THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
In a nutshell: There is a reason we give thanks in the Fall — bounty!
Leeks, Yellow Elsye Onions, Garlic, Celery Root, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin or Sunshine Kabocha, Dino Kale, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Carrots, Assorted Salanova Lettuces, Radicchio, Watermelon Radish, Butternut Squash, and Broccoli.
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries: Gleanings (mostly in the new, Western patch)
Herbs: Italian Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Oregano, Lemon Verbena, Thyme, French Sorrel.
HARVEST NOTES
Brussel Sprouts: We’re distributing Brussel sprouts on the stalk as they grow in the field. For storage — and to fit them in your fridge — just pop the sprouts off and store them in a bag or closed container.
Watermelon Radish: This is a hardy, dense, and gorgeous winter radish with a vivid magenta inner core. We love it on top of a green salads, rice bowls or highlighted as a small salad of its own — try ginger, garlic and lime on julienned or sliced watermelon radishes as a bright side dish. We recommend lightly peeling. Pro tip: while they’re generally quite mild, if you find them to be somewhat too spicy for your taste, try soaking in an ice water bath!
Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin: The supreme pie pumpkin with gorgeous, netted skin. The only pie pumpkin that can compete with a Sunshine Kabocha. You will have your choice of a Kabocha, or a Winter Luxury, for pie this week.
Celery Root: Also known as Celeriac, Celery Root is a traditional European winter vegetable with smooth, white flesh that is packed with pure celery flavor. Try adding it to a hardy winter stew, mashing it along with potatoes, or roasting. We’ve also heard legend that celery root fries (i.e. deep fried celery root sticks) are the best thing ever. For a more refreshing take, Celery Root can be grated or julienned into a fresh salad of apples and a creamy or mustardy dressing.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be making big moves around garden. We’re taking the old strawberries out, doubling the size of the flower garden, and putting in 3,600 ft of new strawberries!
WHEN DOES THE CSA END?
Because of the wet Spring and late start we had, our 2023 harvest season will run all the way until the third week of December this year! The last Saturday pickup will be December 16th, and the last Tuesday pick-up of the year will be December, 19th.
WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2024?
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 our 2024 CSA program!
Introducting Zweibel’s Bakery!
With Freehand Bakery taking a winter break, we are very excited that starting this Tuesday, Karl and Ursula of Zweibel’s will be offering their amazing baked goods for purchase during Tuesday pickups!
Zweibel’s is a small farmers’ market-based, whole grains-focused bakery based in Santa Rosa. They use very close to 100% organic ingredients and are dedicated to sourcing their ingredients primarily from the bounty of Sonoma and Marin. Some of people’s favorites are their naturally-leavened bagels, spelt puff pastry apple-rhubarb hand pies, and delicious granola.
On Tuesday they’ll be bringing:
Bagels!
Pepper and Mozzarella OR Mixed Olive Focaccia!
Soft Pretzels!
Apple-Rhubarb Puff Tarts!
Mini Caramelized Pumpkin Pies!
Cake Slices!
Banana Breakfast Cookies!
100% Rye Flour Chocolate Cookies!
Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Triple Ginger Cookies!
Coconut Macaroons!
Almond-Golden Raisin Granola!
If you’re interested in seeing more, you can check them out on Instagram: @zweibels_
For questions or to special order something, email them at derzweibel@gmail.com
KAYTA’S CLASSIC PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE
This is an elegant and simple pumpkin pie recipe which relies entirely on the quality of its ingredients for its flavor. We find that it tastes amazing with a high-quality squash and fresh whole milk (although coconut milk would make a delicious version as well). This recipe will work with really any of the winter squash we distribute, but we saved two of our favorites for this week: The Winter Luxury pie pumpkins will give you a silkier texture and heightened pumpkin-y flavor, while the Sunshine Kabochas bring incredible chestnutty sweetness and a slightly denser texture.
