Oakhill Organics

A lush oat cover crop grows on the field where we will plant vegetables next year. A sweet comforting sight as we go into our quiet break season of the year.

Well, friends — another CSA season comes to a close this week. This is the final week of our tenth season! To commemorate the occasion, I put together a fun CSA newsletter comprised of favorite photos of the last ten years. We think long-time CSA members will smile at the shared memories, and newer members will probably learn some things about the history of our farm!

But, first! I want to make sure I deliver important news up front so folks see it! Here are three important pieces of news for you this week:

• Have you signed up for our 2016 CSA yet? You can do so at pick-up this week, or you can sign up now using our handy online form. The price remains the same for all share sizes. We hope you’ll join us! If you’ve already signed up, you’ll be receive your confirmation materials from us through snail mail and email after the holidays. Your first payment will be due before our first pick up on January 14 (but no need to pay until after the New Year!).
• In the meantime, you can keep eating our yummy food through our two upcoming Holiday Harvests. The first is next week, on Wednesday, November 25. You’ll need to place your order ahead of time, and you can find the list of available items and online order form here. Our second Holiday Harvest will be on December 22 — we’ll send out emails ahead of time. Also, you can buy farm meat from the freezer and eggs at the Holiday Harvest as well!
• And … this one’s not technically just about the farm. I want to invite you to attend the McMinnville Women’s Choir’s winter concert on Saturday, December 5. I have been singing with this group for two years now, and many of the choir members are also friends or customers of the farm. Our winter concert offers a unique take on the season — we will be singing songs from many traditions: Nigerian and Spanish carols and songs for Hanukkah and solstice. Shows are at 3 pm and 7 pm, and you can buy tickets at Oregon Stationers ($5/person for presale or $8 at the door — children 18 and under are free).

And, now, as we close this season, let us reflect on our decade of farming (so far) and all its wild challenges and joys. Enjoy the trip back in time:

2006 — We began! How young were we? So young!

2006 – We farmed our little one acre of rented ground and kept it like a garden.

2006 – Our first CSA pick-up ever!

2006 – After a whirlwind year of activity, that fall we were planting garlic on our very own 17.5 acres that we bought here on Grand Island. That’s where we’ve been ever since!

2007 – But before we moved out here, we had to build ourselves a house.

2007 – Lots of CSA members, family, and friends helped, and by Earth Day we moved in to our new house!

2007 – That summer our over-wintered sweet onions were bigger than our kittens.

2007 – We spent many years hosting our winter CSA pick-ups in the food bank warehouse space at the old YCAP building.

2008 – So much of our winter time in the early days was spent developing our infrastructure. We built our pole barn and greenhouses for starts.

2008 – We had a fabulous three summers selling at the McMinnville Farmers Market (06-08).

2008 – In July of ’08, an attempted fix of a faulty irrigation well resulted in it breaking beyond repair … mid summer! We scrambled to get another well driller out as quickly as possible. The new driller worked hard to get drill us a powerful replacement well. Casey enjoyed the flow test, when we learned just how much volume our new well could produce (a lot!). That was a very scary and expensive time for our farm, and we were overwhelmed with the loving support of our community!

2008 – In December, Snowmageddon struck Oregon, making us grateful for sturdy greenhouses. We also felt kind of bored and lonely being stuck on the farm for all those snow days, which led to some big changes in the following year …

2009 – First, we hired our first employees ever, interns Daniel and Erika!

2009 – Next we set in motion another plan to increase the fun factor on the farm (especially on future snow days). I definitely slowed down my pace toward the end of this pregnancy, but I worked on the farm until the very end (literally until the day of going into labor). I also learned that my rain gear fit a big round belly just fine.

2010 – And life was changed forever by these new little feet in the field.

2011 – We hosted our best attended open house ever this fall, thanks I’m sure to the draw of our first (but not our last) musical act — The Davis Street Band (high school bluegrass sensation). I’d estimate over 100 people came out to hear the tunes, pick their pumpkins, and taste potatoes.

2011 – At some point in our experience of winter farming, we started getting serious about heaps and piles of winter storage crops. They always make great photos — so much food in one spot!

2012 – The 12th biggest flood event on record forever changed how we see the Willamette River and Grand Island. The water came up so high on the roads that we were “stuck” on the island for several days.

2012 – This was quite the year to say the least. We expanded our acreage from 17 to 100 acres and added a huge number of operations to the farm. We bought our first dairy cows (Willa and Annie), the first of many animals to join us on the farm.

2012 – We also prepared ourselves to welcome another new addition to the farm …

2012 – By Fall, we had a baby who was almost as big as our kohlrabi.

2012 – We have been told many times over that this was one of the most memorable days for many of our (many) employees at the time — high water was predicted and we had to dig our potatoes before they flooded! The crew dug potatoes as fast as they could in a driving rainstorm. Fun was had, because it was just crazy.

2013 – Many babies besides our own have now been born on the farm. The calves were often the most exciting (and cute too!).

2013 – We’re pretty good at doing seemingly impossible things, but I think this dinner probably topped the list of almost impossible things we have pulled off beautifully. A sit down dinner for CSA members offered for free — five courses served up on plates, everything produced on the farm. This effort required a ton of help, notably the amazing cooking skills of Jason and Laurie Furch (formerly of Red Fox). It was a night to remember (and we have not yet felt up to attempting it again!).

2013 – What a joy it has been to plant fruit trees, tend them, watch them grow, and then harvest. The fruit trees are the visible sign of our many years in this place — there are no shortcuts here. We love the shapes, colors and flavors of fruit as much as annual vegetables. These are four plum varieties.

2014 – And, then our farm babies grew into children who could help us plant potatoes (CSA member children — and their parents — were out there helping too!).

Oh, how many photos I could have included to tell more and more and more stories about the farm! Ten years is rich, folks. But the children and I enjoyed scrolling through all those years to choose these juiciest ones for you. I hope you enjoyed it too.

The process of putting this together is a sweet way to end the season. This week has been stormy — rainy and windy — and we feel the call of our winter rest. Because we spent then winter of ’12 preparing for our former “Full Diet CSA” and then ran that program year round in ’13 and ’14, we figure we haven’t had a real good solid rest since the winter of 2011-12. It is time! The farm and our lives need a little bit of extra attention!

And, then we will be back, raring to go with the extra energy of renewal, in January! We hope to see you all then (and/or at our Holiday Harvests this fall!)

