csa

Spring CSA 2024: Bag Three

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Spring CSA Bag Three is headed to you!

This week’s bag should include the following:

  • shredded savoy cabbage
  • micro greens
  • basil (or some other herb)
  • swiss chard
  • “farmer’s choice” greens: either spinach, red mustard, wasabi mustard, bok choi)
  • red onion
  • parsnips
  • carrots
  • celeriac
  • potatoes – French fingerlings
  • eggs (from our friends in New Braintree, MA)

Correct storage of the items in your CSA share is the key to successfully eating seasonally.  Here is a Storage Cheat Sheet that I hand out with Winter CSA that also applies to Spring CSA.  Check it out if you need storage tips.

This weekly letter will be coming to your inbox the day before your pickup and is also available at stillmansfarm.com/blog and stilllifefarm.wordpress.com.  

If you cannot recycle or reuse them, we are accepting returned CSA bags.  Please be sure that returned bags are clean and in good condition.

We will see you in TWO WEEKS for your next bounty of Spring bag. The spring CSA schedule is also on our website calendar.

Saturdays:

March 9, March 23, April 6, April 20, May 4, May 18, June 1
Jamaica Plain, 12-3pm

Sundays:

March 10, March 24, April 7, April 21, May 5, May 19, June 2
Lunenburg, 12-1pm

Thursdays:

March 14, March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6
Boston (Boston Public Market) 12-5pm
Brookline (Beals Street) 1-6pm
Watertown (City Hall) 12:30-1pm
Natick (Princeton Rd) 1:30-6pm
Worcester (Deadhorse Hill Restaurant) 5-9pm
Hardwick (Still Life Farm) 4-6pm
New Braintree (Stillman’s Farm) 12-6pm

Stir fry made with shredded cabbage, carrots, and daikon radish
Stir fry – the raw ingredients

Spinach Basil Frittata (you can also substitute mustard or bok choi)

  • 6 large eggs beaten with S&P
  • Spinach
  • Basil
  • onions/shallot/scallions
  • Garlic
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Olive oil
  • grated/shredded cheese(optional)


Pre-heat your oven to 350℃
Sauté garlic and whatever form of onions you are using in oil in a large oven-proof pan until golden. Turn heat to low, sauté spinach gently until wilted.
Distribute the veg evenly around the pan, and slowly pour the egg over it. Top it with your fresh basil, turn the heat to medium, this is where I move the veg around in the pan a little to make sure the egg is settling in around everything. After the egg begins to set up, sprinkle optional cheese over the top and put the pan in the oven. It should be set up completely in 5-10 minutes, egg cooked in the middle. Enjoy with a salad!

Running the below again because you have shredded cabbage this week! If you are not feeling the slaw, then whip up a stirfry?

Genevieve’s Go-to Slaw Dressing

Simple, simple, simple: To 1/3 cup cider vinegar add 1/2 tsp kosher salt (sea salt would be good too), a bunch of black pepper, a fat TB of Dijon or spicy brown mustard, 1/2 tsp celery seed (if you like); slowly whisk in 1/2 cup oil (something light, I use canola or safflower), Toss over anything shredded: kohlrabi, radish, cabbage, carrot, apple…

Baked Risotto with Greens

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1 small onion, minced
  • 1 cup arborio rice
  • 1 3/4 cups low-salt vegetable or chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup tomato sauce (jarred pasta sauce will do)
  • 3/4 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
  • 1 bunch greens such as kale, beet greens, or chard, stems removed, washed and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400. In 1-quart baking dish, combine oil and onion over moderate heat. Cook until onion is soft, 3-4 minutes. Add rice, stir to coat with oil, and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, tomato sauce, and greens, and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat. Add half the cheese and smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and bake for 30-35 minutes, until rice is cooked through and has absorbed most of the liquid. Should be moist but not soupy.
Erica Fletcher (adapted from Patricia Wells’ Trattoria cookbook)

Sautéed Mustard Greens
Rinse leaves, let them stay wet, chop loosely. Add a splash of olive oil to skillet over medium-high heat, toss in a couple crushed garlic cloves and pinch of red pepper flakes, cook until garlic starts to brown, to infuse with flavor, then discard the garlic. Add in the mustard and sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook until tender (a couple of minutes), drizzle with balsamic and enjoy!

