Blog

August 17

Published on
August 18, 2020

Box Contents:

1 lb Cucumbers: a combo of slicing, painted serpent or lemon cucumbers

1 bskt Cherry Tomatoes: Sun Gold or Sweet 100

1 lb Red Torpedo Onions

.75 lbs Green Beans

1.5 lbs Early Girl Tomatoes

1 Charlyn Melon

1 Orange Honeydew

Field Notes: Clouds in August are a rare treat! We even got a few raindrops. Lightning in the western hills surprised us too. A wildfire, caused by lightning, ignited north of Lake Berryessa Monday morning. We are prepared with generators for ensuing PGandE rolling power outages. The generators provide ample power supply to run the farm’s 4 walk-in coolers, 2 freezers, and business office.

Box Notes: It’s melon time! Late July, August and September are melon months at the farm. We grow over 10 varieties of melons because the microclimate here (hot days/cooler nights) creates delicious melons. My 18-year old nephew who is here from Iowa to do his distance learning at the farm as a freshman at U of Iowa, asked - when he took his first bite of the orange honeydew melon - “What makes them taste so good?” We don’t know exactly why they taste so good but we know it’s a delicate combination of seed breeding, years of seed trials, growing conditions, and heat that sweetens the melons to near perfection.

Charlyn Melon: The fruits are 4-8 pounds, oblong with a green to orange, netted rind concealing fantastically delicious white flesh.  The flavor has hints of coconut and pineapple. This type of melon tends to be a softer texture than a standard cantaloupe.

Orange Honeydew: When ripe, the skin is white to pale yellow-green, similar to common honeydews. It has a salmon hued flesh, like cantaloupe that is firm yet juicy offering a honey sweet melon flavor with hints of brown sugar. When ripe, the orange-fleshed honeydew will have a slightly sweet aroma and its blossom end will have a slight give when pressed. Unlike many other melons the orange-fleshed honeydew will continue to ripen after being harvested.

Each week, the veggie box contents are subject to change. In the newsletter, we include a list of box contents to give you an idea of what to expect but the list may change. Crop quality, daily yields and weather conditions will determine final box contents each week.

Webstore Features: Canning Tomatoes (Early Girl), Red Slicer Tomatoes, Pickling Cucumbers

Visit: https://csa.farmigo.com/store/riverdogfarmcsa to place your orders. Place your orders by noon, 2 days before your delivery day.

New CSA Announcements:

1. We are pleased to announce that a new group of hens have started laying eggs. Our egg numbers are increasing so the RDF CSA Manager Fallon is emailing folks who are on the egg waitlist in a chronological order, in batches.  We are asking those on the egg waitlist (a batch at a time) if you’d like to receive weekly eggs. Please respond subscription option through our farm but members and market customers have the option of subscribing directly with Frog Hollow Farm and picking up directly from them at the Berkeley farmers markets. Due to logistics, Sacramento market subscribers will not have the fruit box option. 12:00 pm is the deadline to change your account for the fruit box, if you enter a hold any time after that, we can cancel delivery of the box, but your account will still be charged.

2. Note on Delivery Holds for the Frog Hollow fruit box subscription: Due to the logistics of getting the fruit boxes from Frog Hollow Farm, delivery holds and cancellations on the fruit boxes (for any day in the following week) need to be entered between Thursday - Sunday at Frog Hollow CSA boxes come with 3-4 varieties of seasonal tree ripened, exceptionally tasty stone fruits. Summer CSA boxes contain 7 lbs. of mixed stone fruit, many varieties of peaches, plums, nectarines and pluots. As part of their commitment to sustainability, Frog Hollow works hard to avert food waste. You can expect to see ripe cosmetically imperfect fruit and small or large pieces of fruit in the fruit boxes. These characteristics should not affect the deliciousness of what you receive. Visit their web site to learn more about their CSA program, farm, ethos and fruits and recommendations.

3. Recognizing that more people are eating and cooking at home and from our CSA subscriber feedback, we are going to increase the number of items in the veggie box. The weekly veggie box price will become $30 to correspond with the added value. Instead of 5-6 weekly items, the veggie box will include 7-9 items or the box may include an increased quantity of some of the items included in the veggie box. For example, with the new plan there will be more variety and more quantity of certain items.