And, as always, we end in gratitude. Thank you for this season and for all the ones that came before it! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

~ ~ ~

Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Goldrush apples — Voted the best apple in our recent variety tasting here on the farm!
• Walnuts!
• Arugula
• Kale
• Rainbow chard
• Mustards
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower & broccoli
• Butternut squash
• Acorn squash
• Spaghetti squash
• Delicata winter squash
• Pie pumpkin
• Carrots
• Sweet potatoes
• Potatoes

~ ~ ~

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Bratwurst — Artisan-made no-nitrates added pasture-raised pork Bratwursts! $12/lb.
• Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb packages
• Stewing hen — $3.50/lb
• Lamb — Roasts and ground lamb are $8/lb. Lamb chops are $12/lb.

Preparing for the next one — our new greenhouse will go up here soon (the holes for the anchors are already dug in this photo). The plastic on the ground is preparing the ground, smothering any weeds that come up during this time. The puddles on top of the plastic are for jumping and running and splashing and dashing and being a kid. (Also, ahem, check out that beautiful cover crop to the left! We LOVE it!)

We just arrived back home from a lovely dinner at Blue Goat restaurant in Amity. We met there with several other farm friends to surprise Jasper with a celebratory good-bye dinner. Next week is his final week of working at the farm after three wonderful years (he started here just days after Dottie was born, which makes it feel like an extra long time!).

We have a tradition around these parts of honoring departing employees with a special meal, at which we always ask them about the most memorable parts of working here. Inevitably, the answers begin with animals, because they make such good stories! But there are other memories too. Jasper’s list was long, because three years on a year-round diverse farm is a lot of time to accrue a lot of memorable memories. We will miss him!

Next week also marks the end of our 2015 CSA season — our tenth season! As we approach that end date, I find myself in reflection mode. Casey and I are still relatively young (34 and 36 if you’re wondering), and yet we started this enterprise young too. So, we’ve got ten years now under our belt. Which, by the way, is a long time for a small business. Not everyone makes it this far — the majority do not. Even businesses that do quite well for a few years can end simply because it’s easy to get burnt out as a small business owner. But we’ve made it, and I feel proud of us today — proud that we’re still making this dream work for our family and for our customers. Proud that we’ve supported our family from the farm for ten years. This feels like a huge accomplishment. And we’re planning to make it even longer than ten years. We check in with ourselves about this often, and YES we still love this work! And, YES we still want to farm!

That’s where we are today. In fact, in spite of the usual round of seasonal vagaries, we are ending this tenth season feeling quite satisfied, at ease, and excited about the coming year. Today we took delivery of a new high tunnel for the field — this will be the fourth (and likely the final) one we have built here. We appreciate what these tools can do for us, especially in the harder shoulder seasons. They give us extra flexibility in offering you, our community, local fresh food for the bulk of the year.

“Helping” hands and dirty pants and a boy sitting in a deep hole.

As we started in on pouring concrete around the anchors today, Casey commented that this is the most company and “help” he’d had yet on a greenhouse project. The kids and I were all there to accompany him. I helped place the anchors in the holes (making sure they were the right height and plumb and all that), while the kids made mud in their own special holes. The whole scene was full of energy and distracting, but a guy learns a thing or two about building greenhouses over the years and so we think the anchors were going in better than ever (in spite of the mud flinging children in the background!).

So, as we enter this final week of this year’s CSA season, we are also beginning the work of next year. Always planning ahead.

We hope you are too! Have you signed up for our 2016 CSA season yet? For returning CSA members, it’s easy peasy folks! Just sign your name on the special form at pick-up. Or, if you’re worried you’ll forget (or are a first-time member), you can sign up RIGHT NOW using this handy dandy online form (just CLICK THE LINK!). We hope that you’ll join us for another year of delicious fresh local organic seasonal eating!

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. Thanksgiving is coming up. We still have turkeys available! The price is $6/lb. They have been fed exclusively organic feed and are on pasture. We will take them to be butchered on Monday, November 23, and you can pick up your turkey that same day on the farm (useful if you want to brine it) or at our Holiday Harvest on Wednesday, November 25. Email us now to reserve yours: farm (at) oakhillorganics (dot) com. Specify whether you’d prefer a “medium” (< 20 lbs) or “large” (> 20 lbs) bird and we’ll do our very best to get you your size preference.

~ ~ ~

NEXT WEEK IS OUR FINAL 2015 CSA PICK-UP! I put that in bolds, because I wanted to make sure you got that! The CSA ends next week, November 19! Then we’ll begin again on January 14, 2016. But, in the meantime, you can still buy awesome food from us …

In last week’s newsletter, I shared a sneak peek of what we’ll have available for our Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest on Wednesday, November 25. I will post the official list as a separate blog post (and send a separate email) in the coming days. For now, keep that date on your calendar! In addition to picking up your pre-ordered veggies (and/or turkey), you’ll be able to buy eggs and meat as usual too. Walk in sales of those items are welcome!

And, we’ll do it all again in December. That Holiday Harvest will be Tuesday, December 22 (I will send out an email in advance with the availability list!).

For now, your homework is to SIGN UP FOR 2016! Have you done that yet? You can do it now by clicking this link. (New members welcome as well!)

~ ~ ~

Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Arugula
• Turnip greens — Tender enough for a salad but also delicious for quick cooking.
• Cauliflower — How was that cauliflower last week? So awesome? We’ve got more this week! We’ve been eating cauliflower at least once a day in our house — at breakfast (roasted), at lunch (in leftovers), and at dinner (cooked in a stew-y mash of greens and veggies).
• Peppers — Hot and green
• Rutabaga
• Cabbage
• Kale
• Chard
• Delicata winter squash
• Spaghetti squash
• Acorn squash
• Sweet potatoes — Yay! These are scrumptious and finally ready for eating (like squash, sweet potatoes have to “cure” a bit in storage before they get sweet). A note on storage: do not put your sweet potatoes in your fridge. The best place would be in an open container (like a basket) in a pantry. Our favorite way to eat sweet potatoes is … well, can you guess? You probably did. ROASTED! (We’re so predictable around here!) I peel them and chop into even sized pieces and roast at 425° with plenty of butter (stirring a few times) until crispy outside and soft inside.
• Beets
• Carrots
• Potatoes

~ ~ ~

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Bratwurst!? — Casey will most likely be picking up another batch of pork from the butcher in the morning. In which case, we’ll be restocked with everyone’s favorite artisan-made no-nitrates added pasture-raised pork Bratwursts! $12/lb.
• Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb packages
• Lamb — Roasts and ground lamb are $8/lb. Lamb chops are $12/lb.

The kids and I helped bring in the first of the storage cabbage harvest last week. So much sweetness for coming cold months! (After taking this picture, we transferred the cabbages from the Gator bed to the pallet bin where Casey is standing … and then we loaded a bunch more too!)

This weekend marked a profound shift in the season. We observed Halloween, also known as Samhain. Among other things, this marks the approximate halfway point between the Autumnal equinox and the Winter solstice — meaning we’re now in the darkest quarter of the year. And, the very next day (Nov. 1), we all set our clocks back as Daylight Saving Time ended for the year. What a difference that one hour made in our experience of the light in the day! As the sky darkened in late afternoon, I finally realized that — yes — November has truly arrived. It is here. This dark time.

October was so full of warm and sunny days that November’s arrival really did surprise all of us out here. And it’s not just a matter of our perception — those warm days made a difference in the fields too. We picked cucumbers yesterday! I’m not sure that we have ever made it to November without a fire, but here we are on November 4, and we still have not lit one (although today almost seems to warrant one!). It was a warm start to the fall, for sure. But there’s no getting around the shortening days — this is a non-negotiable fact of this time of year.

The kids and I gathered with friends to make lanterns yesterday. This is a very fun and easy craft for those of you looking for something to do with your kids. We ripped up colored tissue paper and adhered it to a mason jar with white glue. I hear you can water down the glue, but for ours we just used the glue straight. We put an extra layer of glue over the paper to finish it off. The glue dries clear, and the tissue paper makes a beautiful and simple stained glass effect that is very magical when a tea light is lit inside. This is the third year we’ve made lanterns in early November, and lighting them before our now-after-dark dinners feels like an important part of finding our way into these quieter days.

Of course, as I’m sure many of you know firsthand, kids don’t always take cues from the season or from the clock. To be fair, neither do Casey and I really. So, now that the clocks are set back an hour, we’re all up earlier. Because our bodies have an internal rhythm of their own. I forget about this each year — how in the winter Casey and I fall asleep earlier, lulled into deep relaxation by the long hours of dark in the evening. And then we wake earlier too — often up before 6 am (kids too), beginning our days again in the dark of morning.

And, tonight the kids and I perhaps spent too much time inside (a danger of the season when curling up inside with books and art projects sounds so very lovely!) — as was made clear by the energy in the house before dinner. So, even though dusk was upon us, we went outside in the chilly evening air and the kids ran sprint “races” all around the yard. “Let’s see who can run to the walnut tree first? Great! Now run around the maple tree five times? Ok, now who can race with this wheelbarrow to the picnic table?” And so we came to the dinner table calmer and with ready appetites.

Casey and I will head to bed soon after I email out this newsletter. It’s necessary when we know we will (in spite of our efforts to train our bodies and kids otherwise) be up again early tomorrow! But we enjoy this different feeling in our house (or, we at least surrender to the inevitability of it!). The darkness is here.

And, of course, lanterns and holidays keep the light alive and present even during these darkest months. We look forward to the string of gatherings that will begin later this month with Thanksgiving. What a joy it is to reconnect with family and friends! We also take joy in being a part of the food that you share with your loved ones during these occasions! So, even though the CSA ends in a couple of weeks (last pick-up is on November 19), remember that we offer two opportunities for you to order extra food to stock up for the holidays! See more in our Holiday Harvest sneak preview note below!

And, for now, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

~ ~ ~

Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest sneak preview: As I have mentioned in prior newsletters, we will be offering our usual Holiday Harvest opportunities this fall. The way these work is that we’ll provide you a list in advance of what’s available — you’ll place your order by email by the night before. Then we harvest specially for you and bring your order to the storefront for you to pick up! We’ll also be open during those hours for egg and meat sales as well.

Our Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest will be Wednesday, November 25, 2-5 pm at the storefront. Orders should be placed by Tuesday evening via email: farm (at) oakhillorganics (dot) com. This opportunity is open to all! (Not just CSA members!)

We’ll finalize the list (and add prices) before next week so you have time to plan your holiday recipes and such, but here’s an exciting sneak peek of what will be available!!!! (We have a lot of options! Some people use this opportunity to stock up a bit for the coming weeks!)

Apples ~ Goldrush, Liberty, Northern Spy
Salad mix
Kale ~ Dino and Red Russian
Chard
Collard greens
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage ~ Red and green
Celery leaf
Winter squash ~ Acorn, Delicata, Butternut, Spaghetti, Marina
Pie pumpkins
Beets
Carrots
Sweet potatoes (These will be in the last 2015 CSA share too!)
Potatoes ~ Yellow Finn, German Butterball, Red
Leeks
Garlic
Popcorn

~ ~ ~

Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Apples
• Popcorn — Did anybody make a Halloween treat with your popcorn? This cooler weather makes me want to pop some more to eat beside the fire. We still have yet to light a fire in our woodstove this year (even though it is our only source of heat). It is coming soon though — we can feel the chill now (finally!).
• Arugula
• Asian greens mix — This is a mix of three kinds of greens: Yukina Savoy, Mustards, and Turnip greens. The leaves are definitely tender enough to eat as a salad (and a tossing with a dressing will cut the heat they have when raw); or, you can gently saute them and eat as a cooked green. Because they are so tender, they will cook up quickly, making them especially easy for eating at breakfast (topped with a fried egg!) or for a quick lunch.
• Cauliflower & broccoli — Our household loves these fall crops — it is a major treat for us when they are producing. Our absolutely favorite preparation method for either cauliflower or broccoli (or both together!) was passed on to us by a long time former CSA member. When we were very new to town, she treated us to a spontaneous (and delicious) homecooked dinner after we stopped by to drop off an order of tomatoes. The highlight of the meal for us was the roasted broccoli she made. Why had this never occurred to us? To roast broccoli? Now it is standard fare for us. The key is to chop even sized florets of your broccoli or cauliflower and to not overload the pan (if you do so, they will steam rather than roast). I roast them at 425° in a baking pan with a few big pats of butter. I like to stir a few times, to make sure everything is cooking evenly and to coat all the florets in butter. I cook until the florets are browning on one side and cooked through. Salt liberally before serving.
• Butternut squash
• Pie pumpkin
• Delicata winter squash
• Chard
• Kale
• Peppers — Hot, green, and sweet!
• Beets
• Carrots — We’ve been growing carrots for ten years now. We think we’re pretty good at growing them. Our soil is well suited to beautiful, straight carrots (thanks to its light texture), and we choose varieties that we think are absolutely the tastiest around. You’d think that after all these years, we would be “used to” delicious carrots! Not so! We still find ourselves completely bowled over by a good, crispy, sweet carrot. This week’s carrots are among the best we’ve ever tasted. Just simply divine. (And, if you’re wondering about the nitty gritty aspects of cooking in our farm kitchen, I want to share that I always peel our carrots before cooking or serving. Always. Why? The outer skin of the carrot can be more bitter than the inside, and the texture is certainly less perfect. I just find that our experience of the carrot is magnified if I take that simple extra preparation step.)
• Potatoes — This week’s potatoes are a favorite of ours: German Butterball — a russetted potato with smooth yellow interior flesh (I guess sort of like a cross between a Russet and a Yukon Gold?) . They used to not be available to grow in this country, and we once heard a story of someone so desperate to grow these that they smuggled a few seed potatoes surreptitiously through customs! Thankfully, now there are potato seed producers who grow them out for farmers like us, so we don’t have to go through that extra work. They are a medium sized potato, extremely well suited to roasting (hoorah for us, since that is our favorite way to prepare almost any vegetable, as you may have noticed!).
• Leeks

