Notes from the Field: Pictures of Summer

From my nine seasons on this wonderful farm I have lots of photographs. I have been here so long that I have pictures that are actually printed out on paper! (That's how we used to do it.) I have lots of photos of the initial days of spring, onions and tiny brassicas germinating in the greenhouse, picture perfect lettuce starts, the orderly beauty of the first tractor work of the season, cutting furrows directly into winter, exposing the promise inherent in freshly tilled soil. I have photos of favas beans emerging, freshly flame weeded carrots popping up in perfect, clean rows and beautiful cucurbit plantings domed in deep green lines with gaudy yellow flowers showing beneath their foliage. 

But my photos chronologically usually end right about now and usually pick up again sometime in mid-October, when the light starts to slant away and the beginning of the end appears on the horizon. I have lots of photos in May and June, lots in October and November, and a tiny handful of July and August.

This is because now is 'go time' for your farmers, even for part time farmers like me. For the next two-three months we are flat out: greenhouse seeding, transplanting, weeding and cultivating, making beds so we can keep planting, watering (watering!!!) and harvesting, harvesting, harvesting. Picking, washing and packing the beautiful bounty of our work, to fill the CSA barn for distributions and to provide for many in need in our communities.

It is a wonderful time of year, and yet it's difficult for me to stop and snap a few pictures, unrelated to pictures of broken things that need to be fixed (what is that part number...?) or pictures of unfamiliar insects or plant disease (whoa, what is that?).

The season is chugging along here, nearly July and hard to believe. Our wonderful seasonal crews are getting tan and trained and faster and better at all of the things that we're throwing at them. It's a joy to see so many people back at the farm after the months of solitary work, adding staff through the spring and then finally an explosion of people as the first shares of the season hits the stand. This year

has been particularly enjoyable for me so far. I credit our staff and a healthy dose of sunshine, and a great thanks for the wonderful people in my life. We are all nose down right now, and will be for the next several months, and we will be tired and sore and sunburned. But this job makes it easy to feel like it's worth it and I'm hoping that this is the year that I get a few mid-summer shots, tomatoes ripening, cukes and squash, melons vining out, chilis...you get the picture.

Enjoy the harvest,

For all of the crew,

Dan

Cupboard Tart

As you may have noticed, I try to keep things pretty healthy on the farm blog. After all, Waltham Fields is primarily a vegetable farm, and just about everyone could use more of this food group in their lives. But many of those keen to consume a "locavore" or "mocavore (mostly locavore)" diet are active preservationists, too. I myself began preserving foods just a few years ago, but still find that by the beginning of the next growing season many a jar of preserves, be they sweet or savory, line my cupboard shelves. So what is one to do? Make what I've called a "cupboard" tart. The idea is simple: use what you've got on hand to make a delicious treat.

For this particular pastry, I used my homemade blueberry jam and peaches, both canned in the summer of 2011 using local produce purchased at peak season. Continuing with this theme, the original recipe for the tart crust called for two sticks of butter and buttermilk; since I only had one stick of butter in the fridge and no buttermilk, I swapped in the remaining coconut spread and nut cream I had on hand from a no-bake chocolate coconut cookie I recently made. It turned out wonderfully!

Cupboard Tart
Makes one 11-inch tart

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of unsalted butter*
• 4 oz coconut spread*
• 1/2 cup sweetened nut cream (I used an almond-cashew blend)
• 1 half-pint jam (I used blueberry)
• 1 quart whole fruit, drained (I used peaches in light syrup, drained and sliced 1/4" thick)
• sugar for sprinkling

* To make this vegan, simply use 8 oz of coconut spread or your preferred vegan butter substitute that is suitable for pie crusts.

Directions:

To make the tart dough, place the butter and coconut spread in the freezer for 15 minutes. In a large bowl, sift together flour and salt. Add the fats and cut in with a pastry blender until the dough is crumbly (dough pieces should be no larger than peas). Cover the bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and allow to rest at least one hour in the fridge or 30 minutes in the freezer. After this resting, add the nut cream all at once and quickly mix with one hand, breaking up big clumps as needed. Once again, cover the bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and allow to rest at least one hour in the fridge or 30 minutes in the freezer.

After the dough has rested, pour the crumbles into the tart pan. Gently push the crumbles into the bottom of the pan and up the sides, creating a crust that is roughly 1/4" thick on the bottom and up to 1/2" thick around the sides. Loosely cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and place the tart pan in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 30 minutes.

While you wait, you can prep the filling. Open and stir the jam so it's loosened up for spreading onto the crust. If necessary, drain and slice the whole fruits. This is also a good time to preheat the oven with a separate baking sheet inside to 425 degrees F.

Once rested in the pan, spread the jam onto the bottom of the tart crust in an even layer. Arrange the fruits as you please and sprinkle with sugar (coarse is lovely but the regular stuff is fine, too).

Place the tart pan onto the preheated baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes (this should prevent the tart crust from getting soggy). Quickly but carefully remove the tart pan from the baking sheet, returning both to the oven with the tart pan on a rack directly above the baking sheet in case of dripping. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the pastry's edges begin to turn golden brown. If at any point the pastry begins to darken too much, loosely cover the crust with a ring of aluminum foil for the remaining baking time.

Every little bit counts... extra dough crumbles became a small rustic tart.

This tart can be wrapped and stored on the counter for up to 3 days, but it best eaten within an hour or so of baking... just ask the farmers!


Rebekah

Images by Rebekah Carter (2012). Tart crust recipe adapted from Joy the Baker.