Farm Stand & Winter Update

Hello dear members!

We hope this finds you enjoying the gentle returning of the light.

We are hard at work laying the groundwork for next season’s bounty. This time of year, that takes the form of spreadsheets, seed orders, and infrastructure projects.

We’re writing with a few updates.

CSA SIGN-UPS OPENING MID-FEBRUARY

First, we plan on opening CSA sign-ups in mid-February. We’ll send you an email invitation to sign up, and members from 2025 will have 2 weeks to sign up before we open any remaining shares up to the waitlist. Keep an eye out for an email and make sure that you’ve marked this email address as important to ensure it reaches you. Please encourage friends or family who you’d like to enjoy the season with to sign-up for the waitlist on our website.

FARM STAND!

Secondly, we had an abundant year in our storage crops fields, and we still have enough of a stockpile that we’ve set up a self-serve farm stand in the cooler.

Starting today, feel free to come by anytime that it’s light out to purchase hardy staples (and a few greens!). You can access the cooler by going into the barn and around the corner behind where the tables are during CSA pickups. You’ll have the option to pay by cash or Venmo, and there’s a discount for buying in bulk (5 lb or more). Currently, the farm stand is stocked with:

• Carrots

• Yellow Onions

• Jelly, Harvest Moon & Desiree Potatoes

• Red & Green Cabbage

• Dino Kale (while it lasts!)

• Celery Root

• Dutch Butter Popcorn

• Floriani Red Flint Cornmeal

• Assorted Winter Squash

We hope you’ll come stock up your larders and visit the land as it changes from lake to field and back again.

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

Harvest Week 26 - Treasure

LAST WEEK!

This is the last week of our 2025 CSA Program! The last pickup is this Tuesday, December 9th. Thank you all for making 2025 such a wonderful season!

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Garlic, Floriani Red Flint Cornmeal, Koginut Winter Squash, Honeynut Baby Butternut Squash, Honeyboat Delicata Winter Squash, Green Storage Cabbage, Celeriac, Jelly Potatoes, Desiree Potatoes, Calibra Yellow Onions, Carrots, Indigo Radicchio, Black Magic Dino Kale, Dandelion Greens, Red Salanova Butter Lettuce

BULK WEEK!

Pick-up will be a little different this week: We will be offering larger than usual quantities of potatoes, carrots, and winter squash so that you can fill your larders and eat from the farm on into the Solstice. We recommend bringing an extra tote bag this week!

U-PICK

This week, we put the garden to bed for the season. Thank you all for a wonderful year in the garden!

HARVEST NOTES

• Honeynut Baby Butternut: It’s our first year growing these miniature golden butternut and we’re smitten. Halved and roasted they make a perfectly elegant single-serving, with a honey color and flavor that matches the best butternuts.

• Koginut Winter Squash: These frosted beauties are one of the varieties bred by Row 7 Seeds. Koginut are similar to a butternut in flavor, and have an excellent storage life. Delicious roasted as wedges or halves.

  NOTE: We recommend eating your Delicata before the other squash in the share this week! They have the shortest storage life and won’t be good for much longer, while the Koginut and Honeynut should keep for significantly more time.

• Green Storage Cabbage: These giant green cabbages are frost-sweetened, and although they may be intimidating, we wanted to make sure you know that they keep exceptionally well. Consider them an investment in your larder, from which you can carve small, or large, slices as the need arises. To get you started on your cabbage, consider making the Comforting Cabbage and Farro Soup recipe below.

WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2026?

We plan to open sign-ups in mid-to-late January 2026. 2025 CSA program members will be given the first chance to reserve a spot for 2026. Please encourage family or friends who would like to join next year to sign-up for the waitlist posted on the homepage of our website!

LIL’ WINTER MARKET

CSA member Hanna, The Wool Witch, will host a table of her creations for sale at Tuesday pick up! Come ready to shop Wool throw rugs, silk scarfs, natural dye kits, and other wooly plant dyed magic!

HELP SAVE GREEN VALLEY FARM + MILL!

As many of you know, West County Community Farm got its start at the beautiful Green Valley Farm + Mill, a property owned by a group of people committed to regenerative agriculture, education, and community building. The farm hosts Bramble Tail Homestead and Farmer Mai Nguyen. After a year of economic uncertainty, they are currently fundraising to help pay back one of their founding loans.

