We hope everyone enjoyed their shares last week. While we didn't have enough cucumbers to go around for regular shares, folks who didn't get them got some tasty broccoli florets. As more crops start coming in, you will likely start seeing less greens in your boxes. 

 While we understand that for new CSA members all the greens might be overwhelming, we also know many folks would like more of them. If you're one of those people who wants more kale, and you're a CSA member, you are welcome to u pick for free. Just contact us and let us know if you'd like to come pick! If you're not a CSA member but would like some kale, please contact us at [email protected] for pricing.  Also same with the snow peas; we will likely stop picking them after this week.  Both crops can be blanched and frozen for later use. You could always work this into your trip to pick some blueberries from Grindstone Farm too.

For those who are new to CSA's and our's in particular; please keep in mind that we are new to this too! While we've managed someone else's farm and CSA, doing it on our own is a completely different experience; one we wouldn't trade for the world! With our first CSA season nearly 1/2 way under our belts, there are many lessons we've learned. And we hope you've learned something new as well, about seasonality of our local food shed, and the many wonderful uses of fresh greens, and garlic scapes, and enjoyed an abundance of salads with your families. While all farmers in our region got off to a slow start after the long drawn out winter, I think we can all agree so far that we couldn't ask for a better summer. (A wee bit less rain would suit us fine though) And we couldn't ask for a better customer base. 

Last week's muggy heat and rains have really spurred the tomatoes to start ripening, and the cucumbers to bulk up. More and more summer squash coming on and the patty pans are starting to finally fruit too. Adonia and Travis picked some early tomatillas and hot peppers this morning, but the rain has impeded our plans to pick tomatoes and beans, which both tend to get soft and rot quicker if picked wet.  The lunch box peppers (small sweet peppers) are fruiting, awaiting some more sun and heat to ripen up to their orange, red and yellow hues. The pickling cucumbers are starting to come on, and soon we anticipate being able to get enough to members to do one batch of fridge pickles at a time, or offer them in bulk to members. 

We harvested all of our garlic last Friday as well (with a hand from one of our workshare members). While we only planted one bed as time, money, and weather permitted in late October of last year; it all looks great, with big bulbs and great flavor. We are not sure the variety though, so don't bother asking.  It is now drying in the greenhouse, waiting to be cleaned and bundled. 

This week's harvest will include:
lettuce
kale
collards
broccoli
cucumbers
summer squash
cherry tomatoes
green tomatoes
mixed herbs (basil, sage, oregano, lemon balm, or thyme)
green and purple string beans.
All shares will get some garlic as well!

Zoodles or Squoodles
I've heard a lot of rave about using summer squash instead of pasta for paleo, gluten free, seasonal dishes. Someone brought a raw dish with this in mind to our open house potluck last week. While there's lots of tools out there, julienne peeler, spiralizers, etc; here's a link to a simple method of making them. You can blanch them and freeze them for a treat later when the snow flies too! In baked dishes, soups and desserts (chocolate zucchini muffins anyone? http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Chocolate-Chunk-Zucchini-Muffins-478649 ) the possibilities are as endless as pasta!
 http://nomnompaleo.com/post/5695132949/zucchini-spaghetti-zoodles-meatballs

 I'm sure you could use a good old fashioned peeler as well, might just take a bit longer. I shred mine and freeze for soups and baked goods in the winter months. Try mixing the zoodles, or summer squoodles with some oil and vinegar with some of your other fresh veggies from this week's share for a pasta-free pasta salad for your next picnic!

tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to
For those members anxiously awaiting those wonderful juicy ripe slicing tomatoes, here are some ideas for how to use your green ones until ripe ones make it your way:

the ever popular fried green tomato: http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Fried-green-tomatoes-305007

salsa verde:http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Salsa-Verde-with-Green-Tomatoes_-Avocadoes_-and-Cilantro-571672

green tomato gratin:http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Green-Tomato-Gratin-480783

Green tomatoes have a tangy taste and can be used in many many ways. Use instead of eggplant for an eggplant parm style meal, chop and add to a frittata, pickle them in brine or vinegar. Just as ripe tomatoes have a wide range of flavor and uses, so do the green ones! And the sweet cherries, well, you're lucky if you get some before your kids eat them all!

