Produce Guide:

1) Shunkyo Radish Bunch

2) Meyer Lemons

3) Live Oak Farm Persimmon Preserve

4) Winter Greens Mix

5) fresh Rosemary bunch

6) Salanova Lettuce & Little Gem Lettuce Heads

7) Easter Egg Radishes

Friends of the Farm-

Happy New Year & welcome back the return of our weekly CSA in 2023!

Here's to wishing you had a lovely holiday season, with nutritious food and warm company.

We welcome new beginnings with the start of a new year with excitement to continue to deliver organic produce to you & our greater community.

As year-round, Northern California farmers, we've been getting a bit wet this past week. Heavy rains have brought an abundance of water to the farm and the region. Our well-draining soils and farm infrastructure have worn it well. The farm marches on even in the rain, so many cheers to the spirit of our team to get it done and deliver this fresh produce through the rain drops. That said, this week we spent what time we could working on greenhouse work, future succession seeding, crop planning, and preserve projects. Enter one of them in this week's box - Persimmon Preserve!

Here's to wishing all a safe & warm weekend ahead, with this system still bringing more rain in forecast for many more days.

Note, our farm stand bread partner, Bedstone Baking will be taking a few weeks off and return with bread service on Friday January 20th.

Our farm stand remains open and stocked!

For our recipe this week I couldn't help but be reminded of my mom's love of a roast chicken on a winter weekend (it seemed to particularly be a Sunday afternoon meal, from memory). The ingredients in this week's box, plus the winter weather has me craving just this. Accompanied with a big, fresh salad and sliced tender radishes, I know just what is in the cards at my house this weekend. Join me for a spin on this classic.

Lastly, we welcome you to enjoy our weekly music playlist.

The theme of winter rain continues here as well. Songs with "Rain" in their titles, or those that invoke that rainy day feeling. It can be all blue, so there are some funky and high-tempo treasures interwoven to keep things bright. A favorite recent discovery represented twice in this week's mix is Japanese jazz-man, Jiro Inagaki & His Soul Media. It's a groove. The same could also be said of the transition from Depeche Mode's Waiting for the Night and Pink Floyd's Echoes. Give it a listen!

All our best from the farm,

Tom & William and Live Oak Farm team

Rosemary & Persimmon Roast Chicken w/ Salad

Ingredients:

whole Chicken

Rosemary

1/2 Cup Persimmon Preserve

1/2 Cup Chicken or Vegetable Stock

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

4 Meyer Lemons

1 Yellow Onion

coarse sea Salt & ground black Pepper to taste

Mixed lettuces

Baby radishes

Method:

Prepare your chicken by gently washing the whole bird and patting dry. From here you can either prepare a simple brine or salt the exterior and cavity of the chicken and let rest overnight in your refrigerator.

When ready to roast your chicken, set oven to 425F. Finish pre-roasting prep of the chicken by rubbing 2 tbsp olive oil over its skin and inside the cavity. Fill the cavity with halved Meyer Lemons and a few sprigs of Rosemary.

In sauce pan over the stove, warm 1/2 cup of Persimmon preserve combined with 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock. Set chicken breast side up, in a roasting pan with 1 yellow onion roughly diced on the bottom of the pan. Lightly drizzle onions with olive oil.

Marinate chicken by pouring your warm persimmon glaze over the bird, using your hands or a brush to apply evenly. Additional rosemary can be rubbed on the outer skin, along with coarse black pepper or any additional herbs / seasoning of your choice.

Tie back the chicken's legs with kitchen twine.

Cook for 10 minutes on your oven's bottom rack before reducing temperature to 375F. Cook until an internal temperature of 165F is achieved, measuring at its thigh joint.

Should the chicken start to brown too quickly, tent with aluminum foil.

Allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes before carving and serving

Prepare a side salad of mixed lettuces or lettuce heads of your choice. Dress with Meyer Lemon juice and olive oil, or your favorite dressing. Garnish with mixed baby radishes.

Serve & enjoy!