(CSA Newsletter: Early Season Week 4)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
Most of the year, seasons are a constant dynamic force on the farm. While certainly distinct from each other, each season consists of many seasons. ‘Fall’ may be easily identified from ‘summer,’ but they each have their own turning within themselves: the ripening of different fruits, the chilling of days, the increase in rain, etc.
Winter, however, has a few months that almost feel static. In December, we reach a plateau on the farm — the day length decreases so that very few green things can continue to grow (even though many continue to ‘live’ in our mild climate), and the rainy days tend to blend together for weeks at a time. For us, this period of winter is restful. Weeds don’t germinate; the field can’t be worked; and — with the exception of long cold snaps and windstorms — there’s little we have to worry about. In that time, we both drift into a forced slower pace that is simultaneously peaceful & maddening (we’re not slow paced people at heart). Winter forces us to rest — thank goodness for winter.
The last two weeks of sunny weather, however, represent a significant shift in activity on the farm. Between working up some of our spring ground, sowing starts, drilling cover crop seed in old fields, and harvesting for the CSA, we are definitely shifting back into high gear. We’re thinking about the day-to-day farm management more and the long-term vision less.
The farm itself is seemingly ‘waking up’ as well. Biennial root crops that have simply ‘stored’ in the ground all winter are now putting on new growth and preparing to throw out their reproductive energy into flowers. You might notice the beginning of small white hairs on your carrots — that’s the sign that the carrot is preparing to flower, and incidentally the sign that we’re probably done with over-wintered carrots for the year. Other items are flowering too, including our over-wintered arugula and turnips (leading to the delicious rapini in this week’s share). A sad note for us as flowers begin to show is that gophers and/or voles ate the roots of almost all our artichoke plants this winter, meaning that we won’t have any of those delicious spring buds to share with you all (this year, anyway, we’re not giving up — more artichoke plants are in our greenhouse right now). But the blooming daffodils we found growing wild at the edge of our slough helped cheer us up.
Really, it’s hard to be anything but optimistic with weather like we’ve had recently. We already know of a few challenges we’ll face this year, but none of them seems more daunting that we’ve faced the last two springs. We are always realistic even in our optimism — unknowns lie ahead — but as we witness this turn from mid-winter to early spring, we find ourselves smiling a lot.
We hope that you too have been enjoying these gifts. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics
P.S. Our week off was great — thanks to everyone for being so flexible. We had a fabulous time at Breitenbush Hot Springs, including some much needed soaking in their healing waters. We also learned a ton from the many other farmers at the event. It’s always over-whelming and inspiring to learn from people who have been at this business much longer than us. We can’t wait to go back again next year! In the meantime, we have a year’s worth of work, lessons and successes to live through here at our own farm.
aww, breitenbush healing waters.