Stone Soup
The Newsletter of Stearns Farm CSA
June 12, 2010 Volume 11, Number 2
In This Issue:
| NEW THIS WEEK: Garlic scapes, scallions, peas, parsley. COMING UP: Napa cabbage, summer squash, beets, carrots. |
From the Field: Bounty and Beauty/Trish Stefanko
Welcome back from Minnesota to Kathy, Brian and Diane!!!
Nothing but smiles yesterday for the first harvest and pick-up of the season. I watched as people headed for the strawberries, their faces revealing the joy of returning to this place of bounty and beauty. A few of you ventured into the culinary herb garden for snippets of this and that, chatting with delight for fresh herbs and a glance at the fields that are rich with crop now. It gave me pleasure to see you enjoying yourselves and to hear the many sounds of your return to the garden. We look forward to seeing all of you in the weeks to come and as always appreciate your support.
Crops love the mix of sun and rain, and so do the blessed weeds. We have been mulching peas, nightshades (peppers, tomatoes, eggplant), summer squash and cukes in an effort to minimize weeds and make harvesting, including pick-your-own, easier. Thanks to Mark Kelly, Susan, Casey and everyone who helped last Saturday. Other ongoing projects include green house seeding, transplanting into the field, and weeding. Our intention is to nurture these plants to a point where they will withstand insect and disease pressure and produce well. Earlier in the season a major effort to remove leaf miner damage has paid off as chard and beets have recovered and are doing well. Never underestimate the efforts of a small group of people who are all pulling in the same direction!!!
And you are part of that group. I have enjoyed working with sharers thus far and appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to do whatever is needed while working your hours. Please remember to record those hours on the clipboard in the office.
Latest wildlife sightings include snapping turtles scouting for suitable nesting sights in the parsley and garlic, toads in the irrigation wells, garter snake in strawberries, bluebirds, swallows, catbirds, orioles, waxwings, warblers, crows, turkey vultures and wild turkey, rodents in the green house, and of course our resident red tailed hawk Ruthie. I have also seen coyote tracks (yipppeee!!!) over many beds in the fields. Insects too: Colorado potato beetle over at the Parkland; thanks to Susan and ladybug beetles for keeping up with them. Cucumber beetles and leaf miner flies, both dispersed thanks to farm staff efforts. Various butterflies and caterpillars are showing up as part of the ecology at Stearns. We have a clipboard in the office for recording wildlife..feel free to add to it anytime.
Ongoing thanks to Brian Holland, Frann Bennet, Tom Yelton and Chet Pendleton for all that you do behind the scenes for Stearns.
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Behind the Scenes at the Farm: Weights and Measures/Nomi Sofer
At my very first farm pickup, four years ago, I was amazed by many things, but perhaps most impressive to me was the precise information on the chalk boards in the pickup tent. “Your Share Today: Half a pound of salad greens, two bunches of braising greens, four stalks of rhubarb, and a handful of garlic scapes.” Then there was the Pick Your Own board—sometimes it’s three quarts of strawberries, other times it’s a half pint of raspberries. Have you ever wondered: how do they figure it all out?
In a sense, the answer is simple—the harvesting crew weighs, measures, counts, and then divides the result by the number of sharers picking up on each day. And to a certain extent that is all there is to it. But there’s also this: how do you figure out how much the PYO allotment should be? How do you make sure there’s enough left for the sharer who arrives at 6:45? How do you make sure you have a reasonable amount of each vegetable at every pickup—“reasonable” here meaning a quantity that can be useful cooked, or eaten as part of a meal? And how do you make sure that staples like lettuce and carrots are available each and every week, or as close to that as is possible?
To figure out how much the pick-your-own share is, someone has to harvest a 10-foot stretch of a row; the quantity that is harvested is then multiplied by the number of feet currently producing, and divided by the number of sharers who pick up each day. Making sure that there’s enough of everything left even at 6:45 is trickier: the staff build in a cushion when deciding on the quantities for each share, but if everyone takes just one or two potatoes over their allotment, there may be none left for the sharer who works late and arrives at the farm at the very end of the pickup window. And that is frustrating for both the sharer and the staff member who bears the brunt of their disappointment.
