THIS WEEK'S HARVEST
Winter Sweet Kabocha Squash, Desiree Potatoes, Celery Root, Assorted Cabbage, Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic, Cured Cabernet Onions, Collard Greens, Brussels Sprouts, Turnips, Kohlrabi, Green Luobo Daikon Radish, Loose Bolero Carrots, Little Gem Lettuces, Baby Spinach, Dakota Black Popcorn
Tomatoes of yore
U-PICK
Gleanings: After the hard frosts we got last week, only a few of the most cold hardy plants remain for u-picking. A few intrepid strawberries can be found among the browning leaves.
HARVEST NOTES
Winter Sweet Kabocha Squash: Winter Sweet Kabochas deliver a combination of sweetness, flaky texture, and depth of flavor that has made it a favorite on our farm. "Unparalleled eating quality," says the legendary Johnny's seed catalogue. Best after two months of curing, so it should be yummy now, but also feel free to store it for another month or two!
Dakota Black Popcorn: We will be distributing whole ears of this beautiful, black popcorn this week. To eat:
Thumb the kernels loose from the ears into a bowl.
Heat a generous amount of oil (something that can handle high heat) on the bottom of a heavy-bottomed pot.
Pour the kernels into the pot and put a lid on it!
PopPOPpopPOPpOP pOP!!!
Enjoy with your favorite seasonings!
NOTES & REMINDERS
When does the CSA end? The last week of our 2020 CSA harvest season is the week of December 5th. The last Saturday pick-up is December 5th. The last Tuesday pick-up is December 8th.
ENJOY FARM CITRUS AND TURMERIC
Heads up! Kate and her family tend a beautiful homestead up in the Banana Belt above Occidental with amazing citrus trees and a greenhouse full of lovingly grown Turmeric. Local turmeric!? Yes. Stay tuned; she’ll be selling citrus and turmeric here next week, our last week of CSA pickup.
FARMER’S LOG
With the frost, the time of rest, reflection, and gratitude settles on the valley.
As a farmer, it is hard to not feel filled with gratitude on the deep frosty mornings. Most of the year’s work is behind you. You can breath, and look up.
How lucky we are to live here — to experience the beauty, and the bounty of this valley, and to share it with our friends.
Looking out over the misty fields, the mind wanders: Who lived here before us? What were their names? What were their joys? What were their songs? What did they dream of?
This valley lies in the southern end of Southern Pomo territory and the northern end of Coast Miwok land — these people lived, hunted, tended, and dreamed on this spot for thousands and thousands of years. Everyday we walk over obsidian shards and flakes glinting in the worn path on the knoll past the little gate leading out to the fields. Midden sites, giant stone mortars and pestles, and other marks of their lives can be found dotting the valley.
I like to imagine a small group camping on the knoll by the gate overlooking the valley preparing to hunt in the morning: A father teaches his growing son how to fashion elegant bird points from precious obsidian. The wetland below brims with life; tall oaks dot the valley; chittering quail families bustle in the brush; spawning salmon leap up the clear creek bed; deeply worn grizzly bear trails line the creek bank. At this time California is one of most linguistically and culturally diverse places on the planet — home to over 300 dialects and 90 languages. The most precious thing here? The elders: Carriers of immense wisdom, passed down for centuries, of how to tend, how to nurture, how to care for, and how to belong to a place.
Photo by Amy Winzer
The story of how California Indigenous people were murdered, enslaved, and displaced from their land is as brutal as it comes. The Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok were spared no exception. It is seldom taught or discussed. And it is not ancient lore. As recently as 1958, Congress passed a law stripping the last collectively governed land (in what is now Graton) from a confederacy of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo (the Graton Rancheria) and granted it to three private owners, making the tribe landless.
Nevertheless, Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok people, communities, languages, and cultures have persisted. The Graton Rancheria is again a federally recognized tribe with land of their own. Language groups meet monthly. Elders still teach their ways.
One of the most intellectually and emotionally fulfilling subjects you can learn about, as a Californian, is California indigenous stories, songs, and culture. I wasn’t taught much at all about Indigenous Californian cultures in school and sought it out as an adult. Books like Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson, The Ohlone Way and The Way We Lived by Malcolm Margolin, feeble as books are, offer glimpses into cultures and land tending ethics of colossal wisdom, part and parcel to their places, woven within and from them — the sheer beauty and genius hinted at hits a European styled farmer, with just enough sense to grasp what he is reading about, like a ton of bricks. There are chapters and stories so rich I had to put the book down, ask myself, “What the hell am I doing?”, and grab my coat, and head outside.
Walking along Green Valley creek, my feet crunch along the hardpack gravel road. Gone are the grizzly bear trails. Ascending the hill to the lookout, the Tan Oaks I pass, a staple food for the Southern Pomo, are all succumbing to Sudden Oak death. Who said post-apocalypse is sci-fi? We are living in one.
Reaching the top of the hill, I turn around, sit down. The rows and fields of the farm lie below. The beauty of the people and cultures that called this place home coupled with the recent horror of their removal is too much too bear.
The resinous tang of rotting Bay Nut fruit on the moist soil fills the air. The light is falling and the air is cold. I get up and start heading down the hill — it is slippery and steep.
It is too much to bear, my friends, but I think there are two beacons of hope: 1.) The opportunity to celebrate and lift up indigenous people, voices, projects, and culture; to face our history and to help rebuild and re-land what we has been displaced. (More on that below.) 2.) The opportunity to learn from indigenous wisdom and land tending ethics and practices so that someday we too might begin to belong to this place, as they did, not just occupy it.
Walking along Green Valley creek, my feet crunch along the hardpack gravel road. I pass under the two towering twin Live Oak trees on the farm road. Acorns roll and dart out from under my shoes. There are thousands and thousands of them — each a seed, each the hope, of a towering Oak tree. I pick one up and plant it, sideways, in the soft soil of the spillway.
The next time you walk on the farm, I invite you to think of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo who walked this valley for so long, and to think of ways we can support their communities and projects in Sonoma County in the coming year.
Similarly, as we eat our first cornmeal and popcorn this week, let us think of the hands and cultures who stewarded those crops, and so so many of the crops we have enjoyed in our harvest shares this year. As we eat, let’s give thanks to the Indigenous seed keepers, land tenders, and cultures that have nourished us and take action to return the favor.
Resources and organizations to learn from and support:
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria: The federally recognized confederacy of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people. They have a Donation page in the works. 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."
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." They have a thoughtful post about their relationship to the Thanksgiving holiday that includes a list of great Native-run organizations to support.
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See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
