You say potato, I say....yummy!

freshly harvested new potatoes
photo: Liz Green

We're excited to have new potatoes from Moraine Farm this week! As I mentioned last week, the potato crop is a little late this year (effects of the cold spring are catching up to us here), but it's finally ready to be dug and enjoyed. Moraine Farm in Beverly, MA is one of our sister Trustees farms and farmers Gretta and Liz do a stellar job with potatoes there every year. Our soils here at Weir River aren't well suited for potatoes and after last year's disappointing crop, I decided to focus on the many other crops that actually like our low acidity, compost-rich soils. 

The other big news of the past week is that our Oreo cookie cows have started calving. The first baby was a bit of an early surprise on Tuesday morning, then two more followed on Thursday, and two more today. Despite a few difficult deliveries, so far all mamas and babies are doing well. We can give you more updates on your pickup day, as well as point you toward the best baby calf viewing spots of the day. You might even get to witness one of the last few births we're expecting this week!

In your share this week: more squash and cucumbers--the bumper crop continues as we transition into the mid-season succession!, new potatoes from Moraine, a big bag of basil, PYO parsley (see recipe below if you're running out of parsley ideas), and PYO mini sunflowers!
Enjoy your veggies and your mini sunflowers this week!

Recipe of the Week 
Last year's farm apprentice, Leah, introduced me to this recipe and it's a favorite now. Try it on your new potatoes this week!

Marcella Hazan's Bagnet Vert (a delicious green parsley sauce)

from Marcella's Italian Kitchen

1/2 c. bread crumbs (fresh

1/2 c. red wine vinegar

1/2 c. tightly packed parsley

1/2 tsp minced garlic

2 or 3 anchovies

1 hard boiled egg yolk

3/4 c. extra virgin olive oil 

Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Soak bread crumbs in vinegar until thoroughly soaked, then squeeze them out with your hands. Put all the ingredients except for the EVOO into a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the EVOO and blend thoroughly. Serve at room temperature or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Excellent spooned over fish, shrimp, potatoes, or tomatoes.

Mid-summer classics

Two mid-summer crops are ready for harvest this week, some fragrant basil and some juicy baby fennel bulbs. Our resident groundhog population enjoyed eating quite a bit of the fennel crop when it was first planted in May, but we were able to save enough for you to enjoy some as well. The basil crop is looking healthy and vigorous and should keep producing long enough to overlap with our soon-to-be-ready tomato crop.

Moraine Farm in Beverly.
Photo: Elizabeth Green

Since the first growing season at Weir River, we've struggled growing potatoes--our soil type and soil pH are ill-suited to the particular demands of potato plants. The plan this year was to work with sister Trustees farm, Moraine Farm, and Farmer Gretta to have our potatoes grown there, where they have
ample room and the lower soil pH that potatoes crave. About a month and a half ago I learned from Gretta that her potato crop is late this year, like virtually all New England farms after the cold spring we had. Small and tender new potatoes were originally expected in early July to fill out the shares between our spring crops and the late summer onslaught of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. A behind-schedule potato crop left me worried that we would have a bit of a gap, with skinny shares throughout July. Gretta tells me that she's expecting new potatoes to be ready to harvest for next week's share, which is excellent news. And fortunately, our bumper crop of squash and cucumbers is filling out our shares quite nicely.

In your share this week: more squash and cucumber, baby fennel, basil, choice of beets or carrots and PYO green beans. Enjoy your veggies this week!

Recipe of the Week
Inspired by CSA Member Sue Roy, who delighted me on Saturday with some homemade bread and butter pickles she made with last week's share, I wanted to share this recipe. I got this originally from Annie Rockwell, the first farmer I apprenticed for fresh out of college. She taught me innumerable things about vegetables that summer, including the idea that pickles could be sweet and could be made with zucchini, which blew my mind just as much as everything else I was learning on her farm.

Annie's Bread and Butter Pickles
makes 5-6 pints

5 medium zucchini, sliced
1/4 c. sea or kosher salt

syrup:
2 c. sugar
2 1/2 c. cider vinegar
3/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp clove
pinch of ginger
1/2 tsp celery seeds
a few whole peppercorns
1 Tbs mustard seeds

In a large bowl, place sliced zucchini and salt and cover with water. Refrigerate overnight. Drain well in the morning.
Combine the syrup ingredients and bring to a boil in a large stock pot. Stir in zucchini and return to a boil. Remove from heat and place in jars. Pour in remaining syrup to cover. Cover and keep refrigerated. Pickles will be ready in a day.
Note: this recipe is for refrigerator pickles, not shelf-stable pickles.

