Harvest Week 16 - Pumpkin Patch Open!

JOIN US FOR OUR 7th ANNUAL
POTATO HARVEST PARTY!

NEXT Saturday, October 14th, 8:30 am - 11:30 am

Join us for our 7th annual potato harvest party! There’s nothing like watching potatoes shower up out of the ground behind the wake of the tractor and then getting dirty and bagging them with friends. It’s an unforgettable experience, especially for the kiddos.

All abilities and interests welcome. Feel free to bring non-members. We recommend a sunhat, water bottle, and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Some people prefer using gloves. We’ll have some light refreshments, music from the boombox, and agrarianly awesome time. (For new folks: This potato harvest is not required in any way for members to enjoy potatoes, we will be distributing the tuberous bounty all year whether or not you come to harvest!)

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

In a nutshell: Pumpkins! Need we say more?

Fancy Fall Braising/Salad Mix, Assorted Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Sugarloaf Chicories, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Celery, Purple Daikon, Bishop Cauliflower, Sweet Peppers, Romance Carrots, Delicata Winter Squash, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Elsye Yellow Onions, Harvest Moon Potatoes, Heirloom & Red Slicing Tomatoes.

U-PICK

• 🌟 Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins: Season limit 1 per person | See below for more details on the pumpkin patch!

• Albion Strawberries: 2 pints per share

• Cherry Tomatoes: 4 pint per share

• Shishito & Padrón Frying Peppers: Gleanings — meaning the plants have mostly stopped producing but you’re welcome to forage for a few

• Jalapeños: 5 peppers per share | If you like your jalapeños hot, look for peppers with checking (little cracks) on them

• Buena Mulata Peppers: 1 peppers per share | Usable at any color, but with more fruity flavor when ripe red or orange

• Habanero Peppers: 2 pepper per share | Ripe when orange

• Aji Limo Peppers: 2 pepper per share | Ripe when yellow. This citrusy Peruvian pepper is traditionally used in ceviche. Sometimes called Lemon Drop in the US.

• Goldilocks Beans: 4 pints per share

• Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Dill, 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, Thyme and Mints.

• Flowers!

Better get your pumpkins before Alice takes them all!

HARVEST NOTES

• Delicata Winter Squash: Debuting as the first of 9 Winter Squash varieties we will enjoy this year, Delicata are a perennial favorite. Versatile, and sweet, they even have edible skins. For the easiest preparation, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and roast, face down, until soft enough that you can easily stick a fork in. They are also delicious cut into rings or half circles, tossed with an oil of your choice (coconut is particularly scrumptious) and then roasted until caramelized. Enjoy!

• Harvest Moon Potatoes: Numerous crew and CSA members agree, Harvest Moons might be the best potato there is. The Burpee’s catalogue says it well: “Potatoes as objects of beauty? Let your eyes linger on ‘Harvest Moon’, with her velvety dark-purple skin and dense, sumptuous golden-yellow flesh. A seductively gorgeous purple potato princess, she’s as gorgeous to behold as she is tasty. Infused with creamy, nutty flavor, ‘Harvest Moon’ is a culinary triumph on her own, no butter or salt required.” Enjoy every which way: mashed, baked, boiled, fried—or adding color and flavor to a potato salad.

• Canning Tomatoes: Our tomatoes are winding down — this is the last week that canning tomatoes will be available in limited quantities.

PUMPKIN PATCH!

Spooky season is here and so is our 7th annual WCCF pumpkin patch! The pumpkins did really well this year so there is a pumpkin out there for every kid and adult participating in the CSA. Even if you are alternating weeks with another share, you can all take a pumpkin!

To find the pumpkin patch, just look below the oak trees. You can’t miss it!

Season limit on Jack-O-Lanterns: 1 per person

FARMERS LOG

SPRING AND SUMMER IN REVIEW

While our harvest season is far from over, this time of year — the time of bulk harvests and the end of planting — is a great time of year to look back on the year. How did our crops do and how did we farmers do? What did the Farm Gods deal us and how did we play our hand? Who won and who lost in our fields this year?

A big question, yes — and an evolving question still — but let’s look back on the last three quarters of this football game.

Winter and Spring

The winter and spring were defined by one of the wettest rain years in recent history. The 2022 - 2023 rain year simultaneously blessed the land and the farmers of this drought-stricken state and caused untold farmer headaches, outright destruction, and crop loss.

We were spared the outright destruction.  

As far as the blessings go, just ask the frogs. The population of frogs on the farm this year has been astounding. There seems to be a Western Tree Frog in every harvest bin, under every seed tray, and hiding in every Sugarloaf Chicory we cut. And they are not alone — every plant from the oak trees to the year’s voracious weeds seem to have drunk from a deep well. There are wild grasses along the creek taller that my head. It is beautiful. 

