THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
NOTE: This is the last week of our 2024 CSA Program. The last pickup is this Tuesday, December 10th.
BULK WEEK: Pick-up will be a little different this week: We will be offering larger than usual quantities of potatoes, beets, 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!
Pennsylvania Dutch Butter-Flavored Popcorn, Bintje Potatoes, Marina di Chioggia Pumpkin, Delicata, Jester or Butternut Squash, Assorted Cabbage, Red Cabernet Onions, Leeks, Garlic, Celery Root, Bolero Carrots, Multicolored Beets, Multicolored Daikon, Purple-Top Turnips, Dandelion Greens, Dazzling Blue Dino Kale
HARVEST NOTES
Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored Popcorn: Quite the name, huh? An excellent popper, it transforms from skinny yellow kernels to beautifully round, brilliantly white popcorn — and it really tastes like butter! Pro-tip: make sure that you store your popcorn in dry conditions, as moist popcorn won’t pop.
Making your popcorn: The trick to stovetop popcorn is to use a thick-bottomed pot like a dutch oven, which will distribute the heat evenly and prevent burning. Turn the stove on to medium high and pour in a generous amount of high-heat oil — enough to cover the kernels halfway up. Heat the oil a little bit before pouring in the kernels, then put a lid on and enjoy the fireworks! We like to shake the pot a bit to keep the kernels evenly hot so that each kernel will have time on the heat but not enough to burn. The popcorn is popping perfectly right now, but if you find that your first batch of popcorn isn’t popping well, try drying it out by leaving it in your kitchen for a few days or putting it in a 200 degree oven for awhile.
Marina di Chioggia Pumpkin: (aka Sea Pumpkin or Suca Braca, "warty pumpkin") is an Italian heirloom from Chioggia, Venice. This is our favorite pumpkin for eating, flavorful, smooth and versatile. It can be utilized in any recipe where a traditional pumpkin or pumpkin puree is called for. It’s excellent in pies, muffins and quick bread; makes an ideal filling for pasta such as ravioli and tortellini; and can also be used to make gnocchi. The pumpkin itself will keep for up to six months when stored in a cool, dry, and dark place. We love the diverse bounty that can be made from this pumpkin! Here’s a roundup of a few of the recipes we’ve fallen in love using Marina di Chioggia in over the years:
Pumpkin Gnocchi: When we have the time we love to make a big batch of gnocchi (check out this recipe ) for the freezer so that we have many incredibly fast and delicious meals to look forward to.
Pumpkin Parmesan: This twist on traditional eggplant Parmesan is truly greater than the sum of its parts. The melding of savory cheese, delicately sweet pumpkin and toasted breadcrumbs is unbeatable. Find the recipe here.
Savory Stuffed Pumpkin with Sausage and Gruyere: This recipe is a real showstopper — a dish to organize a party around and the epitome of cozy winter cooking. Aromatic, cheese-and-sausage-filled bread pudding is baked inside a pumpkin and then carved into slices. Check out the recipe in last year’s newsletter here.
SIGNING UP FOR 2025
We will open sign-ups for our 2025 CSA program in January. Returning members will receive an email and the first chance to sign-up to reserve a spot before we open it up to folks on the waitlist. We expect demand to be high for next season to please sign-up soon upon receiving the email!
If you have friends or family who’d be interested in enjoying the farm experience with you next year, please encourage them to sign up for the waitlist on our website ASAP (and to mention you in the comments!)
preserving the harvest
Since we’ll be sending you home with an abundance of beets this week, we thought we should share a couple of our absolute favorite pickled vegetable recipes. They’re easy to make, and once you have them in your fridge, they can transform almost any meal into something delicious and vegetable filled.
Both pickles come from a favorite sandwich recipe of ours. It’s maximalist in every way (think thick-sliced feta, aioli, hard-boiled eggs, and an herby, pickled-vegetable-filled salad with olives and capers on homemade focaccia!), including a name drawn from Moby Dick (The Scuttlebutt). Even if you have no intention of making the sandwich (which you should) we highly recommend the pickles.
PICKLED BEETS & ONIONS
Recipe by Marian Bull for Food52
1 bunch beets (about 5 or 6)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt, divided
2 cups red wine vinegar
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 whole star anise pods, broken up
8 whole allspice berries
Roast the beets: Preheat the oven to 400° F. Put the beets in a roasting pan, add just enough water to the pan to evenly cover the bottom. Salt the beets with 1 tablespoon of salt and drizzle them with olive oil. Cover with foil and roast for about an hour, until they're tender when pierced with a knife. Let them cool, then peel the beets. Cut them into 1/4-inch slices and pack loosely in 2-3 heatproof quart jars with the onions.
