7/19/19 - Week 5 - Middle of the (Planting) Season Musings

THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Rainbow Carrots, Fennel, Olympian Cucumbers, Lemon Cucumbers, Summer Squash and Zucchini, Slicing Tomatoes, Heirloom Tomatoes, Eggplant, Fresh Cabernet Onions, Creole Hardneck Garlic, Mustards & Arugula Salad Mix, Hearts-Aglow Lettuce Mix, Little Gem Lettuces, Red Butter Lettuce and Panisse Oak Leaf Lettuce, Rainbow Chard, Red Russian Kale, Purslane

U-PICK

• English Shelling Peas: See below for tips / One week only! They come and go fast!

• Amethyst Green Beans: See below for tips

• Cherry Tomatoes

• Frying Peppers: Shishito, Black Hungarian, Padrón / See Week 2's newsletter for harvest tips

• Jalapeños: Located below the frying peppers

• Strawberries

• Pickling Cucumbers: 2 gallon season limit * See below for instructions

• Herbs: Italian Basil, Tulsi Basil, Thai Basil, Purple Basil, Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Lemon balm, Lemon Verbena, Perennial Cilantro, Annual Cilantro, French Sorrel, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Shiso, Tarragon, Oregano, Thyme, Camomile, Mints, Dill

• Flowers!

PRESERVING THE HARVEST

A list of the bulk / preservable crops available this week to help you stock your larder!

Pickling Cucumbers: U-pick // 2 gallon season limit

Loose Hakurei Turnips: Still some left.

Loose Radishes: We just cleared out the bed of Pink Lady Slipper Radishes. These will make a beautiful pink brine!

FRESH BREAD THIS WEEK!

Gaby Tiradani is back in action this week and we’ll have her Country Sour loaves available for sale in the barn fresh on Saturday. Gaby bakes small batch, long fermented breads with organic and often locally sources flours. They’re amazing.

PICKLING CUCUMBERS

If you're interested in pickling cucumbers this year, please sign up on the pickling cucumber interest list next to the sign-up sheet in the barn. We'll let you know via email when you're next on the pick list based on order of sign-up. The current season limit is 2 gallons per share.

Picking instructions: Bring something you can estimate 2 gallons with, or one of the white buckets below the sign-in table to pick into. Find the pickling cucumber bed out on the farm marked with yellow flags. They’re in the far left field. Comb through the plants gently, doing your best not to step on the vines or the adjacent bed. The ideal sized pickling cucumber is around 4 inches long and 1 inch thick. Bigger is great. Please don't pick them much smaller than this so they can size up for the next pickers. If you use the farm bucket, please transfer your cukes to another container and put the bucket back below the sign-in table.

Check out Kate Seely’s tried and true pickling cucumber recipe for pickling instructions.

ENGLISH SHELLING PEAS

Fresh English Shelling Peas are not your grandma’s frozen peas. Be sure to pick this week as they will be overripe soon! Pick plump ones (most of them are plump now) rather than thin ones. Thin ones are still filling out. Eat them right out of the pod or cooked. Open them by snapping the little “hat” formerly connected to the vine and pulling down the spine of the pea, opening the pod like a zipper. Check out this amazing Springtime Spaghetti Carbonara recipe from New York Times.

AMETHYST GREEN BEANS

Amethyst green beans are a beautiful purple green bean located next to the frying peppers. Excellent raw or cooked. Pro-tip they turn green when you cook them. Picking tips: When they are just starting to produce it may look like there are none from above. Gently lift up the plants and look underneath. Jackpot!

PURSLANE

We have purslane new to the share this week. Purslane is a formidable weed in farms and gardens but is also a beloved culinary green in Mexico. Purslane has a lemony flavor and succulent texture and contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant. How to eat it? Check out this post at Mexican Food Memories for some recipe ideas or this simple, summery tomato, cucumber, jalapeño, purslane salad.

VOLUNTEER WEDNESDAYS, 8:00-10:00 AM

Interested in some farm therapy? Come out on Wednesday mornings as help tend garden and farm together! Find us in the garden or out in the main fields on Wednesdays from 8:00am 'til 10:00 am. People of all abilities welcome, we’ll find something comfortable for you to do!

