Wright-Locke Farm

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Recipes from the Fields!

July 2019 – Written Collaboratively by the Wright-Locke Farm Team

Happy July everyone! Since our minds are on backyard barbeques and all of the delicious produce now coming out of the fields, we wanted to bring you a couple of recipes that we are enjoying right now!

Kale Tabbouleh

From our Farm Manager, Adrienne Altstatt:

“I love this recipe because it’s quick and easy and it’s tasty as all h*ck! I have been known to eat it right out of bowl and/or finish half of it in one go. Sometimes I modify it a bit depending on what’s available, but I stick to the bones of it and it doesn’t disappoint time and time again. (And I dislike parsley immensely).”

Ingredients

  • ⅔ cup fine bulgur
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt, more as needed
  • ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
  • 1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves finely chopped (5 cups)
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
  • ½ cup torn mint leaves
  • ½ cup diced radish
  • Black pepper, as needed

Preparation

  1. Cook bulgur according to package instructions. Cool.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, shallot, cumin and salt. Whisk in olive oil.
  3. In a large bowl, toss together bulgur, kale, tomatoes, mint and radish. Toss in dressing. Season with black pepper and more salt if you like, and drizzle with additional oil if desired.

Picture Credit: NYTimes

Greek Panzanella

From our Youth Programs Manager, Jack Wright

Here’s a recipe that I love! It’s for Greek Panzanella. For me, nothing says Summer like this panzanella. My mom introduced me to this recipe at a family birthday party a few years ago and I’ve been stuck on it since. It’s refreshing, nutritious, and absolutely incredible. 

I’m a big fan of cheese and bread (who isn’t?), so I like to add extra of both of these ingredients! I recommend adding the bread as you serve it so that the bread stays crunchy. This recipe is pretty simple, but looks stunning and tastes SO good. Try it out for your next cookout!

Picture Credit: Shutterbean

Ingredients

  • Good olive oil
  • 1 small French bread or boule, cut into 1-inch cubes (6 cups)
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
  • 1 red bell pepper, large diced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, large diced
  • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced in half rounds
  • 1/2 pound feta cheese, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup Calamata olives, pitted

For the vinaigrette:

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 cup good red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup good olive oil

Preparation

  1. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread cubes and sprinkle with salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until nicely browned. Add more olive oil as needed.
  2. Place the cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes and red onion in a large bowl.
  3. For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper in a small bowl. While still whisking, add the olive oil and make an emulsion. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the feta, olives and bread cubes and mix together lightly. Set aside for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.

Limonana – frozen mint lemonade

From our Events Manager – Amy Rindskopf

Every summer, the farm staff and volunteers gather for a potluck picnic. We each draw the name of a seasonal vegetable, herb or fruit available at the farm, and make a dish with the bounty. As someone who likes to cook, I often “draw” the harder, unloved choices. One year, I drew mint. While mint is delicious as a flavor and helps boost many dishes, it is a little harder to put it toward the center. Plus, it had been hot for weeks on end and everyone needed a little pick-me-up at the end of lunch. This frozen mint lemonade from Israel was just the ticket!

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar (or more to taste)
  • 1 3/4 cups water (divided)
  • 1 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 3 1/2 cups ice
  • 1 cup fresh mint leaves
  • 6 mint sprigs for garnish (optional)

Picture Credit: Jamie Geller

Preparation

  1. Sugar syrup: In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of water and sugar. Heat over medium, whisking constantly, till the sugar dissolves. Let the water cool to room temperature.
  2. In a blender, combine the sugar syrup, fresh lemon juice, ice, fresh mint leaves and 3/4 cup of water.
  3. Pulse for a few seconds, then blend for 1 minute till the ice is thoroughly crushed and the drink takes on the texture of a thick slushy. Taste. This recipe produces a mildly sweet limonana. Some people like it sweeter. Add sugar to taste, if desired, and blend again.
  4. Pour into cold glasses and serve. Garnish with sprigs of mint, if desired.

A Pesto Trio!

Us farmers love pesto apparently. Here are a couple of riffs on the popular concoction.

From our Farm Stand Manager, Peggy Belanger

One of my  husbands favorite kind of pizza is Chicken Pesto pizza, we first ate it at a pizzeria in London and he fell in love with the combination. When we came home from our visit to London I recreated it one night for dinner using this recipe. Molto Delizioso!

Spinach and Garlic Scape Pesto

  • 4 cups fresh spinach
  • 1 lb. Garlic Scapes minced
  • 1 1/2 Grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. 

