Visit to Southern Oregon

(CSA Newsletter: Main Season Week 20)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

This weekend we went on a brief road trip to Southern Oregon. The trip was inspired by an invitation to participate in an OSU workshop on farmers as writers, but we took advantage of the opportunity to check out the area and visit friends’ farms.

The drive down was rainy but beautiful. It had been years since we had driven farther south on I-5 than Eugene, and we enjoyed watching the scenery changed as we left the flat Willamette Valley and entered hilly Southern Oregon.

Our destination was the Applegate River valley between Grant’s Pass and Medford, where many of our long-distance farmer friends reside.

We stopped at Blue Fox Farm first, where Chris Jagger showed us around the property they’ve moved their growing operation onto (six miles away from the ‘home farm,’ where they first began farming). Even under a gray and dismal sky, the fields were gorgeous — row after row of 400’ beds, filled with beautiful produce for fall and winter. Much of it looked familiar, simply because some practices are used on many similar scale market farms. Blue Fox has a tractor similar to ours (a Landini) and grows the same variety of sweet fall carrot (Bolero). But the Jaggers have been at it longer than us, and their experience was evident in the field’s consistency.

That afternoon, we also visited Barking Moon Farm, run by Melissa Mathewson and her partner Josh Cohen. Melissa is the OSU Small Farms extension agent who organized the workshop and invited us to come down. This is their first year really going at it with Barking Moon Farm. Last year they grew beets and spinach for a local cooperative CSA, the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative, and this year they’re continuing to be a part of the cooperative as well as attend two markets, run their own small CSA and sell wholesale. They also have a livestock component to their operation and sell certified organic eggs.

The Barking Moon operation is definitely smaller than Blue Fox, but they have managed to fit an astounding amount of diversity into their two farmed acres. The produce we saw all looked great, especially considering it’s their first year managing the farm as a mostly full-time gig.

Barking Moon Farm was our first real glimpse into the vast differences between where we farm and the Applegate area. We were certainly struck by the significant shift in scenery on our drive — flat grassy farmland grew into dry tree-covered hills. But walking through their fields was an up-close experience in a very different place. Barking Moon is located up Thompson Creek, tucked up on a south-facing hillside. The fields hug the curve of the hill, surrounded by tall deer fencing and forest. Barking Moon felt almost wild in the context of steep hillsides. Our own farm seemed so tame in our memories as Josh and Melissa talked about losing strawberries to foxes.

The next day, after the workshop, we headed up the valley to the north and visited Seven Seeds Farm outside of Williams. Their operation once again reminded us that we were in the mountains — Don Tipping gave us a beautiful tour of their 50 acres, which included farmed fields as well as carefully managed wild forestland. We were especially excited to see the seed growing aspects of their operation, since growing seed is something we’ve thought about but still aren’t quite sure how to integrate into a market farm set-up. At Seven Seeds, they’ve got it down — seed crops grow next to annual vegetables which grow next to perennial crops; farmed fields double as pasture and hay ground for sheep; and all of it is beautifully integrated in a functional way.

We were also amazed by the impressive watering systems set up at Seven Seeds. Thanks to being on a hillside, they are able to irrigate without the use of pumps — everything is gravity-fed, either from irrigation channels or man-made ponds. The difference in the watering situation struck us as another interesting difference between the two regions. As with anywhere in the west, all the farmers we visited were very aware of water. That region is drier even than here in the Willamette Valley, and yet in other ways water seemed almost more abundant — or, at least, less allocated. The farms in the area are smaller and fewer, so it seemed as though legally using water for farming is perhaps less contentious than here up north (where many small farms are simply using water without legal rights). The water systems offered fascinating differences too. Whereas here in the flat valley, you either pull water from a well with a pump or from surface water with a pump, these farmers spoke of irrigation channels and ditches running through the hills.

We were also surprised by the prevalence of irrigated pasture, something rarely seen here where pasture is often considered a common use of unirrigated farmland. Driving back up though, we were reminded at just how much wetter it is here. Even unirrigated fields were green after the recent rain in the Willamette Valley — not so in the Applegate, where anything unirrigated was still as brown as August.

Even though the situations and farms were unique and very different than our own, we learned a lot from visiting these three farms. We have a renewed vision for our own place based on what we liked at the other farms — specifically, the sense of community we felt at each place, and the feeling of distinct spaces. Our farm started as a big open field with trees on one side. We’ve had to build or plant everything, and we’re still working on the big picture future for the larger landscape and feel of our farm. We’re definitely inspired to plant more permanent green buffers and dividers between different areas on the farm to help designate home and work spaces. We also hope to provide more opportunities for more people to join us out here, in whatever capacity that turns out to be.

(As a writer, I was also of course inspired to write more after attending the workshop. I’m still processing the ideas I had during that part of our trip and how it will affect my winter project list … so much to write about — where to begin?)

Now we’re back into the groove of work on our own farm. The rain has let up perfectly in time for us to harvest for the CSA. This Thursday is the last day of the McMinnville Farmers Market for 2008 and our final market ever (for the foreseeable future). Our visit to other farms affirmed our decision to simplify next year as well — we talked with Chris Jagger of Blue Fox and Don Tipping of Seven Seeds about how they have figured out their niche over the years and focused on farming well and living well. CSA farming certainly feels like our niche these days — we enjoy it more than ever and are looking forward to the ‘Late Season’ (beginning next week!). This week’s share contains even more fall flavors, even though summer tomatoes and peppers are still hanging on.

If you’re joining us for the ‘Late Season,’ we’ll see you next week at the YCAP Food Bank warehouse. If you’re not, we hope you have a wonderful fall and hopefully we’ll see you again in 2009! Either way, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. Another date for your calendar: our pumpkin patch open house will be on Sunday, October 26 from 1 – 3 pm. All are invited!

P.P.S. Remember! Next week, the ‘Late’ CSA begins! Pick-up moves to the YCAP Food Bank warehouse. The loading dock entrance is on 1st street, just east across the railroad tracks from the post offic exit. Pick-up remains Tuesdays, 3:30 – 6:30. See you there! (Call if you have any questions: 503-474-7661.)