6/3/26 Farmer Notes at the cusp of June

Welcome new members! Today we have our third round of new members joining us for the year. When I go off the farm or have a call with another farm the inevitable question comes of… how’s this year going? My answer this far…

The farm is rocking! This year we have a particularly rocking crew with more structure and systems than ever before. Our Farm Manager Sean is really in his stride and the quality of our produce is top notch. By his side we have Bobby as Assistant Manager who focuses on keeping systems rolling from our crop plan, to nursery to staff knowledge. He’s the gourmet chef of the compost piles. There’s Maddie who’s a field lover, she loves cover crops and our lower fields. There’s Leo, who runs the Santa Rosa Farmers’ Market, focuses on a smooth CSA pack, infrastructure, irrigation and more. There’s Sam, who has a keen eye for field work and cultivation who can lead field tasks. There’s Amaia, who manages the nursery making sure all our babies are well cared for and helps make sure the CSA gets packed and delivered smoothly. There’s Kayce, who’s our restaurant liaison and great at quality harvest but also does most of our direct seeding. There’s Maggie, who loves a little bit of everything, a Jane of all trades but maybe a focus on agroecokogy. There’s Sharon who’s and focused on flowers. There’s Carolina who’s new as of February and learning so much at record speed, she just started out as the Occidental Farmers’ Market vendor last Thursday (it just opened up!). There is Marlena who is a young summer intern in college. Then there’s me, who through it all and who holds things together be it office, the planning, the shopping and the ecological and global thinking with the emotional support and consulting of Paul. I should also mention our son Lucas (who’s graduating high school this week!) who helps so much with the landscape management. Daughter Annalisa who pops in with flowers and photography (see this week’s photos). Then we have two wonderful guys Alejandro & Baldomero who help on weekends with property management.

Yes, this farm is rocking and instead of the soil or the plants I started by talking about the people because without the people this farm is nothing.

Now let me write about the plants that feed us throughout the year. With the planning, tending and care of all the humans listed above I would say that the plants are humming this year. We have more CSA members than ever before, more restaurants and our farmers’ markets are busy as usual.

Last week and this week planted a great majority of our winter squash. In fact Monday alone we had a huge day and planted our third largest field, Field 10. It is the lowest field on the farm, late to dry out and surrounded by hedgerows, ponds and wildlife. Last fall it had our autumn brassicas in it, then a winter cover crop. But this Monday it turned into 880 bed feet of Winter Squash, that’s over 500 Red Kuri, Delicata, Honeynut and Black Futsu plants plus a very big bed of cabbage and four beds of beets. That’s a lot of food! Monday.

Last week we also seeded our first round of Brussels Sprouts! But we also spent quite a bit of time trellising our summer tomatoes and planning for trellising more cucumbers, peppers and more! We’re watching our garlic closely. The bulbs are starting to form, we’ve turned off the water on our soft necks and and we’re watching for scapes to start forming on the hard neck garlics. We’re harvesting spring crops, caring for the summer crops season and prepping for winter plants..

Thanks for reading. A reminder that we have keep our newsletters on our blog so you can look back, some recent articles include:

5/27 Major notes on Lettuces

5/20Natural Infrastructure & lots on Fresh Herbs

5/13 Snail of Approval from Slow Food plus how to reach rotations and recipes for Cabbage

4/22 Earth Day Musings & Fennel recipes

4/15 Lots of Logistics! Share Sizes and More.

This Week’s Box

Lettuce Leaf M ix

Kale: Red Russian Kale (SR) OR Toscano Kale (WC)

Cauliflower

Cabbage (SR) OR Summer Squash (WC)

Walnuts

Herb: Parsley (SR) OR Genovese Basil (WC)

Family: Kolibri Lettuce & Fennel

Produce Notes & Recipes

We have two changes in the box from Friday’s email. We really try for our Friday email with anticipated harvest to be true but occasionally there are last minute changes. This hasn’t happened in a long time and honestly it’s Elizabeth’s doing. She’s usually not on harvest management and so didn’t have her head fully wrapped around aspects. Sean was on vacation last week and honestly Elizabeth was probably holding more than she should have.

