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Greetings CSA Members!!! Hope you are settling into your summer routines. Zucchini and Cucumbers are strong right now - hope you enjoy that. Eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes are not too far off - I found some orient express eggplant forming (in the field next to the farmstand) and we harvested three whole pints of cherry tomatoes yesterday :) Summer Trucks on and we are already on Share Seven!

3 heads of Lettuce

Dark Red Norland New Potatoes You really don't need to do more than boil these in salted water til fork tender, drain, and plop them on a table next to a salt shaker and a butter dish, but you can certainly make a warm potato salad, roast, hash brown, etc. Check out the Roasted Fennel and Potatoes recipe in the fennel section.

Gnome Cabbage. Pointy top. Not sure if I've mentioned this already but these were selected in Austria or Germany so that you can shred them easily, just holding the base of the cabbage, instead of having to quarter a big round cabbage. So shred away and dress or cook or kraut how you like! Don't miss our recipe page on the website you can use the search box, typing in "cabbage." The latest cabbage recipe added was Cabbage Strudel. If you cannot face a cabbage this week, put in a plastic bag and shove to the most out of reach place in your fridge for another time. It should store for a few weeks.

1 Head of Fennel. If you think you hate fennel, give Roasted Fennel and Potatoes a shot. Ex-con and foodie sweetheart, Martha Stewart, will tell you how. The recipe calls for two heads of fennel (is last week's still kicking around?) but you could use some torpedo onions to make up the volume. We had a dining room full of cousins last night and we all thoroughly enjoyed a bowl of roasted potatoes, onions, fennel, and carrots - tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, herbs, and garlic before roasting on a baking sheet in the oven.

2 Zucchini. Zucchini and basil taste wonderful together. I always share a recipe I learned during my farming travels in Italy: Zucchini and Basil "carbonara" I checked our website today and other farms that use Small Farm Central had shared these more zuke recipes, including Grilled Zucchini and Orzo Salad (you could substitute basil for the cilantro and grilled torpedo onions for the cherry tomatoes). If you got a rather large zucchini, consider making a Zucchini Lasagna.

1 Bunch of Beets. A couple of diced torpedo onions would make a lovely base for a roasted beet salad. Roast your beets, then peel and dice, toss with the onions, salt, pepper, balsamic and olive oil. Jazz up with blue cheese, goat cheese, feta, and/or avocado. Serve over lettuce or just on its own.

3 lbs Pickling Cucumbers. Here is a good secret about pickling cukes: you can eat them as regular cucumbers! Sometimes their skins are a little tougher or more bitter so you may want to peel them first, but you can cut off a slice to assess for yourself. One delicious way to serve these little guys is to slice them in coins and add a few pinches of salt and sugar, then add a few tablespoons of seasoned rice wine vinegar. Cover and put in the refrigerator. Within an hour the cukes will have released a lot of their water so all the coins are covered (if not, maybe add a little more of the vinegar). They are ready to eat and will keep much longer than plain sliced up cukes. If you are feeling more ambitious you can try one of these recipes for Bread and Butter Pickles or Dill Pickles, downsizing the recipe for the quantity of cukes you have. Or you can pick up more picklers at the farmstand. We had quite the harvest this week!

1 bunch of Tropeana Lunga "Torpedo" Onions. More fresh onions. Fresh onions are milder than cured onions. They should be stored in the fridge. Though not as tender, the tops can still be used like scallion greens, particularly if you're cooking them or tossing them in with your hot potatoes for a warm potato salad. If you're firing up the grill, I suggest cutting these in half lengthwise, leaving the root base on to hold it together, and tossing with oil or a marinade before grilling (across the grates). I even find the sizzled greens delicious. Any leftover grilled onions are excellent for salads, orzo or grain salads, pizza, pasta, etc.

1 bunch of Basil. Since this is a bunch with stems this could keep quite well in a glass of water on the counter. Just as with fresh flowers, make sure there are no leaves in the water ( you may have to strip some lower leaves) or the water will go bad. Basil leaves can also be plucked, dried, and preserved whole submerged in olive oil. As long as no leaves are poking out into the air, you can keep it like this in your cabinet. It will definitely keep in the fridge this way, too, but the olive oil will solidify so you should take out the jar twenty minutes or so before using. The olive oil will take on some basil flavor so you can use if for cooking or salad dressing once the basil is gone. Pesto is another choice - whiz in the food processor with olive oil, garlic, parmesan or pecorino cheese, toasted nuts, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I could eat the whole batch on wheat thins. If you want to kill two CSA Birds with one Stone check out this Zucchini Pesto Bruschetta Recipe.