Below are some ways you can help Green Valley Farm + Mill keep thriving:

• Come to the Benefit Concert this Sat, 12/6 for live music, dancing, and a silent auction. Gillian Grogan, Daniel Steinbock, and the Deep Thicket Dwellers are talented musicians and it’ll be a fun time!

• Contribute to the Silent Auction for Saturday’s concert (contact Aubrie Maze: aubrie@gvfam.com

• Donate to the GoFundMe and share it with your networks

• Book an event at Green Valley — a staff retreat, family gathering, or wedding

• Shop at the Marketplace if you’re nearby

COMFORTING CABBAGE AND FARRO SOUP

From Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

To close out a chillier-than-usual year in which we’ve personally been obsessed with eating cabbage and cooking from Six Seasons, we wanted to share this cozy cabbage soup.

Note: this recipe makes a very modest 4 servings, so it’s great to double it if you want leftovers!

• 1 pound cabbage, savoy or green

• Olive oil

• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

• 1 sprig of rosemary or thyme (optional because I’ve forgotten it each time, and not regretted it)

• 1 tablespoon red wine or white wine vinegar

• 2/3 cup uncooked farro

• About 4 cups homemade or storebought chicken or vegetable broth

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• Shaved parmesan, to finish

Cut out the cabbage core and finely chop it. Cut the leaves into fine shreds or about 1/8-inch ribbons. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cabbage core, some salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion starts to soften but is not yet browned, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 3 to 5 minutes, until the garlic softens too. Add the shredded cabbage leaves and herb sprig, if using. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the pot and let it steam a bit to soften the leaves, then toss the cabbage to stir it well with the other ingredients in the pot. Cook, covered, until the cabbage is very sweet and tender, at least 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat a glug of olive oil over medium and add the uncooked farro. Toast it, stirring, for a few minutes, until half a shade darker.

When the cabbage is ready, stir in the vinegar. Taste and season with more salt and pepper. Add toasted farro and broth. Bring mixture to a lazy simmer and cook for 25 to 35 minutes, until farro is tender and all the flavors are married. The soup will be very thick, but if you’d prefer more liquid, add another 1/2 cup broth or water. Taste and adjust seasoning again. Stir in lemon juice.

Ladle into bowls and finish each with a drizzle of olive oil and a shower of parmesan, with more parmesan passed at the table.

FARMER’S LOG

TREASURE

It was a bittersweet day today — the last Friday harvest of our 2025 season. This coming Tuesday’s pick-up will be the last pick-up of the year. 

Each growing season is like a voyage, with us farmers and CSA members striking out together on a grand adventure. The community supported agriculture model that we practice here, that we ask you to practice here, is not a gimmick or a fad. It is a powerful and functional alliance between a community of neighbors and farmers.

We are one crew on this voyage. And that bond allows us to farm this land well, to farm it intentionally, and to farm for the future in very real ways.

So what did we, as a community, just do? What did we accomplish together?

First and foremost it was our biggest voyage yet. We grew 10.5 acres, as regeneratively as we know how, of healthy, nutrient dense food for 515 Sonoma County adults and 190 kids. It was a very bountiful year in the fields and our nets came up full. 

But the catch is never the most valuable part of a voyage. The real treasures are the intangibles: The memories you made, the wisdom you earned, and the friends and connections you made along the way. 

This year we welcomed 65 new households to the farm — many of whom said coming to the farm was the highlight of their week.

We sailed with our biggest crew yet, numbering 8 on the payroll with support from a motley crew of craftspeople, ringers, and friendly pirates. We welcomed Arabella, Riley, and Eric to the team who added immense skill and farmer wisdom. We learned and grew as farmers together, taught each other new shanties, and had each other’s backs throughout the long voyage and the gales.

We raised $4,260 in share price assistance funds, which helped members of our community enjoy a harvest share they may otherwise not have been able to afford. We raised $2,200 to tend the wild ecosystem of the farm, which went toward the planting of more native shrubs in our northern border hedgerow and more oak trees saplings — part of a larger project to nurture the next generation of grandmother oak trees on this land. We donated extra produce weekly to the Food for Thought Food Bank.

It was a wonderful year of growth for the capability of the ship itself. We invested in more advanced weeding equipment and tools and saw results immediately. We had the best year ever in our staple crops. We dialed in our overhead irrigation systems and paid down loans for our big tractor and new tillage implements.

