Harvest Week 3 - The Season of Power

Are you a new member who hasn’t attended an orientation yet? Orientation dates and times can be found below the Harvest Notes.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Fresh Lorz Softneck Garlic, Mustard Mix, Dino Kale, Komatsuna or Purple Flowering Bok Choi, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Volcana Little Gem Lettuce, Red Butter Lettuce, Rouxai Red Oakleaf Lettuce, Giorgione Chicory, Baby Fennel, Kohlrabi, Scallions, Pickling Cucumbers, Mini Tiara Cabbage, Baby Carrots

A swarm of honeybees hanging from the branches of the big oak by the playground on Thursday.

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

  • Albion Strawberries: 2 pints per share

  • Sugar Snap Peas: 1 pint per share | We recommend walking to the back of the Sugar Snap Pea beds where the peas are fat and abundant!

  • Herbs & Edible Flowers: Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

  • Flowers! Many perennial flowers and the first of the year’s annuals!

HARVEST NOTES

  • Baby Carrots: We are so excited to share the first carrots of the season with you! These are true baby carrots, planted at the beginning of May, as soon as the fields dried down enough to access. They are delicate, sweet and incredibly tender. Eat them raw as a perfect snack, or toss with olive oil and salt and roast alongside fennel, scallions and squash as an elegant early summer side. We’ll have carrots now until the end of the year.

  • Pickling Cucumbers: While we will have bulk Pickling Cucumbers available a little later in the season for pickling projects, this week we’re bringing you just a taste as the first cucumbers of the season. Like the first pancakes, these are a bit eccentric, but delicious, either peeled and eaten fresh, or made into a very small batch of quick pickles.

  • Giorgione Chicory: This Castelfranco Radicchio has fancy, frilled leaf-edges, delicate speckling and a flavor that’s mild enough to be enjoyed raw. Delicious and beautiful added to a lettuce salad or on its own paired with a sharp, rich dressing.

FARM ORIENTATION TOURS FOR NEW MEMBERS

All new adult members are required to attend an orientation their first time picking up their harvest share. We’ll go over farm safety and etiquette, give you your farm tote bags, show you the ropes in the flower and herb garden, and share the secret to finding the sweetest strawberries.

If you are new to the farm, please join us promptly for one of the orientation tours below:

WEEK 3:
Saturday, June 28: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm
Tuesday, July 1: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 pm

You can come get oriented and pick up your first share on either day (Saturday or Tuesday), whichever day and time works best for your schedule. Tours last about 30 minutes. All adult members of your share who will be regularly enjoying the farm should attend an orientation.

If you are sharing a share by alternating weeks with another household, one household should attend an orientation Week 1 and the other an orientation on Week 2.

If you can’t attend a tour time above, please reach out to us to schedule a time that works for you.

THE 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

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or on either side of the road in front, or below, the greenhouse.

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!

What should I bring?:

  • Former members, please bring your WCCF tote bag! (New members will be given a new one.)

  • Pint baskets or small containers for strawberries and herbs (if you have some, we will provide a few pint baskets to be used as measures)

  • A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy

  • Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some)

  • Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!

Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are sent through this email address, which is sometimes spam blocked. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates, like this one, are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.

LATE SPRING SALAD WITH FETA, HERBS AND SNAP PEAS

It’s salad season, and this week we hit upon a combination that we had to share:

  • Tear Volcano Little Gems (pink all the way to the heart and so special) and the blanched hearts of Giorgione chicories into bite-sized pieces.

  • Thinly slice fennel and sugar snap peas.

  • Chop or tear dill, lemon & Italian basil and mint (it’s all about the mint!) .

  • Crumble feta or goat cheese.

  • Toast some fresh or stale bread chunks in a generous amount of olive oil and salt to make homemade croutons.

  • Toss everything together with ranch dressing. (Check out this recipe if you’d like to make your own!)

  • Taste and add additional olive oil, lemon and salt if desired.

FARMER’S LOG

THE SEASON OF POWER

This week we settled further into our harvest rhythm and entered one of the most exciting and transformational times of year on the farm. The season of power.

With most of our plant babies out of the nursery and in their fields, waterlines set, the days at their longest, it is now time for our plants to do their thing.

