(CSA Newsletter: Fall Week 4)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
Although the children in our CSA may have been eagerly anticipating this season for weeks, for us this last week the holiday season’s swift arrival was a surprise. Thanksgiving, of course, gives the ‘green-light’ to lights, music, and decorating extravaganza in every public space.
But the weather also played its part this week, as we saw temperatures in November that usually wait until December or January: mid-20s for a low every night this week. We woke up to very wintry fields this week: white frost draped over every blade of grass and vegetable. We moved slowly in the mornings, lingering by the fire with a cup of coffee as we waited for the ground and plants to thaw before harvesting. For the most part, our fieldwork wasn’t so urgent that the delay was unwelcome. We’ve waited months for an excuse to be lazy.
And now that the holidays are fully upon us, we are excited about all the upcoming gatherings and festivities. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends last week, which followed a successful ‘Holiday Harvest’ on Wednesday. The response to our idea of custom holiday meal harvests was overwhelmingly positive. We received 39 individual orders for Thanksgiving vegetables, and the total volume approached that of a good McMinnville market. Many of the folks who placed orders are regular market customers, and it was great fun to see people mid-fall who we hadn’t seen since October! (If you’re interested, our next Holiday Harvest will be on December 21. We’ll post an availability list in a few weeks and will take phone orders on the 19th and 20th.)
The holiday season also signals the closing of the year. As we go in December, we’re beginning to look more closely at 2007’s finances. Accounting is still something new to us, and we’re still working on the best system for keeping track of expenses and income. The good news is that we’re definitely in the black. This year has exceeded all our financial goals, which was a huge relief after spending a lot of money last winter moving out to the land. Now, we’re looking at how much we can budget for winter projects to see which of our next goals will make this year’s list: a new greenhouse? a pole building (the tractor is outside in the rain even as I write)? a new cooler? a new delivery vehicle? a tree hedgerow around the property? a shed roof over the wash station area?
We hope that many of these will get accomplished this winter, but realistically we’re learning to wait until we have the money. So far, we haven’t borrowed any money for farm infrastructure — just the land itself. We started the farm last year with a nest egg and since then the farm has paid for itself. At the end of the day, our farm’s debt-free status helps alleviate much potential stress.
And, speaking of stress, today (Monday) marked the end of a yearlong project. The PGE power crew came out this afternoon and hooked up the power to our new well pump panel! We haven’t tested it yet, but we assume everything is in working order and ready to go now for spring. We still have to work out the final details of plumbing from the well to our irrigation pipes, but we can’t wait to flip a switch and have water run on our fields! And unlike this year’s irrigation system (run by gas-run pump), our new water source will be powered by clean, quiet electricity. Hoorah!
We have much to look forward to these days: holiday gatherings, infrastructure projects, farmer conferences, the completion of 2007’s CSA season (final pick-up is on December 18) … we hope that you too are enjoying the quiet business of the holiday season so far. Enjoy this week’s frost-kissed vegetables!
Your farmers,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics
