THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Romanesco, Leeks, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Brussels Sprouts, Fingerling Potatoes, Celery Root, Kohlrabi, Purple-Top Turnips, Yellow Bridger Onions, Lorz Softneck Garlic, Purple Cabbage, and your choice of Marina di Chioggia, Butternut, or Bonbon Buttercup Winter Squash, Fancy Fall Salad Mix (with Arugula and Mustards from Winter Sister Farm and Radicchio), Assorted Lettuce, Assorted Kale

U-PICK

Only frost nipped herbs: Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, various frost nipped Mints

HARVEST NOTES

Purple Top Turnips: These versatile turnips are sweet and delicate enough to be eaten raw, shaved or micro-planed on salads and hardy enough to handle the stoutest stews and vegetable-medley roasts.
Marina di Chioggia Winter Squash: (aka Sea Pumpkin or Suca Braca, "warty pumpkin") is an Italian heirloom from the seaside town of Chioggia and is the staple squash of Venice. This is a versatile pumpkin that can be utilized in any recipe where a traditional pumpkin is called for. It is an excellent dessert pumpkin for pies, muffins and quick bread; it makes an ideal filling for pasta such as ravioli and tortellini; and it can also be used to make gnocchi. The pumpkin itself will keep for up to six months when stored in a cool, dry, and dark place. We love the diverse bounty that can be made from this pumpkin! When we have the time we love to make a big batch of gnocchi (check out this recipe ) for the freezer so that we have many incredibly fast and delicious meals to look forward to.

SQUASH PARMESAN RECIPE

This hearty winter squash recipe, from Bon Appetit, is a twist on traditional eggplant Parmesan with fewer steps (there’s no need to wait around for the squash pieces to dry, plus you don’t have to fry them!) but no less satisfaction.

Our good friends, and CSA members, Adam Kahn and Cassidy Blackwell dropped off a casserole dish of this lasagna last winter and we think about that meal frequently: It was that good. It is one of the best squash dishes we know of. They used Marina di Chioggia squash and it was exceptional — though the original recipe calls for butternut. Basically, any good squash will do.

INGREDIENTS

6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 oil-packed anchovies, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 small butternut squash (about 2½ lb.)
2 tsp. kosher salt, divided, plus more
8 oz. fresh mozzarella, shredded
2 oz. finely grated Parmesan (about ¾ cup)
¼ cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
Freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
3 sprigs basil

PREPARATION

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425°. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a medium saucepan over medium. Cook anchovies, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until sizzling, 30–60 seconds. Add tomatoes and gently break apart with spoon. Reduce heat to low and bring sauce to a low simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened and flavors have melded, about 15 minutes.

Step 2

Meanwhile, cut off neck from squash. Peel neck and bulb until you reveal the orange flesh underneath (you might need to take off a few layers). Stand bulb upright on cut end. Starting on one side, slice top to bottom into ¼"-thick planks until you reach the core (you don’t want holes or seeds in your squash). Rotate squash and repeat until you’ve worked all the way around the bulb. Slice neck in half lengthwise, then cut crosswise into ¼"-thick pieces. Transfer squash to a large bowl. Add 2 Tbsp. oil and 1½ tsp. salt and toss to coat.

Step 3

Mix mozzarella, Parmesan, and yogurt in a small bowl; season with salt and black pepper.

Step 4

Using an immersion blender directly in pot or transferring tomato sauce to a food processor, purée until mostly smooth. Taste and season with salt and black pepper.

*Marina di Chioggia is that beautiful big warty one in the center of the bottom row*

Step 5

Drizzle 1 Tbsp. oil in an 8x8" glass or metal baking dish. Spread with ½ cup sauce. Arrange 5–6 squash pieces in a mostly even layer over sauce (it’s okay if some pieces overlap). Sprinkle with ½ cup cheese mixture, then spread with ½ cup sauce. Layer again with squash, followed by ½ cup cheese mixture and ½ cup sauce. Repeat with a final layer of squash and remaining cheese mixture and sauce.

Step 6

Cover pan with foil and bake 50 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until cheese is browned and sauce is bubbling, 15–20 minutes.

Step 7

Meanwhile, toss panko and remaining 2 Tbsp. oil and ½ tsp. salt in a small bowl with your hands until well coated.

Step 8

Top squash Parmesan with breadcrumb mixture and continue to bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes (don't worry if things look liquidy; the breadcrumbs and squash will soak them up as everything rests). Tear basil leaves over. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Step 9

Do Ahead: Sauce can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill. Unbaked squash Parmesan (without panko) can be assembled 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill.

WHEN DOES THE CSA END?

Our 2022 harvest season runs until the first week of December. The last Saturday pickup will be December 3rd, and the last Tuesday pick-up of the year will be December, 6th.

WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2023?

We are deep in the planning phases for next season, rest assured, current members will be given the first chance to reserve a spot in 2023 CSA program!

FARMER’S LOG

BELONGING

With the frost, the time of rest, gratitude, and reflection settles on the Laguna.

It was a quiet day today on the farm. I was on the tractor, shaping next year’s garlic and strawberry beds over what was the tomatoes and u-pick peppers, when a perennial Fall question occurred to me:

“What does it mean to belong to a place?”

Big questions like this are perhaps never answerable. Or perhaps if they are answerable the answers always change. Or, perhaps the point is not in the answers you get but in asking the question. And if that’s the case, which I think it is, then it is a good practice to ask those questions at least once a year.

So today on the tractor I wondered, “What does it mean to belong to a place”, for the first time on the new farm. I was struck by how different it felt from the last time I asked.

Though we just moved a few miles across town this year, it was a big move for Kayta and I and the farm. We uprooted from the place where we started the farm as a 30 member CSA 7 years ago and where we cut our teeth shaping fields, growing food, building soil, and trying to build community together. We made a lot of memories there. Every nook, cranny, and field in that valley was becoming a layer cake of memory for us: Of our first harvests; of getting engaged on the hill on a crisp Fall afternoon; of getting married in the barn in front of our dearests; of meeting so many dear friends and CSA members for the first time; of countless conversations in the sun drenched fields; of Kayta carrying our baby kitten home on her shoulder across the valley.

A palimpsest (from the Greek “scraped again”) is a writing material or surface (like a parchment or tablet) used again after earlier writing as been erased. It’s a surface that is being continuously redone but that is etched and marked by layers and aspects apparent beneath the surface.

*Next year’s strawberry patch and garlic beds — a little further from the drainage.*

A farm is a palimpsest for a farmer: The more years you’ve lived and worked in a place, the more the marks of memory add depth and color to continuously renovated and renewed fields. The last time I asked the “belonging” question at Green Valley it was on an old palimpsest with that backdrop of memory to hold and buffer the question. When we moved here we were given an entirely blank slate and I’ve been too scared to ask.

When you come to a new farm, the heaviest lifting isn’t physical — it’s mental. You have to try to manifest a vision onto a physical place you know very little about. “Where should the garden go?”, “Where should we plant the garlic?” You don’t have memory to guide you so you make a lot of mistakes — some big, some small. One small mistake we made this Spring was shaping our tomato and u-pick beds too close to the drainage that separates that field from the garden so it ended up we couldn’t drive a truck comfortably around those oft visited zones.

So today, as I was outlining 2023’s strawberry and garlic fields over 2022’s erased tomatoes, I gave us another 6 feet of leeway. And then as I drove back and forth etching the final beds, whenever I faced East, I could see the garden and the strawberry patch and was flooded with memories; of planting our first perennials on the pillow soft soil; of second-breakfasts under the oak trees; of the site of friends and families perusing the resplendent July flower garden and kiddos plucking strawberries in the evening light.

And in that reverie the question finally arose: “What does it mean to belong to this place?”

It feels good to be asking again.

* * * * *

In asking the “belonging” question, the one thing we do know is that it is imperative to learn from and support the people and cultures who have belonged to this place for many thousands of years:

mak-'amham / Cafe Ohlone: Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino created Cafe Ohlone as, in their words "an Ohlone cultural institution empowering our community with tradition—and we teach the public, through taste, of our unbroken roots." They have a thoughtful post about their relationship to the Thanksgiving holiday that includes a list of great Native-run organizations to support.
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria: The federally recognized confederacy of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people. They have a Donation page in the works. Their website contains a concise history of the Rancheria and news of current cultural initiatives.
California Indian Museum and Culture Center in Santa Rosa which in addition to its other work offers programs for Tribal youth.
Sogorea Te' Land Trust is an urban, indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of indigenous land to indigenous people in the East Bay.
We have been grateful to follow along and learn from the amazing Indigenous farmer and seedkeeper Rowen White. She can be found here and at Sierra Seeds.
We highly recommend the documentary Gather. In the filmmakers words, "Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide."