Harvest Week 12 - The Rhythm of High Summer

FLOWER ARRANGING WORKSHOP TOMORROW!

Saturday, August 31st
10:00 am

Are you looking for some tips and inspiration on flower picking and arranging?

Are you a seasoned flower-nerd and feel like sipping bubblies and arranging flowers with like-minded friends?

Our floral ambassador, Cassidy Blackwell, is fresh off an intensive arranging workshop with the legendary Farm at World’s End and excited to share her stoke, and some tips, for making the flower garden a creative outlet in your life.

Join us in the garden this Saturday, August 31st, for our 2nd annual Flower Power Happy Hour!

PLEASE BRING A BUCKET TO PICK INTO and a favorite vase. Members are welcome to bring a non-member friend. Suggested $30 donation for non-members.

Cassidy with an arrangment she made at the Farm at World's End, and a few of our flowers in the garden.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Arugula, Mustard Mix, Rosaine Little Gem Lettuce, Red Butter Lettuce, Escarole, Pink Ladyslipper Radishes, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Carrots, Sweet Corn, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Sarah’s Choice Cantaloupe & Crimson Sweet Watermelon, Sweet Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Eggplant, Fresh Cabernet Onions, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes

U-PICK

Don’t forget to branch out to the back areas to find the jack-pots!

• Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share

• Padrón Peppers | 2 pints per share | Note that as Padróns age, they are more likely to be spicy!

• Shishito Peppers | 3 pints per share | While still most likely to be mild, even shishitos can have a little heat towards the end of the season.

• Cherry Tomatoes | 5 pints per share

• 🌟 Dragon Tongue Green Beans | 1 pint per share | See harvest note below

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños | 7 peppers per share | To find the hottest ones, look for “checking”, the delicate cracks in the skin that indicate the pepper has aged into its heat.

  • Thai Chilis | 3 peppers | Pick when red

  • Cherry Bomb Peppers | 8 peppers per share | Pick when red

• 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 & Husk Cherries!

• Flowers!

HARVEST NOTES

• Escarole: One of our favorite members of the chicory family, Escarole looks like hearty lettuce. While it can be eaten raw in salad for those who aren’t afraid of a little bitterness, escarole really shines when sautéed, braised or in soup, as cooking highlights its velvety texture and savory depth. For the most simple preparation, try sautéing it in olive oil with plenty of garlic, Parmesan and lemon. It’s also delicious in Italian Wedding Soup, beans with sausage and escarole and Utica Greens — check out a recipe here!

• Fresh Cabernet Onions: This week we’re premiering the fresh form of one of our most beloved staple onions. Cabernet are brilliantly red, and when raw, a little spicier than a yellow onion, or the Cipollini and Torpedoes that we’ve been distributing so far.

• Dragon Tongue Beans: Our next succession of beans is just getting started in parking lot field. Look deep inside and underneath the plants for the cream-colored beans with purple speckles. Deliciously sweet!

PRESERVING THE HARVEST

We have reached peak tomato season! Bulk tomatoes will be available for projects, canning and preserving from now until the end of tomato season, but we recommend taking advantage as soon as you’re able to ensure you don’t miss the best of the season. Check out last week’s newsletter for easy ways to put them up.

ZWEIBEL’S OFF THIS WEEK!

Zweibel’s will be taking this Tuesday, September 3rd, off for a short getaway to the mountains, but you can expect them back with all their delicious goods next week! And Sonoma Mountain Breads will be back this Saturday! Our apologies for forgetting to let you know about their week off last week.

FLOWER DYEING WORKSHOP!

Saturday, September 7th
1:00 - 3:00 pm

Come learn the art of dyeing fabric with flowers! Bring a hammer and a notebook and join CSA member Hanna on the farm while she teaches you which flowers can create beautiful lasting color on fabric! We will hammer flowers and herbs onto 2 mordanted organic cotton napkins and then dip them into two different dye pots. You will leave feeling confident in doing this at home! Register for the event here.

MUSIC TOGETHER ON THE FARM!

Music Together is a world wide children's' music program for 0-5 year olds and the people who love them! Come join CSA member Hanna and her children for 10 weeks of making music together under the oak trees.  They will meet Thursday mornings starting September 12th at 9:30 and 10:45 am.  To sign up for the Fall session go to https://mtofwestsonomacounty.com

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA SIGN-UPS OPEN!

Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered for veggies all winter and spring. All memberships include diverse winter-hardy veggies such as broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions, winter squash, lettuce, kale, chard, as well as access to a small u-pick garden with cold hardy herbs and spring flowers. Click here to get all the details on this wonderful CSA program and to reserve your spot today!

FARMER’S LOG

THE RHYTHM OF HIGH-SUMMER

This week in the fields was a week fashioned in the unmistakable style of peak Summer.

Monday kicked off with Tuesday’s zucchini, summer squash and melon harvests, followed by one of our biggest tomato hauls of the year yet, followed by a bulk carrot harvest in the afternoon. “Tuesday is as Tuesday does" — which for us is an early morning harvest of our fresh, leafy greens for the afternoon pick-up. David spent Monday & Tuesday afternoons building a 3” overhead irrigation header for a new-to-us Creek Field, which will be planted into final crops for November and December harvests over the next couple weeks.

On Wednesday (aka farming day, aka the only day where we don’t harvest) we had an all hands scallions transplanting session; Asa seeded over 5,000 ft of radishes and salad greens; Ava did a round of strawberry irrigation maintenance; Sarah, Ava and Brent planted a succession of broccoli; Kayta did her walk around the farm checking on the crops and creating the share for next week; and everyone chipped in to tame the surging weeds in Farfield. 

Autumn Torch amaranth and Senora zinnias enjoying that beautiful cloudy Saturday.

In high-summer mode, Thursday looks a lot like Monday — another long, bulky, morning harvest of summer’s fruits — soft squash, zucchini, and melons followed by a bulk cabbage harvest, tomatoes, and a small FEED Sonoma order. David finished his irrigation header and started spading the southern end of Creek Field for next week’s transplants. At the end of the day— you guessed it — we dutifully killed a few weeds.

Today the crew ventured out in the misty morning for our fresh harvest haul for Saturday — arugula and mustards, lettuce heads, escarole, some beautiful new cabernet onions… the list goes on. After lunch we washed our spoils; cleaned and prepped the barn for pick-up; Sarah busted out the electric tractor to kill weeds in the furrows of our fall carrot patch; Kayta worked on the newsletter and did her rounds updating u-pick limits; David finished spading Farfield and wrote these very words.

What did we forget? So many things, really. With a farm of this size and a crew of this awesomeness level, there are too many things that happen in any given week to even hold in one brain.

So many I’s were dotted and T’s crossed; so many bins were washed; so much admin was done; so many leaks repaired; so many veggies carefully picked and stored. The local hawks enjoyed hunting in the freshly mowed field; the local turkey babes grew at least an inch. But what happened at night? Only the owls and the vegetables really know…

See you in the fields,
David

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As you may have noticed, we’re moving the recipes section to the end of the newsletter! Make sure you don’t miss it!

HERB AND RADISH SALAD WITH FETA AND WALNUTS

BY SAMIN NOSRAT

From The New York Times

This light, crunchy salad is inspired by sabzi khordan, the heaping platter of fresh herbs, radishes, walnuts and feta cheese that accompanies nearly every Persian meal.

Farmer’s Note: While we’re experiencing a brief break between cucumber successions, we think this salad is worth making even without them. Consider using both Pink Ladyslipper Radishes and Hakurei Salad Turnips, and even throwing in some beautiful Purple Daikon from last week if you haven’t used them all!

INGREDIENTS

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

• 1 cup walnuts

• 2 bunches small radishes, trimmed (about 15 radishes)

• 3 Persian cucumbers, ends trimmed

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

• Salt and ground black pepper

• 3 ounces sheep’s milk feta cheese, crumbled (preferably French feta)

• ½ cup chives cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 bunch)

• 1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves and tender stems (about 1 bunch)

• 1 cup loosely packed dill fronds, stems removed (about 1 large bunch)

• ½ cup loosely packed mint leaves (about 1 small bunch)

• 2 sprigs tarragon, leaves stripped

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden. Let cool, then chop roughly. Place in a sieve and shake away loose skin and crumbs. Set chopped nuts aside.

2. Use a sharp knife or mandoline to slice the radishes and cucumbers into thin coins roughly ⅛-inch thick. Place in a medium bowl. Add walnuts.

3. In a small glass or jar, whisk together lemon juice and olive oil to make the dressing. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Just before serving, season radishes, cucumbers and walnuts with a pinch of salt and dress lightly with 3 to 4 tablespoons of vinaigrette. Toss well to combine. Add crumbled cheese and toss gently to combine without breaking the cheese down too much. Arrange in a loose mound in a shallow serving bowl (or on a platter).

5. Place herbs in the mixing bowl, season with a pinch of salt, and dress very lightly with about 1 tablespoon vinaigrette. Toss to combine, then pile the herb salad atop the radishes and cucumbers. Serve immediately.

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CSA BASICS

Drive slow! Please drive slow on Cooper Rd. and in our driveway / parking lot area. Kids at play!

No dogs: Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the farm.

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.

Harvest Week 11 - Special Arugula

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Arugula, Salanova Gem Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Pink Ladyslipper Radishes, Purple Daikon, Carrots, Red Ace Beets, Sweet Corn, Celery, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Sarah’s Choice Cantaloupe, Poblano Peppers, Fresh Torpedo Onions, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes

U-PICK

🚨 ATTENTION! With all the u-pick crops, the areas at the heads of each bed are significantly more picked over than the back — don’t forget to branch out to the back areas to find the jack-pots!

• Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share

• Padrón Peppers | 1 pints per share | Note that as Padróns age, they are more likely to be spicy!

• Shishito Peppers | 2 pints per share | While still most likely to be mild, even shishitos can have a little heat towards the end of the season.

• Cherry Tomatoes | 4 pints per share

• Amethyst Green Beans | Gleanings

  HOT PEPPERS:

• Jalapeños | 5 peppers per share | To find the hottest ones, look for “checking”, the delicate cracks in the skin that indicate the pepper has aged into its heat.

• Thai Chilis | 3 peppers | Pick when red

• Cherry Bomb Peppers | 3 peppers per share | Pick when red

  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 & Husk Cherries!

• Flowers!

We have reached peak u-pick cruising altitude.

HARVEST NOTES

• Thai Chilis: These gorgeous little hot peppers can be added whole to soups or stir-fries for a milder heat or diced for a more intense heat. They also dry beautifully!

• Cherry Bomb Peppers: Hot and sweet. These round, red peppers are perfect for stuffing and pickling. Since we’ll have limited quantities available this year, we recommend adding them to jars of other pickled vegetables to add a little heat and flavor.

• Purple Daikon: Purple daikon are sweet and mild, with just a touch of spicy mustard flavor. Try slicing them raw to dress up your salad or crudités platter, adding them to kimchi, or making them into a quick pickle. For extra magic, toss them with a little acidic salad dressing or lemon juice and watch their color change to hot pink!

PRESERVING THE HARVEST

We have reached Peak Tomato Season! Bulk tomatoes will be available for projects, canning and preserving from now until the end of tomato season, but we recommend taking advantage as soon as you’re able to ensure you don’t miss the best of the season. Check out last week’s newsletter for easy ways to put them up.

FLOWER ARRANGING HAPPY HOUR!

Saturday, August 31st
10:00 am

Are you a new member looking for some tips and inspiration on flower picking and arranging?

Are you a seasoned flower-nerd and feel like sipping bubblies and arranging flowers with like-minded friends?

Join our Flower Ambassador Cassidy Blackwell in the garden next Saturday, August 31st, for our 2nd annual Flower Power Happy Hour!

Cassidy will be fresh off an intensive flower arranging workshop with the legendary Susan Ryhanen of SAIPUA at the Farm at World’s End.

Bring your clippers, your fave vase or flower vessel, a cup to drink non-alcoholic bubblies out of, and let’s arrange flowers together!

Cassidy, with pre-arrangment bucket in the barn at World's End.

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA SIGN-UPS OPEN!

Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered for veggies all winter and spring. All memberships include diverse winter-hardy veggies such as broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions, winter squash, lettuce, kale, chard, as well as access to a small u-pick garden with cold hardy herbs and spring flowers. Click here to get all the details on this wonderful CSA program and to reserve your spot today!

FARMER’S LOG

SPECIAL ARUGULA

The photo below, snapped this morning of Henry, Char and Sarah harvesting arugula, is significant to us in that those beds of arugula may well be our crowning achievement as farmers — as greens farmers at least.

Let me explain…

Here at West County Community Farm if we are anything, we are generalists. When we tally up the number of crops we grow, including varieties, the number reaches well over 200.

Being generalists is good for a number of reasons; it makes the farm biodiverse; it keeps the CSA share and (we hope) your experience here interesting; and it also keeps the farm interesting for us, tasks are constantly changing and rarely get too repetitive.

But being a generalist has its downsides.

All the crops we grow here are similar in that they loves good moisture, sun, and healthy fertile soil. But, if you drill down, they all have more nuanced irrigation, nutrient, and horticultural preferences. To truly specialize, many of the crops we grow also beg for specialized tools. The agricultural outfit that specializes in growing fat bulbous potatoes will look rather different in its weekly rhythms, techniques and tools than the outfit that grows perfect arugula.

Henry, Sarah and Char in the arugula Friday morning — photo by Aisling.

But we try here at West County Community Farm. Out of pride, or to avoid embarrassment, we try to act like specialists every year in a rotating cast of one or two crops, to fill the gaps in our knowledge or tweak techniques on things we feel we aren’t doing well.

This spring we had a couple rounds of arugula and radishes (which grow very similarly to arugula) that didn’t really work. Weed pressure was too high; uniformity over the health of the bed was bad. In the evenings, I would obsess over the Instagram account of a small farm in Oregon that has taken the opposite route and specialized in organic salad greens, including arugula. Their beds look like they had been made by an AI image generator: A perfect carpet of immaculate baby arugula, full coverage, not a weed in site. It became my White Whale.

From their account, I was able to piece together some of the things that they were doing that we weren’t — extensive stale bedding; rows spaced an inch apart to outcompete weeds; sprinklers with small nozzles at tight spacing for fine droplet sizes and excellent distribution uniformity; solid row cover.

We staked out a handfull of beds in Farfield in early July and shaped them up. We put our finest nozzled sprinklers on the risers surrounding them. We irrigated those beds deeply (without arugula seed). A week later, when the first weeds flushed, we flamed them good and dead. When the weeds flushed again, we flamed them dead again… and again. A month later, Asa, after killing a few more tenacious weeds with a hula hoe, put down more arugula seed per square foot than we thought possible. We covered it with our best row cover. We misted those beds nice and regularly, religiously, with those misty nozzles….

And voila.

After a couple months of grimy arugula harvests, let me tell you, harvesting that fairy tale carpet was sublime — the harvest knife seemed to flow through arugula shaped water; the bins filling, quickly, as if under an arugula waterfall.

I don’t think we’ll ever trade away the joys of being generalists — but specializing seems to have it’s perks.

* * * * * * *

See you in the fields,
David

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Tomato Tart with Garlic and Capers

Recipe by Alison Roman, from her Newsletter

Alison describes this as “a quick, throw-together affair, [with] no crust that needed to be chilled or rolled out, nothing to delay me from having crisp, cheesy crust with a simple layer of softened, jammy, garlicky tomatoes as soon as possible. I’m happy to report that this one, with its peppery crust (which I’ve been told tastes like a Cheez-It or “a refined Dorito,”) is worth the price of admission alone. An excellent and versatile vehicle for many savory summertime tarts, it’s tomatoes that it was truly born to be with, absorbing the juiciness without becoming soggy, staying crunchy and crisp against all odds.”

Makes one 9-inch tart, serves 4—6

FOR THE CRUST:

• 6 tablespoons/3 ounces/85g unsalted butter

• 1 cup/145g all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup/45g coarse or medium grind polenta or cornmeal

• 1 cup/50g lightly packed finely grated parmesan cheese

• 1½ teaspoons/6g kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon/4g sugar

• Freshly ground black pepper

for the tart:

• 2 pounds/900g small tomatoes, thinly sliced: try to pick the ones that are on the small side (think golf ball or tangerine), and throw in a few Sungolds, cherry, or grape tomatoes for good measure and textural contrast.

