THIS WEEK'S HARVEST
Tetsukabuto Winter Squash, Harvest Moon Potatoes, Leeks, Duganski Hardneck Garlic, Broccoli Spigariello, Komatsuna, Cabbage, Romanesco, Green Magic Broccoli, Hakurei Turnips, Loose Rainbow Carrots, Loose Beets, Little Gems & Assorted Head Lettuce, Spinach, Fancy Fall Salad Mix
CSA member and photographer Sashwa Burrous came out to photograph us doing our thing. Thank for the amazing photos, Sashwa!
U-PICK
Herbs: Tulsi Basil, Thai Basil, Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Lemon balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Cilantro, French Sorrel, Onion Chives, Tarragon, Oregano, Thyme, Culinary Lavender, Lemongrass
Flowers: Bouquets can still be scavenged, but our flower year is winding down as it’s time to put our gardens to bed for the winter. Thank you, Kayta, for planning an incredible flower year!
Strawberries: Going to sleep for the season. Still a few to be found.
HARVEST NOTES
Tetsukabuto Winter Squash: A kabocha x butternut cross called the “apocalypse squash” for its vigor and ability to a produce sweet, nutty, and versatile squash under adverse conditions. To roast, cut in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast cut side down at 400 degrees until you can poke a fork through the skin and the flesh is soft and creamy. Add dashes of water to the baking sheet while roasting to keep squash moist. Eat straight out of the shell with a spoon or use like you would any sweet winter squash (soups, stews, curries, pies, etc.).
Tetsukabuto second from left on the bottom. See Week 18’s Newsletter for a rundown of 2019’s winter squash crew.
RAW LOCAL HONEY FOR SALE
Our friend Darlene Taylor will be selling her “Blessed Bee” honey made by happy backyard bees of Graton! This bee-utiful gift of liquid gold is over-flowing in her kitchen, and she’s excited to share some with members of Green Valley Community Farm! Help boost your immune system with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals or simply add a little sweetness to your days.
She’ll have 3 sizes of jars available: 6 oz for $5, 12 oz for $10, and 16 oz for $13. Cash payment please.
SAVE THE DATE!
End of the Season Harvest Potluck Brunch
Sunday, December 8TH: 11:00am - 1:00pm
CSA members Carl Jaeger & Sarah Salamon are planning celebratory end of season CSA community Harvest Brunch Potluck in the big party barn on the south end of the property on December 8th! Come mix and mingle and eat scrumptious fare. See your farmers in non dirt-stained clothing. Open mic! Find the invitation in your inbox for more details and to RSVP. We hope to see you all there!
WHEN IS THE LAST WEEK of HARVEST PICK-UP?
Some folks have been asking when the last week of harvest pick-up is. The last week of our 2019 CSA harvest season is the week of December 14th.
The last Saturday pick-up is December 14th
The last Tuesday pick-up is December 17th
Thank you to everyone who helped us plant 2020’s garlic this week. 4,700 cloves in the ground!
NOTES & REMINDERS
Say No to Single Use Plastic: We will no longer be supplying plastic or plastic-substitute bags at farm pick-up. Please bring your own plastic produce bags. Additionally, if you have a bunch of extra clean plastic bags at home, please bring some to fill our recycled plastic bag station for others to use.
FARMER’S LOG
Conversation in the Field 2019 Style
Perhaps it could be said there are unexpected perks and disadvantages every occupation on this good Earth. The perks and prickles of farming are many and famous. Long hours, rewarding work. Dirty hands, clean hearts. Being at the whims of nature but also at her bosom.
Our favorite perk of farming, a gift that keeps on giving, are the abiding, familial bonds we develop with the people we work with; our colleagues in the fields; compatriots through the long summer days; comrades in frosty Fall harvests.
There is something about going through a season on a farm together that feels like you really went through something together — something big. (Perhaps this bond is not unlike the fabled bond among soldiers.) You really get to know someone through the ups and down of a growing season, how they fall and how they get up.
I think the secret sauce to crew kinship in farming is something quite simple… but rather rare these days: Lots of long form conversation.
It is well known: Small scale agriculture requires a lot of repetitive work with the hands. Harvesting 800 feet of tomatoes twice a week; hand weeding 600 bed feet of Fall carrots; washing 4,000 lbs of potatoes. And with the hands occupied, the mind, heart, and tongue are free to wander. One might say, while harvesting tomatoes on a 95 degree day, they are required to wander for the upkeep of sanity. Needless to say, informative, interesting, revealing, and hilarious conversations sprout up like weeds in the field. Spread out over the days, weeks, months — even years — and you have a recipe for some amazing dialogues.
Inside jokes abound. A single conversation can last weeks, tossed around and mulled over every which way, all depths plumbed. Then it can be tabled only to be brought up again to be revisited in the Fall light. Topics of conversation are all over the place, but we definitely have our favorites.
Photo by Sashwa Borrous
Sora Bolles, 11 years old (who has been volunteering with us on Wednesdays) insightfully noted this week when discussing this very Farmer’s Log that, “We seem to talk most about food and books.” She is not wrong.
Perhaps it is because we are surrounded by it, or because we need so many calories that we obsessively talk about the most delicious ways to get them. Kayta, Anna, and Kate are accomplished cooks and bakers surrounded by top notch ingredients. Often, food is cooked up mentally in the field before it is manifested in the real world.
Anna (on pace to read over 62 books this year), Kayta, and Sora, are all voracious readers. One of Kayta’s childhood favorites, Watership Down, came up one Wednesday, and Sora read it in a couple of days, in time to discuss it the following week! Indeed, a week in our fields does rarely goes by without an in depth discussion of a classic young-adult fantasy series (His Dark Materials or Harry Potter, for example) or a newer novel on the Man Booker Prize short list.
Similarly, TV series, podcasts, or movies we’ve all consumed are tossed around in the furrows, providing a common language for laughter, philosophical, political, and cultural discussion. While we can’t get off the farm most of the year, engaging in these narratives expand our horizons, briefly transporting us to other worlds and other ways of life. We often take each others recommendations for the conversation that will ensue afterward more than any other reason — as with one recent rap battle reality show on Netflix, which provided an alarming amount of fodder for harvest morning banter.
Farmers: We may be penniless paupers but we are filthy rich in long, deep, meandering, conversations with our fellow humans and the friendships that come from it. And in this fast paced, disconnected age, that is as good as gold.
Oh yeah… and we do, on occasion, talk about farming.
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
