Dear members,
We’ve been sowing so many seeds thinking of you all lately that we thought it was high time reach out, say hello, answer some common questions, and give you snapshot of what’s been happening out here in the verdant Spring fields.
WHEN WILL THE CSA START?
The plants are telling us to look our for a second week of June start date. The six months thereafter will, as customary, be an avalanche of free-choice, farm-fresh produce, flowers, strawberries and herbs… all for your culinary enjoyment. Get hyped!
HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN PICK-UPS START?
All our important CSA communications are sent via email and posted on the Newsletters page of our website. We will send out a Newsletter announcing the first harvest one week before. The email will contain logistics (like how to find us) and a link to sign-up for an orientation time so we can show you around the farm so you can make the most of your harvest share this year!
SHARES STILL AVAILABLE!
There is really nothing better than spending a Sunday in a garden of flowers nibbling sun-warmed strawberries with your favorite people. We have about 10 slots left in our 2022 CSA program so if you have any loved ones who might be interested in signing-up, please encourage them to join! We have ample Share Price Assistance Funds available to help lower the cost for folks in need of a reduced price share.
Can you find Goose the cat?
WINTER SISTER FARM STAND
Can't wait to get your hands on harvested-that-day local produce? You don't have to! Check out Winter Sister Farm's farmstand. Winter Sister Farm, started by Anna Dozor and her sister Sarah, is just right next door to us here on Cooper Rd. They grow your standard hardy winter favorites and exciting specialty crops. They also offer lamb and wool from their small flock of Jacob sheep.
What's happenin' ON THE FARM?!
Well, it’s been a transformative and exciting Spring for our little farm.
“How does one move a farm?” a member asked.
The answer is about 40 truck-and-trailer loads across town, a lot of burritos from Viva Mexicana, and a whole lot of help from our friends.
By March 3rd we had arrived here at the new farm and in our new home on Cooper Rd. with a fresh new greenhouse in place and all of our equipment, fingers and toes, and Goose the greenhouse cat. Then, comfortingly, we got to work planting seeds like a normal Spring.
Now, as the dust settles from the move, we are settling into the fun phase of really farming here — of working the soil, of walking the contours, of feeling the wind, of starting to get to know this beautiful new place.
How different an ecosystem can be just 8 miles from Green Valley! We are in a water world now. A world defined by the Laguna de Santa Rosa — the most biodiverse ecosystem in Northern California. It is a world of open meadows — a rolling plain. It is a world of boisterous bird life, of gigantic oaks, big skies, and big sunsets. Civilization is near — you can hear the buzz of Sebastopol on the breeze and the lights of Santa Rosa glow in the east at night.
But a lot of things are the same. Like Green Valley this farm has myriad soils. A bed will start sandy and end in sticky clay loam. Like Green Valley, the landscape defines the farm rather than the farm defining it. (A rectangular field is hard to find.) Like Green Valley it is a very wild place: Badger, coyote, deer, turkeys, hawks, ospreys, and supergiant gophers all make their lives right next to ours. Like Green Valley the trees hold the place and create refuge.
And like Green Valley, we can wave to our dear friend Anna Dozor — now right next door now at her very own Winter Sister Farm!
Indeed, the most awesome part of this move is that rather than feeling like we left something behind we feel like we just moved a few doors down.
We've been blessed to welcome two amazing new farmers to our crew so far this Spring. Lauren Betts joins us with experience from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, Full Belly Farm, and Singing Frogs Farm. And Grace Tacherra-Morrison joins us having answered the call of farm life from a career in youth development and teaching in San Francisco. We are also excited to welcome Ashlynn Sage Okubo, a passionate young farmer originally from Pt. Arena, who will join us in May.
The five of us will be implementing a crop plan we are really excited about. In the greenhouse today we seeded the season's sugar snap peas. They join a fleet of spring and storage onions trays with their seed coat hats, 18 varieties of tomatoes, and tables and tables of other veggies, herbs, and garden flowers, including Black Hollyhocks, Marigolds, Stock, Coral Twizzle Mix Penstemon, Agrostemma, and Rattle Snake Master Eryngium, just to give you a taste.
We are so excited for you to meet the crew, to get lost in the garden, and to get to know this beautiful new farm over the coming harvest season.
Until soon...
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