The word power comes to mind for this time of year on the farm in the sense of the raw power of light, soil, and plant life. At no other time of year is this power more palpable, more awe inspiring, than the 50 or 60 days surrounding the solstice.

Take a look at these pictures of our winter squash field taken from the same place on June 18th and July 27th, 2023 (just 40 days a apart).

During the season of power our crops (who up till now have been vulnerable little things who needed us for everything) take their lives and their power into their own hands.

They seem to grow before our eyes, passionately devouring and transforming every drop of sunlight and water that falls. They mature, they flower, they sex, they start growing their seeds. Our fields transform from tranquil nursery plots into teaming, striving jungles.

It’s kind of scary.

And it is a humbling time of year for the farmer. At no other time do we feel more clearly the fact that we are not actually growers, we are shepherds.

Sure, we worked hard preparing the ground, moving things here and there. But this was all just setting the stage. This was all just setting out the dreamcatcher for when the real power enters.

And when it comes, boy, do we know it.

At this time of year the farm feels possessed with light, with growth, with spirit. All this energy is the heavy, nutritious staple food we’ll enjoy all summer and fall — all that corn, the potatoes, squash, tomatoes — they are here with us now, flowing through exploding green foliage, quick and bright, like high voltage electricity.

It’s best to just stand back and watch.

See you in the fields,

David

Harvest Week 2 - Weeding Wisdom

Are you a new member who hasn’t attended an orientation yet? Orientation dates and times can be found below the Harvest Notes.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Fresh Lorz Softneck Garlic, Spinach, Mustard Mix, Arugula, Heart of Gold Swiss Chard, Komatsuna, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Green Little Gem Lettuce, Red Butter Lettuce, Baby Fennel, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Kohlrabi, Scallions

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

  • Albion Strawberries: 1 pint per share | The strawberries are in a slow production moment but we expect them to ramp back up in a few weeks. Until then, please savor the first berries of the season and make sure to respect the u-pick limits so that all members get some.

  • Sugar Snap Peas: 1 pint per share |

  • Herbs & Edible Flowers: Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Lemon Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Borage, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

  • Flowers! Many perennial flowers and the first of the year’s annuals!

Nothin’ like 7:30 am in the garden.

HARVEST NOTES

  • Sugar Snap Peas: These delicious peas can be eaten whole, pod and all — just make sure to snap the top and pull the little string from each side to get the tenderest bite. While edible at any size, the ones that have filled out to a half inch in thickness are significantly sweeter.

  • Herb Inspiration: This is one of the best moments of the season for fresh herbs on the farm — this week we opened up new plantings of Dill and a bevy of Basils (Italian, Purple, Lemon & Thai), and the Cilantro and Parsley continue to be at their best. To take advantage of their bounty this week, try chopping them and adding to your salads, or making an herby green sauce that’s a play on chimichurri, chermoula, or pesto. While you can use any combinations of herbs from the garden, we’ve been enjoying equal parts parsley and cilantro, with a little bit of mint, blended with raw garlic, lemon and lemon zest, olive oil and salt. Use as a zingy topping on any hearty food — grilled summer squash or the kohlrabi fritters from the recipe below!

  • Hakurei Salad Turnips: Not your Grandmother’s turnips, these sweet, crunchy snacks are mild and best eaten fresh, on top a rice bowl, sliced on a salad or popped straight in the mouth. They are also delicious sauteed or braised, as are their greens!

A snapshot of some of the annual herbs available this week in the North Garden. Top row: dill, parsley and cilantro. Bottom row: All the basils! Tulsi, Italian, Thai, Purple & Lemon.

FARM ORIENTATION TOURS FOR NEW MEMBERS

All new adult members are required to attend an orientation their first time picking up their harvest share. We’ll go over farm safety and etiquette, give you your farm tote bags, show you the ropes in the flower and herb garden, and share the secret to finding the sweetest strawberries.

If you are new to the farm, please join us promptly for one of the orientation tours below:

WEEK 2:
Saturday, June 21: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm
Tuesday, June 24: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 pm

WEEK 3:
Saturday, June 28: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm
Tuesday, July 1: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 pm

You can come get oriented and pick up your first share on either day (Saturday or Tuesday), whichever day and time works best for your schedule. Tours last about 30 minutes. All adult members of your share who will be regularly enjoying the farm should attend an orientation.

