Harvest Week 9 - On Limits and the Enjoyments of Life

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Mustard Mix, Flashy Trout Back Lettuce, Rosaine Little Gem Lettuce, Lady Murasaki Bok Choi, Fennel, Celery, Loose Multicolored Beets, Assorted Zucchini, Patty Pan & Crookneck Squash, Pickling Cucumbers (last week!), Lemon Cucumbers, Persian Cucumbers, First of the year’s Tomatoes, Fresh Torpedo Onions, Carrots, Galia Melons, New Potatoes

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

  • Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share

  • 🌟 Cherry Tomatoes | 1 pint per share | check out harvest note below on this year’s varieties!

  • Amethyst Beans | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

  • Purple Sugar Snap Peas | 1 pint per share

  • Frying Peppers:

    • Shishitos | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

    • Padróns | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

  • Herbs & Edible Flowers: Husk Cherries, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

  • Flowers! Too many to list! Feel free to pick the sunflowers along the edge of the parking area in addition to everything in the garden.

Double Click Rose Bon Bon Cosmos and Shimmer Celosia in the garden.

HARVEST NOTES

  • First of the year’s Tomatoes: This week we’re bringing you the very first sampling of this year’s field tomatoes. As David wrote last week, it’s been a cold, slow season so far, so this week there’s only enough for everyone to have a little preview. We’re hoping this week’s warm weather brings on the tomatoes in more abundance soon!

  • Flashy Trout Back Lettuce: We hope you’ve been enjoying the procession of different lettuces so far this season. We wanted to highlight this week’s Austrian heirloom — it’s a sweet romaine with a buttery texture and gorgeous red flecked leaves that’s making us excited about salads all over again.

ROASTED BEET, PISTACHIO & FENNEL SALAD

From Dishing up the Dirt

Prep Time: 20 minutes  |  Cook Time: 1 hour  |  Serves: 4

BEET SALAD

  • 1 bunch of beets, greens removed (save for another use) and roots scrubbed

  • salt and pepper

  • extra virgin olive oil (for roasting)

  • 1 large fennel bulb, fronds and stalks removed

  • 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

  • 1/4 cup roasted pistachios, chopped

  • 4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

CITRUS VINAIGRETTE

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

  • 1/4 cup orange juice

  • 1/4 cup lime juice

  • 1 Tablespoon honey or maple syrup

  • 1 teaspoon unrefined salt

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

PREPARATION

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Rub the beets with olive oil and place them in a Dutch oven or casserole style dish. Generously sprinkle salt and pepper over the beets. Pour in about 1/4 cup of water into the pan. Cover with a lid and place in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until fork tender. Timing will depend on the size of your beets.

  2. Meanwhile, use a mandoline or sharp knife and shave the fennel into very thin pieces. This works best if you slice your fennel bulb in half and then into quarters and work with quarters to achieve this.

  3. After your beets have roasted wait until they are cool enough to handle and slide the outer peel off. Then slice your beets into 1/2 inch pieces. Add the beets and sliced fennel to a large serving bowl. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Drizzle the veggies with half of the dressing and toss until everything is evenly coated. Add your pistachios, cilantro and goat cheese. Drizzle with more dressing to taste and serve.

FARMER’S LOG

On Limits and the Enjoyment of Life

As our harvests transition away from the delicate greens of early summer into the colors and flavors of peak summer, we are reminded of some of the reasons why we love eating seasonally from the farm.

Nothing dictates what is on our tables more than the tilt of the Earth. As you’ve seen, the shares of mid-June are very different from those of late July. The spring, with its soft waxing light, grows tender, almost translucent, baby-soft greens. While the hard summer sun condenses itself into weighty, colorful, sweet fruits. Mentally compare a silky, soft, watery Spring strawberry to the sun-hardened, acid-sweet strawberries this week.

Another cool thing about eating from the farm is that we get to experience the full arc of plant growth — from fresh onions to cured onions; from baby Spring to deep orange Fall carrots kissed by frost. In supermarkets, most produce is harvested at one standard stage of a few standard varieties. Here, life is happening, and we pull it out of the field for you to taste.

We also love that this model allows us the chance to distribute less-than-perfect produce and to share over-abundant harvests with members. You’ll experience this more as the season goes on. Ancestral cultures were scrupulously efficient in their use of food because they had to be. There was a use for everything. And it was a duty to preserve the abundance of Summer. In this spirit, we will put out the 2nd tomatoes, split and cracked, but still perfectly good (sometimes even better) sliced on a BLT.

But perhaps our favorite thing about this model is an unsung hero: Limits.

Yes, limits. Not having something. “Limit: 1 per share.”

