Weir River Farm CSA Update & Spring News

Dear Weir River Farm CSA Members,

Thank you for your patience as we’ve spent time this winter taking a close look at our Weir River farming operations and working towards a plan for long term agricultural, financial, and ecological sustainability. We’ve made the hard decision not to continue offering our vegetable CSA, and to focus instead on the livestock program and the animals that are the heart and soul of the farm.

Weir River Farm was founded by Polly Thayer Starr and her family, and while it provided pasture and amazing views that inspired Mrs. Starr as an artist, the land available for vegetable production has always been limited and challenging to cultivate. We will be transitioning the vegetable fields between the Yellow House and the Red Barn to pasture to expand the space we have for our livestock program and for grassland bird habitat. This summer, the fields across from the Yellow House will primarily be planted with a nitrogen-fixing cover crop that will provide some much needed revitalization of soil nutrients, as well as a place for our chickens to roam (also adding nutrients to the soil!). Over the coming year, we will continue to explore whether to permanently convert these fields to pasture or utilize them in a new way. In the meantime, keep an eye out in the fall for some fun, new crops (think pumpkins and popcorn!), that will appear just across from the Yellow House. And, for those of you who are home gardeners, we hope you’ll come visit us in the greenhouse this spring, where we’ll be growing a wide variety of vegetable seedlings that we’ll have available for sale in  May.

We know how much you value the chance to get fresh, local food from Weir River Farm, and we are excited to be able to expand opportunities to purchase meat and eggs at the farm. We piloted our first ever meat CSA this winter at the farm, and this summer we will be offering a meat CSA and a weekly meat & eggs farmstand. We’ll be sending out more information about these opportunities soon.

If you haven’t had a chance to meet us yet please don’t hesitate to drop by, send us an email, or give us a call. We’re happy to meet as many of you as possible before we get into the busy summer season ahead. We hope to see you at the farm soon!

Best,

Matt Slayton, General Manager

mslayton@thetrustees.org  |  781.740.7233  

Jim Lough, Livestock Manager   

jlough@thetrustees.org

Wier River Farm Updates, Thanksgiving Share, and Meat Sale/CSA!

Hello Weir River Farm CSA members, past and present,

As we enter into the winter months, we wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who participated in the Weir River Farm CSA this year and in past years. Your support of the farm and participation in the CSA have meant a lot to us here at the farm. Below are some updates on current and future CSA plans at Weir River Farm that we thought might be of interest, as well as upcoming opportunities to access local food at the farm. 

2017 Vegetable CSA Shares

As you know, this was a transition year here at Weir River Farm, and we offered a CSA share featuring vegetables from another Trustees farm. The farm team and Trustees leadership are in the midst of an ongoing planning process to map out a longer term vision for the vegetable operation at Weir River Farm. We are working on a plan that is agriculturally, economically, and logistically sustainable and that fits well with the livestock operation and the educational and family programming that are core aspects of Weir River Farm.

We don’t have a clear announcement about 2017 vegetable CSA shares for you yet - our team is working on plans and still determining if we will provide shares from another farm again, grow our own produce at Weir River, fallow fields for a season of rest, or create a new model. We realize you may want to make plans for your 2017 CSA, so we’re making every effort to push our planning process forward and will keep communicating via this blog as we have updates. 

2016 Thanksgiving Share

In the meantime, we’re happy to announce a Thanksgiving CSA Share of great fall veggies, grown at three of our Eastern MA Trustees farms: Chestnut Hill Farm in Southborough, Powisset Farm in Dover and Appleton Farms in Ipswich. 

·         This share is a 1-time pickup on Monday November 21, 4-6pm at the Yellow House, 140 Turkey Hill Lane.

·         Share will include a mix of lovely fall foods, from potatoes, beets, and carrots to lettuce and kale, herbs, winter squash, and more, just in time for Thanksgiving! 

·         Cost is $50 per CSA share.

·         Additional local goodies (honey, maple syrup, etc.) can be ordered via the signup form for delivery with the CSA share.

·         Please bring a check (make out to The Trustees) so you can pay at the time of pickup. 

·         All vegetables are raised with care at our farms and grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

·         We need your sign-up by Thursday November 17 so we can plan for harvest and deliveries. 

