THE STATE OF THE FARM
June UPDATE
On the verge of summer now, with things starting to ripen in the fields. It's the beginning of the Pick Your Own season here, starting with strawberries. The crop looks amazing.
We'll be having our big celebration of the strawberry, The Strawberry Soiree, on June 19th, with a strawberry tasting in the barn from 2-5pm. We have nine different varieties for you to try, and they all have their own flavors! Free and open to the public. In the evening there is also a special feast in the field, with a menu featuring our organic strawberries. For details about the afternoon, and evening menu, please visit the Strawberry Soiree page.
All our strawberries are certified organic. We have them already picked at our farm stands and market booths. And then ripe and ready in the Pick Your Own fields. Teachings on how to pick snap, snow and shell peas below.
Our Pick Your Own fields are open for members of the farm only. If you are interested in picking with us, please consider joining the farm as a Farmstand Member or a CSA Member. There are many good things about being a member of the farm, and it helps us with our planning and funding.
Check out our Farmstands and Markets page for our farmers' market locations and farmstand details.
New "Eating Local" Cookbook
Another thing happening very soon is a book signing with farmers Ryan and Sarah Voiland - we got featured in a big beautiful cookbook!
We'll be at a cook ware store in Chestnut Hill on Sunday, June 13th, 1:30 - 3 pm, with some samples of produce and cookbooks to sign. The cookbooks are also for sale at our Granby stand. The author, Janet Fletcher, came to last year's Tomato Festival to cook and see the farm.
The photographer with her had a lot of fun with our T-fest vegetable freak show:) But the cookbook mainly features really gorgeous photos that make you want to eat vegetables like crazy. And descriptions of some other really cool farms around the United States.
Come visit us in Chestnut Hill to taste some strawberries and see the cookbook. Sur La Table in the Chestnut Hill Mall, 199 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.
See what the cookbook looks like and some sample recipes at the Sur La Table website.
Teachings on Picking Peas
Pea picking is an excellent art to master this time of year.
The patch is a bit of a jungle again with tall trellises on some varieties and vines overtaking what are supposed to be the walking aisles so please walk gingerly when you enter the pea patch to pick and try to minimize injury to vines that are still growing.
When picking peas, please pick from the designated rows and know what type of pea you are picking...
We have three types of peas.
Snap peas (above), of which the tall-vined sugarsnap variety is the tastiest, are the types that must be picked plump, with the pod all filled out, round as a finger. They aren't sweet until they fill out. Taste them and you'll know what I mean. You eat the entire sweet pods either raw or cooked.
Snow peas (above) are ready when the pods are still flat, and you eat the entire tender shell. They are often used in Asian style stir fry's. Pick them when they've grown a little in length, to about the length of a finger :).
Shell Peas (above) are look-alikes to snow peas, until they fill out. Can you see the unripe pod just behind my hand? It often happens folks will pick immature shell peas thinking that they are snow peas, but shell peas have tough pods that you would not want to add to any stir fry! Shell peas also must be picked plump as these are the type where you remove the shell and just eat the little round seeds inside. The peas inside should be grown to about the size of peas :).
Yum!
Farm Shares Available At Some Locations
It is CSA Farm Share season! Our shares haves started for the season, but you can still join at some locations, with pricing prorated for the shares that you have missed so far. You can find out which sites still have shares available on our Join the CSA page.
We made a new video to help tell about our CSA farm shares. It has lots of pictures from the farm and details about how we do things. Please click on the photo below to see the video:
Also please give a call or send an email with any questions you have!
NOTES ON HOW TO CSA
HOW TO BE READY FOR YOUR FIRST PICKUP
1. Remember your pickup time and place and put it in your calendar. I just talked to a gal who programmed her pickup time into her cell phone with a little reminder alarm. (We will also send you a reminder of your site the week of June 7th.)
2. Get some bags to bring.
3. Check out the rest of this e-mail :)
HOW TO GET YOUR VEGETABLES
1. Bring your bags to the pickup location within the distribution hours. If you have extra bags around you can bring some to share.
2. Check in with your coordinator every week when you arrive, so they can sign you in. For the first week, check your contact and share information on the sign in sheet to make sure everything is correct. If you have a fruit or flower share, ask the coordinator, and they'll hook you up with it. (Flower shares don't start until July. Egg Shares start the first week of distributions. Fruit Shares will start the first or second week of distributions, depending on the strawberry crop.)
3. Use the list of vegetables and amounts written on the white board to select the items that you want within the weekly guidelines. The produce will be displayed market-style in crates on tables. Some of it you weigh with the scale.
Special Weighing Note: We send various things by weight, with enough for each share at the pickup. Make sure not to go over the allotted weight or people at the end might not have any veggies left! Remember your neighbors who come at the end!
