4/17/24 Farm Events, New Members, Website, India
We had a delightful time welcoming CSA families onto the farm to this past Sunday at our CSA Member Event. We recognize the weather wasn’t optimal and so we had small groups.
We had fun learning about bluebird nests, looking for insects, but also learning about our farming practices, checking out the produce and much more. Surprising, one young CSA member has learned a secret of our farm, we host an amazing number of 4-leaf clovers. She hunts for them when she picks up on Wednesdays. We do plant a lot of clovers in our roadways but aside from that we have no idea why we have this blessing. She herself found 17 four leaf clovers (and a new friend found at least a dozen) plus they found ONE 5-LEAF CLOVER! That is the biggest news of the farm this week.
A big shout out to long time CSA member Carol who collaborated with Elizabeth to make this event happen and had of so many ideas. She educated so many of us on not only pollinator friendly plantings, but host plants. Plus she brought in new bird houses, and we explored our old ones and discussed the importance of these secondary cavity nesters.
If you didn’t get to join us but wish to…
We plan to host another CSA member day in June or July and hope to have you join.
April 27th we’re doing a farm tour for Bodega Land Trust (email them to join)
May 4th we’ll host two farm tours for Farm Trails Spring Tours (join through them)
May 12th Public Farm tour (Mother’s Day and Moms will have a special treat) - email Charlie to RSVP
May 19th Public Farm tour- email Charlie to RSVP
More to come!
We’re thrilled to welcome 17 New Members this April 17th! This is our first group of new members for 2024. We will have a second group starting May 1st and a third group June 1st based on where everyone was on the waiting list. We are waiting for the things to settle and may yet open up a few spots on the waitlist but are not there quite yet.
We have a new CSA Member Website Interface! The CSAware software designers have been working on this and I’ve been so busy I missed the live date, it was yesterday! But it looks great. This should make shopping for add-ons easier, especially from mobile devices. As always from your Membership Dashboard you can place boxes on hold, view/modify your subscription with pick-up site and share size, see how many remaining credits you have, edit contact information and payment methods and check pick-up information.
New members, I apologize, I recommended you go onto your Membership Dashboard and learn about it last week and now it’s slightly different. The functionality, however, is all the same.
We have noticed a couple of minor hiccups, if anyone has a strange hiccup, don’t hesitate to just email me right away (or call if it’s urgent).
India is having a major impact on our farm of late. The most major impact is a long term farm visitor Gayatri who is a no-dig farmer in the Nilgiri Hills in the south of India for an extended period to learn from us. The Nilgiris are an area of elevation that has a similar enough in climate to us in Sonoma County that she grows many of the same crops. The British had a high of interest in this area because they preferred the climate and it was ideal for tea. They installed a tremendous amount of tea plantations, most of which are very ecologically destructive. She is not only farming no-dig but building an ecological food forest and writing about her work. If you have interest, read one of her recent articles “Dig No Further: Renewing the Soil and the Self” or “Big Green Lies”. Also, follow her on Instagram @gayatriganesh7, she posts lots of fun stuff. Welcome Gayatri.
Additionally, we’ve had quite the slew of crew member travel including two who were gone two and six weeks to travel and attend weddings in India: Ashyln and Sean.
Produce Notes & Recipes!
This Week’s Box
Red Butter Lettuce
Napa Cabbage
Rainbow Chard
Mixed Beets
Hakurei Salad Turnips
Chandler Walnuts (Double A)
Oregano
Family: Chicory Mix
We have a wonderful box for you this week!
We have Hakurei Salad Turnips and they are devine right now! So super tender. These are amazing raw so honestly I recommend just munching on them. Yesterday at our crew lunch we sliced them lengthwise with stems attached to dip into a miso yam dip, but honestly they can be eaten this way raw. Enjoy, they are a spring treat!
Yes, they are amazing roasted too, but this first harvest of them is so buttery and delicious, I feel that raw is the way to go here.
