11/6/24 Meet Your Farmer: Elle
Continuing our series of Meet Your Farmer with Elle this week, getting you to know the people who seed, plant, tend, harvest, pack and delivery your produce. Elle has been working at Singing Frogs part-time a year. She grew up in Sacramento, and spent time cooking and gardening with her mom as a child. She attended CalPoly San Luis Obispo, majoring in Environmental Science. Her love for regenerative farming was sparked by a study abroad trip to Ecuador, where she lived and learned on a regenerative bamboo farm. After this, she spent the rest of her time in college gardening at the Student Experimental Farm, where she and her friends got to explore sustainable farming methods - from planting a food forest to raising chickens and ducks.
Elle then moved to Santa Rosa to work with Farm to Pantry - a great non-profit that aims to reduce food waste in Sonoma County by harvesting excess produce from farms and orchards and redistributing to food insecure community members. Unfortunately, after tearing her ACL in a recreational soccer league (and ending her lucrative soccer career), Elle had to take a break from farming/physically demanding jobs.
Singing Frogs holds a special place in Elle’s heart, because it was where she was able to reconnect with the land and begin farming again, about 10 months after ACL surgery. She feels grateful to work with such an amazing farm team on such special land, where she continues learning and growing daily.
Outside of farming, Elle enjoys hiking and camping with her partner, Brian, and her dog, Lupine. She loves cooking with farm veggies, as well as trying new restaurants around Sonoma County, and is always on the hunt for the best gluten-free food! Elle is also passionate about the intersection of politics, farming, and food justice, and envisions a world where everyone has access to sustainably farmed food that is nourishing to people and planet.
On the farm, Elle is always positive and joins the work of each day with a smile and good energy no matter the challenge. Here she is modeling our full rainbow of colors of harvest knives. She was the vendor at the Occidental Community Farmers’ Market this summer and will pop into other markets but she prefers being on the farm. One of her babies this summer were making beautiful quarts of tomatoes for you.
Produce Notes & Recipes
This Week’s Box
Head Lettuce (Worker Bee)
Bunched Spinach (Worker Bee)
Rainbow Kale (SR) OR Rainbow Chard (WC)
Cauliflower (SR) OR Broccoli (WC)
Delicata Winter Squash
Green Tomatoes
Radishes (Classic) or Cilantro (Family) (Worker Bee)
Family: Arugula (Fledgling Farm)
This week we’re supporting two other local, small scale farmers who are finishing their seasons: Worker Bee Farm and Fledgeling Farm!
We have Lettuce, Spinach, Radishes and Cilantro from Worker Bee Farm. Will Scott runs a farm stand in Freestone and has closed but has a lot of remaining food. We have Arugula from Alice Tibbetts of Fledgeling Farm who is a new farmer after a year farming here and two years on the East Coast. Her CSA finished last week. Check out the PD/Sonoma Magazine article on her from a couple months ago.
The Head Lettuce this week are big heads of Ruby Sky or green Grazion from Worker Bee.
The Spinach is large Bunched Spinach. This may not be ideal for salads but would wonderful cooked. We have Radishes for all Classic Boxes and Cilantro for all Family Boxes (you had Radishes last week). Enjoy your radishes simply sliced on salad or bread with butter. Their greens can also be used similarly to Arugula. Speaking of Arugula we have some bagged Arugula from Alice at Fledgeling Farm just for families. Alice’s farm and CSA is much smaller than ours, but we’ll have a second cut of our first crop and a first cut of our second crop soon!
Once a year, we give out Green Tomatoes. You may cook them green, as in Fried (or baked) Green Tomatoes, or you may let them sit on your counter and ripen. They will not be as tasty as the vine ripened tomatoes we have given you all season, but should still be far better than store tomatoes. If you wish to preserve them as late as possible, wrap them individually in newspaper and store in a cool area of your house (though not the fridge).
I'm not a fan of deep fried anything, so here is a baked version similar to versions of fried green tomatoes I'm finding. Also, a couple years ago, I did this, and just pan fried the breaded tomato slices and that worked well too.
Baked Green Tomatoes (allrecipes.com)
1 c cornmeal
1 Tbs dried dill weed
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
5 medium green tomatoes, thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a medium baking sheet.
In a small bowl, mix the cornmeal, dill, salt and pepper. Dip tomato slices into the mixture, coating both sides. Arrange coated slices in a single layer on a medium baking sheet.
We are so excited to be giving out our first round of winter squash this week. Delicata is well known because the skin is tender enough that you can eat it, saving yourself the hassle of peeling. Below is a simpler recipe of roasting with a yogurt sauce to highlight the flavor and texture.
Roasted Delicata Squash with Middle Eastern Yogurt Sauce (DaisyBeet)
2 sm/1 lg delicata squash, deseeded and cut into 1/4 in rings
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
Yogurt Sauce:
3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 410. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Toss the delicata squash rings in olive oil, cinnamon, and a generous shake of salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until fork tender and beginning to brown.
While the squash roasts, prepare the yogurt sauce. Add all the ingredients to a food processor or blender and combined until smooth and creamy.
To serve, smear a big scoop of the yogurt sauce onto a plate and arrange the delicata rings on top. Add garnish such as fresh dill, pepitas, pomegranates seeds to brighten.
We’re excited for a rotation of Broccoli and Cauliflower this and next week. For Santa Rosa members this week and West County next week. Sarah (Field Manager) share the following recipe… save it for next week if you’re a West County member! She says: I love it because it encompasses a lot of flavors that all get to know each other in the pot. Although it looks like a lot of ingredients, it is a simple recipe and I can imagine you have most (or all) of the ingredients, or easy substitutes already in your fridge.
Potato & Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Olives, Feta and Arugula (Six Seasons Cookbook)
1 pound potatoes
1 pound cauliflower, cut or broken into florets
1/3 cup chopped pitted olives
1/4 cup small red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup bought chopped pickled pepporicini
3 ounces feta
1 handful of arugula leaves, chopped
(we might use spinach instead)
1/3 tsp dried chili flakes
1 tsp dried thyme
Olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Put the potatoes in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and return to the pot.
Smash the potatoes with a fork and crush them and create lots of craves, add 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice and a healthy slug of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss gently. Let cool.
Heat the oven to 375.
Put the cauliflower in a bowl and add 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Toss to coat all the florets and spread them over a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until tender and nicely browned around the edges, 20- 30 minutes. Add the cauliflower to the smashed potatoes.
Add the olives, onion, pickled peppers, thyme, chili flakes to the potatoes and cauliflower. Toss gently, season with more salt and pepper, olive oil, lemon to taste and toss again.
Put the feta in a food processor and pulse until creamy With the motor running add 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the feta to the salad and fold in gently. Add the chopped arugula and fold again. Taste and season. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.