THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Spinach, Red Little Gem Lettuce, Red Oakleaf Lettuce, Bel Fiore Radicchio, Frisée, Rainbow Chard, Mini Tiara Cabbage, Baby Carrots, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Kohlrabi, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Fresh Softneck Garlic
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share: ATTENTION! The areas near the entrances are pretty picked on, don’t forget to branch out to the back areas to find the jack-pots!
Sugar Snap Peas | 1/2 pint per share: Read below for important tips on the first picking
Herbs: Italian, Purple and Thai Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Catnip, Pineapple, Sorrel, Assorted Mints
Flowers!
HARVEST NOTES
Bel Fiore Radicchio: We love this gorgeous, speckled radicchio whose name means beautiful flower in Italian. Among radicchios, Bel Fiore is one of the least bitter, and makes a beautiful salad green alone or mixed with other greens. For an incredible Summer Radicchio Salad, check out CSA member Sarah Kate Benjamin’s recipe in this past newsletter.
Frisée: This succession of frisée was so beautiful that we wanted to give you access to it as whole heads. While it’s probably most familiar as a salad mix component, it’s also delicious cooked as you would an escarole. Check out the recipe below for Herby Summer Beans with Garlic & Escarole.
ORIENTATION TOURS FOR NEW MEMBERS
All new adult members are required to attend an orientation their first time picking up their harvest share. We’ll give you your farm tote bags, explain how our CSA works, and share the secret to finding the sweetest strawberries.
WEEK 3:
Please contact us if you are a new member and will need an orientation in Week 3 (or later). We are available for tours Saturday, June 29: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm … or Tuesday, July 2: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 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, both parties should attend an orientation.
If you can’t attend a tour time above, please reach out to us to schedule a time that works for you.
We look forward to meeting you!
Herby Summer Beans with Garlic & Frisee
Inspired by Alison Roman
We’ve recently been adapting a delicious recipe (Spring Beans with Lemon) from Alison Roman’s newsletter to suit the early summer season. We’ve found it to be an easy and delightful vehicle to carry an abundance of vegetables and capture the fresh taste of early summer. As Alison wrote: “I know this is a recipe, but try to not think of it as a recipe. Somewhere between a soup and a side, depending on how brothy you end up going, these are spring beans, beans surrounded by spring.” Or for our purposes, summer! “Don't take anything too seriously— the assignment here is to experiment and explore as many [summer veggies] you can find, all bright green and tender, swimming around wonderfully creamy white beans.” While we have loved the ease of using canned beans on days that we haven’t planned ahead, this dish would be even better with home-cooked local beans like those from Winter Sister or Tierra Vegetables.
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper
6 garlic cloves or 2 stalks green garlic, thinly sliced
1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
1 lemon, half thinly sliced (seeds removed) and half saved for juicing later
2 15-ounce cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 teaspoons fish sauce, optional
1 large or several small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
2 cups English peas (fresh or frozen) or fava beans, outer pods removed
1-2 heads of frisée, (we always find that we wish we’d made more) washed and chopped
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
Parmesan cheese, for grating or shaving
Herbs (Parsley, Dill, Thyme, Fennel Tops and Basil would all be good here)! For scattering over
1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium–high heat. Add sliced fennel and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the fennel is tender and beginning to caramelize. Add the garlic and scallions, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook a few more minutes, stirring occasionally, until the garlic starts to brown.
2. Add your lemon slices and let them soften among the fennel and scallions (no need to brown), a minute or two (if you’re sensitive to the bitterness in lemon, make sure there are no seeds and your slices are thin).
3. Add white beans and 4–6 cups of water, depending if you are going for side dish brothy bean or bowl of soupy bean. Add fish sauce and season with salt and pepper (if going for full on soup, feel free to add a bit of Better Than Bouillon to the pot as needed). Bring to a simmer, gently cooking until the beans taste less “I came from a can” and more “delicious,” anywhere from 10–15 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and more fish sauce as needed, knowing that a lot of flavor is yet to come from your vegetables, lemon juice and Parmesan.
4. Toss the clean, chopped frisée with olive oil and spread thinly on a baking pan. Broil until the small pieces begin to brown and crisp and then toss with additional crushed garlic, lemon juice and salt.
5. To serve, add lemon juice and top with frisée, Parmesan, herbs (!), more black pepper and a nice drizzle of olive oil. Eat with crusty bread to soak up the good juices.
FARMER’S LOG
We have family visiting this weekend, so we’ll leave you with the sweet words of beat poet, Lew Welch.
NOTES FROM A PIONEER ON A SPECK IN SPACE
by Lew Welch
Few things that grow here poison us.
Most of the animals are small.
Those big enough to kill us do it in a way
Easy to understand, easy to defend against.
The air, here, is just what the blood needs.
We don’t use helmets or special suits.
The Star, here, doesn’t burn you if you
Stay outside as much as you should.
The worst of our winters is bearable.
Water, both salt and sweet, is everywhere.
The things that live in it are easily gathered.
Mostly, you eat them raw with safety and pleasure.
Yesterday my wife and I brought back
Shells, driftwood, stones, and other curiosities
Found on the beach of the immense
Fresh-water Sea we live by.
She was all excited by a slender white stone which:
“Exactly fits the hand!”
I couldn’t share her wonder;
Here, almost everything does.
* * * *
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.
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 on either side of the road in front of the greenhouse.
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 will provide a few pint baskets to be used as measures)
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!
2024 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 15th through Tuesday, December 10th this year.
Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are through this email address, which is sometimes spam blocked. 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.