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb packages
• Lamb — Roasts and ground lamb are $8/lb. Lamb chops are $12/lb.
• Stewing hens — $3.50/lb ~ A few left for this round! I made a delicious pot of chicken soup this evening with chicken and its stewing broth (of course), chopped chard, leeks, rutabaga, and carrots. Simply outstanding and perfect comfort food for these darker days.

Our apple variety tasting all ready for folks to arrive — if they can brave the rain!

Casey and I awoke early Sunday morning to one roll of thunder — BOOM! — followed a few seconds later by the rushing sound of rain hitting our house’s metal roof. The rain continued falling all night, and it was still pouring in the morning. As we puttered around the house preparing for our open house, we watched the rain fall. And fall. And fall. Not just little drizzly rain like we Northwesterners are used to — this was dark drenching rainfall. Would people still come to our farm event?

The kids and I waited to pick our carving pumpkins until late this morning when it was not quite as wet out there.

But, of course, in our tenth season, we’ve got some past experience to fall back on in this regard. In the many years we’ve hosted this event — always on the Sunday before Halloween — we’ve seen all kinds of weather. We’ve had at least two other such events that were rained on in a major way. And people still come. In fact, for those brave enough to venture out, the rainy open houses can be even more exciting. So, we prepared, and we waited. (We even correctly guessed which long-time CSA customers would be sure to show.)

And people came! Not as many would surely have come on a sunny day but enough people to feel like we were having a party — a party in the rain (well, a party on our porch as the rain rained all around us). Apples were tasted. We cut up samples of nine of our varieties (we grow even more than that, but at some point too many tastes can be overwhelming): Honeycrisp, Goldrush, Chehalis, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Liberty, Cortland, Newton Pippin, and Northern Spy. We asked everyone who sampled to vote for their favorite apple, and the winner was Goldrush! We were so pleased to hear that report, since we have more Goldrush trees in our orchards than any other kind (we like this variety too, plus it is very well suited for growing organically in our region). Braeburn and Northern Spy tied for second runner up.

As planned, Casey took folks on a walk about the farm starting at 3 pm. And, that’s when the day’s miracle occurred — the rain slowed to a drizzle … and then stopped. And, then, the sun even came out, warming everyone enough that kids (who were very well suited up in rain gear) began shedding layers and jumping in fresh mud puddles. Everyone left with smiles as big as their pumpkins.

(And, we also did a raffle drawing for a free tote bag — Scott and Melanie Miller won! Congrats!)

The kids needed help with their “volcano” pumpkins (I guess our pumpkins are sturdy and thick-fleshed, making them challenging for kids to carve!). I’m quite the traditionalist when it comes to pumpkin carving. Same face every year. I like him.

We’re done now with on-farm events for the year. It feels good to have met that moment in the year — we love hosting our community here, and we also welcome the break. With all this dark, wet and misty weather, we can definitely feel the Big Slowdown happening for us farmers. The rest is coming in a real way — almost forced upon us by these shortening days. We’ve learned over the years that the deepest part of this rest comes for us in late November and December — truly the darkest, quietest feeling months of the year. Also the busiest in terms of family and social gatherings. It’s a very different kind of season for us from the rest, and we look forward to it.

In the meantime, we are also excited about finishing the 2015 CSA season with four more awesome weeks of seasonal vegetables (counting this one) — our last pick-up will be on November 19. Expect to see a lot more fall food in these shares as we journey deeper into this season.

And, as we’ve noted before, we are already looking ahead to 2016 as well. We’ve begun taking sign ups for our 2016 CSA season — you can sign up easily at pick up on one of the forms we have there, or you can do it right now online by filling out this quick form. Please let us know if you have any questions about next year. We hope you will join us again for another fabulous year of local eating!

Have a safe and fun Halloween this weekend! And, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. I have a farmer friend who writes a haiku every market day. She sometimes shares them with us, and I love this practice of hers. I doubt I’m ready to commit to such regular haiku writing, but I wrote one today in the fields, and I thought I’d share it with you all now:

After rain comes a
chorus of blackbirds and crows.
So ends October.

~ ~ ~

Dates for your calendar: Another reminder of important upcoming dates!

• November 19 — Our final 2015 CSA pick-up
• Wednesday, November 25 — Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest More details to come. (Folks who have ordered turkeys can pick them up this Wednesday or at the farm on Monday, Nov. 23 after they are slaughtered.)
• Tuesday, December 22 — Christmas Holiday Harvest We will email you about this event. You’ll be able to buy vegetables, fruits, and meat (we’ll have another batch of stewing hens available as well as our other usual offerings).
• January 1, 2016 — We will mail out our 2016 CSA confirmation materials and start taking payments for 2016 (hopefully returning members will have committed much earlier in 2015 so that we can be planning!).
• Thursday, January 14, 2016 — Our first 2016 CSA pick-up! Same time, same great location!

~ ~ ~

Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Cortland apples
• Quince — If you’ve never tried quince before, you’re in for a treat. These yellow fruit are related to apples and pears, but unlike those fruits these need to be cooked to be enjoyed. When we tell our kids this, they ask us “WHY?” and I say to them: “Just try and take a bite.” The answer is that they are very dense and tart when raw. However, when cooked, they soften and sweeten and taste like fall. We generally do a very simple preparation — we peel and slice the quince and then cook it in a saucepan until soft through (you can decide for yourself how cooked you want them by tasting periodically — they will hold their shape much longer than apples). We like to add a bit of honey and cinnamon and then serve our quince warm on top of vanilla ice cream (or plain yogurt if we don’t have ice cream in the house — it’s really quite exquisite!). You can also use them in tarts and baked goods, but do allow more cooking time than you would an apple in the same context. Read more about quince here.
• Popcorn — Another special fall treat! This is a mix of two different kinds of popcorn we grew this year. You should be able to pop them together in the same pan (or other popcorn popper). We thought you might enjoy locally grown popcorn as part of your Halloween celebrations.
• Arugula — One of our favorite salad greens! Arugula has a peppery flavor when raw, but it magically mellows when tossed with dressing. This arugula is from our greenhouse and is very, very tender.
• Hot peppers
• Green peppers
• Tomatillos
• Rutabaga
• Delicata winter squash
• Pie pumpkins
• Cabbage
• Kale
• Chard
• Carrots
• Beets
• Red/red potatoes — This week’s red potatoes have a fun surprise — they are red inside as well!!!!! The kids will love these!
• Leeks

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb packages
• Lamb — So much! We have a wide range of cuts available! Roasts, shanks, and ground lamb are all $8/lb. Lamb chops are $12/lb.
• Stewing hens — $3.50/lb ~ A few left for this round!