Pesto can be used to toss with hot pasta, or mix with sour cream or mayo and spread on a sandwiches. Can also be used as a dip for your favorite veggies.

Extra pesto can be spooned into ice cube trays and frozen for a later use. 

From our Assistant Farm Manager, Diana Shomstein

I recently made a pesto with ingredients that resemble a basil pesto– green herbs, oil, nut or seed, citrus, a nutty cheese, and seasonings– but reflect what I had in my refrigerator and cupboards without getting anything from the store.

Arugula Nettle Pesto

  • 2 cups fresh arugula 
  • 2 cups Nettles, blanched
  • 1/3 cup chives, chive flowers, scallions or any fresh allium
  • A small handful of fresh mint 
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or any seed/nut)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or lemon juice 
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast or 1/3 cup any grated hard cheese

I started with nettles and arugula as the base for the green herbs, adding a few leaves of fresh mint to lighten and brighten up the flavor. I also included some scallions and chive flowers as they both have distinct and zingy flavors in the allium family that complement the spicy in arugula and the savory in nettles.

I used pumpkin seeds and nutritional yeast for fat and nuttiness. Olive oil brought it together, and then instead of fresh lemon, which I did not have at the time, I used a nice balsamic vinegar for the citrus element. Plenty of ground pepper, and blend it all together. I found that if I needed a little liquid when blending, I could use more oil, or the nettle blanching liquid. Store it in the refrigerator, and use as a spread with crackers, fresh bread, or on cooked grains like kasha or rice.

From our Field Assistant, Tori Dahl

One of my favorite recipes is to chop up all of my veggies, steam them for a few minutes, and then mix in my latest pesto (you can use your favorite recipe, my go-to is basil and spinach with cashews, see approximated recipe below). Add some canned Alfredo sauce and serve on it’s own or with your choice of grain: pasta, quinoa, rice, you name it!

Basil Spinach Pesto 

  • 1/4 cup cashews
  • 1 cup basil
  • 2-3 cups spinach (to taste)
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil (more if desired to smooth out texture of pesto)
  • Parmesan cheese if desired to taste 
  • Salt to taste

Pesto is great because there are so many ways to play with it based on what is in season! 

Try kale instead of spinach. Substitute garlic scapes for basil. Try a new nut or mixture of nuts. 

Add a different spice or seasoning- like rosemary or lemon juice. 

It’s almost impossible to go wrong! Enjoy!

Peanut Sauce

From Community Engagement Manager, Kim Kneeland

One of my all time favorite dishes is…. well anything smothered in peanut sauce. It hits all the right notes — it’s creamy, tangy, a bit spicy, a bit sweet, and salty, too. Plus it’s really versatile! Dip carrots in it for simple snacking, or do a big veggie and noodle stir fry. Use it to coat chicken skewers on the grill, create your own spring rolls and use it to dip, or make a chilled salad with zucchini noodles, toss with some peanut sauce, and top with some cilantro.

Plus I’ve got the added bonus that my Fiance loves the dish, since it really brings him back to his childhood memories with his mother and stepfather (back when times were simpler and full of fun). When I made this recipe recently, he declared that this was the best peanut sauce he’d had in decades, tears welling in his eyes (OK, maybe I’m being overdramatic, those tears may have been imagined). But regardless, this is good stuff!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup sesame oil (toasted or dark)
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons chili paste (sriracha works, too)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • a small knob of fresh ginger, peeled
  • a clove of fresh garlic, peeled

Picture & Recipe Credit: pinchofyum.com

Preparation

  1. Blend all the sauce ingredients together in a small blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.
  2. Find everything in your house that can be dunked in this ridiculously good sauce and then get to work.

Right now, this it what I’d toss together from the farm in a stir fry.

  • Snap Peas
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Zucchini
  • Kohlrabi
  • Radishes
  • Braising/dark greens like mustard greens, the farm’s “Spicy Greens Mix,”  or spinach

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Sustainability and the All Seasons Barn

May 2019

Written by volunteer at Wright-Locke Farm, Betsy Block

When the All-Seasons Barn goes up on the farm next fall, it will provide a comfortable indoor space for Wright Locke to offer programs, classes, demonstrations, music and more, all year long. The farm staff envisions the barn as a welcoming place where greater Bostonians of all ages can learn, connect and be inspired. An important part of this vision is continuing to expand the farm’s commitment to sustainability far beyond farming. But the All-Seasons Barn won’t just be a place to educate locals about carbon emissions and low-impact living; the barn itself will actually embody these ideals. In this way, the barn will be a living model of how to move toward a more sustainable and humane future for us all.