Please share your favorite recipes with other CSA members via the comments section or on our facebook page! 
Also, we are starting to pick some pickling cucumbers, and with the tomatoes coming on, we'd like to try and do a canning workshop or two. If anyone has commercial kitchen space (or home kitchen space to accommodate a dozen or so people) available to host such an event, please contact us. If we can figure out a place and time, we will schedule a canning workshop for members. Or cooking in general. I know many folks just "don't know" what to do with many of their veggies and throw them in the vita mix. While that is a great way to get the most out of your veggies; texture, distinct flavors, cooking styles and processes are an art/ science, and I think we can all learn a great deal from one another. I learn new ways to prepare old veggies at nearly every farmer's market from my customers.

Open house was a lot of fun this weekend; thanks to all who came. We really enjoyed showing everyone around the farm, and sharing great food made from our crops. I know Gavriel couldn't wait for some kids to show up to show the around, and how to pull carrots. We hope everyone had a good time, and enjoyed being able to pick crops to bring home, meet Grindstone's pigs and turkeys and take a dip in the pond. . While it won't include swimming, we will be hosting a similar event in October. It is always such a pleasure to meet our CSA members and get feedback from you and to put faces to the names!  

 I didn't bring my camera out for the tours, but my friend Denessa Statler from The Dreaming Crow did! All the open house picture this week are from her. Loads of thanks to her and her family for helping out, along with my parents, Joan and Dan Wells, and the whole crew at Grindstone for the barn tidy up, and letting us host the potluck at the pond. 

One couple found an almost ripe acorn squash on their u pick trek through the fields. It's a bit early yet, but it's a good sign that they are doing better than we realized. I'll be touching base with them at the Regional Market on Saturday to find out how it tasted. We pulled quite a few handfuls of carrots (which helped to thin them to give the others more room to grow) the first picking of string beans as well as a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes. While we are still a week out on having enough cherry tomatoes or cucumbers to put in shares, you will be getting purple or green string beans  this week. 

 If you missed our open house, Grindstone Farm is holding their's from 2-8 Saturday the 26th of July. You will still be able to tour the farm, u pick blueberries ($3/lb) a potluck dinner, swimming and live music. Go to their website: www.grindstonefarm.com for details.  The blueberries are just starting to come on nicely and we expect to start getting them in CSA shares in the next week or two.  If you'd prefer to order by the flat, you can always place an order with Grindstone Farm to be delivered with your share, along with many of the other great products  they carry, from organic fruits, to pastured meats, as well as Wholeshare orders. 

In my rush to get things ready for our Open House Saturday night, I  stepped off the truck wrong and rolled my knee pretty bad. I have not been as useful in the fields as I'd like to be. That being said, Workshare Folks,  this would be a great time  to come fulfill some hours, it would give Travis the extra bit of help he needs while my knee gets back to normal and get some of your hours out of the way. Please contact us ASAP if you have time to come in this week (not Thursdays)

Some field notes for what you can look forward to. The tomatoes while not quite ripening up yet are heavy with fruit. Hopefully with this week's forecast of sun and high 80's they should be ripening up in abundance and be in shares next week, along with carrots and cucumbers.  Lettuces want to bolt (or flower) in the high temps so we are picking a lot this week along with some baby bagged lettuces for shares. As  I stated previously the winter squash is doing very well with softball sized pie pumpkins already and full sized acorn squash! The leeks are loving their deep raised beds and the brussels sprouts are starting to put out their little bulbs of sweetness. We have quite a few hot peppers starting already, mostly the early jalapenos, and some bell peppers starting to fruit as well. Some of the melons have baseball sized fruit on them We haven't successfully grown melons here in many years, but it looks like we may have a nice crop this season. When Joseph's are ready, we'll try to get some to you as well.  The green and purple string beans are coming on great in all 4 plantings we have. We may be opening these up for u-pick in the coming weeks after we've picked for shares, so keep an eye out for a note on them if you'd like some for canning for freezing.  

This week we will be harvesting the following:
Basil
kale
lettuce
mixed salad greens
string beans (purple or green)
snow peas
summer squash
swiss chard
and we will be getting some Garlic Scapes from Grindstone, and possibly cucumbers from Joseph Gingerich.

In addition to your veggies this week, our friends at Cranberry Ridge Farm in Williamstown have offered samples of their fine goats milk soap to put in shares this week. Using all natural ingredients including their pastured goats milk, essential oils and natural colorings for their soaps, we hope you enjoy it! In addition to the soap they also make artisan goats milk cheeses, and fine whole grain breads. Many of their breads and cheeses are available from Grindstone. If you like the soap and would like more, you can place an order with Matt or Rhonda to be delivered with your share. 

This week's recipe uses the beans. While the purple beans are pretty exciting to most folks, they do lose their color when steamed. They hold some of their pigment when sauteed though. 




