11/12/25 November Field Notes, Big Animals Shifts and Winter CSA News
It’s been a busy week. Not only are did we plant 490 bed feet of garlic this week, we planted more chicories, lettuces, Fava Beans for next May, cover crop and many early spring flowers including Ranunculus and Anemone, Larkspur, Snapdragons and more. We also cleared many of the Broccoli and Cauliflower plants you’ve been getting to make way for cover crop before any floods we might have.
We also pulled more eggplant and pepper plants hence an ode to summer in today’s box with these summer hold outs. And we have cleared beds and beds of winter squash and early fall brassicas to make way for cover crops and be prepared for any flood this winter brings.
It feels like November! And no, we’re not slowing down yet.
Big Animal Shifts
We have some major animal news on the farm this week as last Thursday we welcomed two Alpacas onto the farm (a 6 year old male re-named Black Futsu and a 12 year old female re-named Red Kuri). They are super sweet and we realize how much we have missed Charlie the Llama since he passed 6 years ago. Their gentle nature is just amazing.
We added these animals to our flock, because our flock didn’t feel flock. With Cauli’s sudden death 2 months ago, and old Mocha really declining it left two siblings (Roma and Flower) that felt more like two individuals than a flock and had a weird social dynamic. Plus we needed more mouths to graze.
At the moment the alpacas are timid and need some human interaction before we can lead them to pastures.
Then sadly Sunday morning (sooner than we anticipated) our old matron Mocha the Goat finally let us know she was done. She got ill Thursday and by Sunday morning could not stand. She was 15 years old (a goodly age for a goat). She has truly been with us through so much. Mocha was brought onto the farm for us to milk for our family and milk she provided us for 8 years. Elizabeth and her spent every evening together for 20 minutes of sweet time. She was Charlie’s buddy. She was the mom to the triplets Romanesco, Cauli and Flower who were our COVID babies and keep us all amused with her goofy and prissy nature and insatiable appetite until the end. RIP to one pretty amazing farm animal, Mocha the Goat.
Changes to Winter CSA
Exciting news: We have had some shifts in our membership and also decided are able to increase the number of CSA boxes this winter per week so that ALL CSA Members are now Year-Round Members. That means no one will be on an every 4 week rotation. Many of you were quite sad about that, but we needed to be ready for the possibility.
So next week is our last weekly CSA Box for ALL MEMBERS. After that, our schedule will be as follows. Please write it in your calendar:
Winter CSA our schedule:
Our last weekly box will be November 19th.
Tues, Nov 25th Special Order Holiday Box (see below)
Dec 3rd, 17th
Tues, Dec 23rd Special Order Holiday Box
Jan 7th, Jan 21st
Feb 4th, 18th
March 4th, 18th
April 1st, 15th (weekly starts!)
Next week I’ll start sending you information on how our Optional Holiday Boxes work.
Exciting New Add-Ons
We’re excite to be adding more and more new storage items to our add-on store for the winter. For this week we added potatoes from Suncatcher Farm. Next week you’ll find onions and shallots from West County Community Farm. And next week also we’re excite to have locally grown heirloom grain flour from Farmer Mai.
This Week’s Box
Rainbow Chard
Pea Shoots
Mixed Beets (SR) OR Carrots (WC)
Broccoli (SR) OR Cauliflower (WC)
Summer Hold Outs: Peppers OR Eggplant
Flat Leaf Parsley
Apple & Pear Medley
Family: Spinach & Escarole
More Produce Notes & Recipes
We’re excited this week to have our first round of winter Pea Shoots for you! We’ll have these for you 6 or so times over the winter to add a fresh boost to your winter veggies.
🌱 Pea Shoots, just take 2-3 weeks to grow and we do so in our greenhouse. Having the energy of a young plant (and you’re getting all of the plant except the roots). They are an excellent source of micronutrients. 100 g of pea shoots (a little under what you get in your CSA) contains 4 grams protein, 267% of your vit K, 76% of your vit C, 43% of your vit A plus 23-37% of your manganese, vit E and folate. I found interesting recently that Hmong immigrants are largely credited with introducing Green Pea shoots into the American culinary scene. Thank you!
Here are some eating ideas:
Topping salads: goes great with some citrus tang link the below meyer lemon vinaigrette,
On sandwiches or in wraps: I often make my kids cream cheese and pea shoot bagels for lunch or add them to a deli sandwich,
Top avocado toast or fried eggs with a small mound for a crisp garnish.
In smoothies with apple and lemon for an earthy, nutrient boost.
Sauté lightly with garlic and olive oil as a quick side dish, like spinach or chard.
Stir into soups or ramen right before serving for color and freshness.
Use as a topping for grain bowls or rice dishes with soy, sesame, or tahini dressings.
Combine with herbs in pesto for a delicate pea flavor.
Layer into spring rolls or sushi for light sweetness and crunch.
Beet, Avocado and Sunflower Shoot Salad (Martins Garden)
1 avocado, sliced long
6 baby roasted beets or 2 large beets
1 lemon juiced
1 cup sunflower sprouts or fresh pea shoots, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
*You may substitute lemon juice with balsamic or red wine vinegar.
Slice baby beets about 1/4 inch thick.
Slice avocados to about the same thickness. Drizzle 1 Tbsp lemon juice on avocado.
Set beets and avocado aside.
Rough chop shoots.
Arrange avocado and beet slices on top 1/2 sunflower shoots.
Rotate beet, avocado, beet, avocado.
Add all the remaining shoots-stuff them into crevices on the plate to keep it tight and pretty.
Drizzle the leftover oil-acid mixture over the salads.
Optional: drizzle a bit more olive oil or lemon juice or vinegar over beets.
Fresh grind black pepper is a nice salad topper.
We’re finishing a rotation of Broccoli and Cauliflower. We’re getting towards the end of our massive fall Brassica plantings so enjoy while they’re in the boxes.
Creamy Cauliflower–Carrot Soup with Parsley Oil
1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 c cauliflower florets
2 c sliced carrots
3 c vegetable broth
½ c milk or cream (optional)
Salt and pepper
¼ c parsley
2 Tbs olive oil
Sauté onion in olive oil 5 min. Add cauliflower, carrots, and broth; simmer 20 min until soft.
Blend until smooth with milk or cream; season with salt and pepper.
Puree parsley with olive oil; drizzle over bowls before serving.
We’re often surprised at some of our later Eggplant and Peppers and that happened again this year. We hadn’t pulled them out as we were busy with other areas of the farm and then bam there they were still producing. We’ll likely have another round next week. Mostly West County got Eggplant and Santa Rosa Peppers and we’ll try our best to swap that next week.
Extra Shares
Lettuce Share: Lettuce Leaf Mix 🥬
Bunched Greens Share: Curly Kale