And we took care of our most precious resource — our soil. We put down 96 tons of compost and seeded over 2,000 lbs of cover crop seed this fall, which, if they fair well this winter, will be able to produce over 48,000 lbs of carbonaceous biomass in the spring that will feed our soil for years to come.

Finally, and perhaps most gratifying to us, the farm continued to become, more than ever before, a place where people spent time and connected. Whether alone, with friends, or with family, it was a presence in your lives — a place to touch grass, to gather, to hang out with friends and let the kids run free. 

Seeing so many of you lingering in the garden, picnicking under the oak trees, and playing on the new playground was all the treasure we needed from this year’s voyage.

Our one hope for your experience of the farm this year is that it included moments of connection between this land, the beings we share it with, and your heart.

This connection is so important for human beings and so hard to experience in the modern world.

Thank you for joining us on the voyage this year and helping to build a place where that connection can be felt and lived.

And now for our customary parting words…

If, in the dark season ahead, you feel pent up, like you need to get out of the house and stretch your legs, come visit the farm and stand still for a moment in a field.

There you will find silence, broken only by the screech of a hawk or the singing of the redwing blackbirds. A coolness will emanate up from the wet soil, chilling your knees. Before you will lay the sleeping farm, the soft contours of the land draped in a blanket of green (or underwater!).

But listen closely...

For within that slumber next season churns. The cover crop stretches its living roots deep into the soil where subterranean creatures break down this year's crop roots and residue, processing them — like so many memories — into the raw materials that will make up next year’s picnics under the oaks, next year’s memories, next year's bounty.

Listen closely and you’ll hear the land dreaming.

Now, it is time for your farmers to rest, to reflect, and to do a little dreaming ourselves. Thank you all so much for the memories this harvest season. Here is to many more to come.

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

Harvest Week 25 - A Farmer's Thanksgiving

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Aglio Secco Hardneck Garlic, Black Futsu Winter Squash, Assorted other Winter Squash, Purple Cabbage, Beets, Celeriac, Harvest Moon Potatoes, Calibra Yellow Onions, Monastrell Red Onions, Carrots, Black Magic Dino Kale, Dandelion Greens, Indigo Radicchio, Red Salanova Oakleaf & Butter Lettuce

U-PICK

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

• Frying Peppers:

  • Shishitos | Gleanings

  • Padróns | Gleanings

• Hot Peppers:

  • Jalapeños | Gleanings

  • Habanero | Gleanings

  • Thai Chilis | Gleanings | Spicy!

  • Wilson’s Vietnamese Devil Pepper | Gleanings

• Flowers! There are still some flowers to be had after the rains, particularly zinnias, marigolds (the solid orange ones are all the way to the north — towards Winter Sister Farm) and some late-season curios.

HARVEST NOTES

• Aglio Secco Garlic: Originating in Sicily, this garlic seed was lovingly saved and passed to us by Sara McAmant via a local network of heirloom garlic seed exchangers. We’ve loved it and are growing it out further for next year.

• Black Futsu Winter Squash: A beloved Japanese delicacy, this mini Butternut relative has bright orange flesh with a delicate fruity flavor and edible skin. Black Futsu store extremely well and with their beautiful frosted appearance, can double as decoration until you’re ready to eat them.

WHEN DOES THE CSA END?

The last pick-ups of our 2025 CSA program are approaching: The last Saturday pickup is Saturday, December 6th and the last Tuesday pickup is, Tuesday, December 9th.

WHEN CAN I RESERVE MY SPOT FOR 2026?

We plan to open sign-ups in mid-to-late January 2026. 2025 CSA program members will be given the first chance to reserve a spot for 2025. Please encourage family or friends who would like to join next year to sign-up for the waitlist posted on the homepage of our website!

fagioli, cicoria e salsicce (medley of beans, dandelion greens, and sausages)

From the James Beard Foundation

This is a play on our of our favorite winter meals — beans and greens. Feel free to substitute kale for all or some of the dandelion if you prefer it, but we find that the bitterness of dandelion is a delicious counterpart to the savoriness of the rest of the dish. This is delicious with or without sausage — think of it as a template to play around with. When making a vegetarian version, we sometimes grate some parmesan into the broth or on top of the dish, and it is also wonderful with the addition of a little lemon at the end of cooking.