String beans with garlic

From www.foodnetwork.com
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds  string beans, both ends removed
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon good olive oil
2 to 3 garlic cloves, sliced (you can substitute the scapes for cloves in this recipe)
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Blanch the string beans in a large pot of boiling salted water for just 1 1/2 minutes. Drain immediately and immerse in a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When they are cool, drain and set aside.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a very large saute pan over medium heat and cook the garlic for 1 to 2 minutes, tossing occasionally, until lightly browned. Add the string beans, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss together. Reheat the string beans and serve.

In conclusion I'd like to share just a few fun pictures of the relaxing part of family life on the farm. 

I apologize in advance, as this week will include none of my photos... I've been way too busy to take many pictures the past week. However, Gavriel took my camera for a stroll through the field Monday, and asked me to share some of her photos. So all of this week's pictures have been taken by our 9 year old daughter. 

We hope everyone enjoyed their shares last week and found creative uses for many of the greens. Last week was the last week you'll see onions/ scallions in shares for a while. We will have more scallions in a few weeks and onions we will begin to harvest later in August. We have started wild harvesting black raspberries and blackberries are starting to ripen up as well. Since this is a crop that doesn't store well, we can't guarantee, but would like to try and get everyone a 1/2 pint at least once from now until they're done for the season. 

While on the subject of berries, Grindstone Farm has begun to pick the first of their blueberries. We will get everyone blueberries from Grindstone at least once once they become available wholesale from them. If you'd like to order more for freezing or canning, please contact them. They should be available in bulk and for special orders in the next two weeks. Also as crops like pickling cucumbers and tomatoes start really coming in, we will offer bulk 1/2 bushels to CSA members first, as well as u-pick,  so keep your eye out in the blog if these canning crops interest you! We have San Marzano paste tomatoes and gilbert (orange) pastes loaded, just waiting for some sun to start ripening them!


Update from the fields:  Last week's rain we feared had washed away our most recent planting of carrots, but they are popping up all straight in their rows! We hope everyone fared the storms last week unscathed. I know we lost power Tuesday night and I drove through insane rains on my way to the Rome Farmer's Market Wednesday. Something seems to have munched on our purple string beans, as the babies I thought we'd be harvesting were gone! But fear not as another planting is fruiting and looking great with lots of beans and no sign of pests. We've been picking progressively more cherry tomatoes and there should be enough to give to share members NEXT week, and the suyo long cucumbers are getting big and will be ready for harvest next week too. Winter squash is doing beautifully and starting to fruit, and the leeks are really starting to take off in their deep beds. 

This week's harvest includes:


Mizuna/ mustard greens
swiss chard
lettuce
dino or red russian kale
peas
summer squash (green or yellow zucchini, or yellow crookneck)
tat soi
basil
dandelion greens



We hope to see many of you at the open house this coming Sunday. If you can't make it and would like to schedule a tour another time, please let us know.  Keep in mind we have another event scheduled in October too, so if you miss the festivities this weekend there will be more to  come!

This week's recipe uses both the summer squash and basil. Summer squash is all interchangeable, so try using yellow squash in breads to add vibrant color, or patty pans in ratatouille. We are growing 4 varieties of summer squash this season; zucchini, green and gold, yellow crookneck summer squash and green patty pans. (The patty pans take a bit longer than the others to start coming on, but once they do, they are very productive plants.)


Lemon Basil Roasted Summer Squash with Garlic Crisp
from www.yummly.com
Serves 4

• 4 mediumzucchini and/or yellow squash
• 2tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 largegarlic cloves
• 3/4cups bread crumbs
• Olive Oil
• 5large leaves of fresh Basil finely sliced

1. Cut the squashes in bite size cubes and dressed with at least 1 tbsp of Olive Oil (according to your taste), salt, black pepper and the lemon juice. Quickly roast it at 360 for 15min. Remove and reserve. In a small fry pan heat 2 tbsp of olive oil, add the 3 clove of garlic chopped and 1 to 2 tsp of salt. When garlic starts to brown, turn heat down and add the bread crumbs. Mix to obtain small clusters. Remove from the heat once the clusters are browned. Add more olive oil if not moist enough. Top the roasted squash with the garlic crisp and the sliced basil. Enjoy it!

The following picture are again all taken by our 9 year old daughter, Gavriel. I went through the camera to see if there was anything I could use on the blog and found it hard to choose which ones to use! She took all these photos with my Canon DSLR and wanted to share her view of the farm and was excited that I would be putting them on our website. And I am excited to share! So here's a bit of our farm through the eyes of a child.

We're at week Six of CSA already! Where has the time gone?
We hope everyone isn't burned out on Kale yet. I know some people can't get enough, and some feel 1 bunch every other week is more than enough... Last week, we gave a few extras to members being a holiday week and having many kale plants that needed to be picked to get them going. Also the lettuce wants to bolt in the heat we've been having, so we harvested extra for members as well. We promise there will be less greens and more of other things in the coming weeks as more crops start coming in. 
 By next week you should start seeing summer squashes in shares, and possibly purple string beans. I picked a few cherry tomatoes yesterday from the fields too. In 2-3 weeks, you can expect more beets, some cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and even carrots. Also Grindstone Farm has started harvesting their blueberries from under the cover of their high tunnels, so field blues are about 2 weeks from now! The carrots pictured below are about the width of a pen and longer than one... We will thin some baby ones soon (about three weeks) to make room for the others to get bigger! As you can see from the photo there are purple, yellow and orange carrots to look forward to.

This week's harvest will include the following:
Collards (to give you a break from the kales and because they're finally looking great after the woodchuck assault)
lettuce
snow peas
mustard greens (green, red, or mizuna)
turnips greens
hakurei turnips (tender sweet salad turnips)
bunching onions
radishes (a mix of multi colored easter egg and french breakfast varieties)
Italian Dandelion Greens
basil 
kale
swiss chard
and the start of summer squashes

There is much weeding that needs to gotten to, and with the frequent rains it's been difficult to get to much of it. Travis has spent many a late night till the sun goes down tackling this task. We also have to finish trellising our tomatoes and cucumbers. Any workshare members, or folks who would just plain like to vounteer are encouraged to come help with some of these tasks this week. Friday is looking like the best day weather wise at this point.  Please contact us if you are available to come lend a hand!

We have gotten many of our fall harvest crops in the ground as well, leeks, more carrots and beets, and the rutabagas are already getting huge. Cauliflower, romanesco broccoli and other broccoli, escarole, and more lettuce.   Later plantings of spinach we hope will get you some spinach in shares later in the season, as right now it's just way too hot for it! Turnip greens that we'll be harvesting this week will give many of the purple top turnips room to grow and get bigger!

We have scheduled our Open House for Sunday July 20th. Everyone is welcome to attend, come tour the farm and partake in a potluck dinner. From 1-3p.m. we will be giving walking tours of the farm, including free u-pick crops for all in attendance. For families we will offer a kid oriented farm tour too. Tours start on the hour at 1, 2 and 3. Meet up at the main barn at Grindstone Farm, 780 Co Rt 28.  Also Grindstone Farm's blueberry patch will be open for CSA exclusive U-pick. (There will be a charge for this u-pick crop.) At 4p.m. join us for a potluck supper. Bring your own place setting, and a dish to pass. Grills will be available for use as well. Please include a list of ingredients for diet restricted folks. The pond will be available for swimming, so bring your swim wear, towels and floatees for the kids! (Sorry, the "grinder will be off limits for this event) After supper, folks are invited to stay and "jam" together with any musical instruments they'd like to bring or share. Electricity will not be available. I tried to get a band to come play, but I guess not many folks are willing to sing for their supper. 

Hope to see many old and new faces at the open house this year. It is a great time to come meet fellow members, and your farmers; show your kids where their food comes from and see for yourself. So invite a friend, bring the family and spread the word!

This week's recipe uses collards and the bunching onions. Just substitute the whole onion with the baby bunching onions!
Vegans and vegetarians can sub the bacon with some extra butter or olive oil and the chicken stock with vegetable broth.
 Collards are a great source of magnesium, calcium and vitamin K; all of which are better absorbed and utilized by the body with some good fatty acids (hence the traditional use of bacon grease.)

• 3-ounce slab of bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• Splash red wine vinegar
• 1 pound collard greens, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces
• 1 3/4 cups homemade or low sodium canned chicken stock

DIRECTIONS

1. STEP 1 In a large straight-sided skillet, combine the bacon, onion, and oil over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent and bacon renders some of its fat, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the vinegar, and cook until it evaporates, about 30 seconds.
   
   
2. STEP 2 Add the collard greens and chicken stock. Bring liquid to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cover, and cook 15 minutes.

Please feel free to share your favorite recipes through the season with other members in the comment sections here or on our facebook page!

Just a couple shots to end with to give a taste of what to look forward to!