Getting to know you = FUN!

Last week’s first CSA pick-up went great! Thanks to everyone for showing up and being so enthusiastic about the beginning of vegetable season! The pick-up site worked better than we even expected—it was fun to see people walking and biking to pick up their veggies. (Thank you again & again to the First Baptist Church community for providing such an ideal location!) And, above all else, we loved meeting the new folks and visiting again with returning members. We’ve got a good group this year.

And, to provide an opportunity for you to get more acquainted with each other and with the farm, we’d like to invite our CSA members to an Open House at the farm on Saturday, June 9, 1 – 5 pm. Stop by anytime during that window. We’ll have some lemonade and cookies for you to snack on, and you’ll be able to see our new land, walk the fields, and chat with each other and us. We know that it’s last minute (our spring has been full of everything but event planning), so we hope that you can come! If not, we’ll have more events later.

When you do visit—at this open house or the next—you’ll be in for a treat. Those of you who were with us last year will remember our small one-acre garden. It was lovely, and perfect for our first year of growing on our own. But we’ve definitely expanded our operation on the new land. We have 17.5 acres total, although only about 12 of that is tillable acreage (we have a tree-lined seasonal stream running along one side of the property that takes up several acres). This year, we’re leasing about 8 of our acres to another farmer—the same who farmed this land before us. Just today (Monday), he cut the oats and field peas he grew over the winter. Last fall we sowed a cover crop of oats and fava beans onto the remaining 4.5 acres, and this spring we began working up beds.

In March, when we began, 4.5 acres seemed like a lot of ground to fill. Today, in late May, it no longer seems so big. We’ve been busy, and it’s hard to believe it, but we already have about 3 acres of vegetables growing in our fields. Three acres! For us, that’s a lot, but it also isn’t as much as it might seem at first. Because we’re planning for the winter CSA share this year, we have extra large plantings of storage crops like winter squash, potatoes, onions, and leeks—those four items alone take up over half of our planted ground.

Plus, we have extra help this year as we plant our bigger garden. Although it was fun in 2006, as you know we discontinued the share member work hours (primarily because we’re farther from town and didn’t want the CSA to become a burden). Instead we have two work share members who come out one morning every week for the duration of the season. Even though it’s only for a few hours a week, having Diane and Molly in the fields with us this month has been fantastic! Sometimes there’s just more work than two of us can easily handle—especially with big planting or weeding jobs. So, that’s what Diane and Molly have helped us with: planting potatoes and winter squash, weeding carrots, trellising peas, sowing salad mix. More hands make long tasks fly by.

And lest you think we get lonely at other times around here, we rarely have a day go by without a visitor. Although most days it’s just the two of us in the fields, many people stop by to say hello: neighbors, friends who ‘happen’ to be in the area, our parents, and curious farmers who stop by the side of the road to ask us about the garden. Fortunately, this constant stream of friendly faces is a welcome surprise. When we first began dreaming of a rural life, we both feared feeling isolated. Community has always been important to us, leading us to live off and on at an intentional community in the mountains of central Washington—and of course to start a Community Supported Agriculture farm. With community as one of our values, the visitors are a delight. Although we do sometimes have to cut off conversations in order to finish our work, we feel like we are part of a more thriving community than ever before … snd, we hope you will be one of our next visitors. Remember the date: June 9! I wonder if this land has ever had such a crowd visit before. It should be fun!

Directions to the farm: From HWY-18, head south on Lafayette Hwy. Turn left (east) onto Fairview Rd (there will be a sign for Hauer of the Dauen winery). Stay on Fairview as it crosses Hwy 221-Wallace Rd. Fairview will turn into Grand Island Rd at that point. Stay on Grand Island Rd as it crosses the bridge onto the island. Turn right at the first uncontrolled intersection (there will be grapevines on your left and an older cherry orchard on the right), onto Upper Island Rd. Our property is the second on the left. We’ll have signs to direct you to parking and the fields.

Of course we have one more pick-up before then, but we’re already excited for the Open House! Either way, we’ll see you next week. For now, enjoy the vegetables!

Your farmers,

Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics

P.S. If you want to see us even sooner, the McMinnville Farmers’ Market begins this Thursday. Market is on Cowls St, between 2nd & 3rd Streets, from 1:30 – 6:30. If you’ve enjoyed your veggies, please share the news that we’re there! We should have a strong first day, with our booth full of all sorts of different veggies. If you’re downtown or at market, stop by & say hello!

A book for your summer reading list:

One of our favorite authors—Barbara Kingsolver, recently published a book on our favorite topic—eating seasonally and locally. Due to this uncommon joining of our two favorites, we purchased Animal, Vegetable, Miracle the very same day it was released. I think that was a first for us, since we’re usually ‘get-it-from-the-library’ or ‘buy-it-used-in-paperback’ types.

Fortunately, Kingsolver’s book lived up to our expectations. In it, she and her husband and daughter share their experience of eating local and seasonal food for an entire year—exclusively local and seasonal. Not a small challenge in modern America, where most foodstuffs travel more than their eaters do in a lifetime. Their stories are a delight to read, and the trio fill in the narrative with useful facts about food sources as well as recipes.

I think it’s a safe bet that almost anyone in the CSA would find this book worth reading. Even if Kingsolver covers material you’re already familiar with, I think you’ll find new reasons to make the food choices you already make—or at least new insight into why you are in a CSA and why you enjoy eating fresh seasonal vegetables.