Remember last week’s photo of Casey pushing the seeder in the field? Those seeds are up already! And Casey has already tilled the paths between rows. Check out his footprints in the soft soil. We like scenes like this.
In last week’s very newsy newsletter, I announced 2016’s CSA info (and many of you have signed up already! Hoorah! You can do so at pick-up now, if you are ready!). I also suggested that we’ve got “plans” in the works for 2016 — plans to enter our eleventh season with fresh enthusiasm and purpose.
I thought that this week I would share one such plan. It’s a big one. And, yet, it’s also a small one. I’m talking about the scale of our farm. Long-time CSA members may have watched our scale fluctuate over the years, as we grew from a two person operation on one acre to a several person crew on 100 acres. From our perspective, it’s been quite a journey. We’ve learned a ton along the way, and we’ve learned to deeply love and appreciate all this land and its productivity and the creatures and plants who make it home.
One thing, however, that we’ve also learned is that — ultimately — we do not enjoy the dynamic of being employers. We’ve always had awesome people working here. Seriously, they have blessed us with their time, their energy, their enthusiasm and passion, their personalities, their knowledge, and so much more. We have always enjoyed the people who work here. What we have not enjoyed is the part where we tell those people what to do every day, where we inevitably have to correct people (because this is an integral part of the learning process for everyone), where we have to work through the results of someone else’s honest mistake (which is harder than working through your own), where we have to put a dollar value on someone else’s time and energy (which affects our farm’s budget in many ways) …
We’ve had employees on the farm now since 2009, so for seven years total out of our ten. In that time, we’ve tried to grow into our role as managers. We’ve tried to figure out how to balance what are really two roles of direct management and behind-the-scenes management — and Casey has often felt pulled in several directions as he tries to simultaneously teach someone how to do something and also needed to get some other Very Important Task That Only Casey Can Do complete in a different part of the farm. We’ve found that it takes an enormous amount of energy to find awesome people, to incorporate them into the farm, and to keep it all rolling.
And, you know, there are farmers out there who seem to have this stuff figured out. We admire those people who have grown into that managerial role with grace and success. We have many times sat up late pondering their secrets and methods to keeping it all working — how to consistently grow and harvest quality crops, keep happy workers, and balance the farm budget too! The farms that appear to have figured out a lot of these challenges can grow bigger and satisfy more customers and feed more people. I think there is amazing power in those slightly larger businesses that have the ability to offer good jobs to many people and serve so many customers. It’s good work, and we applaud them.
I suppose we could keep trying to follow those models. We could ask more questions, read more books, try more different tactics (such as hiring a crew boss or middle managers). Or, we could step back a bit. We could return to our earlier visions of our farm, which were a little simpler, a little smaller, a little quieter, a little humbler, a little more peaceful, a little more private, a little more just us doing work we love every day.
If it’s not already obvious by my warm-up, that’s where we’re headed. As of right now, we’ve one employee working three days a week, and when he moves on to his next adventures this fall, we will not put out the call for the next batch of applicants. Next year, we will figure out what it means (once again) for us to be the sole labor on our farm.
We will have to make some changes of course. One can’t just dramatically change one variable in an equation and keep it balanced, right? But, without you all noticing, we’ve already begun making those changes quietly in the background, and we’ll continue making subtle changes that will affect us much more than any of you. I’m sure more of those details will become interesting topics for future newsletters, but rest assured that our CSA will be as awesome as ever next year.
And, even though our labor situation will appear to be a step “backward” in our farm’s history, it’s really not. It is a step forward. We are not the same farmers we were when he hired our first interns in 2009. The farm is not the same farm. We know things now that we certainly didn’t know then. We have different tools at our disposal as well as a better appreciation for how to make our old tools really work for us. I’m sure we will encounter surprises along the way, just as we do with any endeavor on this farm of ours! It is a great humbling journey!
We will definitely miss the opportunity we have had to meet and get to know such wonderful and fascinating individuals, but I trust that other relationships will grow and blossom in this new reality too. We certainly have no shortage of amazing people in our farm’s community!
But, as I have said, for us this a decision that is renewing our excitement for our work. Even though it can be physically exhausting at times, we love this work. And, we love the simplicity of knowing who will do the work. We love knowing that our skilled hands will be put to each task with that ease that comes from years and years of experience. We feel deep peace about returning to this very simple and direct relationship with our farm and crops.
I’m sure I will write about this more in months to come, but there you have it — another preview of our 2016 season. One that we envision will be joyful and abundant and very special for our farm family. We hope that you will join us!
And, for now, enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Did you miss last week’s newsletter? If so, I recommend checking it out now — it contains, among other important things, a handy list of important CSA dates for the fall through next January!
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Apples — I asked Casey which kind of apple this week, and the answer is: “Whatever I can get out of the cooler first!” We have now picked 99% of our apples for the season (literally only two trees remain to be picked at this point), and our two smaller coolers are bursting with bins right now. Our largest cooler has been out of commission this summer since the A/C broke several months ago (we use Coolbot devices in all our three homemade coolers). Casey used the time to spiff up the cooler while it wasn’t in use — clean it well and put on a new, better sealing door. We’re replacing the A/C unit next week and will finally have enough room to keep harvesting our storage crops! But, for now, things are tight! Rest assured, your apples will be delicious, whatever variety they may be.
- Sweet peppers — We’re really getting into sweet pepper season now. I love this time of year when I can pop a sweet pepper into almost every meal. The flavor difference of even one pepper is profound, and I love the bright color they offer to our meals!
- Hot peppers
- Tomatillos
- Roma & slicing tomatoes
- Salad
- Broccoli
- Kale
- Carrots
- Beets
- Potatoes
- Delicata winter squash
- Spaghetti squash
- Acorn squash
- Summer squash — We are enjoying every last bite of summer squash we get to enjoy while the season lasts. Today for lunch, I wondered if I was a bit over-the-top with my squash love, however. I sauteed yellow crookneck squash with sweet peppers and beef as the main dish and served it with Delicata rings on the side. Too much yellow squash? Maybe! But we enjoyed it!
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And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:
- Eggs — $6/dozen — We had a brief dip in egg production the last two weeks as we (once again!) transitioned to a new feed source. The numbers are coming back up again now though! (Why the new feed source? Our local supplier of organic chicken ration raised the price significantly by dropping the weight in each bag and switched to plastic bags rather than paper! We weren’t up for either of those changes, but especially not both at once, so we ordered a pallet of awesome organic feed from Scratch and Peck in Bellingham, WA. The chickens and turkeys love it!)
- Bacon — We’ve got bacon again! We have both shoulder bacon and rolled belly bacon. We just had to try some (for quality control purposes, you know) at dinner tonight, and I can vouch that it is really, really yummy. This is bacon from our pasture-raised hogs, made by artisan butchers with no nitrates added. $12/lb
- Pork chops — $12/lb
- Lamb — We have lots of different cuts, including plenty of ground lamb (which is $8/lb). Ground lamb is a great way to try lamb for the first time. It’s super versatile. You can use it to make “lamburgers” or brown it and add to to a curry stew (or do many other things! Those are just our family’s favorites!).
- Ground beef — $7/lb
- Beef bones — $3/lb
