Wishing Stone Farm Newsletter

Welcome to Summer? July 1, 2009

2009-07-01T11:46:00.006-04:00

Happy July, everyone! Yes, it is July, and not April, despite what the weather tells you. My name is Katie, and I am one of the new mules this year at the farm. Liz and Skip have been literally consumed, chewed, and swallowed by the land, so they appointed me the official blogger for the time being. Surprised that a mule can use a computer? Well, that goes to show what you know about the magic of Wishing Stone.

Harvest is in full swing, despite the endless rain and mud and goo and puddly messes covering the fields. Each day we're picking lettuces, beets, radishes, rainbow chard, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, squash, and more squash, kale, scallions, garlic scapes, peas, bok choi, pak choi, beans, hothouse eggplants, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, and more herbs than Julia Child could throw into a pot au feu (see below for a guide to making your own herbes de Provence). The bees are generously donating their honey for your consumption as well, so pick up a jar and thank a bee. Even if you don’t buy the honey, thank the bees anyway. They work hard (almost as hard as mules). Oh yes, and I can't forget the chickens--they're laying away, so grab some farm-fresh eggs while you're at the market too.

Chef Ryan has been cooking up some excellent blueberry-lemon and zucchini breads, as well as a variety of airy scones, bread-and-butter pickles, fresh dill pickles, cilantro-lovers salsa, garlic scape pesto, basil pesto, strawberry-rhubarb compote, and pesto and sun-dried tomato cream cheese pinwheels to name a few treats. He's coming up with more great recipes every day as we mules deliver him ingredients.

All our veggies and value-added products are available throughout the week at our many markets. Check out the "Farmers' Market" and "Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)" tabs for more information.

Herbes de Provence, Made with Wishing Stone Farm Herbs

Herbes de Provence are herbs typically found growing in the French countryside. France, you say? But this is America! The good news is, we can grow pretty much all of the same herbs here in the land of freedom. They’re easy to care for, easy to preserve, and make food taste fancy. Snip any of these herbs, in any proportion. You can dry them first if you want them to last through many meals, or just snip ‘em, chop ‘em, mix ‘em together, and throw ‘em on whatever you’re cooking.

Herbes de Provence are part of a cook’s signature, so choose fresh herbs you enjoy. They go well with Mediterranean cuisines, veggies, meats, fish, eggs, and freedom fries.

Here are some of the herbs I like to utilize. I use about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of each if the herbs are dried. If they’re fresh, just snip a handful.

Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, Lavender, Savory, Tarragon, Marjoram, Orange Zest.

Bon Appetit!

WINTER MARKETS 2008

2008-11-11T22:36:00.002-05:00

We are going to be finishing up at Hope Street til Thanksgiving and then we will be moving to the Farm Fresh RI winter market at Hope Artiste Village at 1005 Main Street; Pawtucket.. It is the large mill that contains the Seven Star Bakery Wholesale bakery; it also houses Fair Trade Coffees roasting operation. It is a large retail space that has a lot of good parking and is easy to get to. We hope all of our loyal customers from our Hope Street Markets will follow us there.

We have planted our greenhouses with lots of radishes, spinach and other greens to keep our customers happy during the winter months. We look forward to seeing you there...

CSA Blog May 2008

2008-05-02T21:40:00.002-04:00

Greetings CSA members! The farm is looking good these days. The onions are in and three plantings of peas are in and up. We are trying Fava beans again this season. We put them in a week earlier so they can beat the summer heat that make them explode. It is a very popular veg in England but there summers are much cooler than ours and the perfect environment for Favas. The greenhouse tomatoes have never looked better and our Dutch bumble bees are working over time to get them pollenated. Last year we grew cherry tomatoes in bucket from the greenhouse walls and could not believe the extra sugar they produced in such a nice growing climate. Needless to say they are locked and loaded and hanging once again from the rafters. We just put in another 1/4 acre of Rhubarb that will be on next years menu but will be fun to watch grow this season. The horse radish survived the winter so should be harvestable by july.... Other veggies in now are Spinach, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Mesclun, Carrots, Beets and garlic.

For those of you interested we will be selling organic veggie seedlings, herbs, and patio planters infront of Whole Foods on Mondays and at the Blackstone Shopping Plaza in Fridays and Saturdays. For those who don't know that is the small plaza at the end of Hope Street and Blackstone Blvd.. It is the plaza that has the "Garden Grill Restaurant" in it. We will start their May 9th and 10th.

Dateline Barrington, RI....Great news the Barrington townhall gave us the thumbs up for doing our CSA debit card farmers market at the Ace Hardware on County Road....We are very excited about the location and the chance to get the people of Barrington up close and personal. Tell your friends they can signup as CSA members up to May 15th. Other wise they can just stop in for a fresh tomato or cheese when the mood strikes them..

Just a reminder: Remember that as CSA Debit card members you can shop at either location. We are looking forward to meeting so many new faces this year. Signups have been brisk thanks to some nice articles and some good word of mouth....all the Best Skip and Liz

Barrington Debit Card CSA: Latest News

2008-02-27T17:57:00.002-05:00

Seasons greeting to all who are reading our first Blog. It is quite exciting to be utilizing this new form of communication. I hope it has spell check!

Today was a good day for the Barrington CSA, we received permission from George Tanner of the Barrington ACE Hardware to hold the Farmers Market / Debit Card CSA in front of his beautiful store on corner of County Road where it turns to head into Warren. We will be there every Wednesday from June 18th to October 29th. It will function much like the Debit Card CSA on Wickenden Street has for the last five years. Members signup and receive a ten percent discount on any items they wish to purchase. This year we will allow members to flow back and forth between the two markets ( on Tuesday and Wednesday) if that works for them. In other words if you need some produce on Tuesday but miss the market for whatever reason you can now drop by the market in Barrington and carry through with your purchases as if you were at either one.

However, we are not out of the woods yet. We still need to go before the Barrington Town Counsel to get permission to carry on a business in the town of Barrington. This process may take a few weeks as it involves mailing letters out from the townhall to all the abuttors in the surrounding area. Baring any complaints we feel we are well on the way to having our first farmers market in Barrington.

All our box CSA shareholders from last year will have even more choice for amounts and variety of produce. We might send out a quick email to all old members and interested parties to help us out at our townhall hearing when that is scheduled.

Pumpkin Boat

2008-01-20T11:02:00.002-05:00