Ten seasons (almost) done

Preparing for the next one — our new greenhouse will go up here soon (the holes for the anchors are already dug in this photo). The plastic on the ground is preparing the ground, smothering any weeds that come up during this time. The puddles on top of the plastic are for jumping and running and splashing and dashing and being a kid. (Also, ahem, check out that beautiful cover crop to the left! We LOVE it!)

We just arrived back home from a lovely dinner at Blue Goat restaurant in Amity. We met there with several other farm friends to surprise Jasper with a celebratory good-bye dinner. Next week is his final week of working at the farm after three wonderful years (he started here just days after Dottie was born, which makes it feel like an extra long time!).

We have a tradition around these parts of honoring departing employees with a special meal, at which we always ask them about the most memorable parts of working here. Inevitably, the answers begin with animals, because they make such good stories! But there are other memories too. Jasper’s list was long, because three years on a year-round diverse farm is a lot of time to accrue a lot of memorable memories. We will miss him!

Next week also marks the end of our 2015 CSA season — our tenth season! As we approach that end date, I find myself in reflection mode. Casey and I are still relatively young (34 and 36 if you’re wondering), and yet we started this enterprise young too. So, we’ve got ten years now under our belt. Which, by the way, is a long time for a small business. Not everyone makes it this far — the majority do not. Even businesses that do quite well for a few years can end simply because it’s easy to get burnt out as a small business owner. But we’ve made it, and I feel proud of us today — proud that we’re still making this dream work for our family and for our customers. Proud that we’ve supported our family from the farm for ten years. This feels like a huge accomplishment. And we’re planning to make it even longer than ten years. We check in with ourselves about this often, and YES we still love this work! And, YES we still want to farm!

That’s where we are today. In fact, in spite of the usual round of seasonal vagaries, we are ending this tenth season feeling quite satisfied, at ease, and excited about the coming year. Today we took delivery of a new high tunnel for the field — this will be the fourth (and likely the final) one we have built here. We appreciate what these tools can do for us, especially in the harder shoulder seasons. They give us extra flexibility in offering you, our community, local fresh food for the bulk of the year.

“Helping” hands and dirty pants and a boy sitting in a deep hole.

As we started in on pouring concrete around the anchors today, Casey commented that this is the most company and “help” he’d had yet on a greenhouse project. The kids and I were all there to accompany him. I helped place the anchors in the holes (making sure they were the right height and plumb and all that), while the kids made mud in their own special holes. The whole scene was full of energy and distracting, but a guy learns a thing or two about building greenhouses over the years and so we think the anchors were going in better than ever (in spite of the mud flinging children in the background!).

So, as we enter this final week of this year’s CSA season, we are also beginning the work of next year. Always planning ahead.

We hope you are too! Have you signed up for our 2016 CSA season yet? For returning CSA members, it’s easy peasy folks! Just sign your name on the special form at pick-up. Or, if you’re worried you’ll forget (or are a first-time member), you can sign up RIGHT NOW using this handy dandy online form (just CLICK THE LINK!). We hope that you’ll join us for another year of delicious fresh local organic seasonal eating!

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. Thanksgiving is coming up. We still have turkeys available! The price is $6/lb. They have been fed exclusively organic feed and are on pasture. We will take them to be butchered on Monday, November 23, and you can pick up your turkey that same day on the farm (useful if you want to brine it) or at our Holiday Harvest on Wednesday, November 25. Email us now to reserve yours: farm (at) oakhillorganics (dot) com. Specify whether you’d prefer a “medium” (< 20 lbs) or “large” (> 20 lbs) bird and we’ll do our very best to get you your size preference.

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NEXT WEEK IS OUR FINAL 2015 CSA PICK-UP! I put that in bolds, because I wanted to make sure you got that! The CSA ends next week, November 19! Then we’ll begin again on January 14, 2016. But, in the meantime, you can still buy awesome food from us …

In last week’s newsletter, I shared a sneak peek of what we’ll have available for our Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest on Wednesday, November 25. I will post the official list as a separate blog post (and send a separate email) in the coming days. For now, keep that date on your calendar! In addition to picking up your pre-ordered veggies (and/or turkey), you’ll be able to buy eggs and meat as usual too. Walk in sales of those items are welcome!

And, we’ll do it all again in December. That Holiday Harvest will be Tuesday, December 22 (I will send out an email in advance with the availability list!).

For now, your homework is to SIGN UP FOR 2016! Have you done that yet? You can do it now by clicking this link. (New members welcome as well!)

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Arugula
• Turnip greens — Tender enough for a salad but also delicious for quick cooking.
• Cauliflower — How was that cauliflower last week? So awesome? We’ve got more this week! We’ve been eating cauliflower at least once a day in our house — at breakfast (roasted), at lunch (in leftovers), and at dinner (cooked in a stew-y mash of greens and veggies).
• Peppers — Hot and green
• Rutabaga
• Cabbage
• Kale
• Chard
• Delicata winter squash
• Spaghetti squash
• Acorn squash
• Sweet potatoes — Yay! These are scrumptious and finally ready for eating (like squash, sweet potatoes have to “cure” a bit in storage before they get sweet). A note on storage: do not put your sweet potatoes in your fridge. The best place would be in an open container (like a basket) in a pantry. Our favorite way to eat sweet potatoes is … well, can you guess? You probably did. ROASTED! (We’re so predictable around here!) I peel them and chop into even sized pieces and roast at 425° with plenty of butter (stirring a few times) until crispy outside and soft inside.
• Beets
• Carrots
• Potatoes

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And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Bratwurst!? — Casey will most likely be picking up another batch of pork from the butcher in the morning. In which case, we’ll be restocked with everyone’s favorite artisan-made no-nitrates added pasture-raised pork Bratwursts! $12/lb.
• Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb packages
• Lamb — Roasts and ground lamb are $8/lb. Lamb chops are $12/lb.