REMINDERS

2019 Harvest Pick-up, June 22nd - December 21st.

• Saturdays from 9am - 1pm

• Tuesdays from 1pm - 6pm

  Please fill your bag before the end time so we can pack up on time and rest!

If you ever cannot u-pick something due to illness or injury, please let us know and we can pick for you.

FARMER’S LOG

Middle of the (Planting) Season Musings

Late July is a complex time of year on the farm as Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, and even next season collide and interweave in the fabric of the fields.

The vast majority of what we are harvesting and eating right are crops that were sown and planted in the Winter and early Spring (carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, kales, onions, etc). We can feel the effects of the wet spring and are harvesting the Spring babies who survived the mid-May deluge (hello, Fugly Eggplant!) We are eating a lot of Spring sunlight right now. 

And of course Summer is everywhere. More and more, her sweet tangy fruits and cacophonous colors announce her and surround us. The stout summer squash and zucchini bolstered by last week’s heat wave; the juicy cucumbers and early tomatoes; the frying peppers starting to find their wings and the cherry tomatoes about to do the same; the wrappers crisping up on the garlic; the flamboyant flower garden. We spied a swelling melon the size of a softball today! A lot of the quick greens we are eating (lettuce, mustard greens) etc., will know only Summer, whereas some crops, will pass through on their way to Fall.

Ahh, Fall. In the greenhouses and increasingly in the fields you can hear Fall whispering of riches to come. Kayta seeded a bunch of fall brassicas last week including Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower and Romanesco. The Potatoes are exploding and about to burst into flower. Next door, the Winter Squash have created their own kingdom and are decorating it in flowers and little green fruit kin… ask nicely and they might afford you bare spot to stand in their broad leafed land. In the next kingdom over, golden tassels are starting to adorn the top of the Floriani Red Flint corn.

It’s all a mixture right now. In the bed right next to the lush Spring sown broccoli that we will eat in the summer, we are prepping beds that will provide us through the Fall.

We are even scratching our heads, wondering where on the quilt to sew in next year’s Garlic.

When you step inside this tapestry of time and seeds and growing things this week, we hope you find some yummy treasures to take home with you.

See you in the fields,

David and Kayta

7/12/19 - Week 4 - Compendium

Dear Members,

THIS WEEK'S HARVEST

Some of the yum yums in the share this week

Arugula, Spinach, Little Gem Lettuces, Carmona Butter Lettuce, Bok Choi, Red Russian Kale, Dino kale, Rainbow Chard, Olympian Cucumbers, Summer Squash and Zucchini, Slicing Tomatoes, First Field Heirloom Tomatoes, Pink Ladyslipper Radishes, Scallions, Fresh Cabernet Onions, Freshly Dug Creole Garlic, Baby Rainbow Carrots

U-PICK

• Frying Peppers: Shishito, Black Hungarian, Padrón *See last week's newsletter for harvest tips

• Pickling Cucumbers: *See below for instructions

• Herbs: Italian Basil, Tulsi Basil, Thai Basil, Purple Basil, Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Lemon balm, Lemon Verbena, Perennial Cilantro, Annual Cilantro, French Sorrel, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Shiso, Tarragon, Oregano, Thyme, Camomile, Mints

• Flowers!

Kayta’s study in red bouquet from last week

REMINDERS

U-pick Limits: Please always respect the weekly u-pick limits posted on the board in the barn. They are in place to insure that you, and all the members that pick after you, can get some!

PRESERVING THE HARVEST

*This section of the newsletter is to let you know of bulk or preserving crops available this week to help you stock your larder!

Loose Hakurei Turnips: We're clearing out our first planting of Hakureis and will harvest loose turnips available for pickling. Check out the pickle recipe below from Kate Seely, which can be used to pickle just about anything!

PICKLING CUCUMBERS:

We plant a large bed of pickling cucumbers each year so that members can u-pick them fresh off the vine to take home to pickle! They are starting to produce! If you're interested in pickling cucumbers this year, please sign up on the pickling cucumber interest list next to the sign-up sheet in the barn. We'd love for about 4 people people to pick soon as tomorrow (Saturday)! After that, we'll let you know via email when you're next on the pick list based on order of sign-up. There will be plenty for everyone. The season limit this year will start at 1 gallon of pickling cucumbers per share.