That's all folks! Thanks a bunch!

christy, chris, graham man and our wonderful crew!

ay ay ay. i'm sure most of your produce is long gone at this point. but just in case, here is the email that I sent Tuesday and accidentally did not put on the website OR email to Wed/fri members. Hope you all had a fun fouth!!

Howdy Everyone! This is a tasty share with lots of items you probably are already familiar with!

1 Bunch Carrots. The obvious choices are to shred on a salad or crunch on for a snack with hummus or something. If you want to feature the carrots give this Honey Glazed Carrots with Mint recipe a try.

1 Head Fennel. If you are already going to do some grilling, why not try grilled fennel. If you make pulled pork sandwiches ever, a quick pickled thin sliced fennel would be a lovely sandwich topping.

3 Heads Lettuce

1 Bunch Torpedo Onions. Fresh red onions that are kind of like a big fat red scallion. Great for mincing as a base to a roasted beet salad, guacamole, balsamic vinaigrette, pasta salad. anything. use like a red onion they are just a little milder.

1 Head Radicchio. Chop and mix with your lettuce and you should have salad for the week.

1 Yellow Squash and 1 Zucchini. This would be a great week for Pasta Tutto Giardino. You could use the onions, carrots, fennel, and squash and zucchini if you wanted. If you have the ability to slice super thin, you could try the Squash, Potato, and Goat Cheese Gratin.

1 Cucumber

2 lbs New Potatoes. Scrub if necessary. Boil and eat with butter and salt. These potatoes are sublime. Usually potatoes are a storage crop that we consider a staple. These potatoes, dug before the tops have died back and the skins are hardened, are more of a fresh vegetable. Once dry, they will store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. These would be terrific for a warm potato salad. Just boil them whole until tender (not until totally blown out and waterlogged), drain and return to their pot with the lid open a crack to let the steam escape. Once they are cool enough to touch, quarter or halve them so they are a good size for potato salad.  Meanwhile sautee your fresh onions, saving the greens to chop like scallions and chop some fresh herbs as well(parsley or fennel tops, perhaps?). A few strips of bacon diced up never hurts, if you like that sort of thing. Once the onions are to desired tenderness, throw in the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, add the herbs, and drizzle with some tasty olive oil and the juice of one lemon. You can add mayo or butter or really whatever your heart desires at this point. Snap peas are a wonderful addition to the party and kale has proven delicious as well. Be creative and enjoy the taste of a fresh potato.

Choice of an herb

Choice of a Cabbage

Honey is here! Roger from Franklin Honey just delivered two cases of 1 lb jars of honey. $8.50. Just in time if allergies have been getting you. or if you love toast with butter and honey. or if you put honey in your tea. or if you just love honey!

We will be Open July 4^th 10am to 12pm (NOT 2pm as previously advertised). I got carried away and almost forgot that we need to celebrate our country's Birthday!

There will be plenty of cabbage so offer to bring the cole slaw to the BBQ!

We will be digging new potatoes so you can make potato salad, too. There are zucchinis and fresh onions to grill. And lots of lettuce for green salads. There are scallions, carrots, salad turnips and maybe even cucumbers to put on top. There are beets to be roasted for a beet salad. And plenty of sugarsnap and snow peas for snacking. Flowers are abundant and maple syrup and fresh honey are in!

Friday we will be right back to our usual tricks . . . Fish Friday, lots of fresh produce. Saturday morning is Yoga with Patty in the Barn 9am to 10:15am. 

We look forward to seeing you!!!!!

Baby Fennel, Fresh Onions, Napa, Lettuce, Scallions, Kohlrabi, Carrots, Zucchini, Fresh Flowers and more!

Friday Farmstand is Open! 2pm to 7pm. Jordan Brothers Seafood is here. 

The farm is in full swing and we are excited for you all to try out our new driveway since it has rained.  There is a great bounty of produce so take a moment to stop by and pick out something that will make your family wonder how you made such a delicious meal!!! Good ingredients make simple food taste spectacular.

If you are uncertain of what to do with some of this bounty (top example: kohlrabi) we have a very useful cookbook for sale at the farmstand. From Asparagus to Zucchini was put together by a consortium of CSAs in Madison, Wisconsin. It is arranged alphabetically by vegetable and gives a brief overview of each veg and then a couple pages of easy, yummy recipes. It's $19.95 at the farmstand.

