Keep farming, feed people, build community

August 28, 2023

Best Gazpacho

from cooking.nytimes.com

Ingredients

• About 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly cut into chunks
• 1 frying pepper or other pepper cored, seeded and roughly cut into chunks
• 1 cucumber, about 8 inches long, peeled and roughly cut into chunks
• 1 small mild onion (white or red), peeled and roughly cut into chunks
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, more to taste
• Salt
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more to taste, plus more for drizzling

Instructions

Step 1

Combine tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, onion and garlic in a blender or, if using a hand blender, in a deep bowl. (If necessary, work in batches.) Blend at high speed until very smooth, at least 2 minutes, pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.

Step 2

With the motor running, add the vinegar and 2 teaspoons salt. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil. The mixture will turn bright orange or dark pink and become smooth and emulsified, like a salad dressing. If it still seems watery, drizzle in more olive oil until texture is creamy.

Step 3

Strain the mixture through a strainer or a food mill, pushing all the liquid through with a spatula or the back of a ladle. Discard the solids. Transfer to a large pitcher (preferably glass) and chill until very cold, at least 6 hours or overnight.

Step 4

Before serving, adjust the seasonings with salt and vinegar. If soup is very thick, stir in a few tablespoons ice water. Serve in glasses, over ice if desired, or in a bowl. A few drops of olive oil on top are a nice touch.

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 your continued patience and understanding on this.

On-Farm Pickups – Tuesdays 2:30-6:30pm; Fridays 12:30-5:30pm

• Come on in to the big red barn: 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 note that we will no longer be offering the drive thru pick up option. We will make up a few bags in advance for a quick pickup option for those who might need it.
• There is a handicap parking spot and an additional accessible spot next to the entry/exit on the south side of the barn.
• 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.

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).
• 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

• Pickup along with your vegetables on your regular pickup day and location.
• Massaro Farm Egg cartons can be returned to us as long as they are in good, clean condition.

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.
• 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 also share news, stories and photos on facebook 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 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 the farm’s 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 at 197 Dixwell Ave in New Have on Wednesday afternoons from 3-6pm and some weekend markets again beginning in late July.

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].