THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Fancy Fall Salad Mix (with Arugula, Mustard Greens, Radicchio and Frisee), Little Gem Lettuce, Mei Qing Bok Choi, Sugarloaf Chicories, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale, Celery, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Fennel, Carrots, Bintje Gold Potatoes, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Jester Delicata Winter Squash, Cabernet Onions, Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic
U-PICK
Please remember to check the u-pick board for updated weekly limits before going out to pick
🌟 Romano Beans: See Harvest Notes below for details
Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins: 🌟 Increased pumpkin limits! 2 pumpkins per share for shares without kids or 3 pumpkins per share for shares with kiddos.
Albion Strawberries: beginning to wind down for the season
Cherry Tomatoes, Frying & Hot Peppers: Gleanings (Last week!)
Herbs: Dill, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Vietnamese Coriander, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Lemon Verbena, Cilantro, Tulsi, Various Mints, Catnip, Chamomile, Purple Basil, Genovese Basil, Thai Basil
Flowers!
HARVEST NOTES
Jester Acorn Winter Squash: A true gem. The sweetest Acorn squash we've ever tasted. A hard ribbed shell hides pudding-sweet flesh. A good Jester can be among the sweetest of all winter squashes. David's favorite. Try halving long ways, scooping out the seeds, and roasting at 400 until you can poke a fork in the skin and the flesh is soft and creamy. Add a dash of water to the baking sheet while roasting to keep your squash moist. Eat straight out of the shell with a spoon like pudding! Try adding butter, coconut oil, and/or maple syrup.
Romano Beans: The last of our upick crops for the season is here and it was worth the wait. Romano beans are large, flat, Italian green beans with great flavor that really shines when cooked. If you're unfamiliar with Romanos, check out Christina Chaey's Bon Appetit article "Romanos are the Queen of Snap Beans and I Want to Eat Them All" for a glowing description and list of recipes she loves to use them in. Romanos are great in any of your favorite green bean dishes, or even subbed in for sugar snap peas. There’s a chance that the Romanos won’t be with us long as the nights are turning increasingly cold so make sure to take advantage of them while they’re here.
MORE JACK-O-LANTERN PUMPKINS!
There’s nothing sadder than a Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin without a home on Halloween night. We’ve increased the pumpkin limit to 2 pumpkins per share for shares without kids or 3 pumpkins per share for shares with kiddos.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to help us this week with the Calico popcorn harvest! The harvest train keeps on rolling — please join us this Wednesday as we pull up hundreds of pounds of Fall carrots! This is a relatively chill harvest that entails chatting with us farmers whilst kneeling on the ground and pulling the tops off of carrots. Come join!
Fall Carrot Harvest
Wednesday, October 26th: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
HOW TO USE ESCAROLE, SUGARLOAFS AND OTHER CHICORIES
In the Fall, we harvest a lot of chicories (a family of leafy greens including Dandelion, Frisée, Radicchio, Endive, and Escarole).
People who are unfamiliar with them are intimidated by chicories at first, not knowing how to use them, because they are bitter. But once you break on through to the other side, they is no turning back and they become a staple.
Chicories are pleasantly bitter, with a succulent, crunchy sweetness, especially near the base of the stems. They are thicker in texture and heartier than lettuce, and softer and more easily cooked than cabbage. Generally they can be used like you would any cooking green like Kale or Chard — you can sauté them, use them in omelets, casseroles, pastas, or raw on salad with a rich dressing. Their sweet bitterness offers a wonderful counterpoint to savory, fatty, and spicy flavors. For your Escarole or Sugarloaf Chicory this week try Utica Greens, a staple dish among Italians in upstate New York.
FARMER’S LOG
ON STRAWBERRIES
Of all the crops that we grow here on the farm, perhaps no other brings as much joy as our beloved strawberries.
We also sometimes wonder if they are the most productive crop on the farm. From early May through October they shower us — sometimes with a deluge, sometimes a trickle — with a nearly constant supply of sweet gifts. Everbearing, if you will.
Planted here in early December 2021 from crowns grown near Mt. Shasta our strawberry plants did not have an easy life this year.
Planted into very wet soil (remember that storm last October?) our young strawberries were then beset by a huge natural population of “cutworms” — the larva of the large yellow underwing (Noctua pronuba) — who fed so voraciously on the vulnerable spring shoots of that we did not know if they would survive. Then came some phytopthora (a fungus with the Greek name “plant destroyer”). Then came some symphylans. And then came the deer! But whether undercut at the root, snipped at the stem, or chomped by a browsing ungulate, our strawberry plants just kept growing, flowering, and — thank the farm gods — fruiting.
Ever beholds the wondrous Albion strawberry.
The resilience and vigor of our strawberry plants, and the amount of joy they produce, is no accident: These are Albion strawberries and it is in their genes.
The Albion strawberry is, in this farmer’s opinion, one of the greatest plant breeding achievements in human history. Introduced in 2004, the Albion strawberry is the current crowning achievement UC Davis’s strawberry breeding program. In a state that produces 90% of the nation’s strawberries and 2 billion in annual strawberry revenue, the UC Davis strawberry breeding program has been around for 100 years and is seriousness business. The Albion strawberry is the result of a century of the careful crossing of various strawberry strains to produce a plant with a combination of vigor, disease resistance, productivity, and taste.
And what all that seriousness has amounted to for us is, well… joy.
So as the days get colder and our strawberry season winds down and 4 pints goes to 1 pint, and 1 pint goes to gleanings, take a moment to stand in the strawberry patch with a crisp Fall berry in your mouth and to give thanks to the wondrous plants that have given us so much this year….
Thank the sun, thank the soil, thank the water — and thank the UC scientists!
See you in the strawberry fields,
David & Kayta