Zukes & cukes steal the show this week

First Sungold cherry tomato
getting a blush of orange
color

This past week saw the farm crew in the trenches harvesting squash and cucumbers, two crops that produce veggies almost as fast as we can pick them. Looking at the plants today, I see a lot of new fruit that will be ready this week, so we'll have another bumper week for those two summer staples. 

While we continue to play the waiting game with our thousands of tomato plants (sharp eyes spotted the first cherry tomato starting to color up on Friday!), we have another new crop coming in this week--carrots! These guys are still pretty young (and very tender), but they're very tasty. I seeded these carrots all the way back in early April, when the soil was still very cold from the long winter. I worried over them for weeks, as they took forever to germinate--cold soil can significantly slow that process down. They finally popped up and the whole farm crew took several afternoons to weed them by hand very carefully. Now they're finally big enough to start harvesting and we're all excited to start enjoying them!

In your share this week: lots of cucumbers and squash (green zucchini, golden zucchini, and yellow summer squash), young and tender carrots, mini cabbage or chard, beets, hakurei, and parsley. 

Recipe of the Week 

Zucchini and Fresh Herb Fritters
from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 lb green or golden zucchini, coarsely grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 bunch scallions, including an inch of the greens, thinly sliced
1 c. dried bread crumbs 
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 c. chopped parsley
1 Tbs chopped marjoram or basil 
1 tsp chopped mint
Olive oil as needed

Lightly salt the zucchini and set it aside in a colander to drain for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients together except for the oil and the pepper. Quickly rinse the squash, squeeze out the excess water, then stir it into the batter. Taste for salt and season with pepper. 
Film two large skillets with olive oil. When hot, drop in the batter--1/4 cup makes a fritter about 3.5 inches across--and cook over medium heat until golden brown on the bottom. Turn and cook the second side. Serve hot.  

Crisp & cool & perfect for summer...

Cucumbers are back! Our first field planting is finally ready for picking and we're looking forward to many weeks of crisp, cool, juicy, fresh-off-the-vine cucumbers. Luckily this classic summer veggie is super versatile--cucumber salads, quick pickles, in agua fresca, or juiced with other farm veggies--the list goes on and on. Best of all, our cukes are picked fresh for you, so you don't have to peel them like the waxed ones in the grocery store!

Nutritionally, I think cucumbers have been written off as lightweights, but they really have more to offer than what's generally recognized. In the vitamin department, they're a decent source of Vitamin K (needed for bone health), but more importantly they contain phytonutrients like lignans and flavonoids, which are antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer.

Also in your share this week: zucchini!, beets, mini cabbage, parsley, choice of kale or chard, sugar snap peas!!, and hakureis. In the field you can pick your own green beans (another first of the year for this week!) and dill.

Farm yoga is back again this Saturday at 5:30! Meet us at the Yellow House with your mat and any sunscreen/bug spray/water you'd like to bring. Yoga class is free for members and donation (to benefit our Food Access Fund) for friends, who are very welcome!

Enjoy your veggies this week!

Recipe of the Week
This one comes from the food blog The Yellow House, which I was first introduced to by CSA member (and food blogger herself at the always-gorgeous I Will Feed You blog) Lindsay Grimes. After Wednesday it looks like it will cool down enough to turn on the oven without causing an uprising in your household, and this roasted wedge salad is super simple.

Roasted Cabbage Wedge Salad

1 head cabbage (recipe calls for savoy, but this will work with our tender mini cabbages just fine)
1-2 Tbs olive oil
Kosher salt

5 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs sherry vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Pecorino romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 450. Using a large, sharp knife quarter (or halve) the cabbage. Trim away any very pithy or brown ends of the core, but leave the core intact. The core will hold the wedges together when roasting.
Arrange the cabbage wedges on a baking sheet. Drizzle the wedges with the olive oil and then sprinkle liberally with kosher salt.
Transfer the baking sheet to the oven. Roast the cabbage for 30 minutes, flipping the wedges at 15 minutes to make sure they brown evenly. At the conclusion of roasting, the cabbages may have some blackened, crispy outer leaves. If you don't want this, take them out a few minutes early, but note that the inside of the cabbage may be less tender than if you had left it in longer.
While the cabbage is roasting, make your vinaigrette: whisk together olive oil, sherry vinegar, and dijon. Taste the vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper to taste.
When the cabbage is finished, work quickly. Plate the wedges, drizzle with vinaigrette, and grate pecorino romano over the top. Serve immediately, while the cabbage is still hot.