Are you a new member who hasn’t attended an orientation yet? Please email us to schedule an individual orientation during a CSA pickup.
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Arugula, Green Little Gem Lettuces, Cherokee Lettuce, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Persian Cucumbers, Bulk Pickling Cucumbers, Carrots, Purple Daikon, first taste of Eggplant, Baby Celery, Assorted Mini Cabbage Cabbage, Fennel, Floriani Red Flint Polenta, Garlic
U-PICK
Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.
Albion Strawberries: 3 pints per share
🌟 Frying Peppers: See last week’s Harvest Notes for more info on frying peppers!
Padrons: 2 pints per share
Shishitos: 2 pints per share
Herbs & Edible Flowers: Lemon Bergamot, Dill, Cilantro, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, Italian Basil, Tulsi, Parsley, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, French & Culinary Lavender, Sorrel, & Assorted Mints
Flowers!
HARVEST NOTES
Floriani Red Flint Polenta: This beautiful yellow cornmeal with red flecks is freshly ground from the bright red, pointy flint corn that we grew on the farm last year. It’s an Italian heirloom that was especially bred for polenta, with a high protein content, and a deliciously coarse texture. For simple, incredible polenta, boil 4 cups water, milk or stock, then whisk in 1 cup of cornmeal. Cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the the liquid has been absorbed and the polenta has a deliciously creamy texture. Finish with salt, olive oil, butter, garlic (let it cook for a few minutes in the polenta), and/or cheese. Polenta is delicious topped with roasted vegetables (fennel, eggplant, squash & zucchini) and an egg. For incredible leftovers, pour polenta into a glass dish to set, then slice and pan-fry.
Mini Cabbage: Over our years of farming, we’ve fallen in love with cabbage in all its humble glory — it’s sweet, crisp crunch, that can be transformed into a savory, melt-in-your-mouth caramelization, how long it stores, and the generosity of how much food is in one small head. If you’re needing some inspiration we highly recommend the Vietnamese cabbage and chicken salad with herbs from a past newsletter. It’s the perfect summer recipe (even without chicken!) and we find ourselves making it over and over. Or, check out the recipe below for Chopped Green Goddess Salad, featuring cabbage and cucumbers.
A strange visitor — a red-shouldered ctenucha — in the cilantro.
chopped green goddess salad
By Yumna Jawad
We’ve been told by the youths that this salad is so good that it went viral on the TikTok. It’s quick to make and fun to eat (you scoop it onto tortilla chips!), with a savory, herby dressing.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE SALAD:
½ head of Green cabbage, chopped
3 Persian cucumbers, chopped
1 bundle of green onions, chopped
Tortilla chips for serving
FOR THE DRESSING:
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup fresh basil
2 garlic cloves
1 small shallot
2 lemons juiced
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup cashews
⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
PREPARATION
Place the chopped cabbage, cucumbers, and green onions in a large bowl.
Add all the dressing ingredients to a blender or food processor. Blend until bright green and creamy.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to combine.
Enjoy with tortilla chips, if desired.
FARMER’S LOG
SOIL SURFING
Farming is a bit like surfing ocean waves.
At Salmon Creek, the waves we see crashing on shore are the end result of collected energies and pulsings of the sea.
So is a harvest — with each crop like a brief little ride we get on the lifecycle of a plant and each harvest week like a little food surf sesh — the coordinated chaos of so many plant lifecycles crashing onto the harvest table.
Take cucumbers as an example. In the beginning of June, our first cucumber succession of the year started to come on like little ripples on the shore. As the plants in that succession grew and matured, the wave rose, we started offer more and more cucumbers on the harvest table. Then different energies entered. The first arrival of the pickling cucumbers, another energy, reached ashore just as the earliest slicing cucumbers rose to their highest peak. Now, the slicing cucumber wave has subsided to the ocean floor, the pickling cucumbers are reaching their full height, and the Persians are approaching, with a glimpse of a little lemon cucumber wave gathering itself in the distance.
Melon swells incoming
Or take arugula. This year we’re seeding 1,295 linear ft of arugula seeds, about thirty days before we want to harvest it. Those seedings gain energy as the plants grow; the row cover heaves up like a wave; and when it starts to crest we cut the white caps for harvest. Arugula is a zippy little wave. It grows so fast, in fact, that it will be a slightly different size on different pickup days of the same week. Some days you’ll have noticed smaller delicate leaves — the little foams as the waves starts to crest — and on some days you’ll get the heavier white water as the wave crashes.
Kayta is like that surfer friend you know who’s always checking the apps. That’s one of her jobs on the farm.
Every Wednesday morning you’ll see her out there, hands in pockets, dawn patrolling and staring at the swells. What’s she seeing? What tides are coming and what’s going out? What swells are in the forecast?
Farming is not like surfing in the sense that we farmers have set these energies in motion. (For you farm nerds out there, we have written in detail about the choreography of succession planting that goes into getting the harvests we want each week.)
But sometimes it’s nice to just zone out and watch the waves roll in.
See you in the fields,
David
THE BASICS
Check out our Brief Membership Guide: A quick-reference on the essentials of being a member.
Harvest pick-up times:
Friday harvest pick-ups run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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.
2026 CSA program dates: This year’s harvest season will run from Friday, June 12th through Tuesday, December 8th this year.
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Slow on Cooper Rd. Please drive slowly on Cooper Road — 20 mph. It's a neighborhood with lots of kids and animals who generously share the road with us.
