Harvest Week 18 - Squash Courtship

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Mustard Mix, Green Little Gem Lettuce, Cherokee Lettuce, Brussel Sprout Tops, Fennel, Kohlrabi, Carrots, Assorted Onions, Masquerade Potatoes, Napa Cabbage, Daikon Radish, Scallions, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

• 🎃 Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkins 🎃: SEASON LIMIT: 2 per share, or 1 per child for households with more children. We have enough pumpkins that households that are alternating weeks can also take 2 per share or 1 per child! Follow the map by the barn entrance to find the pumpkins!

• Albion Strawberries: ✨1 pint per share✨

• Cherry Tomatoes: Gleanings

• Goldilocks Beans: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

• Frying Peppers:

  • Padrons: Gleanings

  • Shishitos: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños: Gleanings

  • Thai Chilis: 20 peppers per share

  • Habaneros: 3 peppers per share

  • Ot Hiem Pepper: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

• Herbs & Edible Flowers: Husk Cherries, Lemon Bergamot, Dill, Cilantro, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, Italian Basil, Tulsi, Parsley, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, French & Culinary Lavender, Sorrel, & Assorted Mints

• Flowers galore!

Brussel sprout tops in the field.

HARVEST NOTES

• Brussel Sprout Tops: Each year around this time we trim the tops off of the Brussel Sprout plants to spur the sprouts to size up evenly. This annual necessity has the delicious benefit of giving us delicate bunches of cooking greens with that lovely Brussel Sprout flavor. Use as you would kale or collards. We love them sautéed with lots of garlic.

• Honey Boat Delicata Winter Squash: Delicata are a perennial favorite of ours. Versatile, and sweet, they even have edible skins. For the easiest preparation, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and roast, cut-side down, until tender (adding a splash of water to your pan keeps the squash moist!). They are also delicious cut into rings or half circles, tossed with an oil of your choice (coconut is particularly scrumptious) and then roasted until caramelized. Enjoy!

Pumpkin patch at sunrise.

BRUSSEL SPROUT TOPS & DELICATA SALAD

Adapted from NYTimes Cooking

This perfect fall salad was originally written for kale, but we’ve subbed in Brussel sprout tops here. The almond butter dressing brings a creamy richness to tie everything together. If you’d like, embellish with salty cheeses, fresh herbs (parsley would be particularly delicious) or toasted nuts.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 ½ pounds Delicata, halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced crosswise ½ inch thick (peel lightly if you prefer)

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• Kosher salt

• 2 crisp eating apples such as Honeycrisp or Pink Lady

• 1/2 small red onion, or 1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest plus ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)

• 1 large bunch Brussel Sprout tops (about 1 pound), ribs removed and leaves sliced about ¼ inch thick

• ¼ cup almond butter

• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• ½ teaspoon black pepper or red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste

  DIRECTIONS

1. Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the squash with the olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt, then spread into an even layer and roast until tender and browned underneath, 15 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.

2. Meanwhile, core the apples and slice ¼ inch thick. In a large bowl, toss together the apples, onion or scallions and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Add the brussel sprout tops, season generously with salt, then toss.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon zest and remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice with the almond butter, Dijon mustard and black pepper. Stir in enough water until it’s pourable (about ¼ cup, depending on the almond butter; the mixture will thicken at first, but when enough water is added, it will loosen). Season the dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

4. When the squash is cool enough to handle, add it to the kale mixture. Drizzle with most of the dressing. Toss until coated, adding more dressing as needed. Taste and adjust seasonings with more salt and pepper. (To make ahead, refrigerate the dressing and salad separately for up to 3 days. Adjust thickness and flavor of dressing with salt, pepper and lemon juice, then toss.)

TIPS ON SELECTING THE TASTIEST WINTER SQUASHES

POV: You approach a macro-bin of West County Winter Squash in the barn with hundreds of edible orbs. Which will you choose!?

Selecting a sweet, ripe winter squash is a little like selecting a ripe melon; you never really know what lies within until you take a bite, but you can take certain cues from the outside of the squash to make sure you get a sweet one.