We just got in a batch of Maple Syrup from Liberty Farm in Poultney, Vermont. Our wonderful friends, James and Sarah Elworthy have an organic dairy farm and a sugarbush (the technical term from the stand of sugar maples you harvest sap from). Pints are $10 and the larger jugs are $22. Treat those kids to some Saturday or Sunday morning pancakes and waffles with real maple syrup. That reminds me - Wild blueberries are ripening! I found ripe lowbush and highbush blueberries yesterday and they were super delicious. Find 'em before the birds do! (or visit Cook's Valley Farm in West Wrentham - Nate says strawberries are fading but raspberries are on and blueberries are starting).

Happy Fourth of July! The 4th falls on a Thursday this year. We think it's silly to have our regular farmstand hours (2pm to 7pm) so we will be open in the morning: 10am to 2pm on Thursday, July 4th.

My extremely talented stepmom, Elizabeth Gibbs, made beautiful cards from paintings she did based on our vegetables. She designed a little barn stamp and printed a recipe on the back of each veggie card. We finally were able to print them and get them packaged in farmstand safe little plastic envelopes. They are $2.50 each. I'm starting to realize that you could put together a pretty nice gift package from our farmstand: syrup, coffee, cookbook, flowers, card, and maybe even some fresh veggies!

Share Number Five!!!

Beets. I found a recipe for a soup with beets and fennel. It calls for kefir but you could certainly use yogurt. I love to just roast beets and slice them onto a salad with goat cheese and serve with a balsamic vinaigrette, but for more ideas go to our recipe page on the website and put beets into the "search recipes" box.

Scallions. I have been adding these to green salads, cole slaws, warm potato salads, everything!

Fresh Onions. Pearl Drop onions. These will keep freshest in the fridge (treat them almost as a scallion). Good-looking green tops can be used like scallion greens. The bulb is a nice sweet onion. Perfect for a quick pickle, dicing to put on a hot dog, halving to put on a skewer to grill, as a base to tuna salad, or anywhere you would normally want to have an onion.

Gnome Cabbage. Pointy headed green cabbage. The first choice for this weather/season is a cole slaw. The snow peas, fresh onions, scallions, and fennel could even join the party! If you want a hot side dish give this yummy cabbage with butter a try.

Two bulbs of Baby Fennel. The white bulbs with the feathery tall tops. The bulb is crunchy and refreshing and can be sliced thin for a salad, fennel slaw, or to be used for cooking (think of it as a celery substitute). The fronds are most likely going to end up in the compost, but they can be used to make stock - particularly seafood stock (if you have some shrimp or lobster shells or fish bones) for a wonderful seafood stew or risotto. They could also be an aromatic bed of herbs for cooking fish on top of - in parchment or in a baking dish covered with foil. You can make an herb dip with a sour cream or yogurt base. You could make a compound butter (whiz the herb in the food processor with butter), then roll it in a log and freeze it - you can slice off rounds to use whenever you want to cook with it. 

Quart of Snow Peas. Chris was able to sell these to my picky eater niece and nephew and their cousins this weekend as "farm candy" They literally ate it up!! Snow peas are a delicious snack. They are also lovely sauteed. I enjoy the crunch that slivered snow peas add to a salad. I made a salad the other day with thinly sliced kohlrabi, napa cabbage, snow peas, lettuce, shredded carrot, and chopped mint. extra crunchy!

Swiss Chard. Steam it up like spinach and serve with some butter and cider vinegar or make it part of a main dish such as a frittata. A nice simple pasta can be thrown together with caramelized onions, toated walnuts (add just before serving for extra crunch), feta, and chard (maybe wilted in with the onions).

2 Heads Green Lettuce. salad! Don't be afraid to try wrapping your meal with lettuce leaves. Chicken salad. avocado, cilantro, and bean salad. grilled chicken in peanut sauce.

1 Head of Radicchio. This is a bitter "green" and makes a wonderful foil for rich cheeses. There are some nice recipes I just added to the website that explain how to grill or roast radicchio. The simplest thing to do, however, is just cut it in half, cut out the core and slice it in ribbons to add to your salad. We enjoyed a roasted beet salad with goat cheese over a mixed bowl of frisee, radicchio, and one little red butterhead lettuce.

