Threshing, winnowing, slackline — oh my! A lot happened on our porch this afternoon. Read more below!
It’s been another full week here on the farm. We hosted our summer potluck on Saturday and were delighted when several brand new CSA members joined us! It was so lovely to get to you better as we dined on delicious food on a truly perfect summer evening.
Since then, the heat has returned again. Each time another heat wave hits the west coast, I find myself more and more ready for fall. At this point, the heat itself doesn’t bother me so much, but it is having disastrous consequences all up and down the west. While we were grateful to have Holden Village’s buildings spared by the Wolverine Fire, our relief is tempered by the loss of dozens of homes in Chelan, the loss of three firefighter lives in Okanogan County, and continued evacuations for hundreds of people all over. If you are the praying type, this is a season to pray for the safety of people near to these fires.
More plums that will be ready to pick very soon!
Meanwhile, it’s hot here too! Heat is normal for August, of course. But, in keeping with the year’s trend, I still find myself confused about exactly the time of the year, because many parts of the farm continue to feel weeks ahead of schedule. The drought stress in the trees reminds me of September, and this week we jumped head first into the big late summer fruit harvests. Jasper spent several days just picking — plums, Asian pears, and apples! You’ll get to taste many of these this week … all delicious and certified organic! Ooh la la! Exciting stuff!
Casey has also begun the work of harvesting some of our saved seed from the fields. He pulled a bunch of items from the fields just before that brief rain shower we had last week (hard to remember already!). The dry plants have been hanging out waiting for further processing. When the temperatures got hot this afternoon, he, Jasper and the kids retreated to our porch to do some threshing (i.e. stomping on dry fava bean pods) and winnowing (to clean the seed from the chaff). This will be an ongoing process over the next few months, to be fit in here and there as time permits. It definitely reminds us that we’re approaching the end of this season — we’re past the season of leaf production and into the season of fruits and seeds. Time to dig deep and harvest from this time of abundance.
As we go into this next season, I have a few things on my mind that I want to put on your mind so that you don’t miss out:
U-pick tomatoes coming! — Folks have asked! And we have them! If you’d like to pick tomatoes, check in with us at pick-up this week or next. The sauce tomato patch will be ready by the weekend of Friday, August 29. For this u-pick, we’re just planning to charge by the lbs, but we’d still like to sign people up ahead of time so that we know who to expect (and we can communicate the necessary info to you).
Fall Pumpkin Patch Open House MUSIC? — Two notes on this one. First, get the open house date on your calendar! This year’s event will be Sunday, October 25, 2-4 pm. Second, we’re still looking for a fun live musical act to perform. This is a neat tradition of ours, and so far everyone who has performed has had some relationship to the farm. In past years, we’ve had a rockin’ high school bluegrass band, a DJ spinning records, and an acoustic folk trio. We’re still looking for the perfect act for this year and thought we would ask and see if there is someone in our community who has a little band or would otherwise be interested in performing! Let us know!
Taking new CSA members for Fall — Also, we still have room in the CSA for folks to join! If you have a friend who might be interested, send them our way! Have them include your name when they sign up, and we’ll give you a $20 credit to use in the storefront or apply toward your remaining CSA balance! Thanks in advance for a referral!
Fall meat opportunities — We are still taking orders for our fall batches of stewing hens. The price is $3.50/lb (average about two lbs each bird). We will also do another pork sale as we approach the end of the season, so be thinking of whether you might want to join on! I know folks probably have pretty full freezers already, but maybe you can find room for half a hog this fall!
I think that’s it for news this week! May you all stay safe and cool as we continue through a wild August. Enjoy this week’s vegetables — and abundant fruits too!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Meet this week’s vegetables: How many good things can be harvested in one week? SO MANY! If you want to take home more than your normal share amount, we always bring extra and you are welcome to buy a few more items while you are at pick-up!
- Lettuce mix! — Yay! Salad is back! Just in time for more easy dinners of Big Green Salads while the heat lingers. The temperature is going back up to the 90s this weekend!
- Sweet corn — More corn!
- Concord grapes — These are from a very old planting of grapes on my parents’ property. Rumor has it that the original stock came with early pioneers on the Oregon Trail. These are the grapes that have the classic grape flavor. They also have seeds!
- Asian pears — Prepare yourself for juice running down your chin and onto your hands. Eat outside or over a napkin.
- Plums
- Chehalis apples
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Tomatillos
- Kale
- Chard
- Beets
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Cucumbers
- Zucchini — More modest zucchini quantities this week! But they are all perfect small-medium fruits.
- Garlic
And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:
- Eggs — $6/dozen ~ We’ve got next year’s layers growing in our barn brooder right now! They are still so little, but we’re excited to start getting eggs from them come January. We’ve been keeping chickens on some scale for nine years now, and we are so totally hooked forever on farm fresh eggs.
- Fermented hot pepper sauce — Watch out! This should be some good stuff. We’ll have some jars ($1/ea), or you can bring your own. $9/half pint
- Pork chops — We have lots of pork chops! They are thick and beautiful. $12/lb More pork coming soon in the form of Bratwursts and hams!
- Lamb — We still have lots of lamb roasts! The new batch of lamb will come next week. Note the new price for roasts — now $8/lb!
- Ground beef — … Sorry to report that it will be next week for the beef. Our awesome butcher had a bunch of people out for vacations and sickness. It happens! The meat will be ready well before next week, and we look forward to restocking the freezer!