I love how fall brings green back to our fields in a major way (via cover crops) and also orange to the trees. Such a beautiful contrast is formed between the two.

As always, it feels that so much has happened in a week of time. We’re busy laying plans for next year, tidying up loose ends from summer, and still keeping up with our regular CSA and restaurant harvests.

However, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Or, so it has been said! So we stayed away from the farm for two nights to experience a fall family adventure.

You know, we live in a beautiful place. Check out that photo above (taken this afternoon after the mists had finally burned off). Some days I just can’t even believe how blessed we are to live here, amidst the vitality of all these growing things. Watching the seasons pass over our farm each year is a never-ending joy. And yet, leaving every now and then — to visit other beautiful places — sure provides a lovely respite and important perspective on our home.

We also enjoy seeing places that are more wild than ours. I’ve written at length about the wildness that shares this space with us, in so many forms. But much about our existence here feels gentle. Not tame — by no means — but very hospitable to our presence. I like that feeling in a home. But there are other kinds of (deeper?) wildness that stir our hearts and souls too.

So, for our recent get away, we went to the mountains, to stay in a cabin at Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center. I know many of your are familiar with this gem of a place. (In fact, we ran into CSA members on our hike in and ran into the parents of former CSA members on our hike out!) But this was our first visit, and we found ourselves sucked into the magic that comes from hiking into a remote destination (thankfully the staff of Opal Creek drove out to pick up our gear and food, so the hike was a light one). We felt our worries and cares slip away as we entered the soft green light of the old growth forest.

The main activity of our stay was mushroom hunting. In fact, that’s why we went! Long-time readers will know that we got hooked on mushrooms two years ago (2013 — a phenomenal year for mushrooms). We still have so much to learn and were excited to visit a very different ecosystem to see a wide range of mushrooms first-hand. Every mushroom we find teaches us more about their anatomy and identification!

But, of course, mushroom hunts are really just a good excuse to go walk in the woods, which we did plenty. We also enjoy quiet time in our cozy little cabin (where no to do lists called us to tasks beyond rough housing with the kids and reading by the fire).

I thought I’d share some photos from our fall adventure:

The ancient, towering conifers are really the most awe-inspiring part of Opal Creek, but when I went to take photos I found myself drawn to the glorious fall color on the maples scattered through the forest. This trail under vine maples aglow was especially magical.

Farmer Casey got to put on his OTHER boots to explore trails and climb around on rocks around Opal Pool.

And the mushrooms! So many shapes, sizes, colors!

The kids were especially proud of these finds, which were right outside our cabin.

In between hikes, we rested and learned about our mushroom finds.

There were also lots of fallen leaves to pick up! There’s a reason they call this tree a “Big Leaf” maple!

The “town” at the center is called Jawbone Flats, and it is an old mining town. Old relics still hang out along some of the trails. Good backgrounds for making goofy faces.

Whoa! Rare Mama Katie sighting! I put our camera on a tree stump and used the timer to get this sweet family shot — one I know we will cherish for years to come!

And, now we are back. And, so happy about that. Really, the best part of leaving the farm is returning. We’ve found in recent years that these little mini-vacations are absolutely essential to our family’s happiness and well being, and the joy of coming home is a renewing feeling for all of us. We returned with replenished love to this place. Something about leaving to visit other magical places stirs that love in us in wonderful ways.

Today we jumped right back into the routine of homeschooling and farming — harvesting for the restaurants as well as finishing the CSA harvest. When the mist finally lifted after lunch, the kids and I wandered out to pick some field corn for a project we may do (stringing necklaces with corn kernels). The walk through two fields felt so short and gentle after our “big” hikes all around Opal Creek (by kid standards, very big indeed). Dottie even brought her baby doll in a stroller:

Dottie pushes Rosie through a cover cropped field.

We’re back in our gently wild place. Our place.

We hope you can join us here this weekend for our fall Pumpkin Patch CSA Open House. More details below. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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Pumpkin Patch CSA Open House this Sunday*! Join us on the farm Sunday afternoon, 2-4 pm, to visit, see your farm, and pick your pumpkins! As far as activities, we’ll have an apple variety tasting, a farm tour led by Casey at 3 pm, and a raffle for a free Oakhill Organics tote bag (all attendees will be entered!). We hope you can join us!

Directions to the farm: Take HWY-18 to the Dayton exit. Drive through Dayton and stay on Wallace Rd / HWY-221 for about seven miles. Turn LEFT onto Grand Island Rd. After the bridge, turn RIGHT onto SE Upper Island Rd. Our driveway is immediately on your LEFT. We’ll gather by our house, which is the brown 2-story one toward the back-right of the driveway. Questions? Get lost? You can call me: 503-474-7661

* And please note that this event is on SUNDAY, October 25 — in last week’s newsletter I mistakenly put a different date.

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• 

  I’m not sure if this photo can do justice to the massive size of this garlic clove I planted.

  Apples

• Salad mix
• Peppers — Sweet, hot, and green!
• Spaghetti squash
• Acorn squash
• Tomatillos
• Roma tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Carrots
• Beets
• Potatoes
• Garlic — We finished planting next year’s garlic today! We saved the best variety for last. Today we planted all of our “Music” garlic seed — this stuff is amazing. The cloves are so big that each large head only contained four to five cloves. Which of course means that this is expensive seed for how many heads we will get. Ten pounds of seed didn’t even plant one of our 200′ rows. But sometimes you just have to splurge for something really cool.

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Ground beef — $7 for 1 lb packages
• Lamb — So much! We have a wide range of cuts available! Roasts, shanks, and ground lamb are all $8/lb. Lamb chops are $12/lb.
• Stewing hens — $3.50/lb
• Ham — $12/lb ~ No nitrates added! Deliciousness for your fall holiday meals!

A most lovely sight — beautiful fall carrots, just pulled from the soil.