In general, it is best to select squashes with rich color and deep, warm hues like oranges and reds. Bonbon Buttercup, for example, is a dark green squash but tends to be sweetest when it has a nice deep orange spot on one side. Sunshine Kabocha is best when a deep orange-red. A nice golden-brown-orange Delicata will likely be much tastier than a paler green compadre.

We try to avoid harvesting or putting out unripe squash, but in general, avoid squash that are pale or green. Go for the warm colors!

A vine-ripened, locally grown winter squash will be delicious just roasted and appreciated unadorned.

FARMER’S LOG

AN ODE TO WINTER SQUASH

This week on the farm we made a big push to finish clipping the last of our 2026 winter squash.

A few weeks ago, we penned an ode to the mighty potato. This week we save one for the beloved oldest-domesticated of the three sisters — the winter squash.

She takes on infinite forms, from voluptuous to svelte; from burning red to the palest blue. She has been kindling a loyal love in humanity's heart for over 10,000 years.

The ancestral plants of what we call squash (the species including zucchini, melons, gourds, cucumbers, pumpkins, and all winter squash) are millions of years old and native to the Americas. The earliest evidence for human domestication dates back 10,000 years to southern Mexico, earlier than the domestication of corn or beans.

Word travelled fast and inspiration abounded. By 2,000 B.C., squash had become a part of life for almost every Native American culture from Southern Canada to Patagonia. (The English word "squash" comes from the Narragansett word askutasquash, meaning fresh vegetable, and similar words can be found in the Algonquian language family.) Squash varieties were developed and cherished for everything from their protein-rich and medicinal seeds to their sweet flesh and winter-hardy skins. Botanists note at least six separate domestication events occurring in the Americas.

Here at West County Community Farm, the human + squash love affair burns bright — and we're lucky to have at our fingertips the unparalleled modern library of heirloom squash seeds to explore. Over the winter, Kayta hunkered down with a seed catalogue and a good cup of coffee and laid out a season-long love sonnet to squash: We felt the summer wind with a cool slice of Persian cucumber; we dined by candlelight over pasta with Costata Romanesca zucchini; and once we tasted a Sarah's Choice cantaloupe, we could never forget.

But in the winter, our true love came — the winter squash.

We'll have a new squash for you to get to know almost every week from now until our last CSA pickup day, December 8th. Allow us to introduce you…

Top row from L to R: Sonca Orange Butternut, Black Futsu, Sunshine Kabocha, Honeynut Mini-Butternut | Bottom row L to R: Sweet Jade, Bon Bon Buttercup, Jester, Koginut, Winter Luxury Sugar Pie Pumpkin *NOT PICTURED = Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins. Don’t bother cooking or making those into pie, they are bred for their size, not for taste, and any of the squash above will make a much better pie filling than the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins. Our favorites for pie are Sunshine Kabocha and Winter Luxury Sugar Pie Pumpkins, which we’ll distribute at Thanksgiving..

• Sonca Orange Butternut: This Hungarian variety, new to us this year, whose name apparently translates to 'ham pumpkin,' comes recommended by our amazing neighbor, farmer, and seed saver Sara McCamant, who was raving about its unparalleled sweetness to us last winter. We can't wait to taste it.

• Black Futsu: A beloved Japanese delicacy, this bite-sized, mini Butternut relative has bright orange flesh with unique fruity flavor and edible skin with a gorgeous frosted look.

• Sunshine Kabocha: The village beauty. A fiery-red Kabocha squash with sugar-sweet and flaky flesh. An all-time farmer favorite that can be cooked any which way. Exceptional for pumpkin pie and straight roasted eating.

• Honeynut Butternut: A highly educated squash developed by the Cornell Vegetable Breeding Institute. We fell in love with its deep orange, sweet flesh and beauty when we grew it for the first time last year.

• Delicata: A real heartbreaker. The sweetest. Easiest to cook, even easier to eat.

• Sweet Jade: A real cutie — a personal-sized grey-green Kabocha.

• Bonbon Buttercup: The girl next door. Unassuming, humble, and cute as a button. Bonbon Buttercup is, in farmer David's opinion, the best squash ever. Marriage material.