Yummy Dressing for Kale Salad

  • ¼ cup EVOO
  • 3 Tb apple cider vinegar
  • 1 Tb Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tb maple syrup
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 Tb white wine vinegar
  • 1Tb white wine
  • S&P to taste

Pour this over your chopped kale and massage in. Add some sliced red onion, slivered almonds, shaved carrot…

Greens Sauteed with Garlic, Raisins and Pine Nuts

Crocuses opening
Farmer Curt seeding spring radish
Transplanting tomato seedlings

Farm Dirt:

Well, the crocus and tête a têtes and phlox WERE pretty on Easter…covered with ice and snow at the moment. Looks like the weather will warm next week (today is the 5th) and we can get to plowing fields.

Stillman’s Farm.  The seed potatoes have arrived! We are looking forward to plowing something besides snow and putting down the first plastic. Then we can actually start planting the potatoes and getting peas in the ground! We depend on the plastic mulch to prevent weed seeds in the soil from germinating and competing with the actual planted crop. Weeds not only take up the nutrients in the soil, but take extra water (hmmm, maybe could be useful!!!!), light and aeration away from the desired plant. The alternative to plastic is mechanical or chemical weed control. The creation of genetically modified or engineered organisms is partially a response to effective and more economical weed control. Just to recap what you already know, we do not grow any GMO anything here and we use, at much higher expense, plastic and/or manpower to keep the weeds at bay; this is why we could never compete with big ag and why, back to potatoes, we cannot compete with price. It is important to us to continue to conscientiously grow with integrity and offer not only safe produce, BUT THE MOST DELICIOUS!…that goes for SLF farm too.

Fun fact: we get a lot of questions about whether we spray our crops with gramoxone (Roundup is a popular brand).  No, we don’t. One would have to be growing GMO, gramoxone-ready crops to be able to spray over them with gramoxone. We don’t have a crop on the farm that would not die if we sprayed it with a non-selective herbicide/plant killer.

Still Life Farm: Busy pruning orchards, seeding in the greenhouse, transplanting crops into the greenhouse for Spring CSA and transplanting seedlings into the grow house. General farm cleanup activities like pulling plastic, burning brush, garden cleanup and of course, shoveling and snow plowing this week, sigh.

Eat well & love your food,

Genevieve Stillman (Stillman’s Farm) & Halley Stillman (Still Life Farm)

Spring CSA 2024: Bag Two

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Spring CSA Bag Two should include the following:

  • Onions 
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Fingerling Potatoes – great roasted
  • Purple-top Turnips – roasted, soups, au gratin recipes
  • Hakurei Turnips – sliced fresh in salads or lightly cooked in stir fry
  • Beets – my favorite way to prepare is wrapped in foil and roasted
  • Swiss Chard
  • Curly Green Kale
  • Spinach
  • Mesclun Salad Greens
  • Apples (Cortland and Macoun)
  • Fresh Greens (cilantro or Italian parsley)

If you are eating with us for Spring CSA, you are really getting to the nitty-gritty of farm food and seasonal eating.  Eating local and seasonal during the early spring means lots of overwintered roots, apples, and squashes.  We have the additional luxury of greens coming out of our high tunnels and greenhouses!

Correct storage of the items in your CSA share is the key to successfully eating seasonally.  Here is a Storage Cheat Sheet that I hand out with Winter CSA that also applies to Spring CSA.  Check it out if you need storage tips.

This weekly letter will be coming to your inbox the day before your pickup and is also available at stillmansfarm.com/blog and stilllifefarm.wordpress.com.  

