Harvest Week 23 - A Week in the Life

HARVEST POTLUCK PARTY CANCELED

We are sad say that due to the rain, we have to make the tough call to cancel the Harvest Potluck Party on Sunday.

With mud forming in our overflow parking areas, we simply don’t have the parking capacity to host the number of people who RSVP’d (200+!).

We are so touched by the level of interest this party garnered and are now even more inspired to host a potluck party next year (earlier in the season). 🌞

A very special thanks to Carl Jaeger for being the motivating spirit and logistical wizard behind this party and everyone who offered to volunteer.

Rain-check. Let’s throw down as a community in 2025.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Bintje Potatoes, Delicata Winter Squash, Purple Cabbage, Red Cabernet Onions, Bolero Carrots, Purple Daikon, Green Magic Broccoli, Bishop or Romanesco Cauliflower, Celery, Dandelion Greens, Mei Qing Bok Choi, Red Salanova Oakleaf Lettuce

U-PICK

We’re expecting a hard freeze tonight, which will effectively bring an end to another season of u-pick! In preparation for the cold and rain, we put the garden to bed today by scattering cover crop seeds and mowing the standing dead flowers. We hope you picked your fill of the brilliant colors and flavors of the garden this harvest season. A huge thanks to our garden managers Ava & Aisling. We can’t wait to dream up next year’s flowers…

  • Albion Strawberries | Gleanings


With last week’s frosts nipping most of the garden flowers, we look back with nostalgia and wistfulness at an amazing year of flowers.

HARVEST NOTES

  • Dandelion Greens: These succulent Italian dandelions are the perfect bitter winter green. As with chicory, they pair well with rich, sharp flavors. For a simple and delicious side dish, try sautéing with olive oil (or bacon fat), plenty of garlic and a dash of red wine vinegar. Or check out the recipe for Chickpea Pancakes with Dandelions and Caramelized Onions below!

  • Integro Purple Cabbage: Deliciously crisp and intensely colored, we love Integro cabbage for the vibrancy it brings to the table. We usually find ourselves making simple cabbage salad (think lemon, garlic, carrots and toasted sunflower seeds), but it would be great for any of your favorite dishes, including as a Thanksgiving side, or a vivid purple sauerkraut!

    THANKSGIVING PREVIEW

    To help you plan for the big day, here is a snapshot of the share we are planning for Harvest Week 24, the week of Thanksgiving:

    Bodega Red and Harvest Moon Potatoes, Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin or Sunshine Kabocha, Butternut Winter Squash, Celery Root, Yellow Elsye Onions, Garlic, Bolero Carrots, Watermelon Radish, Brussel Sprouts, Celery, Black Magic Dino Kale, Red Salanova Butter Lettuce

CHICKPEA PANCAKES WITH DANDELION GREENS & CARAMELIZED ONIONS

From Heirloom by Sarah Owens

This recipe brings together hindbeh, a Lebanese dish of dandelion greens and caramelized onions eaten with Arabic flatbread, with chickpea crepes, traditionally enjoyed in southern France, northern Italy, North Africa and Gibraltar. Its crispy edges and custardy interior make for an edible scoop for the sweet onions and bitter greens, and its nutty flavor complements both.

INGREDIENTS

  • 125 g / 1 cup chickpea flour

  • 1 cup water

  • 1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided

  • 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan

  • 7 1/2 cups sliced onions (about 6 to 7 small onions)

  • 1 pound dandelion greens (about 2 bunches)

  • splash of vinegar

    INSTRUCTIONS

  • Whisk together the flour, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and rest for at least 2 hours or up to 6 hours for the flour to fully hydrate. (Farmer’s note: we have skimped on this time and found the pancakes to still be delicious!)

  • In a large heavy-bottomed skillet, cook the onions and remaining 1 teaspoon of salt in 1/2 cup of the remaining oil over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are well caramelized, 40 to 45 minutes.

  • (Farmer’s note: because the dandelions we grow are cultivated varieties, they don’t necessarily need to be blanched before sautéing as the recipe directs, but you can if you’d like to further reduce their bitterness.) While the onions are cooking, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and dunk the dandelion greens in the water, stirring to wilt them, about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Pour through a colander positioned over the sink and run cold water over the greens to stop the cooking, then use your hands to wring out excess water. Coarsely chop the dandelion greens and add them to the skillet with the onions. reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes or longer to remove more of their bitterness. Serve warm or at room temperature. You can make the greens up to 3 days in advance; store covered in the refrigerator.

  • Place a 10-inch cast-iron griddle or skillet 3 to 4 inches under your broiler and preheat the broiler on high for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the pan and pour in 1/2 tablespoon of oil, swirling to coat. Return to the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes to heat the oil, then pour in enough of the batter (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup) to create a thin 8- to 9-inch pancake, tilting the pan to swirl it or using the back of a spoon or measuring cup to quickly spread it. Broil for 3 to 4 minutes, until the crepe is blistered and cooked through with the edges curling slightly. Remove the crepe from the pan with a spatula and repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil for each crepe — you should have enough batter to make about 4 crepes. Serve immediately, with the dandelion greens and onions, using the crepe as an edible scoop.

