Big Red Farm Stand, in front of Edith Chapel, Wed. June 18, 1pm to 5pm

Moonrise at the farm, mist coming off the field

Hello friends,

With the school year over, things are really happening fast at the farm.  Plants are going into the fields, veggies are coming out.  The greenhouse is emptying of big seedlings, with small seedlings taking their place.  Sheep and chickens are slowly circulating around the pasture, eating everything in sight.  Grass is growing tall and getting mowed down.  Perhaps best of all, we have summer interns!  We are delighted to welcome Libby, Gina and Shubhankar to the farm, and hope to provide them with several weeks of hard (and satisfying) work, not to mention dirty fingernails and as much lettuce as they can carry away.

Scallions

Speaking of carrying away produce, we have fun, new, colorful veggies for you this week, including French Breakfast radishes, scallions, and baby spinach.  The spinach will be available this week only; our spring planting didn't germinate particularly well, and spinach doesn't like hot weather very much, so we're calling it quits on that planting.  We'll try for a larger quantity of spinach in the fall.

Finally, please note our change of location from last week!  We love the Pop Hall/Bowl location, and hope to get back there, but due to the increased traffic and activity on campus this week, we'll be back in our old location under the Chapel oak tree.  Come find us!

T-shirt front...

...and back

BIG RED FARM T-SHIRTS!

Yes, it has finally happened!  You, too, can now own a comfy organic cotton T-shirt emblazoned with the beautiful BRF logo (designed by Vanessa Gieske).  $15 each for members, $20 for non-members.


ON THE FARM

We've been focused on catching up on our transplanting and field prep lately; the end-of-term rush of school-related obligations put us a bit more behind than we'd like to be (we usually assume a certain level of behind-ness as a given, in farming).  The hot weather has also meant lots of watering, which always seems to take longer than we think it's going to!  Here's what we've been up to this week:

Truckful o'tomato seedlings on their way to the field

• Planted out about 600 tomato plants, and mulched them with straw (this helps both to conserve moisture and suppress weeds)
• Plowed and disced fields for late summer and fall crops such as beans, squash, pumpkins, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, beets, leeks, etc.
• Tinkered with the cultivator set-up on the Cub (hoping to damage weeds more and crops less) and did weed control in the planted fields
• Made new farm stand signs using handy-dandy chalkboard paint (that stuff is the best!)
• And, as always, moved sheep and chickens to new paddocks, watered seedlings, and harvested and washed produce for the farm stand, dining hall, and local restaurants

This part of the year can be overwhelming, certainly, but we love what we do, and there is nothing so gratifying as harvesting (and eating!) the beautiful veggies we've worked so hard to grow.  We hope you folks enjoy them too!


RECIPES

Sugar snaps

Spring harvests are all about the green.  Most of the other colors come later in the summer, with tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, potatoes, eggplant... yum.  Sorry, back to spring.  With a few exceptions (purple kohlrabi, anyone?), we basically have green things on offer for the first several weeks of the season.  Here are two recipes that use green things.

Bowties

If I were to say to you, "Here, have some bowtie pasta with sugar snap peas, lemon and ricotta," that's pretty self-explanatory, right?  And obviously delicious?  I think I've said enough.  {Bowties with Sugar Snaps, Lemon and Ricotta}

Garlic scapes

Garlic scape pesto, which I originally posted almost exactly a year ago, always bears revisiting (speaking of bears and visiting, how about the mother and two cubs seen on campus this week?!  Lawrenceville School, important Eastern Seaboard wildlife preserve!).  Also, for those of you who asked about the ricotta-garlic dip we had at the farm potluck a couple weeks ago, this is it!  (Mixed with the fresh ricotta found here)  {Katie's Garlic Scape Pesto}


AT THE FARM STAND

This week, we hope to have the following available from 1pm to 5pm in front of Edith Chapel:

• Baby Spinach - $2.00 bunch
• Bok Choy - $1.50 each
• Eggs - $5.00 dozen
• Flowers - $5.00 bouquet
• Garlic Scapes - 3/$1.00
• Kale - $2.50 bunch
• Kohlrabi - $1.00 each
• Lettuce - $2.50 head
• Radishes - $2.00 bunch
• Rainbow Chard - $2.50 bunch
• Scallions - $1.50 bunch
• Shell peas - $3.00 quart
• Snap peas - $2.50 pint

HOW TO FIND US:

This week, the Big Red Farmstand will be located at Edith Chapel.  Enter campus by the main gate on Route 206 (opposite the Lawrenceville Post Office and Craven Lane) and bear right into the circle.  The Chapel is about halfway around the circle, and you'll see our sign.  Don't forget your shopping bags!