CSA Week 1, 2018!!!

The first pickup is so exciting! Actually, it is somewhat filled with angst here at the farm: there is the organizing the membership for the season (over 650 of you), making a massive excel sheet to keep track of who is picking up where, separate sheets for each location, etc, etc, all of which creates a certain stress level in the office. BUT, to be honest, the planning Glenn, your farmer, puts in to having wonderful produce week in and week out, getting it picked and packed and on the right truck – it’s a lot! And, of course, there is the constant worry about the weather, which is 100% out of our control, yet we worry none-the-less.

You are probably wondering why we even do this. Well, we love it! Not the stress and worry, but the growing and sharing of great fruits and vegetables with you and also the challenge of growing the perfect head of lettuce, harvesting early potatoes, hearing from you how amazing the such and such was… I think it is important to try to understand some of the things that go on behind the scenes so you might be more empathetic when something doesn’t go quite as planned or when we cannot accommodate a special request.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way…

It is so hard to know from week to week what will be in the box. For planning purposes, it is best to treat your CSA bag/box like a grab bag and be delightfully surprised when you unpack it and THEN mastermind your your menu for the week. There will never be any bananas or avocados, so you will never be overwhelmed with them 😉

The first few weeks are generally fairly light in weight and offerings, but you will find everything so new in the season that you will delight in the freshness of the greens and that they actually have flavor. Every week I will try to let you know what you MAY have in your box/bag, but there are no guarantees. Too many times I find the harvest has split the week which means whatever I have written about might not be relevant. For example, the mustard greens may not have been ready when I wrote the letter, but a little hot weather and suddenly there are bunches going into the CSA! Sometimes I don’t even hear about this until after the fact, so I end up writing about it the following week. To remedy this a little, we have a beautiful online reference with pictures and recipes; if you get something you do not recognize, feel free to reach out right away, email or any social media is perfect, and/or you can check out this page.

This week you MAY have strawberries, lettuce, kale, arugula (may be bunched with roots or bagged loose leaf), swiss chard (red, yellow, white or multi) beets (Red Ace, Forono, Chiogga, Golden) and possibly summer radishes.

• Farm update 6/18: Looks like the beets are not sized up, a I thought they would be, so a perfect example of splitting the week! I think the folks picking up later in the week may get beets. No worries though, you’ll see plenty of beets this summer! A surprise to me today, looks like you are all getting garlic scapes and cousa summer squash!!!

We grow a lot of lettuce: Believe it or not, we seed about 5000 lettuce plants every week to ensure a summer long supply for CSA and markets. Over the course of the season, you may see Boston (aka Butterhead), Romaine (classic smooth oval leaves with crunchy rib), Red Romaine (dark burgundy), New Red Fire (very frilly red leaf), Oakleaf, French Batavia (a wonderful red tinged summer-crisp), Simpson (light green, very tender wavy leaf) and a frilly green leaf called Tropicana. In general, you can count on lettuce most every week, though even with that, there’s bound to be a week or two when there is a gap (back to that unpredictable weather thingy).

Disclaimer: I cook with The Force. Many of my personal “recipes” are ideas to run with, not carefully measured out. I will endeavor to persevere and try to actually write down what I did for those who are less confident with “whipping something up”. Hey all you foodies out there, please send me your recipes to share!
There are lots of recipes and ideas right here on this blog; you can do a search by name; ie: cucumber, beet, salad, etc.,.by clicking on the magnifying glass in the top menu or in the blog “archives”.
Do you have your own food blog? Let me know so we can link you.

The initial purpose of the weekly letter (20 years ago) was to include a recipe or idea for what’s in the box. Clearly this concept has expanded to include more, BUT, the purpose of the recipe section remains: EAT WELL BY USING WHAT’S IN THE BOX! My goal is to keep it simple so you do just that.

This week’s lovely new beets are perfect boiled and served with their own greens.

Spring Beets with their Greens
Prepare tops by removing them from the beet root, at this point, while they are still in my clutches, I dunk the tops in a water bath to clean. Shake the excess water, trim off any stems you find excessive, and set aside*. Prepare beet root (trim what needs to be trimmed, scrub, no need to peel), cut in half or quarters. In a suitable size pot, barely cover beet roots with water, add salt if desired, cover and simmer until fork tender 10-20 minutes. When tender, add greens and cover, steaming greens 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and season with butter and vinegar.

*You can chop your greens or leave them whole, either way is perfect.
*NOTE:Beets need longer cooking later in the season.

Enchiladas with Beet Greens and Goat Cheese
Beet and Beet Greens Gratin
Swiss chard fritter

Faith and Glenn Stillman…Who is YOUR farmer?

Farm Dirt is the section I try to include a little bit about what is going on at the farm. This is also where wildlife sightings and other musings appear. If you are new to the Stillman’s family: Glenn is your farmer, I am the desk jockey/writer of this letter/farmer’s wife, daughter Kate, the farmer at Stillman Quality Meats, son Curtis and wife Halley, the farmers at Still Life Farm, youngest son Reid who attends Framigham State, and youngest daughter Faith who you will see in many pictures involving amphibians. We all work together to have one of the best CSA and market offerings in Massachusetts!       

We are getting ready to cut garlic scapes, so you may see those in your box next week or the week after. In spite of an extremely cold wet spring (yes, now it’s dry), the corn is in tassel and onions, peppers, eggplants and looking strong right now. The tomatoes have been uncovered from their protective fabric and have been liking this warmth. The strawberry crop is, for us, going to be a short crop. This year’s crop is disappointing due to our own error of too heavily mulching. It’s not our thing, but in order to make sure everyone gets at least one round of berries, we are supplementing with berries from a friend’s farm. We will still have them at markets, but in very limited quantities. As eternal optimists, next year’s strawberries have already been planted! If you were not aware, strawberries are perennials that bear the following year.

Wildlife: It’s about the birds! Glenn is super excited about the 4 pairs of barn-swallows in the barn. He grew up with them at his father’s dairy and loves their flying skill and striking appearance. The first Bluebird nestlings have fledged and the second nesting us underway. Evidence of the expanding families is found in the pepper field where the Bluebirds perch on the name-stakes while hunting. Unlike the gorgeous Cedar Waxwings which seem to know where to plague the choicest fruit, in the summer Bluebirds are mainly insectivores. In the Fall, they eat a lot of fruit and I am sure many of you have seen the pictures I post of them eating the Ilex Winterberry right outside the kitchen door.

We encourage you to become part of the farm and be connected to your food and farmer; visit, check out the crops, sample in the field, picnic, watch the birds, amphibians, and insects!    

Eat well, Geneviève Stillman
Next week: strawberries, lettuces, radishes chard, kale, maybe garlic scapes…