6/19/24 North Bay Farmer Gathering

There is a wonderful group called North Bay Farmer, started by a farmer Annie and friends in 2019. It is purely a farmer support group of now about 200 farmers and farm workers in the North Bay. The two main activities of this group are, an email list serve and monthly gatherings. The emails are great, the last was someone trying to find homes for 100 geese. The monthly social/educational gatherings are hosted by a different farm each month with a potluck and short farm tour.

Singing Frogs Farm hosted the North Bay Farmers gathering last night. We had around 70 farmers from Longer Table, Coyote Family, Open Field, Three Springs, Front Porch, Beet Generation, Fledgling, Filigreen, Paul’s Produce, Strong Arm, Little Wing, Chiatri de Laguna, Little Saint, Yagi Sisters, Shone, Costal Land & Livestock, CAFF and a few others plus of course crew from Singing Frogs.

First off the food at these gatherings is amazing! Farmers all bring their best. But the company is even better, we dive deep into discussing the joys and the troubles.

Traditionally the farm host gives a farm tour. Farmer Elizabeth led the tour. It was a different tours, for it’s size, but also sharing with your local colleagues is quite a different thing than most groups, they really know and see what’s really happening. But we had great questions about hedgerows, weed management, nutrient density, and much more. I know many of us have appreciated going to other farms locally and learned lots.

Thankfully, there are not enough of us growing food in the North Bay, and there is an overall great spirit of collaboration amongst farmers. What a blessing.

Of Cucumber Beetles and Predatory Insects

One thing we learned last night is  that most farmers locally are having a terrible time with Cucumber Beetles. We also are having a hard time with them. They are affecting our Chard, Cucumbers and a few of our flowers worst. So please note that today’s Rainbow Chard is quite lacy. Also, some of the Cucumbers have some scaliness to the skin. Sorry about that. It is cosmetic. It does not affect the flavor. For the cucumbers just peel them to remove.

Cucumber Beetles are a normal plague this time of year. There are two types. The spotted is much more common, but the striped can be worse as it can spread bacterial wilt, a plant disease. Thankfully we almost exclusively have the spotted. Many people at first think “oh a light green lady bug”, but  no… cucumber beetle is foe rather than friend.

We had them terribly our first couple of years when we were tilling. As we stopped tilling, as we increase our soil heath and especially our soil biology the became less and less of a problem. You see, they lay their eggs in the soil and so predatory soil biology keeps them somewhat in check. Yes, we do still have a bump of them in late spring  (we need prey to feed our predators) but we’ll just keep on building the soil biology.

On the plus side, we’ve been working with our UC Extension agent, an amazing woman named Ellie Andrews who is testing soil arthropods along with an arthropod specialist at UC Davis trying to learn more about predation, especially in no-till systems. Last week when she collected samples from 10 different sites on the farm she found a plethora of beneficial arthropods! We’re waiting for them to be classified to learn more about them.

Produce Notes & Recipes!

This Week’s Box

Red Butter Lettuce

Rainbow Chard

Bulb Fennel

Green Cabbage

Summer Squash (SR+Russell) OR Cucumber (SFF+Harmony)

Genovese Basil (SR) OR Mint (WC)

Garlic Scapes

Family: Arugula (Fledgling Farm)

We have a second round of Garlic Scapes for you today. Please check out the June 5th newsletter for some basic information on them if they’re new to you. Last night at the farmer gathering I made the following hummus and it was delightful. In enjoying garlic scapes I learned that they are amazing slightly blanched, so I did such before making the below recipe.

Garlic Scape Hummus, No Tahini (Umaigirl)

1 15.5- ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ c thinly sliced garlic scapes OR 4 medium garlic cloves, chopped
¼ c freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
¾ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp sweet Hungarian paprika

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender, with the liquids on the bottom.

2. Blend until completely smooth.

3. If you like, you can dress it up for a party by swirling it with the back of a spoon and garnishing with some olive oil, flaky sea salt, paprika, and thinly sliced scapes (or herbs of your choice).

Families have Arugula from Fledgling Farm. Fledgling Farm is brand new this year, started by SFF Alum Alice (she was with us all last year). This young farmer had the desired to start her own farm and was able to find a good farm land lease at Green Valley Mill & Farm and is starting a no-till CSA. She needed something besides light greens, for her first CSA box last week and so her members got the same Bulb Fennel you have in today’s box and we traded for this Arugula (of which she has plenty but not enough for all CSA Members). Yay Alice! We all cheer her on!

We have some beautiful, crunchy and sweet heads of Cabbage for you. These go great with the Bulb Fennel, here is a simple recipe.

Green Cabbage and Fennel Slaw (Martha Stewart)

2 Tbs sherry vinegar or cider vinegar
1 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup raisins
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 fennel bulb, with fronds
1/2 head green cabbage (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped, toasted

1. In a medium bowl, combine vinegar, oil, and raisins. Season dressing with salt and pepper, and set aside.

2. Cut off and reserve 1/4 cup leafy fennel fronds; discard stalks. Using the large holes of a box grater, coarsely grate fennel bulb and cabbage. Transfer fennel fronds, fennel, cabbage, and walnuts to bowl with dressing. Season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine.

We have a lot of Cucumber plants but they’re coming in slowly so we’re continuing our rotation with Summer Squash. We have Cucumbers for all picking up on the Farm and Harmony Farm Supply. If that’s you, I really recommend using the cucumbers and Mint together. A salad, a raita or yogurt dip, or even as a drink!

Cool Cucumber Salad (New Basics Cookbook via member Torina)

2 cucumbers

½ tsp coarse (kosher) salt

1 c plain low-fat yogurt

1 Tbs olive oil

2 tsp white wine vinegar

salth and fresh ground pepper

2 Tbs chopped fresh mint

mint sprigs for garnish

1. Peel cucumbers, cut in ½ lengthwise, and remove seeds. Slice halves into crescents. Lay on towels, sprinkle with salt and refrigerate uncovered for 1 hour.

2. Remove cucumbers from the refrigerator and pat dry.

3. Combine yogurt, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and mint in small bowl. Blend thoroughly, and toss with the cucumbers. Decorate with radishes and mint sprigs and serve immediately.

Pasta with Smashed Zucchini Cream (101cookbooks via Member Sarah B)

Use your favorite noodles here, long or short. I used bucatini here, but also love stubby shapes with grippy ridges.

8 ounces dried pasta

3-4 medium zucchini (2 lbs), washed

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

6-8 medium cloves garlic, grated on microplane

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese

1 cup basil, thinly sliced

black pepper

toasted almond slices

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water well, and boil pasta per package instructions. Drain, reserving some pasta water, and set aside.

2. In the meantime, slice the zucchini in half lengthwise and use a spoon to remove most of the seeds. Cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, a minute or so. Stir in the chopped zucchini and 1 1/3 cups water, cover, and simmer until the zucchini absorbs most of the water and softens, roughly 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat, and carefully, with a fork or (even better) a potato masher, smash the zucchini until creamy.

3. Transfer the zucchini to a large serving bowl. Add most of the cheese and most of the basil, and lots of pepper. Stir in the pasta, and a splash of the pasta water if you want to thin it out at all. Taste, and add salt if needed. Finish by topping with lots of toasted almonds, and the remaining cheese and basil.