Harvest Week 16

PARTY TIME!

We hope you’ll join us for two unforgettable autumn events on the farm!

POTATO HARVEST PARTY
SATURDAY, October 4th, 9:00 am - 11:30 am

Join us for our 8th annual potato harvest party! There’s nothing like watching potatoes shower up out of the ground in the wake of the tractor and then bagging them, fresh out of the ground, with friends. It’s an unforgettable experience. All ages and abilities welcome. Come prepared to get dirty!

HARVEST POTLUCK CELEBRATION
SATURDAY, October 11th, 4:00 PM - 6:00 am

Feast and toast with fellow members and farmers and taste the abundance of fall at our annual Harvest Potluck Celebration! We’ll gather under the oaks and let the kids run wild and eat what will probably be the best potluck food ever assembled. (We know you all can cook!) Click here for more details and to sign up for a dish!

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Harvest Moon Potatoes, Green Magic Broccoli, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Eggplant, Tomatoes, Rainbow Carrots, Leeks, Bunched Chioggia Beets, Fennel, Celery, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale, Volcana Little Gem Lettuces, Assorted Romaine Lettuces, Spinach

Riley, Arabella, Meg & Henry harvesting leeks in Farfield this morning.

U-PICK

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

• NOTE*: Our u-pick Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin patch will open Saturday, October 11th.

• Goldilocks Beans | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week! | There are so many of these beautiful beans right now and they make the best dilly beans!

• Albion Strawberries | 1 pint per share

• Cherry Tomatoes | No Limit

• Frying Peppers:

  • Shishitos | No Limit

  • Padróns | No Limit

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños | No limit | Red jalapenos are sweet & hot and used in making Chipotle.

  • Habanero | 5 peppers per share | Citrusy & mildly hot. Pick when orange. (These are past the Vietnamese Devil Peppers.)

  • Thai Chilis | 2 peppers per share | Spicy! Pick when red.

  • Wilson’s Vietnamese Devil Pepper | 2 peppers per share | A super-spicy Vietnamese heirloom. Pick when red.

• Herbs & Edible Flowers: (Note: Most new annual herbs are now in the north west section of the garden.) Husk Cherries, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

• Flowers! (Note: Most of the new flowers, like big new marigolds, are in the western beds and north section.) Too many to list!

Freshly dug Harvest Moon potatoes on Monday morning! Come experience a bumper potato harvest with us next Saturday!

HARVEST NOTES

• The end of Tomato season is approaching! If you’ve been holding off on taking home your bulk tomatoes for preserving, don’t wait any longer! With rain in the forecast and cooler weather on its way, our tomatoes won’t be around much longer. As we get to the end of the season, we’ll start to offer seconds (blemished, split, or very ripe) as a way to hold on a bit longer to this emblem of summer. We’re also expecting to say goodbye to the other nightshades soon as well —cherry tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers.

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA SIGN-UPS NOW OPEN!

Want to keep getting abundant weekly veggies through the winter? Winter Sister Farm, located right next door, is open for signups for their 2025-2026 Winter-Spring CSA! They have a range of share options and sizes, including both free-choice and box shares, all of which include access to their u-pick herb and flower garden. Visit www.wintersisterfarm.com/csa for more details!

A LITTLE EGGPLANT PARM

Recipe by Alison Roman

This is an easy (no salting of the eggplant, no frying!) recipe that Alison says “does basically taste like eggplant parmesan but lighter, fresher, tangier, crunchier.

If you’d like to serve 4 people or are eager for leftovers, you can easily double this (you would then use all of the sauce and just bake it in a 2-quart vessel).

This is ideal eaten out of the oven, but it’s also really great as leftovers (cold, room temperature, or reheated in a 400° oven till bubbling again, 25–30 minutes).

The only thing this needs is an acidic salad with lots of shallot or garlic in the dressing. “

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large globe eggplant (about 2 pounds), sliced about ½”-¾” thick

• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided

• Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper

• 1 small onion (yellow, white, or red), thinly sliced

• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

• Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

• 4 anchovy fillets (optional), plus more if you want

• 1 28 oz. can whole San Marzano tomatoes, crushed

• ¾ cup panko bread crumbs

• 1/3 cup (about) grated parmesan

• 2–3 tablespoons capers, coarsely chopped

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or marjoram (you can skip, or use half the amount of dried)

• ⅓ cup coarsely chopped parsley, divided

• 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced or torn

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Roast the eggplant. Preheat oven to 450°. Drizzle eggplant with about half the olive oil and season with salt and pepper and roast, turning eggplant halfway through (I use tongs or a fork), until it’s as tender as custard and both sides are as brown as if they were fried (they weren’t), 25–30 minutes. A lot of the flavor in this dish will come from the eggplant being very very browned, so please don’t be scared to “take it there” so to speak. Please take it there. Take it very there.

