Farm alchemy

Some of my favorite long-stored winter foods: shallots and carrots frying in butter!

The ingredients we put into the farm are seemingly simple and finite: fertility, water, seeds, time and labor … One might think that, as with many industries, you could look at such inputs and predict the “outputs.” Certainly, to some degree, it’s possible to “estimate yields,” which is how farms like ours and others can plan at all how much to plant for existing markets, etc. In the winter, Casey and I spend many hours pouring over lists, doing what we call “ag math” — calculating how many row feet of carrot we need to satisfy the CSA and how much that would cost to produce, etc.

However, unlike retail sales or such (where there is a clear price for procuring and then selling the good), our ability to project is squishy at best. We joke about how rich a farm can look in the winter when doing “ag math” — because of course “ag math” doesn’t account for any negative variables such as pest problems, droughts, or poor sales. Consequently, when we plan and make budgets, we like to use the most conservative numbers in both directions — we underestimate yields/sales and overestimate problems/expenses.

But, more often, we’re amazed at how our “ag math” doesn’t add up accurately in the other positive direction. Our farm can be broken down into units — rows of carrots, number of strawberry plants — which is the only way we can really tackle our work (any complex task is only surmountable by breaking it down into parts). These units are what make “ag math” possible. But the farm still is a whole complex entity, and now more than ever before, and somehow it never ceases to amaze us that our farm as a whole is more productive and profitable than we can anticipate based on those units.

We had a bit of a mini crisis this last week — perhaps periodic angst as such is inevitable when operating a small business. It started because, well, we were a bit exhausted by the year so far. Right now we have three big enterprises: the Full Diet CSA, the veggie CSA, and restaurant sales. While production overlaps, these each require individual attention too, and we had been feeling stretched a bit thin by the extra work required to launch the Full Diet (now that we’re in our 19th week of this project, many aspects are more routine, thank goodness!). Also, much to our delight, the Full Diet has been more successful so far than we anticipated. As has been the trend for our farm since day one, we are already exceeding our set goals for what we’d have to offer at this point. We’ve loved watching folks leave the pick-up here on the farm loaded with various food items, but we started to worry if we’d outpaced ourselves in a way. How could we possibly be affording to produce all this food based on what we charged (which was a conservative estimate set last summer when we weren’t sure how this would all work out)??? Adding up the market value for each item in our head, we were realizing that indeed the market value of the food exceeded what we had charged. Oh goodness, what now?

We spent a week scratching our brows and agonizing over this sense that our farm was stretched too thin in time and money, and oh no oh no oh no … much hand wringing. Spring is always a time when we feel “tight,” because it’s also when we spend the most money on seeds and supplies. Plus, the last two years have been tight because we were doing big things like buying new land and gearing up for the Full Diet (which wasn’t happening yet, so we were investing in a future income sources). In our minds, we were still working in that financial space.

But then Friday night, I realized: we hadn’t sat down recently to do an up-to-date budget comparing our accounts receivable (money left to come in this year) with our projected expenses for the year. I felt ridiculously silly about this (had to forgive myself later, realizing that Casey and I are only de facto business people because the farm has forced us to be!). I ran to the computer with a pad of paper and a calculator and started working it all out: what’s coming in, what do we have in the bank, what do we still need to spend money on this season (payroll, mortgages, utilities, etc.). Casey watched as I added it all up, and then we both sighed huge sighs of relief.

We’re fine. Not only are we fine, we’ve been working under our old ideas of income and actually have enough money to add a few more projects and employees (a new one started today and another is lined up for next Monday). Knowing we will have more hands in the fields changes everything — our mini crisis is ended and once again we are taking great joy in all the work of the farm. Why we didn’t just stop and work these numbers weeks ago is a bit of a mystery, but life is distracting and constantly moving, so we just have to take this knowledge and move forward happily now.