The wet winter also caused perhaps the biggest crop loss in our farm’s history — the garlic. I remember planting our garlic during the year’s first Fall rain storm and it… did… not… stop. The ground was so saturated for so long into the Spring that our little garlic plants were never able to develop robust roots. While not a complete loss, I estimate we got about 1/6th of volume of garlic we usually do, the majority of which we need to save for seed for next year.

Finally, the wet winter-spring delayed our season by about 2 weeks as it was so wet we couldn’t get the tractors into the fields!

Fall veg is stacking up nicely out in Farfield.

Summer

Almost like a spiritual extension of the wet winter, this summer was unusually cool, which caused numerous more subtle winners and losers in the fields.

First and foremost, the strawberries loved it. There is a reason why 2 billion dollars worth of strawberries are grown in the foggy summers of Salinas and Watsonville. This summer here often resembled those foggy coastal towns and the strawberries felt right at home. It brought us immense joy to see all the strawberry-smeared toddler faces as the plants pumped out hundreds of pints a week. 

Also in the winner camp were all our summer greens, brassicas, and onions. Things like lettuce and celery usually struggle a bit in August and September as the dial on the thermometer creeps up, but they were happy as a clam all summer long. Our onion crop also had their hot-girl-summer and we are rich in softball sized onions to carry us through the end of the year.

The cooler summer shortened our tomato and pepper season a bit — those nightshades need heat to ripen fruit, so the fruiting season was delayed into a slightly shorter, more condensed avalanche. Last week and the week before it was the tomatoes. This week it’s the sweet peppers that are all coming on at once.

On the other hand, the cooler days preserved what fruits did ripen on the vine for longer, and caused less sunburn and loss, and may have contributed to a better, bulkier tomato year overall. These are the things we farmer ponder.

Aye, watching plants respond — in sometimes unexpected ways — to what nature throws at them is one of the coolest things about farming. 

Fall

Now we head out to the last quarter of this football game. What hand will be dealt? Will the rains come hard and early, or will it be a dry and hot fall? No one but the Farm Gods know.

But our fall field of greens and fresh vegetables looks stacked out there in Farfield; our potatoes are coming in round and sound; Kayta and I had the best Delicata of our lives last night; and this crew is top-notch. 

So I’d wager we’ll have a victoriously tasty Autumn. 

See you in the fields,
David

Harvest Week 15 - Rain Kissed

JOIN US FOR OUR 7th ANNUAL
POTATO HARVEST PARTY!

Saturday, October 14th, 8:30 am - 11:30 am

There’s nothing like watching potatoes shower up out of the ground behind the wake of the tractor and then getting dirty and bagging them with friends. It’s an unforgettable experience, especially for the kiddos, and we hope you’ll join us!

All abilities and interests welcome. Feel free to bring non-members. We recommend a sunhat, water bottle, and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Some people prefer using gloves. We’ll have some light refreshments, music from the boombox, and agrarianly awesome time.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

In a nutshell: Summer and fall collide on the harvest table.

Mustard Mix, Little Gem Lettuce, Assorted Lettuce, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale, Bel Fiore Chicory & Radicchio, Bishop Cauliflower, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Fennel, Multicolored Beets, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Cabernet Onions, Bintje Potatoes, Green Cabbage, Heirloom & Red Slicing Tomatoes.

U-PICK

• Albion Strawberries: 2 pints per share

• Cherry Tomatoes: 6 pint per share

• Shishito & Padrón Frying Peppers: 1 pints total per share | Likely the last week

• Jalapeños: 6 peppers per share | If you like your jalapeños hot, look for peppers with checking (little cracks) on them

• Buena Mulata Peppers: 5 peppers per share | Usable at any color, but with more fruity flavor when ripe red or orange

• Habanero Peppers: 1 pepper per share | Ripe when orange

• 🌟 Aji Limo Peppers: 1 pepper per share | Ripe when yellow. This citrusy Peruvian pepper is traditionally used in ceviche. Sometimes called Lemon Drop in the US.

• 🌟 Goldilocks Beans: 3 pints per share | These gorgeous golden green beans seem to glow. Perfectly suited to any of your favorite cooked bean dishes or for making dilly beans!

• Amethyst Beans: Gleanings | Surprisingly, the plants from our earliest succession have started to make more beans. Feel free to pick some if you feel like foraging.

• Tomatillos: 1 pint per share

• Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Dill, 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, Thyme and Mints.

