2022 CSA – Week #14

Massaro
Community
Farm

Keep farming, feed people, build community

September 12, 2022

Notes From the Farm

Thank you to everyone who joined us for a fantastic Dinner on the Farm event here on Saturday! Gathering to share time and a meal together is great community building, and our dinner is a key fundraiser supporting our community programs. We are welcoming a bit more rain and cooler temperatures here on the farm, and with these cooler temps come the return of some greens, including lettuce, kale and/or chard in this week’s harvest. More lettuce, arugula, and salad mix should be coming soon as well, plus winter squash, radishes, sweet potatoes and more in the weeks ahead.

Our 6-week fall CSA is now available for purchase. Sign up at our GrownBy page and pay online or bring in payment; $180 for on-farm pickup, $200 for District pickup. The fall CSA begins in November, immediately following the end of our summer CSA, and continues in to December after a Thanksgiving break. Pickup will be available on Wednesdays at District in New Haven, and Fridays at the farm. There will be no Tuesday pickup at the farm. We downsize a bit for the fall and winter so our capacity is limited. Please sign up now.

-Farmer Steve and our Farmers: Alyssa, Alanna, Ariel, Cass, Hali, Kayla, Leah, Maia, MC

Fall CSA Sign Up
This Week’s Anticipated Harvest:

Lettuce, Garlic, Potatoes, Kale, Scallions or Onions, Mixed Tomatoes, Yellow Squash, Basil, String Beans (green, purple, yellow)

 

U-Pick:

Cherry tomatoes, herbs

Fruit Option:

 

‘Bartlett’ Pears or Apples

CSA parking area/pickup images

See images below for an overhead view of the pickup areas at Massaro and at District.