Zucchini. Most people are familiar with our friend the zucchini and at this time of year a fresh zucchini is still a welcome sight! We've been loving cutting them lengthwise and drizzling with olive oil and sprinkling with salt and pepper to put on the grill. I like to grill them before the other stuff so you are not tempted to undercook them as space becomes scarce or everything else cooks faster. A little bit of attention to getting the perfect tenderness on grilled zucchini makes a big difference. Martha Stewart's Seasonal Produce Guide (my new favorite website) features a quick and easy Salmon and Zucchini cooked in parchment. You could easily use your fennel fronds instead of dill for the fresh herb.

There was also a choice of either kohlrabi or hakurei turnips. Check out the last few weeks' suggestions for those.

Happy Summer Solstice Everyone! It is a beautiful longest day of the year, blue sky and sun with the full moon approaching. Thanks to our wonderful babysitter, Caroline, I've really had some time to commune with the plants in the fields for the past few days. The amazing array of insects has made me feel so good about not using any pesticides. The ladybugs are mating like crazy and I've been seeing lots of their eggs and larvae on black aphid infested lambs quarter (the aphids incidentally being farmed by ants). I found a new (to me) predator of the Colorado Potato Beetle larvae.  Fat, healthy swallowtail butterfly caterpillars are munching on some dill. Dragonflies abound. We did have one very disappointing incident of finding leaf miner pupae throughout our trays of beets to be transplanted out. We had to make the difficult decision to throw out the entire planting. Planting all those pupa in the soil would perpetuate our leaf miner problem in the future. So be prepared for a blip in the beet supply. On a whole, however, things are really looking good. As much of a bummer the rain last week was, our sandy soil sure does thrive on it. The first planting of zucchini is really strong. We have sugarsnap and snow peas for the first time in several years (previous crop losses were due to geese). Lettuce is plentiful. Cabbages are in. We are still harvesting broccoli side shoots. We are already picking some cucumbers from our High Tunnel planting and green tomatoes are developing in there too. There are crunchy radishes, salad turnips, and carrots; yummy kale, swiss chard, and escarole; scallions, parsley, kohlrabi, beets, and more.

We're getting a real driveway! Kenny Blanchard is helping us bring some sand from a lower part of our field and digging out the muck that has been impeding farmstand traffic during the excessive rain this month. The farmstand will be OPEN during this project. The excavation will be happening before we open for the day or when we are closed. There will be a place for you to enter and exit and to park in the meantime. so come on down!

Don't forget our Wednesday morning hours - we are opening at 10am and stay open til 7pm as usual

Summer hours reminder:

Tuesday through Friday 2pm* to 7pm

*Wednesdays we open at 10am 

Saturdays 10am to 2pm

Jordan Brothers Seafood Truck will be at the stand Tuesdays 2pm to 6pm and Fridays 2pm to 7pm

Iggy's Bread is always available at the stand. It is the perfect bread to slice on the bias, grill and rub with fresh garlic, drizzle with good olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Grill some seafood and veggies, throw together a salad and you have a magical feast! For those without a grill - you can also just toast the bread - it just needs to be a little crusty so it acts like a little grater for the garlic clove.

Sheldonville Roaster Coffee Beans are stocked.

Puddingstone Organic Eggs are available (and so are eggs from our small flock, while they last).

Franklin Honey has us at the top of their list of customers when they extract honey next. (i think soon!)

We depend on you all. Tell a friend! Make a habit of swinging in for your daily bread and salad fixings. 

Thank you so much for your support! Take Care and Enjoy these gorgeous days!

Christy, Chris, and Baby Graham

Howdy Everybody! Can't believe it's already week four!!! This week's share contains:

2 kohlrabi. peel and snack. or shred for a quick slaw. or roast or grill.

Carrots. the first little cuties. scrub and snack. or cook (sautee or roast). or grate into a salad. Enjoy!

