Raspberries in various stages of maturity. Meaning: more to come!
As Casey and I walked from picking raspberries to cherries this weekend, we both remarked on hard it is to remember that once upon a time our farm grew only vegetables! In our eight prior seasons, much has changed of course, as we’ve expanded in many dimensions. But right now everything feels focused on the fruit.
Our strawberries are still producing some last few delicious fruit, but with raspberries and cherries on, it’s hard to notice or care about strawberries. While our own blueberries are still years out from producing, the kids and I made a trip to town this morning to u-pick, where we heard the same story we’re hearing from all the farmers: everything is maturing so early! And, at the same time!
It certainly feels like fruit abundance everywhere we turn on our farm. Even in places where the fruit is not ready, it is visible and thriving — apple trees loaded with quickly growing globes; blackberries filled with the humming of bees; plums just beginning to blush …
Hazelnut cake with raspberries and cream for the solstice!
The kids are in heaven of course. Casey and I try to reign them in from constant grazing while we pick — we have these ideas about mindful eating that we try to instill, but alas they are young and what is the point of living on a farm if you can’t gorge on berries as a child? Every now and then, we manage to make the point of our excursions to actually pick and put in a container for later. Our freezer is filling up, and we canned thirty small jars of cherry jam this weekend. And, we’ve been making sweet treats for after dinner — we welcomed summer with a hazelnut cake topped with raspberries and whipped cream. And then the next night we made cherry ice cream. We are living it up, my friends.
Pitting cherries on the front porch. (And fava beans!)
And, oh, I can feel the splendor of this abundant season in every cell of my body! As the kids and I tromp to and from each exciting outdoor adventure, I feel so alive and energized by the good food we are eating. Late winter’s mild deprivations are not so far back in my memory so as to be forgotten, and I am filled deeply with gratitude for the plenty of early summer. Every crisp bite of salad is a celebration right now. And, of course, the fruit.
Casey and I often laugh about how, really, people just want sugar. Some people in the CSA do genuinely get excited about strong bitter chicories, but everyone rejoices about fruit and deliciously sweet carrots and delicata squash and all these good things that the earth infuses with sweetness. I find it truly miraculous that we can grow these things out of soil. Dirt. Manure. Microbes. Mixing with the magic of sun and water. Add a seed, and a few months later … DELICATA?! Really? How does that happen? I never tire of this miracle, repeated millions of times over the seasons here on our farm. (Another miracle is watching cows eat grass and then pouring their cream into my coffee — grass to cream … how does that happen?)
And fruit is perhaps the most miraculous because of how intensely it sucks that sweetness out of the universe and puts it into one tiny morsel. Summer, embodied in flavor form.
One of our household’s favorite books of all is Jamberry by Bruce Degen. We’ve been reading it a lot lately. If you’re not familiar with it, the story depicts a boy and a bear who dance through a somewhat fantastical rural world just totally overflowing with berries everywhere. The rhyming lyrics create a song in homage to exactly what we’re experiencing right now, which I can only imagine feels about as fantastical to our wee ones. The final stanza reads:
Moonberry, Starberry, Cloudberry Sky –
Boomberry, Zoomberry, Rockets shoot by !
Mountains and Fountains rain down on me,
Buried in Berries, what a Jam Jamboree !
(If you have young kids, this book is a must by the way!)
Anyhow, we hope you are rejoicing in the season — in the arrival of summer with its reliable sunshine and warm days. The continual flow of good things to eat in CSA shares, our own yards, and at the market. The opportunities for trips to the beach and the river and other bodies of water that suddenly seem so inviting, cool and refreshing. Rejoice in this time of year! Live it up!
Enjoy this week’s vegetables (and fruit!) …
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
A sneak peek!
P.S. On the horizon of more awesome things coming soon: garlic. We will be harvesting it early next month (maybe sooner — the season sure is progressing quickly!). It is, by far, the most abundant, prolific, beautiful, amazing planting we’ve ever had. I guess that’s the nature of being such a diverse farm — each year has its stars. Garlic is star-worthy this year.
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How to store produce without plastic: A CSA member sent me a really cool link this week regarding how to store your fruits and vegetables without relying on lots and lots of disposable plastic bags. Here is the link with lots of specific tips for each kind of fruit and vegetable. Storage of produce is a continual conversation we have with CSA members (in both programs), because honestly modern fridges are not terribly well suited to storing large amounts of fresh items. For one thing, the defrosting nature of the compressor units dehydrates anything not sealed in something. The default material is plastic bags, but these have their own challenges, namely that they tend to lead to crushing of greens, which leads to premature spoilage. Because we have the benefit of three walk-in coolers on our property, Casey and I actually only have an under-counter fridge in our kitchen, where we mostly store leftovers from meals, condiments and dairy products. When we want to cook, we usually pull from leftover vegetables in our coolers, which are stored packed loosely in our blue bins. We consistently keep veggies in those bins for crazy long amounts of time, which makes sense given that they get put away when still extremely fresh! (Since we harvest for the CSA programs just the day before!) But I also think it helps that foods are not being crushed. If you can make room in your fridge for washable bins of some kind, it can really lengthen the shelf life of greens especially. That’s why those fancy salad mixes are sold in those rigid plastic ‘clamshell’ containers! In fact, we have many Full Diet members who reuse such containers for their own salad mix! Anyhow, the point is to consider how you are currently storing things and whether it’s a system that can be improved to increase the freshness of your stored veggies and hopefully cut down on your disposable plastic use!
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Quarterly CSA payment due! I emailed quarterly account statements to folks at the end of last week, reminding folks that the third $270 payment is due. You can bring a check to pick-up or mail it to us by July 1: Oakhill Organics, P.O. Box 1698, McMinnville, OR 97128. If you did not receive a statement via email, it most likely means that you do not owe us money right now! But if you are unsure, please email me: farm (at) oakhillorganics (dot) org. Thanks!
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Cherries — These are “Lamberts,” an old variety from trees that have been growing on my parents’ property for the better part of a century now! Tasty tasty!
- Raspberries — More of those delicious Tulameens ……..
- Fava beans — Did you try roasting them last week? Was it so good?
- Snap peas — These are winding down, in part because our attention has turned elsewhere (hello, cherries and raspberries? Oh my!). But they are still too good to pass up!!!! Crunchy and sweet and delicious! How does this happen? A miracle!
- Salad mix — Get your salad on this week with both salad mix and head lettuce. Load your salad with filling toppings, and you’ve got a great quick meal for a warm summer evening!
- Head lettuce
- Bok choy — Hey, what’s this? A little something different in the cooking green category this week. Bok choy is great for stir frying — pair it with chopped carrots and scallions and add a little ginger or soy for an Asian flavor.
- Carrots
- Scallions
