8/5/26 SFFs 2026 Tomato Line Up
2026 Tomato Line Up!
It’s time to give you our 2026 Tomato Line up. Everyone has a quart that includes at least either a couple heirlooms.
We farm in the cool Atascadero Valley bottom. We’re much cooler than most of Santa Rosa or even Sebastopol. This year has been warm, which is good for tomatoes. But still, we’re generally cool. As such, early on we trialed over 50 types of tomatoes with a focus on early and cool tolerant tomatoes and continue to do trials. Our older varieties often have Russian names, they have cooler climates and therefore those tomatoes do amazing for us here. This morning would be a perfect example, it was 45 degrees as we started harvest. This year we’ve spent more time than many a year pruning our tomato plants and so fruits are larger. We’ll see if this will be a win-win at the end of the season.
Red Slicers: We grow Estiva and New Girl hybrids. Plus Moskvich (an heirloom). These are your basic red tomatoes you’d slice up in a salad, on a burger or sandwich or for a Caprese Salad.
We love the orange Dr Wyche so we’ve planted quite a few. This tangerine-orange beefsteak is the most productive beefsteak we have (generally they love heat rather than our cool). It has a smooth texture and tropical, sweet taste. Slightly acidic. Dr John Wyche saved it.
Prudens Purple is an early Brandywine, one of the few we can get to ripen in our cool valley bottom. These fruits are more pink than purple and have a sweet heirloom flavor. In our crew taste test this was the favorite this year. A few of you have these today.
Cherokee Purple by far the heirloom we’re asked about the most common. And we agree they’re amazing. A pre-1890 Cherokee Indian Heirloom they are deep dusky purple-pink color with superb rich flavor. Classic old-time tomato flavor.
Mountain Spirit Bi-Color Hybrid Swarm was a trial for us last year and ended up being our favorite tomato! Yellow/red bi-color (sliced they have a beautiful red streaking) with low acid that took selecting many varieties to produce (this is what swarm in their name refers to).
Berkeley Tie Dye has the right balance of sweet and acid! We love this heirloom for its green stripes and dark pink flesh. A favorite heirloom from Wild Boar Farm in Napa.
San Marzanos are a sauce tomatoes of all time, with Old World look and taste. They originate from Parma, Italy, developed in the 1950s. These WILL NOT be mixed into your Tomato Quarts but we have them on the Add-On store.
Marnero and Margold are new to us. We're growing them indoors, they are the reason we've been having so many tomatoes so early. They are Hylooms: hybrid varieties that expresses both the improved qualities of a modern hybrid, along with many of the desirable qualities of an heirloom. Marnero is dark purple-brown beefsteak with much of the flavor of a Cherokee Purple, but insane vigor. I can't tell them apart unless I know where it was harvested from. Margold is a beautiful yellow-orange beefsteak streaked and marbled with red, closely related to the Striped German, and has that same sweet, fruity, low-acid character. Thus far this season they have not had the most amazing flavor but that's because they have been irrigated. 2 weeks ago we started weaning them. All our tomatoes can be grown without water once established and in fact have much greater flavor.
Walk-In & Fire Update
Our Walk-In is FIXED!!! Read last week’s write up for the story of this critical piece of farm infrastructure and the issues we were having. We hope the lack of it didn’t affect the quality of last week’s produce but it may well have a bit. The first AC we receive was indeed a lemon because when we received the second (same model), we plugged it in & it worked like a charm. Thank goodness!
The Woodside Fire at Salt Point created probably the worst smoke we’ve ever had on this farm. We hit 800-1400 AQI on Thursday evening. It is not a big fire but the smoke came straight at us. Kudos to Carolina who was selling at the Occidental Farmers Market Thursday night as it got worse and worse (it was not 800 but it was when she got home and she and Elizabeth unpacked with N95s and went quickly into air filtered indoor spaces. We canceled work Friday (with pay) and the Saturday market. Then we had an amazing crew who came in a few hours Saturday to harvest for the Sunday market!!
This Week’s Box
Reno Romine Lettuce
🌽 Bi-Color Sweet Corn 🌽
Mixed Beets (SR) OR Carrots (WC)
Summer Squash (SR) OR Cucumbers (WC)
Mixed Tomato Quarts
Herb: Genovese Basil (SR) OR Parsley (WC)
Family: Broccoli & Cegolaine
Produce Notes & Recipes
We’re thrilled to have 🌽 Bi-Color Sweet Corn for all CSA members. In our opinion bi-color is the best. Bi-color corn was first developed by crossing traditional yellow and white corn varieties to get the rich, sweet flavor of yellow with the delicate tenderness of white. Sadly this week we have the lowest number of CSA boxes as so many members are on vacation and missing this summer treat.
You might notice a small visitor at the tip of your ear. We have cut the tips off because of them. These tiny caterpillars are actually the larvae of the corn earworm moth. While they’re not ideal dinner guests, their presence is a powerful sign that your corn hasn’t been sprayed with chemical pesticides. On our regenerative farm, we welcome a little imperfection as proof of ecological balance and clean food. Simply snap or cut off the tip if needed. Note: You’ll often notice in the grocery store that organic corn is sold with a cut top, rather than tassels, it’s exactly for this reason, to cut off any potential corn worm.
This corn is so sweet we usually barely cook. This means boiling only enough to warm them or grilling them. When grilling we prefer partly shucking (pulling out silks) and soaking in water for 20 minutes and then grilling for 20 minutes. The soaked corn leaves keep the kernels from burning.
Farm Manger Sean here on the farm made the following recipe and said it is a new favorite.
Creamy Corn-Milk Pasta with Tomatoes, Basil & Optional Summer Squash
3 ears fresh sweet corn
12 oz campanelle, orecchiette or other short pasta
2 Tbs butter, divided
1 small shallot, finely chopped
½ serrano or other hot pepper, finely chopped, optional
1 summer squash, cut into small cubes, optional
2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes
½ cup packed fresh basil, torn
½ cup grated Parmesan
Salt and black pepper
Using the large holes of a box grater, grate all 4 ears of corn over a large bowl, grating down to the cobs. Scrape the cobs with the back of a knife to release every last bit of juice. You should have a sweet, juicy corn pulp—your “corn milk.”
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil, add the four stripped cobs and cook ten minutes to flavor the water. Now cook the pasta until just shy of al dente. Reserve about 1½ cups pasta water before draining.
Meanwhile, melt 1 Tbs butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. If using summer squash, add it and sauté 3–5 minutes, until lightly browned but still firm. Add the shallot and hot pepper and cook another 2 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the grated corn and all its juices. Cook gently for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add about ½ cup pasta water. The natural starch from the corn will quickly turn the mixture creamy.
Add the drained pasta and remaining 1 Tbs butter. Toss over medium-low heat, adding more pasta water as needed, until the corn sauce is silky and coats the pasta.
Remove from the heat and fold in the tomatoes, Parmesan and most of the basil. Season generously with salt and black pepper. Add another splash of pasta water if needed—the sauce will continue to thicken as it sits.
Serve immediately with the remaining basil and additional Parmesan.
Why grate the corn? Grating fresh corn releases its sweet juice and natural starch. When heated with a little pasta water, it creates an amazingly creamy sauce without any cream.
Extra Shares
Flower Share: 🌸 Sunflower & Dahlia in Focus
Lettuce Share: Red Cherokee + Gem Lettuces 🥬
Bunched Greens Share: Toscano Kale 🌱
Herb Share: Dill
Summer Pint Share: Red Cherry Tomatoes
Eggs: 🥚