I sing with the kids a lot — mostly sweet little children’s songs that make reference to the seasons. Since fall arrived, I’ve been singing this one a lot:

Yellow the bracken, Golden the sheaves.
Rosy the apples, Crimson the leaves.
Mist on the hillsides, Clouds grey and white,
Autumn good morning, Summer good night.

Every morning when we head out on our daily bike ride through the white mist, I think of the images in this song and how simply they capture the wonder of this season. We are saying good morning to Autumn, yes, but we are still saying good night to Summer … The mist lingers into the morning, then lifts to reveal the most golden sunlight of the year — shining down on a world on fire with the yellows and reds of the leaves.

Small boy in a BIG field of carrots!

The kids and I finished our school work early this morning, so we offered to help Casey harvest carrots for the CSA before lunch. There, I discovered more and more and more gold in the form of the most beautiful (and enormous) fall carrots ever. What a joy it was to kneel on the cool earth with the sun on my back, pulling up carrot after carrot (and knowing how much joy those carrots would bring to your households this week!).

I have been really struck by the beauty of our farm in recent weeks. Fall brings its splendor, of course, but the farm has also just been looking extra nice. This year, we grew vegetables on the home farm again after taking a few years off to let the ground fallow. I love seeing those tended rows of colorful vegetables from our house (and the bright green cover crop in the fields being prepared for next year too!).

And a little girl shows me a BIG carrot she picked.

We hope you will come and appreciate some of the beauty of this season too in two weekends. Our fall CSA pumpkin patch open house is coming up on Sunday, October 25. More details below.

But, in the meantime, you can enjoy the golden colors of this week’s share — red tomatoes and peppers, creamy Butternut squash and rutabaga, yellow delicata, and so many other colors too.

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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Pumpkin Patch CSA Open House! 2-4 pm, Sunday, October 25 at the farm. Join us for an apple variety tasting, pumpkins (of course!), and a farm tour at 3 pm.

Directions to the farm: Take the Dayton exit from HWY-18. Drive south through Dayton and stay on Wallace Rd/HWY-221 for about seven miles. Turn LEFT onto Grand Island Rd. After the bridge, turn RIGHT onto SE Upper Island Rd. Our driveway is the first one on your LEFT!

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Apples — More delicious Liberty apples this week.
• Salad mix — This week’s salad mix was picked primarily from one of our greenhouses. It’s a super tender diverse mix of greens: arugula, baby bok choy, pink turnip greens, beet greens, and more!
• Butternut squash — Folks have asked about Butternut ever since I posted a photo of some of it in our storage room! I should have perhaps better explained at some point that there is a season to each squash, even post-harvest. Some of our winter squashes store better than others, and some need to spend some time in warm storage to “cure” before being sweet and delicious for eating. These two factors determine when we decide to share each kind of squash with you all. The squashes you’ve had so far (spaghetti, pumpkins, acorn, and delicata) are the ones that have the shortest life in storage and don’t require curing time. That’s why we give those out first. Others, such as Butternut and Marina di Chioggia, store longer and benefit from curing — so we tend to wait longer before giving those out. But, the wait is over! Enjoy this week’s Butternut. I think this is one of our family’s all-time favorite foods. Mostly, I peel it, cube it and roast it until it is crispy outside and soft inside. So satisfying. But of course it makes great soup too. And I’ve even heard of people making “lasagna” with strips of Butternut in place of the noodles!
• Delicata winter squash
• Rutabaga — Another sign that fall is progressing — rutabaga! This is one of those much maligned and poorly understood old-timey vegetables. You might not even know what kind of vegetable it is, let alone how to best enjoy it. Rutabaga is a cole crop, somewhat closely related to Red Russian kale (that’s a surprise, eh?). The texture inside is denser than a kohlrabi, but it is still smooth and very sweet when raw. Rutabaga makes a great substitute for (or addition to) potatoes in all kinds of recipes — soups, mashed veggies, roasts, etc. It stays sweet and mild even when cooked (unlike turnips, which can go bitter when cooked). If you’re new to this veggie, I recommend trying it raw first, just to get acquainted with it. Peel a chunk and take a bite! Then try cubing it and adding it to a broth-based stew (we have stewing hens and beef bones for sale!).
• Kohlrabi — Kohlrabi also makes an excellent addition to broth-based soups. In fact, that’s one of my favorite ways to eat it! (Second only to dipping it in yummy sauces and dips.)
• Sweet peppers
• Hot peppers
• Roma tomatoes — I know it feels like tomatoes and tomatillos will go on and on forever and ever (the weather forecast for tomorrow is 80° after all!), but really the season will wind down soon. So! Time to make sure you get your fill of these summer crops! If you have room in your freezer, consider quickly putting up some tomatoes or tomatillos — it’s so easy. Just pop them in a freezer bag and put them in your freezer! (Do remove the paper wrapper from the tomatillos first though!) We do this every year with both crops, and we love using them all winter. They’re very easy to peel when you take them out — just put your frozen tomatoes/tomatillos into a bowl of warm water and let it sit for a few minutes. The peel will thaw first, and then you can just slide it off. The tomatoes can be chopped when partially thawed.
• Tomatillos
• Kale
• Beets
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Garlic — We started planting next year’s garlic this week! We invested in very expensive beautiful garlic seed with a focus on garlic with BIG cloves. We’re excited about having a stellar crop of awesome garlic next year.

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen
• Beef bones — Fall sale! Time to make bone broth to stay healthy all winter. Only $1/lb!!!!
• Ham — $12/lb ~ Buy now for your holiday meals! These will keep in your freezer beautifully until then!
• Lamb — We have a full range of cuts, from ground lamb to shanks to roasts to chops. Ground lamb and roasts are $8/lb; lambchops are $12/lb.
• Pork chops — $12/lb
• Stewing hens — $3.50/lb
• Ground beef — $7/lb

Dottie and I helped Casey wash pumpkins and squash for this week’s CSA share. Dottie thought seeing pumpkins in a tub was pretty funny.

I remarked in a letter to a friend recently (yes, a letter! A real one!) that I loved fall tasks because when we mark something off our list this time of year, it is almost always done for the year. There’s a sweet sense of completion with every task that is unique to this season. Even though the whole rhythm begins again in January, we still get the satisfaction of finishing the work of this year.