• Flowers!

Our final patch of u-pick green beans, Goldilocks, on the far right.

Preserving the Harvest

Canning Tomatoes

Tomato production is still going strong, but we recommend taking home your share’s 25 lb season limit (this week or next!) before the the plants start to tap out. Check out Week 12’s newsletter for a super simple fresh tomato sauce recipe that freezes beautifully.

lemon dill Sauerkraut

We have some beautiful (and giant!) heads of cabbage in the share this week, perfect for making sauerkraut! Here is our favorite garlicky, dill kraut recipe from the book Fermented Vegetables by Kristen and Christopher Shockey 

(Yields about 1 gallon of kraut)

• about 6 pounds cabbage (2 small heads or one large one)

• 1 1/2-2 tablespoons unrefined sea salt

• 4 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1-2 tablespoons dried dill 

• 4-5 cloves of garlic, finely grated

1. To prepare the cabbage, remove the coarse outer leaves. Rinse a few unblemished ones and set them aside. Quarter and core the cabbage, thinly slice, and transfer to a large bowl. 

2. Add the dill, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of the salt and, with your hands, massage it into the leaves, then taste. You should be able to taste the salt without it being overwhelming. Add more salt if necessary. The cabbage will soon look wet and limp, and liquid will begin to pool.  At this point, add the garlic. If you've put in a good effort and don't see much brine in the bowl, let it stand, covered, for 45 minutes, then massage again. 

3. Transfer the cabbage to a crock or 2-quart jar, a few handfuls at a time, pressing down on the cabbage with your fist or a tamper to work out air pockets. You should see some brine on top of the cabbage when you press. Leave 4 inches of headspace for a crock, or 2 to 3 inches for a jar. Top the cabbage with one or two of the reserved outer leaves. Then, for a crock, top the leaves with a plate that fits the opening of the container and covers as much of the vegetables as possible; weigh down with a sealed, water-filled jar. For a jar, use a sealed, water-filled jar or ziplock bag as a follower-weight combination. 

4. Set aside the jar or crock on a baking sheet to ferment, somewhere nearby, out of direct sunlight and cool, for 4 to 14 days. Check daily to make sure the cabbage is submerged, pressing down as needed. 

5. You can start to test the kraut on day 4. You'll know it's ready when it's pleasingly sour and pickle-y tasting, without the strong acidity of vinegar; the cabbage has softened a bit but retains some crunch; and the cabbage is more yellow than green and slightly translucent. 

6. Ladle the kraut into smaller jars and tamp down. Pour in any brine that's left. Tighten the lids, then store in the refrigerator. This kraut will keep, refrigerated, for 1 year.

Tossing some beautiful Cauliflower heads during harvest this morning.

FARMERS LOG

We started in on some truly autumnal tasks this week like mowing and spading big blocks in the fields to prep for cover cropping and walking the winter squash and Jack-O-Lanterns to decide when to clip them!

And lucky for us, this autumn began with a little kiss of rain. We were so grateful for that kiss, adding a little softness, and a little green into what’s usually the driest time of the year. It’s brought to mind one of our favorite poems, by Ursula K. Le Guin, a daughter of California.

* * * * *

TO THE RAIN

BY URSULA K. LE GUIN

Mother rain, manifold, measureless,
falling on fallow, on field and forest,
on house-roof, low hovel, high tower,
downwelling waters all-washing, wider
than cities, softer than sisterhood, vaster
than countrysides, calming, recalling:
return to us, teaching our troubled
souls in your ceaseless descent
to fall, to be fellow, to feel to the root,
to sink in, to heal, to sweeten the sea.

* * * * *

Many of you asked how the rain affected the farm. Aside from a few squishy strawberries and tomatoes, it was a manifold blessing and sweet relief to the soul and to the senses of all the creatures of the farm. The calls of the songbirds seemed to be tinged with joy that wet morning. And now everything seems to have became softer — from the blades of dry grass to the very earth under our feet which seemed to change from baked brick to a bouncy sponge.

Fall Carrots, being rarified by the cooler nights. We will have a brief break from carrots this week to let these size up a little more and we’ll start distributing them next week.

You can see and taste the rain’s blessing in the crops too. Our friend Ryan Power at New Family Farm once said, "Vegetables become more refined in the Fall."  Truer words were never spoken. Perhaps it’s from those occasional fall rains. Or perhaps it’s from the slower growth caused by the reducing sunlight that makes the vegetables grow sturdier, like hardwood trees; rarified and essentialized. Or maybe it’s because they stare more often at the moon and stars these days than the belligerent sun. Or perhaps it's the cooler days and cooler nights that slow down the insect and root worm armies and allow our veggies to let their defenses down and grow in peace. Whatever the cause, it is true: Many in our vegetable society are looking more dapper than they have all year — especially the greens.

