Dear members,
All aboard — this harvest train is leaving the station! Welcome to the first newsletter of you 2023 harvest season!
After a long, wet winter we are so excited to welcome you back to the verdant and floriferous garden and fields, all jumping with summer sunlight. We have a diverse and exciting harvest season in the works and we can’t wait to start sharing it with you.
This newsletter, which will appear in your inbox every Friday, will contain a snapshot of the coming week's harvest and u-pick options, as well as recipes, tips, and stories from the farm — all meant inspire you and help you make the most out of your membership over the next 6-months.
Week 1’s newsletter is always jam packed with important details for old and new members. Read on below to meet our 2023 Flower Ambassador and lots more Week 1 goodness!
FARM ORIENTATION TOURS FOR NEW MEMBERS
All new members are asked to attend a brief orientation tour their first time picking up their harvest share. We’ll give you your farm tote bags, show you ropes in the flower and herb garden and the strawberry patch, and go over farm safety and common questions.
Please join us promptly for one of the tour times below:
WEEK 1:
Saturday, June 24: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm
Tuesday, June 27: 1:00 pm. 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm
WEEK 2:
Saturday, July 1: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm
Tuesday, July 4: 1:00 pm. 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm
WEEK 3:
Saturday, July 8: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm
Tuesday, July 11: 1:00 pm. 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm
You can come get oriented and pick up your first share on either day (Saturday or Tuesday), whichever day and time works best for your schedule. Tours last for about 30 minutes. We ask that all adult members of your share who will be regularly enjoying the farm attend an orientation. If you are sharing-a-share (alternating weeks) with another household, one household should attend an orientation Week 1 and the other an orientation on Week 2.
If you can’t attend a tour time above, please reach out to us to schedule a time that works for you. 2022 CSA members do not need to attend an orientation tour.
We look forward to meeting you!
THINGS TO KNOW
What time is harvest pick-up?:
Saturday harvest pick-ups run from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Tuesday harvest pick-ups will run from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.
2023 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run this year from June 24th - December 19th
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or up against the straw bales further down.
Where is the food?: The produce pick-up barn is just to the right of the solar panels and above our big greenhouse. You can’t miss it!
What should I bring?:
Former members, please bring your WCCF tote bag! (New members will be given a new one.)
Pint baskets or small containers for strawberries and herbs (if you have some, we can provision you with 3 pint baskets)
A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy
Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some)
Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!
Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are through this email address, which seems to be getting spam blocked a lot. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Freshly Harvested Lorz Softneck Garlic, Hopi Blue Corn Meal, Arugula, Mustard Mix, Spinach, Flowering Purple Bok Choi, Chard, Black Magic Dino Kale, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Green Little Gems, Panisse Oak Leaf Lettuce, Scallions, Mokum Carrots
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries
Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla)
Flowers! Too many to list…
HARVEST NOTES
In this section of the newsletter we offer history or recipes/tips on things in the share are particularly noteworthy or exciting that week.
Fresh Lorz Softneck Garlic: A glorious heirloom garlic brought to Washington State's Columbia River Basin in the early 1900s by the Lorz family when they emigrated from Italy. This purple tinged softneck garlic has a robust, spicy flavor that lingers in dishes. These bulbs were just unearthed last week so you will notice green stalks, silky soft inner papers and turgid, crips cloves. Store it in the fridge if you’ll be using soon, or in a dark dry place to cure. This is a live food!
Hopi Blue Corn: How about a little Fall vibes in your late Spring? This beautiful corn originates from the Hopi people of the Four Corners region. This a fresh corn flour, stone ground from whole kernels. It has a freshness and flavor that only fresh ground corn can have. Eat soon or store frozen to keep the fats fresh. See below for our go-to Hopi Blue Corn pancake recipe.
MEET OUR FLOWER AMBASSADOR!
Our dear friend and CSA member Cassidy Blackwell has kindly accepted the post of WCCF’s first Flower Ambassador. “What, pray tell, is a Flower Ambassador?”
When Cassidy first joined the CSA in 2020, she was new to picking and arranging flowers. Since then, picking and arranging has become a rejuvenating and grounding creative ritual for her and we are always inspired by what she makes. Over the years, Cassidy has picked up a few simple tips and tricks that she feels have helped keep her flowers happy and unleashed her creativity. As Flower Ambassador, her mission is to help you do the same! We’ll check in with Cassidy periodically this year to see what she’s up to in the garden and the tips she’s employing.
