The Week's Offerings

Spring CSA Week 1

Welcome Spring CSA Peeps!

It’s been a rainy week and at this point, we’d all rather see the rain instead of snow. Just not too much rain this year, please! Maybe we can hope for an early planting season???

This week’s bag should include the following: pea tendrils, Red Norland or other Irish potatoes, onions, carrots, daikon radish, parsnips, celeriac, apples, Spaghetti or Carnival Squash, popcorn, something green (Swiss chard, spinach, or kale).  If you are eating with us for Spring CSA, you are really getting to the nitty-gritty of farm food and seasonal eating.  Eating local and seasonal during the early spring means lots of overwintered roots, apples, and squashes.  We have the additional luxury of greens coming out of our high tunnels and greenhouses, to be cherished!

Store any greens in your fridge, if they are not wrapped, definitely put them in a bag or something to retain moisture. The roots and apples should live in the fridge as well. Store the potatoes and onions in a cool, dark place – I mean, the onions would be fine on your counter, but might sprout in the light 😉 Some of the spaghetti squash has some spots on the outside, but I  cut open two yesterday and they were perfect inside 🙂

Popcorn! A super fun treat from SLF, just remove kernels from cob and pop (just like making any other popcorn).

You are part of a relatively new wonderful family collaboration between Stillman’s Farm (Glenn, Genevieve, Reid, Kirsten and sometimes Faith Stillman) and Still Life Farm (Curt, Halley and sometimes Kip Stillman), joining forces to bring you a most satisfying addition to our varied CSA offerings. Family Farm Force! Pretty catchy, right? 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.  

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

Recipes

Pea shoots!

This week’s featured item is pea shoots!  Pea shoots are literally the delicate edible tips of the pea plant.  This is a wonderful crop that we are able to cultivate in our greenhouses throughout the winter.  They have a beautiful sweet pea flavor that evokes all the happiness of spring.  Enjoy them stir fried, steamed, folded into soft scrambled eggs, or raw in salads…they are a nice source of iron, vitamin C and fiber.

I LOVE them piled on top of a grilled chicken sandwich (any sandwich)!

For a quick delectable salad, whip together a dressing of lemon juice, Dijon mustard, shallot, EVOO, S&P, then toss with your pea shoots, thinly sliced apple, and some Parmesan. We enjoyed a salad of pea shoots and spinach with shredded daikon for Faith’s birthday this week.

Roasted Veg

Right, I am sure you are all over roasting veggies, but in case you haven’t for a while or just got your first oven, here’s a refresher.
All the roots and bulbs you got today (yes you radish!) and likely will get in the coming months are excellent roasted. Pointers include (but not limited to) cooking in a medium hot oven and using a glass dish to create the best caramelization, cut the veggies into similar sizes, smash garlic cloves if using, add anything juicy (I’m talking to you onions) later in the cooking process.
Preheat oven to somewhere between 390°F and 400°F
Cut your veg – carrots and snips and celeriac should be similar size/thickness as each other. With the exception of butternut, leave the skin on winter squash and cut into chunks.
Toss in oil and herbs – If using onion or less dense winter squash, toss separately in its own so you can add later and not have mushed or burned onion. Toss all the other veg in 3-4 T of EVOO, 1/2 tsp salt and fresh pepper… I love thyme and sage with roasty veg, but they don’t need it.
Roast – I use a large glass baking dish (the one I use for lasagna). Roast 30 minutes and then toss in onion, and winter squash if using. Roast for another 1 hour, OR until everything is all done brown and smells most sentimental – okay, not really, but there should be some nice browned edges happening.
I probably stir the veg around every 15 minutes, which helps them cook evenly and prevents me from overcooking.
If you are ambitious or have several baking dishes, make a lot at once…leftovers are awesome on a salad OR, puree the lot of it with excellent broth or water, add cream or coconut milk and enjoy some silky soup 🙂

Moroccan Carrot Salad

  • 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp of sugar
  • 2 1/2 TB olive oil
  • 1 TB lemon juice
  • Fresh parsley, chopped

Cook the carrots to al dente, coat with the mixture above. Wonderful warm, cold, or at room temp.

Farm Dirt

Curt and Spencer seeding onions

Little tidbits from the farms:

The vultures are back, as well as mobs of Blackbirds! I am literally having a “LOOK SQUIRREL!” moment as there is a gray squirrel busy outside my window building a nest. She is quick to run down the Catalpa tree, gather up a wad of leaves, scurry back up the tree, disappear into a hole, then reappear 20 seconds later to rinse and repeat.

Stillman’s Farm Dirt. Filling up the greenhouses! Glenn is sick of seeding of alliums and he’s not done yet. One of our suppliers has back ordered our beloved Sweet Spanish and he has more cippolini to do. Speaking of seeds, good grief, some of the prices have gone through the roof and left me cancelling some varieties and looking for alternatives for some others. On the bright side, I did get the tomato transplant list updated on our website – it is as fabulous as ever, and also have been having fun planting flowers and designing hanging baskets for Spring sales.

The first of our amazing crew from Jamaica arrived last Friday and just in time for some good weather to begin readying the fields and orchards.  It is always wonderful when they arrive – in fact, it is like having your family return from an extended trip

Still Life Farm.  Having just wrapped up Winter CSA, Curt and Halley are busy taking inventory of what is remaining in their vegetable storage. Spring seeding has also begun for SLF.  They, too, have seeded their onions, leeks, hakurei turnips, herbs and I am sure will be on to cherry tomatoes soon.

SLF farm can also be found at the West Brookfield winter market on Wednesdays, as well as their monthly pop up at Lunenburg.

Eat well & love your food,

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

Post navigation