We hope you enjoy the share this week: That unique time of year when autumn and summer collide on the harvest table and you can chase some fruity tomatoes with rain-kissed cauliflower.

See you in the fields,
David

Harvest Week 14 - Equinox on the Farm

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

In a nutshell: With the equinox comes the first of our fall-inflected shares.

Arugula, Mustard Mix, Little Gem Lettuce, Green Romaine Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Indigo Radicchio, Green Bok Choi, Green Magic Broccoli, Celery, Assorted Sweet Peppers, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Assorted Cucumbers, Romance Carrots, Walla Walla Onions, Various Heirloom & Red Slicing Tomatoes.

U-PICK

• Albion Strawberries: 4 pints per share

• Cherry Tomatoes: 6 pint per share

• Shishito & Padrón Frying Peppers: 1 pints total per share | Likely the last week for frying peppers

• Jalapeños: 5 peppers per share | if you like your jalapeños hot, look for peppers with checking (little cracks) on them

• Buena Mulata Peppers: 4 peppers per share | usable at any color, but with more fruity flavor when ripe red or orange

• Habanero Peppers: 1 pepper per share | ripe when orange

• Tomatillos: 1 pint per share

• Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Dill, 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, Thyme and Mints.

• Flowers!

A couple of recent Nicoise Salad-inspired dinners. On the left: Dragon Tongue beans with caramelized onions, cucumber, carrot, celery, lettuce, tomato and hard boiled egg with herby Ranch dressing. On the right: heirloom tomato, pan-fried potatoes, roasted zucchini, cucumbers and purple daikon with blue cheese, lettuce and sweet pepper, capers and sardines with the classic Nicoise dressing from the Week 6 newsletter.

CANNING TOMATOES

The tomatoes are exploding — now is the time to preserve! We have upped our season limit for bulk tomatoes. Each share is now allotted a 25 lb season limit — meaning your share can home 25 lbs of tomatoes from the 2nds canning bins in the barn either all at once, or on separate occasions (i.e. 7.5 lbs twice). While we hope tomatoes will be around for a while longer, this is definitely the peak of production and the best time to take home quality bulk tomatoes for preserving.

Our favorite way to preserve tomatoes is just to freeze fresh tomato sauce. It’s easier than canning and tastes better (we think)! See Week 12’s newsletter for Kayta’s go-to fresh tomato sauce recipe.

Meals from a week in Tomato Town. Pics by Adam.

tomato town

by home chef ambassador adam

We had a lot of memorable firsts in August 2020. First home purchase. Followed immediately by our first wildfire evacuation. The other August 2020 first that I’ll always remember is my very first vine-ripened Sungold grown by David and Kayta. THAT is how much I cherish tomatoes. I always have, but since that moment I am absolutely obsessed with WCCF’s tomatoes. I was traveling recently, and was terrified I was going to miss peak season. Peak tomato season is my superbowl. I was so excited to get home just in time to walk the red carpet of Tomato Town.

Tomato Town Tips and Tricks:

1. When I u-pick, I snip them at the stem, to leave it attached to the fruit (yes, botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruit, but so are cukes and zukes and they never catch any gruff). This requires that you be more careful when picking, and makes for a touch more prep work to twist them off before serving, but it’s worth it. Cherry tomatoes with their stem last longer, and it prevents them from splitting.

2. When I bring all my tomatoes home, I make one decision immediately - which tomatoes will be eaten raw and which will be cooked. This ensures I don’t waste a single ounce of sweet seeded magic. Prime specimens are reserved for raw consumption in salads, sandwiches, fresh salsas, etc. These are tomatoes that are soft but tight-skinned, with no bruises. I store them on the counter to stay room temp and be used every day throughout the week. The others I store in the fridge, without making any sacrifices to flavor or texture because they will be cooked. These days, I eat tomatoes at every single meal and I plan to preserve enough to ration in the depths of winter.  

This Week In Tomato Town 

• Last night’s dinner was a TBLTs (double tomato, single everything-else) with a caprese salad on the side. Honorable mentions to the lacto-fermented pickles which I preserved a few weeks ago and the smear of spicy arugula mayo. 

• Tonight we enjoyed a summer style pasta with barely-cooked tomatoes and shrimp. When I cook these tomatoes, I barely cook them because they are so summer-fresh. I sauteed them with butter, garlic, onion, and shrimp, finished with pasta water and herbs. Ladled onto pasta and topped with more herbs and grated parmesan. Perfection. 