2. While that happens, make the sauce. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring every now and then until the onions and garlic are tender and starting to brown around the edges, 8–10 minutes. Add crushed red pepper flakes and anchovies, if using, and stir, letting both things melt into the onions. Pour the juices from the tomatoes into the pot and one by one, crush the tomatoes with your hands into the pot (I like to keep the tomatoes on the chunkier side for more texture in the finished dish). Season again with salt and pepper and let it simmer gently for 15–30 minutes (you want to evaporate some but not all of the liquid). Once it tastes very good and feels nicely thickened, remove from heat. Set half aside and freeze or refrigerate the rest.

3. The last annoying thing to do here is to toast the bread crumbs (less annoying than frying though, right?). Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a small to medium skillet over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and season with salt and pepper. Stir them to coat evenly in the oil and toast, tossing frequently, until all the bread crumbs are the color of your morning toast, 5–7 minutes. Remove from heat.

4. Okay, it’s time to assemble this thing! How thrilling. There’s not a ton of technique here, but here’s how I do it to most closely mimic the classique eggplant parm.

5. Spoon about half of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a 1 qt. baking dish or 6” skillet (both hold about 4 cups volume, that’s the size you want. Doesn’t matter the shape, as long as its heatproof).

6. Top with half the eggplant (a little overlap is fine, so are gaps- don’t fuss!). Top with half the parmesan, parsley, capers, and oregano. Scatter half the bread crumbs in a nice even layer on top of all that, followed by half the mozzarella. Repeat this, ending with the mozzarella. Add a little more parmesan if you feel like it, maybe some black pepper. I feel that this is truly perfect as-is, but if you love anchovies as much as my friend Chris, you can use more to layer in (I’d add a few fillets with the capers/herbs).

7. Now, bake it. Pop it into the oven until the cheese is browned and everything is bubbling around the edges, 15–20 minutes. Remove from the oven, maybe finish with some more parsley if you’ve got it stuck to your cutting board, and let it cool ever so slightly before eating. I like to just serve it by scooping with a spoon—it’s not really meant to be sliced.

FARMER’S LOG

THE BIG HARVESTS

This week we checked off the first big harvest of the season — the onions.

We have a big, beautiful onion crop now curing in the greenhouse (take a peek!) and it was a smooth and satisfying beginning to our bulk harvest season.

Next up it’s potatoes, then celery root, winter squash, popcorn and flour corn, and fall storage carrots. (You’ll harvest the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins for us.)

It’s the time of year when we farmers put our heads down and reverse all the hard work and planting we did in the spring. Instead of planting thousands of tiny plants from the greenhouse into fresh beds, we haul in thousands of pounds of their bounty back to the greenhouse or cooler for storage and then seed those beds into cover crop.

We probably shouldn’t jinx ourselves, but all the crops are looking exceptionally happy this year — the potatoes are coming up round, sound, and smooth skinned; the winter squash are abundant; and the onions, like we said, are humongous.

This is the result of many things. We had a really mellow summer — no wicked heat waves like last year. We’ve learned our land better (like where not to plant potatoes). Our crew has been exceptionally skilled and awesome. And we made some tweaks to our weeding equipment and irrigation planning so our plants were more properly irrigated and better weeded than ever before.

Our reward for that is… a lot of muscle-building work!

The bumper fall harvests ahead will pose some challenges for the farm — like figuring out how to store what should be a very abundant potato crop.

But that’s a good problem to have.

See you in the fields,
David

---

CSA BASICS

Slow on Cooper Road! Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

What time is harvest pick-up?:

• 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.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

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

Harvest Week 15 - Autumn Equinox Musings

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Harvest Moon Potatoes, Green Magic Broccoli, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Assorted Zucchini, Patty Pan & Crookneck Squash, Slicing Cucumbers, Cracker Jack Watermelon, Piel de Sapo Melons, Farao Cabbage, Leeks, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale, Assorted Little Gem Lettuces, Romaine Lettuce, Arugula

U-PICK

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

• 🌟 Goldilocks Beans | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week! | These beautiful, pale yellow beans are great for fresh eating or dilly beans! The last green bean succession of the year.

• Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share

• Cherry Tomatoes | No Limit

• Frying Peppers:

  • Shishitos | No Limit

  • Padróns | No Limit

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños | 10 peppers per share | Red jalapenos are sweet & hot and used in making Chipotle.

  • 🌟 Habanero | 2 peppers per share | Citrusy & mildly hot. Pick when orange.

  • 🌟 Thai Chilis | 2 peppers per share | Spicy! Pick when red.

  • 🌟 Wilson’s Vietnamese Devil Pepper | 2 peppers per share | A super-spicy Vietnamese heirloom. Pick when red. True Love Seeds tells the family story behind these peppers and the students who grew our seeds.

• Herbs & Edible Flowers: (Note: Most new annual herbs are now in the north west section of the garden.) Husk Cherries, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

• Flowers! (Note: Most of the new flowers, like big new marigolds, are in the western beds and north section.) Too many to list!

Goldilocks Beans & this year’s Hot Peppers: Top row, left to right: Thai Chilis, Habanero, Vietnamese Devil Pepper / Bottom row: Shishitos, Jalapenos, Padrons.

HARVEST NOTES

• Last week of summer squash! As we turn towards the fall and the autumn equinox, we’ll be saying goodbye to our summer squash. There will be just enough for everyone to have a last taste this week.

• Green Magic Broccoli: We’re welcoming our first abundant fall succession of broccoli this week! If you’re ever in doubt as to what to do with broccoli, or with a large quantity of broccoli, we have two fail-safe ideas for you. First: roasting. In our house we find that any amount of roasted broccoli, however large it initially seems, will be consumed. To make delicious roasted broccoli, preheat your oven and a pan to 400-450 degrees. Cut broccoli into thin florets after peeling the thick skin off the base of the stalk. Toss generously with olive oil and salt, then roast until crispy. A couple minutes before taking out of the oven, toss thoroughly with a couple cloves of crushed raw garlic. The other option is freezing! Blanched broccoli freezes beautifully, and can then be enjoyed on its own or added to your favorite dishes.

• Harvest Moon Potatoes: Numerous crew and CSA members agree: Harvest Moons might be the best potato. The Burpee’s catalogue says it well: “Infused with creamy, nutty flavor, ‘Harvest Moon’ is a culinary triumph on her own, no butter or salt required.” Enjoy every which way: Mashed, baked, boiled, fried—or adding color to a potato salad.” Purple on the outside, gold on the inside.

SONOMA MOUNTAIN BREADS OFF THIS SATURDAY!

COOKMA POP-UP THIS SATURDAY

Come get some nourishing foods for fall with Cookma this Saturday. Based on Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine, Cookma creates one-pot meals that make it easy to have comforting food at home. They are an excellent way to utilize whatever produce is seasonal and abundant so they’ll make a great companion to your CSA pick up.

Cookma is a woman-owned company and is based in West County.

RED PEPPER, POTATO AND PROSCIUTTO FRITTATA

From Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, by Joshua McFadden

Serves 3-4.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 lb peeled potatoes

• Kosher salt, fresh ground peppers

• 2 tbls unsalted butter

• 2 red bell peppers (or ~ 6 Jimmy Nardellos), seeded and cut into julienne strips

• 1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and sliced on a sharp angle

• 4 oz prosciutto, cut into thin strips

• 6 eggs

• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

• 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, seasoned with salt and peppers and stirred until it’s creamy

INSTRUCTIONS

Put potatoes in a pan with water and add salt until it tastes like the sea. Bring to a boil and cook until they are tender but not mushy, 15-20 minutes. Drain.

When cool enough to handle, cut into small chunks.

Preheat oven to 400.

Heat the butter in a 10” skillet (this will go in an oven) over medium-high heat. Add peppers, scallions, and prosciutto, season lightly with salt and black pepper, and cook until fragrant and peppers are softening but not browning, 5-7 minutes. Add the potatoes.

Crack the eggs into a large bowl, add 1 tsp salt and many twists of black pepper and the Parmigiano. Whisk until eggs are nicely blended. Pour the eggs over the ingredients in the skillet, scraping everything out of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Reduce the heat to medium and let the eggs sit peacefully for about 2 minutes. Then carefully slip the spatula around the edge of the eggs, releasing them from the pan, allowing more liquid egg to flow underneath. Let that new layer of egg set up a bit and then repeat the process. You are building layers of cooked egg, which will help the frittata have a lighter texture than if you simply let the whole thing set as one.