For fun, I’d thought I’d share some of our fall to do list with you, including the items that have been done (and marked off with a hoorah!):

• Plant strawberries
• Weed strawberries
• Sow over-wintering greens and related leafy veggies
• Sow over-wintering fava beans
• Harvest winter squash
• Harvest potatoes
• Harvest storage carrots
• Harvest storage beets
• Sow winter cover crop
• Pick apples
• Plant garlic
• Transplant green onions
• Fertilize next year’s veggie fields
• Brood chicks for next year’s laying hen flock
• Determine 2016 CSA details and begin sign-ups
• Organize final details for pumpkin patch open house and host
• Update bookkeeping of farm expenses and reconcile accounts
• Update website with 2016 info (definitely hasn’t happened yet! soon!)
• Order new high tunnel
• Build new high tunnel
• Take turkeys to slaughter
• Move animals to winter-friendly pastures/sheds/paddocks
• Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest
• Christmas Holiday Harvest

So, I’d say that definitely not a totally exhaustive ‘to do’ list, but that does represent the bulk of it. Casey and I each keep a notebook with extensive lists, including daily lists, weekly lists and big picture lists. Sometime soon here, we’ll probably sit down to make our Big List for winter 2016-16. That’s when we take a few days to write down in a computer document everything we hope to accomplish during this slower season of the year. To be honest, in the busy summer months, we really have much less to think about. The weeks take on a very clear rhythm of work (most of it in the fields planting, weeding, and harvesting). We feel almost pulled along by the momentum of it all.

But as we close those rhythms in the fall, as we are doing now, we simultaneously gain some more time in our weeks and lose some of that easy momentum. The winter is a perfect time for attending to all those nagging projects and ideas that come during the summer only to be set aside to make room for the urgent field work. BUT! As fall quiets down, we find we have to become very intentional about truly addressing all those deferred projects. It is much easier to mentally lose track of those kinds of odds and ends. That’s why we make the Big List every year! It has bullet points and sub-bullet points, and we usually try to organize it by urgency and immediacy. Writing everything down like that can feel daunting at first, but it’s amazing how much can be accomplished over several weeks if we just work through our list diligently.

Perhaps I should add “Make Big List” to our fall list!

But, not yet. Now we’ll focus on finishing this season out. It’s good for the mind and body to have a sense of completion and rest before tackling the next big round of projects. Today’s gray rainy weather brought a welcome feeling of deep quiet and calm to the farm. After many warm sunny days, it feels like a return to fall.

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Casey & Katie Kulla

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Pumpkin Patch Open House coming up! Join us on the farm for our CSA Pumpkin Patch open house! It will be Sunday, October 25, 2-4 pm. CSA members will get a pumpkin; we’ll have an apple variety tasting, and Casey will give a farm tour at 3 pm! I’ll include directions in next week’s newsletter!

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Apples — Liberty apples. These are a favorite apple for us to grow. They produce prolifically, are very disease and pest resistance, and taste great! What more could you ask for, really? They have red skin with white, firm flesh inside. Suitable for cooking or eating fresh.
• Pears — Bartlett pears. European pears do not ripen well on the tree (they get grainy in that context), so we picked these while they were still hard and have been ripening them slowly in the cooler (which makes for a smooth texture). When you get them, they should either be ready to eat or almost ready to eat. If they are still firm, you can put them on your counter for a few days.
• Salad mix — This week’s salad mix is a special fall mix of non-lettuce greens: baby chard, castelfranco (a chicory related to radicchio), red cabbage, and parsley. Mixed green salads like this are best enjoyed when tossed with a dressing before serving. We love our creamy dressings that we make with our immersion blender using olive oil, red wine vinegar, and one raw egg.
• Kohlrabi — The first of the fall/winter kohlrabis! We think this is the best season for this vegetable. Grown at this time of the year, they are smooth and sweet inside. Our favorite way to eat kohlrabi is to chop it fine and toss it with dressing (like a cole slaw). It’s also delicious fermented.
• Pie pumpkins — October is here! Time for all your favorite pumpkin deserts! Pie pumpkins are pumpkins that have been bred especially for the fineness and tastiness of the flesh (whereas Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins have usually been bred for size and don’t often taste as good!). Baking/cooking with real pumpkin meat is super easy if you remember to cook the pumpkin ahead of time. We just pop the stem off (usually by knocking it on the side of our counter) and bake the pumpkin whole on a pan at 350°. It is done when a paring knife goes into the flesh with ease. The pumpkin will cool faster on the counter if you cut it open. Often we’ll cook our pumpkin well before we plan to bake/cook, so then I just put it in the fridge for later. Once cooked, it is very easy to scoop out the pulp/seeds from the inner cavity, and the flesh lifts off of the skin easily too. Just mash up that flesh and use it in any recipe calling for pumpkin!!! This is my all time favorite pumpkin muffin recipe (it is grain-free, using almond flour instead of wheat flour).
• Delicata winter squash — The last two weeks we gave out BIG delicata. Now we’re giving out some of the smaller ones that we set aside as we sorted for the big ones. Then we’ll have big ones again!
• Sweet peppers
• Hot peppers
• Tomatillos
• Roma tomatoes
• Kale
• Beets
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Yellow crookneck summer squash
• Leeks

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And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Stewing hens — $3.50/lb ~ Many of you have already ordered a few of these hens, and you can pick them up tomorrow! We took extra as well, so if you didn’t have a chance to order them beforehand, you can still buy them. The meat on these birds is amazing. We ate some tonight after stewing them all day in the slow cooker. I look forward to making soup tomorrow with the broth.
• Eggs — $6/dozen ~ So, unfortunately our laying flock just shrunk some in size (see above item!). We still have eggs, but supply is growing more limited as the season ends and our flock gets smaller. We are excited to start fresh with young birds in 2016. They are already pullets (juvenile birds) and ranging in our greenhouse, looking beautiful and happy! They should be laying reliably by the start of the CSA in January.
• Ham — $12/lb ~ Nitrate-free ham made by artisan butchers from our pasture-raised hogs! Buy some now for your holiday meals! I’ll be putting at least one of these in the freezer for eating on Christmas morning. What a treat that will be.
• Porkchops — $12/lb
• Lamb — All the cuts are in! Shanks, roasts, grind, chops! Prices vary!
• Beef bones — $3/lb ~ This is the perfect season to make bone broth for all your fall soups.
• Ground beef — $7/lb ~ Maybe you won’t grill hamburgers outside this week, but meatloaf and roasted squash with a side of kale sounds like a great dinner to me!

Remember last week’s photo of Casey pushing the seeder in the field? Those seeds are up already! And Casey has already tilled the paths between rows. Check out his footprints in the soft soil. We like scenes like this.

In last week’s very newsy newsletter, I announced 2016’s CSA info (and many of you have signed up already! Hoorah! You can do so at pick-up now, if you are ready!). I also suggested that we’ve got “plans” in the works for 2016 — plans to enter our eleventh season with fresh enthusiasm and purpose.

