THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 7
FULL SHARE & YELLOW HALF SHARE
PICK UP TONIGHT
5pm–7:30pm at JACK Theater
18 Putnam Ave (between Grand and Downing)
Please wear a mask and practice social distancing!
IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ!
Your shares will look a little different this week. Shares will no longer arrive in cardboard boxes. Instead, they will be packed in bags according to type - you'll get a bag of greens, a bag of bulkier vegetables, and a bag of tomatoes. Don't forget to bring some tote bags to make transporting your share easier!
We've also changed our distribution layout. Please check in and pick up your vegetable share on the right, closer to Grand Ave, and then move left, toward Downing St, to pick up your fruit, flowers, and eggs. Please note: this is the final week for flower shares!
Many thanks to all who donated to offset the farm's COVID related extra costs! If you would like to purchase a recycled cotton Clinton Hill CSA tote bag, make a donation here (funds will be used to offset Windflower Farm's COVID-19 packaging expenses), or bring $10 cash to tonight's pick up.
And a final note: The "What's in your Share" list is a *best estimate* - occasionally, we won't receive an item that's included on the list (like last week's potted herbs), and sometimes, we get more than we expected! Ted and co. strive for accuracy, but farming can be unpredictable. We apologize for any disappointment this may have caused!
Order extras from Lewis Waite Farm for delivery with next week's share!
Once a month, Lewis Waite Farm delivers to our CSA. In addition to their certified organic, 100% grass-fed beef and pasture raised pork, they offer countless other items from small, family run farms and producers in the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires, including ghee, butter and cheese from local cow, goat, and sheep's milk; Hawthorne Valley sauerkraut and kimchi (great for fortifying yourself against Covid-19, according to this study), pantry items like pasta, grains, dried beans, flours, and nuts; a gingham rainbow of jams and preserves, local honey and maple syrup, and "the best Jewish rye in NYC (!)".
When you create an account, make sure you select "Clinton Hill" from the "shopping for" drop-down menu. Place your order by 8:00 am, Wednesday, July 29, for delivery on with your July 30th share! It's a meaningful and convenient way to support local farms and decrease your carbon footprint!
News from Windflower Farm
Distribution #7 - Week of July 20, 2020
Hello from a hot Windflower Farm!
What’s in your share?
Fennel bulbs and fronds
Scallions
Eggplant
Assorted tomatoes
Zucchinis or summer squashes
Green Boston lettuce
Kale or collards
Onion bulbs
Broccoli, broccolini or beets
Your fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm. Peaches, plums and apricots are coming soon.
Peppers have also been coming along quickly and may be a part of next week’s share. Beans are likely, too.
Our eggplant harvest came as a bit of a surprise for us this week - the hot weather and drip irrigation have helped to bring it along sooner than expected. If you are relatively new to eggplant, you might try it on your pizza: slice it, dip it in a light batter, and fry it on the stove top. Put the fried eggplant slices on top of your favorite pizza and add dollops of pesto and ricotta. Baba ganoush, ratatouille and Thai spicy eggplant with basil are other excellent options.
Fennel bulbs and fronds are also in your shares. Curried roasted fennel, summer slaw and shaved fennel salad are great ways to enjoy this vegetable. All of these recipes and many more can be found at the Stanton Street CSA website (https://stantonstreetcsa.wordpress.com) under “Veggie tips & recipes.” We also like contentednesscooking.com for recipe ideas.
We experimented with packing everything into one bag at a few sites last week, and the results were not what we wanted. This week, your shares will come in three packages: two smaller plastic bags – one containing greens and the other the more durable vegetables – and a paper bag full of tomatoes. And they will be shipped to sites in separate totes. Remember, there will be no box (except locally and at the park site in Washington Hts.), so you’ll need something in which to carry these items home.
What’s new on the farm?
Our organic certification inspector is coming on Tuesday. Farm inspections are an annual event, but this is our first with this organization. We’ve been busy getting our paperwork in order, putting soil tests in a file, cleaning up our workshop, tidying up our barns and seed cupboard, tackling weed messes and generally trying to make ourselves appear respectable.
The inspector, a woman from the western Catskills, will come with two activities in mind. In the “mass balance audit” she’ll take a look at all of our purchases (seeds, plastics, etc.), field applications (compost, lime), field plantings and harvest records and ask if this is enough to support our sales volume or what we have noted on our CSA distribution lists. In the “trace-back audit” she’ll select an item from the distribution record and follow it back through time from distribution to harvest and planting, looking at field maps, seeding records and the purchase of associated inputs. It could be a long day.
Wish us luck, and have a great week!
Cheers, Ted
Free Fridges and Local Composting Sites
There are now free fridges operating in Fort Greene, on the corner of Washington Park and Myrtle Ave, and in Clinton Hill, at 73 Washington Ave (near the Navy Yard). Playground Coffee has stationed three fridges in Bed Stuy, and there are others in Crown Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, and Bushwick, just to name a few. If you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity, the fridges are stocked! If you have food to spare, from your share or otherwise, consider leaving some in a community fridge.
And here are a few local sites collecting compost:
Prospect Heights Community Farm: Sundays between 10am and 12pm
Domino Park (South Williamsburg) Mondays 10am-12pm and Thursdays 6pm-8pm
BK Rot (1309 Dekalb Ave, Bed Stuy/Bushwick border) Sundays 12-3pm
Recipes
This weeks beet-centric recipe is QUITE involved, but it's the greatest sandwich I have ever had - the Scuttlebutt from Saltie - so I'm including it! Read more about this incredible sandwich, its cult following, and the laborious task of recreating it at home in this article from Edible Brooklyn. Before you get to the sandwich assembly itself, you'll make various pickles, an herb salad, boiled eggs, and a pimenton (smoked paprika) aioli (though you could just doctor up some regular mayo). If you're feeling up to it, you can make your own focaccia, too. The amounts here are scaled to "feed a crowd," so adjust as necessary - having a big batch of pickles in the fridge is great, but you may not need to boil 10 eggs!
And as a less fussy alternative, here's a gazpacho recipe for your tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers.
Visit our website for more recipes, storage tips, and information.
We'd like to hear from you!
This newsletter is your weekly guide to all things CHCSA-related: share updates, news from Ted and Jan Blomgren at Windflower Farm, food storage tips, recipes, articles, neighborhood news, and more.
We'd love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to get involved. If you have any Beet submissions—recipes, articles, local events, etc—please feel free to send them to information@clintonhillcsa.org.
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