THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Arugula, Mustard Mix, Rosaine Gem Lettuce, Red Romaine Lettuce, Red Russian Kale, Rainbow Carrots, Sweet Corn, Eggplant, (last of the) Pickling Cucumbers, Persian & Lemon Cucumbers, Costata Romanesco Zucchini & Patty Pan Squash, Fresh Torpedo Onions, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries | 3 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!
Purple Sugar Snap Peas | Gleanings
Padrón Peppers | 2 pints per share | See Week 4’s Newsletter for tips on how to prepare these delicacies.
Shishito Peppers | 3 pints per share | See Week 4’s Newsletter for tips on how to prepare these delicacies.
Cherry Tomatoes | 1 pint per share
Amethyst Green Beans | 1 pint per share
Jalapeños | 2 peppers per share | To find the hottest ones, look for “checking”, the delicate cracks in the skin like on the one on the right in the photo above.
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
Fresh Torpedo Onions: A favorite in Italy and France, these beautiful, pink, elongated onions are similar in flavor to Cipollinis — mild, delicate, and delicious raw. We recommend incorporating them into fresh salads, pizza or sandwiches.
Sweet Corn: This week we’re welcoming the first of our scrumptious bicolor sweet corn! There’s a chance you may find a European Corn Borer Caterpillar at the top of an ear or two — an unavoidable reality of organically-grown sweet corn — but this little moth grub is harmless. Don’t let it deter you—just cut or wash out any eaten part and enjoy your corn!
Eggplant: Returning members will be glad to see that eggplant is back this week after a long hiatus due to the cooler growing conditions on the Laguna. We can thank the heat waves for this year’s crop! This year’s eggplant will all be a gorgeous black Italian variety. Perfect for eggplant parmesan and ratatouille.
Grilled Corn Tiger Salad
BY SHUAI WANG
This week we’re sharing a recipe from Bon Appetit for an inspired combo of a “Chinese tiger salad—a crisp, refreshing side of raw cucumbers, cilantro, scallions, and chiles [that] incorporates elements of Mexican esquites—grilled corn, creamy avocado, and salty cheese—for a dazzlingly bright summer dish you’ll want to eat all on its own. To more closely resemble the original inspiration, include half a stalk of celery sliced into thin matchsticks or half moons.” Yields 6 servings.
Ingredients
2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
3 garlic cloves, finely grated
½ cup fresh lime juice
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp. oil from a jar of chili crisp (preferably Lao Gan Ma)
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
2 tsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 tsp. Morton kosher salt, plus more
2 large ears of corn, husked
1 ripe avocado, cut into large pieces
½ Persian cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeds removed, halves sliced crosswise on a diagonal ¼" thick
1 small shallot, halved through root end, thinly sliced
½ bunch cilantro, tough stems removed
2 Tbsp. crumbled queso fresco or Cotija cheese
Preparation
Toast 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds in a dry small skillet over medium heat, shaking pan constantly, until deep golden brown and fragrant, about 5 minutes; transfer to a large shallow bowl. Add 3 garlic cloves, finely grated, ½ cup fresh lime juice, 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil, 2 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce, 2 tsp. oil from a jar of chili crisp, 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil, 2 tsp. unseasoned rice vinegar, and 1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 tsp. Morton kosher salt and stir vigorously until salt is dissolved. Set dressing aside.
Prepare a grill for medium-high heat. Grill 2 large ears of corn, husked, turning often, until lightly charred all over and tender, 8–10 minutes. Transfer corn to a cutting board and let sit until cool enough to handle. Slice kernels from cobs (you should have about 2 cups).
Add corn, 1 ripe avocado, cut into large pieces, ½ English hothouse cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeds removed, halves sliced crosswise on a diagonal ¼" thick, 1 small shallot, halved through root end, thinly sliced, and ¼ bunch cilantro, tough stems removed, to reserved dressing; toss gently to combine. Taste salad and season with more salt if needed. Top with 2 Tbsp. crumbled queso fresco or Cotija cheese and remaining ¼ bunch cilantro, tough stems removed.
WINE UPDATE!
