FALL HARVEST POTLUCK!
Tomorrow — Saturday, October 11th, 4:00 - 6:00pm
Feast and toast with fellow members and farmers and taste the abundance of fall at our annual Harvest Potluck Celebration! We’ll gather under the oaks and let the kids run wild and eat and drink what will probably be the best potluck food ever assembled. (We know you all can cook!) Click here for more details and to RSVP!
🎃PUMPKIN PATCH NOW OPEN!🎃
Spooky season is here and your Halloween pumpkins await you! The pumpkin patch is located in the field just below the big oaks and playground. There is a moat of water and tall grass in between the oaks and the pumpkins, so it is best to approach the pumpkin beds from the ends of the field — on the high ground to the north near the last oak tree, or south near the parking lot.
The rain will be hard on the pumpkins, so plan to take them as soon as possible if you want them! This year we have some warty brown ones in the mix — if you’re wanting to carve, choose the orange pumpkins, which have thinner flesh.
🌟 SEASON LIMIT: 2 per share, or 1 per child for households with more children. Note: we have enough pumpkins that households that are alternating weeks can also take 2 or 1 per child.
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Jester Winter Squash, Jelly Potatoes, Sweet Yellow Spanish Onions, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Eggplant, limited amounts of Tomatoes, Carrots, Easter Egg Radishes, Leeks, Scallions, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprout Tops, Cherokee Summer Crisp Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, Mustard Mix
U-PICK
Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.
🎃 Jack-O-Lantern & Decorative Pumpkins | SEASON LIMIT: 2 per share, or 1 per child for households with more children. Note: We have enough pumpkins that households that are alternating weeks can also take either 2 or 1 per child. The rain will be hard on the pumpkins, so plan to take them as soon as possible if you want them! This year we have a warty brown varietal in the mix — if you’re wanting to carve, choose the orange pumpkins, which have thinner flesh.
Goldilocks Beans | No Limit
Albion Strawberries | Gleanings | Strawberries are pretty much done for the season. Feel free to harvest a small taste, but know that the rain is ruining most of the berries on the plants.
Cherry Tomatoes | Gleanings
Frying Peppers:
Shishitos | Gleanings
Padróns | Gleanings
Hot Peppers:
Jalapeños | No limit
Habanero | No limit | (These are past the Vietnamese Devil Peppers.)
Thai Chilis | 5 peppers per share | Spicy! Pick when red.
Wilson’s Vietnamese Devil Pepper | 10 peppers per share
Herbs & Edible Flowers: Husk Cherries, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, , Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints
Flowers!
A big thanks to everyone who came out to the potato harvest party! We had a blast harvesting 8,000 lbs of potatoes with you!
HARVEST NOTES
Jester Winter Squash: These striped cuties are a delicata-type squash that looks like a fancy acorn squash. A good Jester can be among the sweetest of squashes, and is David’s personal favorite. They’re not great keepers, so we recommend eating them soon! For the easiest preparation, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and roast, face down, until tender (adding a little water to your pan to keep the squash moist!). Unlike most delicata, Jester skin is a little too thick to be edible.
Jelly Potatoes: Golden on the inside and golden on the outside, Jelly Potatoes are frequently compared to German Butterball. This is our first year growing them and we are very impressed with how they looked in the field and how abundant their harvest was. Tell us what you think!
Brussel Sprout Tops: Each year around this time we trim the tops off of the Brussel Sprout 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 Kale.
WINTER SISTER FARM CSA - SIGN-UPS NOW OPEN!
Want to keep getting abundant weekly veggies through the winter? Winter Sister Farm, located right next door, is open for signups for their 2025-2026 Winter-Spring CSA! They have a range of share options and sizes, including both free-choice and box shares, all of which include access to their u-pick herb and flower garden. Visit www.wintersisterfarm.com/csa for more details!
This week was a mad dash to get as much winter squash in the greenhouse as possible in advance of Monday’s typhoon rain.
Cauliflower Ragù
From Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden
1 large head cauliflower or Romanesco (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds)
Extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/4 teaspoon dried chile flakes
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup dry, unoaked white wine
1 big sprig rosemary
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces fusilli or other spiral- or tube-shaped pasta
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
If the cauliflower still has outer leaves and they look fresh, chop them. Cut the center stem from the cauliflower and cut the head into small florets. Chop the stem into small chunks.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil, the garlic, and the chile flakes in a large deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add about two-thirds of the cauliflower florets and chopped stems (you’ll add the last third in a bit) and the onion. Add the wine, 1 cup water, rosemary sprig, 1 teaspoon salt, and several generous twists of black pepper. Tumble everything together.
Cover the pan and adjust the heat so the mixture simmers nicely. Cook until the cauliflower is fairly tender, about 25 minutes, stirring and smashing with a wooden spoon or spatula a few times as you cook.
Add the rest of the cauliflower and 1/2 cup water and cook until the second batch of cauliflower is very tender, though it will have more tooth to it than the first batch, which should be quite sloppy by now. This second cooking should take another 20 minutes or so. The ragù at this stage should be loose but not watery, so if it seems dry or tight, add a few more spoonfuls of water.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt until it tastes like the sea. Add the pasta and cook until 2 minutes shy of al dente (according to the package directions). The pasta will finish cooking in the ragù. With a ladle or a measuring cup, scoop out about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta well.
Add the pasta to the ragù, along with the Parmigiano, butter, and lemon juice and fold everything together. Taste and adjust with more salt, lemon, black pepper, or cheese, and adjust the texture to make it creamy by adding a splash or two of the reserved pasta water. Serve right away.
FARMER’S LOG
MAKING HAY
With a ribbon of Pacific typhoon-moisture set to hit Monday, we turned our bulk harvest efforts up to 11 this week.
We had a lovely potato harvest party with about 60 CSA members and friends on Saturday: The weather was as beautiful as the sandy soil and the potatoes that showered up behind the tractor. We harvested just shy of 8,000 lbs, y,all! (That ties a 2024 potato party record!)
On Sunday the harvest train kept rolling with a crew of 6 chipping away at our monster potato crop. Sunday saw another 7,000 lbs boxed and squirreled away in the big cooler.
On Monday and Tuesday we focused on our regular harvests while Eric jammed on the tractor getting our fields mowed, composted, and seeded into cover crop in anticipation of the coming rain.
Eric tilling in a masterpiece of summer cover crop in preparation for next year’s strawberry patch.
On Wednesday and Thursday the tractor hummed for 12-hours a day and we had all hands on deck clipping, boxing, and moving 20 macro-bins of winter squash into the greenhouse. This effort was aimed at saving our earliest and most vulnerable Winter Squash varieties from sitting in the rain and the ambient moisture to follow. (The other 40% of our squash are later and heartier-skinned varieties that we’ll clip and store in the next spell of dry weather.)
On Saturday (tomorrow) the Winter Squash harvest train will keep rolling for the last of the Sweet Jade mini-Kabochas and then again on Sunday we’ll have a crew of 8 out to finish the potatoes…
Watching the sun rise on the tractor and then set carrying in full macros on the forks can be tiring to the bone — but it is also invigorating.
It makes me think of the thousands of California farmers out there with me — in the vineyards, the nut orchards, the pepper fields — doing the same thing in advance of the storm, hustling in their precious hauls, embodiments of a year’s worth of care, attention, and life’s mysterious processes, before the rain starts to fall.
See you in the fields,
David
CSA BASICS
Slow on Cooper Road! Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!
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
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.
2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
