Harvest Week 4 - Flower Power: Color Palettes

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

In a nutshell: Another springy harvest with choice salad greens and crunchy snacks crowned in the full display of peak summer flowers

Oak Leaf Lettuce Mix, Chicory & Mustard Salad Mix (Red Cloud Komatsuna, Radicchio and Frisee), Cegolaine Little Gems, Cherokee Summer Crisp Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Mei Qing Choi Bok Choi, French Breakfast Radishes, Baby Fennel, Corinto Cucumbers, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Fresh Cipollini Onions, Loose Mokum Carrots, Fresh Lorz Garlic

U-PICK

• Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share: Looks like the second year strawberries (closer to the flower garden) are more prolific this week

• Sugar Snap Peas | 4 pints per share: Last week of super abundant sugar snaps

• Herbs: Cilantro, Dill, Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, Borage, Violas, Calendula, Nasturtium / Thyme and Mints are taking a break to regrow a bit.

• Flowers! Too many to list…

Choose your own adventure

HARVEST NOTES

• Cipollini Onions: Originating in Boretto, Italy, cipollini onions are an extremely sweet, mild onion. They are so mild that they can be cut thin and eaten on pizza, salad, or straight up! They are also commonly grilled until translucent and slightly charred. Check out Home Chef Ambassador Adam Kahn’s scallion sauce recipe from last week’s newsletter.

• Chicory & Mustad Salad or Braising Mix: This R-rated salad mix is concocted from two chicories (frisee and Bel Fiore ('“beautiful flower”) radicchio) and red cloud komatsuna. The chicories add a pleasant bitterness while the red cloud komatsuna adds a subtle spice. We recommend paring with a rich dish or dressing or mixing with your lettuce mix to add beauty and sophistication. This mix can also be braised.

• Sugar Snap Peas: The last week of peak sugar snaps. Pick the fattest pods to find the sweetest peas and avoid thin pods as those will be sweetest next week. Go to the areas less travelled to find the jackpots. If the plants are leaning into the pathway, just gently push them aside to walk past them.

• Cilantro and Dill: Look for the colored stakes on the west side of the garden to find these lush happy herbs.

FLOWER POWER: COLOR PALETTES

Tips and tricks to unlock the flower garden from our Flower Ambassador, Cassidy Blackwell

Using a color palette can create a more cohesive look and an artful vibe. To do this, select a single color or a combo range you like and stick to it. This can be especially helpful if you need to pick quick!

Here are three arrangements I recently created using color palettes.

1) A Warm Palette (Left): I cannot get enough of the aptly named Sunset Snapdragons. I'm also loving the peach sherbet-hued Calendula and the Yarrow blooms, which range from soft blush to a jammy red. Together all of these flowers created a beautiful tonal palette in a range of warm hues. 

 2) A Cool Palette (Center): I created this arrangement a couple weeks ago when it was really hot outside and I wanted to lean into cooler color temps. In the garden I love how the slender-stemmed, purple blossoms of the Agrostemma sway in the wind and the ethereal, almost neon blue glow of the Chinese Forget-Me-Nots. The Amaranth, Strawflowers and a single Dahlia anchor the arrangement with a beautiful burgundy bass line. Looks like I will be channeling these cooling vibrations again this weekend!

3) Color Combo (Right): I took inspiration from the honorable, humble and healing Chamomile in creating this classic palette of yellow, white and green. Then I set out in finding other blooms that fit the bill. I hunted in the Marigold bed to find blooms in the perfect lemony yellow. The Rudbeckia with their big sunny faces were a perfect addition. The abundant white trumpets of the Nicotiana rounded out the bloom crew. While assembling this arrangement I realized that in order to see the white blooms I needed more contrast. The carrots in the CSA share offered the perfect solution: I used the carrot tops to add a backdrop of greenery! Finally, golden grasses and wild radish seedpods complete the arrangement with texture and movement. (For the Color Theory nerds in the house, this is called an “analogous palette”. If you want a deep dive on other palettes check this link out) 

Of course, this is just one tool of many in your floral tool kit! See the Week 1 Newsletter for the opposite approach which used nearly every color in the garden and stay tuned for more!

FARMER’S LOG

ODE TO THE ONION

We were in the flow this pleasantly warming July week. Paige, Aisling and Asa took care of a big greenhouse seeding and planted out the last remaining garden beds. Tristan and Anna shaped our fall carrot beds and set up irrigation on that field so we can germinate (and then kill) some of the impressive number of weed seeds before seeding carrots (aka “stale bedding”). We transplanted a nice fleet of lettuce trays into the sweet sandy loam of Farfield West. We did a bunch of watering in advance of the weekend heat. And we weeded!

