Spring CSA

Spring CSA Bag Four.

 

This week’s bag should include the following:

• Pinto potatoes – super creamy and versatile for multiple uses
• Sweet potatoes – a super food – great roasted, fries, hash
• Yellow onions
• Rutabaga – sweet cousin to the turnip – great roasted or in soup
• Daikon radish – slaws, crudites, soup
• Red spring radishes – spring salads are here!!!
• Mutsu apple – amazing baking apple, my favorite for eating fresh
• Hydroponic lettuce
• Swiss chard – cooking green, great quick sauté or in soup
• Green kale – cooking green, great quick sauté, soup, or hardy salad
• Farmer’s choice green (either mesclun mix or bok choi)
• Dried beans

 

Things to note:

• 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.

 

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

Saturdays:  March 9, March 23, April 6, April 20, May 4, May 18, June 1
Jamaica Plain, 12-3pm

Sundays:  March 10, March 24, April 7, April 21, May 5, May 19, June 2
Lunenburg, 12-1pm

Thursdays:  March 14, March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6
Boston (Boston Public Market) 12-5pm
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

 

Spring Salad.  Now is the time! Pretty exciting to have red spring radishes AND hydroponic lettuce coming from the greenhouses!  I love hearty salads – so I would start with those two items as a base and then throw on a bunch of roasted veggies, apples, and maybe even some of the beans.

Halley’s Salad dressing.  2/3 EVOO to 1/3 red wine vinegar.  Add a splash of balsamic vinegar (1-2 tsp), a splash of maple syrup (1-2 tsp), salt, pepper, and thyme to taste.  If you have them throw in a bit (1 tsp) of finely chopped shallots, sweet onion, scallions, or the like.

Sweet Potato Biscuits.  Vegetables Illustrated Cookbook.

• 2 ½ pounds sweet potato, unpeeled, lightly pricked all over with fork
• 2 T cider vinegar
• 3 ¼ cups cake flour
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 5 t baking powder
• ½ t baking soda
• 1 ½ t salt
• 8 T unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled, plus 2 T melted
• 4 T vegetable shortening, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled

*I cooked 2.5# of potatoes and had plenty of extra, you could get away with 2#.  I also am not fancy enough for cake flour, so just cut back a bit on the amount and used traditional flour.  And I don’t have shortening in the house so subbed more butter. Everything came out fine.

1. Bake or microwave your sweet potatoes until very soft.  When cooked, immediately cut potatoes in half.  When potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop flesh into large bowl and mash until smooth.  You need 2 cups mashed for the recipe.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle and heat oven to 425 degrees.  Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Process flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in food processor until combined.  Scatter chilled butter and shortening over top and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Transfer flour mixture to bowl with cooled potatoes and fold in with rubber spatula until incorporated.

3. Turn out dough onto floured counter and knead until smooth, 8-10 times.  Pat dough into 9-inch circle, about 1 inch thick.  Using floured 2 ¼- inch round cutter, stamp out biscuits and arrange on prepared sheet.  Gently pat dough scraps into 1-inch-thick circle and stamp out remaining biscuit.  (You should have 16 biscuits in total).

4.  Brush the tops of biscuits with melted butter and bake until golden brown, 18-22 minutes.  Let biscuits cool on sheet for 15 minutes before serving.

Rutabaga Soup.  This super versatile recipe can be made with any substitutions in your fridge. It always gets rave reviews.  Recipe: Still Life Farm Blog January 11, 2019.  

Farm Dirt:

As we get deeper into the spring, I always reflect on how blessed we are to have a strong network of CSA members who support our farms.  During this time of year there are a lot of expenses to balance as we push towards the major growing season – labor costs, seed costs, fertilizer and plastic row cover mulch, farmers market fees, and much more. Things get a little tight trying to balance it all.  Our CSA members are the backbone of our farms, and you all get us started on a strong foot to ensure that we can all benefit from a successful farming season.  So, thank you, for your commitment to your farms.  We couldn’t do it without you – and we wouldn’t want to.

H2A prevailing wage battle.  As many of you are aware, approximately half of our farm labor is sourced through the H2A guest worker program. Our Jamaican workers are participants in this program, which has been a cornerstone of American agriculture since 1952 – they are essentially “the hands that feed you”. In recent years, the program has become increasingly regulated, placing more burden on the farmers. Specifically, the mandatory prevailing wage for these workers has surged, posing significant challenges for many farmers. Currently, over 70 lawmakers are collaborating to bring Supporting Farm Operations Act, H.R. 7046 Bill before the House and Senate.  The goal of this Bill is to cap the increase in prevailing wages through 2025, enabling farmers to afford dependable labor. The availability of reliable labor is crucial for our farming community. Stay tuned for updates on this issue. The cost of farm labor is a critical factor that impacts the scale, prosperity, and sustainability of all farms.

Stillman’s Farm.  Stillman’s Farm is in full swing with planting, transplanting, field prep, and more.  Many of our H2A staff have returned from Jamaica and it’s nice to see the farm coming out of winter dormancy and humming into springtime routine.  Farmer Glenn’s herd of Belted Galway cattle is growing, springtime hails the arrival of many new baby calves.  Stillman’s Farm is offering a Mother’s Day Container Garden Workshop on Saturday, May 11th!

Still Life Farm.  Curt, Halley, and Kip snuck away for a quick vacation to FL.  We needed the sunshine to sink into our bones.  There was a lot of resting, beach time, and cooking (we found a local farmstand and loaded up on “summer” foods for the week – yes, it felt like cheating).  We just returned home and continue to work on spring farm projects – the most exciting of which is the installation of two new high tunnels/greenhouses that will allow us more flexibility with season extension!

Eat well & love your food,

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