After most of the liquid egg has cooked, but the top is still runny, dollop the ricotta over the top of the frittata in 8 blobs, evenly spaced. Transfer the pan to the oven and finish cooking the frittata all the way through, about 5 minutes or so. It should be puff a bit and the top will get lightly browned.

Let the frittata sit in the pan for a couple of minutes, then run the spatula or a small knife around the edge of the frittata and as far under the center as you can go. Slide the frittata onto a cutting board or cooling rack.

Serve the frittata on the warm side of room temperature, cut into wedges. It’s delicious the next day too.

FARMER’S LOG

Equinox Musings

On Monday, at 11:19 am, the Earth will wobble its midline straight in line with our sun — the Autumnal Equinox. At that moment, if you listen closely, you might here a big “yipeee!” from thousands of Northern hemisphere farmers.

It’s not that we begrudge the summer. No. We just love the changes.

It struck me today how the tasks of pulling off a growing season harmonize with each other, and the seasons, such that it always seems like there is just enough time to do what needs to be done by the hair on our chinny-chin-chins.

The Byrds were right: To everything, there is a season. 

In the spring, we aren’t harvesting yet, so we have all the lengthening-day to prep the canvas; to tune-up the equipment and build irrigation systems; to seed 200 trays a week in the greenhouse; to pot up, stake, and trellis tomatoes; to mow cover crop, turn soil, and plant, plant, plant!

Then harvest seasons comes and two, three, then four days a week are consumed by harvest. We put down the shovel and the hammer and take up the harvest knife. All other projects cease. Planting and harvest become our lives (and maybe some weeding if we’re lucky). The days are at their longest. If there is ever a time to harvest hundreds of pounds of cucumbers, tomatoes and squash in the morning and then seed a mile of carrots in the afternoon, it’s summer.

Before we know it, it’s late-summer. The tomatoes start exploding, the cucumbers already are, we’re still planting like crazy and then the melons come in — and just when when we think we’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the long hot days, we scroll through our crop plan and see that the plantings are nearly done. No more bed shaping. Greenhouse seedings slow down. We plant the last Fall brassicas and the tractor sits quiet for a minute and we can spend all day amongst the vines and in the cooler playing Tetris with boxes of summer fruit. 

Then comes the Autumn Equinox.

The tomatoes are still pumping and the onions and potatoes are calling to be harvested; the winter squash and corn are crisping up. Fall harvests are here. Space needs to be cleared, fields mowed and turned into cover crop, new strawberry beds prepped and planted — and just when we think we’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the shortening days, the heat starts to ebb and the tomatoes show signs of slowing down. Soon, a light frost will roll through the farm and nip the summer fruits. Smiling friends will come to help with the potato harvest. The chill morning air goes down like a draught of ambrosia. We plant the last lettuce bed of the season and have a moment to sit and seed cover crop.

All this is why you’ll rarely hear a farmer say, “Shucks! Summer is over.”

We are greedy for the turnings.

We love nothing more than a first harvest. But the glory of the first tomato fades under the weight of hundreds of tomato crates and then we crave cold hands and cozy coats and the crisp stem snap of a plump winter radicchio.

Change is our tonic — and one of the great sustaining elixirs of farm life.

Soon, winter will arrive. The rains will come and we will turn in — to rest, rejuvenation, and internality. We’ll clean up the farm, look back on the year, plan, sit, think, fix things, and sleep. 

But ample sleep turns into insomnia; too much internality into angst. Our harvest muscles will atrophy and we will get pudgy. We will forget why we are out puttering in the wet and the cold.

And just when we think we’ll break, that there is too much open-endedness in the too-short days, the sun will start creeping back and we will hear the Red-winged Blackbirds calling us out to the fields, beckoning us, “Build it up again! Plant again! Turn! Turn! Turn!”

See you in the fields,
David

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CSA BASICS

Slow on Cooper Road! Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

What time is harvest pick-up?:

• 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.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

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

Harvest Week 14 - Work Song

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Eggplant, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Assorted Zucchini, Patty Pan & Crookneck Squash, Slicing Cucumbers, Cracker Jack Watermelon, Farao Cabbage, Fresh Red Onions, Celery, Fennel, Rainbow Chard, Mei Qing Choi Bok Choi, Assorted Little Gem Lettuces, Cherokee Summer Crisp Lettuce

U-PICK

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

• Dragon Tongue Green Beans | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

• Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share

• Cherry Tomatoes | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

• Frying Peppers:

  • Shishitos | 1 pint per share

  • Padróns | 1 pint per share

• Jalapeños | 10 peppers per share

• Herbs & Edible Flowers: (Note: Most new annual herbs are now in the north west section of the garden.) Husk Cherries, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

• Flowers! (Note: Most of the new flowers, like big new marigolds, are in the western beds and north section.) Too many to list! Feel free to pick the sunflowers along the edge of the parking area in addition to everything in the garden.

HARVEST NOTES

• Cracker Jack Watermelon: The finale of this year’s melon parade, this is the latest in our search for the best watermelon we can grow here on the cool edge of the Laguna. These big, round watermelons are shockingly red, strikingly sweet, and technically seedless, though you will likely find some immature seeds inside. Let us know what you think!

• Farao Cabbage: These are the first of our big, hearty fall cabbages — perfect for big projects like sauerkraut. Check out our favorite recipe below!

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA SIGN-UPS NOW OPEN!

Want to keep getting abundant weekly veggies through the winter? Winter Sister Farm, located right next door, is open for signups for their 2025-2026 Winter-Spring CSA! They have a range of share options and sizes, including both free-choice and box shares, all of which include access to their u-pick herb and flower garden. Visit www.wintersisterfarm.com/csa for more details!

LEMON DILL SAUERKRAUT

From Fermented Vegetables by Kristen and Christopher Shockey.

If you’ve felt intimidated by making kraut, don’t worry! It’s basically just chopping and salting cabbage, then keeping it submerged in a brine. That, plus a couple days of waiting is all it takes to make exceptional sauerkraut.

INGREDIENTS

• about 6 pounds cabbage (2 small heads or one large one)

• 1 1/2-2 tablespoons unrefined sea salt

• 4 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1-2 tablespoons dried dill or about 1/4 cup fresh dill, according to taste

• 4-5 cloves of garlic, finely grated

DIRECTIONS

1. To prepare the cabbage, remove the coarse outer leaves. Rinse a few unblemished ones and set them aside. Quarter and core the cabbage, thinly slice, and transfer to a large bowl. 

2. Add the dill, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of the salt and, with your hands, massage it into the leaves, then taste. You should be able to taste the salt without it being overwhelming. Add more salt if necessary. The cabbage will soon look wet and limp, and liquid will begin to pool.  At this point, add the garlic. If you've put in a good effort and don't see much brine in the bowl, let it stand, covered, for 45 minutes, then massage again. 

3. Transfer the cabbage to a crock or 2-quart jar, a few handfuls at a time, pressing down on the cabbage with your fist or a tamper to work out air pockets. You should see some brine on top of the cabbage when you press. Leave 4 inches of headspace for a crock, or 2 to 3 inches for a jar. Top the cabbage with one or two of the reserved outer leaves. Then, for a crock, top the leaves with a plate that fits the opening of the container and covers as much of the vegetables as possible; weigh down with a sealed, water-filled jar. For a jar, use a sealed, water-filled jar or ziplock bag as a follower-weight combination. The goal here is to ensure that the cabbage stays beneath the brine.

4. Set aside the jar or crock on a baking sheet to ferment, somewhere nearby, out of direct sunlight and cool, for 4 to 14 days. Check daily to make sure the cabbage is submerged, pressing down as needed. 

5. You can start to test the kraut on day 4. You'll know it's ready when it's pleasingly sour and pickle-y tasting, without the strong acidity of vinegar; the cabbage has softened a bit but retains some crunch; and the cabbage is more yellow than green and slightly translucent. If you prefer your kraut on the crunchy side, feel free to start tasting even earlier, and refrigerate as soon as you like the flavor.

6. Ladle the kraut into smaller jars and tamp down. Pour in any brine that's left. Tighten the lids, then store in the refrigerator. This kraut will keep, refrigerated, for 1 year.

Yields about 1 gallon of kraut.

FARMER’S LOG

WORK SONG

Kayta and I are on vacation this week — blessed by our amazing crew at home holding down this big bulky harvest week. We’ll leave you with one of our favorite Wendell poems.

* * * * *

Work Song Part II - A Vision (Epilogue)
by Wendell Berry

If we will have the wisdom to survive,
to stand like slow growing trees
on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it…
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
there, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides…

The river will run
clear, as we will never know it…
On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.

The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.
Families will be singing in the fields…
Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom

and indwelling light.

This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its reality.

* * * * *

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

---

CSA BASICS

Slow on Cooper Road! Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

What time is harvest pick-up?:

• 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.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

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