THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Honey Boat Delicata Winter Squash, Jelly Potatoes, Assorted Yellow Onions, Sweet Peppers, Carrots, Kohlrabi, Mini Purple Napa Cabbage, Leeks, Cauliflower, Green Magic Broccoli, Black Magic Dino Kale, Brussel Sprout Tops, Green Salanova Butter Lettuce
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 than 2 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. The best pumpkins will be found on the north side of the patch (the furthest from the barn). There’s also an access point on the north end of the field if the south end is too boggy.
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 | No limit | Spicy! Pick when red.
Wilson’s Vietnamese Devil Pepper | No limit
Herbs & Edible Flowers: Herbs are winding down but some can be scrounged.
Flowers! There are still some flowers to be had after the rains, particularly zinnias, marigolds (the solid orange ones are all the way to the north — towards Winter Sister Farm) and some late-season curios.
HARVEST NOTES
Honey Boat Delicata Winter Squash: Delicata are a perennial favorite of ours. Versatile, and sweet, they even have edible skins. 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!). They are also delicious cut into rings or half circles, tossed with an oil of your choice (coconut is particularly scrumptious) and then roasted until caramelized. Enjoy!
FALL HARVEST POTLUCK THANK YOU
Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to enjoy each other’s amazing company and exceptional dishes, and to Carl Jaeger and his team of wonderful volunteers for organizing! To get a taste of one of the hits of the potluck, check out this video recipe for Leeks Braised in White Wine and Cream (recipe video here) — thanks Kaelyn for sharing!
A few snapshots from the sweet Harvest Party last Saturday. Thanks to everyone who came and to Carl Jaeger for organizing!
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!
ginger-peanut warm kale salad
Recipe by Hetty McKinnon — from Anna Jones
“With this recipe, Hetty manages to tread that elusive line between something tasting so delicious that you can’t stop eating it and making you feel so good after eating that you crave it all the time.
Hetty says herself, ‘This salad comes with a warning: eat at your own risk, as it is very addictive. The combination of kale, tofu and ginger-accented peanut sauce is unexpectedly irresistible.’
Duration: 30 mins
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
4 heaped tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons tahini
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
3 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon runny honey or maple syrup
2 bunches of kale (320g), stalks removed and leaves roughly torn
200g (1 cup) quinoa, rinsed
500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock or water
300g extra-firm tofu, sliced thinly
extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup unsalted peanuts, roasted and roughly chopped
a handful of coriander leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the ginger–peanut sauce:
Place a medium saucepan on a low heat and add 4 heaped tablespoons smooth peanut butter, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, a 2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated, 2 peeled and grated cloves of garlic, 3 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce, 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup, along with 1 cup water. Cook until the peanut butter and tahini have melted, stirring until the sauce is smooth and creamy. If the sauce ‘freezes’ or is too thick, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, until it’s smooth and the consistency of thickened cream. Taste and season with sea salt and black pepper.
Fold the kale into the sauce:
Fold 320g de-stalked and roughly torn kale leaves into the hot peanut sauce. The heat from the sauce will wilt and cook the kale. Set this aside.
Cook the quinoa:
Put 200g rinsed quinoa and 500ml vegetable stock or water (if using water, season it with 1 teaspoon of sea salt) into a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and cook for 15–18 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is translucent and you can see the twirly grain. Turn off the heat and set aside, uncovered, while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Fry the tofu:
Put 300g extra-firm tofu on a chopping board and season well with sea salt and black pepper. Heat a large non-stick frying pan on medium–high, and when it’s hot, drizzle with 1–2 tablespoons olive oil. Working in batches, place the tofu in the pan and fry for 2–3 minutes on each side until lightly golden. When all the tofu is cooked, allow it to cool, then slice it into 5mm-thick strips.
Cook the onion:
Rinse and dry the tofu pan and place it back on a medium heat. Drizzle more olive oil into the frying pan, add 1 peeled and thinly sliced red onion and cook for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is softened and sweet.
Finish the salad:
Combine the peanut-kale mixture with the quinoa, tofu and onion. Transfer to a large serving plate and top with 1 cup roasted and chopped peanuts and a handful of coriander leaves.
FARMER’S LOG
IN PRAISE OF Maiz
This week we’ll be racing to get ahead of another oncoming storm — this one set to arrive next Friday. This Sunday we’ll attempt to harvest our towering popcorn and flour corn crop out of Mystery Field.
In honor of the upcoming harvest, we wanted this newsletter to be a song of praise to maize…
Humanity is bound to no other plant more than corn. Since it’s domestication in Southern Mexico some 10,000 years ago, maize has become the staff of life for human civilization as we know it.
We can testify to it’s power as farmers.
From a small, armored, long-storing kernel springs forth a plant (a grass) with vigor unmatched. In a week or so it out-competes any weed — reaching for the sun with almost hallucinatory speed. In the blink of an eye, maize creates a complete, shady canopy, soaking up every ray of sun with palm thick spears. After reaching full height, it enters it’s most beautiful phase, a month of wind tossed sex. The pollen, bursting from caramel brown tassels atop the plant, feeds thousands of pollinators and rains down on the silks below. Each silk, if pollinated, becomes a kernel. And from just one kernel, up to 800 kernels can grow on the cob — multiplicities of nourishment.
The poets are best suited to praising a plant this powerful.
First, we’ll hear from our dear friend and former CSA members, Rebecca Harris, who wrote this poem in 2019 after walking through the corn field. Second, we’ll hear from the master of odes, Pablo Neruda.
(Notice that both poets happen to mention the sea, laughter, the color blue, and children — both undoubtedly tapping into a collective unconscious in their praise of Mother Maize.)
* * * * *
The Symphony of Harvest
by Rebecca Harris
I go down to the
Corn stalks just to listen
To them.
The way you might go
To hear the ocean.
Or bear a child to share
Laughter.
Here in a world that feels
Like a desert,
I hear rain in this
Corn-
Hear voices-
Melted with sunlight,
Made soft and strong-
Such a wild way-
The corn dances,
As strange
As lions
Dancing,
Or finding a melody in the
Dirt,
Or light in a cave.
Here,
They reach so tall,
They are browning,
Golden and green-
The farthest cousin from
The sea-
Yet I hear them murmur
The same words.
And I am bathed
In music.
Weeks later,
I heard that children were stamping
On the corn
After harvest,
Finally allowed to run tender and
Wild through and over the stalks.
I imagine they blew through them like
Wind colored with blue,
Dragging the sky behind them.
Blue corn sits in baskets
Like fallen arrows
Waiting to dance.
Now,
I see the corn stalks and as I
Let go of the sea wind that it
Brought into my hair
I am filled with children and their
Games
And the memory in my body
Joining them,
As beautifully as the corn and I
Make music.
* * * * *
Ode to Maize
by Pablo Neruda
America, from a grain
of maize you grew
to crown
with spacious lands
the ocean foam.
A grain of maize was your geography.
From the grain
a green lance rose,
was covered with gold,
to grace the heights
of Peru with its yellow tassels.
But, poet, let
history rest in its shroud;
praise with your lyre
the grain in its granaries:
sing to the simple maize in
the kitchen.
First, a fine beard
fluttered in the field
above the tender teeth
of the young ear.
Then the husks parted
and fruitfulness burst its veils
of pale papyrus
that grains of laughter
might fall upon the earth.
To the stone,
in your journey,
you returned.
Not to the terrible stone,
the bloody
triangle of Mexican death,
but to the grinding stone
sacred
stone of your kitchens.
There, milk and matter,
strength-giving, nutritious
cornmeal pulp,
you were worked and patted
by the wondrous hands
of dark-skinned women.
Wherever you fall, maize,
whether into the
splendid pot of porridge, or among
country beans, you light up
the meal and lend it
your virginal flavor.
Oh, to bite into
the steaming ear beside the sea
of distant song and deepest waltz.
To boil you
as your aroma
spreads through
blue sierras.
But is there
no end
to your treasure?
In chalky, barren lands
bordered
by the sea, along
the rocky Chilean coast,
at times
only your radiance
reaches the empty
table of the miner.
Your light, your cornmeal,
your hope
pervades America’s solitudes,
and to hunger
your lances
are enemy legions.
Within your husks,
like gentle kernels,
our sober provincial
children’s hearts were
nurtured,
until life began
to shuck us from the ear.
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.
