THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Mustard Greens, Arugula, Rosaine Little Gem Lettuces, Indigo Red Radicchio, Collard Greens, Poblano Peppers, Bishop Cauliflower, Romanesco, Red Ace + Chioggia + Golden Loose Beets, Eggplant, Leeks, Desiree Potatoes, Rainbow Carrots, Zoey Yellow Onions, Jester Acorn Winter Squash, Metechi Hardneck Garlic
U-PICK
Check the u-pick board for updated weekly limits. With the ash that has settled on produce, we recommend washing all u-pick produce before consumption
Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins: Season limit: 3 per share for shares with kids | Limit 1 per share for shares without kids
Green Beans: Gleanings
Albion Strawberries: Gleanings
Cherry Tomatoes: Gleanings
Frying Peppers: Shishitos, Padróns | See week 5’s newsletter for harvest tips
Jalapeños: Winding down | Located below the Padróns
Yellow & Red Thai Hot Peppers: Winding down | Located next to the Jalapeños
Herbs: Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme, Tulsi Basil, Thai Basil, Oregano, Marjoram, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Vietnamese Coriander, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Lemon Verbena, Lemon Balm
Late season Agrostemma in the flower garden
HARVEST NOTES
Jester Acorn Winter Squash: A true gem. The sweetest Acorn squash we've ever tasted. A hard ribbed shell hides pudding-sweet flesh. A good Jester can be among the sweetest of all winter squashes. David's favorite. Try halving long ways, scooping out the seeds, and roasting at 400 until you can poke a fork in the skin and the flesh is soft and creamy. Add a dash of water to the baking sheet while roasting to keep your squash moist. Eat straight out of the shell with a spoon like pudding! Try adding butter, coconut oil, and/or maple syrup to and eating out of the shell with a spoon.
We brought the last carving pumpkins into the barn so that we could transition that field into it’s Winter clothes. There are a few carving pumpkins left. Did everyone get one? Don't be shy! Season limit 1 per share, and for households with children the season limit is now 3 per share.
LOGISTICS
Tuesday pick-ups (especially the last hour) have become hectic — likely because we had to cancel a Saturday pick-up due to the fire and everyone switched to Tuesday. Just a heads up, if you are able, a more relaxed pick-up experience can be had on Saturdays and earlier on Tuesdays.
The 2020 harvest season runs from Saturday, June 13th til Tuesday, December, 8th.
Saturday pick-up runs from 9:00am - 2:00pm
Tuesday pick-up runs from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
The farm and u-picking are open 7-days a week, sunrise to sunset. Please close the farm gates behind you on off days.
THANKS, VOLUNTEERS!
We’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came out to help harvest all 7,000 lbs of this year’s potato crop! We rely on volunteer labor for these big harvest pushes and you all made this giant task easy and delightful.
We have one last big harvest — the Fall carrots — which we’ll let you know about, as well as our Garlic planting party. Stay tuned!
FARMER’S LOG
FALL MODE
This week was all about harvest, harvest, harvest…
After Monday and Tuesday’s share harvest, we enjoyed a sweet Wednesday morning potato harvest with about 15 volunteer members. All told, we brought in about 3,000 lbs of beautiful tubers, putting our total potato harvest for the year around 7,000 lbs — now tucked away in our trailer cooler, awaiting your belly.
On Wednesday and Thursday, we kept on harvesting: Loose Beets for storage; Napa Cabbage for storage; and today, bins and bins of beautiful Cauliflower and Romanesco for this week’s share. All this harvesting can only mean one thing….
We are smack dab in the middle of one of two major transition moments in our yearly farm cycle. You can feel it in the air (kind of?) and you can definitely see it in the fields. Almost all of the long-season crops have grown, matured, been harvested and are now dying back — their bounty curing in the greenhouses or in the cooler, or become a memory of a BLT. In the fields, the slate is being cleaned. The first frost is imminent. The farm is bare — awaiting it’s Winter cloak.
Potato harvest 2020 — part two!
Bed by bed, field by field, the farm is changing from summer attire (veggie crops) to winter clothes (cover crop). For our cover crop, we seed a nitrogen fixing, organic matter building mixture of Bell Beans, Magnus Peas, Dundale Peas, Crimson Clover, Common Vetch and Triticale on pretty much every inch we planted this year. Soon you will see a green fuzz of Triticale covering the bare beds. Come spring a waist high sea of green will wave in the wind. This crop will feed, enrich, and build the soil for 2021 and for many years to come. (Indeed, a healthy cover crop stand can generate over 8,000lbs of biomass per acre. It's like growing compost out of thin air — right where you need it.)
This Fall’s transition into cover crop makes us think of one of the ways vegetable farming in Sonoma is very different than vegetable farming in New England or colder climates Northward. In colder places, Old Man Winter mandates that you initiate this process; i.e. frost comes in early October and kills the tomatoes and peppers and other cold sensitive crops. In our climate, hot crops can sometimes limp on into November. Here, instead, we must end them in order to germinate a great stand of winter cover crop.
In Sonoma county, it is best to broadcast your cover crop seed mid to late October. Any later and you risk colder temperatures inhibiting the germination of the cover crop seed and your fields laying relatively naked through the winter. So, it is time to say farewell to the cherry tomatoes, and the frying peppers — they must now make way for a dense, lush, life-giving cover crop.
We recommend taking a moment to appreciate the changing of the guard out there if you have a moment. The first blades of cover crop will soon poke up out of the soil, reaching for the sun, and waiting for the winter rains to transform the farm into a sea of green.
See you in the fields,
David for Kayta, Anna, and Kate
