Woo -the first pick up! We are super stoked about the strawberries right now! The start of CSA comes with a certain amount of trepidation and anxiety: there is the organizing the membership for the season (there’s a lot of you), making a massive excel sheet, with a tab for every pick up location, make sure all your information gets onboarded to Mailchimp so I can send out the reminders, etc, etc, it all lends to a certain stress level in the office because YOU KNOW I am going to get some people’s info wrong and when I do it really stresses out our staff and other hosts and hostesses when I make a mistake. We always get it figured out, so please bear with us 🙂 The planning Glenn and Reid put in to ensuring different and wonderful produce week in and week out, picking and packing the bags, loading up the trucks, lists upon lists – is a lot more complicated than what I do in the office! And, of course, there is the constant worry about the weather, which is 100% out of our control, yet we still worry. Last year’s freezes and then incessant rain was a struggle but so far the peach crop is there, so prayers up y’all for nice growing weather and nothing crazy unusual.
We love what we do! Not the stress and worry, but the growing and sharing of great fruits and vegetables with you. There is a pride in what we do… growing the perfect head of lettuce, picking the first peas in the state, harvesting early potatoes, and, of course, hearing positive feedback from our customers. 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.
Summary of the above: we are still merely humans 🙂
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. It is best to treat your CSA bag/box like a grab bag, be delightfully surprised when you unpack it and THEN mastermind your menu for the week. There will never be any bananas or avocados in the share, so pick up the exotics when you are at the store. Also, for you newbies, I will include some recipe thoughts and ideas that include some basic pantry items like EVOO, a good chicken or vegetable stock (I have every flavor of Better Than Boullion in my fridge), garlic, dijon or a yummy spicy brown mustard…there’s more, but this is what I got off the top of my head.
Every week I will let you know via the reminder email what you MAY have in your 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 on Thursday, but by the following Tuesday, they could be ready to go! And, with crops such as mustard, or cilantro, they HAVE TO be harvested when they are ready, they won’t keep in the field. Sometimes I end up finding out about these occurrences from you, LOL, and I write 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 should have strawberries, PEAS (mostly snap peas maybe purple or green snow peas), lettuce, garlic scapes, and spring radishes (French Breakfast or Cherrybelle)!
Use garlic scapes in anything you would like to add the fresh flavor of garlic to. The whole thing is edible, though you may find the end where we snapped it off the plant is a tough like the base of asparagus.
We grow a lot of lettuce: Believe it or not, we seed thousands of 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), Green or Red 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). Pictures of lettuce varieties here.
Pro tip: Wash your greens, mesclun, and lettuce when you bring it home, spin or shake dry and pack loosely with a paper towel in a plastic bag and store in fridge…if it is ready to go when you are, you will use it up every week and will not be wasted. The meclun and spinach comes to you in the perfect bag to preserve them perfectly in your fridge. In fact, I rinse out those bags and keep on hand for packing up my washed lettuces, chard and kale.
Peas! I believe you will have snap peas in your bag/box, snap peas are fully edible, pod and all. DO NOT SHELL the snap peas. If you are unsure, just eat one, the snap pea will chew up perfectly, an English shell pea will be a fibrous mess for you to spit out 😉 Once you have determined what you have, remove the calyx and string if you want, enjoy them raw, stir-fry, steamed… The purple peas (as with most purple vegetables) will turn green if cooked for more than 4 minutes. ALSO, cooking purple vegetables like peas, beans, cauliflower, will destroy some of the anthocyanins they are so rich in.
You don’t need ideas for strawberries right? If, for some reason, you are not going to get to your berries (really?) Just slice them, toss in zipper bag and freeze. It’s that simple. perfect more smoothies or ice cream later 🙂
Recipes
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”. We have many impressive CSA members who post amazing things on their blogs and social media. If anyone want to share, please include us @stillmansfarm on Insta or FB and I will pass along. I direct you to https://www.instagram.com/dalpiazkitchen/ and https://www.instagram.com/locallizardsvegankitchen/ for beautiful posts and do let me know if you have a page somewhere I can share!
Do you have your own food blog? Let me know so we can link you.
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”.
Most of my recipes are fairly basic, variations on a theme, etc. It is helpful if you have some basics in your pantry: EVOO, a good chicken or vegetable stock, garlic, dijon or a yummy spicy brown mustard, cider and balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, pepper, mayo, parm, shredded cheese (I keep mine in the freezer so it is always on hand and not spoiling), rice, milk (or whatever your milk substitute is).Nothing unusual here. We love stir-fry and Asian inspired flavors, so there is always soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin, oyster sauce, ginger, sesame oil, siracha…
Also if you do not have a salad spinner, nor the desire to whip your washed greens around in a dishtowel outside, get one 😉
The initial purpose of the weekly letter (25 years ago) was to include a recipe or idea for what’s in the box. Those recipes appeared on a half of an 8.5×11 🙂 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.
Kale and Garlic Scape Pesto
Here’s me whipping down a recipe that is from something I just throw together in the food processor with The Force 😉
- 1 bunch any type of kale
- 1 bunch garlic scapes
- handful of nuts (I use almonds for all my pestos)
- 1/4 cup+ parmesan (optional)
- 1/4 cup+ EVOO
- salt
Wash and trim heaviest part of kale stem off, roughly chop leaves, you do not need to remove the rib. Wash and trim off 1/2″ off bottom of scapes. Jam everything except the EVOO in your blender/food processor and process. Once everything is looking minced, slowly add EVOO while machine running if possible and process until looking like pesto. Season to taste. This is amazing on pasta, as a dip, whatever you would do with pesto.
Simple dressing for greens:
2 Tb vinegar (your choice), s & p, and 1 tsp Dijon whisked together or shaken in your cruet; then whisk in 6 Tb olive oil (or shake until well mixed). A clove of garlic or a few garlic scapes minces is always welcome. Alter to fit your mood. If you are new to our farm, you will realize that our greens have flavor and are interesting without heavy dressing. By all means, use your favorite dressing – I’ve got at least one Ranch loving grandchild and a couple who put a half gallon of Briana’s Caesar on everything, it’s all good!
Asian Inspired Lettuce Leaf Wraps
I eat a lot in lettuce wraps, including my egg salad 🙂
Lettuce Soup
Ya, I gave up meat and dairy for the month of May and the farmer came in with a boatload of lettuce – lettuce soup time! Faith, “What is this, the Depression?” Everyone agreed it was actually pretty good. Now, the last time I put a lettuce soup idea into a newsletter, maybe 12 years ago, a member made it and said they didn’t find it very interesting. She subbed out the stock with water, eliminated the salt without adding anything else to compensate…come on people, that’s asking a lot of pureed lettuce in water. Having said that, this is very flexible and many of the items are optional. – just as long as you add things that will boost flavor. The potatoes are optional, but do add a nice creaminess without the cream. You could totally substitute cauliflower if you were looking for something else with more substance.
- Head of lettuce washed and roughly chopped (preferably Boston, Romain or Summer Crisp)
- 2 garlic cloves or several garlic scapes, chopped
- small onion
- 3 Tb EVOO (normally I would use butter)
- 3+ cups good stock (normally I would used homemade chicken, but I used my Better than Boullion roasted garlic flavor)
- 1-2 medium potato, peeled and diced (1+ cup)
- herbs on hand like parsley, oregano, thyme, tarragon, chervil, small dose of lovage as you like… fresh is better but not necessary
- splash or squeeze of lemon juice
- S & P as needed (if you have lemon pepper on your shelf, this is a good time for it)
- A splash of heavy cream is delightful 😉
Saute onion and garlic in EVOO or whatever fat you are using. Add diced potato after a few minutes and cook 5 minutes more, stirring to keep from sticking and to get more browning. Add herbs and stir for another minute. Add stock and lettuce, cover pot, bring to boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the potato is very tender. I puree all my soups with an immersion blender, in the pot (careful ;)), otherwise, puree in blender. I am just lazy about dishes, so any time I can eliminate a vessel, I am a happy girl 🙂
Taste time! Adjust seasoning, you probably need more salt depending on the stock you used. Stir in a little lemon juice to brighten the flavor. Add cream for a richer experience. Enjoy at any temperature!
Boston LettuceRomaineBoston/Bibb lettuce could not find the pretty pic I took so this is a generic idea of what you will have 🙂
Farm Dirt
Long time members and the disinterested, feel free to skip ahead 🙂
Farm Dirt is you can read a little bit about what is going on at the farm or with the farm family. This is also where wildlife sightings and other musings appear. If you are new to the Stillman’s family: Glenn and I are your farmers, while he is the expert grower, I am in charge of the finances, the desk work, inventory, and other behind the scenes stuff. Many of you know Glenn’s daughter Kate, the farmer at Stillman Quality Meats, and her two boys Trace and Jaide who can be seen working on the farm or any number of markets; son Curtis and wife Halley, the farmers at Still Life Farm and their son Kipling; youngest son Reid and his wife Kirsten who work on the farm and owners of Forgotten Harvest, making kale and apple chips, kraut and kimchi; and youngest daughter Faith, back from her first year at Regent University for pre-med and music.
We all work together to have the best CSAs and market offerings in Massachusetts!
Garlic scapes, those freaky curled green things in your bag, must be removed as part of good garlic growing protocol. We need to prevent the garlic from blooming so the energy goes into growing the bulb. The strawberry crop is delicious and AMAZING so far…but the season can end quickly. Our goal is to get you at least one box, and if we can swing a second, we will!
Wildlife: It’s about the birds and the bears, and the bees too! As always, Glenn is excited and protective about all the barn-swallows in the barn and carriage shed. He grew up with them at his father’s dairy and loves their flying skill and striking appearance. There are Bluebirds everywhere. There is hardly a place on the farm where you won’t hear their cheerful chortling and, yes, we have boxes all over the farm for them (and the Tree Swallows, who also like a Bluebird box). Unlike the Cedar Waxwings which have forced us to cover our strawberry beds with remay, thus potentially overheating the berries, much to our chagrin. in the summer Bluebirds are mainly insectivores; they switch to fruit in the Fall and love the Winterberry. Also in the yard, we have Baltimore Orioles, 5 pair Red Breasted Grossbeaks this season, Blackpole Warblers, Yellowthroats, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Robins, and other sweet Finches and sparrows nesting and feeding, just to name a few 🙂 A pair of Pine Siskins has joined the visitors of my office feeder, and it sounds like the Chestnut Sided Warblers are nesting in the back yard, though I haven’t spotted them. The farm is also home to 2 nesting pairs of Red Tail Hawks, numerous Barred and Great Horned Owls. If you are a birder, be sure to bring your binos when you visit the farm. There is always something good to see. The bears have been low key this far, but the season is early and the corn isn’t ready, lol. We give them their space and also electrify all the bee hives. The deer are already busy stopping on the newly laid plastic and nibbling overwintered things…which is coming to an end this week.
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, peas, chard or kale, beets? radishes?