Green Cabbage. got any cilantro left? try making this peanut-cilantro cole slaw. Or just do the classic. It's surprising how sweet fresh cabbage tastes. These are the type of cabbage most often used to make cabbage rolls, too. Blanch whole leaves and roll a stuffing into them (rice, mushrooms, and ground beef are common, but be creative!), then bake in a casserole dish with tomato sauce or some combo of wine and broth. Cabbage can certainly be stir fried. I suggest browsing the internet for some creative slaw alternatives to the traditional mayo, vinegar slaw. I've had delicious Asian style slaws or ones with dried cranberries and nuts. You can also cook this cabbage down with onions for a lovely accompaniment to sausages or pork. How about cabbage curry? What about fish tacos? I always recommend making fish tacos when cabbage is around. Just grill or roast some white fish, thinly slice and chop the cabbage, seasoning with a pinch of salt and pinch of sugar to break it down a little while you prepare everything else. Make the special magical sauce - sometimes we do sour cream (maybe a little mayo? a squirt of kechup?), lime, hot sauce. We must liberate the recipe from Acapulco's in Franklin, which is a delicious white sauce I have not been able to replicate exactly. Meanwhile, fine dice some white onion and toss with chopped cilantro, a pinch of salt, and a squeeze of lime juice. Use flour or corn tortillas -warmed on the grill or in the oven - to wrap up the fish, cabbage, onion & cilantro, and magical sauce. Serve with some rice (perhaps jazzed up with some butter, cilantro and scallions) and voila! ole! yee haw!

Red Scallions. A red version! The bottoms would be great to chop into a salad, a pasta salad, grain salad, bean salad, etc. The tops are just like green scallion tops. great on a salad, in an egg scramble, enhancing mac & cheese or grilled cheese, etc.

2 heads of lettuce. This variety is called Magenta. I find it so crisp and crunchy and have been thoroughly enjoying the salads we've been making with it.

1 bunch of Hakurei Turnips. My favorite preparation for these is just sliced very thin on a crunchy green salad.

1 head of Broccoli. These are ready to go. I'd try to work this into dinner in the next night or two. Pasta salad is nice with broccoli. How about some sesame style noodles with broccoli served cold for lunch. Kids have been giving positive reviews of the fresh broccoli flavor - plain old steamed will do the trick there. Butter or mayo for toppings only if demanded (yes. mayo. my friend Martha taught me that in elementary school). Lemon and Broccoli are certainly complementary in a pasta dish, particularly with a white wine sauce including butter and finished with parmesan.

1 head of escarole. Our friend, Martha Stewart, has no fewer than 20 escarole recipes on her seasonal produce guide.

1 bunch of kale. Have you tried kale chips yet? or a massaged kale salad?

Parsley. A touch of parsley can add such brightness to most any dish. There are lots of nutrients in this supergreen leaf. This is so good for you, you should just chop it fine and keep it in a little dish in the fridge. I like to give the parsley treatment to all sorts of things: Creamy Polenta, Risotto, Soups, Bread Crumbs for Oven Baked Chicken, Salad Dressings, Marinades, Egg Scrambles, Salsa, Mayo, Sandwiches, you name it. It is important not to overpower your family/dinner guests with the entire bunch of parsley on one dish. It does have a strong flavor, which not everyone loves like me. Parsley is the counterbalance to garlic in terms of breath freshening. A small bunch in a batch of pesto gives a nice balance to the fresh garlic. One of my favorite things as a kid was boiled potatoes with butter and parsley - good olive oil would be a fine substitute for the butter. 

Pint of Sugarsnap Peas. These peas are a fun and yummy snack for kids to eat raw. Somehow, they taste even better sauteed in a pan with a little butter until they are bright green. I always snap their stem end and unzip the string, for raw or cooked. These peas are great to add to a pasta salad or potato salad - maybe cut in thirds or halves.  

1 bunch of bok choy. We've been enjoying bok choy sauteed in peanut oil with fresh chopped garlic and ginger. We finish it with a little hoisin sauce and soy and voila.

this one was a whopper. the wash station crew was claiming it was tough to close some of the boxes.

this week there was:

Kohlrabi. We’ll start with the most mysterious: Kohlrabi is in the broccoli, cabbage, kale family and it is technically a fat stem, although it looks a little like a root. Indeed, it can be treated a lot like a root. It is good raw or cooked. The easiest preparation is to peel the outer skin and slice it into veggie sticks for snacking with a creamy dressing. (Hot tip: slice the bottom of the bulb off so it has a flat surface to sit on the cutting board – then use a knife to slice off the peel from the top down.) It can also be grated for a fresh slaw. I enjoy roasted cubes or rounds of kohlrabi – it doesn’t take long to cook through – it’s much more tender than a potato or a turnip. I looked up some recipes and found that kohlrabi is popular for Indian curries. I think it would be good cut into matchsticks for a stir-fry with your bok choy and broccoli, as well .my most sublime experience with kohlrabi was when I had it roasted as part of a medley. my general rule for roasting is: preheat the oven to 400 or 425. chop the veggies (medium cubes or vaguely uniform sized rounds). put right onto the cookie sheet you will bake on. add salt and pepper. drizzle with olive oil. toss with your hands. put in the oven for 10-15 minutes. use a flat metal spatula to flip once, another 10-15 or until fork tender. this goes for all sorts of things to come in your share: turnips, beets, carrots, rutabaga, squash, and potatoes.

