Produce Guide:


1) Dunjac Zucchini / Green Machine Summer Squash 

2) Black Kat Pluots

3) Marketmore Cucumbers

4) Live Oak Farm Mixed Greens*

5) Heirloom Tomato (Mixed Varieties)

6) Genovese Basil

7) Britton Shiso

8) French Breakfast Radishes

9) Mixed Lettuce Heads


*This week's Salad Greens mix includes Oak Leaf, Butter Lettuce,

Truchas, Flashy Trout, & Baby Kales

Friends of the Farm-


Happy Friday!

We thank you all for joining us in what marks our last week of our summer quarter of Live Oak Farm CSA. We continue without interruption next Friday for another 13 weeks of produce boxes. Note, we farm year-round so there is always an option to join us as your family's produce needs change throughout the calendar year.

Have any feedback? We welcome that too so that we can continue to grow our farm and serve you better by way of CSA and our Petaluma farm stand. Above all, we thank you for supporting our farm and weekly CSA. 


This week our organic orchards continue to come around with yet another succession of seasonal fruit. Last week we shared White Nectarines, and this week we're excited to share Black Kat Pluots. We're finding in our first year of working with this crop that tree ripening of this fruit only goes so far. We found that these pluots will benefit from a day or two of ripening on a window sill or by putting them in a brown paper bag to expedite that final push of ripening at home. This especially the case if you like a super juicy pluot for eating on its own. For baking, (check out this week's featured cake recipe) you can use the pluots right out of the box. 


We also welcome the year's first taste of tomato season (here in Petaluma, CA)! We are seeing the first rounds of mixed heirloom, sauce, and cherry tomatoes from our trellised vines. Yes, we realize that this week is a tease with just one tomato but this was our first week of having enough to cover all of our CSA program, so we did want to extend this harvest to you. The crop will only grow from here and we can look forward to a nice mix of organic tomatoes throughout August, September, and October. A complimentary accompaniment to the basil, shiso, and cucumbers also in this week's box. 


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

This week's mix begins in the spirit of summer vacation. Whether you're reading this newsletter on one right now, have some late-summer trips planned, or care to dream with us from right here at home, we can all take a trip through the music of Pete Rock & CL Smooth's All the Places, Sparks' Cool Places and beyond. Speaking of places, Rhode Island is the place these past two weeks when talking music. Host to last week's Newport Folk Festival and now this weekend's Newport Jazz festival. Joni Mitchell returned to the Folk Festival last week and sang an incredible rendition of Both Sides Now. Link here to watch. The song has been in my head all week and this week's mix features a Judy Collins version from 1967. Enjoy all this and more! 


All our best from the farm,

Tom & William and Live Oak Farm team

Live Oak Farm Playlist Pairing

Black Kat Pluot Cake


Ingredients:

6 or 7 Black Kat Pluots

3/4 Cup sugar

1 Cup all-purpose Flour

1 tea Baking Powder

1/2 Cup unsalted Butter, softened

2 eggs

Pinch, salt

1 tea Vanilla Extract

1/2 tea cinnamon


Method:

Begin by greasing an 8-inch or 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper if going the route of using a standard cake pan. Preheat your oven to 350F.


Cream your butter & sugar together until becoming light and fluffy, adding vanilla and eggs until smooth and airy. Add salt, baking powder, and flour, mixing until fully combined. Pour your batter into your pan. Slice pluots in half, remove the pit and place each half pluot into the top of the cake, skin side up. Note, the cake will rise a bit around each pluot so you don't need to submerge them that far. Arrange nicely, filling the top of the cake with pluots and complete by sprinkling cinnamon and a bit of sugar on top.


Bake 35-45 minutes or until pluots are bubbling and cake tester comes out clean. Allow cake to cool before releasing from springform or turning out your cake pan onto a serving dish. Serve with a dollop of yogurt, ice cream, or fresh herbs. Enjoy! 

New Live Oak Farm Website!

We've launched a new edition of our farm website! Click the banner above to follow link to our updated farm online. A few things you'll find as new resources here:


+ Archived newsletters and past CSA produce guides, recipes, and music playlists

+ Events page with upcoming events, dinners, yoga, and partnered happenings at the farm. Direct links to tickets and RSVP included

+ A partner page where we list where you can find our produce locally and some fun collaborations we're excited to be building. We invite you to support these other local restaurants, shops, creatives, and small businesses!

+ Info on our event space and growing Agrihood community 

...and more!


We just launched this week so we are still ironing out the kinks and making it our own. If you have recommendations on things you'd like to see or ways in which our online presence can greater serve you, let us know! 

Our summer farm dinner series continues with the next date - Saturday August 13th!


In this edition we've partnered with Birk O'Halloran owner and beverage maker for Rockwell Vermouth & Iconic Wines. Dinner will showcase both wines and speciality vermouths that speak to California native plants, local terroir, and overlapping farming practices and ethos shared with Live Oak Farm.


Join us! Link below for dinner tickets via EventBrite. We look forward to another fun night here at the farm surrounded by our community & new friends.

Reserve Your Seat

A reminder that next Friday, 8/5 starts our first week of our next 13-week FALL season of Live Oak Farm CSA. We will be continuing to reach out in the next week to confirm those that look to continue their produce pick-ups and delivery into the next quarter.


We welcome you to reply to this email to let us know any changes to membership as well.

This is also a great time to make any adjustments to your membership (add eggs, move from every-other week to every-week or vice versa, ect) as well as introduce our CSA to neighbors, family, or friends. 


Look out for more info and billing. We thank you for you support of our growing farm and for joining us in the current Summer season of our Live Oak Farm CSA. Our farm is able to grow and support itself with the help of members and families like yours.

THANK YOU!

Live Oak Farm
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