If you are sharing a share by alternating weeks with another household, one household should attend an orientation Week 1 and the other an orientation on Week 2.

If you can’t attend a tour time above, please reach out to us to schedule a time that works for you.

THE 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

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or on either side of the road in front, or below, the greenhouse.

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!

What should I bring?:

  • Former members, please bring your WCCF tote bag! (New members will be given a new one.)

  • Pint baskets or small containers for strawberries and herbs (if you have some, we will provide a few pint baskets to be used as measures)

  • A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy

  • Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some)

  • Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!

Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are sent through this email address, which is sometimes spam blocked. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates, like this one, are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.

Have you been thinking about taking your Spanish to the next level? California Bilingüe, owned by CSA member Carlos Mayerstein, specializes in one-on-one Spanish tutoring for all levels. In 2022, the farm received a generous scholarship to help us improve our Spanish proficiency to help us connect more with the skilled Spanish speaking agricultural community in Sonoma County. The program has been joyous, fun, and transformational for his Spanish and opened doors personally and professionally. We can’t recommend California Bilingüe highly enough! ¡Aprenda más aquí!

Zucchini Kohlrabi Carrot Fritters with Herb Yogurt Sauce

From The Foodie Dietitian

Arabella recommended these versatile and delicious fritters to us in the field as we were harvesting Kohlrabi and we can’t wait to try them. She says they work beautifully with any number of vegetable substitutions. This week we’ll likely make them with zucchini, scallions, kohlrabi and salad turnips, and lots of herbs from the garden.

Ingredients

For the Fritters:

  • 1 medium-large zucchini, grated

  • 1 spring onion, minced

  • 3 small carrots, peeled and grated

  • 2 small kohlrabi, leaves removed, peeled and grated

  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley

  • 1 egg

  • 1/4 cup flour

  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder

  • 1/4 tsp salt

  • 1/4 tsp pepper

  • 3 tbsp olive oil

For the Yogurt Sauce:

  • 1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt

  • 1/2 tbsp lemon zest

  • 1/2 tbsp chopped parsley

  • 1 tbsp avocado oil

  • 1/8 tsp salt

Directions

For the Fritters:

Combine zucchini, carrots, kohlrabi, and spring onion in a cheese cloth and wring out any excess water. (Or, if you don’t have cheese cloth, add veggies to a strainer, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 10 minutes and then wring out excess liquid with hands.) Transfer to a medium mixing bowl.

Add egg, flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix to coat evenly.

Add olive oil to cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot enough, drop 1/4 cup of fritter batter into the pan and flatten out with a spatula. Depending on the size of your skillet, cook a few fritters at a time, leaving space in-between. Cook for a 3-5 minutes on each side, or until golden-brown and crispy.

Transfer cooked fritters to a paper towel to absorb some oil. Serve with yogurt sauce.

For the Yogurt Sauce:

Mix yogurt, lemon zest, parsley, avocado oil, and salt until combined. Serve alongside fritters.

FARMER’S LOG

SMIRKING AT PIGWEED

As we’ve written about in this log before, on the farm, time is like an echo.

Moments, days, tasks, seasons… they return cyclically, as if from a long distance, the long distance of a year.

Paying attention to the echoes breeds experience. And if you mess something up one year, you’ll get another chance next year when you hear the echoes coming back around.

Kayta and I were laughing this evening because last year’s Newsletter for CSA week 2 was a poem. You know when we post a poem in the Farmer’s Log it’s usually because that week was particularly crazy. Poem weeks are when we are too busy farming to write about farming.

This week was going to be a poem week… but here we are.

On the farm this week, we entered the tail end of our “establishment season”. (Establishment season being the two month period, wrapping up soon, where we establish pretty much all of our important crops and fields.)

This time includes, crucially, the initial one or two cultivation (weeding) passes on all our big field crops. The key thing about the weed killing part of establishment season, experience tells us, is that you only get a two or three day window where the weeds are small and easy to kill easily on acres and acres of ground. If you miss that moment in a field, which we are very experienced with, you’re in a world of hurt. Killing weeds gets exponentially harder as they gain strength and root mass.

We’re happy to report, dear members, that we are in better shape than we’ve ever been in at this time of the year weeds wise.

