2011 begins!

(CSA Newsletter: Week 1)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Brussels sprouts — One of the hardier winter greens! We’ve been enjoying Brussels sprouts all winter, mostly chopped and sautéed. One of our favorite filling (and quick) lunches in winter: sauté chopped Brussels sprouts with onions until tender, then add good quality canned tuna, butter, and cooked pasta (preferably a shaped pasta, such as penne). Top with grated parmesan or crumbled chevre!
• Butternut winter squash — Another of our favorite winter foods. We’ve just recently discovered the joys of roasting butternut squash. It’s relatively easy to peel and chop (I cut the squash in half and then peel with a paring knife while holding the cut edge steady on the cutting board). Roasted on a sheet pan with some oil, it comes out crispy and amazingly sweet!
• Sunchokes — These roots are also known as “Jerusalem Artichokes,” but since they bear no relation to Jerusalem (they’re actually native to North America) or artichokes, we prefer this name. Sunchokes are great raw (really!), with a flavor and texture similar to jicama. They’re also delicious chopped and roasted (but really, it’s hard to go wrong when roasting winter root vegetables!).
• Rutabaga — We like to chop rutabaga and add it to stews and soups for extra vegetable-based thickness. It has a great smooth flavor that blends well with most winter foods (with none of the bitterness of turnips).
• Carrots
  
• Leeks
  
• Cipollini onions
  
• Garlic

Wow — it’s hard to believe it’s only January, what with the CSA beginning already and the unseasonably warm temperatures (55° as I write this on Monday afternoon). Both Casey and I keep expecting to look out in the fields and see them full of growing spring greens, but obviously it isn’t quite time yet! We’re still at the apex of the winter season, when our fields (and the rest of the world) is most bare.

But green is right around the corner! And, the CSA has begun — this is our sixth season offering our CSA! Welcome to all the new members, and welcome back to our old regulars!

We wanted to take a moment to orient/reorient you to this year’s CSA program and some of the differences from past seasons.

As I’m sure you’re aware, we’re offering a new option this year, which two-thirds of you selected on your sign-up form: the new “medium” sized share, which provides more choice and slightly smaller volume of produce each week.

To remind you of how this will work, each week you will select FIVE different vegetables from those we’ve harvested. In other words, you’ll show up and scan the bin selection and choose the five you are most likely to eat that week. Unless you have purchased two medium-sized shares, we ask that you always select five different bins — please no doubling up! This will allow us to more accurately plan our harvest amounts.

Those of you who purchased the “large” share will take from every bin as normal (this is our traditional CSA model).

As we start this season and the new distribution method, please keep in mind that this system is new to us too. In fact, it’s pretty new in general. We only know one other farm in the region who offer something vaguely similar, so we’re exploring new territory with the two different sized shares and the options.

We’ve put together a handy Excel spreadsheet to help us harvest appropriate amounts each week, and we’ll use last season’s “Vegetable Preference Survey” results to help guide us. For example, based on the survey results, we assume that the vast majority of CSA members will take carrots every week we offer them, therefore we’ll harvest enough for everyone. But other items that ranked as less “popular” we may harvest less than enough for every single person to take.

So, how will this all work out? We’re curious to see! At first, we’re over harvesting, because we want to see how your preferences average out. I think that eventually we’ll get the hang of estimating what people will want each week so that we can harvest accordingly. We know that we can’t keep over harvesting, or else we will be losing a lot of money each week!

There may be times (especially at the beginning), where things are a little wonky, so we ask for your patience. Thanks to our handy spreadsheet, however, we should always have enough of something so that each of you will go home with the appropriate volume of veggies.

And, ultimately, if it never works perfectly, we may have to adjust the entire concept in future seasons. Hopefully you all are as excited as we are about something new and experimental!

So, once again, welcome! We hope that 2011 is a delicious and abundant year for local vegetables. If you’re new, please take time to read the newsletters each week (especially at the beginning of the season as I’ll continue doing some orienting for the year) — each week, the newsletter will provide veggie information, recipe ideas, news about the farm, and important updates/reminders. If you prefer to go paperless, it’s also posted on our farm blog.

If you ever have any questions, please ask Casey at pick-up (or, if you don’t have time or he looks extra busy, you can also email: farm(at)oakhillorganics(dot)org).

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Casey & Katie Kulla

P.S. Of course our first week of the CSA couldn’t occur without some winter drama, so appropriately we’re awaiting a high water event here on the Willamette. The river is supposed to crest on Tuesday (perhaps during CSA pick-up!) at over 23’ (action stage is 21.2’).

We’ve seen a lot of high water already this winter, but this is estimated to be the highest yet. It’s likely that some of our fields will get wet in the next few days, but we’ve prepared by harvesting the crops from our lowest ground!

And, some important reminders:

Your first 2011 CSA payment/deposit is due NOW. Please pay either the entire amount of your CSA share or one-quarter. The large share costs $972 ($243 for quarterly payers); one medium share costs $628 ($157 for quarterly payers); and two medium shares costs $1,216 ($304 for quarterly payers).

If you have questions about your balance, please email Katie: farm(at)oakhillorganics(dot)org. You can mail payments to us: Oakhill Organics, PO Box 1698, McMinnville, OR 97128. Subsequent quarterly payments will be due on April 1, July 1, and October 1 of this year!

Also, a reminder: there will be no CSA harvest or pick-up on February 16. This day is not included in the price of your share. (We’ll be gone to Breitenbush Hot Springs for an annual farmer retreat!)