• Jester Acorn: A Delicata type that looks like a fancy Acorn Squash. A good Jester can be among the sweetest of squashes.

• Koginut: A very expensive date (the priciest seed of all squash), this cutie is a hybrid of Kabocha and Butternut and has a nutty flavor with notes of citrus and vanilla. Very popular with chefs.

• Winter Luxury Sugar Pie Pumpkins: The supreme pie pumpkin in lacy lingerie. The only pie pumpkin that can compete with a Sunshine Kabocha. We'll distribute this one around Thanksgiving with our go-to pumpkin pie recipe.

Set the table, pour the wine, and light the candles — we hope you fall in love with a winter squash this autumn!

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

*PS: Don't bother cooking or making your Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins into pie — they are bred for their size, not for taste. Any of the squash above will make a much better pie filling than a Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin. Our favorites for pie are Sunshine Kabocha and Winter Luxury Sugar Pie Pumpkins.

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CSA BASICS

Check out our Brief Membership Guide: A quick-reference on the essentials of being a member.

Harvest pick-up times:

• Friday harvest pick-ups run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm

• Saturday harvest pick-ups run from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

• Tuesday harvest pick-ups will run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2026 CSA program dates: This year’s harvest season will run from Friday, June 12th through Tuesday, December 8th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Please drive slowly on Cooper Road — 20 mph. It's a neighborhood with lots of kids and animals who generously share the road with us.

Harvest Week 17 - 🎃 Pumpkin Patch Open!

We need your help! Please remember to sign-in at the front table when you come to CSA pickup. It helps us determine how much food to harvest to ensure every pickup is abundant. Thank you!

🎃PUMPKIN PATCH NOW OPEN!🎃

Spooky season is here and your Halloween pumpkins await you! The pumpkin patch is located in Creek Field —to find them, continue on past the north end of the garden (farthest from the barn) and look to your right after the grassy berm.

• 🌟 SEASON LIMIT: 2 per share, or 1 per child for households with more children. Note: We have enough pumpkins that households that are alternating weeks can also take 2 per share or 1 per child!

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Spinach, Green Little Gem Lettuce, Green Oakleaf Lettuce, Lacinato Rainbow Kale, Dandelion Greens, Fennel, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash (last week!), Carrots, Cipollini Onions, German Butterball Potatoes, Napa Cabbage, Daikon Radish, Scallions, Sweet Peppers, Bulk Tomatoes

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

• Albion Strawberries: ✨1 pint per share✨

• Cherry Tomatoes: Gleanings | There are still cherry tomatoes to be had, but they are starting to wind down (particularly the Sungolds! — branch out to other varieties if you want to harvest more.)

• Goldilocks Beans: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

• Frying Peppers:

  • Padrons: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

  • Shishitos: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

  • Thai Chilis: 15 peppers per share

  • Habaneros: 3 peppers per share | Look for the orange peppers hiding low down under the plant.

  • Ot Hiem Pepper: 15 peppers per share

• Herbs & Edible Flowers: Husk Cherries, Lemon Bergamot, Dill, Cilantro, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, Italian Basil, Tulsi, Parsley, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, French & Culinary Lavender, Sorrel, & Assorted Mints

• Flowers galore!

Your pumpkin babies away you!

HARVEST NOTES

• Kimchi Week! After an intense couple of years of pest pressure, we are excited to welcome back Kimchi Week — when we harvest Daikon Radish, Napa Cabbage and Scallions! We’ll include a recipe below for classic mak kimchi, where the cabbage is chopped before being seasoned. For a more mellow, version without red pepper, that’s also vegan, check out this white Kimchi recipe shared with us years ago by Robin Kim.

• Dandelion Greens: We think these succulent Italian dandelions are the perfect bitter green. As with chicories, they pair well with rich, sharp flavors. For a simple and delicious side dish, try sautéing with olive oil (or bacon fat), plenty of garlic and a dash of red wine vinegar and salt. Or check out this recipe for Chickpea Pancakes with Dandelions and Caramelized Onions from a past newsletter!

THANK YOU!