For the last three years we’ve enjoyed partnering with Double A Walnuts they are outstanding. If you want more, we try to always keep them stocked and you can get through Add-Ons. They are run by two brothers-in-law (Alan & Art). The first is an owner of the former Sonoma Compost… the best compost Sonoma County ever had that was run out of operation due to some pretty bad politics. Sonoma Compost was part of getting our soil health jump started to the amazing place it is today and we’re ever grateful to Alan Siegle and he late business partner Will Bakx. Alan lives in Forestville but their family orchard is in Colusa, they’re starting to become known for some of their regenerative, soil-positive work.
Double A’s Chandler Walnuts are non-pasturized so keep them in the fridge. Enjoy them fresh or toast them and put them on your salads. We find these smooth walnuts are some of the best we’ve ever had and we carry them as an add-on throughout the year. When Alan was delivering some recently he shared how this year the price for wholesale walnuts has dropped precipitously and he’s very much looking for new local outlets. As such we thought this was a fun win-win to include in your boxes and hope you’ll agree. (And if you know of any chefs, bakeries or restaurants that could use such delicious walnuts, let us know!)
A couple times a spring we love to send you some fresh Oregano. This herb is lovely this time of year, and so very full of flavor and nutrients! It also does amazing dried, so please dry whatever you don’t use fresh, it’s much better than the store bought oregano, I’m still using ours from last spring and it’s full of flavor. I just leave it on the counter for a few days until fully dry, crumble and put into an herb jar. It is super nutrient dense, especially in vit K and is highly anti-microbial and anti-oxidant. I add fresh or dried oregano to our scrambled eggs whenever anyone is sick in our family. It is great with Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines. You need 2-3 times more fresh than dried oregano. It has a very strong flavor so goes well with other strong flavors, here are some ideas (most from thekitchn.com):
Oregano + Chicken: roasted, baked, poached or grilled. Try whisking minced oregano into a marinate or stuff whole springs inside chicken before roasting
Herbed Dinner Rolls: either by itself or with other fresh herbs, mincing a few tablespoons and kneading into dough makes for a lovely flavor (and aroma!)
Burger Seasoning: a tablespoon or two worked into ground meat
Oregano + Beans: chop a few tablespoons and add to a pot of home cooked beans in the last 15 min of cooking and it will infuse the whole pot with the earth oregano flavor
Oregano Pesto: this makes a particularly robust and savory pesto, drizzle over salad, toss with roasted vegetables or brush on flatbreads.
Oregano + Beets: roast beets with butter, white wine and fresh oregano, wrapped in foil, or try a beet salad (see below).
Beet Salad with Oregano, Pecans, and Goat Cheese (Fine Cooking)
3-4 medium-large beets (a combination)
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. aged balsamic vinegar
Sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 oz. soft goat cheese, crumbled
1 Tbs. chopped fresh oregano
1/4 cup chopped lightly toasted pecans (or how about walnuts!)
If the beets have leaves and stems, trim off the leaves and all but 1/4 inch of the stems. Wash the beets. In a large saucepan or stockpot fit with a steamer basket, steam the beets until a paring knife enters them easily, 30 to 45 minutes, depending on their size. Set aside until cool enough to handle but still warm.
Peel the beets; the skin will rub right off. Trim and discard the tops and tails and cut the beets into thick wedges. Transfer the beets to a large serving bowl and drizzle with the olive oil and vinegar. Season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle the goat cheese, oregano, and pecans over the beets and serve.
We have a lovely bunch of Mixed Beets including Red, Golden and Chioggia this week. These are the last of our overwintered beets (planted last October), so enjoy them until our spring beets come in. We love cooking all three together to get a diversity of flavor and nutrition. Also, remember the Beet Greens are very healthy. They are relatives of Chard so we strongly recommend just adding your Beet Greens to your Rainbow Chard bunch to make a much bigger bunch.