Spring Update 2024!

Dear 2024 CSA members!

The greenhouse is bursting with seedlings; the first garden beds are being shaped for planting; the strawberries are bursting into flower; and the barn is abuzz with projects…

Spring is upon us!

We wanted to send you a quick update of what’s been happening on the farm and to look into the crystal ball to inquire as to start of harvest season!

Propagation Manager Asa Black and the rest of the crew have been busy filling the greenhouse with the seedlings that will become this harvest season!

WHEN WILL THE CSA START?

After another wet winter and spring, our main fields are just starting to think about drying down. Despite this, we are aiming for an earlier start date that last year. Unexpected spring storms aside, we hope to start the CSA on either Saturday, June 8th or Saturday June 15th. The six months thereafter will be, as usual, and avalanche of deliciousness.

We will nail down the official start date soon and send an email letting you know in May.

A few days before the CSA starts we will send an email with all the logistics like how to find us, what to bring, and orientation times for new members.

Note! All of our important CSA communications are sent to your inbox via this email and are simultaneously posted on the Newsletters page of our website.

CSA SHARES STILL AVAILABLE!

We still have about 10 slots remaining in our 2024 CSA program! If you know anyone who might be interested in signing-up, please encourage them to join!

Because as you know, there is really nothing better than spending a Sunday in a garden of flowers nibbling sun-ripened strawberries with your besties.

Since the equinox, the perennial section of the garden has been springing to life.

FARMER’S LOG

AT HARBOR

The period from January through mid-April is a very important time on the farm.

It is like the liminal time before a long sailing voyage when the boat is at harbor and the next journey is plotted in cozy, smoky cabins; when the ship is moored, scraped, and every corner is cleaned; when the sails are mended, new masts set, and the carpenters work overtime; when the crew is hired, the provisions calculated, and the ship loaded.

This year’s planning and project time on the farm has been incredibly productive — with Tristan, Asa, and Aisling all working over the winter — and the recent additions of Ava Jablonski and Char Curtin to the crew. 

The amount we’ve been able to tackle with this many great farmers on board has been inspiring.

To name a few…

The greenhouse has been greatly upgraded with overhead hoses, new tables, landscape fabric, and sliding doors! Asa Black, who is now managing our propagation, has poured a lot of love into that space — it is now a greenhome rather than a greenhouse —and it is showing in the happy seedlings. Even Goose the greenhouse cat is smitten with the new digs and seems to have finally embraced the domestic bliss of sleeping inside at night.

Asa has also greatly expanded our fleet of herb barrels — adding 13 new barrels for exciting new mints, pineapple sage, and other herbal goodies for your mixological and culinary adventures this summer and fall.

Tristan led the remodel of the inside of our big cob cooler, which used to be an obstacle course of ancient shelves. It is now like the empty, cavernous hull of, yes, a great sailing ship. The shelf-free space will make the daily loading and unloading of vegetables approximately one thousand times easier this harvest season.

Tristan is also currently leading the charge on the expansion of our parking lot and the construction of a proper play structure for kids next to the swing set!

From L to R: Baby Alice, Aisling, Nuthenroy the Gnome, and new crew members Char and Ava next to their new Gnome Home!

Ava has been hard at work improving the barn pickup area (think beautiful new plant trellis and improved signage). She also just today helped Char build the trellis of a new Gnome Home…

Yes, you read that right. After two years of farming without a home for Nuthenroy the Farm Gnome, we finally said enough-is-enough. His new estate now features prominently next to the herb barrels. Nuthenroy looks forward to when he can once again count his jewels and stolen car keys from within a magical tent of Scarlet Runner Beans and Mexican Sour Gerkins.

Aisling has been quietly making it all possible by often watching a growing and crawling baby Alice, while Kayta and I plot, plan, budget, and do whatever it is we do in the smoky cabin. 

Speaking of which: What is the plan? Because, as the expression goes, “A ship at harbor is safe but that is not what ships are built for.”

2024 is shaping up to be an epic harvest season. 