• For our Rosh Hashanah dinner I paired roast chicken with zucchini latkes topped with tomato relish (also the more traditional sour cream and homemade applesauce)  

• Whole and by the handful.  Simple. Indulgent. Is there anything better? 

Adam’s upick haul.

FARMERS LOG

TUrn! Turn! Turn!

At 11:50 PM tonight, the Earth will wobble its midline straight in line with the sun on its way south — the Autumnal Equinox.

If you listen closely at that moment, you might big “yipeee!” from thousands of Northern hemisphere farmers.

It’s not that we begrudge the summer. No. We just love the changes.

It struck me today how the tasks of pulling off the growing season harmonizes with the seasons in such a way that it always seems like there is just enough time to do what needs to be done by the skin on our chinny-chin-chins.

The Byrds were right: To everything, there is a season. 

In the spring, we aren’t harvesting yet, so we have all the time in the day to prep the canvas; to tune-up our equipment and build irrigation systems; to seed 200 trays a week in the greenhouse; to pot up, stake, and trellis tomatoes; and to mow cover crop, turn soil, shape beds and plant, plant, plant!

Then harvest seasons starts and two, three, then four days a week are consumed with harvest. You put down the shovel and the hammer and take up the harvest knife. All other projects cease. Planting and harvesting are your life (and maybe some weeding if you’re lucky). The days are at their longest. If there is ever a time to be harvesting hundreds of pounds of cucumbers, tomatoes and squash in the morning and then planting out a mile of carrots in the afternoon, it is the summer.

Paige and Aisling putting some of the last lettuce of year is in the ground.

Before you know it, it’s late-Summer. The tomatoes start exploding, the cucumbers already are, you’re still planting like crazy and then the melons come in — and just when you think you’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the long days, you scroll through your crop plan and see that plantings are nearly done. No more bed shaping. The greenhouse seedings stop. You plant the last Fall brassicas in the field, the tractor sits quiet for a minute, and you can spend all day amongst the vines and in the cooler playing Tetris with boxes of Summer fruit. 

Then comes the Autumnal Equinox.

The tomatoes are still pumping and the potatoes and winter squash are calling to be harvested; the corn is filling out and crisping up. The big harvests are here. Space needs to be cleared to store the bounty. Winter is just around the corner so you also need to establish new garlic and strawberries beds and to lime new fields, and get ready for cover cropping — and just when you think you’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the shortening days the heat starts to ebb, the tomatoes show signs of slowing down. Soon, a light frost will roll through the farm and nip the summer fruits. Smiling friends will come to help you harvest the potatoes. The chill morning air goes down like a draught of ambrosia. You transplant the last lettuce of the season. You have a moment sit down to order cover crop and calculate how much garlic to save for seed.

All this is why you won’t ever hear a farmer say, “Shucks! Summer is over.” We are greedy for the turnings.

We love nothing more than a first harvest. But the glory of the first tomato fades under the weight of hundreds of tomato crates and then we crave cold hands and cozy coats and the crisp snap of the stem of a plump winter radicchio. Lucky for us, when scolding kiddos for running through the corn becomes sad and hackneyed, Autumn comes, and we can yell, “Come! Knock it down! Gather armfuls of cobs!” 

Change is our tonic — and one of the great sustaining elixirs of farm life.

Soon, winter will come. The rains will come and we will turn in — to rest, rejuvenation, and internality. We’ll clean up the farm and we’ll look back on the year and plan the next. We’ll look at spreadsheets, sit, think, fix things, and sleep. 

But ample sleep turns into insomnia; too much internality into angst. Our harvest muscles will atrophy, we will get pudgy, and we will forget why we are puttering out in the wet and the cold. And just when we think we’ll break, that there is too much open-endedness in the too short days, the sun will return and we will hear the Swainson’s Thrush calling us back out to the fields, beckoning us, “Build it up again! Plant! Turn! Turn! Turn!”

See you in the fields,
David

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CSA BASICS

ATTENTION MEMBERS: Please make sure to drive slow (15 - 20 mph) on Cooper Rd. out of respect for our human and pet neighbors! Thank you!

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

When can I u-pick? Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm, minding weekly u-pick limits.

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 next to the solar panels or along the road further down. Please don’t park behind the solar panels.

Where’s the bathroom!: Under the big solar panels in the parking lot.

What should I bring?

• Your WCCF tote bag & reusable produce bags

• Pint baskets or small containers for measuring your allotment of u-pick crops like strawberries

• A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy

• Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some), we also have some in the barn

• Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!

• Friends and family!

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.