Sign up here for the 2016 Thanksgiving Share

November Meat Sale

The Weir River Farm Fall Meat Sale is in progress! Please join us on Tuesday Nov 22 or Tuesday Nov 29 from 2-6pm in the Yellow House at 140 Turkey Hill Lane. We’ll be selling Weir River Farm grass-fed beef, and pasture-raised poultry, lamb, and pork until we run out!

Meat CSA

For those of you looking for an opportunity to access our locally grown meat on a regular basis throughout the winter, The Trustees is inviting friends to join in our first ever Meat CSA to share in the bounty of meat produced on Trustees farms by Trustees farmers. Every two weeks from December to April, CSA members can come pick-up a diverse range of cuts of beef and pork, as well as whole chickens.  

The shares will be made up of the highest quality local meats from Weir River Farm and several nearby Trustees farms, each of which utilize our sustainable and humane farming practices. The shares will include a variety of meats from Weir River Farm, supplemented by beef from Moose Hill Farm in Sharon and pork from Moose Hill Farm and Powisset Farm in Dover. Share pick-up will be offered at Weir River Farm on Mondays from 2-6pm. For more information or to sign up, please visit us at: thetrustees.org/meatcsa.

Thanks again for your support of Weir River Farm. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Here’s to a delicious and restful fall!

Sincerely,

Fran Blanchard

General Manager, Weir River Farm

fblanchard@thetrustees.org  

Cathy Wirth

Agriculture Program Director

cwirth@thetrustees.org

Weir River Farm Blog 10/25

Happy Tuesday! We have arrived at the final CSA; a bittersweet end to a roller coaster of a summer.  I'd like to personally thank all of our gracious CSA members who stuck it out through a devastatingly dry summer to support their local farm.  It means the world to me and I know Des at Chestnut Hill feels the same.

In exciting farm news, our meat sale will finally commence!  On November 8th (and every subsequent Tuesday until the meat is gone) meat will be sold out of the yellow house from the afternoon late into the day.  There will be pork, beef, and chicken: all of the essentials.  Its been a long road to get here but the meat sale is always worth the wait.

Thanks again for a wonderful season.  Here's Des with the final share:

hat's in Your Share this Week (maybe):

      Salad mix
      Lettuce
      Kale/Chard
      Arugula
      Baby Bok Choi
      Pac Choi
      Red Cabbage
      Salad turnips
      Carrots
      Garlic
      Daikon Radish
      Red Radishes
      Broccoli/Cauliflower
      Winter Squash
      Celery/Celery root
      PUMPKINS- don't forget to take home your PUMPKIN!!!!

      Recipes: 

    Daikon radish- If you have never seen Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, you will be confused by my adoration of this incredible radish. In the movie, which is animated, a young girl is confronted by a number of spirits as she tries to free her parents and a strange dragon from a spell that binds them to a witch. One of those spirits is a Daikon Radish spirit- a benevolent spirit who briefly helps the main character. It is massive, white and kind. These massive roots bend and twist their way through the soil- and, like carrots, often come out looking remarkably man-shaped. I so love the idea of a vegetable spirit and so delight in the growing of these radishes, which grow huge in a small amount of time. They are mild, slightly tangy and don't have much bite. They are fantastic pickled, great crunch in your favorite stir fry or cole slaw. Enjoy them anywhere you would use carrots for a nice change. I've got a link here to a website with 10 ideas for using daikon in your next meal. 
   
   Daikon Radish Cakes- a twist on the latke. Yum.....from Allrecipes.com

    
      

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups grated daikon radish
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 egg, beaten

  

• 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chile-garlic sauce (such as Sriracha(R))
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. Place the daikon in a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Drain daikon. Stir in the garlic, onion, egg, bread crumbs, pepper, paprika, and chili garlic sauce. Mix well. Form into 8, small round patties.
3. Pour oil into a large skillet. Heat over medium heat. Fry patties in the hot oil until firm and nicely brown, about 3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels.

