ATTENTION MEMBERS: Please make sure to drive slow (15 - 20 mph) on Cooper Rd. out of respect for our human and pet neighbors! Thank you!
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
In a nutshell: Tomato avalanches start but with a trickle and the first BIG walla walla onions herald the beginning of summer’s big orbs
Lettuce and Chicory Salad Mix, Red Butter Lettuce, Green Romaine Lettuce, Sugarloaf Chicories, Collard Greens, Purple Bok Choi, Farao Cabbage, Celery, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Lemon & Persian Cucumbers, Purple Daikon Radish, Corinto Cucumbers, Walla Walla Sweet Onions, Loose Romance Carrots, Loose Multicolored Beets, Early Girl Tomatoes
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries: 3 pints per share
🌟 NEW! Cherry Tomatoes: 1/2 pint per share | This limit will (greatly) increase as the plants come into production.
Shishito & Padrón Frying Peppers: 5 pints total per share | There are lots of Shishitos in the back of the beds at the moment. See Week 6’s Newsletter for harvest and preparation tips.
Amethyst Green Beans: 5 pints per share
Pickling Cucumbers: 1 gallon season limit | See Week 6’s Newsletter for harvests and pickling instructions.
Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Culinary Lavender, French Sorrel, Borage, Violas, Thyme and Mints.
Flowers!
HARVEST NOTES
Walla Walla Sweet Onions: Fresh out of the soil, this delicate, sweet, fresh-eating onion was developed in Walla Walla, Washington. These are a delicacy. Try them in a way that you can show them off: Lightly grilled in a good burger or raw in a salad with a delicate dressing. Onion rings for the hard core. They are so sweet and mild, some people even eat them raw like an apple! (We haven’t tried that yet! If you do, let us know how it goes!) Read more about Walla Wallas here.
Early Girl Tomatoes: A classic red slicing tomato, aptly named as they are always the first to the party. These first tomatoes are a little on the mild side, not yet distilled with summer heat, but we’re so glad they’ve arrived. Tomatoes will limited for the first few weeks as we wait for the tomato avalanche.
Purple Daikon: Purple daikon are a gorgeous, mild, hardy radish that adds delightful color to any plate. Try slicing them raw to dress up your salad or crudités platter, or adding them to kimchi. For extra magic, toss them with a little acidic salad dressing or lemon juice and watch their color change to hot pink!
FLOWER POWER HAPPY HOUR!
Thanks to Cassidy, Kayta, and everyone who came out and made our first Flower Power Happy Hour so special.
We’ll let you know when the next organized FPHH is — but don’t let that stop you from having your own! We’ve been loving seeing all the picnics in the garden lately so much!
FARMER’S LOG
ON LIMITS AND THE ENJOYMENT OF LIFE
As our fields and harvests transition away from the delicate greens of early summer into the cacophonous colors and flavors of peak summer, we’re reminded of some of the reasons why we love this CSA model and eating from the farm.
First, we eat with the seasons. Nothing dictates what is on our tables more than the tilt of the Earth. As you’ve seen, the shares of mid-June are very different from those of mid-August. The spring, with its soft waxing light, grows tender, almost translucent, baby soft greens. While the hard summer sun condenses itself into weighty, colorful, sweet fruits. Mentally compare an early Spring strawberry, with it’s silky soft skin and wateriness, to the more sun hardened, acid-sweet, candy-packet strawberries this week.
Another cool thing about eating from the farm is that we get to experience the full arc of plant growth — from fresh onions to cured onions; from baby Spring carrots to deep orange Fall carrots kissed by frost — and the whole arc of taste in between. In supermarkets, most produce is harvested at one standard stage of a few standard varieties. Here, life is happening, and we pull it out of the field for you to witness!
We also love that this model allows us the chance to distribute damaged produce and to share over-abundant harvests with members. You’ll experience this more as the season goes on. Ancestral cultures were scrupulously efficient in their use of food because they had to be. There was a use for everything. And it was a duty to preserve the abundance of Summer. In this spirit, we put out the 2nd tomaotes, split and cracked, but still perfectly good (sometimes even better) sliced on a BLT.
But perhaps our favorite thing about this model is an unsung hero: Limits.
The first of many… bins.
Yes, limits. Scarcity. Not having something. “Limit: 1 per share.”
“What!?”
We live in a time and a place where we can get just about any food, anytime, en masse, if you can afford it. Tomatoes in January. Melons in the February. Mangos in Sebastopol.
We have conquered seasons. We have conquered limits.
But have we also conquered one of the simplest pleasures in life? What is the fulfillment of desire without the longing that precedes it?
This week, we will cherish the year’s first tomato. That first juicy sweet acid slice of heirloom tomato on an open faced sandwich (with a little basil, olive oil, and salt) will bring back a flood of memories from last summer, and summers before that, and we will smile at our loved ones at the table in our shared remembrance and shared enjoyment of this thing that we have now, but did not have for so long. It will bring us together. Perhaps your first bite of Kabocha squash this Fall will unlock a similar smile.
In most (or maybe all) cultures there are festivals celebrating these moments — basically giant parties celebrating the return of a certain food. In Southern France there is a plum festival and a Spring festival marking the return of the egg, when the hens start laying again. What is life without eggs!? In Sebastopol, we have the Gravenstein Apple Fair this weekend. In Italy, in the Fall, there is a conference on all things Radicchio and Chicory.
Limits, scarcity, the lean times — they help us appreciate, like really appreciate, what we have.
Life's fleeting nature is really it's spice — and so it goes for food, we'd say.
In a few short weeks, we will be drowning in tomatoes. We will be filthy rich in tomatoes of all stripes and colors. We will take for granted their spiced earth smell and the way they tie so many meals together. We may even grow sick of tomatoes. But not this week. This week we will hold up the year’s first tomato and rotate it around — impossibly red, impossibly perfect — and it will shine back at us and remind us how impossibly lucky we are.
See you in the fields,
David
CSA BASICS
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
When can I u-pick?: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.
2023 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run this year from June 24th - December 19th
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot next to the solar panels or along the road further down. Please don’t park behind the solar panels.
Where’s the bathroom!: Under the big solar panels in the parking lot.
What should I bring?:
Your WCCF tote bag
Pint baskets or small containers for measuring your allotment of u-pick crops like strawberries
A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy
Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some), we also have some in the barn
Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!
Friends and family!
Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are through this email address, which seems to be getting spam blocked a lot. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.
