THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
French Breakfast Radishes, Fennel, Scallions, Hakurei Turnips, Rainbow Chard, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, White Satin Carrots, Kohlrabi, Rosaine Little Gems, Cherokee Summer Crisp Lettuce, Salanova Mini Lettuces, Arugula, and Mustard Mix
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries
Sugar Snap Peas
Herbs: Thyme, Italian Parsley, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Vietnamese Coriander, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Lemon Verbena, Cilantro, Tulsi, Various Mints, Catnip, Chamomile, Purple Basil
Flowers!
STORING YOUR STRAWBERRIES
If you manage to make it home with a few pints of strawberries, you might wonder how best to store them. CSA member Lillie Dignan was kind of enough to share her tried and true method for storing ripe strawberries in the fridge so they last all week, or more!
Estimated kitchen time: 5-10 minutes
Step 1. Pick lots of delicious, red strawberries from the fields of your amazing CSA. (If any berries are almost over ripe, just eat them immediately. Yum.)
Optional: Cleanup the berries a bit by simply pinching off the leaves or totally hulling with a knife.
Step 2. Fill a pot, bowl, or sink basin with cool water. Add some vinegar to the water. (I’ve read directions for up to a 1:3 ratio of vinegar to water, but I just use a glug per quart of water and it works just fine.) Put all your berries into the vinegar-water for 1-5 minutes. They get a nice, cleansing rinse! And no lingering vinegar tang, I promise!
Step 3. Spread the berries out on a towel to dry a bit. I like to put a cooling rack underneath for max airflow. The drier the better, but often I just wait a few minutes.
Step 4. Line an airtight container with a cloth napkin or paper towel, and carefully tuck all the strawberries into it. Cover and store in fridge. The towel absorbs extra moisture, and the lid protects these gentle berries from your fridge.
Step 5. Eat ‘em all up! Every day! Enjoy the taste of these SWEET BURSTS OF SUMMER JOY.
FARMER’S LOG
APPLEs to ORANGES
Some curious members have asked us what differences we’ve noticed farming here compared to Green Valley. We are so new here that we’re still sorting it all out ourselves, but here are a few first impressions…
The soils: Like Green Valley, the topography here is complex. This isn’t Kansas, Toto. There are slopes and drainages, dips and mesas. So, like Green Valley, there is a gradient of soils ranging from light and sandy to sticky clay. Technically, the gradient is between two soils, Blucher loam and Wright loam. The Blucher loam (which hosts the garden, the strawberries, the u-pick field, and the upper part of our fields across the creek) is like a Sunday picnic in the park. It is so sandy, easy, light and forgiving. The gophers and the spades swim through it like water. I would give lots of things for the whole farm to be this soil. We didn’t have anything like Blucher loam in Green Valley, and farming it feels like a we’ve died and gone to heaven… except for the Dune sandworm sized gophers. But that would make things too easy, so the majority of the farmable land here in the flooding low lands is Wright loam, which is actually quite similar to the soil at Green Valley. It is good, rich soil, but not super easy to work. It has more clay and takes some skill to get good tilth. But we cut our teeth on similar stuff at Green Valley we feel right at home.
The critters: Green Valley was a relatively remote place, surrounded by forest. It was also quite a dry place being so high up in the watershed. The Laguna de Santa Rosa is the opposite, it is a veritable freshwater oasis. And an oasis is a busy place. Critters abound! We’ve noticed there are a lot more “pests” here than there were at Green Valley. Some of that has to do with this having been a vegetable farm for almost 40 years — classic farm pests like flea beetles, as well as classic farm weeds, are much more predominant. But the ecosystem also just feels busier here. With the Laguna so close, there are a lot more birds, deer, aforementioned gophers, and buggies all making their boisterous lives here. While it might mean a few more chomped lettuces, at the end of the day we are so grateful for the company.
The light: Our crops and the weeds have grown so astonishingly fast in the last couple of weeks it has us contemplating solar energy all over again. In our area, there is about 20% more daylight on June 21st than there is on March 21st. That’s not to mention the changing angle of the sun. Furthermore, at the new farm, we aren’t surrounded by hills to the East and West like we were at Green Valley which, we estimate, shaved off about %15 of the direct-sun day-length to our fields there. All that’s to say, stuff is growing faster than we’ve ever seen here right now! Case in point, the Jack-O-Lanterns growing right next to the parking lot were planted just 21 days ago.
Proximity: Perhaps the most exciting difference we’ve noticed about the new farm is how much easier it is for most of our members to access. That has meant more people than ever before just dropping in to enjoy the farm and garden on off-days, in the mornings, in the evenings, enjoying a solitary morning picking, bringing friends through to picnic, picking flowers with their kids, etc… which is basically the whole point of the farm, so we are over the moon about that.
That’s it for some off-the-cuff observations after our first few months farming here. Many more to come!
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
FARM ORIENTATION TOURS
If you are a new or returning member who hasn’t had an orientation tour yet, please check in with one of the farmers when you come to a pickup.
FARM BASICS
Times & Dates: Our 2022 CSA harvest season will run from June 11th - December 6th.
Saturday harvest pick-ups run from 9:00am - 2:00pm
Tuesday harvest pick-up run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Members and their accompanied guests may visit the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to enjoy the farm and u-pick.
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472. It is the long gravel driveway to the left. Kiddos crossing. Please drive slowly.
Parking: Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or along the straw bales further down.
Where is the food! The pick-up barn is to your right with the beautiful mural on it.
What should I bring to the farm?:
Extra plastic produce bags (if you have them) to cut down on plastic waste
A pint basket or other pint measure and a basket for u-pick crops
A vase or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy on the drive home!
Clippers to cut flowers and herbs
Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!