Mostly pigweed free carrots, spinach, celery root and leeks.

This is thanks to several factors: Eric, his wise disdain for weeds, and his hard work in the winter prepping our machinery for this moment; our fancy new Argus finger weeder (an ingenious contraption steered behind a tractor that kills weeds both in between and within plant rows); and, perhaps, most importantly, experience: We know what missing those moments looks like.

So this week saw us pushing ourselves hard, driving up and down our rows of corn, potatoes, winter squash, celery root, leeks, and carrots. We wanted to chill and catch our breath after opening week — but that’s what the weeds wanted too.

This week’s push was a gift to our future selves, free (or, at least slightly more free) of the told-you-so smirk of pigweeds casting their millions of seeds in your field as they scratch up your arms in September.

This week we were listening to the echoes of season’s past and smirking at the pigweed ourselves.

See you in the fields,

David & Kayta

Harvest Week 1 - Welcome to your 2025 Harvest Season!

Dear members, 

Welcome to the first newsletter of your 2025 harvest season!

After another long, wet winter we are so excited to welcome you back to the garden and fields, where everything is now shooting up in the summer sunlight.

We have an exciting and bountiful harvest season in the works and we can’t wait to start sharing it with you.

This newsletter, which will appear in your inbox every Friday evening, will contain a snapshot of the coming week's harvest and u-pick options, as well as recipes, tips, and stories from the farm — all to inspire you and help you make the most out of your membership over the next 6-months.

Week 1’s newsletter is always jam packed with important details for new and returning members. Read on below!

FARM ORIENTATION TOURS FOR NEW MEMBERS

All new adult members are required to attend an orientation their first time picking up their harvest share. We’ll go over farm safety and etiquette, give you your farm tote bags, show you the ropes in the flower and herb garden, and share the secret to finding the sweetest strawberries.

If you are new to the farm, please join us promptly for one of the orientation tours below:

WEEK 1:
Saturday, June 14: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm
Tuesday, June 17: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 pm

WEEK 2:
Saturday, June 21: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm
Tuesday, June 24: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 pm

WEEK 3:
Saturday, June 28: 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm
Tuesday, July 1: 1 pm. 3 pm, 5:30 pm

You can come get oriented and pick up your first share on either day (Saturday or Tuesday), whichever day and time works best for your schedule. Tours last about 30 minutes. All adult members of your share who will be regularly enjoying the farm should attend an orientation.

If you are sharing a share by alternating weeks with another household, one household should attend an orientation Week 1 and the other an orientation on Week 2.

If you can’t attend a tour time above, please reach out to us to schedule a time that works for you.

THE 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

U-pick hours: Oriented members can come to the farm any time, 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset, to u-pick and enjoy the farm.

2025 CSA program dates: Our harvest season will run from Saturday, June 14th through Tuesday, December 9th this year.

Where is the farm? The member parking lot is located at 1720 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Slow on Cooper Rd. Out of respect for our neighbors and the many kids and animals that live on Cooper Rd., please drive slow (20 mph)!

Where should I park?: Follow our sign on Cooper Rd. down a short gravel driveway. Please find a parking spot under the solar panels to your left, or on either side of the road in front, or below, the greenhouse.

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!

What should I bring?:

  • Former members, please bring your WCCF tote bag! (New members will be given a new one.)

  • Pint baskets or small containers for strawberries and herbs (if you have some, we will provide a few pint baskets to be used as measures)

  • A vase, bucket, or water bottle to keep your flowers and herbs happy

  • Clippers or secateurs to cut flowers (if you have some)

  • Water / sun hat / picnic supplies if you plan to stay awhile!

Newsletters & email communication: All our important CSA communications are sent through this email address, which is sometimes spam blocked. Please make sure this email address is in your address book so you get important CSA communications. All newsletters and important updates, like this one, are also posted on the Newsletters page of our website weekly.

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Fresh Lorz Softneck Garlic, Dutch Butter Flavored Popcorn, Spinach, Mustard Mix or Arugula, Purple Bok Choi, Dino Kale, Green Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash, Green Little Gem Lettuce, Panisse Oakleaf Lettuce, Pink Ladyslipper Radishes, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Scallions, Carrots from Laguna Farm or Full Belly Farm

U-PICK

Check the u-pick board in the barn for weekly u-pick limits.

