September 11, 2019

It was 18 years ago that we were shocked and overwhelmed by the attacks on New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. That day many of us were unsure of what to do next, or how to proceed in life. The plants did not pause or react, but continued on their same course. As a result, I did as well, which gave me a sense of purpose and reason to keep on going. I am grateful to them for that. The recipe of the week that day was the following. . . 

Preheat oven to 1500 degrees. Take ethnic hatred, vengefulness, greed, ignorance, single mindedness,and nationalism, and place them in a covered pot. Make sure the lid is tight. Place them in the oven and leave there until all the contents are incinerated. Discard. Meanwhile mix respectfulness, decency and freedom of thought in an open vessel. Let stand for eternity. Salt to taste.

Your bag should contain:

Delicata Squash

Lettuce

Garlic

Radish or Ruby Streaks Mizuna

Green Beans

Lively Yellow Peppers

Kohlrabi

Beets

Kale

Leeks

Leeks for weeks. Make sure you make use of them. Tubular onions, but cut them small and you won’t even notice, don’t cut them much at all and they extend like a telescope. What could be cooler. (maybe having Bill Belichick beat Don Shula for the most wins ever) 

Delicata Squash are smaller than most winter squash. Find ways to take advantage, if you’re into squash you can bake them up halved with butter, or in rings full of savory custard batter, what could be better.  Delicata skins are very tender when cooked so they don’t need to be skinned.  

August 7, 2019

Let me start with the bags, so I don’t forget. If we don’t get them back, then I might get upset. We might give you veggies all wrapped up in leaves. Leaf wrapped CSA veg is hard to achieve. It’s simpler by far to fill a container that’s reusable, because plastic on everything is now inexcusable. So please bring them back, we won’t ask any questions. We will even refrain from making helpful suggestions.

It’s August, and summer’s heat has brought on some fruiting. Solinacious crops, tomatoes, potatoes no disputing the sense of intense summer they put on our palates, and grilled eggplants and huge numbers of cucumbers salads. Tomatoes with flavor, we’re not talking about the pallid and sickly crisp tomato available in the store. It’s the kind that makes you want to eat more for sure. Get them now, they are here and they are very evanescent. If you let them lay around they’ll get effervescent and unpleasant.

This week’s bag should contain: Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Radish, Eggplant, Swiss Chard, Ailsa Craig Onion, Tot soi or sen po sai., Fennel, Tomato, Purslane (red stalks, green tear drop leaves), Parsley

July 31, 2019

Hot. So hot and then there’s the humidity. So hot it leads to distraction and stupidity. What was I doing? Something to do with picking some thing. Getting on a tractor with spinning blades might be a dumb thing.

Meanwhile the crops grow faster when it’s hotter- If we can get them enough water, so a lot of our focus is on irrigating, because our soil is sandy. In places it’s so sandy that it’s just sand, so it’s handy to have the pump running when we transplant the crops. That way at least they don’t wilt till it stops. We are almost half way through the season!  This is your friendly reminder that the second half payment is due by next week. Thank you! In your bag should be:

Summer Squash

Cucumbers

Lettuce or Arugula and Mizuna

Black Summer Choy

Scallions

Celery

Cherry Tomatoes

Carrots

Beans-(please wash, soon)

Eggplant

Scallions

July 24, 2019

The weather’s been intense, there is flooding and heat. Tornado hit the cape. We had to retreat indoors, for hours, rain beat down the flowers. 

Rain that was dense and intense in the sense that it made you feel smaller. Nature flexed its power. Crushing all resistance, not a shower for an hour, but a torrent, the kind that makes one think of building arks. 

Last night the lightening lit up the dark and the thunder made us wonder if we should hide under our beds. Not beds of lettuce. 

Items that should be in your bag: Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Satina or Pinto Potatoes, Lettuce, Baby Bok Choy or Asian Delight- also a baby bok choy, or Gun Sho, Fresh Garlic, Cilantro, Beans-(please wash, soon), Kale, Scallions, Green kohlrabi

July 10, 2019

Summer is here, it’s clear from the heat, and the lettuces want to go to seed and complete their life cycle, but they’re much more sweet, when they’re not old and bitter. We picked literally hundreds of heads of lettuce. Fridged them up before they bolted. Temperature drops and they’re jolted from extreme growth and change to a deep veggie slumber. You got three heads each, which is the number that you need for three bean salad, but we didn’t give you beans yet. Hope you like salad. Did you finish all your greens yet?  We grew the following things for you so far:

Mixed asian green bunch (komatsuna + Joi Choi or Black Summer choi)

Lettuce-Three in a bag

Beets

Green Kohlrabi

Winterbor Kale

Peas

Cucumbers

Summmer Squash or Zucchini

Arugula

Dill and dill flowers

The Kohlrabi is green, it’s crispy and delicious. Don’t make its freaky shape make you suspicious. The beets are dropping in. We had to pull the beets before the mice ate them all, so some of them are baby beets. They need some cooking. Boil them quick if you’re looking for an easy way to eat them. Or on the grill wrapped in foil. Just don’t leave them in the back of the fridge to spoil. Dill goes well with cucumber or yogurt as a dressing, just add a little if you’re stressing cause I’m guessing you can add dill more easily than you can extract it. If you add none I’m sure you’ll notice that you lacked it. Zeke says: “if you’re stressing about your dressing, you can use your dill to make you chill” 

