(CSA Newsletter: Week 1)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
Welcome back everyone to our 2010 CSA season — our fifth season serving the greater McMinnville area with fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables. We have much to share after our seven-week break …
Meet Rusty!
First of all, the most exciting news of all: the birth of our son Rusty on December 11! Thank you to everyone for your incredible flexibility and understanding at the end of last year’s CSA season — we really appreciated being able to take off the final CSA harvest in order rest and nest after a long birth (46 hours!). Rusty is a great little guy and we had great fun hanging out with him over our winter break. We feel very blessed that we get to spend our days watching him grow here at the farm.
Cold cold cold December weather
Of course, at the same time that we were welcoming Rusty onto our farm, we were also experiencing some record cold temperatures. On the three nights that I was in labor, our low temperatures in the field reached 6°, 5.8° and 7°. That’s cold!
Fortunately, we were able to protect many beds of vegetables with row cover before the freezing temperatures hit. Unfortunately, the lows were so cold that we incurred some damage anyway. Our roots were damaged the most, since we primarily store them in the field. During ‘normal’ winters, they store beautifully. Even in slightly colder winters, they store well, but this was an extreme situation. We’re still uncertain about the total level of damage, but it looks like we’ll be lighter on roots this winter than usual — most of the potatoes and beets were damaged, along with some carrots and celery root.
What to expect this winter
So, what can you expect to receive in your shares between now and when spring plantings begin to produce? Lots of delicious stuff! We have a wide variety of winter greens — mostly cooking greens (mustards, kales, cabbages, etc.) but also a few hardy fresh eating greens like this week’s Castelfranco chicory. To accompany the greens, we also have a variety of alliums: garlic, onions, and leeks. And, we do still have some roots out there, as well as yummy sweet starchy stuff in storage like this week’s Ambercup winter squash.
As usual, winter vegetables require a bit more cosmetic tolerance than veggies harvested at the peak of summer. These vegetables are in the field much longer than main season produce — the leeks were planted last May! Consequently, there are simply more opportunities for them to get dings and bruises from pests and weather events (such as the cold).
We are very picky in the fields about what we harvest to give to you, but sometimes you will find minor damage on your vegetables. We recommend that you give all your vegetables a ‘look over’ before preparing. Simply trim off any parts that look browned, soft, or otherwise less pleasant. Also, winter rains make mud. We thoroughly wash all the veggies here at the farm, but we still recommend that you take extra care in giving your vegetables a good washing at home.
I also want to remind our returning CSA members that last fall’s shares were especially big, since we were trying to make sure you had more than enough vegetables if we ended up skipping a CSA week because of the birth (which we did!). This time of year is naturally leaner (and especially after the cold spell), so the shares will be relatively smaller in volume. You will still be receiving your per week dollar amount in vegetables, but we won’t be going much over that value until warm spring weather arrives in earnest and brings with it the main growing season’s abundance.
As always, we will accompany each week’s carefully balanced vegetable share with an entertaining and informative newsletter featuring news from the farm, serving suggestions and recipes. If you miss picking up the newsletter, you can find it here online on our blog. You can also read past newsletters and recipes here.
Meet Jeff!
Before we close this week’s newsletter, we also want to introduce another new addition to the farm: Jeff Bramlett, our new employee for 2010. Now that Rusty is around and requiring my (Katie’s) full-time attention, I won’t be in the fields as much. Jeff is Casey’s new right-hand man in the fields; he’ll be harvesting and helping with the full gamut of farm work: sowing, planting, weeding, etc.
In addition to helping us four days a week, Jeff and his wife Carri Heisler will be busy starting their own small vegetable farm on part of our land. They live in Salem and will be marketing their produce there under their farm name Pitchfork & Crow. Check out their website for more info about their fledgling operation: www.pitchforkandcrow.com.
So, as we look towards 2010, we are excited, in spite of the setbacks delivered by the cold weather. Having a beautiful child in our life provides so much perspective, joy and hope, and the vegetable fields amazed us with their growth during the warm January. Life feels vibrant right now, even in the dark, wet weather of winter.
We hope that you can taste the aliveness of the world in every bite of squash and greens in your first 2010 CSA share. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
P.S. Reminder! There will be no CSA harvest or pick-up on February 23! We will be gone that week at a farmer retreat.
