August 24

Published on

August 25, 2020

Box Contents:

2 Cucumbers

1 bskt Juliette Cherry Tomatoes

1 lb Sweet Gypsy Peppers

1 lb Mixed Summer Squash

1.50 lbs Early Girl/Golden Jubilee Tomatoes

1 Yellow Canary Melon

1 Yellow Baby Watermelon

Field Notes: It has been a rough and wild week. All residents in our region were under mandatory evacuation from Tuesday until Friday with wildfires, caused by lightning last Monday, burning the rangeland in the western hills of the Capay Valley. Fortunately, there were no losses of homes in the valley. Because Calfire resources were focused on other regions of California - also on fire -, our valley had to fend for itself with the help of our small (less than 20 volunteer firefighters!) Capay Valley Volunteer Fire District, the Yocha Dehe Fire Department and local farmers with tractors and discs creating firebreaks at a frantic pace. Despite the evacuation, we were able to continue to operate the farm doing our daily tasks of harvesting and packing produce with the difficult overlay of smoky conditions. Today, thankfully, the fire is no longer threatening farms and residences. We hope that the fuel load has been reduced from this wildfire to minimize the fire risk later this year and into next year’s wildfire season. Thank you to all who sent kind words of hope and wishes for safety on our Instagram account and via email. We appreciate the care and concern!

Many of you have asked how you can support the farm and our employees during this wildfire emergency. Here are a couple of ways to contribute to our region to help protect/support those who work on the farms now and into the future. Donations may be made to:

Capay Valley Fire Protection District

PO Box 6

Brooks, CA 95606

KNBP (Katheeen Barsotti Non-Profit for Sustainable Agriculture)

23585 State Highway 16, Capay, CA 95607

Or donate online to: http://kathleenbarsotti.org/.online/

This is the organization that provides backpacks annually to the children of parents who are farm employees. They have been providing an average of 1000 backpacks per year. The backpacks are filled with school supplies. The Riverdog Farm employees and their kids really appreciate this annual gift.

Box Notes: Canary melons are a firm when ripe melon. They go from pale yellow to dark yellow. They have white flesh and are very tropical. Small brown spots on the exterior are okay, only cosmetic discoloration of the skin. The yellow watermelons are ripe when the tendril opposite the stem starts to brown. That’s our indicator for watermelon harvest time.

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.

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. Please respond promptly to the egg subscription email yes or no. Then Fallon will update your account accordingly.

2. Frog Hollow Farm Fruit Box subscriptions are available again, like last year! We received many subscriber requests for this subscription option. The weekly fruit box is $29.75. To add the Frog Hollow Fruit box to your weekly subscription, go to your account in Farmigo, and add it as an option. The deliveries of the fruit boxes will be weekly. The Frog Hollow fruit box will be available to add to your CSA account only from Thursday to Sunday at NOON. And, due to logistics, the Frog Hollow Fruit Boxes will only be available to the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday subscribers. CSA subscribers who pick up on Tuesdays/Thursdays, at the Berkeley farmers markets will not have the fruit box but may purchase one directly from Frog Hollow. 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. 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. The farm uses the farmers market pricing to determine the box value. The pricing includes administration and delivery costs in addition to the value of the produce. Summer produce is higher value than the winter produce so the veggie box contents volume may have the appearance of being smaller than winter produce volume.

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 and time of 3pm. After 24 hours (3pm the following day) 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.

Gypsy Pepper and Onion Salad

From: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/gypsy-pepper-onion-salad-387399.

Sweet, thin-fleshed peppers, such as Gypsy, Lipstick, and other mild peppers, are delicious sliced thin and dressed as a raw salad. Choose a mixture of yellow, orange, and red peppers. Cut them in half lengthwise and remove the stems, membranes, and seeds. Cut the peppers lengthwise into very thin slices. Peel a red onion, cut in half lengthwise, and slice very thin (there should be about half as many onions as peppers). Combine the peppers and onion, and dress with salt, a splash of red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Peel and finely chop a garlic clove, or pound it to a paste in a mortar, and add it to the peppers and onion. Let the salad marinate a bit to soften, add some chopped herbs, if you like, and serve.

From the cookbook In the Green Kitchen by our friend Alice Waters