THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Fancy Fall Salad Mix (with Arugula, Mustard Greens and Frisee), Panisse Oak Leaf Lettuce, Sugarloaf Chicories, Brussels Sprout Tops, Napa Cabbage, Alpine and Scarlet Daikon Radish, Scallions, Fennel, Sunrise Carrots, Asterix Red Potatoes, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Olympian Cucumbers, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Sunshine Kabocha Winter Squash, Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic
U-PICK
Please remember to check the u-pick board for updated weekly limits before going out to pick
Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins: Season limit: 1 pumpkin per share for shares without kids or 1 pumpkin per kid for shares with kiddos.
Albion Strawberries
Cherry Tomatoes: Gleanings
Herbs: Dill, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Vietnamese Coriander, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Lemon Verbena, Cilantro, Tulsi, Various Mints, Catnip, Chamomile, Purple Basil, Genovese Basil, Thai Basil
Flowers!
This year’s Brussels Sprout Tops grew up next to a beautiful insectary row of Sweet Alyssum, Clarkia, Sulfur Cosmos, Sunflowers, Borage, and Phacelia seeded by CSA member Gwena Gardon!
HARVEST NOTES
Sunshine Kabocha Winter Squash: Sunshine Kabocha is an all-time favorite squash. Excellent for eating straight roasted. Also excellent in pies, curries, etc. Super sweet, velvety smooth texture.
Poblano Peppers: These beauties won’t be around much longer, so may we suggest that before they go you indulge? Try roasting them and then freezing them for summer-time flavor in the winter. Or make this super simple 4-ingredient Roasted Poblano Cream Sauce recipe.
Brussels Sprout Tops: Each year around this time we trim the tops off of the Brussel sprouts 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 any of your favorite cooking greens like Kale or Collards.
Napa Cabbage & Kimchi: Welcome to Kim-chi week, the week when Kayta’s magical crop planning skills make Napa Cabbage, Scallions, and Daikon Radish align together on the harvest table. Try this classic spicy Kim-chi recipe and/or this more mellow, kid friendly, white Kim-chi recipe from CSA member Robin Kim. Robin made a vegan version of the white Kim-chi recipe for us last year that was one of our all-time favorite farm preserves. She substituted the salted shrimp and fish sauce with Bragg’s aminos / soy sauce and also omitted the alliums. It was mellow but still packed with flavor. For the jujubes, chestnuts, pine nuts, and rice flour, Robin recommends visiting Asiana Market in Cotati or Asia Mart in Santa Rosa. (The Napa cabbage took a beating this year from cabbage moths, so they will be limited to 1 per share.)
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to help us bring in this year’s Hopi Blue Corn! It was a joy to spend the morning with you. As we get deeper into Fall, Wednesday mornings will be full of fun harvests to participate in. Please join us for these volunteers mornings below!
Calico Popcorn Harvest & Winter Squash Toss
Wednesday, October 19th: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Fall Carrot Harvest
Wednesday, October 26th: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
HOW TO USE ESCAROLE, SUGARLOAFS AND OTHER CHICORIES
In the Fall, we harvest a lot of chicories (a family of leafy greens including Dandelion, Frisée, Radicchio, Endive, and Escarole).
People who are unfamiliar with them are intimidated by chicories at first, not knowing how to use them, because they are bitter. But once you break on through to the other side, they is no turning back and they become a staple.
Chicories are pleasantly bitter, with a succulent, crunchy sweetness, especially near the base of the stems. They are thicker in texture and heartier than lettuce, and softer and more easily cooked than cabbage. Generally they can be used like you would any cooking green like Kale or Chard — you can sauté them, use them in omelets, casseroles, pastas, or raw on salad with a rich dressing. Their sweet bitterness offers a wonderful counterpoint to savory, fatty, and spicy flavors. For your Escarole or Sugarloaf Chicory this week try Utica Greens, a staple dish among Italians in upstate New York.
FARMER’S LOG
AN ODE TO WINTER SQUASH
Last week, we penned an Ode to Maize, and a couple of weeks prior we serenaded the potato. Both are New World crops who changed the world and inspired poets. But this week we set aside for the fairest of them all: The beloved oldest of the Three Sisters.
She takes on infinite forms, from voluptuous to svelte; from burning red to the palest blue. She has been kindling a bashful and loyal love in humanity’s heart for over 10,000 years…
Ladies and gentlemen: The Winter Squash.
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 New World. 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 became a part of life for almost every Native American culture from Southern Canada to Patagonia — varietals were kept and cherished for everything from the protein rich and medicinal seeds of some, to the sweet flesh and tough, winter hardy skins of others. (The English word “squash” comes from the Narragansett word, askutasquash, meaning fresh vegetable, and similar words can be found in the Algonquian language family.) Botanists note at least six separate domestication events by native peoples in the New World.
Here at WCCF, 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 play with. Over the winter, Kayta hunkered down by a roaring fire 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. 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 every week until December 6th. Allow us to introduce you…
2022’s Winter Squash varieties: Top Row from L to R: Koginut, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling, Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin, Racer Jack-O-Lanter Pumpkin /// Bottom Row from L to R: Bonbon Buttercup, Butternut, Marina di Chioggia, Sunshine Kabocha, Jester
Koginut: New to us this year and a newly developed variety, this stately little pumpkin is creating a lot of buzz. Tell us what you think!
Delicata: A real heartbreaker. The sweetest. Easy to cook, even easier to eat.
Sweet Dumpling: Just like a delicata but round and cute as a button
Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin: The supreme pie pumpkin in lacy, netted 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.
Racer Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin: A classic Jack-O-Lantern to help you celebrate All Hallow’s Eve. Don’t forget to try roasting the seeds when you hollow yours out to carve a scary face!
Bonbon Buttercup: A cute little buttercup variety with a light green belly button and orange, creamy, rich, sweet flesh
Butternut: The classic, reliable, bring-em-home-to-daddy squash with a nutty charm
Marina di Chioggia: An Italian bombshell, this squash is "deliziosa, especially for gnocchi and ravioli... a culinary revelation." We'll include some tips on how to cook it when we distribute this later on.
Sunshine Kabocha: The village beauty. A gorgeous fiery red Kabocha squash with sweet and flaky flesh. A farm favorite. Exceptional for pumpkin pie or straight roasted eating.
Jester Acorn: A Delicate type that looks like a fancy Acorn Squash. A good Jester can be among the sweetest of squashes.
We hope you fall in love with a squash this fall!
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
