CSA Week 14, Farm Stand Updates and Ag Day!

This week we are looking forward to the annual Ag Day farmers’ market on Saturday 10am - 2pm in Concord Center (the farm stand and CSA will still be open regular hours). It has been a very challenging season for all Concord farms, so it will be nice to come together for a fun and celebratory event! We hope folks will come out and show support for their exhausted farmers!

In other exciting news, the Fall Fat Moon Farm Mushroom CSA will start September 19th! Sign-ups are available now in our online store. The cost is $127 and Fat Moon Mushroom CSA members will receive one pound of Fat Moon's fresh, organic mushrooms each week for 8 weeks.

One thing that customers will probably notice this week is the limited leafy green options. While we might have enough under-sized arugula, salanova and lettuce to eek out a full week’s worth of store and CSA salad fixings (albeit in small bags), if we did so we would just find ourselves in a continuing cycle of borrowing from the following week’s plantings and never having quite enough. Our kale supply would be fine if we had a solid amount of salad greens, but to make it through the week with kale as the only leafy green, we would likely need to strip the plants, depriving us of kale for the rest of the Main season. As a result, we are going to rotate through different greens options for the week, trying not to over-harvest and shoot ourselves in the foot down the line! We might be in a different position if heavy rains hadn’t wiped out last week’s arugula planting and stunted this week’s, or if deer hadn’t started clearing entire lettuce beds a month ago! Fortunately, future plantings look good and we are hopeful we will be able to provide some more reliable salad greens going forward. The good news for CSA members this week is that we have purchased sweet corn to help fill in the gap created by a lack of greens. We still have many other veggies as well of course, including carrots, tomatoes and the first of our delicata squash!

In the CSA this week:

• Delicata squash - These are a customer favorite. They were harvested last week, so some paler ones might not have had a chance to fully cure. You can leave pale squash in a sunny window for another week or two if you want to make sure it lives up to its full sweetness potential!

• Sweet Corn - From Verrill Farm in Concord, MA, not organic. A special treat this week! Just like last year at this time, we have found ourselves in an in-between week, with summer crops fading and fall crops maturing slowly. Last year the drought was the source of our late August and early September woes. This time it has been caused by deer, coyotes and a cool, wet season! The corn will be under the CSA tent and included among your options for filling your CSA bag. As always you will get to select what you’d like to put in your CSA bag so if you don’t want the corn you will have more room for other veggies!

• Radishes

• Beets or leeks - We are aiming to have beets the whole week, but if we don’t have enough then we will start harvesting leeks to fill out the CSA.

• Green and purple peppers

• Tomatoes

• Potatoes

• Scallions

• Uncured garlic

• Carrots

• Cucumbers

• Kale or lettuce or arugula

CSA Pick-Your-Own:

• Cherry tomatoes

• Hot peppers - Check out the Aji Rico peppers at the back of the bed - they have a slightly citrus-y flavor and they are plentiful!

• Shishito peppers (see recipe below!), tomatillos or husk cherries - Members will be able to select one of these to pick.

• Herbs - Sage, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, parsley, dill, dill flowers, cilantro and basil

In the farm store:

In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have green beans, eggplant, colored peppers, and possibly summer squash. If the stars align we might have some limited salad greens at the end of the week in the store (we won’t have CSA quantities until next week). We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, honey from Double B (from hives on the property, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and eggs from Pete and Jen’s.

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

The flower field is open to both Flower CSA members and the public this week for picking by the jar. The first of 4 varieties of sunflowers we seeded in the flower field are now blooming. Other varieties currently available for picking include zinnias, bachelor button, marigolds, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia, statice, ammi, rudbeckia, scabiosa, cosmos and amaranth. Please pick flowers above branching points. Picking hours are during any farm store hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We recommend bringing your own pruners or scissors as well as water for transporting your flowers home.

Blistered Shishito Peppers

Adapted from: Cookie and Kate

INGREDIENTS

• Shishito peppers

• Extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil

• Lemon wedge, optional

• Salt, preferably flaky sea salt or kosher salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Rinse and pat the peppers dry on a clean tea towel. Transfer the peppers to a medium bowl, drizzle in the oil, and toss until the peppers are evenly coated. Set aside.

2. Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat until it’s hot enough that a drop of water sizzles and evaporates quickly on contact. Add the peppers and let them cook, stirring every minute or so (not too often), until they are tender with charred spots, about 8 to 12 minutes.

3. Transfer the peppers to a serving plate. Spritz with a lemon wedge, if desired. Sprinkle with salt, to taste (don’t skimp). Serve with a little bowl on the side for the pepper stems.

French Grated Carrot Salad with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

By Jennifer Segal from Once Upon a Chef

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, peeled

• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, from one lemon

• 1½ tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1-2 teaspoons honey, to taste

• Heaping ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 finely sliced scallions (or 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots)

Instructions

1. Shred the carrots in a food processor. Set aside.

2. In a salad bowl, combine the dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey, vegetable oil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the carrots, fresh parsley and scallions (or shallots) and toss well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

3. Notes: Depending on the sweetness of the carrots, you may want to add more or less honey. Also, if you make this salad ahead of time, be sure to check the seasoning again before serving as the flavors tend to mellow.