Early Bird Discount for winter shares: save 10% if you signup for Shared Harvest winter share by May 31.

Early spring is when the farms are most in need of dedicated support from shareholders as they complete their crop plans, buy supplies, repair, and purchase equipment, hire their crews and begin growing the food for our shares.

Choose one month or all of the winter months! Click Here to Sign-Up

Hi everyone! Now that the winter is wrapping up, we’ll be working on our site a bit. You’ll notice some changes this week and next–bear with us as we work to get all of our content reorganized and updated.

Thanks for a wonderful winter season! Come visit us at Arlington EcoFest on Saturday, March 24th. Stay tuned for details!

New England is turning more grey and brown, typical of November.  Our rainbow palette of fresh food will surely brighten the day, though.  Giving thanks to the hard work of all the farms this year–it’s been an amazing harvest!

The hyperlinks on the vegetable names take you to a lot of recipes and information about those vegetables.  If you’ve never had popcorn from the farm, please check out the tips at the end of this post and Enjoy!

Use these within a week or so (or blanch or make a dish for freezing):

Brussels Sprouts, bag from Riverland ( roast, steam, braise, or blanch for the freezer),

Spinach from Picadilly (or blanche and freeze, or make pesto and store for weeks in fridge)

Arugula from Picadilly (or make pesto and store for weeks in the fridge)

Kale “curly” Winterbor—2 bunches, from Riverland—great in soups, grated and marinated for a salad, or kale chips!

These will keep for a couple of weeks in your fridge crisper drawer:
Leeks—keep whole or chop for soup and freeze (no need to blanch) from Picadilly

These will keep for many weeks in cold storage (keep moist in bag, with some ventilation):

Apples–storage varieties, 5#, from Cider Hill.  All apples today will store well, except for Empire which is good now, but should be used on the sooner side (won’t stay as crisp for as long as others). Most sources recommend storing apples separately from other cold storage items as they have a ripening agent which may hasten other items past their prime.
Carrots – 6#, from Riverland
Cabbage (red or green), from Riverland and Picadilly— sauerkraut or kimchi ideally is made asap

Potatoes – 8#, white from Picadilly

These will keep for many weeks in cool, dry conditions (40-55 degrees), like a shelf in your basement or unheated room as long as it doesn’t freeze; store in paper bags:
Garlic ½ #(can also be stored in a tightly closed jar in the refrigerator), from Riverland
Onions, yellow, 2#, from Harlow Farm in VT

These will keep for a several weeks in your kitchen or in a cool dry cellar:

Winter Squash, 3 pieces, from Picadilly. good idea to inspect these periodically and use (or peel and freeze) blemished ones.

These will keep for months at 50-70 degrees—NOT COLD STORAGE:
Sweet potatoes 4#’s, from Riverland

Popcorn Cellar, cool, damp, or room temperature if using within a couple of months
Once a week, shell a few kernels and try popping them. When the test kernels are popping well and tasting good, shell and store the rest of the kernels in sealed, airtight containers. If stored popcorn fails to pop, it may be too dry. Add 1 tablespoon of water to a quart of popcorn. Cover and shake at frequent intervals until the popcorn has absorbed the water. After 3 or 4 days, test pop a few kernels to see if it is ready. A number of winter shareholders have had good luck putting the cob of popcorn directly into a microwave.

Share contents for Saturday, October 21, 2017
Also check out Jackie Starr’s menu suggestions and recipe links on our website!

Use these within a week or so (or blanche or make a dish for freezing):
Lettuce-1 head, from Riverland
Spinach, from Picadilly
Mixed greens– a bunch or bag, from Riverland (great braised or sauted!)
Kale—2 bunches, from Riverland—soups, grated and marinated for a salad, or chips
Red Italia Peppers-1# Picadilly
Herb bunch, from Picadilly

These will keep for a couple of weeks cold in your fridge crisper drawer:
Brussels Sprouts, pop off the stalk from Riverland
Leeks (2 bunches)—keep whole or chop for soup and freeze (no need to blanche)
Salad (Hakurei) turnips – a bunch (cut off the greens and use them first)
Napa Cabbage—ideally wrap in a wet towel to keep extra moist

These will keep for many weeks in cold storage (keep moist in bag, with some ventilation, back of fridge or cold cellar or garage, 33-45 degrees, humid)
Carrots – 5#, from Riverland
Potatoes – 5#, white from Picadilly
Beets – 3#, from Picadilly
Celeriac— from Picadilly, peel and slice or grate as an excellent salad or stirfry ingredient, steam and mash like potatoes,
Cabbage from Riverland—(if you are making sauerkraut or kimchi, do that asap)

These will keep for many weeks in cool, dry conditions (40-55 degrees), like a shelf in your basement or unheated room as long as it doesn’t freeze; store in paper bags:
Garlic ½ #(can also be stored in a tightly closed jar in the refrigerator), from Picadilly
Onions, yellow, 2#, from Riverland

These will keep for a few weeks in your kitchen or in a cool dry cellar:
Acorn/Carnival Squash, 3 pieces, from Picadilly

These will keep for months at 50-70 degrees, in paper bags or box
—NOT COLD STORAGE:
Sweet potatoes 4#’s, from Riverland

This particularly intense hurricane season brings on, in varying stages, thoughts about resilience.

Those of us not in the path of direct damage to our homes and towns, and too far away to serve as immediate refuge, still dry and warm here in the sun…we certainly recognize our good fortune on this particular day.  But we can also already adopt wide angle vision, consider cause and effect, and ponder or investigate how our own region might react, and invest in ways to prepare now to prevent damage and rebound from a future storm like Harvey or Irma.

Last year wildly fluctuating spring temperatures fairly completely wiped out the peach crop here in Massachusetts and beyond.  (CBS Local: “Mass. Peach Crop Ruined”)

Peach trees at Smolak Farms. (WBZ-TV)

This year my family was invited to “rescue” our friend’s two peach trees from too much fruit!  (Though the 2016 flower buds froze, the roots, branches, and leaves were largely unharmed.)  The trees bounced back, certainly.   What about the orchards?

2017 FARM SHARE FAIR!
Wednesday March 29th @ 5:30-8:30PM
The Armory
191 Highland Ave, Somerville

free and open to the public
proceeds to benefit the Urban Farming Institute
more info at www.farmsharefair.com
get connected on facebook and twitter!

I’ll be there along with Bruce Wooster–stop by for a chat!  Bring your checkbook to sign up for shares, and/or browse– oyster shares, Dean’s Beans coffees, Soluna Garden farm herbs and teas, etc.

Signup for Shared Harvest 2017-18 is open now for Arlington/Winchester and Jamaica Plain, and includes a discounted share price (through May 15) on whichever months you sign up for.

Info for Summer Shares is also on our website; signup through these individual farms.

From Baer’s Best Beans: 2 one-pound bags of dried beans (choice of black turtle, red kidney, and soldier (white with red flecks))

From Picadilly Farm

potatoes – 5 pounds
carrots – 6 pounds
parsnips – 3 pounds
rutabagas – 2 pounds
butternuts – 2 pieces
dried herbs – a bunch
beets – 3 pounds

From Riverland Farm:

1 Cabbage

Gilfeather turnips 2 pounds (read here to learn more about the Gilfeather and how it was recently named Vermont’s State Vegetable!)

Sweet Potatoes-4 pounds

Garlic-half pound

1 Celeriac

Onions-2 pounds

1 Tomato Puree

Some extras of some of the above, since the salad greens didn’t work out (see below).

Rutebagas usually have a purplish shade on top with a creamy golden interior

Gilfeather turnips are sweet, creamy, and white on the inside

Rutebagas and Gilfeathers are surprisingly versatile, steamed and mashed, shredded raw into salads, fermented, etc.  Gilfeather can be successfully used in place of cauliflower in some recipes.  See the Recipes page under the Storage Tips and Recipes Menu for some interesting ideas.

 The salad greens at Riverland did not regrow well for this month (typical greenhouse growing for winter harvest is “cut and come again” with the second and third cuts always being fairly dicey, given constraints of indoor growing–a matrix of factors including timing of planting and cutting, sunlight (and heat) availability, snow cover, space, ventilation, weather conditions at harvest, etc.  Kudos to farmers Meighan and Rob for taking on the challenge of winter greens growing each year!

Below is a list of the probable contents for our upcoming February 4 Share Boxes.  Rutebagas and Gilfeathers are surprisingly versatile, steamed and mashed, shredded raw into salads, fermented, etc.  Gilfeather can be successfully used in place of cauliflower in some recipes.  See the Recipes page under the Storage Tips and Recipes Menu for some interesting ideas.

Share contents:

From Baer’s Best Beans

2 one-pound bags of dried beans (choice of black turtle, red kidney, and soldier (white with red flecks))

Rutebagas usually have a purplish shade on top with a creamy golden interior

From Picadilly Farm 

potatoes – 5 pounds
carrots – 6 pounds
parsnips – 3 pounds
rutabagas – 2 pounds
butternuts – 2 pieces
dried herbs – a bunch
beets – 3 pounds

From Riverland Farm: 

1 Cabbage

Gilfeather turnips are sweet, creamy, and white on the inside

Gilfeather turnips 2 pounds (read here to learn more about the Gilfeather and how it was recently named Vermont’s State Vegetable!)

Sweet Potatoes-4 pounds

Garlic-half pound

1 Celeriac

Onions-2 pounds

1 Tomato Puree

and maybe Salad Greens, depending upon how well they are doing in the high tunnel (unheated, protected greenhouse)

As always, there is the option to order Extras to pick up with the share (ordering online till Tues. night, Jan. 31).  These include eggs, wild mushrooms, medicinal mushroom extracts, cheeses, yogurt, and beef from cows humanely raised on pasture (100% grass), more varieties of beans, and extra veggies like sweet potatoes, beets, etc. to last  into spring!

Immune boosting Reishi Mushroom extract from Fungi Ally

At the pickup, we will also have a few things on offer (not pre-order), including fresh oyster mushrooms, Doves and Figs jams, and a few other items.

Thanks to  Wright-Locke Farm for hosting this week’s share pickup!  With forecast saying below freezing temps all day today, we–and the veggies–will be much better with more shelter and the cozy wood stove at the farm.

Wright-Locke Farm is a beautifully maintained historic farmstead and working community farm, adjacent to conservation area trails (also good for XC skiing when there is enough snow) and skating pond.  This publicly owned farm and conservation area is a beautiful place to explore in all seasons.  A trail map and more information can be found on the farm sign by the road and inside the stand.

During the share pickup, if you do choose to stay a while, please move your car to the soccer field parking lot across the way or park on an adjacent neighborhood street to make room near the farm stand for pickups.

Have you ever seen Brussels Sprouts harvested (or grown them yourself)?  For Brussels Sprouts fans, November is a great time of year!

There are 2 stalks from Riverland Farm in each of the shares this week.

Brussels Sprouts at Riverland, stripped of their large leaves, waiting to be cut for the shares.

For those who think they don’t like these little “mini cabbage” greens (like my little brother who used to drown them in applesauce to get them down), fresh Sprouts from the farm in November are definitely worth checking out, esp. roasted with garlic, olive oil, and salt!

In the unlikely event that you have more than you can eat in the next week, Sprouts can be blanched in boiling water for 3 or 4 minutes, or steamed briefly, then frozen for later use in soups, pies, etc.

A rainbow of color in the share again this month!

From Cider Hill Farm: Apples–in the midst of some varieties that store well, the gold and red ones are galas, which are sweet and crispy now but should be eaten soon (Gala is not a storage variety.)

From Picadilly and Riverland Farms:  Brussels Sprouts, Red Cabbage, Carrots, Garlic, Leeks,  Red Russian Kale, green Curly Kale, red Lettuce, Popcorn, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Squash (butternut), Turnips (Gilfeather), Onions, Potatoes