THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Salad Mix with Salanova Lettuce and Bel Fiore Radicchio, Assorted Little Gem Lettuces, Cherokee Summer Crisp Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Mei Qing Choi Bok Choi, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Celery, Carrots, Assorted Zucchini & Summer Squash, Slicing Cucumbers, Sarah’s Choice Cantaloupe, Sweet Peppers, Eggplant, Farao Cabbage, Fresh Yellow Elsye Onions, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes
U-PICK
Don’t forget to branch out to the back areas to find the jack-pots!
Albion Strawberries | 3 pints per share
Padrón Peppers | 2 pints per share | Note that as Padróns age, they are more likely to be spicy!
Shishito Peppers | 3 pints per share | While still most likely to be mild, even shishitos can have a little heat towards the end of the season.
Cherry Tomatoes | 6 pints per share
Dragon Tongue Green Beans | 3 pints per share | See harvest note below
Hot Peppers:
Jalapeños | 7 peppers per share | To find the hottest ones, look for “checking”, the delicate cracks in the skin that indicate the pepper has aged into its heat.
Thai Chilis | 3 peppers | Pick when red
Cherry Bomb Peppers | 2 peppers per share | Pick when red
Herbs: Italian, Purple and Thai Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Chamomile, Parsley, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso (Perilla), Catnip, Pineapple, Sorrel, Assorted Mints & Husk Cherries!
Flowers!
HARVEST NOTES
Sweet Peppers: These year we’re growing two types of sweet peppers.
Cornitos: We have three colors of these delicious Italian peppers whose name means “little horns” after the Italian Corno di Toro “bull’s horn” peppers. They make excellent snacks eaten out of hand, sliced into salads, fried, and roasted.
Jimmy Nardello: As Baker Creek seeds tells it “this fine Italian pepper was grown each year by Giuseppe and Angella Nardello at their garden in the village of Ruoti, in Southern Italy. In 1887 they set sail with their one-year-old daughter Anna for a new life in the U.S. When they reached these shores, they settled and gardened in Naugatuck, Connecticut, and grew this same pepper that was named for their fourth son, Jimmy.” These peppers have thin walls and super-sweet flesh that makes them incredible for frying and roasting.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST
We have reached peak tomato season! Bulk tomatoes will be available for projects, canning and preserving from now until the end of tomato season, but we recommend taking advantage as soon as you’re able to ensure you don’t miss the best of the season. Check out previous newsletter for easy ways to put them up.
FLOWER DYEING WORKSHOP TOMORROW!
Saturday, September 7th
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Come learn the art of dyeing fabric with flowers! Bring a hammer and a notebook and join CSA member Hanna on the farm while she teaches you which flowers can create beautiful lasting color on fabric! We will hammer flowers and herbs onto 2 mordanted organic cotton napkins and then dip them into two different dye pots. You will leave feeling confident in doing this at home! Register for the event here.
MUSIC TOGETHER ON THE FARM!
Music Together is a world wide children's' music program for 0-5 year olds and the people who love them! Come join CSA member Hanna and her children for 10 weeks of making music together under the oak trees. They will meet Thursday mornings starting September 12th at 9:30 and 10:45 am. To sign up for the Fall session go to https://mtofwestsonomacounty.com
WINTER SISTER FARM CSA SIGN-UPS OPEN!
Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered for veggies all winter and spring. All memberships include diverse winter-hardy veggies such as broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions, winter squash, lettuce, kale, chard, as well as access to a small u-pick garden with cold hardy herbs and spring flowers. Click here to get all the details on this wonderful CSA program and to reserve your spot today!
FARMER’S LOG
MYSTERY
Over the last couple centuries humanity has put a lot of effort into getting rid of mystery in the field.
Plants need this or that NPK; this disease can be remedied by this or that; moisture levels should be kept around this or that field capacity. Etc., etc.
But mystery still abounds on the farm.