4. Chat a little, swap recipes, and head out with your loot.
We send out a guesstimate of what will be in the share in the weekly e-mail, which I'll be trying to get out early in the week so you can start thinking about what to make. If you have a Farmstand Membership in Granby or Montague, you just select your items from the stand towards your membership amount.
Directions to the various CSA pickup locations are on the website in the navigation bar.
MIT CSA location map.
HAVING FUN WITH YOUR CSA MEMBERSHIP
1. Enjoy the produce in as many ways as possible. Trying things raw, cooking new recipes, sharing with friends, preserving for the winter, composting for future soil, taking pictures, writing limericks for our newsletter :).
2. Read the e-mails and newsletter, especially to keep abreast of any changes, and stay in tune with the farm. Great recipes!
3. Visit the farm with friends or family to pick your own any time or for a special event. You're always welcome!
GOOD TIMES TO COME FOR PICK YOUR OWN
It's fun to plan a couple trips to the farm during the season.
Strawberries are at their peak the weekend of June 12-13. Tons of people always come the Strawberry Soiree weekend, June 19th and 20th, so the pickings get slim that weekend. We recommend coming for the 12-13 if you aren't coming for the Soiree. Strawberries are done fruiting by July. Other available crops during Strawberry season are herbs, and snap, snow and shell peas.
Later August and September are also great months to come for pick your own, with things like cherry tomatoes, basil, tomatillos, hot peppers, green beans, herbs, flowers, and ground cherries in abundance.
Getting to the Farm
If you have a car, share a ride! Meet some other local food loving people. Sign up now to do ridesharing this season. Details about ridesharing.
Preserving Parties
By the by, when you're setting your schedule, if you like to make dates for things, I highly recommend planning a weekend or a day of preserving sometime late August or September. Make some tomato sauce, can some salsa, freeze some corn or peppers. Peach jam. Pesto to freeze. Watermelon eating party, what have you.
We send out a bulk order list once we have lots of things, and you can get ingredients for projects delivered to your CSA pickup.
Bulk pickling cukes for pickles are usually available from early July through the end of August. So plan to make pickles earlier on.
Other CSA Info
RAIN OR SHINE, SAME DAY SAME PLACE
The CSA happens every week rain or shine. You always pickup on the same day you signed up for at the same time through the season. Except any announced exceptions through the year (good reason to read your e-mail ☺).
FOOD RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS PICK UP EXTRA PRODUCE
We organize to donate leftover produce to food relief organizations in the area. Any produce left at the end of the distribution gets picked up by a food relief organization right after the distribution hours close. So if you can't make it one day, your goods will go to a good cause.
IF YOU'RE GOING AWAY
If you're planning to be away for the day of your pickup, we recommend setting up a friend to come pickup your share. You could hook them up with some veggies for their help! This is a great way to introduce new people to the CSA concept.
HAVE TIME TO HELP OUT SETTING UP YOUR PICKUP?
If you have time to come by and help your coordinator set up the distribution the hour before it begins each week, let him or her know and you guys can work out when to come. A volunteer or two can really help make things go more smoothly at setup!
ARRIVE EARLY AND THE COORDINATOR IS STILL SETTING UP?
Don't be shy to lend a hand! Sometimes the truck gets delayed loading at the farm or traffic prevents the vegetables from getting there as early as planned. If your coordinator is running around like crazy, he or she will welcome a hand writing signs or doing anything to get the shares set up. (They told me to say this :).
HOW TO DO YOUR PAYMENT PLAN
Please make your payments on time so we can keep our cash flow working! Split your balance up equally into three payments to be paid by the dates below (but you can make the amounts easy, like pay a little more one time so you don't have .3333 cents). You can also switch out of the payment plan by paying your whole balance at any time if desired.
What's My Balance?
You can find out your balance by checking with your distribution coordinator at pickup; they have a list with all the info! Check your address and info the first week to make sure we don't have any typos! (and let the coordinator know of any changes we need to make). We don't send bills.
Making a Payment
You can pay by check (preferred for us!) or through Paypal in our website CSA signup page. Your payment should be reflected in the next week or two on the distribution coordinators list (we won't send a confirmation, so this is the best place to check if you would like to know). Please call or e-mail if you have questions. Make a payment for the CSA Online.
Paying on Time Is Great :)
Please pay on time! If it's late this is what happens: We begin billing for payments not received within one month of the due date, and add a late fee of $5 for each bill we send. Best thing to do is put the dates in your calendar or on your fridge and then you will remember!
For people who signed up to pay in full by June 1st, please send your payment in this week.
For the Three Payment Folks, Here's the Dates to pay by for the season:
July 1
August 5
September 10
Thank you!