Spring 2020, COVID-19 Update

COVID-19: SEASON PROGRESSING AS USUAL

We hope this finds you all healthy and safe in this challenging time. We wanted to let you know that Kayta, Anna, Kate and I are planting out the season according to plan — and we expect to be able to start CSA pick-ups around the first week of June. We feel honored and privileged to be able to forge ahead to provide food for our community... especially in times like these. We will be monitoring the situation and make sure we are practicing all safety precautions when pick-up starts to help protect everyone from COVID-19.

Now entering peak cover crop glory. Our oat, barley, pea, bell bean, vetch and clover is really starting to explode with all the warmth!

ONLY A FEW SHARES LEFT

We have about 8 slots available in our 2020 CSA program currently. We'd love it if these new members came from your friends and family networks.

Now, more than ever, we see the importance and resiliency of local, regeneratively grown food. Seasonal food harvested that morning, or fresh from the plant by ones own hand, is nutrient dense, vibrant, and healthful in a ways that distantly grown produce cannot be. Distribution systems like ours, direct from the field to you, keeps food and keeps food and farmers growing right here in our community. A living relationship between the soil, the creatures, the farmers and those eating from a farm glues a community together and glues us to the farmland we all steward in essential ways. And as you know — a weekly flower garden ritual is food for the soul.

All necessary info and sign-up form can be found on our website.

FARMSTAND CLOSED

Due to dwindling supplies, and the need to focus all our energy on the lead up to our 2020 harvest season we’ve decided to close our farmstand. We wanted to encourage members who can safely (and legally) do so, to patronize the Sebastopol farmer’s market and other local food outlets. It is important to support local food systems and food producers in times like these!

It’s going to be a good strawberry year!

FARMER’S LOG

It has been surreal here on the farm. As then world faces this crisis, farmers must continue the work. This is a solace and a privilege, but can feel strange to carry on as the whole human world fluxes and changes.

Spring is one of the best times of year to work outside on the farm. The light is soft; the soil is soft; the plants — even the weeds — are soft. The whole world is newborn… and the landscape glows in green peach fuzz.

Early spring is project time on the farm: A brief window when our workdays are not ruled by harvesting and planting crops, which we use to accomplish things that will make our lives easier during the harvest season. On the docket this year we have: Increasing our water storage tank supply; expanding the cold frame (the area for curing plants outside the greenhouses); building a new walk-in cooler; building a root vegetable washer (yes, that exists!); INSTALLING A NEW GARDEN GATE and various other little improvements and repairs around the farm!

When we’re not working on projects we dote on the garden (which is beginning to awaken) and our 500 ft of new strawberries. Today we began work installing a new 140 ft native hedgerow along the walking path to the farm — thank you members for your generous donations to our Native Habitat Restoration Fund. It really warms our hearts. We can’t wait to plant the oaks, milkweed, sneezeweed and penstemon that Kayta started from saved seed amongst manzanitas, ceanothus, coffee-berry and more!

We were thrilled this week to welcome Anna Dozor back to a weekly schedule. And the three of us couldn’t be happier to be welcome Kate Beilharz into the full-time crew fold this year! Kayta and I consider ourselves tremendously lucky to be able to work with these two incredible farmers… 2020 is going to be a blast.

Well, folks, you know where to find us now: Out in the waste high cover crop, getting sun-kissed cheeks and watching our tender Winter hands turn to leather again!

We can’t wait to share the harvest season of abundance with you all!

Wishing you all health and security in this challenging time.

See you in the fields,
David (for Kayta, Anna & Kate)

12/13/2019 - Week 26 - 2019 Harvest Season Farewell

LAST WEEK OF THE 2019 CSA HARVEST SEASON

It was a bittersweet harvest morning today — the last Friday morning harvest of our boisterous, bustling, abundant 2019 CSA harvest season. This Tuesday’s pick-up will be the last pick-up of the season.

It has been such a wonderful year for the farm and us farmers. The highlight for us being getting to know you and seeing you and your loved ones interact with the farm and this land. As Kayta said on Sunday, it is a privilege growing food for you and we will miss seeing you each week!

In January we will send you all on email letting you know when sign-ups for next year’s CSA harvest season open. We’ll also be running a self-serve farm stand out of our cooler starting next week with root vegetables, winter squash and other goodies! See below for more details.

We encourage you all to visit the farm at least once this winter to say hello; to pick some hardy winter herbs; and, if you have a moment, to stand still for a moment in the fields…

There you will find silence, broken only by the screech of a hawk or the soft chatter of quail. A coolness will emanate up from the wet soil, chilling your knees. Before you will lay the sleeping farm — the soft curves of the fields and hills draped in a blanket of green.

But listen closely...

Within that slumber next season churns. The cover crop stretches its living roots deep into the soil where subterranean creatures break down this year's roots and residue, processing them — like so many memories — into the raw materials that will make up next year’s story, next year’s bounty, next year's life.