The alchemy of the farm is working its magic again, just as we have come to understand with our seven prior years of the CSA. Because, this “magic” — where the total adds up to more on each side than expected — isn’t new. I don’t really understand exactly how it works (because otherwise it wouldn’t be magic), but somehow it works to provide more food than people have “technically” paid for based on market values (the veggie CSA has always worked on this model — we are consistently bump up the volume of produce because of the abundance in the field) and still make the profits we need to keep our farm in a constant state of improvement (and pay our own modest household bills).

Like I said, I still don’t totally understand how it works — the equations seem to be tipped in both directions — but I imagine it’s all about the power of natural forces: the sun, the soil, the soil life … we have consistently felt since we moved to Grand Island that the land here works with us to produce food. The first year, the sensation was especially striking, since the land we had been farming the year before felt like more of a daily struggle. What a difference it makes to be farming on prime farmland. We and the land are partners in this venture, and we are amazed over and over again by how productive this ground can be. That translates to abundant food, and yes also a viable profitable farm (especially when we’re not buying new land or investing in new ventures!).

A researcher called us recently to ask about “farm success,” and whether or not we feel our farm has been successful (and what that means to us). I told her that Casey and I haven’t had any off-farm income since we started the farm in 2006 — for us this is the ultimate success. And, what a blessing to make our living from work that we so deeply love and that so profoundly benefits our customers. Every day brings joys, and we say thank you thank you thank you to the magic of good work and good ground.

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

  • Cauliflower — It’s hard for me to remember that I used to not like cauliflower very much (ok, at all). I used to associate it with hard tasteless items on the ubiquitous “veggie platter” at random social events. Now I know that (for me) cauliflower is for cooking, and OH how many ways there are to cook it! Just this week, we have: roasted cauliflower, cooked it in broth and veggies, cooked it in coconut milk with curry spices, and made “cauliflower rice.” This last item is new to us. Take cauliflower florets and put them in a food processor and chop until fine (don’t mush! it helps to do this in batches). The resulting cauliflower will have a confetti shape/size. Put this in a large pan with liberal amounts of fat (butter, coconut oil, lard, etc.) and saute until cooked. It will turn darker tan and some bits will even be brown, looking quite a lot like wild rice or rice pilaf. It makes a great “bed” for any kind of dish that would normally go on rice or pasta — match the seasonings between the topping and the cauliflower and it’s delicious!
  • Peas — Oh yeah!
  • Kale
  • Radishes
  • Mustard greens
  • Carrots — Seriously, folks — I know that these winter carrots aren’t the prettiest thing in the world, but they are so delicious! I’ve been adding them to almost every dish lately, enjoying their incredibly sweet flavor (made so by long time in storage — the cold of the cooler keeps them fresh and also slowly converts starch into sugar). I’m amazed at the transformation they make just from simple peeling — the interior flesh is vibrant and bright orange. Spring carrots will arrive soon enough, but I am grateful for these, especially since they’ve made our winter and spring sweeter.
  • Sunchokes — Another delicious winter storage vegetable that is still rocking it (same starch to sugar situation). Unlike the carrots, I do not recommend peeling these (just too much trouble, and the skin is mild flavored and thin). Instead, trim off any thing needing it, and then chop and wash (I like to wash after chopping so I can get into the little crevices). Those slightly pink bits you are trimming off? That’s the sunchoke’s response to losing its weird shaped appendages during digging (inevitable — it is so weird pulling these ginger-shaped objects out of the ground). The break points turn a little pink and get a little slimy, but I’m always amazed at how the rest of the sunchoke stays awesome. Once prepped, you can roast or saute for deliciousness. We ate roasted sunchokes for dinner tonight — I put them in a pan with liberal amounts of coconut oil and roasted at 425° until they were very well browned and soft inside. The outside slightly caramelizes — seriously drool-worthy. Even Rusty ate lots.
  • Green garlic — A spring treat! These are garlic plants that we harvest early, before they have fully bulbed and begun drying down. They are the garlic equivalent of green onions and boast a strong flavor without being at all “hot.” You can chop and add to sauteed dishes or roast them whole with chicken or other veggies.
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