Susan McPhee, Energy Conservation Coordinator and farm board member, explains the beautiful synchrony that will power the building. First, the temperature inside will rely on geothermal heating and cooling. Very deep wells – descending up to 500 feet into the ground – call on the earth’s static temperature of around 55 – 65 degrees F to provide cool air in the summer and to bring relatively warm air (warmer than a Boston winter!) up in winter. The heat gap on cold winter days between the somewhat chilly “earth air” and a more comfortable temperature will be bridged by a motor, but even the small amount of energy needed to power it will come from electricity provided by rooftop solar panels. These panels will also light the building, run computers, keep the kitchen up and running for cooking classes and on and on. Speaking of lighting, the farm staff is looking into highly efficient LEDs.

Furthermore, notes Colleen Ryan Soden, LEED AP BDC, IDC, who is the sustainability advisor for the barn project, the farm is looking into the possibility of having the barn walls built offsite. Doing this provides several benefits: the walls are never out in any weather so there’s no concern about moisture, the project can be completed faster because it’s all done in one place by one coordinated team, and it promotes what she calls a “closed-loop system,” where you can get “an ultra-tight envelope,” greatly minimizing (if not practically eliminating) leaks around windows and doors. Finally, the walls will be super-insulated, thereby retaining all that cool air in summer and warm air in winter.

It’s a win-win-win-win any way you look at it.

What’s the downside to all of these earth-loving systems? They cost more upfront to purchase and install, there’s no doubt about it. However, not only do geothermal and other earth-friendly systems last much longer than boilers – up to 10 times longer, or even more – when you amortize the upfront costs and factor in governmental incentives, the return on investment shows that doing things the right way from the start makes the most sense environmentally, yes, but also financially.  

Still, building a low-impact, high-quality, earth-friendly barn is not cheap. There are always costs to any project. The question is, how much cost, in what form, and who will really be footing the bill in the end? Soden again: “If we make the right choices in the beginning, we reap the rewards in the long term. We save money and ameliorate climate change impacts. It’s the way we all need to go.”

Water’s another consideration, and the farm is looking at ways to use non-potable storm water for toilets or irrigation. This is a double positive because capturing rainwater can also mitigate flooding. Energy modeling exercises will help determine which features the farm wants to pursue when considering both energy footprint and cost; e.g., whether to fund superinsulation or triple pane windows, for example.

“First, people need to be healthy and happy in this space,” Soden asserts. “Then we want to make our impact as small as possible from a carbon standpoint. And finally, we want to use the barn as an educational tool – to show how we can make beautiful, vibrant spaces that are economically feasible and also enjoyable for people to use.”

After conversations around sustainability with committed farm supporters like you, we are excited to report that we’ve received a $75,000 match challenge earmarked to help Make the All Seasons Barn GREEN.  With your generous support, the campaign will cover nearly half of the cost to use geothermal, solar, and other energy efficient approaches. Make your donation by June 21st to be counted towards the GREEN Match and leave a lasting legacy.

Right now, your donation has 2x the power to do good!

DONATE NOW

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Farms – Places that Nourish and Heal

April 2019

Written by Assistant Farm Manager, Diana Shomstein

Hello everyone, my name is Diana Shomstein and I am the new Assistant Farm Manager for the 2019 growing season here at Wright-Locke Farm.

I have a lot of gratitude for the past experiences that have led me to my first real job in farming, after internships and apprenticeships in a series of diverse places in the world, and teaching in early childhood education and early childhood music education.

It is with some disbelief that I find myself in this position, having grown up in Brooklyn, New York. Like many who live in cities, experiencing nature is something that is rare, special, foreign and deeply familiar at the same time. Nature is not accessible to many, and that extends to all areas of health and well-being, from food security to clean air and water. So I feel that it is with a lot of privilege that I am able to choose to farm, to live and work in places that have the potential to nourish and heal.

From my first few weeks working at Wright-Locke farm, I am reminded of how important farms and nature are to people, in connecting to a wavelength so different from urban ways of life. It seems that farms can be places where people have meaningful experiences, both individually and shared, whether it is with an animal, plant, space, or community. Farms are spaces intentionally cultivated by people, which distinguishes them from wild spaces, and are interesting to think about in terms of how humans have interacted with and shaped the earth. Spaces like Wright-Locke seem to give us the chance to reflect on that relationship because we see the homes around the farm, the cars down the road, and then the chickens roaming around and the pond and trees up the hill.