Thanks to everyone who came out for a Potato Harvest Party for the ages. It was a beautiful and fun day for us farmers. We were so happy to get to meet and work with so many of you and your hardworking kids (wow)! Together we harvested almost 3000 lbs of German Butterball and Masquerade Potatoes.

KIMCHI RECIPE

Adapted from Amy Kim of Kimchi Mom, via Steamy Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

• 7 pounds of napa cabbage

• about 1/3 cup kosher salt

• 1 cup sweet rice flour (Mochiko is a popular brand)

• 2 cups water

• 3/4 cup red pepper flakes, medium coarseness

• 1/4 cup chopped saewoo jjut (salted shrimp)

• 3 tablespoons fish sauce

• A scant 1/2 cup sugar

• 5-7 stalks green onion, chopped

• 2 ounces ginger (2-inch long, 1-inch diameter piece), minced

• 8-9 medium garlic cloves, minced

• 3 medium carrots, julienned

• 1 medium-sized daikon or 1 small mu (Korean radish), thinly sliced in 2-inch sections

• water

DIRECTIONS

 Preparing the sweet rice flour paste:

• Whisk together the sweet rice flour and water in a small saucepan. Keep whisking the mixture until bubbles form on the surface, then take the saucepan off the heat and set aside to cool.

Preparing the cabbage:

• Starting at the base of the stem, cut the cabbage about one-third of the way down. Then pull apart the cabbage halves to completely separate them. Do the same with the halved portions - cut and pull apart. Repeat for all the cabbage heads. Give the quarters a quick rinse under running water and shake off any excess water.

• Trim the core at a diagonal. Cut the quarters into 2-inch wide pieces and place in an oversized bowl (I used a 12 qt. bowl) or use a couple of large bowls. Sprinkle generously with salt. Alternate layers of cabbage and salt. Once all the cabbage is cut, give the cabbage a toss and sprinkle more salt on top. Place a weight (like two dinner plates) on top of the cabbage.

• Let the salted cabbage sit for at least 3 hours, tossing after the first hour. Don't worry if you go over!

Preparing the sauce:

• When the cabbage is close to being ready, prepare the red pepper sauce. In a medium bowl, mix kochukaru (red pepper flakes), water, saewoo jjut, fish sauce, green onions, sugar, ginger, garlic, rice flour paste, and about a 1/2 cup water. Mix thoroughly. Taste. It should be balanced – not too salty, not too fishy, not to spicy and not too sweet. Adjust seasonings as needed. Add in a bit more water if needed to bring the consistency to that of a thick batter. Mix in carrots and radish. Set aside.

• Once the cabbage is ready (the volume of the cabbage should have decreased, and it should be a bit wilted), rinse it under cold running water and let drain in a colander.

• In a large bowl, add the sauce to the cabbage. Thoroughly mix the sauce and cabbage and make sure every piece of cabbage is coated with the red pepper sauce. Taste. If it needs more salt, add a bit of fish sauce. But you don’t want it to be too salty.

• Transfer the cabbage mixture into a large glass jar. Press down on the cabbage as you are filling the jar. Leave about 1-inch of space from the top.

• Don’t throw the empty bowl in the sink just yet! Pour about 1 cup of water into the bowl, add about a teaspoon of salt to start, and stir. Swirl the water around to make sure you get all the remaining pepper mixture. Taste. Again, you don’t want it too salty – just a hint of salt. Fill the jar with the water until it barely covers the cabbage.

• Press down on the cabbage again and make sure the liquid has made its way throughout the jar. Close the lid tightly.

• Leave the jars at room temperature for about a day, away from direct sunlight. I leave mine out for about 24-30 hours. This is when the magic happens. You may want to place the jar in a shallow bowl or plate in case there is leakage.

• After those 24 or so excruciating hours, sample the kimchi. There should be a slight tang. At this point it is ready to be refrigerated. You can eat the kimchi right away, but I prefer to wait at least a week to indulge. The kimchi will continue to ferment at a much slower pace in the refrigerator and will keep for about 4 weeks. The kimchi will turn really sour at this point and if you have any left in the jar, it will be perfect for jigae, fried rice, ramen or jun.