Below is a sample of the list of contents for the new $30 box:

  • 1 lb Tomatoes - cherry or mixed heirloom

  • 1 lb Green Beans

  • 1 Melon

  • ¾ lb Sweet Peppers - Red/Gold

  • 1 lb Cucumbers  - assorted

  • 1.5 lbs Potatoes – Yukon Gold, Fingerling or Yellow Finn

  • 2 Onions – red, white or yellow

The new CSA pricing of $30 per veggie box will start August 3, 2020. - Please pick up your veggie box on your delivery day. As the temperatures heat up, it’s important you pick up your CSA ORDER the day of delivery so that it stays fresh and we can ensure quality. At Riverdog Farm, CSA site hosts may donate any unclaimed boxes of vegetables no sooner than 24 hours after the original pick up day. After 24 hours unclaimed orders are no longer available and the subscriber absorbs the box cost for that week’s order.

Riverdog Farm has an active Instagram account. Find us via our Instagram handle: riverdogfarm. On our account, we share images of the crops, farming, re-posts of your farm fixings photos and videos and provide market/CSA updates.

Whether you leave the box at the site or take it home to return the following week, please unfold (collapse) your box carefully to keep the end flaps from tearing. Slowly, bend the two end panels towards the outer ends first then collapse (flatten) the whole box by gently folding the rest.

Give your account 48 hours to update when making changes. For example, when changing your account status from permanent hold to active by charging your credit card, the status may take up to 48 hours to update. The auto-pay option button is at the bottom of your account page. Please click it for auto-renewal of your CSA subscription and to ensure uninterrupted weekly veggie box deliveries.

Please check your CSA account for the most up to date information such as your delivery schedule.

  • Keeping it safe: with the Shelter-in-Place order still in effect in Yolo County, we continue to implement our COVID-19 prevention protocol on the farm per the CDC and Cal-OSHA recommended best practices. Prevention measures include: required face covering and glove wearing, 6-foot distancing in the workplace, hand sanitation and employees are not allowed to work with symptoms of COVID-19.

  • Reminder: So that your subscription continues uninterrupted, please make sure your credit card on file is up to date on your CSA account. For those who need to end the CSA subscription before your deliveries end, you MUST contact the farm through email to request cancellation. You may put your account on a DELIVERY hold if you will be gone for periods of time. If you wish to cancel your account, you may email the farm and we can cancel it for you.

  • Please pick up your veggie box on your delivery day. As the temperatures heat up, it’s important you pick up your veggie the day of delivery so that it stays fresh.

  • The cut off time is 12 noon 2 days before your delivery day for any changes you need to make to your account. Remember to make any changes to your account such as payment renewal or delivery holds by 12 noon 2 days before your delivery day. Thank you!

“Delivery hold” is used for short periods of time – you use this option 48 hours in advance to schedule the deliveries you are unable to pick up.

“Permanent Hold” is used for long periods of time – you use this option if you are gone for extended periods of time and wish to resume your account when you get back. You must change your status to “active” when you return in order to resume deliveries.

“Cancel” is used to delete membership details, this means you would need to re-enter delivery status, subscriptions, and credit card information when you resume the Riverdog Farm CSA.

Quick Pickled Onions

From: https://cookieandkate.com/quick-pickled-onions-recipe/.

1 medium red onion, very thinly sliced

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar or additional white vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional, for heat)

Instructions

  1. Pack the onions into a 1-pint mason jar or similar heat-safe vessel. Place the jar in the sink, to catch any splashes of hot vinegar later.

  2. In a small saucepan, combine the water, both vinegars, maple syrup, salt, and pepper flakes. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium heat, then carefully pour the mixture into the jar over the onions.

  3. Use a butter knife or spoon to press the onions down into the vinegar and pop any air bubbles in the jar. Let the pickled onions cool to room temperature (about 20 to 30 minutes), at which point they should be sufficiently pickled for serving.

  4. Cover and refrigerate leftover pickled onions for later. Quick-pickled onions are best consumed within three days, but they keep for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.