See below for instructions on how to pick pickling cucumbers and a great pickle recipe from CSA member Kate Seely.

Picking instructions: Bring a bag or gallon container from home to pick into. Find the pickling cucumber bed out on the farm. It will match the flag color on the u-pick chalk board. Comb through the plants doing your best not to step on the vines or the adjacent bed. The ideal sized pickling cucumber is around 4 inches long and 1 inch thick. Please don't pick them much smaller than this. Bigger is fine. Please pick big ones so the plant can focus on growing more cukes for the next pickers!

Kate Seely's Amazing Cucumber Pickle Recipe: Kate Seely makes the best homemade pickles we've ever had. She generously shared her secrets below. Thank you, Kate!

For crunchy pickles, Kate has found that the trick is simply to get them pickled as soon after harvesting them as possible. The salted ice water helps, too. People talk about grape leaves and citric acid, but she hasn't really found those to work.

For the Brine:

1:1 Ratio Water : Organic Distilled White Vinegar

1/3 cup pickling salt for every 8 cups liquid

**If you like it a little less vinegary, go 2/3 water : 1/3 vinegar instead of 1:1. Also, you really can use this brine to vinegar pickle any vegetable, like Hakurei turnips**

For Pickles:

Pickling cukes

Garlic

Fresh spicy pepper (a jalapeño would work, but any spicy pepper is great) OR red pepper chili flakes

Yellow mustard seed

Fresh dill (if you don't have fresh, dried is fine)

Peppercorn

Equipment Needed:

Canning Pot

Pint Jars (or Quart if you want to go big!)

New lids for sealing

Tongs and/or can removers

Step One - Soak Cucumbers

Cut cukes, removing ends and sizing the slices to the size of the jars you will use, and set in water, salt and ice. Use about three TBSP of salt for 5 pounds of cukes. Let sit anywhere between 4 and 24 hours.

Step Two- Make Brine

Begin this step when you're ready to pickle. Put the brine measurements into a separate pot and bring to a boil. 1:1 water to white vinegar, and 1/3 cup salt for every 8 cups of liquid. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer.

Step Three - Sterilize Jars

Fill canning pot with water, bring to a boil. To sterilize, wash jars with soap and water, then place in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. Be mindful not to touch the insides of the jars with your hands as that will de-sterilize them. Sterilize lids in a smaller pot as well

Step Four- Fill Jars

Drain cucumbers. Trim them to the length of the jar if you haven't already, if they are not already short enough. Jars should have 1/4 inch of space between liquid and jar top.Pack cucumbers, dill (1-2 sprigs), and garlic (one clove for a pint jar). Really, PACK them in there.

Add spices: Pour 1 tsp yellow mustard seed, 3/4 tsp (or more or less depending on the spice you want, I like them spicy!), 6 peppercorns on top of cucumbers.

Pour brine over pickles, covering them, but leaving 1/4 inch until top of jar.

Remove lid from small pot with tongs, being mindful not to touch lids. Screw on cap so that it is not tight, so that air can escape from jars as you water process them.

Place jars in canning pot and water process for 15 minutes. (If you do not have a canning pot with a metal insert to hold cans, make sure to put a buffer between your glass jars and the bottom of the metal pot, like an old dish towel. Your jars will break if they touch the hot metal. Heck, they might break anyways if you're reusing jars. That's just the way it goes sometimes.)

ENJOY!

WEEDING WEDNESDAYS, 8:00-10:00 am

Interested in some farm therapy? Come hang out with us on a Wednesday mornings as we tend garden and farm beds and take a bite out of weed crime. Great conversation to be had. Find us in the garden or out in the main fields on Wednesdays from 8:00am 'til 10:00 am!

Evening in garden west

FARMER'S LOG

As you know by now, this here Farmer's Log is a journal of whimsical and practical musings and a good way to get to know your farm and us farmers a little better.

We thought we'd offer a little compendium this week, for members old and new, of past Farmer's Logs.

Did you know, Green Valley is really wild place? Read about it here, or hear tell of the mysterious flight of the owlets, oak trees, and one quick little baby turkey!

Have you ever wondered about your farmers' super hero powers and their favorite Spice Girls, when they fell in love with farming, what they talk about in the field, or what a week in the life is like?

Ever wondered if there is a ghost on the farm?

The answers to your questions are at your fingertips as we finally got around to uploading old Farmer's Logs to the website.

Enjoy the stories and as always...

See you in the fields,

David & Kayta

7/5/19 - Week 3 - The Star Crossed Garlic

Of all the magical crops we grow here at Green Valley Community Farm, perhaps no other is as tough as garlic.

The beautiful bulbs curing in the barn right now are a testament to this toughness. This year's garlic crop had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it.

Pictured above is the smoky November day last year that this year's garlic crop was planted. The smoke in the air, from the Camp Fire, an omen of the road ahead for those little cloves...

After a smoky but sweet garlic planting party with CSA members, we like many farmers, tucked our garlic in for the winter under a nice thick layer of straw mulch. Then we left. We closed the gates. The Sun went south. The Winter constellations turned overhead. And after a month or so, green spears of a vigorous young garlic cadets shot up through the mulch in neat little rows. "Huzzah!" said we.

Then came the wild turkeys.

We began to notice large flocks of our resident wild turkeys waddling through the garlic patch on their morning and evening farm meal walks. "Probably eating pill bugs and seeds," thought we, and let them be. But on a crop walk one chilly morn, we realized their methodical scratching was raking and heaping up mounds of straw upon our baby garlic spears, snapping and contorting them this way and that and blanching them asunder. We uncovered the unlucky ones and returned home, concerned. Lo and behold, every morning and every evening the turkeys returned, their peaceful mealtime a slow moving rampage on our young garlic crop. We yelled at them, we chased them, we threw things at them... to no avail, for pill bugs and seeds, they returned. Defeated, Kayta and I removed the mulch from the garlic beds into the pathways. The garlic straightened out, greened up, and stretched toward the waxing sunlight.

Then came the rain.

We need not tell tale of the squalls that were unleashed upon the garlic this winter -- of the constant wet, of the 25 year storm that flooded Guerneville -- for they were unleashed upon you too. Indeed, for much of the winter our garlic, who like relatively dry feet just like the rest of us, looked like they were growing in a rice paddy. And yet they persisted, growing and growing taller and stronger... in a muddy swamp.

Then came the heat.

Spring did finally come, but just for a few days before a nice 90 degree bake-off in May. But the garlic, especially the Creole garlic, said it didn't mind the heat-whiplash, "It reminds me of Spain," it said, and grew faster.

Then came the rain (again) and the fungus.

Who ever heard of 5 inches of rain in late May? This garlic has. The dank conditions created by the freak deluge in late May this year caused a minor outbreak of an allium fungal rust mostly reserved for Pacific Northwestern garlic patches. While potentially crop threatening when garlic is young, our mighty garlic crop, nearly fully grown by then, brushed off the rust as it filled out its cloves.

Then came the cement.

With bulbs formed and harvest time come, your farmers looked anxiously toward getting this star-crossed garlic out of the ground and into the safety of the barn. But the fair soil where we lay our scene, the very soil our garlic called home, void of mulch thanks to the turkeys, super-saturated thanks to the squalls of winter, then baked, then saturated again, then baked again, had hardened into a formidable substrate more akin to cement than soil. The mere thought of manually extracting 3,600 bulbs of garlic out of this substrate sent anticipatory shivers down your farmers spines.

Then came Jack...

We reached out to our kind neighbor Jack Tindle, who is a fancy old car mechanic and has a way with metal. Out of lesser parts from lesser needed tractor implements. Jack welded us a garlic lifter in approximately 3 hours on Wednesday morning. The rest is history.

On Thursday, we easily pulled the cloves, nudged out of the Earth by the lifter, and held them in our hands; vulnerable; dusty white; like pale moons. And smiling like nothing ever happened...

May this year's garlic bring you strength and health in all that life throws at you.

See you in the fields,

David & Kayta

Safe and sound at last!