FARMER’S LOG

a RICH MASH

This week was all about harvest. We're in the thick of our fall harvest push — with macro bins of storage crops pouring out of the fields — and we are about to begin the liminal shoulder-season work of strawberry planting, compost spreading, and cover cropping before the rains.

We harvested about two-thirds of our potato crop over the weekend — 3,000 lbs of gorgeous tubers on Saturday (thanks to a gaggle of member volunteers at our Potato Harvest Party) and another 6,000 lbs on Sunday (along with a couple of macros of celery root). On Tuesday and Wednesday we brought in 17 macro bins of winter squash. The next round of late-curing winter squash is being clipped as we speak. We chipped away at a bed of fall carrots yesterday, and another 6 beds await.

We'll leave you this evening with the carefully and lovingly placed words of Mary Oliver.

Harvest, harvest, harvest! Shanga, Riley, and Arabella in the fall carrots

Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness
by Mary Oliver

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing, as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on

though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.

* * * * *

See you in the fields,
David

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CSA BASICS

Check out our Brief Membership Guide: A quick-reference on the essentials of being a member.

Harvest pick-up times:

• Friday harvest pick-ups run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm

• Saturday harvest pick-ups run from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

• Tuesday harvest pick-ups will run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2026 CSA program dates: This year’s harvest season will run from Friday, June 12th through Tuesday, December 8th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Please drive slowly on Cooper Road — 20 mph. It's a neighborhood with lots of kids and animals who generously share the road with us.

Harvest Week 16 - Potato Harvest Party!

POTATO HARVEST PARTY!

THis Saturday, September 26th, 9:00 am - 11:20 am

Join us for our 9th annual potato harvest party this Saturday morning as we watch potatoes shower up out of the ground in the wake of the tractor and then bag them, fresh from the soil, with friends & neighbors. It’s an unforgettable experience, especially for kiddos. All ages and abilities welcome.

We recommend clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Some people prefer using light gloves. We’ll have some light refreshments, music from the boombox, and an agrarianly awesome time. (For new members: This potato harvest is not required in any way for members to enjoy potatoes. We will be distributing them every week whether or not you come to harvest!)

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Mustard Mix, Pink Volcana Little Gem Lettuce, Red Romaine Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Lacinato Rainbow Kale, Bunched Beets, Red Radishes, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Carrots, Fresh Yellow Onions, German Butterball Potatoes, Eggplant, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Bulk Tomatoes

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

• Albion Strawberries: ✨2 pints per share✨

• Cherry Tomatoes: Gleanings | There are still cherry tomatoes to be had, but they are starting to wind down (particularly the Sungolds! — branch out to other varieties if you want to harvest more.)

• 🌟 Goldilocks Beans: No limit — take what you’ll eat! | Check out the harvest notes below for more info!

• Frying Peppers:

  • Padrons: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

  • Shishitos: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños: No limit — take what you’ll eat!

  • Thai Chilis: 15 peppers per share

  • Habaneros: 3 peppers per share | Look for the orange peppers hiding low down under the plant.

  • Ot Hiem: 10 peppers per share

• Herbs & Edible Flowers: Husk Cherries, Lemon Bergamot, Dill, Cilantro, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, Italian Basil, Tulsi, Parsley, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, French & Culinary Lavender, Sorrel, & Assorted Mints

• Flowers galore!

HARVEST NOTES

• How much longer will we have tomatoes? Is the 64 million dollar question in the barn these days. We are feeling confident that we’ll be able to offer them this week and next (Week 17) but beyond that, we make no promises! If you’ve been struggling to find the time to process your bulk tomatoes, remember that you can always just throw them in a ziplock bag in the freezer and deal with them later (think of how delightful it will be to be stewing tomato sauce when it’s cold and rainy outside!). Or, if you pick out canning tomatoes that are on the less ripe side, they’d be happy to sit on your counter for most of a week til you’re ready (the smooth, elongated paste tomatoes without stripes are best for this).