I dream of a place where sound, music, healing and food can openly exist in nature and cultivate the bond we have to the earth. I wonder if beneath the need to provide food that perhaps led people to cultivate land to create farms, was that humans were cultivating a relationship with the land. I hope that in this season I will be able to continue the idea of a relationship to oneself, and to others through farming and growing food on a small scale.

I feel that farms that are open and in touch with the wild, can be safe havens for people to grow within and challenge themselves. Yet there are so many farms in the world with practices that harm and violate the rights of the earth, of children, of animals. We are aware that the earth is an endlessly diverse place that is simultaneously losing much of its life and diversity. I am aware of this complexity and somewhat of a dichotomy in small intentional farms like Wright-Locke, where we given the chance to heal and be nourished by our interaction on the earth, and then we are inevitably connected to our neighbors whether they be close by or far away.

Thank you for your thoughts Diana and we are so excited to welcome you to Wright-Locke Farm for the 2019 season! – The WLF Team

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Looking Forward to Sustainability

February 2019

Written by Executive Director, Archie McIntyre

I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.  The beginning of the year is a great time for resolutions.  Usually, I shoot too high, but this year I’m starting with a modest resolution – one that I have a reasonable chance of meeting throughout the year.

I drink a lot of coffee.  Some are surprised with how much.  Let’s just say it’s more than a couple of cups a day.  And, no, my resolution is not to cut down the amount of coffee consumed.  So far it seems to be working for me.  What I need to do is cut down the number of disposable cups that I consume.  A frequent Starbucks’ visitor, I probably go through hundreds of cups and plastic lids per year.  Imagine Starbucks’ environmental footprint of single use cups and lids worldwide.

Do I really need to be a part of it?  I think not.  With a small effort and a bit of forethought, I don’t have to be part of this problem.  I can bring my own mug for coffee or bring my reusable shopping bag to the market.  It’s a small step that’s not going to solve all of our problems, probably no more than one drop in an ocean of water.  But I have to start somewhere and my small action can have important meaning to me and maybe someone around me.

So what has this to do with the Farm?

Members of the Wright-Locke Farm Board and staff have spent the last couple of months working on our 5-year strategic plan.  We’ll be doing many of the things we currently do – it seems to be working pretty well – but we’ll start consciously evaluating what it is we do through the lens of sustainability. I take the liberty of quoting from a section of the Plan:

“Now in its second decade, Wright-Locke Farm is a thriving organization garnering strong interest and enthusiasm from surrounding communities. We see many opportunities to further increase our beneficial impact across many segments of the community, leveraging and expanding ongoing farm facilities and activities. We seek to ensure that Wright-Locke Farm remains a healthy, fiscally sound, vibrant resource, broadening its contributions to the community well into the future.

The farm also finds itself at an inflection point, not only in its own history — having now turned uncertain beginnings into an established and valued center of community life — but also in a historic moment of opportunity, as a local agricultural enterprise in a wider society increasingly unsettled by the threat of climate change and by growing inequality, including unequal access to nature and rural or farm experiences. We believe that by taking action to address each of these issues, we are in a unique position to demonstrate to a broader community the positive, key values of

  • Environmental Stewardship
  • Social Responsibility
  • Financial Sustainability”

Let’s use the perspective of a “Triple Bottom Line” to evaluate all that we do and measure our impact – both positive and negative.  Like my disposable cups, our undertakings will have a modest impact on our global issues, but an impact nonetheless.  We all have to start trying.  Wright-Locke Farm is just 20 acres out of a total of 4,032 acres in Winchester.  Just a drop in an ocean.  But if we add up all our small, individual efforts we can start to make a dent.  Here are some of the things were undertaking at the farm and how they fit into our new model of a Triple Bottom Line evaluation:

Farm-wide Environmental Audit

To better understand where were going, it’s good to have a handle on where we are.  This year, we will undertake a complete farm-wide environmental audit.  What is our gas and diesel consumption for our tractors, mowers and other farm vehicles and implements? How much electricity do we use on farm, fuel oil to heat the farmhouse, and water to irrigate our fields and wash our vegetables?  What a great project for an environmental intern from one of our universities or graduate schools.  (If anyone comes to mind, please let us know.)

 

Use of Disposables, Recyclables, Reusables

Speaking of environmental audits, how about our use of disposables and plastics?  All of us on staff know we can, and need, to do a better job.  Areas that we’ll start to explore include how do we reduce single use containers for our Farm Stand and for our many public and private events?  What alternatives do we have for plastic produce bags that are a great convenience to our customers at our farmers markets? Winchester has implemented a town-wide single-use plastic bag ban. Due to our size, the Farm is probably exempt, but we will voluntarily comply because it’s not only the right thing to do, but we feel reflects our persona as an organization.

