Leaf and flower

Apple blossom glory!

Winter has its own beauty in bare branches and dark skies and quiet evenings. But, oh, what a miracle it is each spring to have life vibrantly return to every plant! There is a moment every year, when I reach a finish point with winter — I am ready to see the leaves on trees again, and then I find myself wondering: will they come back? Because, it is always a miracle to me. Every time.

This week we are in the thick of that miracle. Everywhere I look on the farm, fresh new leaves are unfurling, reminding so much of the fragile wet wings of newly hatched chicks. In both cases, it is hard to realize that those little slips can really be the beginning of those being’s future strength. And, yet, it happens — the leaves continue to unfold, retaining their fresh new color (often bright green) and yet growing and growing until they cast deep shade and reach with power to the sky to capture all that glorious sunlight we receive this time of year.

The kids and I have been watching two trees in particular this year — their own trees that we planted especially for each of them. Rusty’s is a Big Leaf Maple that was quite tall when we planted it and now towers far over our heads. We’ve positioned our trampoline beside it, and every day I note the progress of the buds, now opening into chartreuse green leaves. Dottie’s tree is a pink dogwood, and it has some more time before the buds reveal leaves and flowers, but we check on it too. In the meantime, we are almost overwhelmed by the beauty of the orchard just behind that tree — apples and pears in full beautiful bloom .

Rusty asked Casey and me our favorite colors this weekend. Casey’s not really a “favorites” kind of guy, but the answer was simple. He looked out the window and said, “green.” Because, oh yes oh yes, green is beautiful right now. It is all around, in the growing grass and the new leaves.

Each year when we make this shift, from a landscape of twigs to a landscape of leaf, I find myself releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Suddenly the world becomes softer to me. I feel more enveloped and held close by all this foliage around me. Just at the time we find ourselves spending increasing longer hours playing n our yard, the privacy there increases, as greenery fills in those open gaps that allowed vision and light to penetrate. And, every year, there is the joy of watching trees grow. We’ve planted so many over the years — hundreds and hundreds — and it is exciting to watch them reach higher and higher to the sky.

Well timed with this experience of wonder, we attended an open house this weekend hosted by the Oregon Biodynamic group. It was held at the beautiful Hearthland Sanctuary at the edge of McMinnville — a truly magical day of sunshine filtering through tall oak trees to fall on eager farmer souls learning and conversing about the very heart of our work.

What is biodynamic farming? If nothing else, you’ve probably heard of this concept via the wine industry, which has more fully embraced these ideas than any other sector of American farming (perhaps because flavor in wine can take on so many subtle nuances, allowing the vibrancy of biodynamic practices to really shine). Casey and I are very new to these ideas even though we’ve known about them for years. Like many before us, we’ve remained skeptical of biodynamics, which approaches the natural world from a wholly different paradigm of understanding. I’m still wrapping my head around all of it, but as a very concise description, biodynamics approaches growing from a holistic point of view that takes into consideration cosmic forces and considers health on the level of the individual farm (which is ideally self sustaining in terms of fertility, water, and other “inputs”).

In practice, this means that biodynamic growers have both crops and animals on their farms (ideally in a proper balance to allow the farm to feed the animals from its ground). Sound familiar? Yes, that is where we are heading with our farm, which is probably why we are listening more to the biodynamic voices than we used to. Beyond this lofty yet simple premise, things get a little more “woo woo” (as “BD” farmers will freely admit!) — farming activities are carefully calibrated with moon and zodiac cycles, and special biodynamic compounds are applied to fields and compost (and made through alchemical means). These last two bits are new to us, and it is only this week that we are starting to tease apart the cryptic planting calendar to understand what it means to plant on a “leaf day” versus a “flower day,” etc.

For us, beginning to embrace this different paradigm of seeing our farm (and the world) is a bit of a leap of faith, but for some reason it feels really good and right to both Casey and me at this time. Over the last few years, managing our farm has shifted away from our prior almost simplistic understandings of our farm in terms of soil health (which to us was a matter of soil life + fertility levels) to something more profound and complex. I would not say we understand any of these new experiences fully (or even partially), but more and more we appreciate what we cannot see — those hidden (to us) energetic connections between all the beings and things on our farm, including deep roots into the earth itself and connections out to the cosmos as well. I suppose biodynamic farming gives us a framework for further bringing these ideas into our farm and life. Given the current scale of our farm, some of these practices will have to be incorporated slowly. Once again we’re talking about long-term goals. So, we’ll see.

Even though we’re in our ninth season of operating this farm, we still ask ourselves almost daily: “Why are we doing this? What are our goals? Do we want to continue?” I suppose it’s like marriage in this way — to keep the marriage alive, on some level you recommit yourself to the person every single day, actively appreciating them with gratitude. We are very much married to the farm as well, so it makes sense that we would feel this way about the farm too. Beyond our simple commitment to be here and tend this place, we find millions of reasons to keep going every day. Right now we find ourselves every morning waking in a veritable Eden, as this season itself practically bombards us with positive affirmation of our presence here, from bird songs to green grass to rapidly growing transplants in the field. They all say YES YES YES!

To that end, let me close with words more profound and powerful than any I could muster about the experience of this spring. This poem is perhaps more appropriate than ever as Casey and I find ourselves moving farther into the land of wonder:

from Ninth Elegy
Rainer Maria Rilke

Earth, isn’t this
what you want:
rising up

inside us invisibly
once more?
Isn’t it your dream

to be invisible someday?
Earth! invisible!
What, is it

you urgently ask for
if not transformation?
Earth, my love,

I will do it.
Believe me,
your springtimes

are no longer needed
to win me—one
just one, is already

too much for my blood.
I have been yours
unable to say so

from the beginning.

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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CSA member event dates have been set! Get these dates on your calendar now so that you can join us out here for two amazing events here on the farm. We will host a farm dinner on Saturday early evening, August 16; and we will have our annual pumpkin patch open house (with live music!) on Sunday afternoon, October 26! We can’t wait to host you out here for some super fun occasions!

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Looking for a fun outing this weekend? La Casa Verde 2014 is an all-day event this Saturday, April 19th, celebrating community and sustainability with green building specialists, regional leaders in sustainability, educational opportunities, Earth Day 5k/10k run, children’s activities, local music, bee-keeping workshop, homebrew workshop, chicken-tractor races, and more! The event will culminate with the annual Wine Maker’s Dinner and Green Achievement Awards, honoring individuals and entities in our community who have exhibited excellence in sustainable practices. All of this is happening at the Granary District — the same place where we host our vegetable CSA pick-up! Check it out!

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Radishes — For us seasonal eaters in Oregon, radishes define this moment in spring — when we’ve had enough warm to allow us to slow and plants to grow, yet the heat of summer hasn’t crept onto the farm yet. Because radishes require exactly this combination to grow and be their most tender, sweet best. In fact, we’ve stopped trying to grow them any other time of year anymore (fall can just be too hot, and there are more pests about then too). Instead, we just enjoy them now — understanding that their hot tender flesh will be here just now. We may get a few harvests. In a mild spring, we may get several. But each one we appreciate as the last. We slice these red beauties onto our plates and eat them as is or sprinkle them on salads. They are spring gems to be savored.
• Chard
• Salad
• Arugula rapini — Although it is most often treated as a salad green, arugula is in the radish/mustard family and puts out a beautiful tender shoot in the spring (just as cabbage and kale do too). So, we call this special spring crop arugula “rapini.” We forewarned, however, it is sweet and tender, but it also packs a bite! This may be some of the spiciest arugula you’ll ever eat! The adventurous can chop it and mix it with salad greens — we prefer to cook it. Sometimes we’ll add it to other cooked greens, but sometimes we enjoy featuring it on its own by roasting it in a single layer in a pan (much as you might do with asparagus). Add some olive oil, salt, and perhaps some green garlic, and roast until the rapini are tender inside and starting to get crispy on the leaf edges. It’s a savory sensation.
• Turnip greens — Apparently spring brings spice to our plates, because this is another green that will be slightly spicy when raw (and yet still tender and sweet too — how does spring work these miracles?). Most often, I cook our turnip greens, throwing them into the pan toward the end of the cooking time of another green. They don’t require much heat to wilt at all.
• Apples
  
• Carrots
• Green garlic — Oh, you special people. This is another one of those amazing spring treats (clearly we are the thick of the magical-but-quickly-passing spring foods). For the uninitiated, green garlic is simple garlic that has been harvested early in the spring before it has begun to dry down. In shape and function it is much like a leek or green onion, but the flavor is the deepest, most awesome garlicy-garlic-ness you’ll ever taste. Wash and chop up to the start of the leaves (the white bit is most tender, but the whole stalk is good too), then add to any dish — the smell of green garlic sautéing in butter is divine. Or roasted them whole (perhaps with your arugula rapini) to make them their own wonderful side-dish.