(CSA Newsletter: Summer Week 4)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
Question: What dominates the minds of two young vegetable farmers on a random mid-July weekend?
Answer: Harry Potter, of course!
Yes, we were among the millions reading Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows over this weekend. We attended the midnight release party at Third Street Books Friday night and finished reading on Sunday. For at least a few hours this weekend, neither of us cared much about the farm. Weed pressure disappeared from our brains as we were immersed in a completely different world with more serious (although admittedly fictional) problems to solve.
Anyhow, we’re done now (as is the series!) and glad to be back in reality with you all. We hope that the other Harry Potter fans out there enjoyed the seventh book as much as we did—perhaps reading while munching on fresh carrot sticks even!
But enough about Harry Potter. Although our fervent reading was one distraction this weekend, the last week has been unusual in other ways as well. As you all know and experienced yourselves, the last week we’ve had unprecedented July weather here in the Willamette Valley. Our CSA harvest last Tuesday was a rainy one, and the cool wet weather continued for several days. Here at Oakhill Organics, we always enjoy rain (as do most of the veggies), but it was also unexpected and has set back some of our summer fruiting veggies. As of the week before (a hot spell), we had been expecting to have ripe melons and tomatoes by this week. Unfortunately, that is not the case—both have continued to ripen, but not in the speedy manner we anticipated based on previous average temperatures for mid-July. We have ripe tomatoes, yes, but not enough yet to share with 70 CSA shares.
We hope that you can be patient one more week—although we’re struggling ourselves. Since we started the season earlier this year and have been harvesting for months already, we feel as though it surely must be tomato season by now. Yet last year we gave out tomatoes for the first time on August 1. I think the theme of this summer should be ‘time warp’ or ‘elastic time’ or something along those lines, because we almost never know what part of the year we’re actually in (especially with the cool rainy weather, which made it feel very fall-like out here).
Our time warp certainly wasn’t helped by the temporary time/space dislocation of speed-reading Harry Potter, nor by our newly begun discussions about ‘next year.’ We’re always thinking about ways to improve every aspect of the farm, but this last week we’ve begun discussing next year in highly specific detail for the first time this season.
We’ve begun making lists of fall and winter projects, which include: building a new permanent hot house (ours is small and make-shift at best), building a tractor shed, planting a permanent hedge row along the unprotected boundaries of our property, building a second larger hen house, and more. Of course, everything we’re planning requires time and money, so the list will certainly be shortened by those constraints, but it’s fun to begin thinking about next year so soon.
Remembering that farming is a rhythmic process helps us relax when we realize that many of our approaches this year didn’t work out as well as we anticipated. For example, we left some paths between beds in our oat cover crop this year, thinking that it would help prevent weeds from growing there. The result, however, is that we now have ripening oats dominating a handful of our plantings, and we’re not able to cut them down in places due to the closeness of the vegetable plants. Sigh. Not a big deal, really, but inconvenient.
So, we’re discussing next year and realizing that we probably shouldn’t just leave random patches of an over-wintered grain cover crop in our field. Instead, we’re planning to intentionally sow a summer cover crop in each path as we transplant—and we’re going to standardize all our path widths in the process and create a system by which we can control path weeds with our Allis Chalmers cultivating tractor. And, right now, we think this refined version of this spring’s idea will prove more successful in achieving our goals: weed suppression and improved walking ability (bare dirt + irrigation = slippery mud). But this time next year I imagine we’ll be analyzing that move again for potential further improvements. (Like Harry Potter, we have many different opportunities to face battle with our weed enemies!)
It sure is a good thing we like all of this stuff. A lot. Really, we hope that you, our community of eaters, always remember this fact as we sometimes share our difficulties with you: we love our work. And we love providing quality locally grown produce for our community. It is a continual pleasure to serve you in this way. So, for this week, thank you again.
And, we hope you enjoy the vegetables! May they fuel you for all your summer adventures, fictional or otherwise!
Your farmers,
Katie & Casey Kulla
Oakhill Organics
Veggie storage reminders
Our basil storage suggestion inspired us to share general storage tips again, just as a mid-summer reminder. Vegetables are such diverse plants that it can be confusing keeping tracking of what prefers what kinds of storage conditions. Here are a few general rules to remember when putting away your CSA share each week:
We recommend storing all fresh green vegetables (lettuce, basil, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge. For best results, do not compress the air out of the bag but instead use air to create a ‘cushion’ around the veggies (this will help prevent crushing in your fridge). Also, moisture helps keep things from wilting, so we do not spin dry our greens before storing (although we do before dressing for the table).
Fresh root vegetables (beets, carrots, turnips, etc.) we store in the same way. For more voluminous veggies, such as roots with greens attached, we often use plastic grocery bags and use the convenient handles for tying a knot. Also, roots will store longer without their greens attached. So, for example, if you don’t plan to use the root end of a beet bunch as soon as the greens, try cutting them apart and storing them in separate bags.
Most fruits (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, summer squash) will prefer to be kept in a cool, dry place with plenty of air circulation. Do not put them in a plastic bag, where they may rot from excess moisture build-up. Baskets (with smooth bottoms that won’t pierce the fruit skin), paper berry cups, and open paper bags are preferable. Also, note that your kitchen counter in summer may be too hot for ideal fruit storage, so scout out other cool places nearby, such as a pantry shelf. Your fridge is too cold for most fruits; however, exceptions are green-colored fruits—such as cucumbers, beans, and peas—which hold up well in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Hope those tips help everyone keep their veggies tasty for as long as possible!
You’re invited!
We’ve scheduled two more open houses for the CSA this season. We hope you can make it!
We’ll give farm tours, eat snacks, sing some silly songs, and enjoy each other’s company!
We’ll gather in our covered space to drink cider, eat cookies, sing more silly songs, and celebrate the end of the harvest season. Plus, you’ll be able to pick a pumpkin from our special CSA pumpkin patch!
