Spring odds and ends

Late afternoon on a spring day — cherry tree in our hedge in bloom!

Late afternoon on a spring day. Cherries on the island are blooming now, including this feral tree in our hedge. The most glorious sight though is our neighbor’s orchard to the south. It looks like the trees have been snowed on.

Happy spring everyone! We welcomed the new season out here on the farm with smiles. Of course, it has felt like spring for weeks (possible even months) already, but nonetheless the season continues to change and bring us new treats.

This week, I have some odds and ends of news, links and photos to share with you. Let’s begin!

First, important news from the farm:

Egg sale! Has anyone noticed that we are in the abundant season of eggs? Consequently, we are dropping our price significantly and will keep it there through spring and summer. Eggs are now $4 / dozen. Yes, sir. Enjoy your spring frittatas, souffles, custards, and so much more. Yum.

Lamb chops! We restocked the storefront freezer this week with lamb. This time we had the butcher do a different range of cuts to try out, so we have ground lamb, lamb chops, roasts and other cuts. Prices vary depending on the cut!

Potato planting! We’ve scheduled our first on-farm event for the CSA — on May 1, the biodynamic planting calendar says we’ll have the perfect cosmic conditions to plant potatoes! Potato planting is seriously fun and relatively easy work, and we invite you and your kids to join us! (No dogs though, please! Thank you!) Come on out at 3:00 pm (if you’re available to come out earlier, you can! We’ll be planting all day!). We’ll plant for two hours and then sit down for a potluck meal. Last year this was a highlight of the season for all of us, and our potato planting was one of our best ever! So make a note on your calendar now — we hope you can join us! I’ll provide more details (directions, etc.) as we get closer to the date.

Now, onto the links. A few interesting things have been sent my way of late that I thought folks out there might enjoy reading/watching:

New MacDonald — This well produced video presents some startling images of agriculture today — and its potential. The context is a school play, but the topics dealt with are much deeper and more profound! The ending gave me chills!

Diets do not work — I found this Slate article to be quite thought provoking. It’s not explicitly about farming, but food is a big, complex topic worth examining on multiple levels. I found that this article broadened my understanding of the complexity of things and it also seems like it could provide hope to a lot of people who are healthy, in spite of their BMI number. Something to “chew” on anyway!

Elite Meat — Back to farming, this New Yorker article looks at a farm in California that is growing sustainable meats. Their operation differs from ours in many ways (scale, structure, financing sources, etc.), but the goals are the same — to produce extremely high quality food from humanely raised animals. I love the quote: “Ex-vegetarians are our target market.” That is so true of many of our customers as well (and, to some extent, Casey and me as well!).

6 Vegetables To Try When You’re Sick of Kale — I had to post this link because it features one of my dear longtime friends (and NYC nutritionist) Aynsley Kirshenbaum. She provides lots of great, simple advice here. We here at this farm are not sick of kale (never in a million years), but we love all of these vegetables and grow all of them for the CSA. You’ll see more of some of them as we go deeper into spring!

And, now, some spring farm photos!

Nothing says spring quite like a batch of new chicks. These cuties arrived on my birthday two weeks ago, and they are growing quickly! These are meat birds, and they are not quite all reserved yet! If you're interested, let us know!

Nothing says spring quite like a batch of new chicks. These cuties arrived on my birthday two weeks ago, and they are growing quickly! These are meat birds, and they are not quite all reserved yet! If you’re interested, let us know!

Blossoms everywhere! In addition to cherries, our plums are blooming. Look closer in these blossoms and you'll find ...

Blossoms everywhere! In addition to cherries, our plums are blooming. Look closer in these blossoms and you’ll find …

... these busy workers! It's always heartening to see pollinators hard at work when trees are in bloom.

… these busy workers! It’s always heartening to see pollinators hard at work when trees are in bloom.

Look who else likes to eat cherry blossoms! (Fortunately these are not cherry trees we need to harvest from; these are behind my mom's studio space and she took the photo.)

Look who else likes to eat cherry blossoms! (Fortunately these are not cherry trees we need to harvest from; these are behind my mom’s studio space, and she took the photo.)

That gorgeous spring green pasture is being thoroughly enjoyed by the goats. They ran away when I went out to take their photo, naturally. I should have brought a treat.

That gorgeous spring green pasture is being thoroughly enjoyed by the goats. They ran away when I went out to take their photo, naturally. I should have brought a treat.

Spring food for us human eaters! Yum kale! Like I said above, WE are not sick of kale! Quite the opposite: our gratitude for kale runs deep (and for this new greenhouse too, which has made so many greens possible this year!).

Spring food for us human eaters! Yum kale! Like I said above, WE are not sick of kale! Quite the opposite: our gratitude for kale runs deep (and for this new greenhouse too, which has made so many greens possible this year!). No kale for the CSA this week though — there were lots of other things to pick, and we want to let these plants regrow! And grow they will!

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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A last payment reminder: Hey all! I know a few of you still owe your CSA payment! Here’s another friendly reminder to bring it with you to pick-up tomorrow! Thank you!

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

  • Turnips & radishesCasey took extra time today to make some of the most beautiful bunched vegetables ever to leave our farm. These bunches are a mix of two spring crops: radishes and “salad” turnips. Most of you probably know about radishes, which make a great salad topping (sliced thin is best!). Salad turnips work well for this too! The flavor of a salad turnip is smooth and sweet with just a hint of heat. We just slice and eat these as a snack — just rinse and slice (no peeling necessary!). The greens of both can also be chopped fine and added to salads or cooked. They’ll cook down a lot, so we usually cook them with other greens.
  • Salad — Because you need something to put your radishes on, of course!
  • Chard — If you’re sick of kale, try chard. Or, so we’ve heard!
  • Rapini — This week’s rapini comes from our over-wintered cabbage and collard plants.
  • Kohlrabi
  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Potatoes
  • Green onions
  • Apples
  • Garlic
  • Eggs

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm: Remember to bring containers when appropriate!

  • Corn flour  — $5 lb
  • Oat flour — $5 lb
  • Walnuts — $5 lb
  • FERMENTED FOODS ARE ON SPRING BREAK! That’s right — many of you are away recreating, and we decided to take that opportunity to pause in our crock filling. More to come next week: traditional sauerkraut!
  • Eggs$4 dozen To celebrate our new lower price, I’ve got another fun link for you: 7 Reasons You Should Eat Eggs For Breakfast.
  • Pork fat & skin — We may have a few random cuts of pork left, but for the most part we are sold out until next week. However, we do have loads of pork fat and skin. These are for rendering for lard. This is Good Stuff folks — our hogs are continually on pasture, which means the lard will be loaded with Omega-3 fats. Rendering lard is a simple process (click here to learn How To Render Lard In A Crock Pot). The pork skin can be fried like uncured bacon or rendered as well. Prices are $3 lb for fat and skin.
  • Lamb — Prices vary. We’ve got chops, ground lamb and other cuts!
  • Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb package
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