THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Bintje Potatoes, Bonbon Winter Squash, Garlic, Yellow Elsye Onions, Bolero Carrots, Multicolored Beets, Green Magic Broccoli or Romanesco Cauliflower, Napa Cabbage, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale, Mei Qing Bok Choi, Sugarloaf Chicory & Indigo Red Radicchio, Spinach, Salanova Red Butter Lettuce
U-PICK
We’re at the time of the season where we expect frost any day, and as soon as that happens, the strawberries, as well as the last of the peppers and tomatoes, as well as many of the flowers will slow down greatly, so take advantage while they’re still here!
Jack-O-Lantern & Turks Turban Pumpkins | SEASON LIMIT: 2 per share, or 1 per child for households with more than two children. We have enough pumpkins that households that are alternating weeks can also take this season limit. (The heat wave a couple weeks ago caused the early demise of a bunch of our pumpkins, but if you still haven’t gotten yours there are a few good ones to be had at the very end of the patch!)
Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share
Full-size Tomatoes | Gleanings.
Padrón Peppers | Gleanings
Shishito Peppers | Gleanings
Cherry Tomatoes | Gleanings
Goldilocks Beans | Gleanings
Hot Peppers:
Jalapeños | Gleanings
Thai Chilis | Gleanings
Habanero | Gleanings
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!
FALL HARVEST POTLUCK PARTY!
One of our amazing CSA members, Carl Jaeger, has volunteered to organize an winding-down-of-the-season potluck on the farm on November 17th. You should have gotten an an email with more information and a chance to RSVP. Let us know if you didn’t receive it, and want to!
ginger-peanut warm kale salad
Recipe by Hetty McKinnon — from Anna Jones
“With this recipe, Hetty manages to tread that elusive line between something tasting so delicious that you can’t stop eating it and making you feel so good after eating that you crave it all the time.
Hetty says herself, ‘This salad comes with a warning: eat at your own risk, as it is very addictive. The combination of kale, tofu and ginger-accented peanut sauce is unexpectedly irresistible.’
Duration: 30 mins
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
4 heaped tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons tahini
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
3 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon runny honey or maple syrup
2 bunches of kale (320g), stalks removed and leaves roughly torn
200g (1 cup) quinoa, rinsed
500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock or water
300g extra-firm tofu, sliced thinly
extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup unsalted peanuts, roasted and roughly chopped
a handful of coriander leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the ginger–peanut sauce:
Place a medium saucepan on a low heat and add 4 heaped tablespoons smooth peanut butter, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, a 2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated, 2 peeled and grated cloves of garlic, 3 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce, 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup, along with 1 cup water. Cook until the peanut butter and tahini have melted, stirring until the sauce is smooth and creamy. If the sauce ‘freezes’ or is too thick, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, until it’s smooth and the consistency of thickened cream. Taste and season with sea salt and black pepper.
Fold the kale into the sauce:
Fold 320g de-stalked and roughly torn kale leaves into the hot peanut sauce. The heat from the sauce will wilt and cook the kale. Set this aside.
Cook the quinoa:
Put 200g rinsed quinoa and 500ml vegetable stock or water (if using water, season it with 1 teaspoon of sea salt) into a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and cook for 15–18 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is translucent and you can see the twirly grain. Turn off the heat and set aside, uncovered, while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Fry the tofu:
Put 300g extra-firm tofu on a chopping board and season well with sea salt and black pepper. Heat a large non-stick frying pan on medium–high, and when it’s hot, drizzle with 1–2 tablespoons olive oil. Working in batches, place the tofu in the pan and fry for 2–3 minutes on each side until lightly golden. When all the tofu is cooked, allow it to cool, then slice it into 5mm-thick strips.
Cook the onion:
Rinse and dry the tofu pan and place it back on a medium heat. Drizzle more olive oil into the frying pan, add 1 peeled and thinly sliced red onion and cook for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is softened and sweet.
Finish the salad:
Combine the peanut-kale mixture with the quinoa, tofu and onion. Transfer to a large serving plate and top with 1 cup roasted and chopped peanuts and a handful of coriander leaves.
Alice and Kayta on the job. Photo by Aisling.
WINTER SISTER FARM CSA STARTING SOON!
Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered with the freshest veggies money can buy 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 SEASON OF DEATH
Rise and fall. Light and shadow. Summer and winter. Life and death.
Halloween is an extremely important time of year on the farm. It is the season of death.
The roots of our Halloween holiday lie in the ancient Gaelic Samhain (“summer’s end”) festival. The Gaelic were a pastoral people and the Samhain marked the transition to the dark half of the year and the time when the shepherds brought their livestock, fattened on summer mountain pastures, back down for the winter for shelter or for slaughter. There were feasts. People opened their burial mounds (portals to the underworld) and lit cleansing bonfires. The borders between the worlds were thought to become thinner around the Samhain and supernatural spirits, and the spirits of ancestors, were thought to walk amongst the living. The spirits were to be appeased or tricked. Tables were set for friendly spirits at the Samhain dinner. People wore costumes to disguise themselves from the evil spirits and placed candles inside of carved turnips (in lieu of pumpkins) to frighten them off.
You can feel the Samhain in every nook and cranny on the farm these days. How different the farm looks now from spring’s jubilant green promise and summer’s colorful cacophony! The life cycles of the plants that showered us with riches all summer are now at an end. Their bodies hang drawn, gaunt and ghostly on their trellises or shriveled, mildewed, and desiccated in the rows, awaiting the final, furious whir of the flail mower.
This week, with our major harvests nearly complete, we continued the portal tending work of the Samhain. Today, Sarah mowed a large section of Farfield East, transitioning our Winter Squash plants into the afterlife. Tomorrow morning, Lucas will begin performing the Last Rites on that field. First, he will spread steaming black compost. Then he will disc the compost and the shredded plants into the underworld, where they will start being devoured by worms and bugs. At that moment the field will lay empty; a bleak, deep brown maw of bare soil.
A great, pregnant silence. An open portal.
Triticale cover crop germinating in Centerfield with the Oaks in the distance.
Then Lucas will seed the cover crop by driving the seed drill back and forth, processionally, rhythmically, sowing clover, peas, vetch, and grass seeds — like little prayers — onto the black veil. Finally, we will turn the irrigation lines on for one last deep watering and close the portal.
One can only marvel at the wisdom of ancient agrarian festivals, born from bone deep relationship to the cycles of nature: How directly death was confronted.
Those people knew.
They knew that from death comes life. They knew that death and life are only thinly separated. They knew that the rotting, decaying, destructive forces are also the generative building blocks, the gateways from which life bursts forth anew in the spring and that the portals, the transitions, need to be tended.
This Halloween, while you’re out there gleaning summer’s last fruits, we invite you to take in the ghoulish site of the dying cherry tomatoes, sagging limply, skeletal, and vacant; and the blocks of bare ground on the farm — portals now pregnant with cover crop seed.
Because death is the doorway and on the other side are verdant spring meadows, strawberry scented breezes, plump sugar snap peas, and bouquet after bouquet of spring flowers.
Happy Halloween!
David
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.