• Goldilocks Beans: These beautiful, pale yellow beans are our last bean succession of the year, and the one we look forward to the most. They’re delicate and sweet — perfect for fresh eating, dilly beans, or, if you haven’t made it yet this season, salade niçoise! Really, given this week’s luscious potatoes we think that’s definitely the way to go. Check out Bon Appétit’s great niçoise dressing recipe here.

• German Butterball Potatoes: Seed potato grower David Ronniger introduced it in 1988 while collecting old European-style varieties, and it went on to win first place in Organic Gardening magazine's potato taste-off. It's been a cult favorite with growers and cooks ever since. The name is accurate: under the lightly netted golden skin is deep yellow flesh so rich and buttery that it barely needs any butter at all. They're a true all-purpose potato, great mashed, fried, or baked, but roasting is where they shine: cut them into chunks, toss them in olive oil and salt, and roast them hot until the outsides crisp up around a creamy, pillowy center.

Shanga, Melinda, and Riley harvesting German Butterballs this morning

RATATOUILLE

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn

Ratatouille is made with summer veggies, but as cozy as a cool fall evening.. This recipe calls for an artful arrangement, but if you’re feeling in a rush, you can always chop the ingredients, toss with olive oil and roast on a sheet pan. And if you still have any Floriani Red Flint cornmeal hanging out in your freezer, ratatouille is delicious paired with polenta!

ingredients

• 1 medium zucchini

• 1 medium yellow summer squash

• 2 medium Asian eggplant or 1 Italian

• 2 medium Roma tomatoes

• 1 small yellow onion

• 1 small sweet pepper

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1/2 small bunch fresh thyme

• 1/2 small bunch fresh basil

• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1 cup tomato purée

• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

DIRECTIONS

1. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 375ºF.

2. Trim and cut the following with a mandoline or sharp knife crosswise into 1/16-inch-thick rounds: 1 yellow summer squash, 1 zucchini, 2 Asian eggplants, and 2 medium Roma tomatoes.

3. Dice 1 small yellow onion and 1 sweet pepper. Mince 3 garlic cloves. Pick the leaves from 1/2 small bunch fresh thyme until you have 4 teaspoons. Pick the leaves from 1/2 small bunch fresh basil and finely chop until you have 1/4 cup.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10-inch oven-safe or cast iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion, bell pepper, 1 teaspoon of the kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 8 to 10 minutes.

5. Add the garlic, 2 teaspoons of the thyme, and basil, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup tomato purée and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the flavors meld and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

6. Remove the skillet from the heat. Add 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar and stir to combine. Spread the sauce into an even layer.

7. Arrange the zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and Roma tomatoes on top of the sauce in a concentric circle: Start at the outer edge of the skillet and work inward, alternating the vegetables and overlapping the slices so that just a little bit of each slice is visible.

8. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over the vegetables. Sprinkle the remaining 2 teaspoons thyme and remaining 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt over the top.

FARMER’S LOG

a Potato Digging

This Saturday morning, we'll come together to perform a quintessential autumn ritual: The potato harvest. 

As we kneel down on the Earth, bagging cool tubers, we will join in concert thousands of people around the world performing the same ritual. We will also join untold millions of ancestors who knelt together and harvested potatoes. We will be connected, via a living, breathing chain of seed potatoes to hundreds of historic potato harvests in Europe and Asia and to thousands of harvests in the Andes and northwestern Bolivia — the cultural birthplace of this amazing crop.

There is nothing quite like an abundant potato harvest and the feeling, afterwards, of storing them away — in a pit, a cooler, a cave; the potatoes themselves alive, breathing slowly, promising food, promising life, throughout the winter months. 

Potatoes have been the staff-of-life for many cultures throughout history.

When healthy, potatoes produce the most calories per acre than corn, wheat, or rice. And potatoes are the only one of these staff-of-life crops that grow (the food part, at least) in the Earth — shrouded in the dark and in mystery until they are lifted up into the light at harvest.

While we farmers check the potatoes as they grow every so often, every potato harvest is a mystery for us farmers until we hook the middle-buster shovel onto the tractor and split open the mounds.