Mist and frost on Creekfield this morning.

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA STARTING SOON!

Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered with the freshest veggies money can buy all winter and spring.

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

A Week in the Life

This was a truly epic week on the farm: A gritty, productive push that had us dancing with all sorts of weather while checking off major “to-do’s” from our end of the year list.

It actually all started on Sunday, with myself and Lucas (our pinch hitting tool lender and tractor operator from Longer Table Farm) laying mulch at our new garlic growing spot at a neighbors property up Cooper Rd. Because the summer grasses are so dry at this time of year, the composition of the soil was what we call in the trade around here “junky” — full of un-decomposed organic matter, root balls and straw. I was nervous the junk was going to clog up the mulch layer. But after a practice bed, Lucas entered the zone, Obi-Wan Kenobi started speaking to him, and he laid 15 perfect beds. The soil at our new garlic spot is high, dry, and very sandy. If the whether cooperates we should have great garlic next year.

The crew started off with a bang on Monday morning harvesting 585 heads of Broccoli, Romanesco, and Cauliflower in the drizzly rain, followed by washing and packing a big order for FEED Cooperative. On Monday afternoon we sanitized our garlic cloves (to prevent any spread of last year’s rust fungus) and then soaked them in a witches brew of fish emulsion and kelp meal. 

Aisling, Brent, Ava, Sarah, and Henry taking care of business in Garlicland. (Picture by Asa)

On Tuesday after our regular CSA harvest, 4 of us headed over to Garlic-land to start planting. The soft fluffy soil helped our hands fly like butterflies and we planted 4.5 of 15 beds in only two hours and called it a day. 

On Wednesday it was all hands on deck to complete our garlic planting. It was fun to all get to work together on the same job all day (a rare occurrence). Yarns were spun, coffee was drunk, the rain drizzled, and by 4:15 on Wednesday all 10,936 cloves were in the ground. Phew!

On Thursday, we were back at harvest and undercut and cleaned the first 300 of this year’s leeks. The crew then bulk harvested and washed 2024’s Purple Top Turnips and put together a small order of Radicchio for FEED.

This morning we waited out some hard frost in the fields by cleaning onions in the greenhouse for an hour. After a little thawing we brought in the harvest for Saturday and spent a lovely, clear, and sunny afternoon preparing the garden for winter bed time — we broadcasted cover crop seed; removed the drip headers; and got ready to mow, mow, mow the stalks and stems that held up a cacophonous and glorious year in the garden.

Transitioning the garden into winter mode is always surreal and high impact and highlights the strong seasonality of this work and this place. 

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

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.

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.

Harvest Potluck Canceled Due to Rain

Dear members,

We are sad say that due to the rain, we have to make the tough call to cancel the Harvest Potluck Party on Sunday.

With mud forming in our overflow parking areas, we simply don’t have the parking capacity to host the number of people who RSVP’d (200+!).

We are so touched by the level of interest this party garnered and are now even more inspired to host a potluck party next year (earlier in the season). 🌞

A very special thanks to Carl Jaeger for being the motivating spirit and logistical wizard behind this party and everyone who offered to volunteer.

Rain-check. Let’s throw down as a community in 2025.

See you on the farm,
David & Kayta

Harvest Week 22 - Co-Creation

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Yukon Gold Potatoes, Jester Winter Squash, Red Cabernet Onions, Garlic, Bolero Carrots, , Green Magic Broccoli, Bishop Cauliflower, Romanesco Cauliflower, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Indigo Radicchio, Rainbow Chard, Red Salanova Oakleaf Lettuce, Spinach

U-PICK

After a series of frosts this week, all but the most hardy of the flowers and herbs are done for the season. Miraculously, we still have a few strawberries hanging on, but they’ll continue to get more scarce as the nights cool.

  • Albion Strawberries | 1 pints per share

HARVEST NOTES

  • Jester Acorn Winter Squash: A true gem. A super sweet Delicate that looks like an Acorn. 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.

  • Romanesco Cauliflower: Sometimes called Romanesco Broccoli, this spectacular Italian heirloom grows in green spires that look like tiny fractal Christmas trees when cut. It has a Cauliflower-like texture and flavor but with a little extra nuttiness. Prepare like you would Cauliflower.

Swallowtail caterpillars on the dill in the garden. There are lots to see if you look for them! Photo by Asa.

FALL HARVEST POTLUCK PARTY!

Sunday, November 17th, 2024 — 3:30 pm

CSA member Carl Jaeger has volunteered to organize a fun and festive Harvest Potluck Party here on the farm on November 17th! Come chow down and mix and mingle with fellow CSA members. You should have gotten an an email with more information and a chance to RSVP. Let us know if you didn’t receive it, and want to!