Over the next few weeks, Martha Stoumen Wines will be offering a selection of their wines made from organic grapes grown in dry-farmed vineyards, where grapevines rely solely on water from winter rains and the moisture held in the soil. These are limited production wines, with just a few barrels made annually.
Please see the wine barrel “shop” to purchase wines to go — or to enjoy at the farm! There is a small collection of shared glasses available to use. Please wash and return these glasses after use.
The first wine available is the Pinot Noir 2022 ($55/bottle) from Hawkeye Ranch in Redwood Valley.
VOLUNTEERING ON THE FARM!
Feel like getting some dirt on your hands and working in the garden with us? Send us and email! CSA member Rose Brink Capriola has generously offered to coordinate. She’ll send out an email and try to find a day / time that works for as many of you as possible! Kids welcome!
FARMER’S LOG
THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
The sun beats down, the hills are bleached gold, and the fruits of summer rain down… the dog days of summer are here.
The term “dog days”, for the late summer, comes from ancient Greece and Mediterranea where people associated the mid-July return of our brightest star, Canis Majoris (aka Sirius, aka “Orion’s Dog”), to the beginning of the hottest, sultriest days of late summer when, as Virgil put it, “the Dog-star cleaves the thirsty ground.” These ancient people associated the dog days of summer with grumpy humans, fever, bad luck, and heat.
As contemporary West Marin naturalist and animal tracker Richard Vacha brilliantly observes of our own Mediterranean climate in his book The Heart of Tracking, the dog days can also be an abundant, raucous, frolicking time for wild canines like coyotes, as they feast on the fattened prey and fruit of summer and as canine pups leave the den and come into their own. (Perhaps this is the wild origin of the naming of the star?)
In Mediterranean climates like ours, the dog days are also a scarce time, a spent time. They are the beginning of the great dry down in California and the great dormant period of our year.
“For a wild animal,” Vacha writes, the late summer and early fall “can be as tough to endure as an East Coast winter. Food is scarce, water is scarce, and green vegetation is crowded into riparian corridors, drawing the animals that depend on these resources closer together. The animals who prey upon them have shifted correspondingly. Territorial patterns are all in great flux as the expansive cycle of the summer season slowly winds down.”
“Fox in a Coyote Bush” illustration by Kayta from The Heart of Tracking by Richard Vacha from Mount Vision Press
On the farm, this shift into the dog days — their abundance and scarcity — has been clear.
Our harvests are more and more heavy with fruit — tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, the first sweet corn. Soon we will be enjoying the first melons and sweet peppers. The wild blackberries are laden. The cherry plum tree in Farfield that shades a favorite crew break spot is raining down plums and is a veritable watering hole for humans and crows, turkey, deer, and raccoons alike. In the garden, our first rounds of flowers and herbs are following the wild grasses, tapping out and throwing seed.
And in our staple field crops, if July was an outward explosion of verdant vegetation, the dog days are the beginning of the hunkering down, the drawing nigh, the focused inward stare toward the serious work of setting fruit, forming bulbs and tubers, and setting seed. Our verdant green acre of winter squash leaves are now starting to yellow slightly as the sun battered plants focus on the swelling of their green and gold orbs in the shade below. Our Floriani Flint corn and sweet corns are all in various stages of silks, with ears swelling.
And as the wildland plants surrounding the farm dry out and are scorched to gold, her wild inhabitants turn more and more to the farm — an irrigated green oasis — for moisture and succulent meals. The wild turkeys and their fluffy younglings visit the fields every morning and evening, snipping off hydrating bits of lettuce (they seem to love romaine!). Gophers take bites out of drip irrigation lines and young melons nightly.
But the sweet relief of the first fall rains will come soon enough.
Until then, keep cool, move slow, remember to be nice, and enjoy the fruitful abundance as we enter the dog days of summer.
See you in the fields,
David
CSA BASICS
Still need an orientation? Please contact us by email with a few days notice to set up a time for an orientation tour. We are available for tours during Tuesday CSA pickups from 1-6 pm and Saturday CSA pickups from 9 am - 2 pm.
No dogs: Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the farm.
Drive slow! Please drive slow on Cooper Rd. and in our driveway / parking lot area. Kids at play!
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 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!
2024 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 15th through Tuesday, December 10th this year.