THE CRUST
1/2 tsp salt
75 ml water, about 1/3 cup, very cold (I usually start with this amount and add a touch more as needed)
227 g all purpose flour, about 1 and 3/4 cup
150 g unsalted butter, 1 stick plus 2.5 tablespoons, very cold
Cut the cold butter into pea sized chunks and mix into the flour and salt mixture. With your fingers, squeeze the butter chunks so that they flatten into the flour. Add the water gradually, pressing and kneading the dough as you go, until all of the flour has been moistened and is able to be formed into a ball. (I usually use slightly more water than the recipe calls for.) While you’re doing this process, it’s important to keep the butter cold, and keep it from incorporating evenly into the dough — it’s the discrete layers of butter between layers of flour that makes a dough flaky.
Make the dough into a ball and then flatten into a disc and refrigerate, wrapped in a bag, until you are ready to roll it out. Once the crust has been rolled out and placed in your pie pan, refrigerate or freeze it until right before you put it in the oven. Pro tip: you’ll achieve more layered flakiness if you fold the dough over on itself several times before shaping into the pie pan.
To get a perfectly flaky crust, it’s best to blind bake your crust a bit before adding in the filling. Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Line pie shell with parchment paper and fill to the top with pie weights or baking beans. Bake until edges are dry and firm, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove parchment and pie weights, then bake until bottom crust is completely dry and light golden, 5 to 10 minutes more. Set aside to cool. When you’re ready to finish baking the pie, increase the oven temperature to 400°F.
THE FILLING
1 3/4 cup baked winter squash or pumpkin flesh
1/2-3/4 cup sugar (if you’re using a Kabocha, you may want to err on the lower side)
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 heaping tsp. ground ginger
2 eggs
1 cup cream
1/2 cup milk (feel free to adjust the ratio of cream to milk, or substitute coconut milk for all of it!)
Mix the sugar, salt, and spices into the pumpkin. Then mix in the eggs, milk, and cream, and whisk until smooth.
Pour the pie filling into your par-baked crust, and bake at 400 degrees until only an inch in the center of the pie remains liquid and the crust is golden brown. Let set before eating.
FARMER’S LOG
A FARMER’S THANKSGIVING
Kayta and I both grew up in the suburbs and, like everyone, we encountered those ubiquitous expressions — “make hay while the sun shines,” “three shakes of a lamb's tail,” “like a horse who’s seen the barn,” etc. It wasn’t until we started farming that we began to feel the visceral poetry of these expressions and to understand their roots. And it wasn’t until we started farming that we began to understand — like really understand — the need to give thanks in the Fall.
The Fall is an incredible time of year in the temperate world. It is a season of unimaginable bounty. The plants of the forest and the field have spent all Spring and Summer harnessing the sun’s energy into their fruits, seeds, roots, and leaves and we have harvested. In the Fall, the root cellar is full, the larder is full, the granary is full — the land has burst forth at its seams and we have gathered the overflow.
The farmer, sitting at home with their feet up next to the fire, is keenly aware of the bounty in the root cellar below. We feel a great contentment in this but no pride because we realize how little we did to create it. Sure, we worked hard all year — moving things here and there — but it was others, present now and before, that filled that cellar. It was others who dug it out and laid the roof. Others who made the tools and taught us how to use them. Others who saved the seeds and taught others, who taught others, who taught others, who taught us how to care for them. And what (or who) made those seeds sprout? Not we.
For all this, there is nothing to give but thanks.
We’d like to take a moment to give thanks those who made this season possible.
* * * * *
First and foremost, we are so grateful to our incredible crew, who masterfully shepherded the farm through a year of immense growth and change. These wonderful farmers seeded, planted, harvested, washed all of the produce we’ve enjoyed this year, put their blood and sweat into working this land, and made what could been a hectic and stressful year into the most balanced, smooth, and abundant yet.
Call signs from L to R: Nooch, PBJ, Beemster, Hippie Dust, Pepita.
Asa Black who joined us this year from Odiyan Center near Stewart’s point, brought his careful, observant touch to all corners of the farm. He kept our tomatoes upright and happier than ever, our vulnerable crops covered and weeded, and deer out of our Farfield among so many other things. Thanks for staying late and having our back so much this year, Pepita.