July 3, 2019

When the heat goes up then moisture fills the clouds, we find something to be under when the thunder’s loud. Cumulonimbus, thunderheads can be real pretty, but when they nail your plants with hail it is a pity. We got hail in Middleboro, it was just rain at Bay End. There’s no telling when it comes or when it may end. Now June has ended and we’re in the splendid summer. (It hailed three feet in Guadalajara, Mexico, that’s got to be a bummer) Here is what you’re getting:

Joi Choi - bok choy

Lettuce (three heads in one bag)

Tot Soi (dark green bunched)

Snap Peas

Radish or Salad Turnips

Basil (with roots if you want to plant it, or keep it in water)

Squash or Zuccini

Cucumber

Fennel

Lavender

Make a giant salad for the Fourth. Everything but the summer squash and Totsoi could go in. Fennel, Cukes and Bok choy stems make good crisp salad ingredients. Snap Peas are best raw or barely cooked. Lavender is one of the herbs you have to be very subtle with, it also goes well on the dash board to make your car more fragrant.

Happy 4th of July!

CSA letter-June 25 '19

Deer eating carrot tops, deer eating beets, there must be some vegetable that no deer eats. 

Now we put up fencing, and hang out my sons’ cleats, cause when they get a whiff of them, deer retreat.

Deer are crepuscular, at dawn and dusk they’re active. They seem to find your organic produce attractive. 

If I was there at dusk and dawn, perhaps they’d be dissuaded. I would suggest that they’re best when they’re dressed and marinated.

We grew the following things for you so far:

 Joi Choi - bok choy

Lettuce-in a bag

Gun Sho Chinese Broccoli

Purple Kohlrabi

Kale

Chard

Sen Po Sai

Cilantro

Young Garlic

Scapes - the flower of the garlic plant - bunched curly stems

The sen po sai looks a bit like collard greens but is more tender in texture and flavor.  Here’s a link to a sen po sai and kohlrabi recipe: http://www.mindyourplants.com/kohlrabi-senposai-and-red-pepper-stir-fry-with-spicy-sesame-sauce/

The Gun sho is similar to Broccoli Raab, but more tender- also known as Choy sum.   Saveur website recommends blanching the greens and adding a garlic soy sauce over the greens. 

First CSA 2018, June 6

Howdy. 

Thanks for joining the Bay End Farm CSA. For some of you this is your first CSA letter ever, for others this is yet another note from me in a long chain of notes stretching back farther than any of us would care to admit. As a brief introduction for the new folks, this is the letter I use to explain what is going on here at the farm, while attempting to be both amusing and eloquent, trying to sound intelligent while saying what is relevant. 

We have new hands on the farm and the old hands are older. Our kids are getting too old for scolding and they’re bolder. The winters get real cold and the springs are colder. 

We have a new tractor on the farm this year, an allis-chalmers G. The engine’s in the back so in the front we’re free to see all the weeds that need controlling.  It goes slower than strolling, but starts every time and so far it keeps on rolling. 

This first bag is small, a small bag of leaves.  I believe we will achieve better so you won’t grieve your decision to participate when the season’s ended. We respect your money and it’s splendid that you spend it with us, to support a local farm.

July 13

July has brought more rain than June. It’s hot, then cold, then hot real soon. In the greenhouses we swoon. We work full tilt, and start to wilt, like lettuce that was cut at noon.  The weed free farm we have is gone. It’s weedy now, not like a lawn, but rough with long straight rows of dirt.  Where the tractor drives, the weeds get hurt. The plants are taller, topped with flowers, where butterflies and bees can flirt.  We’re tiring now, but not exhausted, like we’ll be when it has frosted.  To do lists grow until the fall, when there is no time to plant at all. For now there’s planting, picking, weeding, working in the greenhouse seeding flats to transplant three weeks later. Hopeful we’ll get tomatoes.

Happy birthday to our daugher Maya, arrived 6 years ago today on a Tuesday before our CSA/restaurant delivery day - oy. 

this weeks bag should contain: Black Summer Choy, Basil, Lettuce X2, Peas, Cucumbers, Summer Squash or Zucchini, kohlrabi - eat raw with olive oil and salt, Fennel, Kale, Hinona Kabu turnips - purple and white or haikurai turnips, Garlic, Sen Po Sai- large collard like green- only much more tender!

Sen po sai is a great tender leaf to saute with fresh garlic.  The turnips are great for pickling.  Fennel is awesome sliced thin into salad, grilled, or fried quickly in olive oil. The stems make great stirring sticks and the leave make a great wig.

Welcome Summer!

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