Perhaps least visible is the master planning that goes into making sure that there is always lettuce on the stand, along with a wide variety of other vegetables, twice each week for twenty weeks. To make this happen, Kathy spends a great deal of time calculating and planning. She starts with the information that is recorded each harvest day: the total weight, or quantity, of each crop. At the end of the season Kathy can look over the information, compare it to past years, and decide how much of each crop to plant in the upcoming season, and when, and where. And how does Kathy keep track of all this? She had Brian build something expressly for this purpose—an Excel spreadsheet (he actually did have some help—a veteran farmer in Western Mass shared his spreadsheet with Kathy, and Brian has customized it over the years so it does exactly what Kathy needs it to do).
Altogether, it’s a carefully orchestrated balancing act. The planning is a framework within which humans put a lot of effort and mother nature does what she will. It all works amazingly well most of the time! Look for more insight into how those carrots get into your share each week in future installments of “Behind the Scenes at the Farm.”
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Upcoming Events
| June 15 | First pick-up: Tuesday Alternate 2 shares |
| June 18 | First pick-up: Friday Alternate 2 shares |
| June 19 | SWEET POTATO DAY: Planting sweet potato slips |
| July 15 | Date by which half your work hours must be completed or paid |
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Our Mission
To preserve the historic Stearns farm as a sustainable all-natural garden, providing locally grown food in partnership between the land, the farmer, and the community
- by using the CSA model
- by providing fair compensation, adequate working conditions, and support to the farmer
- by practicing good stewardship
- by donating excess food to the needy
- by encouraging the community to actively participate in the farming process
- by providing learning opportunities
- by fostering relationships between the CSA and the wider community and
- by providing a beautiful place that is nourishing to body and soul.
Contact Us
Stearns Farm CSA862 Edmands Road
Framingham, MA 01701
(508) 371-4310
| Name | Position | Contact Information | |
| Stearns Farm | Main phone | contact stearnsfarmcsa.org | 508-371-4310 |
| Trish Stefanko | Farm Manager | t8588hotmail.com | 508-887-5649 |
| Rachael Potts | Assistant Farm Manager | vintage.greens.farmgmail.com | |
| Cathy Briasco | Administration | stearnsfarmbriasco.org | 508-358-4167 |
| Sara Abramovitz | Volunteer Coord. | saralarryverizon.net | 978-443-9747 |
| Aliya Ewing | Children's Garden | aliya.ewinggmail.com | |
| Tom Yelton | Webmaster | webmasterstearnsfarmcsa.org | 978-443-5138 |
See Also Public/Staff and Public/Volunteers to contact a specific person.
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Recipes: Strawberries, Spinach and Scapes
This week the garlic scapes are ready, and parsley is added to the list of herbs we can pick. When I thought about the stand this week I tried to think of some new things to do with strawberries, as well as ways to use all of our delicious greens and lettuces.
Spotlight on Strawberries
The strawberries are ready! They are the first fruit to ripen for the farm season, and are also the only fruit with the seeds on the outside, with each berry averaging about 200 seeds. They are fragrant and delicious, a gorgeous color, beautifully heart-shaped, loaded with vitamin C and low in calories—you really can’t ask for more in a berry. They brighten dishes and are very versatile in the kitchen: used in desserts as well as salads, made into preserves, frozen for the winter, turned into smoothies, added to cocktails, baked into pies and tarts and churned into ice cream.
I admit that mine never get quite that far because eating them out of your hand is so good that it is really hard to save them for other things! I also like to enjoy them as close to picking time as possible. Don’t forget to refrigerate your berries as soon as possible after you pick them, and don’t wash them until just before you’re ready to eat them.Strawberry Balsamic Salad
I think the kids will really like this salad! The colors are gorgeous, especially if you use spinach.¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 small shallot, chopped
2 smallish cloves of garlic, peeled
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup olive oil
1 head lettuce, spinach or both, dried and torn
½ red onion, sliced thinly
¼ cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted
1 pint fresh strawberries sliced
½ cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)
To make the dressing place the balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, shallot, garlic, salt and pepper into a bowl, cruet or food processor. Blend all of the ingredients together. Slowly poor in the olive oil while blending until emulsified. Set aside while you make the salad.
Get out a nice salad bowl and add your lettuce, spinach or your mix of both to it. Top that with the red onion, almonds, strawberries and feta cheese and toss gently with the dressing. This dressing is also great on any number of other salads, so refrigerate and keep any leftover dressing.
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Wilted Greens with Pine Nuts, Raisins and Fried Bread
Adapted from More Cooking in Wine Country by Joanne WeirServes 6
I have added garlic scapes to this recipe both because we have them and because they provide a lovely mellow garlic flavor. This is a great dish for which Weir suggests spinach or swiss chard, but you certainly could use a combination of our braising greens. If you don’t like anchovies you can leave them out, but I urge you to try them—they will add a lot of flavor to this dish. You also could serve the greens over pasta and skip the step for making the fried bread cubes. Whatever works!
½ cup pine nuts
About 36 ounces of greens- spinach, swiss chard, kale, collards or a combo of all
1 tablespoon water
Salt and fresh ground pepper
½ cup raisins, or mix half golden and half dark raisins
1 cup boiling water
¼ pound stale coarse textured bread, crust removed, torn or cut into 1-inch pieces
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, whole
1 clove garlic, minced (optional if you are using the scapes)
4 anchovy fillets, soaked in cold water and patted dry (optional)
A very large handful of garlic scapes, chopped (optional)
Toast your pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Set aside to cool. Put the raisins in a heatproof bowl. Pour the boiling water over them and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Remove the stems from the greens. Wash all of your greens well and lightly pat dry. Heat a large pot or skillet over medium heat. Add the greens and the 1 tablespoon of water, season with salt and pepper and cover the pan. Cook, tossing occasionally until well wilted (about 3 minutes for spinach and 6 to 8 minutes for the other greens). Turn the greens into a bowl and set aside, saving your large pan for later.
Warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add your whole garlic cloves. You are flavoring the oil so when the whole cloves start to turn color remove them from the pan. Saute the bread pieces in the oil until golden and crisp and season with salt and pepper.
Heat your remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in your large skillet over low heat. Add your minced garlic now if using and saute for about a minute. Mash your anchovies and add those, stirring until they start to dissolve. Add your garlic scapes if you are using them and saute until they begin to soften. Add the pine nuts, drained raisins, wilted greens, salt and pepper to taste. Toss together and place on a platter, garnish with the fried bread and serve warm.
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Bok Choy Salad
Serves 4Adapted from MarthaStewart.com
I am looking forward to trying this salad- it is super easy and sounds delicious.
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (plain sesame oil would work too)
¾ 3 teaspoon sugar
5 cups sliced raw bok choy, any type
2 tablespoon chopped cashews
Whisk together the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar in a bowl. Toss in your raw sliced bok choy and toss. Top with the cashews and serve.
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The purpose of this recipe page is to share ideas for enjoying Stearns Farm produce. This year we are going to focus on combinations that use as much as possible of the current week’s ingredients. The arrival of each vegetable, fruit or herb adds to our options for fresh, truly seasonal meals. One of the pleasures of this kind of eating is the chance to flex our creativity and combine our discoveries to keep things interesting and have fun as we prepare and preserve the harvest.
What do you do with your Stearns Farm produce? Please share your recipes, vegetarian and vegan options, family favorites and seasonal menu ideas. Send recipes, questions, tips on storage and food preservation, and other suggestions to dsavastio
verizon.net. Thanks!back to top
Revision 3. Last edited Sat 12 Jun 2010 9:10am by NaomiSofer