2023 CSA SIGN-UPS NOW OPEN!

Dear friends,

We’re delighted to announce that sign-ups for our 2023 CSA program are now open to returning members.

We hope you will join us for another season of free-choice harvest selection, abundant u-pick gardens, and soil-born magic.

We have a long waitlist this year of folks looking for a spot in the CSA. We highly recommend that returning members sign-up within the next two weeks to reserve a spot!

EMPLOYEES LOOKING FOR HOUSING

We have a couple of wonderful farmers joining our crew next year who are looking for housing in or around Sebastopol. If you have, or know of, any one-bedrooms, studios, or shared housing situations, please let us know and we’ll pass the word on to them!

WINTER UPDATE

Well, the big news for Kayta and I this coming year is that we are expecting a baby in May! 

We are beyond excited to welcome this little bean into the world and to be able to raise them in a community as special as this one.

To make room in our lives to become new parents, we have been planning an exciting year of growth for the farm. (To make space for a human baby, the farm baby must grow up!) To help relieve Kayta from fieldwork, and to lighten my load a little this coming year, we will have a larger and more experienced crew with us than ever before. There will be a couple of familiar faces and a few new ones. We can’t wait for you to meet them.

We also in the process of acquiring a larger tractor and are making some sorely needed upgrades to our field implements to relieve bottlenecks and increase the efficiency with which we prepare beds, plant, weed, and harvest.

Aside from these exciting developments, the winter has been relatively quiet on the farm. Ashlynn has been holding it down in the pack shed and garden, helping to prepare us for the season ahead and tending to the young sprouting garlic and strawberries, who are both just starting to spread their first leaves and find their feet.

The big rains of December and early January were consistently lighter than expected, so the Laguna flooding we experienced here was relatively normal and caused no damage to our equipment or buildings. We hope you all were spared the worst as well.

The other day, Kayta and I went on a magical evening walk. 

We strolled down Cooper Rd. To Winter Sister to see if we could distract Anna. Then we crossed the marshland between our farms and headed south to the garden. In the fields in the distance, ducks and marsh birds glided and pecked in the standing water. A big Blue Heron stood statuesquely on the banks of a pool, camouflaged in the blue twilight. 

Kayta stood in the middle of the garden, refreshed to be looking out at the physical space she had been planning in spreadsheets all day. I asked her what new flowers she was excited about seeing here next year. “Big ones,” she said, “the theme this year is big face flowers to bring contrast and vibrancy to all the small flowers.” She’s excited about a new, fragrant, large, white centaurea called “The Bride”; a new variety of sunflowers in classic colors; scented nicotiana grandiflora; and some quill-petaled Black Eyed Susan’s. 

My gaze couldn’t help but drift from the rows of last years flowers to her belly, poking so cutely out from her coat. 

It’s gonna be a beautiful year on the farm!

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

12/2/2022 - Week 26 - Harbor

LAST HARVEST WEEK OF 2022!

This Tuesday’s pick-up will be the last of our 2022 harvest season.

BULK WEEK: Pick-up will be a little different this week: We will be offering larger than usual quantities of potatoes, carrots, and winter squash so that you can fill your larders and eat from the farm on into the Solstice. We recommend bringing an extra tote bag this week!

THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Assorted Cooking Greens or Romanesco, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Brussels Sprouts, Asterix and Harvest Moon Potatoes, Mini Napa Cabbages, Celery Root, Kohlrabi, Purple-Top Turnips, Yellow Bridger Onions, Lorz Softneck Garlic, Assorted Cabbage, Watermelon Radishes, Multicolored Daikon, Bolero Carrots, Multicolored Beets, Hopi Blue Cornmeal, your choice of 2 Winter Squash

U-PICK

• Only frost-nipped herbs: Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, various frost-nipped Mints

HARVEST NOTES

• Hopi Blue Heirloom Cornflour: This beautiful corn flour is from the tall stand of corn that watched over potatoes and winter squash in the Farfield all season long. Harvested by members in October, and ground yesterday, this is a rare, heirloom cornflour with a fresh fats and flavor that only fresh ground corn can have. We recommend eating soon to get that fresh flavor, or storing frozen to preserve the fresh oils. See below for an amazing cornmeal recipe. This flour be used in any way that you would use cornmeal (polenta, grits, muffins, cornbread, etc.)!

SIGNING UP FOR 2023

We will open sign-ups for our 2023 CSA program in early January. Returning members will have the first chance to sign-up to reserve a spot before we open it up to folks on the waitlist and to the public. We expect demand to be high for next season to please sign-up pronto to reserve your spot.

We will expanding our CSA membership next year so if you have friends or family who’d be interested in enjoying the farm experience with you next year, please encourage them to sign up for the waitlist on our website (and to mention you in the comments!)

Smitten Kitchen’s perfect corn muffin recipe

This corn muffin recipe is famously addictive and based on what is for some (like Kayta) a nostalgic childhood flavor —the Jiffy corn muffin mix. (Southerners be aware, this is not a traditional, Southern-style cornbread, but one of a lightly-sweetened, more cakey variety.)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (280 grams) cornmeal, to be divided
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea or table salt
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk, whole is best here
1 cup (240 grams) sour cream (full-fat plain yogurt should work here too)
8 tablespoons (115 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 to 5 tablespoons (35 to 60 grams) sugar (see Note up top about sweetness)
2 large eggs

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 425°F (220°C). Either grease or line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with disposable liners.

Whisk 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. In a large bowl (if you have a microwave) or a medium saucepan (if you do not), combine milk and remaining 1/2 cup cornmeal. In a microwave, cook cornmeal–milk mixture for 1 1/2 minutes, then whisk thoroughly, and continue to microwave in 30-second increments, mixing between them, until it’s thickened to a batter-like consistency, i.e. the whisk will leave a clear line across the bottom of the bowl that slowly fills in. This will take 1 to 3 minutes longer. On the stove, cook cornmeal mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens as described above, then transfer to a large bowl.

Whisk butter, then sugar, then sour cream into cooked cornmeal until combined. At this point, the wet mixture should be cool enough that adding the eggs will not scramble them, but if it still seems too hot, let it cool for 5 minutes longer. Whisk in eggs until combined. Fold in flour mixture until thoroughly combined and the batter is very thick. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups; it will mound slightly above the rim.

Bake until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 13 to 17 minutes, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking to ensure even cooking. Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove muffins from tin and let cool 5 minutes longer. Serve warm.

Celeriac rösti — photo from The Guardian

Celeriac rösti with caper and celery salsa

Recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi

This is a dish for any time of the day: for brunch (with some crisp bacon, maybe?), or for a light meal or first course. Makes 10 rösti, to serve two to four.

Note: if you’re in need of some additional Celery Root inspiration, check out Ottolenghi’s other mouth-watering recipes here.

ingredients

1 celeriac, peeled and coarsely grated
1 small desiree potato, peeled and coarsely grated
1 banana shallot, peeled and thinly sliced (use a mandolin, if you have one)
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
½ tsp each coriander seeds, celery seeds and caraway seeds, toasted and finely crushed
½ garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 eggs, beaten
2½ tbsp plain flour
Vegetable oil, for frying
100g soured cream, to serve

For the salsa
½ small shallot, peeled and very finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
10g basil leaves, finely shredded
10g parsley, finely chopped
15g capers, roughly chopped
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 1 tbsp juice
1½ tbsp olive oil

Combine the celeriac, potato, shallot and lemon juice in a medium bowl with two teaspoons of salt, then tip into a sieve lined with a clean tea towel or cheesecloth. Set the sieve over a bowl and leave for 30 minutes, for the liquid to drain off. Draw together the edges of the towel, then wring it a few times, to get rid of as much water as possible. Transfer to a clean bowl and combine with the spices, garlic, eggs and flour. Using your hands, form the mix into 10 6cm-wide patties, compressing the rösti as you make them, to squeeze out any remaining liquid.

Put all the salsa ingredients in a separate bowl, add a generous grind of pepper and mix to combine.

Pour enough oil into a medium-sized nonstick frying pan to come 1.5cm up the sides. Put the pan on a medium heat and, once the oil is very hot, fry the rösti in batches for seven minutes, turning them a few times, until crisp and golden-brown all over. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen towel and keep warm while you cook the rest of the rösti. Serve at once with the salsa and a spoonful of soured cream. 

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA

Gonna miss us this winter? You don’t have to: Winter Sister Farm’s 2023 Winter CSA program has got you covered! Winter Sister Farm, right next door to us, was started by our dear friends Anna and Sarah Dozor. Their CSA runs runs from December through May and includes 24 weeks of specialty winter veggies, flowers, herbs, and more — all picked up by CSA members, free-choice market style, on their beautiful farm here on Cooper Rd. Sign-up today!

Prepping 2023’s garlic beds.