HOW TO BOIL VEGETABLES

AND A RECIPE FOR PASTA WITH BOILED CAULIFLOWER, ROMANESCO OR BROCCOLI

We learned this way of preparing vegetables from one of our most-beloved cooking texts, An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler. Rather than elaborate recipes, Adler’s book is full of a poetic philosophy of cooking and simple techniques that can humbly revolutionize one’s approach to feeding oneself. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter of her book, called How to Boil Water, on how to boil vegetables deliciously.

“To boil broccoli or cauliflower, cut off the big, thick, main stem, or core. Cut the remainder of the heads into long pieces that are more like batons than florets, including stem and leaves on as many of them as you can. Cut the stem or core you’ve removed into equivalent-sized pieces and include them in your boiling.

Bring a big pot of water to boil, add salt, and taste. Drop the vegetables into the water and then let them cook, stirring once or twice. This does not, contrary to a lot of cooking advice, take only a minute. You don’t need to stand over the pot, because your vegetables don’t need to be “crisp” or “crisp-tender” when they come out.

For boiled vegetables to taste really delicious, they need to be cooked. Vegetables are done when a sharp knife easily pierces a piece of one. If you’re cooking broccoli or cauliflower, test the densest part of each piece, which is the stem. Remove the cooked vegetables from the water with a slotted spoon directly to a bowl and drizzle them with olive oil. If there are so many that they’ll make a great mountain on each other, with the ones on top prevailing and the ones at the bottom of the bowl turning to sludge, spoon them onto a baking sheet so they can cool a little, and then transfer them to a bowl.

Corn stubble being spaded under to make way for for cover crop seed. The worms will be eating well this winter!

A plate of boiled vegetables can be dinner, with soup and thickly cut toast rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. If you boil a few different vegetables, cook each separately. Dress each of them like you do broccoli, with olive oil, and if they’re roots or tubers, like turnips or potatoes, add a splash of white wine vinegar or lemon while they’re hot.

Once you have a vegetable cooked, you can cook a pound of pasta in the same water and use the boiled vegetable to make a wonderfully sedate, dignified sauce by adding a little of the pasta water, good olive oil, and freshly grated cheese.

Boiled broccoli and cauliflower both take particularly well to this.

Put two cups of either vegetable, boiled until completely tender and still warm, in a big bowl and leave it near the stove. Bring its water back to a boil and adjust its seasoning. If the water is too salty, add a bit of fresh water. When the water returns to a boil, add a pound of short pasta, like penne, orecchiette, or fusilli.

While the pasta is cooking, smash your vegetable a little with a wooden spoon and grate a cup of Parmesan or Pecorino cheese into the bowl.

Taste a piece of the pasta by scooping it out with a slotted spoon. When the pasta is nearly done, remove a glass of the pot’s murky water. This will help unite pasta, vegetable, and cheese. If you think you’ve pulled the water out before it’s as starchy and salty as it can be, pour it back and return for saltier, starchier water a minute or two later.

Scoop the pasta out with a big, handheld sieve or drain it through a colander and add it to the bowl with the vegetable and cheese, along with a quarter cup of pasta water, and mix well somewhere warm. This is always a good idea when you combine ingredients. Heat is a vital broker between separate things: warm ingredients added to warm ingredients are already in a process of transforming. They’re open to change.

This pasta is good as is, but is improved by a big handful of chopped raw parsley or toasted breadcrumbs.”

WINTER SISTER FARM CSA STARTING SOON!

Going to miss us this winter? Well you’re in luck! Our dear friends next door at Winter Sister Farm have got you covered with the freshest veggies money can buy all winter and spring.

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

Co-Creation

Today we wanted to leave you with the inspiring words of our distant comrade in farming, Cate Casad of Casad Family Farms in Madras, Oregon.

Frostcicles on the kale this morning.

“365 days a year we get to vote for the world we participate in creating. We wake up and we dress ourselves in a version of the free market capitalism we participate in; is it fossil fuel derived textiles or natural fiber textiles you put on? We walk to the kitchen and start the water for tea or coffee — are those beans products of equitable employment for someone in Costa Rica? We decide to whom we want to give our attention by opening up a social media app, a book, a podcast, or we choose silence and self. We meander to the kitchen for breakfast, is the food from your local economy, helping to provide jobs in the community and decentralized food systems? As the day winds on, more and more decisions as ubiquitous as a left turn or a right turn are presented, and each decision is a vote for the version of ourselves we carry forth and the version of this world we participate in carrying forth.

So today, tomorrow, and the next day, VOTE.”

Thanks for voting to co-create this community farm with us this year and for supporting your regional food system.

Casad Family Farm raises and ships regeneratively grown meat. To learn more about their offerings visit their website here.

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

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.

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.