  • Albion Strawberries: 1 pint per share this week | The strawberries are in a slow production moment but we expect them to ramp back up in a few weeks. Until then, please savor the first berries of the season and make sure to respect the u-pick limits so that all members get some.

  • Herbs & Edible Flowers: Tulsi, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Calendula, Nasturtium, Pansies/Viola, Stridolo, Lemon Bergamot Bee Balm, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Tarragon, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Culinary Sage, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Vietnamese Coriander, Shiso/Perilla, Catnip, Pineapple Sage, Sorrel, Assorted Mints

  • Flowers! Many perennial flowers and the first of the year’s annuals!

HARVEST NOTES

In this section of the newsletter we offer history, recipes & tips on crops in the share are particularly noteworthy or exciting this week.

  • Fresh Lorz Softneck Garlic: An heirloom softneck variety that was brought to Washington State's Columbia River Basin in the early 1900s by the Lorz family when they emigrated from Italy. This purple-tinged softneck garlic has a robust, spicy flavor that lingers in dishes. These bulbs were just unearthed last week so you will notice green stalks, silky soft inner papers and turgid, crips cloves. We’ve been saving the seed for this variety for the past 7 years.

  • Pennsylvania Dutch Butter-Flavored Popcorn: Quite the name, huh? An excellent popper, it transforms from skinny yellow kernels to beautifully round, brilliantly white popcorn — and it really tastes like butter! Pro-tip: make sure that you store your popcorn in dry conditions, as moist popcorn won’t pop.

    • Making your popcorn: The trick to stovetop popcorn is to use a thick-bottomed pot like a dutch oven, which will distribute the heat evenly and prevent burning. Turn the stove on to medium high and pour in a generous amount of high-heat oil — enough to cover the kernels halfway up. Heat the oil a little bit before pouring in the kernels, then put a lid on and enjoy the fireworks! We like to shake the pot a bit to keep the kernels evenly hot so that each kernel will have time on the heat but not enough to burn. The popcorn is popping perfectly right now, but if you find that your first batch of popcorn isn’t popping well, try drying it out by putting it in a 200 degree oven for little while.

  • Carrots from Laguna Farm & Full Belly Farm: This week we’re bringing in carrots from 2 amazing farms to round out your share. Our proximity to the Laguna means that after a wet winter like this one, we get a late start on planting. We’re looking forward to having our own carrots in the share in a few weeks.

BAKED GOODS IN THE BARN!

We are so delighted to welcome back the two incredible local bakeries that we hosted last year!

  • On Saturdays, Sonoma Mountain Breads will be offering their artisanal croissants for purchase at the Saturday pickups.

  • Zweibel’s will be back with their delicious bagels and pastries for purchase at the Tuesday pickups.

Both bakeries accept payment through Venmo and Zweibel’s also accepts cash.

EASY CaeSAR DRESSING

From Smitten Kitchen

It’s salad season! We love mixing up a batch of this super simple Caesar dressing to make easy and delicious salads with on a moments notice. We’ve scaled the recipe up here to make a full pint of dressing — enough for several days of generous salads, but if you’d rather make a smaller amount, check out the recipe link above. As with all dressing recipes, using high quality ingredients — particularly olive oil and mayonnaise — will make a big difference.

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise

  • 4 small garlic cloves, minced

  • 4 teaspoons worcestershire sauce or 1 to 2 anchovies, minced

  • 4 teaspoons smooth dijon mustard

  • 1/4 cup lemon juice or champagne vinegar

  • 1 cup olive oil

  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth, or measure directly into a pint jar and shake til smooth. Don’t skimp on the salt and pepper; they’re going to wake the whole thing up.

HOW TO STORE YOUR VEGETABLES

We’ve always get questions in the pickup barn about how to best store your produce, so we wanted to offer a few simple tips to help you get the most out of the fresh food we’re growing for you.

  • Keep them enclosed. Vegetables, like all plants, are mainly water, so the quickest way to lose them is to let them desiccate. We recommend keeping all of your produce (with a few exceptions, listed below) in plastic bags or airtight containers. Don’t rely on the crisper drawer in your fridge — it won’t do much to keep things turgid on its own.

