Beef sale this Thursday and Friday

Even though the CSA is over for the season, you can still come hang out at the Yellow House this Thursday--and pick up some tasty steaks as well! We will be selling our Belted Galloway beef on Thursday, October 29th, from 2–6PM and again on Friday, October 30th, from 1PM–4PM. We have a full selection of steak cuts available, as well as packages of ground beef and hamburger patties.

Please park in the parking lot across the street from the Yellow House and come in through the front door. We accept cash, checks, and credit cards. If you have questions, call us at 781.740.7233.

If you're wondering about our pork and lamb, they will be available in November, exact date TBA.

See you at the farm!

The Last Hurrah

With mixed emotions, I hereby announce the Last Week of CSA for 2015! Though I'm sad to see the fields slowly emptying out and the farm crew and many volunteers making winter plans that don't involve long days on the farm, I'm happy to have another bountiful season at our backs. This season wouldn't have been possible without contributions of all kinds from so many. Starting from the ground up - our vital soil microbial community; the never-ending pollination work of our honey bees and many native pollinator species; our insect attack force of predatory nematodes and parasitic wasps; our hearty, stalwart crops; the tireless efforts and diverse talents of our field crew--Sophie, Casey, Chris & Isaiah; the dedication and passion of our CSA members who help make this farm a community; and lastly our INCREDIBLE hive of volunteers/pitchers-in/farm angels: Jenn, Dave, Katya, the kickass Thursday volunteer harvest crew: Bonnie, Abby, Brittney, Linda, Suzanne, Susan & Larry; Julian, Aisha, Emma & Graham, the BU Freshman crew, Dan & Jack, Marialena, the Blue Cross Volunteer  Farm Army, our big-hearted food pantry crew of Ed, Carpenter Ed, Bobby & Bill; the rain-or-shine crew of Kris, Dick, Ralph & Ann; and last but definitely not least the ever-and-always-delightful Lindsay & Maureen. Every piece of this ecological puzzle is essential to the Little Farm on the Big Hill that is Weir River Farm. BIG thanks to all!

On to more mundane, housekeeping matters: during pickup this week I'll have an email verification sheet out. This is for notification to renew your share for next year, which I'll send out this winter. Please add any additional email addresses you'd like me to send the notification to.

Don't forget to RSVP to our fabulous end-of-season Harvest Dinner next Tuesday, October 27th at 6pm.  There's optional yoga at 5pm, then the potluck dinner, which is BYOB, and then rumor has it there'll be games and prizes as well...

Tuesday is the penultimate Farm Fresh Yoga for this season--see you at 5:30 at the Yellow
House. We're still looking for recipe submissions for the Weir River cookbook--send us your favorites and we'll make you famous*.

During CSA pickup this week we will have some beef from our Belted Galloway herd available for sale. Ground beef and select steak cuts will be offered. Our Beef Sale next week will feature the full range of steak cuts that we usually have available. The Beef Sale day and time are TBA--I'll post it here when it is announced. The Pork Sale and Lamb Sale will not be until later in the season and haven't been scheduled yet. We accept cash, check and credit cards.

In your final share this week: lettuce (leaf lettuce and some mini romaine heads), leeks, beets (a mix

leeks in the field

of beets grown here at Weir River, at Freedom Food Farm in Raynham, and at Langwater Farm in North Easton), Brussels sprouts (whoopwhoop!), garlic, kohlrabi (see recipe section below), gorgeous red mustard greens, a choice of butternut squash (from Freedom Food Farm in Raynham) or kabocha squash, onions, bok choy, chard, kale, a pumpkin (from Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon--conventionally grown), and more PYO herbs to last you through the (hopefully mild) winter.

Recipes of the Week

What's kohlrabi? It's the bright purple, ugly duckling, oft-ignored stepchild of the cabbage family. It looks like a vegetable from outer space and tastes like broccoli stems. How do you eat it? Martha has a great collection of recipes here, but I think it's best peeled and cut into matchsticks and dipped in yummy dressing. Simple and fool-proof.

Red mustard greens are gorgeous but intimidating. But don't worry, you can do this! I like them sauteed with a buddy (chard or spinach works great) in olive oil and garlic. Kale will work too, but that combo packs more of a punch.

Kabocha? Is that a red pumpkin? Kinda. It's a Japanese winter squash and it's my favorite kind. Dense and sweet, it's flavor is earthier than your traditional butternut or your candy-pop acorn squash. I use it in any recipe that calls for butternut or pumpkin and then take lots of compliments on how good my butternut/pumpkin what-have-you is. My favorite recipe is below and it's what I'm planning to make for the Harvest Dinner next week.

Kabocha Chili
adapted from thekitchn.com's Pumpkin Chili recipe

3 lb kabocha, cut into 1" pieces
2 medium rutabaga, Macomber turnips, or regular turnips, approx 3/4 lb
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. finely ground cornmeal
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced and rested for 10 minutes
2 Tbs tomato paste
4 c. vegetable broth (or you can substitute 2 cups of broth for 2 cups of beer..yum!)
2 10 oz cans diced tomatoes with green chiles (Muir Glen makes the best, I think)
2 16 oz cans chili beans, rinsed and drained
2 c. frozen roasted corn
1/2 Tbs chili powder (or more to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
several dashes Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
balsamic vinegar to taste
chopped scallions for garnish (optional)
shredded cheese to serve
sour cream to serve

Cut turnips and kabocha into 1" pieces. In a large soup pot heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. When melted, whisk in the cornmeal until smooth, then add the onions and garlic and saute.
Add the tomato paste, spices and Worcestershire sauce and stir in well. Add salt and pepper and balsamic and stir well.
Add the kabocha, turnip and red pepper and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.
Add the broth(/beer?), diced tomatoes, beans and corn and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and cook for 1 hour, or until the pumpkin and turnip are tender. It gets better if simmered longer--several hours at least.
Before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper and extra balsamic and Worcestershire if desired. Serve hot with scallions, shredded cheese and sour cream.

*CSA cookbook fame will apply only within the boundaries of Weir River Farm.

The CSA season is winding down, but we still have a field full of greens and other goodies. Our lettuce crop is finally ready and looking great. We planted it out into the field on the late side and then spent weeks in August worrying that the month-long heat wave would kill it. But it survived! And now it's ready to make some seriously tasty salads.

If you're planning to come to our fabulous end-of-season Harvest Dinner on Tuesday, October 27th, please RSVP here so we know how many people to expect. It's potluck, BYOB, and delicious! Rumor has it there'll be games and prizes as well...

Freedom Red Ranger chickens

This week we are happy to offer our CSA members first dibs on another batch of Weir River Farm meat chickens. Our chickens (Freedom Red Ranger breed) have been humanely raised here on pasture in their traveling chicken coop since they were chicks. They were processed at a USDA-inspected facility in Rhode Island and will be available for purchase on your share day at the Yellow House. We are selling whole birds, ranging from 4 to 6 lbs each, for $5.00 per lb. You can pay by cash or check.

Our garlic dried in the Red Barn
for almost 2 months

After the rain-out for the Fall Festival, we've rescheduled for this Saturday, Oct. 17th from 10am - 2pm. There will be live music, yummy food trucks, craft demonstrations and craft activities, and lots of wholesome farm fun. See you there!

Tuesday is Farm Fresh Yoga day for the rest of the season. Come to the Yellow House on Tuesdays at 5:30pm for your weekly yoga fix. Free for CSA members and sliding scale donation to our Food Access Fund for friends and neighbors and coworkers.

Thank you to all the members who have already so generously contributed favorite recipes for our upcoming CSA cookbook--keep 'em coming! Email me or bring a copy to CSA pickup--thanks!

In your share this week: long-awaited lettuce!, chard, kale, garlic, bok choy, onions, leeks, hakureis, and PYO herbs.