Listen closely and you’ll hear the land dreaming.

For now, it is time for your farmers to rest, to reflect, and to do a little dreaming ourselves. Thank you all so much for the memories this harvest season. Here is to many more to come…

See you in the fields,
David, Kayta & Anna

THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Hopi Blue Heirloom Cornflour, Musque de Provence & Assorted Winter Squash, Harvest Moon & Desiree Red Potatoes, Italian Softneck Garlic, Celery Root, Cured Onions, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale, Green & January King Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Purple Top Turnips, Sweet Bolero Carrots, Loose Beets, Little Gem Lettuce, Salad Mix (with Chicories, Lettuce, and Baby Mustard Greens)

HARVEST NOTES & TIPS

• Musque de Provence Winter Squash: Our “feed the village” squash this year, these giants are delicious, and long-storing. Traditionally sold in wedges in French farmers markets. If you aren’t hosting 25 people and can’t use it all at once try roasting it in wedges and freezing the cooked flesh. The stored flesh can then be thawed and used all winter in soups, pies, and any sweet Winter Squash dishes.

• Hopi Blue Heirloom Cornflour: We got over 200 lbs of corn from our 3 beds of Hopi Blue Corn this year, so we’re able to have it 2 weeks in a row! This beautiful corn flour is from the tall stand of corn that watched over our cherry tomatoes all season long. Ground Tuesday, then frozen, this cornflour contains fresh oils, fats, and flavor that only fresh ground grain can have. Store frozen to preserve freshness. See last week’s newsletter for our favorite Hopi Blue Corn Recipe.

• January King Cabbage: These gorgeous, red tinted cabbage are some of the slowest growing, winter hardy cabbages out there. These have been in the ground growing since August just for this week!

  U-PICK

• Herbs: Herbs still available in the garden are Rosemary, Lemon balm, Vietnamese Coriander, Oregano, Thyme, Culinary Lavender, and Lemongrass

2020 CSA SIGN-UPS

We will send out an email in January letting you know when sign-ups open for our 2020 CSA program! Current members will have the first shot at joining. If you have friends who are interested in joining the CSA next year, please have them sign-up for our waiting list posted on our website. Folks on the waitlist will have priority right-after current members!

SELF-SERVE FARM STAND

Missing GVCFarm produce already? Don’t despair, we will be setting up a self-serve farmstand for CSA members in the cooler in our barn where we will be selling root vegetables like potatoes, turnips, carrots and beets, as well as cabbage, winter squash, and other goodies as long as they last. We’ll have a ledger and a cash box inside with change. Cash only please.

GREEN VALLEY FARM + MILL

To stay abreast of the many ways to connect to this land this winter and beyond, sign-up for Green Valley Farm + Mill’s newsletter. Green Valley Farm + Mill hosts events, workshops, provides event space, and other offerings that connect people with land. Check out the website and sign-up for the newsletter here.

POTLUCK THANK YOU

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Carl Jaeger and Sarah Salamon, and their partners Leo Chyi and Cole Bendinelli, for organizing the sweet brunch potluck last Sunday and to everyone who came out. It meant so much to us. “Are you going to Green Valley Farm?”

WILD ROSE KITCHEN

A good friend of ours, Jenny Roberts, runs Wild Rose Kitchen, a small prepared foods business focused on creating nourishing and delicious weekly menus for new mamas and their growing families. Food is created with care and packaged in environmentally conscious materials so that Mother Earth also feels taken care of. Weekly or monthly packages can be made. For more information please contact jenny@thewildrosekitchen.com

MISSING HONEY MONEY

Our beekeeping friend, Darlene Taylor, is missing some payment money for the honey she was selling in the barn. If you took some honey but forgot to pay, please bring cash this week to put in her pay box. The prices were 6 oz for $5, 12 oz for $10, and 16 oz for $13.

FARMER’S LOG

Sung by members at Sunday’s brunch. Lyrics by Susan Bendinelli, with thanks to Simon & Garfunkel

Green Valley Farm

Are you going to Green Valley Farm?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
A CSA unlike any other.
Choose your favorite, try something new!

Tell us the harvest each Saturday morn,
Onions, squash, tomatoes and cokes.
The Farmers Log poetic and true
Feeds our souls with all that is new.

Flowers seduce bees and help life our hearts,
Statis, dahlias, yellow sunflowers
For lovely bouquets and plant dying workshop
We all share the bounty grown here.

Kayta and David, their days in the fields.
Peppers, chard, potatoes and yams
With Anna’s fine help, and good volunteers
Pulling weeds and harvesting corn.

Are you going to Green Valley Farm?
Carrots, beets, strawberries and kale
Remember how we came here each week?
We all share the bounty grown here.

