HEALDSBURG, CA — In Healdsburg, diners come to Little Saint for a sunflower kale Caesar, a burger and fries, or a rye brownie sundae. They stay for something harder to define: a gathering place that stretches beyond the table.
On Saturday, Little Saint is widening its reach with a market-style community-supported agriculture farm stand on the restaurant patio. Everything comes from the Little Saint Farm less than a mile away.
The new program replaces fixed boxes with a market-style setup—two long tables where members choose their own mix. A cotton tote bag replaces pre-filled boxes. "People care about those details and so do we so it’s nice to have people who appreciate it," Maingard said. Membership runs for either a 30-week season or a shortened 14-week option. The tables on Tuesday afternoons (3 p.m.-6 p.m.) and Saturday mornings
(8:30 a.m.- noon) will also provide add-ons available at pickup, such as extra produce and floral bouquets.
At Little Saint Farm, Programs Manager LJ Maingard and a small team map crops to the kitchen’s seasonal needs, adjusting with weather, pests, and demand.
The goal stays fixed: move “incredibly local fresh farm produce” directly to plates and into homes. In Healdsburg, shoppers — local or visiting — can shop "bounty style" (in Maingard's words) for hotel rooms, Airbnbs, and elsewhere abodes.
Maingard said the farm uses regenerative practices and human labor. Workers are mostly local. Crews manage soil health and habitat while facing threats—gophers tunneling, squirrels tearing through the "oasis of produce," nibbling just enough to render produce unsellable. Fabric covers protect some crops. Predatory birds handle others.
What grows changes. In May, the fields straddle seasons: scallions, turnips, rainbow carrots, pak choi, red russian kale, lettuce, brocollini.
Little Saint opened in 2022 in the former Shed restaurant, still marked by a neon Grange sign, as a plant-based restaurant, coffee bar, wine lounge, cocktail bar, and event venue with a farm-forward collaboration.
The farm on Westside Road now grows more than 300 varieties of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs, a transformation that began after vineyard rows were removed six years ago and replaced with vegetable beds.
The CSA follows years of adjustments for the partners —music, member nights, and menus. Maingard said setting up 8-foot tables on the patio gives more opportunities to connect with people in Healdsburg.
The patio-side CSA also serves as a strategic access point, making the restaurant more visible — a "cave of wonders” with magic inside. (They will continue to participate in the Healdsburg Farmers' Market, now next door at the new Foley Family Community Pavilion.)
The produce also brings people closer to the farm itself, Maingard said. Members will get tours, occasional on-site pickups, and u-pick access—steps designed to close what she called the “gap in the points of connection.”
Photo courtesy of Nicola Parisi
In addition to a produce CSA, Little Saint also launched a wine-focused Cellar Club and cottages set just footsteps from the restaurant.
The next step takes Little Saint to a national audience. The restaurant will serve as a backdrop for Climate Kitchen, a new public media series led by Maggie Baird in partnership with WETA.
The show blends cooking, lifestyle, and documentary storytelling, connecting food choices to issues such as chronic disease, food waste, and environmental justice. Production is expected to begin later this year, with a 2027 premiere.
For Little Saint, the path runs from a single dining room to a layered ecosystem built on the idea that what happens on a plate can ripple into a community.
More details about the CSA are available on the Little Saint website.
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