Recipes of the Week

Creamy Barley Soup with Mushrooms and Leeks
from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy

The Soup
6 Tbs barley, rinsed
2 Tbs sunflower seed oil
1 Tbs butter
1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
1 tsp dried oregano, or 1 Tbs fresh, chopped (fresh is available in the herb garden this week!)
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, diced (about 4 ounces)
1 large carrot, scrubbed and grated
1 large clove garlic, chopped and rested for 10 minutes
Sea salt
6-8 cups water or mushroom stock
1 cup sour cream or thick yogurt
Freshly ground pepper

Finishing Touches
1/3 cup barley, rinsed
Sea salt
1 leek, white and light green parts only, halved crosswise then slivered lengthwise into pieces 3 inches long
1 Tbs grapeseed oil
1 Tbs butter
6 mushrooms (shiitake, trumpet, or other favorite), sliced
Freshly ground pepper

To make the soup, cover the barley with water and set it aside white you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Heat the oil and butter in a soup pot over medium heat. When the butter foams, add the onion and oregano, give a stir, and cook for 5 minutes. Next add the leek, carrot and garlic and cook 10 minutes more, or until a glaze forms on the bottom of the pan. Season with 1.5 teaspoons salt.
Drain the barley and add it to the pot, along with 6 cups of the water. Simmer until the barley is soft, about 30 minutes, and remove it from the heat. Puree in a blender with the sour cream until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, taste for salt, and season with pepper. If the soup is too thick, thin with more of the water.
While the soup is cooking, prepare the finishing touches. Put the barley in a sauce pan, add water to cover generously, and a pinch of salt, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and keep warm.
Put the leek in a small saucepan with water to cover. Add a few pinches of salt and simmer until tender, about 8 minutes, then drain.
Heat the oil and butter in a small skillet over high heat. Add the mushrooms and a pinch or two of salt. Saute until golden. If the pan becomes dry, as it can with shiitake mushrooms, add 1/2 cup water and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the mushrooms are brown.
To serve, ladle the soup in to shallow bowls. Add a portion of the cooked barley to each, then pile the leeks and mushrooms on top. Add a twist of pepper and serve.

Golden Onion Soup
from Diana Shaw's The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook

1 Tbs canola or vegetable oil
4 large onions, thinly sliced
pinch sugar
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
4 cups vegetable broth
4 thick slices day-old French or sourdough bread, crusts removed
1/2 cup grated Gruyere or Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the onions. Reduce the heat to medium and saute, stirring often, until the onions are very soft and limp, about 30 minutes. Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar, and continue sauteing, stirring often, until the onions turn caramel brown, about 10 minutes more.
Pour the broth into the saucepan, and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently to allow the broth to absorb the flavor of the onions, about 20 minutes.
Heat the broiler. While the soup is simmering, toast the bread. When the soup is done, spoon it into 4 oven-proof soup bowls. Top each serving with a slice of toast and sprinkle evenly with grated cheese. Place the bowls on a baking sheet and carefully place them under the broiler, watching constantly until the cheese is bubbly, about 1-2 minutes. Serve right away.

Enjoy your veggies this week!

Putting the fields to bed for the winter.

Jurassic Kale

Arugula looking robust
photo: Chris Hendershot

Some new crops this week, and some we haven't seen since the spring. Making its seasonal debut this week is arugula--big, spicy leaves that are perfect for a classic Italian pasta dish (see recipe) or a chopped salad if you can handle the heat!

Gleaming white hakureis are back again--those Japanese radish relatives that are a little sweet, a little spicy, and very crunchy. I always eat mine raw--sliced with a sprinkling of salt, but they're also good roasted or sauteed. The green tops are delicious too--add them to your greens sautee. They pair well with kale, chard, collards, or bok choy. And speaking of bok choy, I planted a new variety this year and it's ready for harvest this week. It's a red variety that tastes very similar to the standard green variety I've grown for years. Let me know what you think... maybe I'll grow it again next year if it's popular.

Lacinata or dino kale
photo: Chris Hendershot

My favorite kale variety is also looking robust these days and we're going to harvest a lot of it this week for the kale/chard choice. Lacinata or dinosaur kale is a deep dark green color with a blistered leaf. This is a traditional variety from Italy and can be described as the dark, mysterious and brooding member of the kale family. Its strong kale flavor holds its ground in a garlic-lemon-EVOO saute and it's delicious!

Farm reminders:

Our Fall Festival was a wash out on Saturday, so we've rescheduled for Saturday, October 17th, still 10am - 2pm. See you there!

