A family farm

Dottie helped Casey harvest salad mix for the restaurants on Tuesday.

Dottie helped Casey harvest salad mix for the restaurants on Tuesday. (Those very wilted looking plants beside her are big weeds that were just pulled from our beet planting!)

Those parents in the crowd (or folks who have participated in childcare of siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.) will know that babies are pretty all consuming. When we started our “family farm” back in 2006, I’m not totally sure how we envisioned kids working into the mix. I doubt we pondered those specifics way back then, but by the time we actually had Rusty at the end of our fourth season, we knew enough to realize that we probably wouldn’t try strapping him on our backs and getting on with business “as usual.” We’d watched our friends bounce babies on their hips and pace back and forth for hours comforting fussy babies. We knew that it could be hard.

Big bin, little girl!

Big bin, little girl!

We also knew that we wanted to be present in our lives. Present when on the farm. Present when with our babies. For us, this meant that I stepped back from active farm work a lot. I really wanted time and space to sit in our living room holding a sleeping baby for hours on my lap — as maddening as that could be, it was also a sweet and fleeting moment in our lives! Looking back, I am so glad we made that choice for me to focus on being a mom (who also runs the business side of the farm on the side). We’ve known other farmers who have kept both partners more actively involved in the farm. There was an article in our favorite farming journal just this month from a couple about their experience with the transition. They’ve done a bit of both tactics — farming with baby in the fields when possible but also hiring childcare and/or help with harvest when needed. It’s a dance.

But of course, part of the whole point of this farming gig was to be here as a family too. I’ve written before about how important and valuable it is to be raising our children in this context. Already we see the fruits of that experience — our children seem so at ease in the out-of-doors and could out compete most adults in a game of bird or plant identification. This is their natural context, their first language, their home. Regardless of what profession they choose, what skills they hone, we know that growing up here will provide them with an awesome base of understanding of what it means to work — what it means to set your mind on a task, do it, and see results from your efforts. These are invaluable experiences.

So, it seems natural that as they get older, we bring them into the fields with us more now. Even though Casey and I weren’t up for bouncing babies while trying to hoe, now that the kids are getting older, being in the fields feels less like a stretch for all of us — especially in small doses. Getting out there with them has always happened on occasion, but now that they’re five and almost-three, it feels like it can become a more regular thing.

And, so it has been with great joy that I too have gotten to farm in a hands-on way again in the last couple of weeks — picking raspberries and then liberating some green beans and parsnips by pulling some mega weeds. What did the kids do? Play. Wander. Graze. Eat snacks. Look at books. Help a bit here and there. Certainly, there were still some necessary interruptions (my favorite is the classic cry: “Mama! I need to go poo-poo!” That always gets my full and immediate attention!). And I’m not going to try putting in anywhere close to a full day’s work, nor do I want to. The kids have other things to do, and I am happy to have the farm be a really significant foundation of their life, but we will also read books and visit with friends and learn about other parts of the world.

Also hard at work in our fields — bees! This blossom is a phacelia flower, one of our favorite flowers to plant to attract beneficial insects to our fields. Bees LOVE it.

Also hard at work in our fields — bees! This blossom is a phacelia flower, one of our favorite flowers to plant to attract beneficial insects to our fields. Bees LOVE it.

This week, the weed pulling especially felt like a family affair, because as our kids were running up and down the rows (helping Casey harvest for the restaurants), Jasper’s mother was also present, working alongside him to pull out mega weeds from our beets. After years of hearing about our farm (and seeing it on visits), she wanted to pitch in too and experience what her son has been doing all this time. The weeding we were doing was hard work, and so I think she got quite the introduction to what we do out here! But we were glad to have her, and we love any activity that brings family members closer together, whether it be weeding together in our fields or eating a meal together when the work is done (such as our fun Monday farm meals, which include our whole farm crew plus my parents!).