Recipes and Cooking Ideas

Shakshuka

Adapted from www.cookieandkate.com

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 large red bell pepper or roasted red bell pepper, chopped
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, reduce or omit if sensitive to spice
  • 1 jar crushed tomatoes, (or try 2-3 large tomatoes, diced)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or parsley or basil, plus additional leaves for garnish
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 5 to 6 large eggs
  • ½ cup crumbled feta
  • Crusty bread or pita, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Warm the oil in a large, oven-safe skillet (preferably stainless steel) over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the onion, bell pepper, and salt. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are tender and turning translucent, about 4 to 6 minutes.
  2. Add the garlic, tomato paste, cumin, paprika and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring constantly, until nice and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
  3. Pour in the crushed tomatoes with their juices and add the cilantro. Stir, and let the mixture come to a simmer. Reduce the heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook for 5 minutes to give the flavors time to meld.
  4. Turn off the heat. Taste (careful, it’s hot), and add salt and pepper as necessary. Use the back of a spoon to make a well near the perimeter and crack the egg directly into it. Gently spoon a bit of the tomato mixture over the whites to help contain the egg. Repeat with the remaining 4 to 5 eggs, depending on how many you can fit. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the eggs.
  5. Carefully transfer the skillet to the oven (it’s heavy) and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, checking often once you reach 8 minutes. They’re done when the egg whites are an opaque white and the yolks have risen a bit but are still soft. They should still jiggle in the centers when you shimmy the pan. (Keep in mind that they’ll continue cooking after you pull the dish out of the oven.)
  6. Using oven mitts (both hands!), transfer the hot skillet to a heat-safe surface like the stove. Top with the crumbled feta, fresh cilantro leaves, and more red pepper flakes, if desired. Serve in bowls with crusty bread on the side.
CSA Pickup Instructions and Reminders
Reminder emails from GrownBy: GrownBy sends reminder emails ahead of your CSA pickup day each week for our 20-week subscribers, and uses a default of picking up alternating weeks, beginning with either week 1 or 2 for our 10-week subscribers. We know that many people switch pickup days as needed, and have a different pickup plan than the alternating weeks. As a result, you may receive some reminder emails that don’t match with your pickup plan or changes. Know that we are working with GrownBy to make adjustments to the auto reminder emails. Thank you for patience and understanding on this.
On-Farm Pickups – Tuesdays and Friday, 2:30-6:30pm
Safety is our top priority for everyone on the farm, and Covid remains a risk in our community. With that in mind we’ll plan to move forward with two options for our on-farm CSA pickup, and will adjust as needed during the season:
  1. Outdoor, drive thru pickup: Pull in to the barn yard area between the red barn and white house for a drive thru pickup of your CSA, which will be bagged for you in advance.
  2. Barn pickup, fill your own bag, masks optional: Park in the parking area on the north side of the barn, walk down the steps and and enter the barn through the east barn door entry. Our harvest will be set out in bins with instructions for you to select and bag your own produce. Staff and/or volunteers will be there to help you as needed. Please bring your own bag or box. Please help protect our staff and community, do not enter the barn if you are sick, have tested positive for covid in the last 10 days, or have had a known high risk exposure.
  • ALWAYS DRIVE SLOWLY at the farm – there is often programming here for kids, and the farm family with young children live here.
  • When U-Pick crops are available, we recommend doing U-Pick first, then picking up your CSA when you are done.
  • See map in the section above.
Delivery to District – Wednesdays, 3:30-7:30pm
  • Located at 470 James St. at State St.
  • Go to Door 004 for District Athletic Club (see map below).
  • CSA boxes will be stacked through the door and down the hall in the gym kitchen area.
  • Pick up time is 3:30-7:30pm on Wednesdays.
  • Take only one box of produce unless otherwise indicated, all boxes will be the same. Return your box each week and pick up a new one.
NEW: Summer Flower & Dahlia CSA, 12 weeks – bring a home a beautiful bunch of flowers each week along with your produce. In July and August we’ll harvest a great mix of flowers grown here at Massaro, then in September and October you’ll receive dahlias from our friends at Two Meadow Farm (North Haven) and Off Center Farm (Woodbridge). Bunches will vary week to week as we bring in flowers of different colors, shapes and sizes.
Limited availability; farm pickup only (Tuesday or Friday), $180 ($15/week). Start date Tuesday, July 19; end date Friday, October 7. To reserve your flower CSA, email [email protected].
Egg CSA Subscriptions – sold out; will make more available if possible
  • Pickup along with your vegetables on your regular pickup day and location.
  • Massaro egg cartons can be returned to us as long as they are in good, clean condition. We are not accepting non-Massaro egg cartons at this time.
Fruit Option
  • Comes from High Hill Orchard in Meriden.
  • Typically begins in early July once blueberries are ready to harvest.
  • Pickup along with your vegetables on your regular pickup day and location.
Farm Store – for on-farm pick up only; not available for New Haven delivery
  • Our eggs, honey and tomato products will be available each week as long as we have them. Purchase at pickup along with your produce. Note – we reduced our flock of laying hens, and egg availability may be limited.
  • Products from our partner farms and local vendors may be available as well.
Communications: We send out a weekly CSA newsletter during the harvest season, and additional messages throughout the year.  Please read them. There is often helpful information in them, or important updates that might answer questions you have.  We try to keep our website updated with those newsletters, and we also share news, stories and photos on facebook, twitter and instagram.
If you have a question, request, feedback, or need to be in touch for any reason, emailing us at [email protected] is the best means of communication. This email is checked regularly, and we do our best to respond quickly. We’d love to talk with you when you are here on the farm and we can usually be found around the barn during CSA pickup hours, so grab our ears, pick our brains, chat us up or tell us what’s on your mind!
Bags: Please do bring a reusable bag or box to take your produce home in. We will have compostable bags available for you if needed.
What if I miss a week?: If you are not able to make it to the farm to pick up your produce on a given week, you are welcome to have someone else pick up it up for you. Simply have them come to the farm or District on your behalf. Any produce that is not picked up will be donated, so know that it is put to good use! If you do miss a week, please understand that you are not entitled to additional produce on another week.
Produce Donations: Part of our mission and commitment to the community is to donate produce to local hunger relief organizations, which is more important than ever right now. To make this happen, we harvest additional produce for donation on CSA distribution days. Any produce not picked up by our CSA members is added to that donation. Thus, if you can’t make it one week to get your vegetables, know that your produce will go to people in need and is never wasted.
Want more of our produce?: As our harvest allows, we will offer additional produce for sale at the farm. If you don’t see something you want available in the store, please do let us know when you are here and we’ll see if we can offer it. We will be at the Q House market in Hamden on Wednesday afternoons beginning in late June, and some weekend markets again beginning in August.
Payment plans, and final payments: If you signed up through GrownBy for weekly or monthly payment plans, your card will be charged automatically. Please make sure your card is up to date. If you paid by check and you still have a balance for the CSA, please send in your final payments, or email your payment plan to: [email protected].
Build a Farm Pavilion
For years, we’ve been dreaming of a sturdy structure that can host the increasing number of farm visitors. Now, thanks to partnerships with Haynes Group and Emmett O’Brien Technical School, the farm will erect a 20′ x 32′ post-and-beam pavilion in September. If you visit the farm this summer, you’ll likely see the foundation and lumber staged for this project.
This new structure, located in the farm’s Learning Garden adjacent to our new parking area, will provide year-round gathering space for 75-100 guests and expand our sustainability footprint with two composting toilets.
Etch your place in farm history by purchasing a brick that will form the foundation of the pavilion! Revenue raised through the sale of bricks will provide matching funds already received for this project from The Crippled Children’s Fund and Paul and Judy DeCoster.
4″ x 8″ Brick – $100
8″ x 8″ Brick – $250
Buy a Brick
(203) 736-8618
41 Ford Road, Woodbridge, CT
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