CSA Week 7 and Farm Stand Updates

This time of year one of the most frequent questions we get from CSA members is whether or not they can donate their veggies while they are away on vacation. The answer is yes! Every week after closing on Saturday, we put together a donation for the Boston Area Gleaners including any surpluses from both the CSA and the farm store. The Gleaners are a great non-profit organization based in Acton that collects produce from area farms to distribute to many food pantries in Greater Boston. We have been partnering with the Gleaners for many years now and find that is an easy way for us to give back. We don’t have to coordinate with multiple agencies to figure out what they are willing to take, and we don’t have to make any deliveries - the Gleaners come to us! As an added bonus, it helps us to clean out our coolers to make way for the next week’s harvest!

In the CSA this week:

• Ailsa Craig Onions - These fresh onions have a milder and sweeter flavor than the cured onions you get at the store. Since these are fresh rather than cured they should be refrigerated.

• Frisée - This is a slightly bitter leafy green that can add nice crunch to salads. It has some crunch, so it can also stand up to some wilting or sautéeing if you want to mellow the flavor.

• Mustard greens or Yukina Savoy - Because of the hotter temps we typically experience in July it is difficult to consistently produce greens because heat stresses these plants, negatively impacting both flavor and texture. Mustard and yukina both stand up better to heat than many other greens, so we will have one of these each pick-up day!

• Beets - we’ll have some golden beets and some red beet bunches.

• Carrots

• Potatoes - we continue to have red potatoes this week.

• Fennel

• Garlic scapes

• Summer squash

• Zucchini

• Slicing cucumbers

• Pickling cucumbers

• Cabbage

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Green beans

• Sunflowers

• Herbs - sage, thyme, oregano, chives, parsley, dill, and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have the first of our own tomatoes, eggplant and pepper (all will be small quantities while production is ramping up), as well as mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s. We hope to have Verrill Farm sweet corn soon!

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 and Friday pick-up. The link for online orders is https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Online ordering currently opens at 6pm on Tuesday for Wednesday pick-up and 6pm on Thursday for Friday pick-up.

PYO Flower CSA

This week the PYO flower field will only be open to Flower CSA members only until we have a higher quantity of blooms. However, we plan to have the field open to the general public by next week! PYO Flower CSA members should have received an email earlier today with more details.

Quick Pickled Cucumbers

by Melissa Griffiths from Bless this Mess

Ingredients

• 1 cup water

• ⅓ cup vinegar (apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good)

• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

• 1 to 2 teaspoons salt

• sliced garden cucumbers (about 2 cups)

• sliced onion or green onion (about ½ cup)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.

2. All the cucumbers should be covered in the brine, if you have lots of cucumber or are making a big batch, make more brine.

3. Let the mixture rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The flavors develop over time, so an overnight soak is great but mine are normally gone by dinner.