Weir River Farm Blog 3/18

Happy Tuesday!  There are only two more CSA pick ups this season, so make sure you stop by and grab your final fall veggies. If you missed the last couple weeks, Des is pulling out all the stops and getting some mean greens out of the surprising October heat.  Before I paste the share info, a couple of notes for those interested:

- Garlic is still for sale and will be for the next two weeks, until the product has all been sold.  We've got about one hundred pounds left from the harvest of three hundred, so it's quickly depleting.  Come talk to me at CSA, or email me and I can bag some for you in advance and you can just come by and pick it up at your leisure.

- I'll be harvesting a limited amount of beet and carrot bunches this week for sale at the CSA. They are the final veggies we left in the Earth, and this is their last hurrah. There will be a very limited amount, so if you're interested you can guarantee some for yourself by emailing me in advance, or if you feel like throwing caution to the wind, feel free to just show up and try to buy some on the spot.

I can't wait to see ya'll at the CSA, here's Des with the share:

What's in Your Share (maybe):

Salad turnips
Arugula
Pac Choi
Salad mix
Broccoli
Radish
Bok Choi
Carrots
Winter Squash
Garlic
Potatoes
Pencil leeks/scallions
Kale/Chard

Recipes:

Ok. I've been hearing a lot about Arugula Pesto and telling a lot of folks about it and it is dreamy delicious and a great thing to FREEZE for later so grab some of this peppery green and make this! You can substitute pine nuts/sunflower seeds/cashews/pecans etc for the walnuts, but I love walnuts in this! I also put in a Tblsp of butter just because I love butter and it makes any pesto a creamy wonder.
Ingredients:

• 2 cups packed fresh arugula leaves, rinsed and dried
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• 4 medium garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Throw all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Use anywhere you would use basil pesto for a peppery twist on an old favorite.

I made this the other night with ground turkey instead of beef and it was fabulous. We served it with rice and used our homegrown sriracha! Our fresh cabbage caramelizes so wonderfully that it makes stir fry just sing! This is from BudgetBytes.com

BEEF AND CABBAGE STIR FRY

SAVEPRINT

PREP TIME

15 mins

COOK TIME

15 mins

TOTAL TIME

30 mins

INGREDIENTS

STIR FRY SAUCE

• 2 Tbsp soy sauce $0.18
• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil $0.33
• 1 Tbsp sriracha* $0.05
• ½ Tbsp brown sugar $0.02

STIR FRY

• ½ head green cabbage $1.78
• 2 carrots $0.22
• 3 green onions $0.17
• ½ Tbsp neutral cooking oil $0.02
• ½ lb. lean ground beef $3.90
• 2 cloves garlic $0.16
• 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger $0.13
• Pinch of salt and pepper $0.05

GARNISHES (optional)

• 1 Tbsp sesame seeds $0.08
• 1 Tbsp sriracha $0.05

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare the stir fry sauce first. In a small bowl stir together the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sriracha, and brown sugar. Set the sauce aside.
2. Shred the vegetables so they are ready to go when you need them. Cut one small cabbage in half, remove the core, and then finely shred the leaves of one half the cabbage (4-6 cups once shredded, save the other half for another recipe). Peel two carrots, then use a cheese grater to shred them (1 cup shredded). Slice three green onions. Mince two cloves of garlic. Peel a knob of ginger using either a vegetable peeler or by scraping with the side of a spoon, then grate it using a small-holed cheese grater.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot add the cooking oil, ground beef, garlic, ginger, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the beef until browned (about five minutes).
4. Add the cabbage and carrots to the skillet and continue to stir and cook until the cabbage is slightly wilted (or fully wilted, if you prefer). Stir in the prepared sauce and the green onions. Top with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a drizzle of sriracha, then serve.

NOTES

* 1 Tbsp sriracha makes a medium-spicy stir fry. If you don't like spicy, I'd start with 1 tsp. The sriracha adds flavor as well as heat, so I don't suggest skipping it all together.

