Keep farming, feed people, build community

November 8, 2022

Our 2023 CSA season is on sale now at our GrownBy page, or print out our CSA Registration Form. Signing up now is extremely helpful to us in our planning for next season, so if you know you will participate, please don’t wait. We are offering sliding scale pricing once again, so you can self select the tier that fits for you. And while payment in full is helpful for us, you can start with a deposit and then pay the balance in the spring, or choose a weekly or monthly payment plan, with automatic payments made through a credit card. Thank you in advance for helping us get a start on the 2023 season!

Napa Cabbage, Hakurei Turnip Slaw with Honey Lime Dressing

from www.bahnerfarm.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs Napa Cabbage
• 1 bunch Hakurei turnips
• 3 spring onions (or 8 scallions),
• 1/4 cup cilantro

Honey Lime Dressing: 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, juice and zest of 1 lime, 1 tbsp honey, 1 clove garlic, minced, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Prep the vegetables: Core the cabbage, and cut it into 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick slices, then slice as thin as possible. Remove the greens from the turnips and grate the turnips. Trim the leaves and roots from the onions, halve, and cut into 1/4″ slices. Mince the cilantro. Put all the ingredients in a salad spinner, rinse thoroughly, then spin dry. Make the dressing: Put the vinegar, lime, honey, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl, and whisk until the honey and salt have dissolved in the vinegar. Add the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly to emulsify the oil. Toss the slaw: Add the vegetables to the bowl with the dressing, and toss until the vegetables are thoroughly coated with dressing. (To make ahead, save this step until just before it is time to serve the slaw.)

Stir Fried Hakurei Turnips with Onions, Garlic & Tofu

Adapted from www.cooking.nytimes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 7 ounces firm tofu (½ of a14-ounce box), drained and cut in dominoes (about ¼-inch thick by 2 inches long)
• 1 bunch baby turnips, with greens (about 1 pound total)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
• ¼ cup chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
• 1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons peanut, canola, rice bran, sunflower or grape seed oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 bulb green garlic, papery shells removed, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 bunch spring onions or 2 to 3 bunches scallions, sliced, white and light green parts only, sliced (about 1¼ cups)
• ½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro

1. Drain and dry tofu slices on paper towels. In a small bowl or measuring cup combine soy sauce, rice wine or sherry, stock or water, and honey or agave nectar. Have all ingredients within arm’s length of your wok.
2. Cut away greens from baby turnips. Scrub turnips and if very small, cut in half; if larger than a Ping-Pong ball, quarter. Stem greens, wash leaves in 2 changes of water and chop coarsely. Set aside near your wok.
3. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in 1 tablespoon of the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and swirling the pan, then add tofu and stir-fry until lightly colored, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to a plate.
4. Swirl in remaining oil, add garlic and ginger and stir-fry for no more than 10 seconds. Add onions and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add turnips and stir-fry for another minute or 2, then add salt and pepper, toss together and add soy sauce mixture. Add greens and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, until vegetables are crisp-tender.
5. Return tofu to the wok along with the cilantro. Stir-fry for 1 minute and remove from heat. Serve with hot grains or noodles.

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 – 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.

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.

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].