In a saucepan, combine the red wine vinegar, water, sugar, and 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt, plus the peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard, anise, and allspice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Pour the brine over the beets and onions, then let them cool at room temperature. Transfer them to a plastic or glass container, cover them, and refrigerate for at least a day. They'll last up to 2 months.
PICKLED CARROTS
Recipe by Marian Bull for Food52
8 medium carrots, peeled and very thinly sliced into rounds or on a bias
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 árbol chiles (or any of our hot peppers)
Place the sliced carrots in a heatproof quart jar. In a saucepan, combine the apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, kosher salt, coriander, fennel, and the chiles. Boil, stir, and pour over the carrots. Cool them, then store in the fridge for at least a day, and up to 2 months.
LIL’ WINTER MARKET
We’ll have two CSA members selling special handmade goods at the Saturday and Tuesday pickups this week!
Hanna Chort will be hosting a table of her creations, including wool rugs, herbal soaps, tinctures, and more! She will also have a table of discounted Eric Kent wines for purchase. She takes Venmo or cash.
Did you know Honeybees dance to communicate? Check out Swarm & Tender with Mariah McDonald for a sweet honey sale! Swarm & Tender is a bee-forward, eco-minded Sonoma County Honeybee Service that will have raw, local, unfiltered honey in beautiful glass jars ready for you to take home. With different “vintages” to choose from, this is the perfect way to add a touch of nature’s gold to your holiday gifts or treat yourself to something special. Cash (preferred) or Venmo accepted. Come by, support our local pollinators and help make this season a little sweeter.
Martha Stoumen's will have a new wine in the cooler! 2023 Post Flirtation red wine — available to WCCF members for $29 per bottle to enjoy at the farm or to-go. Post Flirtation is a fresh, lighter-bodied blend of Zinfandel and Carignan, and is celebrated as the most popular wine each year. Serve this wine with a slight chill (cool to the touch) to bring smiles to the whole family this holiday season.
WINTER SISTER FARM
Gonna miss us this winter? Fear not, Winter Sister Farm, right next door has you covered! They will be running a farm-stand this winter, as well as their 2025 Winter CSA program. Check out their website for more info on obtaining the highest quality winter veggies, flowers, and herbs right here on Cooper Rd!
CALIFORNIA BILINGÜE
Have you been thinking about taking your Spanish to the next level? California Bilingüe, owned by CSA member Carlos Mayerstein, specializes in one-on-one customized Spanish tutoring. In 2022, they gave the farm a generous scholarship to help David improve his Spanish proficiency to help the farm connect more with the vibrant and skilled Spanish speaking agricultural community in Sonoma County. The program has been joyous, fun, and transformational for his Spanish and opened so many doors personally and professionally. We can’t recommend their program highly enough! ¡Aprenda más aquí!
FARMER’S LOG
Treasure
It was a bittersweet day today — the last Friday harvest of our 2024 harvest season. This coming Tuesday’s pick-up will be the last pick-up of our harvest season.
Each harvest 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 their 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 on 9.5 acres as regeneratively as we know how. We produced healthy, nutrient dense food for 460 Sonoma County adults and 180 kids. It was a bountiful year and our nets came up full — over 10,000 pints of strawberries, 14,000 lbs of onions, 20,000 lbs of winter squash — just to name a few figures.
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 with our biggest crew yet, numbering 8 on the payroll with support from a motley crew of craftspeople, ringers, and friendly pirates. 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 $5,200 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 $2,500 to tend the wild ecosystem of the farm, which went toward the planting of more native shrubs in our northern border hedgerow and 20 oak trees saplings — part of a larger project to nurture the next generation of grandmother oak trees on this land.
It was a wonderful year of growth for the capability of the ship itself and for us as farmers. We mastered cut greens. It was the year of the onion. We upgraded our overhead irrigation system and our harvest truck to handle the bounty and paid down loans for our big tractor and new tillage implements. We expanded our joy factor with a much bigger flower garden and the new playground.
We took care of our most precious resource — our soil. We put down a whopping 96 tons of compost and seeded over 2,300 lbs of cover crop seed this fall. Those seeds sprouted well, and if the weather cooperates, they’ll 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. Whether alone, with friends, or with family, it was a presence in your lives — a place to gather, to read, to hang out 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 bounty it provided, and your heart.
This connection is so important for human beings and so hard to find in the modern world. This connection bonds us, in loving interdependence, to this beautiful planet and to each other.
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,
Your farmers