The weeds are still coming on strong, at this phase of the year, many are stretching out and trying to throw seed. For the next few weeks the name of the game for us is keeping as many of them at bay as possible. When you zoom out from the work the weeds create, their growth is a humbling and impressive (almost inspiring) display of the vigor and the power of growth of the plant kingdom at this time of year. We salute you, formidable weed frenemies.

Our reward for our battles today was the first, fresh bulbing onion harvest. It is always a happy day the day we harvest the first fresh onions of the year, usually Cipolllinis, their bellies “grown round with dew”. As is our tradition, in honor of this week’s Cipollinis, we'll leave you with the one-and-only, Pablo…

This year’s onion crop swelling in the foreground with this year’s potatoes taking a drink in the background

* * * * *

Ode to the Onion
by Pablo Neruda

Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.

* * * * *

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

CSA BASICS

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.

Harvest Week 3 - Veggie Choreography

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

In a nutshell: Peak sugar snap peas are exploding while the flowers keep on rolling along with the first taste of cool summer cucumbers, dill and cilantro.

Lettuce Mix, Mustard Mix, Cegolaine Little Gems, Red Butter Lettuce, Baby Romaine Lettuce, Dino Kale, Komatsuna, French Breakfast Radishes, Kohlrabi, Corinto Cucumbers, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Scallions, Mokum Carrots

U-PICK

• Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share: There are two strawberry patches open for picking this year. Looks like the second year strawberries (closer to the flower garden) are a little more prolific this week, but new patch is worth a visit.

• Sugar Snap Peas | 3 pint per share: Read below for important tip

• Herbs: Cilantro, Dill, Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, Borage, Violas, Calendula, Nasturtium / Thyme and Mints are taking a break to regrow a bit.

• Flowers! Too many to list…

HARVEST NOTES

• Sugar Snap Peas: The sugar snap peas are exploding this week. Pro-tip: Go to the areas less travelled to find the jackpots. If the plants are leaning into the pathway, just gently push them aside to walk past them. Also, pick the fattest pods to find the sweetest peas.

• Cilantro and Dill: Look for the colored stakes on the west side of the garden to find these lush happy herbs. The plants are still a bit small so harvest, but take it easy on them this week.

His Royal Highness, the Prince of West County Community Farm, Froggy McFroggertons VIII | Photo by CSA member Erin Wong.

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.

WEEK 3 TOUR TIMES: Saturday, 9 am, 11am, 1pm and Tuesday, 1 pm, 3 pm, and 5:30 pm

CSA BASICS

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.

SUMMER Squash & SCALLIONS SAUCE GOODNESS

If you thought we only had a Flower Ambassador this year, think again. We also have a Home Chef Ambassador, CSA member extraordinaire Adam Kahn, who we’ll introduce you to later — because he’s is currently rescuing a vehicle stuck in a ditch. In between all the heroic stuff he does, Adam consistently whips up heroically delicious meals from CSA produce. He’s kindly agreed to share his stoke with us this year to rescue us from being stuck (metaphorically) in the kitchen. This is how he’ll be using this week’s zucchini and scallions.

THOMAS KELLER’S SQUASH

Despite the provenance, this is also super simple, and is more about technique than flavor.

1. Slice the squash lengthwise

2. Place the squash cut-side up, and ensure it’s stable.  If it’s rolling around on you, you can nestle the squash in a clean, bunched up kitchen towel.

3. With a small (paring) knife, make diagonal crosshatch slits into the flesh of the squash. (I’ve found it's best not to cut into the skin if you can avoid it, as it makes it easier to handle later on)

4. Sprinkle the cut side liberally with salt

5. Let sit for ~20 mins. Wait time is the key to this technique.  The salt will draw out the moisture, which will dissolve the salt, then the salty liquid will go back into the squash.

6. Once most of the moisture has been reabsorbed, dry the surface with a clean towel, brush with oil, and sear or grill over high heat (close the grill or cover the pan as much as possible to also cook through while you’re searing.  This will avoid the need to finish in the oven as the original recipe calls for).  Once seared, flip and repeat on the other side.

7. Top with your favorite sauce.  I like the charred scallion listed below, or a spiced yogurt.

This process leverages osmosis, and is equally applicable on any protein (add salt, let it sit for long enough that the moisture has been reabsorbed, pat dry right before cooking).

Charred Scallion Condiment Sauce

Toss the scallions in oil and salt, and throw them on high heat.  I’ll usually use at least an entire bunch, sometimes two or three. To keep it simple, I’ll just use whatever I’m using to cook the rest of the meal (the grill, fry pan, oven, etc.)  Turn the scallions once, and don’t be afraid to burn them.  Some char is good here.  Now you have a couple options.  