May this week provide you with an opportunity to do good work or be with your loved ones or enjoy a meal with your chosen favorite people (because sometimes our friends are our family too!). We hear some major heat is heading our way, so get your wading pools filled and plan salad for dinner! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

~ ~ ~

P.S. Just a little note to our members doing raspberry u-pick right now — we request that you drive on the dirt/gravel road into our farm as slow as possible! The road is covered with a layer of very fine dust that picks up easily and can blow toward our fields! We find that if we drive about 5 mph, this is minimized! Thank you!

~ ~ ~

Meet this week’s vegetables:

  • Raspberries — The planting is on! We always forget how amazing these are at their peak — easy to pick, large, and oh so flavorful! Enjoy!
  • Cherries — Depending on how the upcoming heat wave affects this, this may be the last picking of cherries for this year!
  • Lettuce — Hot weather coming … time to have a Big Green Salad for dinner!
  • Zucchini & summer squash — And it’s on! Our field planted zucchini has begun, and we hope this begins the summer’s long run of zucchini and squash. These first squash range in size from big to very big, because we haven’t quite gotten into our summer routine of picking it every few days (the bigger squash were some of the very first). These would be great for eating or for making the first batches of zucchini bread for the year! I’ll share the many ways we love eating this vegetable as the summer goes along. It’s become an important staple in our summer diet. Perhaps one of the easiest (and one of our favorite) ways to eat it is simply roasted! We chop it into bite-sized pieces and roast them on a pan on high heat (425°) with butter and plenty of salt. It’s really important to not overcrowd the pan with zucchini because it contains a lot of moisture and can end up steaming rather than roasting. Either way, it won’t get as crisp as other vegetables, but we can usually get a nice browned edge and then the rest of the zucchini gets succulent and soft. With the butter and salt, we find it to be extremely satisfying. It’s also pretty quick to cook, taking much less time than denser veggies to roast. Often a quick summer meal for us will be a salad, plus roasted zucchini and some kind of meat.
  • Beet greens — More delicious baby beet greens! Suitable for dressing up your salads or for quick cooking! Very similar to spinach.
  • Fennel — I love the flavor combination of fennel and zucchini/squash. When I want something very satisfying and comforting, I’ll slowly braise these two veggies together in butter until they are soft and the flavors have melded. When tomatoes come into season, those are a great addition as well (coming soon in fact! Casey picked some of the first ripe tomatoes in the greenhouse today!).
  • Chard
  • Kale
  • “New” potatoes — Potatoes from this year’s planting are ready to harvest already! They’ll continue to size up in the ground, so we only harvested a sample amount, but oh new potatoes are such a special treat!!!! These are fun different colors, and we think you’ll enjoy them! They won’t take as much time to cook.
  • PotatoesAnd, since we still have these Very Good potatoes in cold storage, we’ll give some of these out too in larger quantities — because we know these have become staples for many of you! (Us too!)

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

  • Corn flour  — $5 lb
  • Walnuts — $5 lb
  • Eggs!!!!! — Eggs are back! Woo hoo! It was hard to believe that we really would have a large volume of eggs since the drop was somewhat mysterious too, but they have returned. So has our $6/dozen price. We realized when the egg production dropped that our $4 price was unrealistic. It takes a lot to keep these hens producing good eggs (even if it happens in spurts apparently). Plus, we’re buying certified organic feed, which costs 110% more per bag. But we love eating good quality eggs and know that some of our customers think the higher price is worth the quality (and the organic feed!).
  • Goat — A range of cuts available — chops, roasts, grind! Prices vary. The flavor in the roasts is pretty amazing — somewhere between the flavor of beef and of lamb. We’ve been enjoying it in our house a lot this week.
  • Lamb — A range of cuts available — chops, roasts, grind! Prices vary.
  • Pork chops — $12/lb
  • Ground pork — $8/lb
  • Beef bones — We still have some beef bones left! Get them while they last! $4/lb
  • Fresh pork belly — $8 lb — Delicious in the crock pot!
  • Pork fat & skin — $3 lb
  • Ground beef — And, everyone’s favorite staple meat … $7 for 1/lb packages
This entry was posted in Weekly CSA Newsletters. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to A family farm

  1. Mary Margrave says:

    Can’t wait to buy more of your wonderful ground beef. See you on Thursday, July 2.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *