The Week's Offerings

Spring CSA Bag 4

Spring CSA Bag 4.

This week’s bag should include the following: Winter Squash or Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Purple Curly Kale, Cipollini Onion, Winter Radish, Apples, potatoes, Swiss Chard, Spinach and a special surprise – sauerkraut! The kraut is courtesy of Reid and Kirsten, made from our cabbage, of course. It is raw, full of probiotics and will keep in the fridge for a very long time.

Correct storage of the items in your CSA share is the key to successfully eating seasonally.  Here is a Storage Cheat Sheet that I hand out with Winter CSA that also applies to Spring CSA.  Check it out if you need storage tips.

This weekly letter will be coming to your inbox the day before your pickup and is also available at stillmansfarm.com/blog and stilllifefarm.wordpress.com.  

If you cannot recycle or reuse them, we are accepting returned CSA bags.  Please be sure that returned bags are clean and in good condition.

We will see you in TWO WEEKS for your next bounty of Spring bag. The schedule is also on our website calendar.

Saturdays:

 April 15, April 29, May 13, May 27
Jamaica Plain, 12-3pm

Sundays:

March 5, March 19, April 2, April 16, April 30, May 14, May 28
Lunenburg, 12-1pm

Thursdays:

March 9, March 23, April 6, April 20, May 4, May 18, June 1
Boston (Boston Public Market) 12-6pm
Brookline (Beals Street) 1-6pm
Watertown (City Hall) 12:30-1pm
Natick (Princeton Rd) 1:30-6pm
Worcester (Deadhorse Hill Restaurant) 5-9pm
Hardwick (Still Life Farm) 4-6pm
New Braintree (Stillman’s Farm) 12-6pm

Recipes

Roots salad

Winter Radishes.

What to do with all those roots?

When we talk about “winter” radish, we are talking about the storage radishes – watermelon radish, purple daikon, green daikon, red daikon, white daikon, black radish…you get the point.  The big roots that can be stored a long time and give us that crunch and pepperiness that we crave in the middle of winter…and into the early spring.

So, what can you do with them? Roast, pickle, soup, slaw, charcuterie, vegetable sticks, the list goes on and on.

Watermelon Radish and Purple Daikon Salad
*Obviously you could sup any combination of winter radishes for the recipe.
  • 1 medium orange , zest and juice
  • ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon or Creole mustard
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
  • ½ pound watermelon and purple radishes , cut into 1/16 – inch slices
  • ¼ cup feta cheese , crumbled
  • ¼ cup toasted walnuts , chopped
  • 2 tablespoons shallots , minced
  • 2 tablespoons pomegranate arils
  • 1 tablespoon fresh herbs (chives, parsley, or thyme), finely chopped
Instructions
  • Place the first 6 ingredients in a mason jar. Cover tightly with lid and shake vigorously until well combined.
  • Season to taste with salt and pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg.
  • Vinaigrette will last up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes before using.
  • Place radish slices in a large bowl and pour in enough vinaigrette to coat without soaking. Gently toss. Let marinate 10-15 minutes. Set aside. Reserve remaining dressing for when serving or another use.
  • Meanwhile, toast the walnuts if they’re not already, and prep the remaining ingredients.
  • After radishes marinate, arrange them on a platter. Sprinkle the feta, walnuts, shallots, pomegranate arils, and fresh herbs over the radish slices.
  • Garnish with extra parsley, if desired. Serve with extra vinaigrette on the side. Enjoy!
Honey Butter Roasted Carrots and Radishes
Ingredients
  • 1 lb carrots, peeled & cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 lb radishes, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme
  • 1/4 tsp coarse salt
  • pinch ground pepper
  • 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
  • 3 tbsp crumbled goat cheese
Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Prep the vegetables – peel and slice the carrots into 1 inch pieces and trim the greens off the radishes, then cut them in half. Put all the vegetables on the parchment paper lined baking sheet.

  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat and once melted, stir in the honey, thyme, salt and pepper until combined (about 15-30 seconds).

  4. Pour the honey-butter mixture onto the vegetables on the baking sheet and stir to get all of the vegetables coated.

  5. Roast the vegetables in the oven for 15 minutes, remove and toss, then cook 15 more minutes.

  6. Remove from the oven and toss the vegetables a bit more on the pan to pickup the honey butter mixture. Then, remove the vegetables to a serving dish and pour over any of the leftover honey-butter mixture from the pan.

  7. Top the vegetables with the walnuts and goat cheese and serve immediately.

Genevieve’s go to Slaw Dressing
Simple, simple, simple: To 1/3 cup cider vinegar add 1/2 tsp kosher salt (sea salt would be good too), a bunch of black pepper, a fat TB of Dijon or spicy brown mustard, 1/2 tsp celery seed (if you like); slowly whisk in 1/2 cup oil (something light, I use canola or safflower), Toss over anything shredded: kohlrabi, radish, cabbage, carrot, apple…

Farm Dirt

Field Prep - Kip watching Grandpa prep a field at Stillman's Farm.
Saving the old barn at Still Life Farm.

Farm Dirt:

Judging by the weather it looks like spring may have finally decided to show up!

Stillman’s Farm. Planting is in full swing at Stillman’s farm.  Tons of cold hardy plants have gone from the protection of the greenhouse out into the fields.  And just in time for the weather to take a turn for the better!  The second round to guys has returned from Jamaica, and now our H2A farm crew has grown to six. Right around now you can really feel the farm starting to come alive – to transition from winter to spring.  Speaking of spring – babies are in the air (and clearly something is in the water).  Eight Belted Galloway calves have been born.  Nine Savannah/Bengal kittens are terrorizing the house.  AND Josie and Leo the Border Collies unexpectedly have seven brand new pups! This is second and last litter, if you were thinking about holding out for next year 😉

So, yeah, springtime…

Still Life Farm: Curt and Halley have been keeping up with greenhouse seeding, but at a slightly less frantic rate than Stillman’s Farm.  Many of our vegetable crops are late summer and fall crops, and that gives us a tiny bit more wiggle room with greenhouse seeding this time of year.  We did transplant about 5,700 cherry tomato and heirloom tomato seedlings.  Much of our attention has been on the pruning, cleaning, and mulching of our small fruits and those are looking well this spring.  In the last week or so we have transitioned our high tunnels from winter to spring crops, transplanting out fennel, kohlrabi, napa cabbage, mesclun greens, radishes, and more for Spring CSA….fingers crossed everything performs well.  We were also able to check off a few house projects; putting some much-needed gutters on the back side of our house, and renovating the house’s original attached barn so that it lasts us many more year.

Eat well & love your food,

Halley Stillman (Still Life Farm) & Genevieve Stillman (Stillman’s Farm) 

Savanah Kittens at Stillman's Farm.
Border collie puppies at Stillman's Farm.

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