BUT we have some great slight swaps for you. Instead of heads of lettuce (with the heat they didn’t look good) we have Lettuce Leaf Mix for you. Note: for light greens in the CSA we use paper bags. If left in too long they can suck the life out of light greens so get the greens out ASAP and put them in a better container in your fridge.

Everyone has Cauliflower today rather than a rotation with Broccoli. Yesterday when we saw how the Cauliflower had grown over the weekend we decided we needed to harvest much more than we anticipated or we would lose it. Many of your heads of cauliflower have a kiss of purple. Wonder why?The color comes from anthocyanins, the same healthy pigments found in blueberries. When developing cauliflower heads are exposed to sunlight, especially during cool weather, they can blush purple. It's completely natural, perfectly edible, and a reminder that cauliflower and purple cauliflower are more closely related than they look.

The Cauliflower is great steamed and roasted but we’ve also found the we really enjoy it lightly cooked, cooled as a salad. This weekend I made one where we cut into small florets, blanched for 90 seconds and then served mixed with brown rice and lots of herbs (in our case scallions, mint and cilantro) plus lime juice and olive oil. Here’s another cauliflower recipe.

Kale and Roasted Cauliflower Salad (Full Belly Farm)

Leftovers get better each day! Salad will keep 3-4 days.

1 medium cauliflower, cut into small bite-sized florets
1 Tbs olive oil
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 ½ c. cooked farro (or grain of your choice, wheat berries, barley, wild rice, quinoa or sub lentils or garbanzo beans) from ½ c dry farro
2 c. chopped kale
⅓ c. raisins, golden raisins or dried currants
½ c. chopped scallions
½ c. toasted nuts or seeds: sliced almonds, or walnuts, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds
optional: ¼-½ chopped cilantro or Italian parsley 

Dressing

3 Tbs olive oil
2 1/2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs maple syrup
1 tsp ground turmeric (or fresh, finely grated)
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 clove garlic, grated or finely minced

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

2. Place dry farro in a medium pot of ample, salted water, bring to a boil, and simmer gently (like you would pasta) until tender yet still toothsome, roughly 20-30 minutes. Drain.

3. Cut cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Place in a large mixing bowl and toss with olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt and a few twists of cracked pepper. Mix well and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Roast in the oven until golden and tender, about 25-30 minutes, giving a stir halfway through.
   Make the turmeric dressing: combine all dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and add the raisins to the dressing to soak.

4. Tear the kale leaves from their stems, then tear or cut them into small pieces and place them in the same bowl you used for the cauliflower. Drizzle with ½ teaspoon olive oil and a pinch of salt and massage for one minute to soften. Add the scallions, almonds, and farro. When the cauliflower is fork-tender, add it to the bowl, and add the dressing with the raisins. Toss to coat well. Toss in fresh herbs if using.

5. Serve salad warm, or chill for later. Great either way!

The Walnuts in this week’s box are from our friends at Double A Walnuts. This is two brothers Alan and Art, we’ve been long time friends with Alan (previously he was an owner of the beloved Sonoma Compost company and currently he’s president of Farm Trails). They are certified organic and the farm is regenerative and building better and better soil each year. They are based in Forestville but the farm is in Colusa. They farm these regeneratively and the photos in this week’s email have pictures of their walnuts and cover crops. These are raw Chandler walnuts. We keep them in the fridge to keep them fresh. They are amazing raw, baked or added to oatmeal. Try some Candied Walnuts on your salad this week!

Today you’re just getting a 1/4 lb to give you a taste and diversify your box. We sell 1/2 lb and 1 lb through our add-ons year round for them.

Extra Shares

Flower Share: 🌸 Sweat Pea Focus

Lettuce Share:  Kolibri Lettuces 🥬

Bunched Greens Share: Red Russian Kale

Herb Share: Mint

Eggs: 🥚