  • Keep them cool. Put everything right in the fridge when you get it home. If you find that anything’s wilted on the way home, a brief soak in cold water will do wonders. This is particularly true for u-pick crops like green beans and snap peas that have been picked during the heat of the day.

  • Take off tops and store them separately. Vegetables will continue to transpire after they’ve been picked, so for crops like beets and carrots, it’s best to remove the tops so that the roots don’t wilt as the greens do.

  • Use the most delicate things first. As you’ve probably experienced, there’s a lot of variety in terms of how long different crops will store. Loose greens tend to have a shorter shelf like than whole heads, so plan on using up loose salad mixes and arugula early in the week, and counting on heads of lettuce for later on.

  • Treat your herbs like flowers: While they can also be bagged and put in the fridge, u-pick herbs like basil, dill, marjoram, etc. will be most vibrant and easiest to remember to use if you put them in a jar or vase on the kitchen counter. More delicate herbs like chives would prefer to be refrigerated in a bag.

  • The exceptions: tomatoes, winter squash and cured onions and garlic. Everything in this list would prefer to be kept unbagged on the counter. Tomatoes tend to change texture when refrigerated, and winter squash, cured onions and garlic have all gone through a curing process that enables them to last for a long time in normal household temperatures.

FARMER’S LOG

SUMMER HANDS, SPRING LETTUCE

Our first harvest morning of the year (this morning!) is always a little surreal for us. There is a quite a whiplash for us as we go from a gritty, loud and unkempt planting machine into a tidy community space harvesting and handling delicate Spring produce.

It also makes us reflect…

In this wet flood plain, our first harvestable crops usually mature in time to open the CSA around the first or second week of June. And while the crops of these first shares are indeed spring-like — fresh, and innocent spring onions, green garlic, the most delicate salad greens of the year — we farmers are now like craggy potatoes. Toughened, tan, and bleary eyed from 6 weeks of intense planting.

By the time this CSA opens we have days before finished planting 65% of the bed space we will plant for the entire year: The year’s potatoes, tomatoes, onions, winter squash, peppers, sweet and dry corn, 60% of our carrots, are all in the ground. Indeed, in the time it takes a Red Butter lettuce to go from seedling to salad, the farm, and ourselves, have been transformed. Our irrigation shed — neat and organized on April 1st — now looks like a tornado hit it. We might feel a little bit like that on the inside.

But the fields… the fields! 

The surreality is in the time-delay. When we knelt down this morning to harvest our first Oakleaf Lettuce, we were taken back to when we planted those first beds, bright eyed and bushy tailed — before the intense planting push; before the troubleshooting and pivots; before the good laughs and great conversations and the coming together as a seasoned crew. 

Harvesting this first humble springy harvest share makes us take stock of the magnitude of this year’s plant-out and the mountain of summer and fall bounty we’re about to reap.

All this is just to say that we are very excited to start sharing this harvest season with you. Believe our bleary eyes and tan-skin when we say it will be epic.

Epic-ness cannot be achieved without a gifted and tenacious team.

So please join us in raising a glass, or an Albion Strawberry, to our amazing crew this year.

Our lovely core crew this year, from L to R: Asa, Brent, Henry, Eric (with Onions), Arabella, Aisling, David and Kayta (and Riley! not pictured).

And raise a glass to yourselves, dear members, you were with us the whole way.

Here is to 26 weeks of delicious abundance ahead.

Thank you all for being with us this season. It’s an honor to be farming for you.

See you in the fields,

David & Kayta

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COMPENDIUM OF PAST NEWSLETTERS

For you farm and garden nerds out there, learn how we crop plan, read up on our all-star Strawberry variety, or deep dive into Kayta’s flower garden.

If you’re one of those people that gets hyped for pumpkin spice lattes, Halloween, and Fall vibes even in the late Spring, stoke that fire with an ode to the potato harvest and the winter squash.

We are so lucky to find ourselves farming in yet another wild place here on the Laguna. We can’t wait to share more of the antics of our non-human neighbors with you. For the naturalists out there, read here about a lesson the oak trees taught us, or hear tell of the screaming monkey owlets of Green Valley, Wesley the Weasel, or the fox that welcomed us there.