• 2–4 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Crushed red pepper flakes

• 2 tablespoons capers (optional), roughly chopped

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling

• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar

• Herbs/parmesan, for serving

1. Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2. In a small pot or skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Whisking occasionally, scrape up the browned bits as they form and continue to cook the butter until it smells like popcorn, 3–5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

3. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, polenta, parmesan, salt, and sugar. Add 2 tablespoons water, plenty of black pepper, and pour the butter over. Using your hands, mix until well combined. The dough will be slightly sticky, but that’s okay

4.  Press the dough into a 9-inch tart pan or regular (not a deep-dish) pie plate, at first making sure the sides are evenly packed, then press a nice, even layer on the bottom. Prick all over with a fork or tip of a knife.

5. Bake until golden brown on the sides and, most important, on the bottom (this is your chance to crisp up the bottom!), 20–25 minutes.

6. Set the crust aside and leave the oven on. (You can bake this shell ahead of time, if you like. Store it wrapped well at room temperature for up to 2 days.)

7. Assemble the tart: Arrange the tomato and garlic slices onto the parbaked shell in a nice, even layer, seasoning with pinches of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes as you go. Top with capers (if using), then drizzle everything with 2 tablespoons olive oil, seasoning again with salt and pepper.

8. Place the tart pan on a sheet pan, return to the oven, and bake until the tomatoes are jammy and starting to brown and caramelize a touch on top, 55–60 minutes.

9. Remove the tart from the oven, splash with the vinegar, give it another drizzle of olive oil and let cool slightly before slicing. Serve with grated/shaved parmesan and some fresh herbs on top, if you’d like.

**The tart is best baked and enjoyed the day of, but is still excellent at room temperature the next day.

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CSA BASICS

Drive slow! Please drive slow on Cooper Rd. and in our driveway / parking lot area. Kids at play!

No dogs: Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the farm.

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.

Harvest Week 10 - Ode to the Onion

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Arugula, Cegolaine Gem Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Lady Murasaki Purple Bok Choi, Red Russian Kale, Carrots, Sweet Corn, Celery, Eggplant, Striped Armenian Cucumbers, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Cantaloupe & Galia Melons, Poblano Peppers, Fresh Cipollini Onions, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes

U-PICK

🚨 ATTENTION! With all the u-pick crops, the areas at the heads of each bed are significantly more picked over than the back — don’t forget to branch out to the back areas to find the jack-pots!

• Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share

• Padrón Peppers | 2 pints per share | Note that as Padróns age, they are more likely to be spicy!

• Shishito Peppers | 3 pints per share | While still most likely to be mild, even shishitos can have a little heat towards the end of the season.

• Cherry Tomatoes | 3 pints per share

• Amethyst Green Beans | Gleanings

• Jalapeños | 3 peppers per share | To find the hottest ones, look for “checking”, the delicate cracks in the skin that indicate the pepper has aged into its heat.

• 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 & Husk Cherries!

• Flowers!

Some beautiful dill, along with lots of other goodies, are popping off in North Garden

HARVEST NOTES

• Poblano Peppers: The poblano chili pepper is the beloved, mild chili from the state of Puebla, México. When dried it is called “ancho” or chili ancho and when roasted and stuffed with cheese becomes the magnificent chili relleno. This week we’ll be offering the first taste of these wonderful peppers. For an easy, incredibly satisfying combo, try sautéing chopped poblanos with sweet corn kernels, torpedo onions, smoked paprika, lime and salt! Or just throw them in every dish you make like Aisling!

• Sarah’s Choice Cantaloupe & Galia Melons: This week we’re debuting two of our favorite melons. Sarah’s Choice is the best cantaloupe we’ve ever tasted — incredibly sweet, smooth and dense with a deliciously spiced flavor. Galia melons are a cross between Cantaloupe and Honeydew, with green flesh and a tropical flavor all their own.

TOMATO INTRODUCTIONS

Welcome to peak tomato season everyone! All of our heirloom field tomatoes are now fruiting happily and it’s time we introduced you. We hope you fall in love with one of them this year. Tell us which is your favorite!