Many have known the feeling of incredible abundance that potatoes can give and many have known the opposite. From 1845 - 1852, due to limited potato genetics in the region and the cold shoulders of powerful men, a million people starved in the poorer parts of Western Ireland and the Scottish highlands as a blighted potato crop rotted in the fields. The potato has been a powerful and painful bond between people and Mother Earth, in feast and in famine, for millennia.

Unearthed into the light

The Nobel Prize winning Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, speaks to this history in his poem, “At a Potato Digging”.

* * * * *

I.

A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,
  Spins up a dark shower of roots and mould.
  Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fill
  Wicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.

 Like crows attacking crow-black fields, they stretch
  A higgledy line from hedge to headland;
  Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetch
  A full creel to the pit and straighten, stand

 Tall for a moment but soon stumble back
  To fish a new load from the crumbled surf.
  Heads bow, trucks bend, hands fumble towards the black
  Mother. Processional stooping through the turf

 Turns work to ritual. Centuries
  Of fear and homage to the famine god
  Toughen the muscles behind their humbled knees,
  Make a seasonal altar of the sod.
  
  II.
  
  Flint-white, purple. They lie scattered
  Like inflated pebbles. Native
  to the blank hutch of clay
  where the halved seed shot and clotted
  these knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seem
  the petrified hearts of drills. Split
  by the spade, they show white as cream.

  Good smells exude from crumbled earth.
  The rough bark of humus erupts
  knots of potatoes (a clean birth)
  whose solid feel, whose wet inside
  promises taste of ground and root.
  To be piled in pits; live skulls, blind-eyed.
  
  III.
  
  Live skulls, blind-eyed, balanced on
  wild higgledy skeletons
  scoured the land in 'forty-five,'
  wolfed the blighted root and died.

 The new potato, sound as stone,
  putrified when it had lain
  three days in the long clay pit.
  Millions rotted along with it.

 Mouths tightened in, eyes died hard,
  faces chilled to a plucked bird.
  In a million wicker huts
  beaks of famine snipped at guts.

 A people hungering from birth,
  grubbing, like plants, in the earth,
  were grafted with a great sorrow.
  Hope rotted like a marrow.

Stinking potatoes fouled the land,
  pits turned pus in filthy mounds:
  and where potato diggers are
  you still smell the running sore.
  
  IV.
  
  Under a white flotilla of gulls
  The rhythm deadens, the workers stop.
  White bread and tea in bright canfuls
  Are served for lunch. Dead-beat, they flop

 Down in the ditch and take their fill,
  Thankfully breaking timeless fasts;
  Then, stretched on the faithless ground, spill
  Libations of cold tea, scatter crusts.

* * * * *

We include this poem, with its dark memory, not for its shock value, but for the bond it invokes.

Modern markets divorces us from the primal bond we have to our staple food crops — and from the planet that cradles them. To be sure, this bond is still as strong as ever, but we rarely, if ever, feel it like Seamus Heaney asks us to. On the eve of the harvest of one of our staple crops, we think it is important to feel it. While this bond can be scary, it is also the source of our life and deserves our most profound gratitude.

At West County Community Farm this year, we are thankful. This year’s potato crop will be super abundant and it will fill our bellies long into winter.

The potato field in July was a vision to behold — a sea of purple and white flowers. The shimmering green foliage reached to our belly-buttons, covering every inch of ground so that it was hard to walk. All that energy, all that delight, all that sunlight, was sent down below to the tubers, which are waiting for us now to unearth.

Join us Saturday for our 9th annual potato harvest as we "shower" up the living roots and scatter libations in remembrance and thanks.

See you in the fields,
David

The potato field in flower on July 22nd

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CSA BASICS

Check out our Brief Membership Guide: A quick-reference on the essentials of being a member.

Harvest pick-up times:

• Friday harvest pick-ups run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm

• Saturday harvest pick-ups run from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm

• Tuesday harvest pick-ups will run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2026 CSA program dates: This year’s harvest season will run from Friday, June 12th through Tuesday, December 8th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Please drive slowly on Cooper Road — 20 mph. It's a neighborhood with lots of kids and animals who generously share the road with us.