What’s Inside This Week?
April 23, 2026
Essentials Box
- Cut Lettuce, 8oz bag, $5.50
- Romaine, head, $3.50
- Beets, bunch, $4.50
- Carrots, bunch, $3.50
- Strawberries, 1 clam, $7.00
Original Box
- Essentials Box, plus:
- Fennel, head, $3.00
- Cabbage, head, $4.50
- Romanesco, head, $5.50
- Navel Oranges, 2lbs, $8.00
Hearty Box
- Original Box, plus:
- Leeks, bunch, $4.50
- Butternut, each, $5.00
- Kale, bunch, $3.50
- Avocados, 2lbs, $8.00
We have eggs! Fresh farm eggs are available as an add-on to your CSA box subscription. Log in to your account to add them to your next delivery or email us to add them to your subscription.
Field Notes
The short bursts of showers this week brightened everything up around the farm, and set into motion beautiful springtime activity.
The garden is alive in ways that go beyond just crops right now. There are sweet little red birds working the thistle flowers, pulling material for their nests — we’ve been watching them every morning. Lavender is starting to bloom around the garden edges. Cosmos and two full rows of native wildflowers are open inside the garden. It’s the kind of week where the farm reminds you it’s its own ecosystem, not just a place where food grows.
A little red visitor harvesting thistle flowers for her nest. We’ve been watching her every morning this week.
We’re harvesting beautiful romanesco right now — it was planted back in winter and it’s coming in perfectly. Stakes are going in for tomatoes and cucumbers, which means the summer garden is starting to take real shape. Baby chicks arrived today and will be listed in our online store this Friday at noon.
We’re also planning a pollinator habitat expansion for June — more pollinator-friendly plants going in the ground as a family project when Jeremy’s mom visits. She loves planting flowers, so the timing is perfect. Our lavender and rose propagation didn’t work out last year because someone in the dungeon unplugged the seed warming mats — so we’ll be purchasing plants this time around instead of starting from cuttings. A small heartbreak, but we’re moving forward.
New WWOOFer Ren — short for Serenity — arrived this week and is settling into the garden beautifully. We’re also expecting Frank on May 1st. His English is limited, but garden work has a way of transcending language. It’s also a genuine opportunity to share and learn — we’re looking forward to it.
The view from the top of the hill after the rain. This is why we farm here.
Lavender starting to bloom around the garden edges. Spring is very much here.
An important ask from our farm — Farms Together needs your voice.
We’ve been part of a federally funded program called Farms Together — run through the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program — which connects small farms like ours with food banks and community organizations to get fresh, locally grown produce to families who need it most. It pays farmers a fair market price for their food, keeps small farms viable, and puts healthy food in the hands of people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. It’s one of the most effective programs we’ve been a part of.
Thanks to LFPA, we were able to hire an additional employee — a real job, in a region that needs it — and invest in a small tractor that has meaningfully expanded what we can grow and produce. Perhaps most importantly, the program gave us income security during the winter months, which is historically the most financially vulnerable time of year for small farms like ours. That stability doesn’t just help us survive — it allows us to plan, to invest, and to grow.
But the impact hasn’t stopped at our farm gate. Through this program, we’ve watched fresh, locally grown food reach parts of our community that are too often left out of conversations about food access: Lompoc Food Pantry, The Senior Center, and Unity Shoppe. Seeing that food go directly to underserved neighborhoods in Lompoc — and knowing we grew it — is exactly what good public investment should look like. Not subsidies flowing to large agricultural corporations with armies of lobbyists, but targeted support for the small farms doing the hardest, most essential work in our state.
The federal funding was cut earlier this year. Now advocates are asking the California State Legislature to step in with $45 million in state funding to keep the program running while a longer-term solution is worked out. Over 530 small California farms and 55 food banks depend on it. This is the kind of program that disappears quietly unless people speak up.
We’re asking you to make one phone call to your local representative. It takes five minutes and it matters. Find your representative and get the talking points in the Official Toolkit here →
Storage Tips
Roots: beets, carrots → fridge crisper, bagged; remove beet greens if attached and store separately.
Greens: cut lettuce, romaine, kale → wrap in a towel, store in a bag in the fridge; keep cold and use within 5–7 days.
Brassicas: romanesco, cabbage → fridge crisper, loosely bagged; keeps 1–2 weeks.
Alliums: leeks, fennel → fridge crisper, loosely bagged; use within 5–7 days.
Fruit: strawberries → don’t wash until ready to eat; store in the fridge and use within 2–3 days. Navel oranges → counter for a few days or fridge for longer. Avocados → these are coming in fresh off the tree and will be firm — leave on the counter 3–5 days to ripen. Worth the wait!
Squash: butternut → cool, dry counter; refrigerate once cut.
Strawberry Beet Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 small beet, roasted or steamed and cooled
- 1 cup strawberries, hulled (fresh or frozen)
- 1 navel orange, juiced
- 1 frozen banana
- 1/2 cup yogurt or coconut milk
- 1 tsp honey (optional)
- 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger (optional)
- Handful of ice
Instructions
- Cook your beet ahead of time — roast at 400°F wrapped in foil for 45 min, or steam until fork-tender. Cool completely before blending.
- Add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high until completely smooth, about 60 seconds.
- Taste and adjust — more orange juice to thin, more banana for sweetness, more ginger for warmth.
- Pour and serve immediately. The color is spectacular.
Why beets in a smoothie? (And how to make it work every time)
Beets in a smoothie might sound like a leap, but they’re one of the best additions you can make. Raw beets are earthy and sharp — too much so for most smoothies — but roasted or steamed beets turn sweet and mellow, almost like a root vegetable version of a berry. Paired with strawberries and orange, you barely taste the beet. What you do taste is a richness and depth that makes this feel more like a real drink than a supplement.
The color is also genuinely spectacular. Beets blended with strawberries produce a deep magenta-red that looks almost too good to be real. It photographs beautifully and, if you have kids, it’s a pretty reliable way to get beets into them without a fight.
A few things that make beet smoothies work: always cook the beet first (raw beets are too starchy and harsh), use frozen banana to thicken and sweeten without adding sugar, and add citrus — orange or lemon — to brighten everything and keep the earthy notes from taking over. A little fresh ginger is optional but genuinely transforms it.
Once you’ve tried it, beets will feel like a natural smoothie ingredient. They keep well in the fridge after cooking and blend into almost any fruit combination. Our carrots work the same way, for what it’s worth — roasted and cooled, they add natural sweetness to any smoothie without being detectable.
Want to keep this week’s recipe on hand?
Download the printable harvest list — recipe card, storage tips, and box contents, formatted for your fridge or kitchen counter.
Download This Week’s Newsletter →
2026-04-23 CSA Newsletter by d2dfarm