THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
In a nutshell: the bitter and sweet flavors of winter.
Leeks, Cabernet Onions, Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic, Purple Cabbage, Bodega Red Potatoes, Black Futsu Winter Squash, Dandelion Greens, Brussels Sprouts, Bolero Carrots, Assorted Lettuces, Radicchio, Bok Choi, Beets, Green Magic Broccoli.
This week’s Black Futsu squash hanging out before their big day.
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries: Very last gleanings (mostly in the new, Western patch)
Herbs: Italian Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Oregano, Lemon Verbena, Thyme, French Sorrel.
HARVEST NOTES
Black Futsu Winter Squash: A beloved Japanese delicacy, this bite sized, mini Butternut relative has bright orange flesh with unique fruity flavor and edible skin. New to the farm this year! Let us know if you like it!
Dandelion Greens: These succulent Italian dandelions are the perfect bitter winter green. As with chicory, they pair well with rich, sharp flavors. For a simple and delicious side dish, try sautéing in bacon fat with a dash of red wine vinegar and topping with parmesan. Also try including them in an omelet, or making the recipe for chickpea pancakes with dandelions and caramelized onions below!
Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic: If you read Harvest Week 16 Farmer’s Log, you know that the ultra wet winter we had hit this year’s garlic crop hard. We did get enough garlic to save for seed — which we planted on higher beds a couple weeks ago, so now we can distribute the remaining garlic we had. Let these little guys be but a taste for what we hope are big bulbous garlics next year.
WHEN DOES THE CSA END?
Because of the wet Spring and late start we had, our 2023 harvest season will run all the way until the third week of December this year! The last Saturday pickup will be December 16th, and the last Tuesday pick-up of the year will be December, 19th.
WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2024?
We are deep in the planning phases for next season, rest assured, current members will be given the first chance to reserve a spot in our 2024 CSA program!
Chickpea Pancakes with Dandelion Greens & Caramelized Onions
From Heirloom by Sarah Owens
This recipe brings together hindbeh, a Lebanese dish of dandelion greens and caramelized onions eaten with Arabic flatbread, with chickpea crepes, traditionally enjoyed in southern France, northern Italy, North Africa and Gibraltar. Its crispy edges and custardy interior make for an edible scoop for the sweet onions and bitter greens, and its nutty flavor complements both.
Ingredients
125 g / 1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan
7 1/2 cups sliced onions (about 6 to 7 small onions)
1 pound dandelion greens (about 2 bunches)
splash of vinegar
Instructions
Whisk together the flour, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and rest for at least 2 hours or up to 6 hours for the flour to fully hydrate. (Farmer’s note: we have skimped on this time and found the pancakes to still be delicious!)
In a large heavy-bottomed skillet, cook the onions and remaining 1 teaspoon of salt in 1/2 cup of the remaining oil over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are well caramelized, 40 to 45 minutes.
(Farmer’s note: because the dandelions we grow are cultivated varieties, they don’t necessarily need to be blanched before sautéing as the recipe directs, but you can if you’d like to further reduce their bitterness.) While the onions are cooking, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and dunk the dandelion greens in the water, stirring to wilt them, about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Pour through a colander positioned over the sink and run cold water over the greens to stop the cooking, then use your hands to wring out excess water. Coarsely chop the dandelion greens and add them to the skillet with the onions. reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes or longer to remove more of their bitterness. Serve warm or at room temperature. You can make the greens up to 3 days in advance; store covered in the refrigerator.
Place a 10-inch cast-iron griddle or skillet 3 to 4 inches under your broiler and preheat the broiler on high for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the pan and pour in 1/2 tablespoon of oil, swirling to coat. Return to the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes to heat the oil, then pour in enough of the batter (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup) to create a thin 8- to 9-inch pancake, tilting the pan to swirl it or using the back of a spoon or measuring cup to quickly spread it. Broil for 3 to 4 minutes, until the crepe is blistered and cooked through with the edges curling slightly. Remove the crepe from the pan with a spatula and repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil for each crepe — you should have enough batter to make about 4 crepes. Serve immediately, with the dandelion greens and onions, using the crepe as an edible scoop.
