THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Spinach, Newham Little Gem Lettuces, Romaine Hearts, Panisse Green Oakleaf Lettuce, Bel Fiore Radicchio, Black Magic Dino Kale, Fennel, Easter Egg Radishes, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Sweet Peppers, Murdoc Cabbage, Bintje Potatoes, Torpedo Onions, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes.
U-PICK
Don’t forget to branch out to the back areas to find the jack-pots!
Albion Strawberries | 4 pints per share
Padrón Peppers | Gleanings
Shishito Peppers | Gleanings
Cherry Tomatoes | 3 pints per share | Mostly the later varieties: Purple Bumblebee & Indigo Cherry Drop
🌟 Goldilocks Beans | 2 pints per share | Fancy golden beans — our last succession of “green beans”
Dragon Tongue Green Beans | Gleanings
Hot Peppers:
Jalapeños | 10 peppers per share | To find the hottest ones, look for “checking”, the delicate cracks in the skin that indicate the pepper has aged into its heat, or pick the red ones for a sweet and spicy flavor.
Thai Chilis | 10 peppers | Pick when red
Cherry Bomb Peppers | Gleanings (help yourself to the little that’s left) | Pick when red
Habanero | 10 peppers per share | Pick when orange
Herbs: Italian, Purple and Thai Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Catnip, Pineapple, Sorrel, Assorted Mints & Husk Cherries!
Flowers!
Goldilocks beans, Strawberries and Cherry Tomatoes.
HARVEST NOTES
Bintje Potatoes: These yellow potatoes were bred in the Netherlands and have become popular world-wide due to their delicious nutty flavor. Many believe them to be the best potato variety for making French Fries!
PRESERVING THE HARVEST
While the Heirloom Tomatoes are almost done, we hope to have Early Girls in decreasing quantities for the next couple weeks (or until our first frost!).
This week’s Murdoc Cabbage is gorgeous, conical, and giant! — Perfect for preserving projects. If you haven’t tried it yet, check out our favorite Garlic Dill Sauerkraut recipe from past newsletters, or the Curtido recipe below.
SONOMA MOUNTAIN BREAD OUT THIS WEEK
Sonoma Mountain Bread will be taking this Saturday — the 28th — off from baking, but he’ll be back next week!
WINTER SISTER FARM CSA
Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered with the freshest veggies money can buy all winter and spring.
All memberships include diverse winter-hardy veggies such as broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions, winter squash, lettuce, kale, chard, as well as access to a small u-pick garden with cold hardy herbs and spring flowers. Click here to get all the details on this wonderful CSA program and to reserve your spot today!
Curtido
(Salvadoran Cabbage Relish)
By Rick Martinez / Bon Appetit
If you’re new to fermenting, this curtido recipe is a good place to start as it pickles quickly and easily. You can taste the difference in flavor every day, and the longer you let this Salvadoran cabbage relish ferment, the better it’s going to taste. Sure, it’s great as a fresh slaw, but by day three, you’ll see what we mean. The salty brine becomes tangier as it sits, meaning you may not need to add the vinegar.
Traditionally, curtido is served with Pupusas and pairs well with Salvadoran Salsa Roja, but it is also excellent used alongside grilled meats and heavier mains, or any time you want a bright and pickle-y topping.
Farmers’ note: Because this recipe doesn’t specify the exact quantity of cabbage, and the salt level is important for lacto-fermentation, we recommend adding salt by taste. You should aim to be able to taste the salt without it being overwhelming. Feel free to substitute farm jalapeños (less spicy) or habaneros (spicier and fruitier) for the Serrano chiles.
YIELD: Makes about 6 cups
Ingredients
½ large head of green cabbage, thinly sliced
3 medium carrots, grated on the large holes of a box grater
½ large white onion, thinly sliced
2 serrano chiles, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, finely grated
2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
5 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 3 tsp. Morton kosher salt, plus more
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Apple cider vinegar (for serving)
Preparation
Toss cabbage, carrots, onion, chiles, garlic, oregano, and 5 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 3 tsp. Morton kosher salt in a large bowl to combine. Let sit 30 minutes for cabbage to wilt. Transfer to an airtight container (such as a 2-qt. glass jar) and press down firmly on cabbage to release juices; liquid should be at or above level of vegetables. Tightly cover curtido and let sit at room temperature, tasting daily, until flavor is to your liking, at least 1 day and up to 5 days.
Just before serving, drizzle oil into curtido and toss to combine. Taste and season with vinegar and more salt if needed. (If serving after 48 hours or longer, curtido will be tangy and may not need vinegar.)
Do Ahead: Curtido can be made 1 week ahead. Chill after you have added the oil and seasoned.
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Muhammara (roasted red pepper and walnut dip) makes the perfect addition to the mezze table next to other favorites like baba ganoush or hummus. Serve it with warm pita bread or pita chips.
Farmer’s note: While we can really feel Fall’s influence starting to creep into the share this week, we wanted to highlight the Sweet Peppers while they’re still at their best and most abundant!
Ingredients
2 red bell peppers
4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil divided
1/4 lb shelled toasted walnuts
1 garlic clove roughly chopped
2 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tsp Aleppo pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper optional
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Brush the bell peppers with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and place in a lightly oiled oven-safe pan or cast-iron skillet. Roast the peppers in the 425 degrees F heated oven for 30 minutes or so, turning them over once or twice.
Remove from the oven and place the peppers in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap for a few minutes. This traps the steam from the roasted peppers, making them easy to peel. When cool enough to handle, simply peel the peppers, remove the seeds and slice the peppers into small strips.
Now in the bowl of a large food processor, combine the roasted red pepper strips with 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, garlic, walnuts, tomato paste, bread crumbs, pomegranate molasses, Aleppo pepper, sugar, sumac, salt and cayenne. Blend into a smooth paste.
Transfer to a serving bowl. You may cover the muhammara and refrigerate, but be sure to bring the dip to room temperature before serving.
When ready to serve, top the dip with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and garnish with a little more walnuts and fresh parsley, if you like. Serve with pita bread or pita chips. Enjoy!
FARMER’S LOG
GORDON THE POTATO
This week we started digging up the first beds of potatoes for bulk harvest. This is the moment when we can really start to get a picture of the kind of potato company we will be keeping this fall.
The verdict? There are tons of potatoes out there, enough for all-you-can-eat potatoes for CSA members from now until December 10th.
But boy are they ugly! (Mostly).
Why? What makes an ugly potato?
The reason for these ugly potatoes has to do with the intricate geography of the Laguna and a central tenet of regenerative farming.
Geography: We have a complex tapestry of soils in our fields here at West County Community Farm. The thousands and thousands of years of the varied activity of water on the Laguna — the flooding, depositing, flowing, and sitting still water — has sorted our soils by slope and elevation. The soil up in the garden above the oaks, in Highgarden where the strawberries and tomatoes are, and the upper part of Farfield, is “Blucher loam”. This is prime agricultural soil. It is balanced, silty, soft and fluffy to the touch; it drains well and holds onto nutrients.
Our lower fields, with their subtle undulations and slopes, though technically all recorded as “Wright loam”, are really more of a graded mixture between Wright loam and Blucher. Wright loam has more clay and the Wright loam influence makes these fields more stubborn to work with; the soil is harsher to the touch and holds tighter to water and nutrients but can grow great vegetables with coaxing.
Characters
Our fields are also sprinkled with a few spots of “Riverwash”, a very sandy soil deposited by faster moving water near the creek and the main channel of the Laguna.
So if you were a potato, where would you like to grow up? On the mean streets of Wright loam or the plush estates of Blucher?
When I imagine a potato growing up in Blucher loam I picture down comforters and silk upholstery. Potatoes grown there are oval and plump, with smooth skin and not a scar or wrinkle in sight. Potatoes from Wright loam, on the other hand, would not be allowed in the ballroom. I picture them navigating a harsh and unpredictable world. They come out of the ground with scars, broken bones, and wrinkles. And lots of character.
At harvest this Thursday, when we busted our first two beds of Bintje potatoes — beds that happen to span the soil gradient — we were met with the full cast of characters. The few lucky potatoes in the Blucher loam or Riverwash were oval and perfectly coifed. But most of the inhabitants looked like they had stories to tell. We saw a hippo and so many amazing faces. We even named one “Gordon”.
Crop rotation: So why not always grow our potatoes in Blucher loam? The short answer is we simply do not have enough of it — it is Park Ave. — and as any farmer with a clean conscience will tell you, crop rotation is key.
We’d rather keep our fields healthy and hygienic by moving our potatoes to different plots and fields each year to keep the diseases and pests guessing. For this reason, every third year or so, when we have to farm potatoes in a Wright loam-heavy field, we will be hanging with the below deck crowd.
But when you’re chopping up a potato with character this fall, just remember: We may all want the soft, luxurious life of the Blucher loam potato, but wouldn’t you rather have a beer with Gordon?
See you in the fields,
David
CSA BASICS
Drive slow! Please drive slow on Cooper Rd. and in our driveway / parking lot area. Kids at play!
No dogs: Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the farm.
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
Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Where is the food? The produce pick-up barn is just to the right of the solar panels and above our big greenhouse. You can’t miss it!
2024 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 15th through Tuesday, December 10th this year.
