CSA Week 6 and Farm Stand Updates

We have made it into the portion of the season when almost every day we look at our to-do list and think “that seems manageable” until we remember we have cucumber, squash and zucchini harvest to keep up with! It really is a marvel how quickly these fruit grow, requiring daily harvests in order to avoid baseball bat-sized zucchini and pickling cukes that are almost spherical. Today we found that our second zucchini, summer squash and pickling cucumber successions have started maturing. It is good timing, as the first successions are starting to fade, but we always have a week or two when we are still picking from both successions. With our truck being only intermittently functional, it means we have all gotten strong arm muscles hauling full buckets across the farm in our garden carts!

In the CSA this week:

• Potatoes - Dark Red Norlands (red skin, white flesh) are the first variety we’ll be harvesting. We’re excited to start using our potato digger again this season!

• Fresh onions - This week we’ll have a mix of Red Long of Tropea and Ailsa Craig fresh onions. The Red Longs are similarly sweet and mild, and they should be stored in the refrigerator as well.

• Beets or Scallions - We don’t have large enough quantities of either to last the full week, so we’ll have one of these available at each pick-up.

• Carrots - we’ll have a choice of either purple or orange bunches. The green tops have been breaking more easily, so we will have some carrots that are bunched around the actual root. We do strongly recommend removing the tops when you get home, as the carrots have a tendency to get floppy in the refrigerator if the tops aren’t removed.

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Cucumbers - In addition to slicing and pickling cukes, this week we’ll also have some European style cukes! We tried a small amount out in the high tunnel and in the field. We only had enough high tunnel European cukes for the store, but the ones in the field became abundant towards the end of last week. While these are thinner skinned than the regular slicing cukes, they are not quite as thin skinned as the ones we grew in the high tunnel (everything in the field just ends up a little hardier than in the high tunnel!). We are happy with how these turned out and plan to grow them again next year.

• Garlic scapes

• Lettuce

• Salanova - It is likely the last week for salanova before the fall. Salanova quickly bolts (which means they start to go to flower) in the summer months, so we take a break until the weather conditions are more favorable!

• Frisée - Not to be confused with lettuce. It is frillier and more bitter.

• Mini Cabbage

• Kale

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Sunflowers - It must be summer!

• Herbs - choice of basil, parsley, dill flowers, sage or thyme

Green bean update: Picking last Thursday was very rough and we ended up having to close the beans for Saturday. The drought has slowed the maturation of beans (because of limited irrigation supplies, we prioritized getting irrigation on a later planting that was in closer proximity to existing irrigation set-ups). We are going to do our best to try to get green beans to folks who missed out on green beans on Thursday and Saturday, but it may end up that we don’t have an abundant green bean supply until next week.

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will also have green peppers, high tunnel tomatoes and mixed flower bouquets. Blueberries are suffering in the drought, but we hope to be able to harvest some more at least a couple of days this week. We will also have mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Codman Farm.

We accept credit card, cash, check and EBT in the farm store. The farm store is open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - 3pm. We also continue to take online pre-orders for Wednesday, Friday and Saturday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering opens at 6pm the day before pick-up.

Pick-Your-Own Flower CSA:

We will open the flower field to Flower CSA members for picking starting Wednesday, July 13th, and we will likely be able to open the field to the general public for picking by the jar next week (July 19th). Varieties available this week for Flower CSA members include snapdragons, marigolds, gomphrena, celosia, statice, ageratum and amaranth. It is still early in the season, so please pick flowers above branching points so that we can enjoy the plants for the next 2 months. This means that for now stems will be on the shorter side, but as the plants branch and mature the stems will get a little longer.

Greek Cucumber Salad

by Katya, from littlebroken.com

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar

• 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

• 2–3 cucumbers, thinly sliced

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (full fat)

• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

• 1 clove garlic, pressed

• 1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

• 1 tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste

• fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine the red onion, olive oil, vinegar, and oregano. Let the onions marinate at room temperature while preparing the rest of the salad.

2. Place the sliced cucumbers into a large salad bowl.

3. Combine the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, dill, salt, and black pepper. Add to the cucumbers, along with the marinated onions, including the liquid from the onions. Toss everything together really well. Taste for salt and pepper.

4. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate for up to 30 minutes before serving.