There are many other things we’d like to do to become more sustainable as a farm and organization.  Too many to explore in this short blog.  Suffice it to say that we will start taking the necessary steps to make sure we’re doing our part to help our fragile ecosystem and to become more a part of the solution and less a part of the problem.  If we all do our small part to become the solution– here in Winchester and at the State and regional level – pretty soon what was just a drop in the ocean might become a wave.

All Seasons Barn

Many of you have seen our plans.  A heated barn will allow us to extend our programming to 12 months per year, strengthening our financial sustainability as an organization by becoming a year-round operation.  Through careful design, use of materials and green technology, we are working to make this a “net zero” project, one that generates more clean energy than it uses.  Central to this goal will be a geothermal heating and cooling system and a solar array to power all of our electric power at the Farm.

Solar Power Project 

For a while now, we have felt that the farm should generate electricity with its own solar array.  The logical place for an array is on our south facing roofs of the 1827 Barn and Squash House.  Due to the buildings’ historic status, we have avoided pursuing this option in the past and sought other options, including ground mount locations around the Farm.  After lengthy soul searching, we have come to the conclusion that a ground mount option would have far greater visual impact (and cost) on our historic farmscape.  So we are back to pursuing solar panels on our two main barns.  This is a tough decision, but many of us feel that the time is right to make the difficult choices but reasonable sacrifices to mitigate negative climate impacts.

The Wright-Locke Conservancy Board, Winchester Historical Commission and the Winchester Select Board have all voted unanimously to support this option.  Now we must convince the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) and our numerous visitors and constituents that this is the right approach. For those of you interested in learning more, here’s a link to a detailed explanation of the project and some photos of what the panels would look like.  I think you’ll agree that the plan makes every effort to minimize the visual impact on the buildings and farm.

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The Farm, a Gift.

December 2018

Written by Volunteer, Betsy Block

I remember a long time ago, when my kids were still young, seeing a pop-up sign for raspberry picking in a funny little field in Winchester. Organic raspberries in Winchester? At the time it was surprising, and delightful, but it also felt, if I’m being honest, like this was “tax break land.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just saying, that’s how it felt. Still, my family of four picked raspberries because, how could we not?

Several years later, my son worked as a counselor at the Wright-Locke summer camp before going on to major in Environmental Studies in college, and my daughter, now a high school senior seemingly headed down the same path, was his CIT for a week, so I knew even back then that things were changing up on the Farm.

It wasn’t until my husband and I drove over for a walk through the trails on a late fall day in 2016, though, that I saw for myself what Wright-Locke Farm had become. The day was cold, and the vista was a still life in late season grays and browns, but it was starkly beautiful, and clean, and fresh. Meandering through the farm’s different landscapes soothed our souls, frayed beyond repair (or so I thought) from my yearlong battle with a life-threatening illness.

That was the day I realized: this was no longer tax break land. It had somehow, while I hadn’t been paying attention, morphed into a sanctuary. It was as though elves had swooped in and magically transformed this once-forgotten spot into something truly unique, a center brimming with programs and walking trails and, amazingly, even a real working organic farm producing all sorts of crops, not just raspberries (although, thankfully, still those tiny red gems too). Of course, there were no elves, only humans deeply committed to reclaiming and restoring this gorgeous piece of unsullied property that was at one point so very close to being lost to development. Those devoted people somehow managed to find the resources the land needed, and together, they saved it. Now, thanks to the hard work of so many people, both staff and volunteers, it has become a refuge for plants, animals, and humans alike. It is a robust host for education and cultural events. It serves us, is served by us, and belongs to us.

Two years after taking that calming walk on the farm’s trails, I am well and my family’s soul has been restored. And now, with once-again clear eyes, I am able to see Wright-Locke as it is, not as I remember it from a decade ago. Wright-Locke Farm is now a place where life thrives, curiosity is sated, and we are given the opportunity to connect with each other and ourselves.

I am not a religious person, but in a place like this I find what I imagine temple or church provides to others: solace, awe, and inspiration, all at a farm devoted as much to our collective spirit as it is to food. (But oh, the food!) How many places just outside of Boston city limits offer us this much space to breathe and reclaim a sense of both purpose and ease? It may not be wrapped in gold paper and adorned with a bow, but this December we can give thanks for this special spot tucked away in Winchester, because Wright-Locke Farm is a gift to us all.

Thank you Betsy for your beautiful words and thoughts. This post in itself is truly a gift to us!

Wishing everyone a peaceful, happy, and healthy holiday season.

Make Your Own Gift Today