THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
In a nutshell: With the equinox comes the first of our fall-inflected shares.
Arugula, Mustard Mix, Little Gem Lettuce, Green Romaine Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Indigo Radicchio, Green Bok Choi, Green Magic Broccoli, Celery, Assorted Sweet Peppers, Summer Squash & Zucchini, Assorted Cucumbers, Romance Carrots, Walla Walla Onions, Various Heirloom & Red Slicing Tomatoes.
U-PICK
Albion Strawberries: 4 pints per share
Cherry Tomatoes: 6 pint per share
Shishito & Padrón Frying Peppers: 1 pints total per share | Likely the last week for frying peppers
Jalapeños: 5 peppers per share | if you like your jalapeños hot, look for peppers with checking (little cracks) on them
Buena Mulata Peppers: 4 peppers per share | usable at any color, but with more fruity flavor when ripe red or orange
Habanero Peppers: 1 pepper per share | ripe when orange
Tomatillos: 1 pint per share
Herbs: Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Tulsi Basil, Dill, 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!
A couple of recent Nicoise Salad-inspired dinners. On the left: Dragon Tongue beans with caramelized onions, cucumber, carrot, celery, lettuce, tomato and hard boiled egg with herby Ranch dressing. On the right: heirloom tomato, pan-fried potatoes, roasted zucchini, cucumbers and purple daikon with blue cheese, lettuce and sweet pepper, capers and sardines with the classic Nicoise dressing from the Week 6 newsletter.
CANNING TOMATOES
The tomatoes are exploding — now is the time to preserve! We have upped our season limit for bulk tomatoes. Each share is now allotted a 25 lb season limit — meaning your share can home 25 lbs of tomatoes from the 2nds canning bins in the barn either all at once, or on separate occasions (i.e. 7.5 lbs twice). While we hope tomatoes will be around for a while longer, this is definitely the peak of production and the best time to take home quality bulk tomatoes for preserving.
Our favorite way to preserve tomatoes is just to freeze fresh tomato sauce. It’s easier than canning and tastes better (we think)! See Week 12’s newsletter for Kayta’s go-to fresh tomato sauce recipe.
Meals from a week in Tomato Town. Pics by Adam.
tomato town
by home chef ambassador adam
We had a lot of memorable firsts in August 2020. First home purchase. Followed immediately by our first wildfire evacuation. The other August 2020 first that I’ll always remember is my very first vine-ripened Sungold grown by David and Kayta. THAT is how much I cherish tomatoes. I always have, but since that moment I am absolutely obsessed with WCCF’s tomatoes. I was traveling recently, and was terrified I was going to miss peak season. Peak tomato season is my superbowl. I was so excited to get home just in time to walk the red carpet of Tomato Town.
Tomato Town Tips and Tricks:
When I u-pick, I snip them at the stem, to leave it attached to the fruit (yes, botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruit, but so are cukes and zukes and they never catch any gruff). This requires that you be more careful when picking, and makes for a touch more prep work to twist them off before serving, but it’s worth it. Cherry tomatoes with their stem last longer, and it prevents them from splitting.
When I bring all my tomatoes home, I make one decision immediately - which tomatoes will be eaten raw and which will be cooked. This ensures I don’t waste a single ounce of sweet seeded magic. Prime specimens are reserved for raw consumption in salads, sandwiches, fresh salsas, etc. These are tomatoes that are soft but tight-skinned, with no bruises. I store them on the counter to stay room temp and be used every day throughout the week. The others I store in the fridge, without making any sacrifices to flavor or texture because they will be cooked. These days, I eat tomatoes at every single meal and I plan to preserve enough to ration in the depths of winter.
This Week In Tomato Town
Last night’s dinner was a TBLTs (double tomato, single everything-else) with a caprese salad on the side. Honorable mentions to the lacto-fermented pickles which I preserved a few weeks ago and the smear of spicy arugula mayo.
Tonight we enjoyed a summer style pasta with barely-cooked tomatoes and shrimp. When I cook these tomatoes, I barely cook them because they are so summer-fresh. I sauteed them with butter, garlic, onion, and shrimp, finished with pasta water and herbs. Ladled onto pasta and topped with more herbs and grated parmesan. Perfection.