FARMER’S LOG

HARBOR

It was a bittersweet harvest morning today — the last Friday harvest morning of our 2022 harvest season. This Tuesday’s harvest pick-up will be the last of our 2022 CSA harvest season. 

If each harvest season is like a voyage — with us farmers & CSA members together on a grand harvesting adventure — we have reached our harbor now. 

But what an adventure we had!

We outfitted an entirely new ship this year, with an entirely new crew, and we tested our mettle in uncharted waters. We weathered storms. We battled pirates (mostly deer). There were days when the world was our oyster and there were days when we were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. But in the end, it was a bounteous voyage.

It was a year of abundant umbellifers and strawberries (once we got rid of the pirates); of radiant flowers and sweet winter squash. Our catch of potatoes would make Forrest Gump and Bubba jealous. In the end we fed over 300 adults and 140 Sonoma County kiddos with regenerative, soil building practices.

All thanks to you, dear members.

You see, the community supported agriculture that we practice here, that we ask you to practice here, is not a gimmick or a fad. It is not a clever way to sell farm produce ahead of time. It is a direct relationship between a human community and the land and the farmers that feed it. We are one crew on this voyage. And that bond allows us to farm well; to farm intentionally; to farm for the future.

Each Spring, human beings all over the world set out on adventures of gathering and growing food. When farmers kick off on their yearly voyage, they know not what awaits them; whether their nets will come up empty; if they’ll make it back to shore. Farming is risky.  As the climate changes, these voyages are only going to get more precarious. 

Vanishingly few farmers have a community with them on their voyages like we do.

So as we close out this Farmer’s Log on 2022, let it be known that any and all the abundance we enjoyed this year was because of your commitment, and our commitment to each other, to take care of each other and the land. There is no safer harbor than that. 

And now for our customary parting words…

If, in the dark season ahead, you feel pent up, like you need to get out of the house and stretch your legs, come visit the farm and stand still for a moment in a field.

There you will find silence, broken only by the screech of a hawk or the singing of the blackbirds. A coolness will emanate up from the wet soil, chilling your knees. Before you will lay the sleeping farm, the soft contours of the land draped in a blanket of green. 

But listen closely...

For 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 stories, next year’s voyage, next year's bounty.

Listen closely and you’ll hear the land dreaming.

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 for Kayta

11/25/2022 - Week 25 - Belonging

THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Romanesco, Leeks, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Brussels Sprouts, Fingerling Potatoes, Celery Root, Kohlrabi, Purple-Top Turnips, Yellow Bridger Onions, Lorz Softneck Garlic, Purple Cabbage, and your choice of Marina di Chioggia, Butternut, or Bonbon Buttercup Winter Squash, Fancy Fall Salad Mix (with Arugula and Mustards from Winter Sister Farm and Radicchio), Assorted Lettuce, Assorted Kale

U-PICK

• Only frost nipped herbs: Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, various frost nipped Mints

HARVEST NOTES

• Purple Top Turnips: These versatile turnips are sweet and delicate enough to be eaten raw, shaved or micro-planed on salads and hardy enough to handle the stoutest stews and vegetable-medley roasts.

• Marina di Chioggia Winter Squash: (aka Sea Pumpkin or Suca Braca, "warty pumpkin") is an Italian heirloom from the seaside town of Chioggia and is the staple squash of Venice. This is a versatile pumpkin that can be utilized in any recipe where a traditional pumpkin is called for. It is an excellent dessert pumpkin for pies, muffins and quick bread; it makes an ideal filling for pasta such as ravioli and tortellini; and it can also be used to make gnocchi. The pumpkin itself will keep for up to six months when stored in a cool, dry, and dark place. We love the diverse bounty that can be made from this pumpkin! When we have the time we love to make a big batch of gnocchi (check out this recipe ) for the freezer so that we have many incredibly fast and delicious meals to look forward to.

SQUASH PARMESAN RECIPE

This hearty winter squash recipe, from Bon Appetit, is a twist on traditional eggplant Parmesan with fewer steps (there’s no need to wait around for the squash pieces to dry, plus you don’t have to fry them!) but no less satisfaction.

Our good friends, and CSA members, Adam Kahn and Cassidy Blackwell dropped off a casserole dish of this lasagna last winter and we think about that meal frequently: It was that good. It is one of the best squash dishes we know of. They used Marina di Chioggia squash and it was exceptional — though the original recipe calls for butternut. Basically, any good squash will do.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided

• 3 oil-packed anchovies, finely chopped

• 3 garlic cloves, finely grated

• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

• 1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 small butternut squash (about 2½ lb.)

