THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
In a nutshell: Another springy harvest with choice salad greens and crunchy snacks crowned in the full display of peak summer flowers
Oak Leaf Lettuce Mix, Chicory & Mustard Salad Mix (Red Cloud Komatsuna, Radicchio and Frisee), Cegolaine Little Gems, Cherokee Summer Crisp Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Mei Qing Choi Bok Choi, French Breakfast Radishes, Baby Fennel, Corinto Cucumbers, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Fresh Cipollini Onions, Loose Mokum Carrots, Fresh Lorz Garlic
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share: Looks like the second year strawberries (closer to the flower garden) are more prolific this week
Sugar Snap Peas | 4 pints per share: Last week of super abundant sugar snaps
Herbs: Cilantro, Dill, Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, Borage, Violas, Calendula, Nasturtium / Thyme and Mints are taking a break to regrow a bit.
Flowers! Too many to list…
Choose your own adventure
HARVEST NOTES
Cipollini Onions: Originating in Boretto, Italy, cipollini onions are an extremely sweet, mild onion. They are so mild that they can be cut thin and eaten on pizza, salad, or straight up! They are also commonly grilled until translucent and slightly charred. Check out Home Chef Ambassador Adam Kahn’s scallion sauce recipe from last week’s newsletter.
Chicory & Mustad Salad or Braising Mix: This R-rated salad mix is concocted from two chicories (frisee and Bel Fiore ('“beautiful flower”) radicchio) and red cloud komatsuna. The chicories add a pleasant bitterness while the red cloud komatsuna adds a subtle spice. We recommend paring with a rich dish or dressing or mixing with your lettuce mix to add beauty and sophistication. This mix can also be braised.
Sugar Snap Peas: The last week of peak sugar snaps. Pick the fattest pods to find the sweetest peas and avoid thin pods as those will be sweetest next week. Go to the areas less travelled to find the jackpots. If the plants are leaning into the pathway, just gently push them aside to walk past them.
Cilantro and Dill: Look for the colored stakes on the west side of the garden to find these lush happy herbs.
FLOWER POWER: COLOR PALETTES
Tips and tricks to unlock the flower garden from our Flower Ambassador, Cassidy Blackwell
Using a color palette can create a more cohesive look and an artful vibe. To do this, select a single color or a combo range you like and stick to it. This can be especially helpful if you need to pick quick!
Here are three arrangements I recently created using color palettes.
1) A Warm Palette (Left): I cannot get enough of the aptly named Sunset Snapdragons. I'm also loving the peach sherbet-hued Calendula and the Yarrow blooms, which range from soft blush to a jammy red. Together all of these flowers created a beautiful tonal palette in a range of warm hues.
2) A Cool Palette (Center): I created this arrangement a couple weeks ago when it was really hot outside and I wanted to lean into cooler color temps. In the garden I love how the slender-stemmed, purple blossoms of the Agrostemma sway in the wind and the ethereal, almost neon blue glow of the Chinese Forget-Me-Nots. The Amaranth, Strawflowers and a single Dahlia anchor the arrangement with a beautiful burgundy bass line. Looks like I will be channeling these cooling vibrations again this weekend!
3) Color Combo (Right): I took inspiration from the honorable, humble and healing Chamomile in creating this classic palette of yellow, white and green. Then I set out in finding other blooms that fit the bill. I hunted in the Marigold bed to find blooms in the perfect lemony yellow. The Rudbeckia with their big sunny faces were a perfect addition. The abundant white trumpets of the Nicotiana rounded out the bloom crew. While assembling this arrangement I realized that in order to see the white blooms I needed more contrast. The carrots in the CSA share offered the perfect solution: I used the carrot tops to add a backdrop of greenery! Finally, golden grasses and wild radish seedpods complete the arrangement with texture and movement. (For the Color Theory nerds in the house, this is called an “analogous palette”. If you want a deep dive on other palettes check this link out)
Of course, this is just one tool of many in your floral tool kit! See the Week 1 Newsletter for the opposite approach which used nearly every color in the garden and stay tuned for more!
FARMER’S LOG
ODE TO THE ONION
We were in the flow this pleasantly warming July week. Paige, Aisling and Asa took care of a big greenhouse seeding and planted out the last remaining garden beds. Tristan and Anna shaped our fall carrot beds and set up irrigation on that field so we can germinate (and then kill) some of the impressive number of weed seeds before seeding carrots (aka “stale bedding”). We transplanted a nice fleet of lettuce trays into the sweet sandy loam of Farfield West. We did a bunch of watering in advance of the weekend heat. And we weeded!
The weeds are still coming on strong, at this phase of the year, many are stretching out and trying to throw seed. For the next few weeks the name of the game for us is keeping as many of them at bay as possible. When you zoom out from the work the weeds create, their growth is a humbling and impressive (almost inspiring) display of the vigor and the power of growth of the plant kingdom at this time of year. We salute you, formidable weed frenemies.
Our reward for our battles today was the first, fresh bulbing onion harvest. It is always a happy day the day we harvest the first fresh onions of the year, usually Cipolllinis, their bellies “grown round with dew”. As is our tradition, in honor of this week’s Cipollinis, we'll leave you with the one-and-only, Pablo…
This year’s onion crop swelling in the foreground with this year’s potatoes taking a drink in the background
* * * * *
Ode to the Onion
by Pablo Neruda
Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.
You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone
and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.
* * * * *
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
CSA BASICS
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.
2023 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run this year from June 24th - December 19th
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or up against the straw bales further down.
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!
What should I bring?:
Former members, please bring your WCCF tote bag! (New members will be given a new one.)
Pint baskets or small containers for strawberries and herbs (if you have some, we can provision you with 3 pint baskets)
A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy
Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some)
Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!
Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are through this email address, which seems to be getting spam blocked a lot. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.
