(CSA Newsletter: Summer Week 2)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
In our experience so far, early July feels like a good farming season check-point: by the first week in July, fields that have been even slightly neglected will begin to show serious signs of problems—weeds, pests, lagging plantings. Fields that have been well maintained will probably also show some signs of wear and tear, but overall plants will probably be chugging along and will welcome the boost heats brings. If things look ok in early July, then—in our experience—the season should continue to fare well.
For us, at this July check-in point, we’re feeling good. We took stock of the fields this week, as we’re at a breather moment between big field projects. Yes, we have weeds in the fields. But, no, we are not losing at yields due to weed pressure. That’s a small but welcome victory today.
We also had a chance in the last two weeks to visit to other farms and catch a quick glimpse of their seasons so far. A week ago, we visited our friends Mike and Jill at their Yamhill farm, Gaining Ground. Our operations are very similar in terms of our size and what we grow—although they have been at it for one year longer and have much more established infrastructure. We had a blast walking through their fields and mentally comparing crops. Even with our many similarities, however, our farms and fields do have many differences. For one thing, their location is more private and feels wilder. Their place is gorgeous, especially with all of the vegetables rows lined up like a rainbow of greens across the mellow hillside fields.
Also, this year they branched out into meat bird production, and we were impressed by the chicken tractors they’ve got going on one of their fallow fields. We were also keen on the beer tap they built into their cooler. Now, that’s a good idea.
And good ideas are our favorite part of visiting other farms. It’s amazing how much inspiration can be gained simply in a field walk. For that purpose, as well as to trade some implements, we also visited this last week Gathering Together Farm in Philomath. GTF has been one of our role model farms as we moved to Oregon and began our own—their produce always looks amazing at market, so we were excited to walk their fields as well. We weren’t disappointed. Besides being in awe of their infrastructure (which includes a beautiful farmstand/restaurant), their place looked great. They were already harvesting their first tomatoes, which we enjoyed in a cucumber and tomato salad for lunch that day.
We also visited with Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed, who grows his seed crops in cooperation with GTF and from whom we buy most of our greens seeds and many others as well (including everyone’s favorite delicata squash!). We watched Frank and his family harvest some over-wintered seeds, walked through an experimental lettuce bed, and talked about experiences we had with some of his seeds.
We’d met Frank and the GTF folks before, but it was wonderful to visit again and see them in action. The GTF crew have been at it for 20 years, and their experience showed: everywhere we turned we saw new ideas and successful innovations/adaptations.
Both farm visits were wonderful, and both farms looked great to us. However, since we visited in early July, the usual ‘how’s the season going?’ question did yield some almost negative answers as well. The problems have begun to show, even though the positives heavily outweigh the negatives. At Gaining Ground, they struggled with insect pressure on their starts this spring, and at GTF they were still rushing to keep weeds at bay.
And, really, even with feeling good about our season, we have some of those observations this early July as well. What problems are now showing themselves? Our big uncertainty is still how our water will hold out for the season (with our surface water being finite and our well water rights still pending). Due to that uncertainty, we’ve probably erred on the side of under-watering some of our crops. Also, we began harvesting our garlic this morning (Monday), and judging by what we saw, we think we still have a lot to learn about growing great garlic. (In fact there’s a book by that name that we plan to order tomorrow in preparation for next season.) Oh, and we probably set our onions back this spring by waiting too long to plant them out and starting them in flats rather than plugs.
So, that’s what we would probably share with the other farming folks if they visited our farm this early July. But hopefully they would also see what we see on our farm (and on theirs): the big picture of abundance.
It’s funny how we farmers can get bogged down in some details (which admittedly if ignored can add up to big problems)—this year, especially since it’s only our second year, we’ve been trying hard to continue seeing that ‘big picture’ view everyday. So, on days like today—when we get somewhat disappointed or frustrated by one particular aspect of the farm—we try to step back. We’ve also been making almost daily trips to the river, which sure helps our moods. (With this week’s heat, I’m sure we’ll be spending even more time than usual in the river.)
On that note, we hope that everyone stays cool this week. Drink lots of fluids! And, when you’re sweating, remember that we’ve got melons ripening in the fields—melons that will soon be heading your way! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics
P.S. A quick note on produce bags & paper berry cups:
In order to ensure that everyone in the CSA receives an equal share, we often weigh and ‘portion’ some veggies into plastic bags or paper cups. Unfortunately, we cannot re-use either of these once they have been taken out of our hands, simply due to potential contamination issues (we trust all of you! It’s just a safeguard for health and our organic standards).
However, we encourage you to re-use these whenever possible. If you can put empty produce bags and cups in the bags you bring to the pick-up, then you can transfer items such as summer squash from our paper cups into your bags. Since the produce bags are fairly inexpensive, we will continue to use new ones every week for items such as salad mix—but we’d love to re-use the paper cups from week to week. If you leave them with us, then we can! Thanks!
