Spring CSA

Week Two of the Spring CSA bag will include some mix of the following: bok choi OR winter squash (Winter Sweet OR Butternut OR Tetsukabuto), purple-top turnips, carrots, beets, apples, and greens (either hydroponic lettuce OR mesclun mix OR spinach).  Please note that the weekly photo is not an exact depiction of what is in your share, but rather a reference image.  We will be rotating greens this week based on your pick-up location, but don’t fret, everyone will have a fair shot at every type of green in the upcoming weeks!

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.

The 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.  Most of the letters will be composed by Halley Stillman, though Genevieve Stillman may jump in from time to time.

Coming up: microgreens, spinach, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, apples

Weekly Featured Item: Purple-top Turnips

Did you know that the original Jack-O-Lanterns came from Irish folklore, were carved from either turnips or beets, and were quite terrifying!  Pretty cool and pretty spooky!  And here we were, underestimating the poor turnip…  Turnips are an old school veggie that seems to get a lot of flack, but they are really just another delicious root.

BRAISED PORK WITH HARD CIDER, APPLES AND TURNIPS
Recipe credit goes to Edible Boston. This recipe has been a huge hit for our Winter CSA members, so hopefully you find it worth printing.

1 tablespoon olive oil, duck or bacon fat
2½-3 pounds boneless country-style pork ribs
Sea salt, to taste
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 pound carrots, peeled and diced into 1-inch pieces
1 medium bulb celeriac (or 3 sticks celery), peeled and diced into 1-inch cubes
½ cup local dry hard cider
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tart apples, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 turnips, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 bay leaves
2 cups chicken broth
¼ cup minced fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350° F. Pat the ribs dry and lightly salt them all over. In a braising pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil or fat over medium- high heat. Sear the pork on both sides, working in batches as needed. Remove the pork to a plate and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, carrots and celeriac to the pan; sauté for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cider and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits, then add the cumin, red pepper flakes, tomato paste, apples, turnips and bay leaves to the pan and stir well. Nestle the pork into the vegetables and pour over the chicken broth. Cover the pot and place in the oven for 2 hours, removing the cover during the last 30 minutes to allow some of the moisture to evaporate and the meat to brown. Remove from oven, add more salt and pepper to taste and garnish with the parsley before serving.

Little tidbits from the farms:

Stillman’s Farm.  This week has the greenhouses in full swing and packed to the brim! Glenn’s project for the week is pepper seeding…lots and lots of pepper seeding.  Reid and Kirstin have started going to Central Square Farmers Market in Cambridge on Mondays for a new winter market pilot that is sponsored by Mass Farmers Markets.  Check it out if you are in the area – Mondays (through mid April), 12-4pm, 76 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge.  The first group of our H2A labor has arrived.  Merrick, Lucius, Shorty, and Ali are back from Jamaica and making work look easy!  Once the guys arrive back at the farm it feels like things are suddenly back in full swing.  This year’s H2A labor wage has seen yet another increase, so that is a challenge we are tackling at the farms this year.  Other signs of spring include the first sightings of Turkey Vultures and Red-wing Blackbirds returning to the area!

Still Life Farm.  This week we seeded all the cherry tomatoes, specialty peppers, hearty herbs, and early flowers.  We picked through and cleaned up winter greens crops in the greenhouses, re-tilled those areas, and replanted them with lots of new Spring CSA greens crops!  In February, we were fortunate enough to receive a Food Security Infrastructure Grant that we will be using to install an upgraded Storage Facility/wash floor/pack floor.  This new building will be a game-changer for Still Life Farm and we are REALLY EXCITED about it!  This week we marked out our site and had a visit from our excavation guy, we were also able to order our steel building.  As we move forward with progress we will keep everyone updated.  Sightings of spring include a few daffodils popping up in the garden, and last night we heard our first Timberdoodle, also knows as the American woodcock, trilling away out in the back wood!

Eat well & love your food,

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