I’m sure I take a photo of Casey’s hands + some vegetables at least once per year. I just love the image of the fresh food and the hard-workin’ hand. So I’ll keep taking them!
I don’t particularly want to jinx the weather by commenting on it too explicitly, but at the same time, a year like this just cannot go without notice. The kids and I have been recording the high and low temperature on our porch every evening, and for most of July it’s looked something like this:
High: 75°
Low: 58°
Folks, this is NOT what I have come to expect of July in the Willamette Valley. Or, of June … or even May!
The last ten years that we’ve lived here have consistently felt like scorching hot summers. To Casey and me, who are both Pacific Northwest natives, but of the milder variety — the Puget Sound and Oregon Coast-raised type of “we-actually-kind-of-really-love-not-hot-summer” of NWers.
Or, we’re realizing that now. The last ten years I think I’ve tried to love the heat. And, I can truly appreciate some wonderful things about those experiences. A good, dry heat can be so satisfying, especially when paired with a large body of water (the river for us). But a heavy-feeling, hot, dusty, muggy, overcast heat (as we often have mid-summer) can feel oppressive and makes any outdoor activity (besides swimming) feel daunting.
We’ll have those days again. Perhaps even this summer yet. But so far it’s been much more like the summers Casey and I both grew up with, when days are long and mild and could be filled with so many pleasurable outdoor activities (without sweating buckets in the process).
We’ll enjoy it while it lasts anyway, because it makes our hard physical work much more pleasant, I’ll tell you what. Hand weeding is an entirely different activity when the temperature peaks at 75° rather than 95°.
Another “fruit-in-hand” photo … of the first apples of the year! Hoorah!
Interestingly, our perennial crops are all still feeling early, in spite of the mildness of the weather. We’ve talked with other growers about this phenomenon (mostly grape growers), and we all suppose it’s because the season turned warm(ish) and mild so early. Very true. I honestly can’t even remember the last time we built a fire in our woodstove (our only source of heat). I wish I had recorded the last fire just to be able to remember that early date, but I’m sure that at the time I had no idea it would be the last! Was it in February? March? Many months ago, anyway, and it’s hard to really even imagine needing a fire ever again, although of course we will. We will, indeed, just as we will find ourselves under a hot sunny sun again before too long.
But each season brings its challenges and its pleasures. For us, this weather has been one of this year’s unexpected pleasures indeed! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Important dates coming up:
- Thursday, July 21 (tomorrow!): second-to-last CSA payment due. I’ve sent out email CSA statements with your total due. Please email me or ask me at pick-up if you have any questions about your account balance.
- Friday, August 26 ~ Ratatouille Rendezvous!: Our next on-farm event! Come for a farm tour and dinner! We’ll make a big batch of ratatouille (summer stew) to share. You bring a side dish, salad or dessert. We’ll dine under the late summer sky and then enjoy an evening singing by the fire. More details to come, but please note that this is a change in the date. We adjusted it to better accommodate some other scheduling things that came up for us as a family.
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
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Rusty picked himself a juicy ripe Shiro plum at the end of the afternoon.
Plums — Yellow Shiro plums. So sweet and soft — watch out for juice dripping down your chin.
- Chehalis apples — The first of this year’s apples! Chehalis are always our earliest apple here. They are great for eating just plain out of hand.
- Figs — These are like candy. We have limited quantities this time, but this is the first year we’ve had any significant crop at all since planting these trees in early 2009! The first few years, they kept freezing to the ground and then had to regrow. Finally in recent years they have become woody and tall like trees, and we look forward to even bigger harvests in future years. Fresh figs are quite the treat.
- Green beans — Are they fresh? Oh yes! And if you’re not sure, try sticking them to your shirt. A chef showed us that trick once upon a time, and now we always joke in the fields by picking one and sticking it to our shirt (it will cling on its own if fresh). Make a bean salad, or roast, or sauté! Yum!!!!
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers & green peppers
- Lettuce
- Broccoli OR Cabbage
- Zucchini — Both the dark green and light green types
- New potatoes
- Green & sweet onions
- Garlic
And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:
- Eggs — $6/dozen
- Goat — Goat chops are $14/lb. Organs and bones are $6/lb.
- Beef cuts — Roasting type meats are $10/lb, and steaks are $14/lb. Organs and bones are $6/lb.
- Ground beef — The best ever — $10/lb
- Beef stew meat — $10/lb
- Pork organs, fat & bones — $4/lb