Tuesday is Farm Fresh Yoga day for the rest of the season! Come to the Yellow House on Tuesdays at 5:30pm for your weekly yoga fix! Free for CSA members and sliding scale donation to our Food Access Fund for friends and neighbors and coworkers.

Thank you to all the members who have already so generously contributed favorite recipes for our upcoming CSA cookbook! We're still looking for more recipes, so if you have a recipe you love and you'd like to share, please email me or bring a copy to CSA pickup any time. We're looking for delicious, seasonally-inspired, relatively simple, and fool-proof recipes.

And don't forget, our end-of-season harvest celebration will be Tuesday, October 27th, starting at 6pm. Potluck and BYOB, it's a fun and DELICIOUS evening--mark your calendar!

Bok choy forest
photo: Chris Hendershot

In your share this week: onions, bunched arugula, hakureis, a choice of kale or chard, bok choy, a choice of radishes or collards, the very last of the hot peppers and the bell/frying peppers (I mean it this time!), leaf lettuce mix (yay, salad!), more beets from Freedom Food Farm in Raynham, and Pick Your Own herbs from the field.






Recipes of the Week

Wondering what to do with your bounty of beets? Two oldies but goodies from the archives:
Susie Middleton's Quick Roasted Beet Slices
Lindsay Grimes' Beet Humus

If you've never tried collards before, now is your chance. If you have and they didn't wow you, try this recipe--super fast and seriously yummy. It's another good one from Susie Middleton's Fast, Fresh & Green that also looks delightful on the plate.

Quick Collard Greens, Confetti-style

1/2 of a large bunch of collard greens
2 Tbs EVOO
1-2 tsp of garlic, minced and rested for 10 minutes
1 big pinch of crushed Red Pepper Flakes (I crush them with a mortar and pestle, but you could run them through a spice grinder too)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sherry vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
8-10 curls Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)

Strip the stems from the collard leaves and tear the leaf in half lengthwise. Rinse them, dry them, and stack them up on top of each other. Roll the stack up tightly and slice them very thinly into ribbons about 1/8th inch wide.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring often, until fragrant and just starting to turn brown, about 1 minute. Add the crushed red pepper flakes and incorporate. Add the ribboned greens and the salt and cook, stirring well, until the greens turn bright green and then darker green and somewhat wilted, about 1 minute. If you cook them for longer, they will start to toughen.

Combine the vinegar and honey in a small bowl (heating slightly in the microwave if you need to). Drizzle over the greens and toss to combine. Alternatively, skip the honey-vinegar dressing and top the greens with a few Parmigiano curls.


Hot and Sour Bok Choy with Mussels
from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Fast

2 lb mussels, scrubbed and debearded; discard any that don't close when you press the halves together
2-3 heads bok choy (about 1.5 lb), leaves separated from stems
1 inch fresh ginger, skin peeled and minced
1 fresh hot green chile, minced
Several sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 Tbs rice vinegar
2 Tbs soy sauce

Slice the bok choy stems into 1" pieces and cut the leafy parts into thin ribbons. In a medium pot over medium-high heat, add the sesame oil and vegetable oil, then the bok choy stems, then the leaves, and finally the mussels. Add the ginger and chile, the rice vinegar and soy sauce, and about 1/4 cup of water. Cover the pot and cook until all the mussels are open, about 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.


From my culinary crush, Deborah Madison, and her excellent tome, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Arugula, Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata

1 lb whole wheat spaghetti
salt
4 Tbs olive oil, plus more to finish
3 cloves garlic, minced and rested for 10 minutes
2 small dried red chiles, broken in half, or several pinches red pepper flakes
6 or more cups large arugula leaves, large stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
Ricotta salata, thinly shaved

Drop the pasta into plenty of salted boiling water and cook until al dente.
In a large skillet, heat the oil and add the garlic and chile and cook over medium heat until the garlic started to brown very slightly. Add the arugula and a few pinches of salt and saute until wilted. Turn off the heat. When the pasta is done, add it directly to the skillet along with the walnuts. Toss well, sprinkle with shaved ricotta salata, drizzle with a little olive oil and serve.

Big sky
photo: Chris Hendershot