2021’s new adventures included a two-night paddle camping trip on the Willamette!
Hello friends & former CSA customers! We hope that this newsletter finds you doing well. It’s been almost a year since our last CSA pick-up in 2020. As we close up another, much smaller and more personal, growing season, I wanted to reach out with an update on how we’ve been spending our first year off from commercial farming in 15 years — think of this as one final CSA newsletter!
We’ve been eating well from our over-sized “family garden” all year.
First of all, in 2021 we have continued to grow food for ourselves and maintain our property. There was much deferred clean-up work to be done after so many seasons of year-round growing, and we’ve been tackling those projects bit by bit. We’ve been calling this year our “sabbatical” year as really the future of our plans here is wide open, and commercial farming could likely play a role again someday! But in the meantime, we’ve enjoyed having the space to pursue other things. One thing has been simply making time for summer activities as a family (including multiple epic paddle adventures!). But also Casey and I have been pursuing new kinds of work. Such as …
I (Katie) have been writing! And illustrating! (As well as continuing to parent and homeschool!) I’ve been regularly publishing articles in one of our favorite farming journals, Growing for Market, as well as in a newer (and free!) online literary journal called Farmer-ish and a print magazine Geez. I also have two stories forthcoming in the delightful gardening digest GreenPrints and am working on a book proposal about balancing farming and parenting. They say to write what you know! But for this one, I’m also reaching out to farmers around the world to gather more insight and solutions than just our own.
You can see more of what I’m up to (and find links to some of my recent articles) at my brand-new website: www.KatieKulla.com. You can also follow me on Instagram at @katiekulla, where I post periodic little stories about the farm and the kids. (They’re both doing GREAT by the way, growing by leaps and bounds.)
Casey has kept more than busy with continuing to serve as Yamhill County Commissioner during these tumultuous times of COVID and climate change. In addition, Casey’s Very Big News Indeed is that he has filed to run for Oregon Governor in 2022. This is a big step, but Casey feels called to run now because of the urgency of Oregon’s challenges. You can learn more about his position statements on the issues facing Oregonian’s at his campaign website: KullaForOregon.com.
If you’re wondering how you can help support this next step for Casey and Oregon, we invite you to make a donation THIS WEEK. Even a small one ($10!) would be a critical step in showing that Casey has the support needed to run a statewide campaign — numbers of people matter as much as dollars right now! Casey has some big supporters and donors who want to see the campaign receive more support THIS WEEK. So, if you can make a small donation NOW (or invite a friend or two to do so), you can help write the next chapter of Oregon’s story.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that 2021 brought us two new loving kittens: meet Hercules and Pumpkin.
Can I also just say how much we miss you ALL???? While it has felt necessary to make room on our plates for all these new projects, we still miss the weekly visits with each and every one of you. Our relationships with you were gifts that we cherish and we hope that as pandemic living begins to ease, we will be able to pick up some of those threads again before too long.
With gratitude and hope,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Your forever farmers (in our hearts!)