“What!?”

We live in a time and a place where we can get just about any food, anytime, en masse, if you can afford it. Tomatoes in January. Melons in the February. Mangos in Sebastopol. 

We have conquered seasons. We have conquered limits.

But have we also conquered one of life’s simplest pleasures? What is the fulfillment of desire without the longing that precedes it?

This week, we will cherish the year’s first slicing tomato. A satisfaction further delayed by this unusually cold Summer. That first slice of vine-ripened tomato on an open faced sandwich (with a little basil, olive oil, and salt) will bring back a flood of memories from last summer, and summers before that, and we will smile at our loved ones at the table in our shared remembrance and shared enjoyment of this thing that we have now, but did not have for so long. It will bring us together. Perhaps your first bite of Kabocha squash will unlock a similar smile this Fall.

In most (or maybe all) rooted cultures there are festivals celebrating the return of foods. In Southern France there is a plum festival and a Spring festival marking the return of the egg, when the hens start laying again. (What is life without eggs?) In Sebastopol, we have the Gravenstein Apple Fair this weekend.

Limits, scarcity, the lean times — they help us appreciate, like really appreciate, what we have and where we are, maybe even who we are.

Life's fleeting nature is really it's spice — and so it goes for food, we'd say.

In a few short weeks, we will be rich in tomatoes. We will take for granted their spiced-earth smell and the way they tie so many meals together. We may even grow sick of tomatoes. But not this week. This week we will hold up the year’s first tomato and rotate it around with our fingers — impossibly red, impossibly perfect — and it will shine back at us and remind us how impossibly lucky we are.

See you in the fields,
David

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

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

Harvest Week 8 - The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent…

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Arugula, Mustard Mix, Red Romaine Lettuce, Rosaine Little Gem Lettuce, Red Russian Kale, Fennel, Green Magic Broccoli, Loose Multicolored Beets, Assorted Zucchini, Patty Pan & Crookneck Squash, Pickling Cucumbers, Lemon Cucumbers, Persian Cucumbers, Fresh Torpedo Onions, Carrots, Galia Melons

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

  • Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share

  • 🌟 Cherry Tomatoes | 1 pint per share | check out harvest note below on this year’s varieties!

  • Amethyst Beans | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

  • Purple Sugar Snap Peas | 1 pint per share

  • Frying Peppers:

    • Shishitos | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

    • Padrón | No Limit - Take what you’ll eat or preserve this week!

  • Herbs & Edible Flowers: Husk Cherries, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

  • Flowers! Too many to list! Feel free to pick the sunflowers along the edge of the parking area in addition to everything in the garden.

This year’s cherry tomato line-up! Top row: Supersweet 100 & Sungold. Bottom row: Pink Princess & Blush.

HARVEST NOTES

  • Cherry Tomatoes: We are so excited to be welcoming the first tomatoes of this very cool season! As always, the earliest tomatoes to ripen will be the ones at the very bottom of the plant. This week, expect to find them about 6” off the ground. Picking will get easier as the season goes on and the fruits further up the plant start to ripen.

  • Unlimited Amethyst Beans: This is a great week for eating and preserving beans! You can find a classic, canned dilly bean recipe here, or for a quick and easy fridge pickle, check out the recipe below.

  • Fresh Torpedo Onions: A favorite in Italy and France, these beautiful, pink, elongated onions are mild, delicate, and delicious raw. We recommend incorporating them into fresh salads, pizza or sandwiches.

  • Galia Melons: Galia melons are a cross between Cantaloupe and Honeydew, with green flesh and a tropical flavor all their own.

3 SUMMER RECIPES

This week we’re bringing you a 3-part recipe that comes together in a delicious, main course salad, or can be eaten as its individual parts.

quick-pickled string beans

From Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

The brine will keep nicely in the fridge, so make a triple batch and be ready for sudden pickling urges. Makes enough for about 3 pints of pickles (depending on their size and shape and the amount you stuff into the jar).

  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar

  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

  • 1 1/2 cups hot water

  • 5 tablespoons sugar

  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • Optional: 5 smashed garlic cloves, 2 dried chiles, 2 rosemary sprigs

Put everything in a pot or bit pitcher and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Using clean canning jars, fill with your vegetable in a way that shows off the beauty of it, pour over the brine until the vegetables are completely covered and the jar is full, and screw on the cap. Refrigerate for up to 2 months. Start tasting after the first day to see how the floor and texture are developing. They are ready to eat as soon as you think they are.