• 2 tsp. kosher salt, divided, plus more

• 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, shredded

• 2 oz. finely grated Parmesan (about ¾ cup)

• ¼ cup whole-milk Greek yogurt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• ¾ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

• 3 sprigs basil

PREPARATION

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425°. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a medium saucepan over medium. Cook anchovies, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until sizzling, 30–60 seconds. Add tomatoes and gently break apart with spoon. Reduce heat to low and bring sauce to a low simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened and flavors have melded, about 15 minutes.

Step 2

Meanwhile, cut off neck from squash. Peel neck and bulb until you reveal the orange flesh underneath (you might need to take off a few layers). Stand bulb upright on cut end. Starting on one side, slice top to bottom into ¼"-thick planks until you reach the core (you don’t want holes or seeds in your squash). Rotate squash and repeat until you’ve worked all the way around the bulb. Slice neck in half lengthwise, then cut crosswise into ¼"-thick pieces. Transfer squash to a large bowl. Add 2 Tbsp. oil and 1½ tsp. salt and toss to coat.

Step 3

Mix mozzarella, Parmesan, and yogurt in a small bowl; season with salt and black pepper.

Step 4

Using an immersion blender directly in pot or transferring tomato sauce to a food processor, purée until mostly smooth. Taste and season with salt and black pepper.

Marina di Chioggia is that beautiful big warty one in the center of the bottom row

Step 5

Drizzle 1 Tbsp. oil in an 8x8" glass or metal baking dish. Spread with ½ cup sauce. Arrange 5–6 squash pieces in a mostly even layer over sauce (it’s okay if some pieces overlap). Sprinkle with ½ cup cheese mixture, then spread with ½ cup sauce. Layer again with squash, followed by ½ cup cheese mixture and ½ cup sauce. Repeat with a final layer of squash and remaining cheese mixture and sauce.

Step 6

Cover pan with foil and bake 50 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until cheese is browned and sauce is bubbling, 15–20 minutes.

Step 7

Meanwhile, toss panko and remaining 2 Tbsp. oil and ½ tsp. salt in a small bowl with your hands until well coated.

Step 8

Top squash Parmesan with breadcrumb mixture and continue to bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes (don't worry if things look liquidy; the breadcrumbs and squash will soak them up as everything rests). Tear basil leaves over. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Step 9

Do Ahead: Sauce can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill. Unbaked squash Parmesan (without panko) can be assembled 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill.

WHEN DOES THE CSA END?

Our 2022 harvest season runs until the first week of December. The last Saturday pickup will be December 3rd, and the last Tuesday pick-up of the year will be December, 6th.

WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2023?

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 2023 CSA program!

FARMER’S LOG

BELONGING

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 always change. Or, perhaps the point is not in the answers you get but in asking the question. And if that’s the case, which I think it is, then it is a good practice to ask those questions at least once a year.

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 a few miles across town this year, it was a big move for Kayta and I and the farm. 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: Of our first harvests; of getting engaged on the hill on a crisp Fall afternoon; of getting married in the barn in front of our dearests; of meeting so many dear friends and CSA members for the first time; of countless conversations in the sun drenched fields; of Kayta carrying our baby kitten home on her shoulder across the valley.

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 redone but that is etched and marked by layers and aspects apparent beneath the surface.

Next year’s strawberry patch and garlic beds — a little further from the drainage.

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 add depth and color to continuously renovated and renewed fields. The last time I asked the “belonging” question at Green Valley it was on an old palimpsest with that backdrop of memory to hold and buffer the question. When we moved here we were given an entirely blank slate and I’ve been too scared to ask.

When you come to a new farm, the heaviest lifting isn’t physical — it’s mental. You have to try to manifest a vision onto a physical place you know very little about. “Where should the garden go?”, “Where should we plant the garlic?” You don’t have memory to guide you so you make a lot of mistakes — some big, some small. 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 we couldn’t 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 then as I drove back and forth etching the final beds, whenever I faced East, I could see the garden and the strawberry patch and was flooded with memories; of planting our first perennials on the pillow soft soil; of second-breakfasts under the oak trees; of the site of friends and families perusing the resplendent July flower garden and kiddos plucking strawberries in the evening light.

And in that reverie the question finally arose: “What does it mean to belong to this place?”

It feels good to be asking again.

* * * * *

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." They have a thoughtful post about their relationship to the Thanksgiving holiday that includes a list of great Native-run organizations to 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."

* * * * *

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta