Spring blesings

We sure are loving the sight of daffodils in the sun!

Oh, what a gift this late winter has been! Spring officially begins this week, and yet it has felt like spring off and on for weeks here on the farm. We’ve had so many extended dry, relatively warm spells already that we are way ahead on planting compared to the last few years (when springs were damp, dismal affairs indeed). We have thousands of feet of peas planted, so we hope the sugar snap fans are prepared. It will still be many weeks, of course, but these warm days keep them growing, along with every other green thing on the farm.

Right now out the window I can see lambs frolicking in a fresh field of grass and clover, bathed in the most golden sunlight. Buds are opening on the earliest flowering tress, the ornamental cherries. We have few of these out here, but I love spotting them in town or as we drive through the county. Our own, more practical, apple and pear trees will bloom soon enough — the buds are swelling.

April and May still lie between us and the main growing season — these are months of unpredictability in any year. However, there’s no question that these weeks of warmth have been a real gift. This is a time of year when we often find ourselves awake at night, worrying about how we’ll bridge the gap between over-wintered and spring crops. So far, these sharp stress has stayed at bay, and we just keep on keeping on with seeding and planting.

This weekend (after returning from a quick jaunt out to the coast!), we did a little special seeding for our own family. We are once again going to attempt having a home garden near our house, which will be more important than ever as more of the veggie crops move to our land next door. This year, we’re planning to just grow cooking greens, the veggie we eat most prolifically. So, Rusty, Casey and I got out the seeds and sowed two flats with chard, kale, and collards.

And then, since the wind was quite chilly, Casey and Rusty came inside to cuddle and read books about the arrival of spring. I welcome to turning of every season, but there is something uniquely exciting about the spring equinox — some cultures celebrate this as the New Year, and I appreciate that sentiment every year. It does feel like the start of the new year as life returns in force. I feel extra grateful these days, often for the simplest things. The sun itself feels like a blessing on everything we are doing on the farm. The warmth permeates through our clothes, skin, right into our souls.

As a special spring treat, this week we are offering our CSA our first-ever “value added” vegetable product: kohlrabi-based kimchi! This is a spicy fermented sauerkraut, made here on the farm with all our products (featuring the kohlrabi, but also including carrots, garlic, cabbage, and frozen hot peppers from last year). Alex was the one who came up with the recipe and headed up the making of it. We were inspired to make this kimchi after assessing the giant piles of storage vegetables in our cooler. It seemed the interest in kohlrabi had waned and yet we still had many of these giant veggies left. So, kimchi. If you would like to take kimchi as one of your items this week, please bring a pint jar or container with you to pack!

I hope that you too have been able to soak up some of this season’s goodness. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

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Meet this week’s vegetables:

• Kohlrabi kimchi! — Use this as a delicious garnish or condiment on all kinds of dishes: meat, salads, Asian noodles, etc. We hope you enjoy it! Also, are you wondering if it is legal for us to give out a processed food — it is! Thanks to Oregon’s “Division 25,” farms may process their own products for direct market sales without license. That includes processes such as drying nuts, grinding flours from grains, and making low-risk processed foods (fermented items, high acid canned goods like jams, etc.) This legislation allows farms like us to dabble in value added products without huge upfront investments. For us this is an awesome opportunity to turn a bumper crop of one vegetable into something a bit more exciting for our eaters. I don’t know if we’re going to do such things super regularly, but it’s fun for now. We hope you enjoy the kimchi!
• Salad mix
  
• Purple sprouting broccoli — Since we only give this out for a brief period of the year, Casey wanted me to remind you that it’s a “mange tout” vegetable. That translates to “eat-it-all.” Think of this as a cross between a cooking green and broccoli. Chop it all up — stems, leaves, florets and all — and roast or saute for some early spring goodness. We’ve made lots of big bunches this week (each one will count as an item) so everyone should get some. This is good stuff.
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Beets
• Celery root
• Potatoes
• Leeks