For our Rosh Hashanah dinner I paired roast chicken with zucchini latkes topped with tomato relish (also the more traditional sour cream and homemade applesauce)
Whole and by the handful. Simple. Indulgent. Is there anything better?
Adam’s upick haul.
FARMERS LOG
TUrn! Turn! Turn!
At 11:50 PM tonight, the Earth will wobble its midline straight in line with the sun on its way south — the Autumnal Equinox.
If you listen closely at that moment, you might big “yipeee!” from thousands of Northern hemisphere farmers.
It’s not that we begrudge the summer. No. We just love the changes.
It struck me today how the tasks of pulling off the growing season harmonizes with the seasons in such a way that it always seems like there is just enough time to do what needs to be done by the skin on our chinny-chin-chins.
The Byrds were right: To everything, there is a season.
In the spring, we aren’t harvesting yet, so we have all the time in the day to prep the canvas; to tune-up our equipment and build irrigation systems; to seed 200 trays a week in the greenhouse; to pot up, stake, and trellis tomatoes; and to mow cover crop, turn soil, shape beds and plant, plant, plant!
Then harvest seasons starts and two, three, then four days a week are consumed with harvest. You put down the shovel and the hammer and take up the harvest knife. All other projects cease. Planting and harvesting are your life (and maybe some weeding if you’re lucky). The days are at their longest. If there is ever a time to be harvesting hundreds of pounds of cucumbers, tomatoes and squash in the morning and then planting out a mile of carrots in the afternoon, it is the summer.
Paige and Aisling putting some of the last lettuce of year is in the ground.
Before you know it, it’s late-Summer. The tomatoes start exploding, the cucumbers already are, you’re still planting like crazy and then the melons come in — and just when you think you’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the long days, you scroll through your crop plan and see that plantings are nearly done. No more bed shaping. The greenhouse seedings stop. You plant the last Fall brassicas in the field, the tractor sits quiet for a minute, and you can spend all day amongst the vines and in the cooler playing Tetris with boxes of Summer fruit.
Then comes the Autumnal Equinox.
The tomatoes are still pumping and the potatoes and winter squash are calling to be harvested; the corn is filling out and crisping up. The big harvests are here. Space needs to be cleared to store the bounty. Winter is just around the corner so you also need to establish new garlic and strawberries beds and to lime new fields, and get ready for cover cropping — and just when you think you’ll break, that there isn’t enough time in the shortening days the heat starts to ebb, the tomatoes show signs of slowing down. Soon, a light frost will roll through the farm and nip the summer fruits. Smiling friends will come to help you harvest the potatoes. The chill morning air goes down like a draught of ambrosia. You transplant the last lettuce of the season. You have a moment sit down to order cover crop and calculate how much garlic to save for seed.
All this is why you won’t ever hear a farmer say, “Shucks! Summer is over.” We are greedy for the turnings.
We love nothing more than a first harvest. But the glory of the first tomato fades under the weight of hundreds of tomato crates and then we crave cold hands and cozy coats and the crisp snap of the stem of a plump winter radicchio. Lucky for us, when scolding kiddos for running through the corn becomes sad and hackneyed, Autumn comes, and we can yell, “Come! Knock it down! Gather armfuls of cobs!”
Change is our tonic — and one of the great sustaining elixirs of farm life.
Soon, winter will come. The rains will come and we will turn in — to rest, rejuvenation, and internality. We’ll clean up the farm and we’ll look back on the year and plan the next. We’ll look at spreadsheets, sit, think, fix things, and sleep.
But ample sleep turns into insomnia; too much internality into angst. Our harvest muscles will atrophy, we will get pudgy, and we will forget why we are puttering out in the wet and the cold. And just when we think we’ll break, that there is too much open-endedness in the too short days, the sun will return and we will hear the Swainson’s Thrush calling us back out to the fields, beckoning us, “Build it up again! Plant! Turn! Turn! Turn!”
See you in the fields,
David
CSA BASICS
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!
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, minding weekly u-pick limits.
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 & reusable produce bags
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.