TONNATO

From Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

Tonnato sauce is trulyItalian, but you’ll recognize the flavors from the tuna sandwiches of your youth. The sauce works so well with so many vegetables, from raw to grilled to pickled.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

  • Two 5-ounce cans oil-packed tuna, drained

  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

  • About 1/3 cup good-quality mayonnaise

  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

  • About 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Put the tuna and salt in a food processor and pulse until it’s blended. Add mayonnaise and pulse until the ingredients are getting creamy. With the processor running, drizzle in the olive oil and lemon juice and process until the tonnato is very smooth and creamy. Taste and add more mayonnaise, olive oil, lemon juice, or salt. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

STRING BEANS, PICKLED BEANS, TOMATOES, CUCUMBERS, AND OLIVES ON TONNATO

From Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

This salad evolved from the classic salad nicoise: The potatoes and eggs are gone, but the fresh vegetables are still there, and the tuna is transformed from chunks to a creamy tonnato dip. I throw in some arugula to have some greens, and top it all with crunchy torn croutons — the result is a main-dish salad that captures the vibrancy of the season.

Serves 4

  • 1 medium cucumber

  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 1/2 pound string beans, trimmed

  • 1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, halved

  • 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

  • 1/2 cup pitted mixed olives

  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

  • 1/4 teaspoon dried chile-flakes

  • extra-virgin olive oil

  • 8 ounces pickled string beans

  • 1 big handful arugula

  • 1 small handful basil leaves

  • 2 cups torn croutons

  • Tonnato dressing

Trim the ends of the cucumber, halve lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Toss the cucumber with 1 teaspoon salt and put in a colander so the salt can draw out excess moisture. Let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Blot the cucumber on paper towels to remove the moisture and excess salt. Pile into a medium bowl.

Meanwhile, bring a small amount of water to a boil in a skillet, add 1 teaspoon salt and the fresh beans, cover, and steam until the beans are tender but not soft, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain and cool the beans.

Add the tomatoes, onion and olives to the cucumber. Add the vinegar and Chile flakes and season well with salt and black pepper and toss. Taste and adjust with more of the seasonings. Finish by tossing with 1/4 cup olive oil.

Spread the tonnato in a thick layer over a serving platter. Pile the steamed beans and the pickled beans on top, and tumble the tomato-cucumber salad on top of the beans. Drop the arugula and basil over the surface and top with the croutons. Give the whole platter a nice drizzle of olive oil to finish and serve right away.

FARMER’S LOG

a Cool Summer (So Far)

What was the Mark Twain quote? “The coldest winter I ever spent…”

This week we welcomed what felt like the first warmth of the summer here to our valley by the Laguna — with temperatures surpassing 80 for multiple days!

Us farmers were a little bummed — it has been amazing working in the cool weather — but you could see our heat loving summer crops let their hair down. The tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and corn all seemed to liven up in color and let their leaves relax. Our corn varieties seemed to explode in growth.

This summer has been quite a different animal than last year. It has been the coldest summer in San Francisco since 1982. By this time last year we had had two significant heat waves with multiple days over 100. NOAA says that our July days, on average, have been 4 degrees cooler than last year with temperatures looking more similar to May averages. If you permit me a little back-of-the-napkin math (4 degrees x 45 days = 180 degrees!) That’s a lot of degrees! And that’s what this summer has felt like, 180 from last year.

A fall crops like this celery root and leeks are definitely loving the cool

And we are definitely seeing the differences in our fields and in our harvests now. Last year by this time we were starting to eat the first fat heirloom tomatoes and eggplant. Similarly, we opened our cherry tomatoes for u-picking two weeks ago in 2024. Most of our heat loving crops look at least 2 weeks behind last year.

But there could be benefits down the road from this cooler weather. A lot of our heat loving crops don’t look as stressed or beat down as they did at this point last year. Last year our frying peppers were already to starting to yellow, abandoning their vegetative stage, to focus on their fruits. This year they are still growing. While last year’s blistering heat brought things on earlier, I think it also shortened their seasons. And other crops like onions, winter squash, potatoes don’t look as stressed either.

This year we are slow roasting rather than broiling.

Hopefully this cold start means a longer, more languishing harvest of our cornerstone summer fruits. But no one knows what the future holds.

As someone who spends most days outside, I never thought I’d say this but… bring on the heat!

See you in the fields,
David

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

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

Harvest Week 7 - Ode to the Onion

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

New Masquerade Potatoes, Fresh Cipollini Onions, Lorz Softneck Garlic, Rouxai Oakleaf Lettuce, Newham Little Gem Lettuce, Collards, Baby Celery, Fennel, Bunched Chioggia Beets, Assorted Zucchini, Patty Pan & Crookneck Squash, Bulk Pickling Cucumbers, Lemon Cucumbers, Persian Cucumbers, Carrots

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

  • Albion Strawberries | 2 pints per share

  • 🌟Amethyst Beans | 2 pints per share | These beautiful beans are purple on the outside and green on the inside. Eat them raw to highlight their color and sweet flavor, or cook as you would any other green beans and watch their color change to green.

