“…the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.” (The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry)

In your box- Kale, Broccoli or Cauliflower, Arrowhead Cabbage, Garlic Scapes,

Next Week’s Best Guess: broccoli, savoy cabbage, garlic scapes, salad mix, carrots, zucchini, snap beans, rainbow chard

Welcome to Week 6. We are entering another seasonal transition from many brassica (cabbage family) crops to beans, field carrots, and zucchini, soon to be followed by cucumbers and tomatoes. One of our big plans for the year was to have more consistent lettuce (every week if possible) and to have more broccoli and cabbage throughout the season. Both those plans are going well. Our old plantings of cauliflower and broccoli are going out and the new broccoli planting is coming in. Next week should bring bountiful broccoli too. There are lots of garlic scapes in the box and you will have a new next week as well. We suggest chopping and freezing in small ice cubes with olive oil, making a greens pesto, or trying garlic scape recipes like our ranch dressing (or use epicurious.com). We spent the last week finishing up more fall plantings, making hay and getting lots of great weeding projects done. The sweet corn is looking good this year and the potatoes are fantastic! We have also been blessed by mostly perfectly timed rains all season which means less time irrigating and worrying and also more time weeding. We are currently in a small battle with cucumber beetles and will be spraying melon and cucumber plants with a fine clay to protect the crop. In other news Kat is featured in this week’s Farmer-to-Farmer podcast. You can listen and learn more about our journey here http://www.farmertofarmerpodcast.com/

Have a delicious week- Kat, Tony, Riley, Ted and Maple

Kat’s Kitchen

Yogurt herb ranch-style dressing (for dip, salads or slaws)- ½ to ¾ cup Plain Yogurt or Greek Yogurt, 2 Tbs (or more to taste) of fresh dill or basil; Sprinkle of salt and pepper to taste, 1 garlic scape, 6 Tbs olive oil, 2 Tbs parmesan (optional). Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender. You can use some mayo in place of some olive oil for a more traditional ranch flavor.

Roasted Brassicas – great served as a side veggie, as a topping for bread with goat cheese and red sauce, in pasta or for morning eggs. Roasting bring out the sweetness of all veggies. Heat oven to 400-450. Roughly chop broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage and several garlic scapes. Coat with olive or sunflower oil and roast stirring several time.

Cream of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower soup. You can also make a thicker version of this soup and use it as a sauce on baked potatoes or rice. Just use 2/3 the liquid. First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Next, separate the heads of broccoli and cauliflower from their stalks. Cut the heads of the broccoli and cauliflower into individual florets, place on a sheet pan, and toss together with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place the pan in the oven, and roast the broccoli and cauliflower for 15 minutes, or until slightly caramelized. In the meantime, chop the onion/garlic and stalks of the broccoli and cauliflower. Place enough oil in a heavy pot to coat the bottom, and heat until shimmering over medium heat. Add to the pot, and cook until translucent. While this is cooking, chop the cabbage, add the cabbage, and cook until soft, stirring occasionally. By this time, the broccoli and cauliflower should be just ready, or already out of the oven. Add that to the pot and stir to mix. Next, pour in the broth, turn the heat up to high, and heat until just simmering. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until flavors are blended, turning the heat lower as needed. While the soup is cooking, dice the provolone cheese, and bring the mascarpone cheese to room temperature. Once the soup is done simmering, add the cream, and heat until warm and the soup is partially thickened. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup to an even consistency. Then, add the provolone cheese, cumin, and white pepper, stirring to incorporate. As a last step before serving, swirl in the mascarpone cheese.

The ABCs of Stoney Acres

Animals. We have several species and constantly debate more. They provide equal amounts of frustration and celebration – providing us with manure for compost, great pasture management and great food, but also sometimes escaping, taking up time as we make them hay and much more.

Barn Dance. Best Party of the season, our wedding anniversary, brings friends, CSA folk, and neighbors together and has the best potluck ever. Not to be missed… August 8th!

Community. We depend on our community at so many levels from our CSA community to the people down the road, through the woods, and in town.

Diversity. Diversity is our organizing principle – grow many things so the farm is always bountiful. Balance out pests by providing habitat for beneficial insects, recognize the importance economically, ecologically, and for human and animal diets.

Ecology. To farm with and to support natural systems. We depend on our farm ecology to grow your food.

Family farm. A farm where the family provides the majority of the labor. That is us. This term is often used for political ends and marketing but has a history as one of the most important forms of economic democracy nationally and internationally.

Greens. Super foods, important to our diets and plentiful in CSA boxes. Don’t forget to freeze for winter when they’re in short supply.

Help. We depend on our parents, friends, employees, CSA dropsite hosts. Help makes the farm work!

Ice cream. The farm is powered partial by Ben and Jerry’s and Maul’s ice cream. Many people relax with a pint of beer, Tony relaxes with a pint of ice cream.

July. The center of farm season chronologically. It is the time we shift from majority planting and weeding to harvesting.

Kids. Always around, mostly helpful and sometimes crazy. We have three of them around here – Riley (7), Ted (5 next week), and Maple (20 Months).

Local. Many ways to define this term. We are happy that we travel no farther than 40 minutes to bring fresh food to wonderful eaters.

Marketplace. We love the farmers market and feel that putting the “place” back in marketplace is one of missions in life. We celebrate all the wonderful farmers who feed out community.

Neighbors. Family farms need family and neighbors. We are endlessly thankful to those who lend us equipment, time, meals and love.

Organic. A term that is debated hotly but it provides a clear alternative to pesticides, GMOs, and large issues in industrial agriculture. Is it perfect? No. But it has started an important dialogue nationally on agricultural alternatives.

Perennials. Our pasture, fruit trees, berry bushes, nuts, wild spaces, woods are all perennials. Perennial systems are part of our planning for bountiful boxes.

Quixotic. Defined as exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical. Many of the ideas and ideals we have often slip into this category but they also allow us to innovate and to make change at the farm and community level.

Renewable energy – We have an 8K solar system and a wood gasification boiler which provide together about 80% of our electricity and all the heat for the packshed and greenhouse. We are expanding solar to produce all of our electricity next season.

Soil. Soil is the main “crop” we cultivate on our crop as it cares for everything else. Soil is life and life is soil.

Tractor. We have 2 of these, soon to be three. Important for many aspect of soil management and planting.

Umbelliferous crops- carrots, dill, cilantro, celery, celeriac, parsnips. These are some of the most loved veggies from the farm.

Vacuum Seeder. Our matermacc seeder this year has provided a lot of great new things on the farm including the ability to mechanically cultivate (weed) and more uniform spacing.

Wormy. A wonderful description of soil health and the agriculture and culture of our farm.

Xerces. Bee species are important to pollination. We have a neighbor that keeps 30 hives of honey bees on the farm as well.

Ying and Yang- Balance is central to farming, our relationship, our family and our year. We hibernate in winter and work all summer.

Zucchini. In your box next week the vegetable we love and many people love to make jokes about.