I thought that this week I would share one such plan. It’s a big one. And, yet, it’s also a small one. I’m talking about the scale of our farm. Long-time CSA members may have watched our scale fluctuate over the years, as we grew from a two person operation on one acre to a several person crew on 100 acres. From our perspective, it’s been quite a journey. We’ve learned a ton along the way, and we’ve learned to deeply love and appreciate all this land and its productivity and the creatures and plants who make it home.

One thing, however, that we’ve also learned is that — ultimately — we do not enjoy the dynamic of being employers. We’ve always had awesome people working here. Seriously, they have blessed us with their time, their energy, their enthusiasm and passion, their personalities, their knowledge, and so much more. We have always enjoyed the people who work here. What we have not enjoyed is the part where we tell those people what to do every day, where we inevitably have to correct people (because this is an integral part of the learning process for everyone), where we have to work through the results of someone else’s honest mistake (which is harder than working through your own), where we have to put a dollar value on someone else’s time and energy (which affects our farm’s budget in many ways) …

We’ve had employees on the farm now since 2009, so for seven years total out of our ten. In that time, we’ve tried to grow into our role as managers. We’ve tried to figure out how to balance what are really two roles of direct management and behind-the-scenes management — and Casey has often felt pulled in several directions as he tries to simultaneously teach someone how to do something and also needed to get some other Very Important Task That Only Casey Can Do complete in a different part of the farm. We’ve found that it takes an enormous amount of energy to find awesome people, to incorporate them into the farm, and to keep it all rolling.

And, you know, there are farmers out there who seem to have this stuff figured out. We admire those people who have grown into that managerial role with grace and success. We have many times sat up late pondering their secrets and methods to keeping it all working — how to consistently grow and harvest quality crops, keep happy workers, and balance the farm budget too! The farms that appear to have figured out a lot of these challenges can grow bigger and satisfy more customers and feed more people. I think there is amazing power in those slightly larger businesses that have the ability to offer good jobs to many people and serve so many customers. It’s good work, and we applaud them.

I suppose we could keep trying to follow those models. We could ask more questions, read more books, try more different tactics (such as hiring a crew boss or middle managers). Or, we could step back a bit. We could return to our earlier visions of our farm, which were a little simpler, a little smaller, a little quieter, a little humbler, a little more peaceful, a little more private, a little more just us doing work we love every day.

If it’s not already obvious by my warm-up, that’s where we’re headed. As of right now, we’ve one employee working three days a week, and when he moves on to his next adventures this fall, we will not put out the call for the next batch of applicants. Next year, we will figure out what it means (once again) for us to be the sole labor on our farm.

We will have to make some changes of course. One can’t just dramatically change one variable in an equation and keep it balanced, right? But, without you all noticing, we’ve already begun making those changes quietly in the background, and we’ll continue making subtle changes that will affect us much more than any of you. I’m sure more of those details will become interesting topics for future newsletters, but rest assured that our CSA will be as awesome as ever next year.

And, even though our labor situation will appear to be a step “backward” in our farm’s history, it’s really not. It is a step forward. We are not the same farmers we were when he hired our first interns in 2009. The farm is not the same farm. We know things now that we certainly didn’t know then. We have different tools at our disposal as well as a better appreciation for how to make our old tools really work for us. I’m sure we will encounter surprises along the way, just as we do with any endeavor on this farm of ours! It is a great humbling journey!

We will definitely miss the opportunity we have had to meet and get to know such wonderful and fascinating individuals, but I trust that other relationships will grow and blossom in this new reality too. We certainly have no shortage of amazing people in our farm’s community!

But, as I have said, for us this a decision that is renewing our excitement for our work. Even though it can be physically exhausting at times, we love this work. And, we love the simplicity of knowing who will do the work. We love knowing that our skilled hands will be put to each task with that ease that comes from years and years of experience. We feel deep peace about returning to this very simple and direct relationship with our farm and crops.

I’m sure I will write about this more in months to come, but there you have it — another preview of our 2016 season. One that we envision will be joyful and abundant and very special for our farm family. We hope that you will join us!

And, for now, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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Did you miss last week’s newsletter? If so, I recommend checking it out now — it contains, among other important things, a handy list of important CSA dates for the fall through next January!

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Apples — I asked Casey which kind of apple this week, and the answer is: “Whatever I can get out of the cooler first!” We have now picked 99% of our apples for the season (literally only two trees remain to be picked at this point), and our two smaller coolers are bursting with bins right now. Our largest cooler has been out of commission this summer since the A/C broke several months ago (we use Coolbot devices in all our three homemade coolers). Casey used the time to spiff up the cooler while it wasn’t in use — clean it well and put on a new, better sealing door. We’re replacing the A/C unit next week and will finally have enough room to keep harvesting our storage crops! But, for now, things are tight! Rest assured, your apples will be delicious, whatever variety they may be.
• Sweet peppers — We’re really getting into sweet pepper season now. I love this time of year when I can pop a sweet pepper into almost every meal. The flavor difference of even one pepper is profound, and I love the bright color they offer to our meals!
• Hot peppers
• Tomatillos
• Roma & slicing tomatoes
• Salad
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Carrots
• Beets
• Potatoes
• Delicata winter squash
• Spaghetti squash
• Acorn squash
• Summer squash — We are enjoying every last bite of summer squash we get to enjoy while the season lasts. Today for lunch, I wondered if I was a bit over-the-top with my squash love, however. I sauteed yellow crookneck squash with sweet peppers and beef as the main dish and served it with Delicata rings on the side. Too much yellow squash? Maybe! But we enjoyed it!

~ ~ ~

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm:

• Eggs — $6/dozen — We had a brief dip in egg production the last two weeks as we (once again!) transitioned to a new feed source. The numbers are coming back up again now though! (Why the new feed source? Our local supplier of organic chicken ration raised the price significantly by dropping the weight in each bag and switched to plastic bags rather than paper! We weren’t up for either of those changes, but especially not both at once, so we ordered a pallet of awesome organic feed from Scratch and Peck in Bellingham, WA. The chickens and turkeys love it!)
• Bacon — We’ve got bacon again! We have both shoulder bacon and rolled belly bacon. We just had to try some (for quality control purposes, you know) at dinner tonight, and I can vouch that it is really, really yummy. This is bacon from our pasture-raised hogs, made by artisan butchers with no nitrates added. $12/lb
• Pork chops — $12/lb
• Lamb — We have lots of different cuts, including plenty of ground lamb (which is $8/lb). Ground lamb is a great way to try lamb for the first time. It’s super versatile. You can use it to make “lamburgers” or brown it and add to to a curry stew (or do many other things! Those are just our family’s favorites!).
• Ground beef — $7/lb
• Beef bones — $3/lb