Certain vantage points catch me eye regularly on the farm. I especially love this perspective, with the overlap of the north end of our farmed field (freshly worked here), one of our orchards, greenhouses, and the wild area in the background. This time of year, everything seems to glow.
We experienced another profound seasonal turning this last weekend. Blustery, dark weather arrived on Saturday, bringing with it a whole new feel to our day and activities. Emotions turn in new directions (not bad or good, just with a different seasonal timbre, if you will) and we began thinking of returning to indoor activities as it became clear that from here on out the sunny dry days would be increasing in their rarity. So we asked, what puzzles do we have on our shelves? Can we build blanket forts with the chairs?
Not to say that the outdoors is no longer of interest to our family — never! In fact, in some ways the shift in weather brought new possibilities outdoors as well. We assessed all wet weather clothes and decided we were ready for a whole new season of outdoor play and adventures (except for needing new boots for growing feet, which was a task accomplished on Sunday).
And, with the shift in the weather outdoors, I’ve also seen a shift in our meals already too. The fall-like foods were arriving before the change in weather, but suddenly we were actively seeking those comforts. Well-cooked kale. Delicata rings. Roasted beets with yogurt.
Goldrush apples waiting to be picked! These were voted our best apple last year by CSA members!
This weekend will bring more sunny weather, and our big family plan is to pick the remainder of our apples from the orchards. Just a few varieties remain — the latest, and by many accounts some of the best. But these trees are loaded, making storage a bit of a challenge. Each year, our orchards produce more, and so we find ourselves seeking new homes for them for the winter. Just last Friday, Casey finally purchased our first “macro bin” (a plastic pallet tote, most commonly used for grapes during the wine harvest). We’d been pondering such a purchase for years, but it finally seemed to make sense. So, it will go in our walk-in cooler and be filled up with delicious apples this weekend!
In addition to harvest, this fall we will be planting next year’s garlic (the seed arrived today!). Casey planted three rows of kale in a greenhouse today as well. Even in this “harvest” season, we’re preparing for future seasons and putting stuff in the ground.
Also on our fall ‘to do’ list are some more CSA-specific items. First, we’ll be hosting our final open house of the year — our annual pumpkin patch open house on Sunday October 23. More details in the next two week’s newsletters!
And, it’s time to start thinking about signing folks up for our 2017 CSA season! In fact, one CSA member has already done so (he was ready, so he asked!). We’re going to finalize those details this week and post them in next week’s newsletter (which will apparently be very news-y!). This season runs through November 17, so we still have six more weeks after this one, but we’re excited to get folks signed up for what will be our 12th CSA season!
In the meantime, enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Chehalis apples
- Pears
- Grapes — This has been the longest grape season we’ve ever experienced, perhaps a testament to the relatively mild weather in September. So, even though it started early, we are still enjoying it now in early October! Hoorah!
- Broccoli/cabbage
- Pie pumpkins — We baked a pie pumpkin this morning, in part to cut the chill of a cold fall morning (but without building a fire — because we’re just not ready to start that routine yet!). But we look forward to making something with the cooked flesh sometime soon. This is often how we approach these pumpkins; we bake them and then decide what to do with the flesh later. They’re easy enough to bake: pop off the stem and place the pumpkin on a baking pan. We usually pop a few holes in the top, but it’s not critical. Then we bake at 350° until the inner flesh is soft when we pierce it with a knife. Then we pull it out to cool and use the flesh later to make delicious treats like pumpkin muffins! It’s easy enough to pull it out of the cooked pumpkin and separate the seeds/pulp.
- Sweet peppers
- Tomatoes
- Kale
- Chard
- Beets
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Zucchini
And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:
- Ground beef — The last beef from our farm for the foreseeable future! $10/lb
- Beef organs/bones — $6/lb
- Lamb — Also the last lamb from our farm for the foreseeable future! Chops are $14/lb; roasts are $12/lb; ground lamb is $10/lb; organs and bones are $6/lb.
- Eggs — Our hens have also noticed the shorter, darker, wetter days and egg supply has responded by dropping. We have very few eggs this week!
