I found a swallowtail butterfly on our hike this Monday. I thought it was injured, but after me holding it for a few minutes, it flew away into the trees.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that “river season” has begun around these parts. Yes, it has. We’ve been down to visit it twice in the last three days, and I see more visits in our future.
Warm weather brings these visits on. As well as a draw to the dense trees and wilder parts of the island.
In previous years, I would have also listed a need to find a bit of respite, but this feels less true this spring than in past years. Life on the farm itself has changed a lot in recent months. I can’t say that we really feel the same intensity of being on the farm as in former years (when we were juggling more balls and managing more people and acres), but it’s certainly true that in spring, our ‘to do’ lists do seem endless at times. But we work on them one item at a time, thinning more apple trees here, weeding more summer plantings there, and things happen.
A big egg! (And half an egg shell too.)
But it is still lovely to run away to our favorite river for fun. This weekend an old friend and her son came to the farm for a holiday weekend visit, and we hiked through the woods to our favorite Willamette River play area — a several acre expanse of river rock, filled with pools of water and alongside a side channel of the Willamette itself. Our friends found a fist-sized agate, and we all marveled at the size of an abandoned egg we found resting on a log (don’t really understand how it got there without being broken). It was much larger than any goose or duck egg I’ve seen, so we assume it was from a very large wild bird such as the local ospreys or turkey vultures or hawks. (Also, if you ever find an abandoned egg and are curious about what might inside, think carefully before you crack open what will likely be a very rotten egg. Just sayin’.)
On Sunday, we went to our friends Rich and Val of Mossback Farm annual farm party. They were some of the first folks we met when we moved to Yamhill County ten years ago, and their party is a ‘must attend’ for our family. It’s fabulous seeing their place once a year and see all the changes that can take place in that time. Over the years, we’ve watched fencing go up, trees planted, trees grown (and grow!), and more.
Perhaps my one and only (minor and temporary) regret of our life with small children is how our life has contracted in many ways. Before having kids, we attended the farmers market in McMinnville and were always meeting new farmers and going to visit each other’s farms (often traveling fairly far afield in the Willamette Valley to connect with farmers). But in the last six years, we’ve pulled back from so much of that kind of activity to keep our focus here at home, where the kids have been growing and where we have still been very busy with our own farm. It has felt like the right energy for our little children, but I do miss the creative energy that came from meeting new people and seeing how other people are approaching their farm enterprises. I’m sure we’ll do more of that kind of outreach and education and socializing again as the kids get older, but in the meantime I’m certainly grateful for a few long-term farm friendships that get us a small taste of that experience during this season of our life.
And, our place here is, well, lovely. When the children are so satisfied by the vastness of Grand Island and Yamhill County, why would we really want to wander too far away for now? I am always amazed at how every hike to the river — on the same familiar trail — brings us fresh new adventures each time. We see new plants blooming that we hadn’t noticed in prior seasons; we hold butterflies in our hands; we pick up fallen feathers and eggs; we harvest nettles; we taste the first of the salmon berries. Always something wonderful, if albeit set in a familiar setting, so close to home. Perhaps many of the best things are like this — those minute details that can also be seen in the context of familiarity. That’s why we keep walking to the river, in every season.
The farm is similar, of course. Field walks at this time of year reveal June’s incredibly rapid growth. Cherries are in already! We are in the thick of it all now!
Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
~ ~ ~
Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Cherries! — Everyone in the valley is marveling at the earliness of this year’s cherry harvest! Our neighbor started “shaking” his trees last week. He said he’s never seen a May start to the harvest in his 20 years of managing that orchard. These cherries are from one tree in our orchard that is always the earliest. We call it a “Rainier,” because of its similar coloring (yellow with a pink blush), but it’s likely to be a different kind of older cherry since the orchard is 70 or so years old. Either way, they’re a very good early cherry — not quite as sweet as what is to come, but so satisfying as the first of the year!
- Strawberries
- Radishes
- Beets — Beets with greens! Please consider both parts food. The beets are great roasted or steamed. We love to steam them and then eat them with plain yogurt. It sounds sort of funny, but it’s simply divine. The greens can be cooked as you would prepare chard (they are actually the same species!).
- Fennel bulbs
- Fava beans
- Chard
- Zucchini
- Potatoes
- “Storage” squash
- Garlic scapes
And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:
- Eggs — $6/dozen
- Ham & bacon — No nitrates-added artisan-made ham and bacon from the last of our hogs! $12/lb
- Pork chops — $12/lb
- Ground pork — $8/lb
- Pork organs, fat & bones — $4/lb
