(CSA Newsletter: Week 39)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
This week marked another milestone for the season: our interns Daniel and Erika worked their final day with us last Thursday.
Originally, we had thought we would have enough work to keep them on through the end of the CSA in mid-December, but it turned out that we moved much more quickly through all our ‘to do’ lists with four able bodies on the farm! Thus, we made the hard decision to say good-bye several weeks earlier. Daniel and Erika were a big part of why 2009 has been our best season yet, and we are grateful for all the hard work they did this year!
And, so now, once again, we’re a two-person farm. At this point in the fall, the workload dramatically decreases (especially when we’ve already zoomed through much of our fall task lists!), so Casey and I will primarily be focused on harvesting for the CSA over the next few weeks. Since there are many of you, just two of us, and fewer daylight hours than ever, we’re spreading the work out over more days. Doing so should make it possible for two of us to continue doing the harvest that four of us were doing for most of the summer and fall.
Even though it was sad to say good-bye to half of our team, we’re also looking forward to a few remaining weeks of being ‘just the two of us’ … because, as you all know now, it will only be ‘just the two of us’ for a few more weeks! Our baby’s arrival in December will forever change our husband and wife farming team. Our lives and the farm will never be the same again!
So, even though we each have to individually harvest and wash more vegetables each week, we’re relishing the time it provides for us to be together. Yes, the farm is our business, but it is difficult to separate that business from our marriage as well. We started the farm as a married couple and continue to run it that way. Fortunately, we’ve found that we make an awesome partnership. We’re both equally committed to our farm lifestyle and business, so it is a welcome integral part of our life together.
Plus, over the years of working closely together, we have grown to enjoy each other’s company more than ever before. I’m sure that someone listening in our field conversations would be bewildered at times by what we are saying — our discussions are so full of inside jokes, references to past shared experiences, and incomplete thoughts (because the other person usually ‘gets’ it without much explanation). Even though it has at times been challenging, we feel incredibly blessed to be able to work side-by-side every day.
But, again, this is all going to change soon. We will still be working side-by-side, but we will have new priorities, new tasks, new responsibilities, new roles, and a new member of our family. For one, I will be less of a part of the day-to-day physical labor, which will be a big change for me as well as for the farm (we’ve already hired one employee for next year to help fill the hole).
Although our future life as parents still seems unreal, we’ve been doing our best to prepare ourselves for the changes a baby will bring to our relationship and to the farm business. Our hope is that both continue to thrive even amidst the inevitable unpredictable chaos of new parenthood. Obviously, there will always be the unexpected, but we’ve sort of become used to the unexpected out here on the farm.
And, as part of our plan for a smooth transition, we have a favor to ask of you, our community of eaters. My due date is technically in early December, before the final two CSA harvests of 2009. Since this is my first baby, there is a real possibility that baby won’t actually arrive until after the CSA is completely finished for the year. However, in the occasion that baby arrives before one of our last CSA harvests (or even on one of the days we normally use for harvest), we have decided that we will skip a harvest.
This will be the first time we’ve ever missed a planned week of CSA veggies, but we’ve decided that it is simply the sanest and best way for us to welcome our new baby to the world. Originally, we’d planned to have Daniel and Erika take over, but even that started sounding crazy as we considered that part of our minds would always be thinking about the harvest rather than the very important work of safely bringing baby into the world. So, we’ve decided to honor and acknowledge the importance of this event by giving it our full 100% complete attention. Which means there will possibly be no veggies one week in late November or early December.
To make it up to you all, we’re packing each CSA share full of veggies — well over the $20 minimum value we promise. Even if we do miss a harvest, you will still receive far over the value of the CSA for the season. We realize that it’s not the same as getting an additional week of veggies, but we ask for your patience and understanding surrounding this singularly significant event.
If we do have to cancel one week, a sign will be posted on the food bank door. We will also post the news on our farm blog, so we recommend that you check it before coming to pick-up as we near the end of the season.
I’ll continue to remind you of this possibility as we get even closer to the date, but in the meantime we wanted to share some of our thoughts with you on these decisions. Although I often share the hard and ‘dirty’ details of our work, I rarely cross the line into the more personal aspects of what it means to us to be a husband and wife operated small farm. Even though we aim to be professional, this is also a very personal venture for us — we work on the farm, live on the farm, and will raise our family on the farm.
So, thank you in advance for your understanding, support and accommodation as our farm transitions into a new phase. And, have no fear: the veggies will continue to flow from our fields abundantly. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