Broccoli. Big luscious heads of broccoli. Time to do a broccoli centric dish. My standby is Tofu and Broccoli with peanut sauce from one of the Moosewood cookbooks. Grilled broccoli is lovely – I like to toss the florets with garlic, olive oil, and soy sauce before putting them in a grill basket over not too intense of a flame (unless you like Cajun style). Broccoli Quiche. Broccoli soup. Roasted Broccoli. Chicken and broccoli with pasta and lemon white wine sauce or alfredo. For something different, check out this recipe for Broccoli Slaw. . Broccoli always jazzes up Mac & Cheese or could be an element in a fritatta or quiche.

bunch of Hakurei turnips. The little white globes, a Japanese salad turnip. They are certainly mild enough to eat raw and treat like a radish. I also  recommend treating them as a starch, sliced and sauteed with butter, finished with salt and pepper. We had a great meal last week of grilled steaks (from our buddy James' farm) and turnips w/ butter, and turnip greens sauteed w/ olive oil and green garlic.

3 Heads of Lettuce

Beets. Beets store best with the tops off. Beets will keep for quite a while, topless, in a plastic bag in the fridge. Most people are used to boiling or steaming beets. If you boil – I suggest doing them whole, removing when fork tender, and peeling afterwards with a fork and knife. Steaming is a way to cook them pretty fast, particularly if you slice them into thin rounds first. The best flavor comes from roasting the beets. Scrub the beets, put them on a cookie sheet in a foil packet, drizzling a little bit of olive oil and tossing in a pinch of salt before sealing tightly. Bake at 400 or so for about an hour. Larger beets take longer, smaller beets shorter – just test for fork tenderness. When done, I remove from the oven, but leave in the foil. I think it tends to steam and make the peel easier to remove. I like to do that when they’ve cooled, but you can do it while they are hot if you use a fork and knife. Careful! Beet juice is a natural dye. At this point, you can serve the roasted beets as a side or keep on hand for adding to salads or you can make a roasted beet salad – diced roasted beets with minced red onion, parsley, and blue cheese with shallot-balsamic vinaigrette is excellent. Be creative!

bunch of Hakurei turnips. The little white globes, a Japanese salad turnip. They are certainly mild enough to eat raw and treat like a radish. I also  recommend treating them as a starch. sliced and sauteed with butter, finished with salt and pepper. we had a great meal last week of grilled steaks (from our buddy James' Liberty Farm), turnips w/ butter, and turnip greens sauteed w/ olive oil and green garlic.

Scallions. Green onions. With fresh scallions you can pretty much use the greens right up to the tops. I love to have them with eggs.. I'll use the white part to cook in a little butter before adding some eggs whipped with a little half and half and shredded cheddar. I add the greens just as the eggs set up and nothing tastes better on multi-grain toast. We chop scallions on salads, put them in a veggie sandwich. You can grill marinated scallions briefly to bring out their sweetness. They are lovely in a potato salad or pasta salad. Anywhere you want some crunch and flavor. They are mild enough to chop into a green salad. They are great for making tuna, egg, or chicken salad. Great in Mexican dishes – to top nachos, add to a burrito or taco, or just to add to rice.

Garlic Scapes

Bok Choy

Bright Lights Swiss Chard. a slight change-up in the cooking greens department, chard instead of kale this week. My favorite way to eat chard is to steam it and add a pat of butter while it's still hot, then a few drops of apple cider vinegar. It is also excellent sauteed with olive oil and garlic.  A nice touch for a side dish is to add pine nuts, golden raisins, and just a touch of balsamic vinegar.  A pasta i used to have at the farm I worked at in Oregon was: Caramelized Onions, Wilted Chard, Toasted Walnuts, and Feta.  Slice the leaves thin and add it to an omelette, like spinach.  Lots of recipes for spinach work with swiss chard. One note: When cooking you may want to either cut off the stems, chop and add them to start cooking early, or discard them (especially later in the season). I usually tear the leaves from the stem, as the stems can be stringy with the large chard leaves.