Yields 4 servings

• 3 bunches dandelion greens (1 1/2 pounds), washed and drained thoroughly

• 4 to 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 5 to 6 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

• 1 14-ounce can cannellini beans, washed and drained thoroughly

• 1 pound fresh pork sausage, skin removed, crumbled

• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• Pinch crushed red pepper (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the dandelion greens and boil for 10 minutes. Drain thoroughly and roughly chop. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the garlic and chopped dandelion greens and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes.

In a separate pan set over medium heat, slowly sauté the crumbled fresh pork sausage in an additional tablespoon or so of olive oil. Cook for 10 minutes, until all of the pink color disappears and most of the fat has rendered. Using a slotted spoon, lift the sausage out of the fat and add to the dandelion greens. Mix thoroughly and cook for an additional 5 minutes. If the ingredients get too dry, add a little chicken broth or water to keep them moist. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add the crushed red pepper, if desired.

FARMER’S LOG

A FARMER’S THANKSGIVING

Kayta and I both grew up in the suburbs and, like everyone, we encountered those ubiquitous expressions  — “make hay while the sun shines,” “three shakes of a lamb's tail,” “like a horse who’s seen the barn,”. It wasn’t until we started farming that we began to understand the visceral poetry of these expressions and the agricultural roots of so many idioms. And it wasn’t until we started farming that we began to understand — like, really understand — the need to give thanks in fall.
 
The fall is an incredible time of year in the temperate world. It is a season of unimaginable bounty. The plants of the forest and the field have spent all spring and summer harnessing the sun’s energy into their fruits, seeds, roots, and leaves — and we have harvested. In the fall, the root cellar is full, the larder is full, the granary is full — the land has burst forth at its seams and we gathered the overflow.

The farmer, sitting at home with his feet up next to the fire, is keenly aware of the bounty in the root cellar below. He feels a great contentment in this but no pride because he realizes how little he did to create it. Sure, he worked hard all year — moving things here and there — but it was others, present now and before, that filled that cellar. It was others who dug it out and laid the roof. Others who made the tools and taught him how to use them. Others who saved the seeds and taught others, who taught others, who taught him how to care for them. And what (or who) made those seeds sprout? Not he.

For all this, there is nothing to give but thanks.

We’d like to take a moment to give thanks those who made this season possible.

* * * * *

First and foremost to our incredibly experienced, dedicated, and fun crew this year. Their hard work created the bounty we enjoyed this year.

Aisling Okubo, back for her fourth year, who knows the farm and all her quirks so well and who was a cornerstone for us once again.

Asa Black, whose attentiveness and care blessed every seed we sowed this year.

Henry Grady, whose buoyancy, curiosity, and hard work carries so many days for us.

Eric Bueno, whose passion, skill, and get after-it-ness have the fields in such good hands.

Arabella Wood, who so gracefully brings her seasoned wisdom, leadership, and deep love of this work.

Riley Reed, who glued our crew together with so much laughter and good energy.

To our part-timers: Brent Walker, Meg Chambers, Alberto & Anayeli Guzman, your hands and presences made light work.

How lucky we are to spend our days with you and lucky we are to do this work with you amazing people!

To Scott Mathieson, farm family and owner of this amazing place: Scotty pioneered Community Supported Agriculture in Sebastopol, and the farm simply wouldn’t exist in its current form without his vision.

To everyone at Winter Sister Farm, Graham, and Will and Gina at Longer Table Farm, comrades in the field.

To Lee Magner of Sonoma Mountain Breads and Karl Gergel and Ursule Amiot of Zweibel’s for blessing us with your baked goods.

To Lily Schneider at Kitchen Table Advisors; everyone at FEED Cooperative; and everyone at Food For Thought Food Bank, turning our seconds into nourishing meals.

To Hannah Chort and Cassidy Blackwell for bringing their passions to the farm.

To Kate Seely, Ziza, Donna Stusser, our loving families, and everyone who helped care for us during our long season.

And finally, to you, dear members. Whatever bounty we’ve enjoyed this year is because of you. You shared in the real risk of a growing season with your farmers — something rare and important in this crazy world. Your support helped plant each seed, spread every ton of compost, lay each irrigation line, and harvest all the food that nourished so many. You showed up each week with sweet smiles, gifts, and words of encouragement and appreciation that carried us through the days.

You remind us, day after day, week after week, that real, life-sustaining bounty comes from a community rolling up its collective sleeves and building something needful and beautiful together.

Thank you.

See you in the fields,
David & Kayta

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CSA BASICS

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

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.