We will see you in TWO WEEKS for your next bounty of Spring bag. The schedule is also on our website calendar.

Saturdays:

March 9, March 23, April 6, April 20, May 4, May 18, June 1
Jamaica Plain, 12-3pm

Sundays:

March 10, March 24, April 7, April 21, May 5, May 19, June 2
Lunenburg, 12-1pm

Thursdays:

March 14, March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6
Boston (Boston Public Market) 12-5pm
Brookline (Beals Street) 1-6pm
Watertown (City Hall) 12:30-1pm
Natick (Princeton Rd) 1:30-6pm
Worcester (Deadhorse Hill Restaurant) 5-9pm
Hardwick (Still Life Farm) 4-6pm
New Braintree (Stillman’s Farm) 12-6pm

Sweet potato harvest at Still Life Farm – October 2023.
Swiss chard harvest in our unheated high tunnel.

Sweet Potatoes and Greens!

We’re at the strange time of year when we are still eating “storage” produce BUT we have lots of spring greens coming from the greenhouses.  How lucky are we that it’s March in New England and we have access to BOTH?!?

Pictured above you can see Still Life Farm’s sweet potato harvest from October 2023 – those are the same sweet potatoes that you have in Spring CSA Bag Two!  Sweet potatoes are a wonderful storage crop and are good for you – these high fiber roots are packed with antioxidants and vitamin A.

At our farms we have invested a lot of resources into greenhouses and high tunnels for season extension. This is really paying off.  We are now able to supply our customers with fresh greens year-round, even in the deep winter and the early cool months of spring.  And the greens are coming in hot, so get eating – Spring CSA Bag Two contains salad mix, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, AND fresh herbs – ALL these are coming from the greenhouses. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the numerous benefits of eating your dark leafy greens, they are many.  Eating like kings – even in March!

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos from Flourish Farm.

  • 1 lb. ground meat
  • 3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp EVOO
  • 2 cups cooked black beans (or one can)
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 8 flour tortillas (or corn, as you choose)
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oil in a large fry pan and sauté onions and sweet potatoes until tender.  Add water as needed to keep from sticking.  Add black beans, cumin, cinnamon, and salt, then cook until heated through.  Spoon this mixture evenly into tortillas, top with cheese and roll up.  Place in a lightly oiled 9×13-inch baking dish.  Cover with foil and back at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes until warmed through.  Serve with your favorite garnish: salsa, fresh cilantro, sour cream.

Hearty Lentil Soup from Edible Pioneer Valley, Winter 2016.

  • 3/4 cup lentils
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 Tablespoons EVOO
  • 2 medium onions, diced
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon coriander
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons flour
  • 1 large bunch collards, stemmed and thinly sliced crosswise (I used Swiss chard, but you could literally substitute any type of cooking green)
  • 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
  • 3/4 pounds potatoes, quartered
  • juice of one lemon

Place the lentils, 1 tsp of salt, and 6 cups of water (I substituted chicken stock) in a large pot.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large pan over medium heat, warm the EVOO.  Add onions, remaining salt, pepper, and coriander (I also added some chopped carrots). Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are well-browned and caramelized, about 15 minutes.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute, then add flour, collards, and cilantro (I chopped the whole bunch, stems and all), and cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens have wilted, about two minutes.  Stir the onion mixture into the pot with the lentils.  Spoon a bit of broth from the soup into the empty pan and use to deglaze pan, scraping up any brown bits.  Add the mixture to the soup.  Stir in the potatoes and lemon juice and return the soup to a simmer.  Continue to cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Stillman’s Farm – Reid and Kirsten seeding heirloom tomatoes.
Still Life Farm – Kip checking out the spring radishes Curt direct seeded into the high tunnel.

Farm Dirt:

Stillman’s Farm.  Seeding is in full swing.  Glenn has been working away all week, seeding over 1,000 trays of tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers.  Reid and Kirsten were able to get the extensive heirloom tomato collection organized and seeded.  The first group of H2A Jamaican labor – Merrick, Melbourne, and Ali – have returned to the farm.  The forward motion of spring is upon us!

If you are planning your gardens, Stillman’s Farm has lots in store for you later this Spring. Genevieve has many available seedlings listed online, be sure to check out what’s available.  For the best selection be sure to schedule a trip to the New Braintree farm to pick out all your seedling needs!

Still Life Farm. We have just wrapped up our winter farmers markets, we were absolutely delighted to be vendors at both the Wayland Winter Farmers Market AND the West Brookfield Winter Farmers Market – it was a fabulous winter season!  Now it’s on to spring planning.  With such a busy winter, we have gotten a bit behind on farm projects, so we are working hard to knock those out while we have some “down time” in March and April.  We’ve seeded quite a few flats of early crops, including all the alliums, tomatoes, peppers, hardy herbs, and special crops just for the Spring CSA.

Our town of Hardwick is being put through the wringer yet again (remember the Racetrack issue???).  Now Casella Waste is proposing to put a 45-acre regional landfill in town.  If approved, the landfill will be just over a mile from the Quabbin Reservoir – the water supply for the greater Boston area and an increasing number of other towns in MA.  The horror of hosting a regional landfill in our right-to-farm town is unimaginable and risks damaging our town of Hardwick and the many surrounding farming communities.  Curt and I have been spending ample time on this new development.  Please stay tuned, it is likely that we will need help from you our customers one more time in order to keep Hardwick farming.  More to come on this…

So, that’s some “farm dirt” from two of your two favorite farms.

As always, thanks for choosing to eat local with us – our customers are the best!

Eat well & love your food,

Halley Stillman (Still Life Farm) & Genevieve Stillman (Stillman’s Farm) 

Spring flowers bursting into color at Still Life Farm.

Spring CSA 2022: Week 14

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Week Fourteen, the LAST WEEK, of the Spring CSA will include the following: Spinach, Lettuce, Zucchini and/or Summer Squash, Bok Choy, Cortland Apples, Purple Daikon Radish and/or Kohlrabi. Please note that the weekly photo is not an exact depiction of what is in your share, but rather a reference image.

A gigantic THANK YOU goes out to all of our amazing Spring CSA members who celebrated the Spring season with us.  Thanks for always making it a priority to eat local and seasonal, and to support small business and local economy.  You guys are the best!

Summer CSA.  Summer CSA kicks off in just a couple weeks.  If you haven’t signed up yet, be sure to grab a spot before they’re gone.  If a traditional summer CSA is not for you, be sure to check out a few of our other options, like our A-La-Carte CSA or our Fruit CSA.  Stillman’s Summer CSA Options.

Winter CSA.  Interested in eating local all year round?  Visit the Still Life Farm website to read more about Winter CSA .  Sign up for Winter CSA!

The weekly letter will be coming to your inbox the day before your pickup and is also available at stillmansfarm.com/blog and stilllifefarm.wordpress.com.  

Spencer sitting in front of the squash greenhouse at Still Life Farm.

Weekly Featured Item: Zucchini and Summer Squash.

Early zucchini and summer squash – what a treat!

At Still Life Farm we always put in a greenhouse crop of early squash.  It’s a bit of a labor of love and often times involves setting up heat on chilly nights and extra care when it comes to pollination, but it’s totally worth it!  Having the early squash sets our farm apart at Farmer’s Markets at a point in the year when everyone has greens, greens, and more greens.  We were carefully to set aside enough squash to share with our spring CSA members because we love you guys so much!

Zucchini, also known as ‘zucca’ or ‘courgette’, is a squash that is harvested while immature, while the rind is still tender and edible. Originally native to the Americas, the squash was brought back to Italy when the Europeans colonized the Americas.  Most of the varietals of summer squash that we are familiar with now were developed in the 19th century in Italy.

As a vegetable, zucchini is high in folate, potassium, and vitamin A.  It can be eaten raw or cooked, and is most commonly used in savory dishes, but can also be added to sweet cakes and breads.  The flowers are also eaten as a delicacy in some cultures.

After a long and elegant history like that, it’s easy to see why people LOVE their zucchini and summer squashes.

Halley and Kip walking the “lane” at Stillman’s Farm.

Farm Dirt

Market season is reaching full swing, we started the Lexington Market this past Tuesday, and Brookline is starting on Thursday. Gearing up for Summer CSA, which is starting in just a couple weeks! Collectively, the farms continue to till, till, till, and plant, plant, plant. It is a super busy time of the year, which is why this letter is posting so late. Still Life Farm, and Stillman’s Farm are both cranking on planting our sweet potatoes today, ahead of this storm coming in. The temperatures and rain will give them the prefect time to acclimate.

Kip helped Grandma Geneviève plant the back garden yesterday – thanks Kip! Halley, Kip and Geneviève hiked the farm and you should too! The Rhododendrons are blooming everywhere and the birds are fantastic!

Halley and Kip check out the Belties

OMG Halley. that has to be the biggest kiddo backpack I have ever seen. Good show lady!

You may not consider it, but all out tractors run on diesel. AS of now, there is no electric or battery operated 135 horsepower tractor that we can use to pull our equipment. And, I guess if there was one, and it was comparable to an electric car, it would cost $270,000 for an electric tractor, if they had one. No need to worry about it, it is not an option right now, yet every single farmer across the country has to worry about how they will compensate for the increased cost in diesel, which is 3x more than 2 years ago. We buy products from our friends to resell at BPM or include in our CSA and they are all increasing their prices to reflect what it is costing them to produce what they do. Even the soap we sell went up 50 cents. Why am I sharing this? Not to worry you, or complain, but simply to explain that even we, your farmers, will have to make adjustments as expenses rise. I am looking to lock in wheat for our members now as well as olive oil and some other necessities. We will make these items available to our CSA members first.

Reid and Kirsten are back to making kale chips and kimchi. They have several batches of sauerkraut going and should be ready to jar up soon! We all love that they have taken this on as their new business and they are saving up for their wedding next Spring!!! So exciting! They have also been busy shipping tomato and pepper plants all over the country. It is pretty fun to know we have a selection of amazing plants that so many people want. If you have not made a trip out to Stillman’s Farm in New Braintree to select from our seedling options, please do so, you won’t be sorry.

Farmers Markets are starting all over the place now. If you are not continuing on with us for Summer CSA, We hope you will support the markets where both Stillman’s Farm and Still Life Farm sell their beautiful produce. You can always see where we are in the feed at the bottom of our website or by checking out https://stillmansfarm.com/marketlocations/  At almost all locations listed, you can find product from both farms –  also check out  https://stilllifefarm.com/farmers-markets.html for SLF markets.

If you have not signed up for our CSA programs, we recommend you do so quickly and lock yourself into reasonable pricing…. expenses and prices are going up and the farms are beginning to feel these increases.  

Still Life Farm’s WINTER CSA is now accepting members for 2022-23 Season.  Please visit the link to sign up: Still Life Farm Winter CSA. Email StillLifeFarm@aol.com with any questions.

Stillman’s Farm SUMMER CSA will be kicking off mid-June…with a weeklong gap at the end of the Spring CSA. If you were wondering about timing, the Summer CSA ends a week or two before Still Life Farm’s Winter CSA begins, so there’s no overlap and no need to go too long without fresh, local produce form your farmers! Sign up for Summer CSA here.

Again, we thank you for being part of the Stillman Farm Family. Your participation and support not only contributes to Still Life Farm and Stillman’s Farm, but supports all the people we employ and vendors we source from! Thank YOU!!

Eat well & love your food,

Genevieve Stillman (Stillman’s Farm) & Halley Stillman (Still Life Farm)