Dry times

The requisite summer pipe moving photo. Casey does a lot of this these days, especially since we're going into summer with a much drier soil profile than many years.

The requisite summer pipe moving photo. Casey does a lot of irrigation work these days, especially since we’re going into summer with a much drier soil profile than in previous years.

And, just as was predicted when we basked in all that early warm dry weather this winter, here we are now in a very dry almost-summer season. Summer officially arrives this weekend on the solstice, but WOW the sight around the county is summer all the way. Irrigation is in full force everywhere, including on our farm. Our neighboring cherry orchards are finishing up the year’s harvest. Gravels roads everywhere are majorly dusty.

In the photo above, Casey is moving pipe out of one of our orchards, which he irrigated earlier than ever before. Because it needed it.

And, of course, south of us, water woes run deeper than we can appreciate. California. There’s so much and so little to say about California right now. I am not qualified really to comment, but I know that California’s water woes are adding an extra keen edge to Oregon’s worries right now.

There’s talk of trying to use flood control dams on rivers feeding the Willamette to hold back more water for irrigation purposes later in the season — which would unfortunately add to rather than diminish flood risks for the valley (the reason the dams were built to begin with!). I’m sure we’ll hear many more conversations about irrigation and water use as this season continues. It is hard when we face these vagaries or shifts in what to expect  farms that built their systems on the assumption of water may have to reassess. It may be as simple as finding new more efficient means of irrigation, but it may also mean choosing different crops.

Here in the river bottom, we like to think we have more security, but wells are wells. And if you’ve never been the proud owner of a well, then consider yourself lucky to have not experienced the inherent anxiety of that situation. Much can go wrong with a well — pumps, panels and mechanical things. A neighbor farmer just had her pump fail this week, which meant some fast work on the part of a service team to get her back up and running quickly — I was so glad to see her sprinklers running again when I returned to the island from an errand Tuesday morning!

But there’s also the water in the well itself, which can change in volume and quality based on other factors (usually related to other users of the well, but also because of natural events such as droughts). We all hope to have our straws at the bottom of the cup, as it were, but inevitably if the level of water goes down, someone finds themselves hurting for at least part of the year.

We’ve had our own major well woes, including a significant and dramatic break of our first irrigation well mid-season back in 2007. That was a stressful time for our farm, to be sure, but our second irrigation well has served us since then.

At this point in the season, we can rely on continued drought conditions for several months (even occasional rare rain storms won’t do much to wet the soil). Regardless of the vagaries of the years, the west always experience “seasonal droughts;” it’s part of our regional climate and ecosystem development. Irrigation makes growing a wide range of crops possible in a part of a country that otherwise would be much more limited than our friends who receive summer rain! Apparently many market gardens in the midwest and northeast don’t even have irrigation equipment at all! Which blows our minds!

Even though we are land dwellers who need air to breathe, I am always struck in these dry seasons by how water-y we humans are too. Our bodies are, of course, almost two-thirds water. And, oh, how we seek the water when our surroundings are dry. Our own family has been visiting our favorite river spots to swim and playing in our yard paddling pool, and I know that most folks are doing similar things right now. Nothing feels quite so satisfying as jumping into the river on a hot day. For at least a moment, it feels exactly like home. I suppose it was, long, long ago.

And, in the spirit of summer, we’ve got more good fruits for you all this week — more raspberries and cherries, which are of course still so very early (are you tired of hearing that yet?). Happy summer!

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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U-pick details! We had many people voice an interest in U-Pick last week. Here’s what we’ve decided to do — we will be selling the opportunity rather than having people pay by the lb. So, you will buy a cherry “tree” and/or a section of raspberries, and then you can come out to pick as much from your tree or section as you have time for (coming back several times will help with the raspberries, since they will continue to ripen for more weeks). Cherry trees will be $50 each; raspberries will be $20 for a 20′ section (the strawberry patch is more or less done, but we’ll put it on the map and you’re welcome to pick there too if you’ve purchased a tree or raspberry section). You can buy multiple of trees or sections if you like! Tomorrow at pick-up, we’ll have you sign up (and sign a waiver!), and we’ll give you a map with locations and more directions. The picking will commence this weekend! We’ll be around the farm then to answer questions if everything isn’t clear (Casey’s cell number will be on the info sheet).

Meat chickens coming! Hey, folks who ordered meat birds so long ago — they’re coming! We’re taking our first batch to the butcher this Saturday morning and will have the chickens at pick-up next week for weighing and delivering to you. I will email folks directly tomorrow to remind you that you’ve placed an order (and paid a deposit!). If you’d like to pick up your birds fresh, you can come out of the farm this weekend; otherwise, we will freeze them and bring them to pick-up frozen in coolers for you to pick-up on Thursday. Let me know if you have any questions!

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

  • Cherries — This week’s cherries are from our “Lambert” trees in Katie’s parents’ orchard. These are a classic local red cherry, great for fresh eating (although often “shaken” for use in Maraschino cherries). The trees we picked are almost seventy years old and one of our dear late neighbors helped plant them when he was a child. Keeping such old trees around is truly a labor of love. They’re not easy to pick, being old and tall (newer varieties are usually planted on dwarf root stocks low to the ground so they can be picked without a ladder) — but the trees provide great shade and shelter for animals for nine months of the year (we remove the animals 120 days prior to the cherry harvest), and everyone here at the farm is simply quite attached to these trees. So, they stay, and we all get to enjoy their sweet fruits! There are plenty!
  • Raspberries — The Tulameen raspberries have hit their prime this week. The flavor and texture are just perfect. We had bowls of raspberries with cream after dinner tonight — a super simple and delightful dessert. There are plenty!
  • Salad mix — I feel like I can’t eat enough salad these days! We’re continuing to make our modified mayonnaise dressing. I just picked up a big batch of delicious chevre from our friends at Briar Rose Creamery so that we can now top our salads with it too. Mmmmmmm …
  • Baby beet greens — These beet greens are tender enough to add to your salads (or eat as a unique salad on their own). Or, you can lightly sauté them. Or, you can try what I did tonight. I found myself with a big load of beet greens and a batch of awesome turkey stock, so I decided to make a light and simple soup for us to eat as the start of our dinner. (This soup is really best when made with very flavorful stock, because it is so very simple, so make sure you use good stuff!) I simply gently boiled the beet greens in some stock until they were very well cooked (I also threw in a few extra small carrots from a bunch). Then I carefully pureed the soup with a hand blender and added salt to taste. Casey and I both had seconds (and we garnished it with more of that tasty chevre!).
  • Chard
  • Kale
  • Carrots
  • Fennel bulbs — Want to add more complexity and richness to your beet green soup? Add chopped fennel and peeled fava beans too and simmer until everything is tender and ready to be pureed.
  • Fava beans
  • Potatoes

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

  • Corn flour  — $5 lb
  • Walnuts — $5 lb
  • Eggs — Still waiting … but the numbers of collected eggs are going up now! So, there’s hope!
  • Goat — Our first time having goat slaughtered from the farm! We’ve got chops, grind, and roasts. Prices vary (same price ranges as lamb).
  • Lamb — We have a fresh round of lamb in the freezer this week — lots of chops and ground lamb, as well as roasts. Everything looks great. 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 roasts & belly — $8 lb. These are cuts that haven’t been cured at all, so “fresh.” We have lots of roasts that make for delicious crock pot meat.
  • Pork fat & skin — $3 lb
  • Ground beef — When all else fails, I say make hamburgers for dinner. That’s what we do anyway! $7 for 1/lb packages
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