse for months. They've got a nice flush of fruits on them now, weeks before we'll see cucumbers from the field grown plants.

Your share this week: 2 bunches spinach, 2 heads lettuce, 1 bunch hakureis, 1 bunch green garlic, 1 bunch kale, 1 greenhouse cucumber, 1 box microgreens. PYO 1 bunch (or a mixed bunch of) sage, thyme, or oregano.

Recipes of the Week

First, a kale recipe from my favorite cookbook author, Deborah Madison. Her classic Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone was my bible when I was first learning to cook and I still use many, many recipes from it. The recipe is written using pearled barley, but hulled barley has more fiber, is just as easy to work with, and tastes just as good. The kale turns the barley bright green!

Green Barley and Kale Gratin
serves 4-6

2/3 cup pearl (or hulled) barley, rinsed
salt and pepper, freshly milled
1 bunch kale, stems entirely removed
2 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
1 1/2 cups milk or vegetable stock
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 cup grated Gruyere or provolone

In a saucepan, add the pearled barley to 1 quart boiling water with 1/2 tsp salt and simmer, uncovered until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain. (If using hulled barley, add only about 1 1/2 cups water with 1/2 tsp salt and simmer, covered until tender about 1 hour or until the barley has absorbed all the water).
While the barley is cooking, cook the kale in a skillet of boiling salted water until tender, 6 to 10 minutes. Drain, then puree with 1/4 cup of the cooking water until smooth.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, whisk in the flour, then add the milk. Cook, stirring constantly over medium heat, until thick. Season with allspice, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Combine all the ingredients, check the seasonings, then transfer to a lightly buttered baking dish or ramekins.
Bake until lightly browned on top, about 30 minutes. If you've used ramekins, run a knife around the edges, then unmold them by giving them a sharp rap on the counter. Present them browned side up.

Second, a very simple recipe with just two main ingredients, both of which happen to be in your share this week. No distractions here.

Sauteed Spinach and Garlic
from Anna Thomas' New Vegetarian Epicure
serves 2-3

2 bunches fresh spinach
2 Tbs fruity green olive oil
1-2 green garlics (depending on how much you like garlic), white and light green parts only, chopped and rested for 10 minutes on the counter
dash of rice vinegar or lemon juice

Wash the spinach well and trim off the heavier stems. Spin in a salad spinner or pat down with a kitchen towel.
Cook the spinach down in 2 batches: Heat half the olive oil in a large non-stick saute pan and add half the chopped garlic. Stir the garlic around in the hot oil for a minute, then add as much spinach as the pan will hold an start turning it gently as it wilts. Continue adding spinach and turning it over until you've used half of it. Salt it to your taste and keep cooking until there is no excess liquid in the pan.
Remove the sauteed spinach into a bowl and repeat the procedure with the remaining olive oil, garlic, and spinach. Eventually that mountain of fresh spinach will become about 2 cups. When the second batch has cooked down, add back the first batch and saute all of it together for a few moments until everything is hot. Just before serving, toss the spinach with a little dash of rice vinegar, or some lemon juice if you prefer.

Enjoy your veggies this week!

More spinach!
photo: Sophie Shillue

CSA Kickoff Week!

It's finally CSA season! Welcome to our new members and welcome back to our

Baby kale seedling in the greenhouse
photo: Sophie Shillue

returning members--we're happy to have all of you with us this season. We're soooo ready to dig into some fresh food! Crops that we started in the greenhouse back in March, coaxed into life and carefully tended for months are at last ready to enjoy. This week's share features some classic early season salads and greens, plus some of our sturdy perennial herbs from the Pick Your Own herb garden, and a new experiment I'm trying this year with basil... basil plants in pots, happy to sit on your window sill until you're ready to use them. Although this week's share is a little lighter than I'd planned, I hope you enjoy all the green goodness.

We been waiting weeks and weeks for a good soaking rain like we had these last few days and the crops are loving it. This rain storm was perfectly timed too, as we spent the end of last week on a major planting spree, putting in a bunch of summer crops like squash and cucumbers and eggplants.

Edible chive blossoms

In your share this week: 1 head lettuce, 2 bunches spinach, 1/2 lb. salad mix, 1 bunch kale, micro greens or pea shoots, 1 basil pot, PYO (Pick Your Own) chives and chive blossoms, PYO thyme or oregano.

A note about the micro greens and pea shoots: These crops have a short shelf life (less than 2 days) after they have been washed, so we don't wash them before we give them to you. Unwashed they will last up to 5 days in the refrigerator. When you're ready to eat them, please wash them gently and enjoy them immediately afterwards. They make great salad toppings!

Recipes of the Week

For the recipe section this year I want to feature both old favorites (that might be familiar to returning members) and new culinary experiments. If you have favorite recipes to share, leave them in the comments section and I'll include them in future newsletters--thanks!

My favorite salad dressing recipe--from Vegetarian Times a few years ago (full recipe here)--features toasted hazelnuts and pairs well with snipped chives or chive blossom florets.

Toasted Hazelnut Dressing

2 Tbs chopped toasted hazelnuts (plus I add more as a salad topping at the end)
3 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp whole grain mustard (I've used powdered mustard in a pinch, but it doesn't taste as good.)
1/4 c. olive oil
Combine hazelnuts, vinegar, honey, mustard, and 1 Tbs water in a blender (or in a bowl using an immersion blender) and blend until smooth. Slowly drizzle olive oil in while you're blending until the mixture emulsifies. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

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My all-time favorite kale recipe is super fast, super easy, and super yummy! I always use the Red Russian variety that we're harvesting this week because it's the tenderest and sweetest of all the kale varieties, but you can also use the other kale varieties we grow on the farm (and we'll be harvesting in the coming weeks!). Red Russian kale is also my go-to kale for juicing and smoothies--it's awesome!

Lemon-Garlic Sauteed Kale

1-2 Tbs olive oil, butter or better yet a 50/50 mix
1-2 cloves garlic, minced and rested for 10 minutes (this allows the garlic's anti-oxidant properties to fully develop!)
1 bunch kale, stripped from stem & rib, torn roughly and slightly wet from washing
a few pinches of salt
juice of one lemon (or 1-2 Tbs lemon juice from the bottle)

In a large skillet or saute pan with a tightly fitting top, heat the olive oil/butter over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic and saute until the garlic just begins to brown. Add the slightly wet kale and a pinch or two of salt and toss lightly to combine with the garlic and the olive oil/butter. Reduce heat to medium and place the top on for about 5 minutes. Remove the top and add the lemon juice. Continue to saute until all the kale is fully wilted and dark green. Add any additional salt to taste and serve immediately.

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This week's new recipe comes from Susie Middleton's awesome Fast, Fresh & Green. Susie lives on the Vineyard and is the author of several fabulous CSA-friendly cookbooks and she's a delightful person as well!

Spinach with Shallots & Parmigiano
serves 2

1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp heavy cream
1 Tbs finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano
kosher salt
2 small shallots, thinly sliced
2 bunches of spinach, stems removed

Heat olive oil in a medium non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. When hot, add the shallots and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring until the shallots are softened and just a light golden brown, about 4 minutes. Don't brown too much or the shallots will taste slightly bitter. Add half the spinach and another pinch of salt and fold the spinach with tongs until most of it is wilted and dark green, 1-2 minutes. Add the remaining spinach and stir well again until the spinach is almost completely wilted, another minute or two. Remove the pan from the heat, add the cream, and stir to incorporate. Add the parmigiano, stir well and serve right away.

Enjoy your veggies this week!