We started harvesting our bulk onion crop this week and it is the best looking onion crop we’ve ever grown. Our Red Cabernets, usually our smallest variety, are bigger than last year’s Walla Wallas. There are Elsye onions out there bigger than a softball.
These onions didn’t always look good. In fact, there was a long period in their young life when they looked pretty bad.
The hardship started at planting when, in our haste to get them in the ground, we skipped using our Forigo implement to shape beds, a step we usually take get optimal tilth in the top few inches. We shaped those beds with a mulch layer, so once the transplanter got rolling, it was too late to correct. Planting in the more clayey areas of those beds was like planting into 1” drain rock… 15,000 times. It was probably one of the more miserable couple days of work this year. But our amazing crew powered through with customary good humor and got them in the ground.
My fears about the soil in that field were exacerbated when the onions didn’t bounce back from the normal transplant shock like they should. They seemed to languish — not growing, slowly losing their verdant color, tips browning — for an awful long time.
Kayta weekend checking Asa's immaculate onion starts in April and harvested onions today back on the same tables from whence they came to cure.
I irrigated heavily in an attempt to help their roots set, but it didn’t seem to help. The cherry on top was when a full 45 ft section of Cipollini’s started flat-out dying, the result (in hindsight) of a hungry localized population of wire worms.
During those weeks I would watch the sprinklers rotating over the onions field and look at pictures on my phone of our beautiful onion transplants last year: Upright, deep blue-green, virtually no browning.
“We’re toast,” I thought, and turned my attention to other things.
I kept up with the discipline of irrigating and moisture checks on the onions but I subconsciously started to avoid them — afraid of what I would see, their fate largely out of my hands at that point.
That’s when the mystery crept in.
At some point in late July, on a reluctant onion moisture check, I was startled by the thickness of greens on the Calibras — they looked like shovel handles. On another walk a couple weeks later, I was surprised by an awful lot of baseball sized Eslye bulbs, still with verdant greens and a lot of growing left to do.
I started walking through the onions more at that point.
Baseballs became softballs, and here we are today, hauling out macro bin after macro bin of perfect onions.
We do have some theories on why these onions did so well. They had a near perfect start in the greenhouse: Asa grew the healthiest onion starts we’ve ever seen. It was breathtaking to walk along the tables, running your hands through them. It was also our first year growing onions under mulch, which onions love because it traps moisture and onions love even moisture like the swamp plants they are.
But I don’t know if those two things add up to this level of uniform giganticness. Or perhaps they do and I’m deluding myself for want of belief in the mystery.
In this case, I’m betting on the mystery and that on some misty morning in June these onions were blessed and we will never come close to dissecting the wonder of growing plants in living soils on this living planet.
Thank goodness.
See you in the fields,
David
TURNIPS GLAZED IN MISO & BUTTER
Recipe by Claire Saffitz
Have you tried the Hakurei Salad Turnips yet? While we love crunching on them raw as a snack, and slicing them onto our salads, it’s hard to beat the richly satisfying flavor of glazing them with miso and butter. Their greens are also delicious, added at the end so that they cook down a little.
1 pound turnips, cut into 1” wedges
2 tablespoons white miso
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2tablespoons fresh lemon juice
STEP 1
Combine turnips, miso, butter, and sugar in a medium skillet, then add water just to cover vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
STEP 2
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook turnips, turning occasionally, until they are tender and liquid is evaporated, 15–20 minutes.
STEP 3
Once all the liquid has cooked off, keep cooking turnips, tossing occasionally, until they are golden brown and caramelized and the sauce thickens and glazes the vegetables, about 5 minutes longer.
STEP 4
Add lemon juice and a splash of water to pan and swirl to coat turnips. Season with salt and pepper.
CSA BASICS
Drive slow! Please drive slow on Cooper Rd. and in our driveway / parking lot area. Kids at play!
No dogs: Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the farm.
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
Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.
Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Where is the food? The produce pick-up barn is just to the right of the solar panels and above our big greenhouse. You can’t miss it!
2024 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 15th through Tuesday, December 10th this year.