We will be planting about 8 acres of rich loam for 230 shares / households — a slight expansion from last year.

Because so many of you really fell in love with the ritual of picking big flower bouquets last year (much to our delight) we’ve nearly doubled the size of the flower garden.

We have a new, blossoming, quite large strawberry patch that we hope, Farm Gods willing, will match or exceed the glory of last year’s strawberries.

And in the vegetable fields, we are set for year that will include all of our most favorite varieties, as well as exciting new experiments and flavors, and the return of the beloved Floriani Red Flint corn.

We can’t wait for you to meet the new crew members, to get lost in the new garden zones, and to sink into this beautiful place and the flavors of the approaching harvest season.

Anchors aweigh!

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

CSA Sign-Ups Opening Soon!

Dear 2023 CSA program members,

We just wanted to send a quick update that we plan on opening CSA sign-ups for our 2024 season next week!

We are a couple weeks behind on our planning (turns out things move a little slower with a little 8-month old) but we are getting very excited for the season ahead. (Think 75% bigger flower garden.)

Returning members will have 2-weeks 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 soon to reserve your spot.

If you have friends or family who think would enjoy the experience of our CSA program, please encourage them to sign up for the waitlist on our website!

WE’RE HIRING!

If you know of an ag professional or someone looking to get into farming, we’re looking for a few more passionate farmers to join our amazing team. We are accepting applications for an entry level and managerial positions now. Click here for details.

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

Harvest Week 26 - Treasure

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

In a nutshell: Heavy bags of hardy roots and squash to send you off and stock up your larder.

Hopi Blue Cornmeal, Assorted Braising Greens, Celery Root, Assorted Radishes, Bolero Carrots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Bodega Red Potatoes, Bintje Potatoes, Assorted Onions, Lorz Softneck Garlic, Assorted Winter Squash

Your 2023 farm crew! Asa, Paige, Tristan, David, Kayta & Alice, Aisling and Anna.

HARVEST NOTES

• Hopi Blue Cornmeal: This beautiful corn originates from the Hopi people of the Four Corners region. This a fresh corn flour, ground this week from whole kernels. We recommend eating it soon to savor its freshness and flavor, but if you don’t get around to it you can store it in the freezer to keep the fats fresh. Delicious in pancakes (check out Week 1’s Newsletter for our go-to Hopi Blue Corn pancake recipe), cornbread (recipe below), or as a beautiful purple polenta.

SIGNING UP FOR 2024

We will open sign-ups for our 2024 CSA program in 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.

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!)

WINTER SISTER FARM

Gonna miss us this winter? Fear not, Winter Sister Farm, right next door has you covered! They will be running a farm-stand this winter, as well as their 2024 Winter CSA program. Check out Winter Sister Farm, for more info on obtaining the highest quality specialty winter veggies, flowers, and herbs all picked up free-choice market style, on their beautiful farm here on Cooper Rd! Sign-up today!

Skillet Cornbread

Recipe by Yewande Komolafe for NYTimes Cooking

Our favorite new cornbread recipe is one we learned from our good friends at Winter Sister Farm. It’s moist and sweet and incredibly comforting alongside a bowl of soup or on its own slathered in honey.

Ingredients

(Yield: 6 to 8 servings)

• 8 tablespoons/115 grams unsalted butter, melted, plus more for brushing the pan

• 1½ cups/250 grams medium-coarse yellow cornmeal

• ¾ cup/114 grams all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup/55 grams granulated sugar

• 3½ teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

• 2 cups/470 milliliters buttermilk (or 3/4 cup full-fat yogurt, 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup water)

• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch skillet or cast-iron pan and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk and eggs. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir until incorporated. Fold in the melted butter. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet and smooth the top.

3. Bake until the top is lightly browned and the sides pull away cleanly from the skillet, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely and serve warm or room temperature, or reserve to make cornbread dressing.

Local Honey & handmade gifts for sale this week! 

We’re delighted that we’ll have a couple more pop-ups from CSA members selling handmade and hand-tended goods this week!

Please join Swarm & Tender on Tuesday the 19th for the final day of the magic CSA pickup. 

There will be a limited amount of honey available in an array of glass jars and they can accept cash and Venmo. 

Swarm & Tender is a Sonoma County Local Honey Bee Rescue, Education and Relocation business run by a couple of bee forward feminists doing their part to help support honeybees in a time of need. 

After the ample rain last winter and spring, the hard working little ladies were able to produce an over abundance of honey this year, beyond what they need to thrive overwinter. Due to this bountiful honey production Mariah and Spencer were able to sustainably harvest a honey crop for the first time in a number of years. 

They would love to share this liquid gold with you and yours this holiday season! Thank you for supporting local pollinators!

The Wool Witch will also be back hosting a table this Saturday. She will offer a mix of homemade soaps, tinctures, essential oil rollers and wool/alpaca rugs as well as local Eric Kent wine at 50% off!  Come get your gifts, some made with herbs from our garden, or treat yourself!

FARMER’S LOG

TREASURE

It was a bittersweet day today — the last Friday harvest of our 2023 harvest season. This Tuesday’s pick-up will be the last pick-up of our harvest season. 

Each harvest season is like a voyage — with us farmers & CSA members striking out together on a grand adventure. The community supported agriculture model that we practice here, that we ask you to practice here, is not a gimmick or a fad. It is a powerful and functional alliance between a human community and their farmers.

We are one crew on this voyage. And that bond allows us to farm well; to farm intentionally; to farm for the future.

So what did we, as a community, just do? What did we accomplish together?

First and foremost it was our biggest voyage yet. We planted 8 acres and grew produce for over 390 Sonoma County adults and 170 Sonoma County kiddos. It was our most bountiful year and our nets came up full — 14,000 lbs of potatoes, 9,000 lbs of carrots, 8,000 lbs of onions — just to name a few figures. 

But the catch is never the most valuable part of a voyage. The real treasures are the intangibles: The adventures you had, the lessons you learned, and the friends you made along the way. 

This year we welcomed 85 new households to the farm — many of whom said coming to the farm was the highlight of their week.

We welcomed three amazing new crew members to our team who taught us new knots and new shanties and kept the farm in ship-shape throughout the long voyage, even in the gales.

We raised $7,200 in share price assistance funds, which helped members in our community enjoy a share they otherwise couldn’t have afforded. We raised $2,300 to tend the wild habitat of the farm, which went toward the planting of a 200 ft hedgerow of Elderberry, Toyon, Coffee Berry, Wax Myrtle, and other native shrubs on the northern edge of Highgarden. 

We took care of our blessed soil. We put down 48 tons of compost and seeded 1,500 lbs of cover crop seed. Those seeds sprouted well, and if they continues to grow as well as they have, they’ll become over 40,000 lbs of carbonaceous biomass that will feed the soil for years to come.

It was a year of immense growth for the capability of our ship and within the business itself. We were able to take on loans to purchase some key pieces of equipment that drastically improved our efficiency in the field. We also built better digital and physical systems for capturing and communicating the information we use in the field.

It was your ship owners most work-life balanced year yet. The farm was able to support us while we brought our sweet Alice into the world and became new parents.

Finally, and perhaps most gratifying of all for us, the farm seemed to become, more than ever before, a place where people spent time. Whether alone, with friends, or with family, it was a presence in peoples lives — a place to gather, to read, to hang out with friends, to let the kids run free. We swore we’d never tell, but one evening Kayta and I stumbled upon a couple making out next to the flowering potato field as the sun set.

That single moment was all the treasure we needed from this year’s voyage.

* * * * *

Our one hope for your experience of the farm this year, it is that it included moments of connection between this place, the bounty it gave, and your heart.

This connection is so important for human beings and so hard to find in this world. Without it we are fragmented, lost. It ties us to this beautiful planet and to each other. 

Thank you for joining us on the voyage this year and helping to build a place where that connection can be felt and lived.

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 for Anna, Aisling, Asa, Paige & Tristan