Aisling Okubo, our Assistant Harvest Manager, who you know and love from Tuesday pick-ups, gracefully handled the management of so many Monday and Thursday harvests — a heavy lift — and became the queen, and magical morning elf, of our wash-pack station and was, day-after day, week-after-week, a quiet leader and cornerstone in the field for us. We’re so lucky to have you, Nooch.
Paige Taylor, our Greenhouse and Garden Manager, who joined us this year from Red Dog Farm in Chimacum, WA, stepped into a new farm and took on a huge chunk of responsibility with consummate attention to detail, skill, and confidence. Paige oversaw the seeding of every plant we grew on the farm this year and managed the garden and u-pick zones to perfection — and they never looked better. Thanks for sending it so epically, PBJ.
Tristan Frakes, our Production Manager, joined us this year from Oz Farm in Point Arena, also jumped right into the deep end with us and set up, dialed in, and mastered all this new equipment to prep and plant 7 acres after just a few weeks of orientation. He then, with characteristic ease and good humor, oversaw the execution of our complicated planting schedule wherein dozens of crop varieties must be planted in 5 different fields all within a short planting window and managed to grow the best onions we’ve ever grown, among other things. A grateful “hellll yeah” to you, Hippie Dust.
Hippie Dust bringing home the bacon.
Anna Dozor, who you know and love from Saturday CSA pick-up, did double duty and juggled her role next-door at Winter Sister in order to be with us this year and we couldn’t be more grateful. Anna helped us build this farm, so it was an immense comfort to know the farm was in such good hands when Alice arrived in May, and to have her continually holding it down as Harvest Manager, and in the fields all year as we became new parents. Huzzah, Beemster!
To Alberto and Anayeli Guzman, who work full-time at Longer Table Farm, and occasionally put in extra hours here in the afternoon during our peak season. Their skilled work at key moments was the key to an abundant harvest of numerous crops here this year. Anayeli also organized work crews to help us bring in this year’s bumper potato and Fall carrot harvests. Anayeli and Alberto were born into Mixtec and Zapotec (respectively) speaking indigenous communities near Oaxaca, Mexico. Anayeli also organizes for farm worker rights in Sonoma County. You can learn more about her and her work here and here.
To Scott Mathieson and Laurel Anderson, farm family and the landowners of this amazing place. There are much easier things to be doing with a property than leasing to a noisy, busy, often smelly operation. But your commitment to building community and sharing beauty and bounty shines through in how you support us the farm everyday. Local agriculture simply couldn’t exist without people like you.
To Sarah Dozor and the team at Winter Sister, and Will, Lucas and everyone at Longer Table Farm; and to Graham — thank you for being the best farm neighbors and the knowledge and tool sharing and camaraderie.
To our Flower Ambassador, Cassidy Blackwell, and our Home Chef Ambassador, Adam Kahn — thank you for sharing your contagious inspiration and excitement about the farm with all of us and for your beautiful additions to the newsletter this year. Gold stars!
To Abby Teitelbaum and Daniel Gonzales of Freehand Bakery for blessing us Tuesdays with some of the best bread and pastries we ever tasted in Sonoma County.
To Jared Sutton and Tristan Benson for their clutch metal and mechanical work.
To our neighbor Sara McCamant for helping to injecting some really special, excitings new garlic seed into our field this year. That Aglio Seco! We can’t wait to see how they turn out and, hopefully, to multiply them!
Our family and friends for all your incredible support and food, especially this spring, as we became new parents.
To our sweet baby Alice — thank you for exploding our hearts everyday and being the chillest baby that farmer parents could ever ask for.
And finally, to you, dear members. Whatever bounty we’ve enjoyed this year is because of you. You made a real connection to, and shared in the real risk of a growing season with farmers — something extremely rare and important, we think, in this crazy world. Your support made it possible for us to plant each seed, spread the compost, lay the irrigation lines, and harvest the food that nourished us all — and you did quite a bit of u-picking yourself! You showed up each week with sweet smiles, gifts, and words of encouragement and appreciation that charged us up in so many ways.
You remind us, day after day, week after week, that real, life-sustaining bounty comes from a community rolling up its collective sleeves and building something needful and beautiful together.
Thank you.
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