Click here for an archive of past newsletters

12/6/2019 - Week 25 - "Dragging the sky behind them"

END OF SEASON CSA BRUNCH POTLUCK!
This Sunday, December 8TH: 11:00am - 1:00pm

Join us for a celebratory end of season CSA community Harvest Brunch Potluck in the big party barn on the south end of the property on December 8th! Come mix and mingle, eat scrumptious fare, see your farmers in non dirt-stained clothing. We hope to see you all there!

Directions: It will NOT be held at our usual CSA pick-up barn location. The potluck will in the big white barn down the main driveway of the property which is the first driveway marked 13024 if you are coming from Sebastopol with the big stone entry marker and paved driveway.

THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Hopi Blue Heirloom Cornflour, Butternut & assorted Winter Squash, Le Reine Fingerling Potatoes, Italian Softneck Garlic, Celery Root, Cured Yellow Onions, Broccoli Spigariello, Napa Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Loose Hakurei Salad Turnips, Bolero Carrots, Loose Beets, Sugarloaf Chicory, Winter Salad Mix (with Spinach, Radicchio, and Lettuce)

Floriani Red Flint Cornmeal: Season Limit 1 lb (or one bag) per share
Hopi Blue Cornflour: Season Limit 2 lbs (or two bags) per share, one this week and one next week

HARVEST NOTES

• Hopi Blue Heirloom Cornflour: This beautiful corn flower is from the tall stand of corn that watched over our cherry tomatoes all season long and was harvested by members! Ground last week and then frozen, this is a rare, heirloom cornflour with a freshness and flavor that only fresh ground corn can have. Store frozen to preserve the fats and oils. See below for our go to Hopi Blue Corn pancake recipe. Enjoy!

• Celery Root: Aka celeriac, aka turnip celery, is a variety of celery cultivated for its starchy bulbous stem. It is like a turnip that tastes like celery. Try adding it to a hardy winter stew. We’ve also heard legend that celery root fries (i.e. deep fried celery root sticks) are the best thing ever.

• Sugarloaf Chicory: Another varietal of radicchio, these conical beauties are a hardy, sweet, and slightly bitter green that’ll help invigorate your digestion and add punctuation to a rich meal. Our favorite way to prepare radicchios and other chicories is to quarter the head, slather the leaves in olive oil and salt and to broil it in the oven until it is all wilted and the tips are nice and crispy brown. Toss with garlic and fresh lemon juice and eat as a side!

• Brussels Sprouts: We’ll be offering you these Fall treats as fresh as can be, still on the stalk!

  U-PICK

• Herbs & Flowers: As the sun goes South and we put the garden to bed for the year, the herbs and flowers are winding down. Herbs that are still available are Rosemary, Lemon balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Oregano, Thyme, Culinary Lavender, and Lemongrass

MISSING HONEY MONEY

Our beekeeping friend, Darlene Taylor, is missing some payment money for the honey she was selling in the barn. If you took some honey but forgot to pay, please bring cash this week to put in her box. The prices were 6 oz for $5, 12 oz for $10, and 16 oz for $13.

HOPI BLUE CORN PANCAKES

Ingredients

• 1 cup blue cornmeal

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon white sugar

• 1 cup boiling water

• 1 beaten egg

• 1/2 cup milk

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted (coconut oil would be a delicious, dairy-free substitute)

• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or pecans, toasted (optional)

  
  Directions

  In a medium bowl, mix together the blue cornmeal, salt and sugar. Stir in the boiling water until all of the ingredients are wet. Cover, and let stand for a few minutes.

  In a measuring cup, combine the milk, egg and melted butter. Stir the milk mixture into the cornmeal mixture. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the cornmeal mixture until just incorporated. If the batter is stiff, add a little more milk until it flows off the spoon thickly but smoothly.Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat, and grease it with a dab of oil or butter. Use about 2 tablespoons of batter for each pancake. Quickly sprinkle a few pignoli (or other nuts if using) onto each cake. When the entire surface of the pancakes are covered with bubbles, flip them over, and cook the other side until golden.

  Serve immediately with maple syrup or fruit preserves.

NOTES & REMINDERS

• When does the CSA end? The last week of our 2019 CSA harvest season is next week! The last Saturday pick-up is December 14th. The last Tuesday pick-up is December 17th

• Say No to Single Use Plastic: We are weening ourselves off of single use plastic bags. Please bring your own plastic produce bags. Or use our recycled bag station in the pick-up barn. If you have a bunch of extra clean plastic bags at home, please bring some to help fill our recycled plastic bag station for others to use. Thank you!

FARMER’S LOG

Dragging the sky behind them

Corn has been inspiring poets for thousands of years. This year’s stand of Hopi Blue Corn inspired the poem below by CSA member Rebecca Harris.

* * * * *

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.

See you in the fields,
David and Kayta

Click here for an archive of past newsletters