• First, choose the rest of your flavors for the sauce.  I will always include something sweet, something sour, and an herb. I’ve found these make a great balance, but you can omit anything to fit your needs.  Here are some combinations I like: 

• mustard, sweet pickles, and thyme

• chiles, lime, brown sugar, and cilantro

• Strawberries, balsamic, mint

• Second, texture:

• For chunky and rustic, just chop the scallions into big (1-2”) pieces.  You’ll probably still want the other ingredients to be smaller, especially if they are strongly-flavored like the pickles.

• For a smoother sauce, just throw everything into a blender.

That’s it. Add more oil and salt to your liking, and mix it all together.  A very quick way to turn a simple protein into a composed dish!

FARMER’S LOG

VEGGIE CHOREOGRAPHY

We had a great, productive week out here in the fields! We hilled out potatoes and hand weeded our second succession of carrots. We spaded a big block for our 3rd and final Fall storage carrot and Fall veg field. And on Thursday we transplanted our 3rd and final Fall cabbage patch and seeded our 2nd of 6 arugula and mustard greens beds.

Sometimes people are curious, "How do you know what to plant and when?"

Crop planning, as we call it, looks different on every farm, here’s a little rundown of how it works at WCCF…

Working Backwards

Every Winter, since 2016, Kayta and I work backwards from examples of the harvest shares we want to have for people in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. That goes something like…

“Well, we gotta have alliums every week. What’s life without alliums?”
“And snack crops! The kiddos gotta have snacks!”
“Lettuce and carrots = always.”
“And fancy salad greens too”
“Yeah, and some sort of hearty green for braising and sides.”
“And novelties to keep it fun: Corn, scapes, fennel, kohlrabi…”
“What flowers are possible in early June?”
“What are the most epic 9 Winter Squash varieties to dole out in the Fall?” Etc, etc….

From these envisioned harvests, we start mapping it out. Using harvest and planting logs (and memories) from seasons past regarding yields and how much people took, and taking into account each crop’s growth cycle, heat and frost sensitivities, yield expectations, and things like that, we can deduce how many seeds to sow in the greenhouse and fields and when.

Freshly planted winter squash on June 18th with 2023’s onion crop in the background.

A Dance of Time Scales

When we plant seeds depends on each individual crop’s life span, or “days to maturity” in farmer lingo. For example, we like to have primo arugula and mustard greens at least twice a month every week from June-December. Arugula and mustards are a super fast maturing little plants (~25 days from germination to primo harvest) so this year we’ll sow about 1,600 ft of arugula every month from May 8th until September 25th. Carrots, on the other hand, take 75-90 days to mature. They also have a much larger harvest window (meaning we can harvest off the same planting for over a month after they size up). So for carrots we sow 3 larger blocks, the first on April 24th, and the last in mid-July, and that will give us fresh bunched and loose carrots all the way until mid-December. On the long end of the spectrum are crops like Hopi Blue Corn, Pumpkins and Winter Squash. These crops we plant once, as they take all season to mature, and we‘ll enjoy them in the Fall.

And so it goes that each Spring we embark with a neat greenhouse sowing and field planting schedule — a musical score to a carefully choreographed dance with the time-scales of plants. These schedules become the drum-beat of our weeks and eventually become the harvest shares you see each week!

Rubber Hits the Road

Harvest is when the real work of crop planning — namely the note taking and record keeping — begins. What actually happened? How many bed-feet of cabbage were transplanted? How much cabbage did we harvest and how much did people take home? Was it enough? Was it too much? How did that variety hold up to the heat of July? Some things we don’t need to take notes on, like Sarah’s Choice cantaloupe being the best melon of all time. We remember that one.

Record keeping is key. Every Wednesday, we take a walk through the fields looking to see what we can offer in the harvest that next week. We look at how much people took home of various crops in the previous week (and previous years) to estimate how many bins to harvest. Every year, for example, it seems we are uber rich in lettuce right around the summer solstice because of how quickly it grows. So we will adjust our future plantings down a notch around then and increase back to normal as the light fades.

Indeed, the most sacred objects on the farm are the famous, scrumpled “Harvest Log” composition notebook and a dirty old binder that lives in the truck labeled “Planting Log”. These are outward symbols of a slowly amassing memory of successes and failures that will help us, each winter, to create a planting plan ever more refined and custom tailored to this soil, this microclimate, and this CSA.