Escarole.

Frisee. The big frilly lettuce looking head. This is a chicory/endive so it is slightly more bitter than lettuce, but can be used the same way. I just chop it up, wash and spin and use as a salad base. Frisee pairs especially nice with something sweet or rich or both. Think cheese, nuts, roasted beets, poached pears. It also holds up really nicely to a warm dressing that can tame its bitterness just a tad. You could even try using it like escarole - in a soup with white beans. if you are a fan of bacon, try this salad I found on epicurious.com

 WRENTHAM RESIDENTS/REGISTERED VOTERS PLEASE SUPPORT US AT TOWN MEETING JUNE 10TH

VOTE YES ON ADDING AN ACCESSORY USE TO AGRICULTURAL ZONING. (THIS IS COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM THE RE-ZONING ON MADISON ST. THAT YOU SEE ALL THE LAWN SIGNS ABOUT)

"The mission of White Barn Farm is to preserve open space and this historic family property by growing food in a beautiful living landscape that will inspire feasting in celebration of natural beauty and our local economy.  White Barn Farm aims to make Wrentham a funner and tastier place to live."

We dream of hosting a film series projected on the barn, musical performances, farm tours and dinners, and weddings in alignment with our mission of making Wrentham a funner and tastier place to live. When we approached the town to get the proper permits and whatnot to make these dreams happen, we found there was not really a definition for these sort of activities on a farm in a residential area (we are not zoned commercial - which is good for our mission of preserving open space).

Here is what the Draft Looks Like:

DRAFT Agricultural Accessory Uses BYLAW (4/10/13)

   Amend Article 4.2 as follows:

Add the following new definition in alphabetical order to Article 2 Definitions:

Agricultural Accessory Uses

Food service, programs and revenue-generating events, such as tours, dinners, weddings, and musical performances, which are appropriate in scale to the premises and any surrounding residential area, including the preparation and serving of food and beverages for such events. These accessory uses are to supplement the income from the agricultural use of land as exempted from regulations or restrictions in zoning bylaws as defined in Section 3, Chapter 40A of Massachusetts General Laws. Adequate off-street parking must be provided.

The listed accessory uses are only allowed on land whose primary use is agriculture, which is already defined by the state (rather than defining it redundantly within this accessory use amendment). That means your neighbor cannot open a movie theater in their back yard just by planting a row of radishes in their garden. The agricultural use must be the primary use and primary source of income. Our town zoning bylaw defines agricultural uses to include farms, nurseries, orchards, and the subsequent sales from those uses. (farmstands) The farms in town right now (as far as I know) include White Barn Farm, Cook's Valley Farm, The Big Apple, and a new operation in West Wrentham called New Heritage Farm.

The farmer must scale his accessory uses to be appropriate to the premises and the surrounding residential area and provide off-street parking for his patrons. He would need to obtain appropriate Board of Health permits and coordinate with the public safety officials to determine if a police detail is needed.

We would be so so grateful if you could talk about this upcoming vote with your friends and neighbors, distinguishing it from the Madison St. Re-Zoning vote. We would appreciate any sort of social media sharing you can offer, as well. This amendment is not just to make our crazy dreams a reality - it is to contribute to the financial viability of our farm, which we hope allows our farm to continue operating and, most importantly, will preserve this place as open space and a working farm. There is the added bonus that these activities will bring some cultural enrichment to the town.

Thank you for taking your valuable time to read about this. Please, please go to town meeting on Monday, June 10th and stand up for your farms! The meeting is scheduled to run from 7:30pm to 11pm at the King Philip High School.

It's June and White Barn Farm is open full time for the Summer.

Roadside Stand Hours:

Tuesday through Friday 2pm* to 7pm

*Wednesdays we open at 10am!!! 

Saturday 10am to 2pm

The Jordan Brothers Seafood Truck is at the farmstand on Tuesdays, 2pm to 6pm, and Fridays, 2pm to 7pm

We always have:

• Iggy's Bread
• Sheldonville Roasters Coffee
• Puddingstone Organics eggs
• our own fresh-cut Flowers
• and our fresh produce, of course!!!
• Honey and Maple Syrup when available

TODAY IS OUR FIRST WEDNESDAY MORNING MARKET!! come on down!

Peonies and Baptisia are the stars of our fresh flower bouquets. They look great!

Thank you as always for your support!!!

White Barn Farm

www.whitebarnfarm.org