FARMER’S LOG
BELONGING
We’re having a busy Holiday, so this week we’ll reposting a Farmer’s Log from this time last year with a little epilogue update at the end. We hope you all felt nourished and that the farm produce helped liven your tables this week.
* * * * *
With the frost, the time of rest, gratitude, and reflection settles on the Laguna.
It was a quiet day today on the farm. I was on the tractor, shaping next year’s garlic and strawberry beds over what was the tomatoes and u-pick peppers, when a perennial Fall question occurred to me:
“What does it mean to belong to a place?”
Big questions like this are perhaps never answerable. Or perhaps, if they are answerable, the answers are constantly changing. Or, perhaps the point is not in the answers you get but in the perennial asking of the question.
So today on the tractor I wondered, “What does it mean to belong to a place?" for the first time on the new farm. I was struck by how different it felt from the last time I asked.
Though we just moved the farm a few miles across town this year, it was a big move. We uprooted from the place where we started the farm as a 30 member CSA 7 years ago and where we cut our teeth shaping fields, growing food, building soil, and trying to build community together. We made a lot of memories there. Every nook, cranny, and field in that valley was becoming a layer cake of memory for us — first harvests; getting engaged on the hill on a crisp Fall afternoon; getting married in the redwood barn; of meeting so many of you CSA members for the first time.
Beautiful lines of cover crop sprouting in the Creek Field planted by Longer Table Farm this year.
A palimpsest (from the Greek “scraped again”) is a writing material or surface (like a parchment or tablet) used again after earlier writing as been erased. It’s a surface that is being continuously renewed but the etches and marks of the past remain and build up.
A farm is a palimpsest for a farmer: The more years you’ve lived and worked in a place, the more the marks of memory build and layer depth onto the continuously renewing fields and landscape. This is why elders are the most revered members of agrarian cultures.
When you come to a new place, to a new farm in our case, the heaviest lifting isn’t physical — it’s mental. You have to learn the history of the place by talking to those who know the place and by reading whatever clues the land can tell you. Then you have to start working.
“Where should the garden go?”, “Where should we plant the garlic?” You are bound to make mistakes — some big, some small as you build your memories and map on the place you inhabit.
One small mistake we made this Spring was shaping our tomato and u-pick beds too close to the drainage that separates that field from the garden so it ended up being hard to drive a truck comfortably around those oft visited zones.
So today, as I was outlining 2023’s strawberry and garlic fields over 2022’s erased tomatoes, I gave us another 6 feet of leeway. And whenever I drove the tractor East, I could see the garden and the strawberry patch and was flooded with memories; of second-breakfasts with the crew under the oak trees; of friends and families picnicking and perusing the July flower garden; of kiddos plucking strawberries in the evening light.
And in that reverie the question arose: “What does it mean to belong to this place?”
I don’t know the answer — but I think those kinds of memories have a lot to do with it.
* * * * *
2023 epilogue: One of the highlights of 2023 for us was how many of you used the farm as a hang out spot — to lounge, throw a birthday party, to take family pictures, drink wine with friends...
We always meant for the farm to serve this purpose, and people have kicked it on the farm before, but never like this year. Maybe it was the extra picnic benches, maybe it was the relaxing of COVID fears, heck, maybe it was the swing set! Whatever it was, you all are doing a great job of making memories and making us belong to this place. Keep it up.
Also, how about a play structure for 2024!?
A mighty fine spot for a play structure.
OTHER RESOURCES FOR BELONGING
In asking the “belonging” question, the one thing we do know is that it is imperative to learn from and support the people and cultures who have belonged to this place for many thousands of years:
mak-'amham / Cafe Ohlone: Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino created Cafe Ohlone as, in their words "an Ohlone cultural institution empowering our community with tradition—and we teach the public, through taste, of our unbroken roots."
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria: The federally recognized confederacy of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people. Their website contains a concise history of the Rancheria and news of current cultural initiatives.
California Indian Museum and Culture Center in Santa Rosa which in addition to its other work offers programs for Tribal youth.
Sogorea Te' Land Trust is an urban, indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of indigenous land to indigenous people in the East Bay.
We have been grateful to follow along and learn from the amazing Indigenous farmer and seedkeeper Rowen White. She can be found here and at Sierra Seeds.
We highly recommend the documentary Gather. In the filmmakers words, "Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide."
* * * * *
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