Painting with Seeds

But the “art” of crop planning for us is in taking all of this business and planting for harvests in a way that harmonizes with the seasons, surpises, delights, and helps our CSA members fall in love with food and flowers every week.

If everything goes to plan this year, for example, you should experience a seasonal arc of alliums. The fresh garlic, scallions, and cipollini onions of Spring will give way to the full sized, rich Cabernet Red, Walla Walla Sweet, and Torpedo bulbs of Summer which will in turn give way to the solid, crispy-paper-cured orbs of late Summer and Fall. In this way we hope our allium crop plan, and our whole crop plan, is a love song to seasons and the soil.

They say, "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan." But, with some elbow grease and a little bit of luck, I think we are we're well on our way to pulling off our 400 row, 60 column “2023 Crop Plan.xlsx”!

Thanks to a little help from our friends...

See you in the fields,
David

Harvest Week 2 - The Great Spring Plant Out

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Arugula, Mustard Mix, Spinach, Komatsuna, Collards, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Pink Lady Slipper Radishes, Fennel, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Cegolaine Little Gems, Red Butter Lettuce, Scallions, Mokum Carrots

U-PICK

• Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share: ATTENTION! There are two strawberry patches open for picking this year. There is a new one to the west (to the left) if you’re facing the old strawberry patch from the flower garden. Look for the double pink flag and the deer fence. Enjoy!

• 🌟 Sugar Snap Peas | 1 pint per share: Read below for important tips on the first picking

• 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), Mints, Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, Borage, Violas, Calendula, Nasturtium

• Flowers! Too many to list…

HARVEST NOTES

• Sugar Snap Peas: The sugar snap peas are just starting to produce. It will be a little bit of a scavenger hunt to get the pint for Saturday folks but they will start exploding later this week and next.

• Hakurei Salad Turnips: Not your Grandmother’s turnips, these delectable snacks are delicious eaten fresh, on top a rice bowl, sliced on a salad or popped straight in the mouth. They are also delicious simmered or glazed.

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 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: Please contact us to schedule a time if you haven’t been oriented yet. We are available for tours during the regular Tuesday & Saturday pick-up times: Saturday, 9 am — 1 pm | Tuesday, 1 pm — 6 pm

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!

CSA BASICS

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.

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) or Venmo.

FARMER’S LOG

The Great Spring Plant Out (GSPO)

Yesterday around 4:30 pm, Aisling, Paige, Asa, Tristan, and I finished transplanting the Jack-O-Lanterns in the bottom of Centerfield, just below the oaks. With that last little pumpkin plant we wrapped up 2023’s Great Spring Plant Out. (Or GSPO for short… )

While our harvest season has only just begun, we finish the lion’s share of each year’s planting by late-June. Aye, by this time of year 75% of our fields are planted in the year’s potatoes, spring and storage onions, dried corn, winter squash, tomatoes, and peppers, 50% of the year’s carrots and most of the year’s melons and cucumbers.

Whew! 

The Great Spring Plant Out has a different rhythm than harvest season. It is infrastructure and equipment heavy: Tractors hum constantly as fields are shaped from cover cropped meadows into plantable beds. The irrigation shed gets ransacked daily as the year’s irrigation systems are assembled. It’s a physical time of year: The weekly row-feet needing to be planted is in the thousands before lunch and tomato trellis stake pounding is on the menu for dessert. 

And always the Great Taskmaster watches over us: A greenhouse full of bursting seedling trays cascading out the front door, demanding space in the field.

This year’s GSPO was amazing for Kayta and I to witness from the outside as Alice was born on May 15th. When we emerged from the veritable (and literal) womb of birth in late-May the whole farm had been transformed. 

These amazing farmers: From L to R: the on and only Aisling Okubo; our greenhouse & garden manager Paige Taylor; our harvest manager Anna Dozor; our production manager Tristan Frakes; our tomato savior Asa Black

The GSPO isn’t a hard-line, there is still a lot of planting to do. But with that little pumpkin plant planted, we have definitely turned a corner.

Now, we shift into maintenance mode; to caring and cultivating for our growing plant babies; to seeing if we can coax them into their full potential; to halting the weeds from encroaching on them too much; to trellising the tomatoes so they can grow tall; to hilling the potatoes to encourage more tubers; to coupling leaks in the irrigation lines and adjusting waterings schedules. And, of course, to harvesting. 

We’re looking forward to this phase. We start to reap the tangible rewards of all that hard work during the GSPO — in the form of glowing scallions and plump sugar snap peas — and we get to express a softer side of our farming selves — observation, care, attention, and sharing. 

We hope you enjoy this week’s share!

See you in the fields,

David