Events:

SURPRISE! Given that our Harvest Fest was rained out (and thank you to all the hearty souls that ventured into the torrent to support us- we did have a fun day anyway!) we still have a ton of pumpkins left over and Southborough Recreation and the Rotary Club have rescheduled the annual Pumpkin Lighting Ceremony for October 30th. So on Saturday October 29th we are adding PUMPKIN CARVING to our Halloween Fun Run Event. You can enter the costume party style fun run and get a free pumpkin, OR you can just come buy a pumpkin for $5 (and these are FABULOUS JACK O LANTERNS!!!) and use our carving tools to carve a beauty to bring home or put up on the wall in town. 2k run starts at 10 am, fun run starts at 11 am and the Pumpkin part of the day is all day from 10-2. Come join us for treats, tricks and fun!

11/5 Join us for the Great Pumpkin Chuck! I will just say this.....TREBUCHET. yep. You got that right, we have a trebuchet on the farm. It is big and it is a riot to watch throw pumpkins across the fields. Bring your old Jacks and we will chuck them. There will be pumpkiny snacks as well. $5. Have a chucker of your own you want to bring to the action- think it can throw an old jack farther than ours. Challenge accepted, bring it on. Contact Kira for info on our chucking contest....

Weir River Farm Blog 10/11

Happy Tuesday! As of this afternoon, our main field is officially empty - all plants have been disced, all plastic has been lifted, and cover crop has been sewn.  I want to give one last shout out to my lovely and reliable volunteers who made this season possible - it was an incredibly difficult summer and I couldn't have done it on my own.

The chestnut hill blog hasn't gone up yet so I can't paste the share here, but it will be very similar to last week's.

I'll be selling our garlic this week at the CSA, here at the details on pricing and availability:

 We are starting to sell our own Weir River Farm garlic crop this week. It's a mix of hardneck and softneck varieties and pricing is by size of the heads. 

Jumbo size (averaging 7 heads/lb) 14.00

Large (averaging 10 heads/lb) 12.00

Medium (averaging 15-17 heads/lb) 10.00

Small (averaging 18-21 heads/lb) 8.00

I'll see many of you on Thursday - have a great week!

- Casey

PS - 3 more CSA's, don't forget :)

Weir River Farm Blog 9/27

Happy Tuesday, and a rainy one at that! Now that the season is ending, we get a full week of rain, huh? Funny how that goes.  First I want to thank all the volunteers who helped me seed, weed, transplant, and harvest this summer.  As the lone farmer this year on the property, I couldn't have done it without you.

We have 5 more CSA's, and this week will be the final chance to pick your own flowers.  No matter how many stems the sign says (20, I believe), I encourage you to stop by the field after grabbing your share and cutting as many stems as you like.  There are still some gorgeous flowers blooming out there, and by Thursday next week they'll likely be gone.

Just a reminder - I know that is can be harder to get to the CSA, with summer over and school in session. Don't forget that with a quick email to me (ciamster8@gmail.com), your share can be put aside in the yellow house fridge where it can sit through the weekend until its more convenient to get.
Des hasn't posted the share yet so I can't copy/paste it for ya'll (she's down a farm hand so I'm sure she's strapped for time) but I'm fairly certain it will be the same as last week, with maybe a change or two.

Have a great week, enjoy the fall weather.

- Casey

Weir River Farm Blog 9/13

Happy Tuesday trustees!  Our planted produce is now down to just a handful of varieties as we wrap up another year of farming on Turkey Hill.  I pulled up stakes and plastic in nearly every bed, and Farmer Rory spent the day mowing.  The field looks immaculate, which on one hand is exciting and a sign of a season well done, and on the other hand bittersweet as the season changes and the days get cooler and shorter.

I want to remind you all of the September 30th farm to table dinner we'll be having at Weir River.  There are still plates available, and Pete and Fran have done a fantastic job planning (what I believe to be) the final farm to table dinner of the summer.  I'll post the link to register below, along with the current menu.  Please check it out!

http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/south-shore/event-26881.html?srregion=south-shore&srrelated_property=&srevent_type=&dateType=srevent_start_date&srstartDate=09%2F30%2F2016&srendDate=09%2F30%2F2016&x=39&y=10

Braise Chicken w/ Roasted Tomatoes, Onions, Olives, Thyme and Saffron

Sauteed Farm Greens w/ Currents

Herb Olive Oil Mashed Gold Potatoes

Weir Farm Salad

Dessert:

Orange Scented Olive Oil Cake w/ Caramelized Pears