  • Purple Sugar Snap Peas | 1/2 pint per share

  • Frying Peppers: check out last week’s harvest note for details.

    • Shishitos | 3 pints/share

    • Padrón | 2 pints/share

  • Herbs & Edible Flowers: Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

  • Flowers! Too many to list! Feel free to pick the sunflowers along the edge of the parking area in addition to everything in the garden.

HARVEST NOTES

  • Bunched Chioggia Beets: Also known as Candystripe Beets, these gorgeous pink beets have a bullseye inside and can be eaten raw to highlight their beauty and mild flavor (as in this recipe for Crunchy Salty Lemony Salad). When cooked, the colors meld and soften into a delicate pink that is enlivened by the presence of acid like vinegar or lemon juice. While often overlooked, beet greens are delicious too — exactly like Swiss chard but with a thinner stem.

  • New Potatoes: These beautiful Masquerade potatoes are fresh and uncured — with delicate skin and an extra crisp texture, they’re more of a fresh vegetable than the starchy storage potatoes of winter. Use them like you would any potato, or, to highlight their fresh flavor, roast them in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper (and Cipollini onions! So good in everything) or check out the herby potato salad recipe below.

  • Baby Celery: Farm-fresh celery is a completely different beast than the celery that comes from the store. Minerally, sweet and salty, we can’t get enough of it. To highlight this week’s pairing of celery and fennel, we’ll be making one of our longstanding favorite salads: Alison Roman’s Celery and Fennel with Walnuts and Blue Cheese. (You can find the recipe in this old newsletter.)

U-pick goodies are starting to get interesting

GREEN GODDESS POTATO SALAD

By Dan Pelosi aka GrossyPelosi

INGREDIENTS

  • 1.5 lbs whole pee wee potatoes or halved baby potatoes, or a mix

  • 1 cup chopped (1 inch pieces) asparagus

  • 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas

  • 1 cups chopped (1/2 pieces) snap peas

  • 2 T. of chopped fresh chives

  • 2 T. of chopped fresh dill

  • Kosher salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • 1 batch of green goddess dressing

    GREEN GODDESS DRESSING

  • 1 cup (1.5 oz container) fresh basil

  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley

  • 1/2 cup fresh mint

  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled

  • 3 whole anchovies

  • 3/4 cup sour cream

  • 3/4 cup mayonnaise

  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1 teaspoon black pepper

  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

    Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth and well combined. Adjust flavors to taste. Chill for up to 5 days.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Add potatoes to a pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Add a VERY generous amount of kosher salt, cover the pot and bring water to a boil. Boil potatoes for about 8ish minutes, but really until you can just get a knife through them. Add in your peas and asparagus and cook for 2 – 3 more minutes, until bright green. Your potatoes should now be perfectly knife tender. Drain everything in a colander and set aside to cool slightly. About 10 minutes.

  2. If you haven’t made your dressing or chopped your herbs, now is a great time to do that. Or check your make up, whatev.

  3. Toss your cooked and cooled potatoes and veg into a large bowl. Add snap peas, dressing, chives and dill. Toss everything to combine! Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed.

  4. Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to serve. This can be done a day ahead, flavors will only get better over time!

  5. Give everything a nice toss before serving! Enjoy, Goddess!

Thanks to everyone who attended last week’s flower arranging workshop and especially to the farm’s flower ambassador Cassidy Blackwell for creating such an inspiring space for community creativity.

FARMER’S LOG

AN ODE TO THE ONION

We love fresh onion season. We’ve been putting the Cipollini onions on everything — pizza, salads, breakfast sandwiches...

Cipollini onions are always the first bulbing onion that we harvest — a sort of teaser for what is to come. They come at a time when the bulbs of our main storage onions start to swell and we get to watch the process as we harvest the Cipollinis. When this magical swelling starts we can start to gauge how our onion crop will turn out. Not withstanding any force majeure, we have a beautiful onion crop shaping up out there in Loaf Field. In mid September we will bust out the macro bins and haul in 10,000+ lbs of full sized orbs into our greenhouse for curing and eating throughout the fall and winter.

But now we are still in that stage of innocence — savoring, beholding our first fresh bulbing onion.

Fresh onions, for some reason, feel like an impossible food, a gift from heaven, “they make us cry without hurting us.”

Pablo Neruda managed to capture the heavenly grace 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

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

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!