THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Arugula, Mustard Mix, Spinach, Komatsuna, Collards, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Pink Lady Slipper Radishes, Fennel, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Cegolaine Little Gems, Red Butter Lettuce, Scallions, Mokum Carrots
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share: ATTENTION! There are two strawberry patches open for picking this year. There is a new one to the west (to the left) if you’re facing the old strawberry patch from the flower garden. Look for the double pink flag and the deer fence. Enjoy!
🌟 Sugar Snap Peas | 1 pint per share: Read below for important tips on the first picking
Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Mints, Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, Borage, Violas, Calendula, Nasturtium
Flowers! Too many to list…
HARVEST NOTES
Sugar Snap Peas: The sugar snap peas are just starting to produce. It will be a little bit of a scavenger hunt to get the pint for Saturday folks but they will start exploding later this week and next.
Hakurei Salad Turnips: Not your Grandmother’s turnips, these delectable snacks are delicious eaten fresh, on top a rice bowl, sliced on a salad or popped straight in the mouth. They are also delicious simmered or glazed.
FARM ORIENTATION TOURS FOR NEW MEMBERS
All new members are asked to attend a brief orientation tour their first time picking up their harvest share. We’ll give you your farm tote bags, show you ropes in the flower and herb garden and the strawberry patch, and go over farm safety and common questions.
Please join us promptly for one of the tour times below:
WEEK 2:
Saturday, July 1: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm
Tuesday, July 4: 1:00 pm. 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm
WEEK 3: Please contact us to schedule a time if you haven’t been oriented yet. We are available for tours during the regular Tuesday & Saturday pick-up times: Saturday, 9 am — 1 pm | Tuesday, 1 pm — 6 pm
Tours last for about 30 minutes. We ask that all adult members of your share who will be regularly enjoying the farm attend an orientation. If you are sharing-a-share (alternating weeks) with another household, one household should attend an orientation Week 1 and the other an orientation on Week 2.
If you can’t attend a tour time above, please reach out to us to schedule a time that works for you. 2022 CSA members do not need to attend an orientation tour.
We look forward to meeting you!
CSA BASICS
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
Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.
2023 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run this year from June 24th - December 19th
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or up against the straw bales further down.
Where is the food?: The produce pick-up barn is just to the right of the solar panels and above our big greenhouse. You can’t miss it!
What should I bring?:
Former members, please bring your WCCF tote bag! (New members will be given a new one.)
Pint baskets or small containers for strawberries and herbs (if you have some, we can provision you with 3 pint baskets)
A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy
Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some)
Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!
Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are through this email address, which seems to be getting spam blocked a lot. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.
FREEHAND BAKERY TUESDAYS!
We so excited to welcome Freehand Bakery and their wood-fired sourdough hearth loaves and whole grain treats to the CSA pick-up barn on Tuesdays!
Bakers Daniel Gonzales and Abbey Teitelbaum use locally grown veggies, fruits, and herbs in their organic breads and treats. In collaboration with WCCF, Freehand is excited to dive deeper into our local Sonoma County food community!
Bread will be sold via cash-only exact change honor system (letter box slot) or Venmo.
FARMER’S LOG
The Great Spring Plant Out (GSPO)
Yesterday around 4:30 pm, Aisling, Paige, Asa, Tristan, and I finished transplanting the Jack-O-Lanterns in the bottom of Centerfield, just below the oaks. With that last little pumpkin plant we wrapped up 2023’s Great Spring Plant Out. (Or GSPO for short… )
While our harvest season has only just begun, we finish the lion’s share of each year’s planting by late-June. Aye, by this time of year 75% of our fields are planted in the year’s potatoes, spring and storage onions, dried corn, winter squash, tomatoes, and peppers, 50% of the year’s carrots and most of the year’s melons and cucumbers.
Whew!
The Great Spring Plant Out has a different rhythm than harvest season. It is infrastructure and equipment heavy: Tractors hum constantly as fields are shaped from cover cropped meadows into plantable beds. The irrigation shed gets ransacked daily as the year’s irrigation systems are assembled. It’s a physical time of year: The weekly row-feet needing to be planted is in the thousands before lunch and tomato trellis stake pounding is on the menu for dessert.
And always the Great Taskmaster watches over us: A greenhouse full of bursting seedling trays cascading out the front door, demanding space in the field.
This year’s GSPO was amazing for Kayta and I to witness from the outside as Alice was born on May 15th. When we emerged from the veritable (and literal) womb of birth in late-May the whole farm had been transformed.
These amazing farmers: From L to R: the on and only Aisling Okubo; our greenhouse & garden manager Paige Taylor; our harvest manager Anna Dozor; our production manager Tristan Frakes; our tomato savior Asa Black
The GSPO isn’t a hard-line, there is still a lot of planting to do. But with that little pumpkin plant planted, we have definitely turned a corner.
Now, we shift into maintenance mode; to caring and cultivating for our growing plant babies; to seeing if we can coax them into their full potential; to halting the weeds from encroaching on them too much; to trellising the tomatoes so they can grow tall; to hilling the potatoes to encourage more tubers; to coupling leaks in the irrigation lines and adjusting waterings schedules. And, of course, to harvesting.
We’re looking forward to this phase. We start to reap the tangible rewards of all that hard work during the GSPO — in the form of glowing scallions and plump sugar snap peas — and we get to express a softer side of our farming selves — observation, care, attention, and sharing.
We hope you enjoy this week’s share!
See you in the fields,
David