What are you up to this week, Cassidy!?
“I was completely unable to restrain myself from pulling in the kaleidoscope of colors and textures emerging in the garden. The result is a joyous celebration of the start of summer and a showcase of the diversity coming into bloom.” To add texture to the arrangement, Cassidy added grass and seed pods. “Don’t pass on the grass!" she says, “Flowers are gorgeous but pairing them with grasses and seed pods creates a super dynamic arrangement. Wander around on the edges of the farm or even near your home— if something calls to you, add it! This week, the bolting Sorrel in the herb garden is one of my favorites picks!” Also notice how Cassidy stripped most the leaves off the stems. “Leaves take up a lot of room,” says Cassidy, “Trimming them from the stems to help create more space in the vase.” Clean stems also extend shelf life by limiting the decomposition of leaves in water. To keep the flowers fresh, Cassidy picked the flowers for this bouquet into a small bucket of water in the garden and arranged them in the vase later. But most important thing, she says, “is to enjoy yourself, celebrate the blooms and have fun. Some days you might have time to do an elaborate arrangement, others you just gotta toss a few stems in a jar and call it a day.”
Check out our Flower Ambassador’s beautiful Week 1 bouquet on on display near the sign-in table this week. Thank you, Cassidy!
FREEHAND BAKERY TUESDAYS!
We so excited to welcome Freehand Bakery and their wood-fired sourdough hearth loaves and whole grain treats to the CSA pick-up barn on Tuesdays!
Bakers Daniel Gonzales and Abbey Teitelbaum use locally grown veggies, fruits, and herbs in their organic breads and treats. In collaboration with WCCF, Freehand is excited to dive deeper into our local Sonoma County food community!
Bread will be sold via cash-only exact change honor system (letter box slot). (Venmo will be available but reception can be spotty.)
HOPI BLUE CORN PANCAKE RECIPE
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 pine nuts (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.
FARMER’S LOG
NEW LIFE AND NEW GROWTH
Our favorite section of the newsletter is this here little section at the bottom called the “Farmer’s Log”. It’s our attempt to open a window for you into the life of this farm.
By way of introduction (and to buy ourselves a little time getting the barn cleaned up for this Saturday!) we’ll continue the tradition of offering a compendium (below) of past Farmer’s Logs for new members to get to know us.
But we won’t excuse ourselves without a little Winter/Spring update…
* * * * *
This biggest news for Kayta and I, and in some ways the farm, is that on May 15th, at 7:10 am, Kayta and I welcomed our beloved daughter, Alice May Plescia, into the world. We are immensely grateful for our healthy, bright-eyed, wiggly, little one, and for our amazing crew for so much support helping us bring her into the world.
Case in point: Just an hour after Alice was born, our amazing crew was dialing in our new water wheel transplanter out in Farfield — smoothly and without a hitch — to start off the biggest planting week of the year. All while Kayta and I were far away in Babyland.
Harvest manager in training, Alice May, on her first crop walk.
That’s kind of been the theme for us around here this Spring: New equipment and systems being skillfully and gracefully handled by an epically wonderful crew to execute a complicated Spring plant-out for our biggest CSA membership ever — thus allowing Kayta and I sink in and enjoy Babyland.
New growth and new life is a heavy lift. It takes a leap of faith. (In our case it takes new equipment). But more than anything, it take amazing people. So please join us in raising a glass — or a Mokum Carrot — to Anna, Tristan, Asa, Paige and Aisling for this amazing first harvest!
The first of 25 more to come!
* * * * *
COMPENDIUM
For you farm and garden nerds out there, learn how we crop plan, or take a deep dive into Kayta’s flower garden.
If you’re one of those people that gets hyped for pumpkin spice lattes, Halloween, and Fall vibes even in the late Spring, stoke that fire with an ode to the potato harvest and the winter squash.
We are so lucky to find ourselves farming in yet another wild place here on the Laguna. We can’t wait to share more of the antics of our non-human neighbors with you. For the naturalists out there, read here about a lesson the oak trees taught us, or hear tell of the screaming monkey owlets of Green Valley, Wesley the Weasel, or the fox that welcomed us there.
* * * * *
Thank you all for being with us this season. It’s an honor to be farming for you.
See you in the fields,
David