Top row (left to right): Black Krim, Valencia, Black Prince, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Speckled Roman, Blue Beech / Bottom row (left to right): Goldie, Striped German, German Johnson, Big Beef.

• Black Krim: A Russian heirloom with a bold, smoky flavor.

• Valencia: Small, firm and golden, Valencia is a Maine family heirloom with a meaty texture and bold flavor that makes a nice addition to sauce or canned tomatoes.

• Black Prince: An Eastern-European Heirloom, Black Prince is one of the least flashy, but most flavorful tomatoes we grow. Perfect for slicing into a simple tomato salad.

• Aunt Ruby’s German Green: Green turning slightly to yellow when ripe, this tomato is our all-time favorite. First introduced by Ruby Arnold whose German-immigrant grandfather saved the seeds. You'll know Aunt Ruby's is ripe when it gives just slightly to the touch.

• Speckled Roman: An exceptionally delicious sauce tomato with a psychedelic dream-coat. Excellent for fresh eating as well.

• Blue Beech: An heirloom “sausage”-type paste tomato that was originally brought from Italy to Vermont during World War II. We’ve planted a significant amount of Blue Beech this year, which will hopefully begin ripening in earnest over the next few weeks.

• Goldie: David’s personal favorite. A good Goldie (dark orange when ripe) will taste like flowers and melons and goes down smooth and sweet.

• Striped German: Arguably the prettiest tomato we grow. Smooth, mellow, fruity flavored.

• German Johnson: a pink Brandywine type, with a smooth, creamy texture and bright flavor.

• Big Beef: Like jeans and a t-shirt, a classic red beefsteak.

PRESERVING THE HARVEST

Bulk Tomatoes are here! From now until the end of tomato season, bulk quantities of sauce varieties and all 2nds (tomatoes that are blemished or quite ripe but still tasty) will be available in addition to the perfect ones! Bulk tomatoes will have a season limit, meaning is is the total amount of 2nd tomatoes you can take over the course of the year. You’re welcome to take them all at once or a little bit here and there, whichever you like!

The easiest way to put up tomatoes is freezing. While you can simply pop them in the freezer without processing first, we particularly love halving them, drizzling with olive oil and roasting in a low-temp oven to concentrate the flavors. Or, if you have the time now and want to make a sauce that truly bottles the taste of summer, consider making fresh tomato sauce!

FRESH TOMATO SAUCE

For the simplest and most satisfying tomato sauce, we recommend sautéing onions and garlic in more olive oil than you might think you need. Then add tomatoes and salt to taste and cook down for 45 minutes to an hour until your sauce has reached the desired consistency and flavor. Depending on your preferred consistency, tomatoes can be peeled and de-seeded before cooking, or if you prefer a more rustic sauce, chop and them throw them in the pot seeds and all, or blend partially with an immersion blender. For more detailed instructions, and some good ideas for variations on tomato sauces, check out this Smitten Kitchen post on Fresh Tomato Sauce.

VOLUNTEERING ON THE FARM!

Feel like getting some dirt on your hands and working in the garden with us? CSA member and former veggie farmer Rose Brink Capriola is generously coordinating volunteer meet-ups! Send us an email if you’d like to get on her volunteer email list. Kids welcome!

The last bed of Farfield planted with indigo radicchio with Mount Saint Helena in the background. 

FARMER’S LOG

AN ODE TO THE ONION

We love fresh onion season. We’ve been putting them on everything — pizza, second breakfast tomato sandwiches, salads.

It’s almost time for our storage onion harvest out there in Farfield. Our storage varieties are all beautifully sized up, the tips of most of the leaves are just starting to turn yellow. Soon we will bust out the macro bins and haul 10,000 lbs of delicious orbs into the greenhouse for curing.

But in our harvest share, we are still in that stage of innocence — fresh onion season. Fresh onions, for some reason, feel like an impossible food, a gift from heaven, “they make us cry without hurting us.”

Pablo Neruda somehow managed to capture the pure majesty of the onion. We’ll let him take it from here…

Ode to the Onion
by Pablo Neruda

Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.

* * * * * * *

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

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CSA BASICS

Drive slow! Please drive slow on Cooper Rd. and in our driveway / parking lot area. Kids at play!

No dogs: Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the farm.

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.