Thanks for a fabulous 2014!

Meet us at our downtown Mac storefront for delicious eating in 2015!

It’s here!!!!! This is the final week of our 2014 Vegetable CSA season. We still have two more opportunities for you to stock up on delicious seasonal veggies for your holiday events and winter eating (see “Holiday Harvest” info below), but there will be no more CSA pick-ups again until 2015.

Everyone here on the farm is very excited about our 2015 plans. It feels good to be mixing things up, improving how we distribute our yummy foods, and adding a new enterprise (the goat milk dairy dream is universally popular around these parts). But, it also feels good to be closing up shop from this season. We opened 2014 with the farm theme of “maintenance” — our primary goal was to catch up with ourselves, tie up loose ends, take care of everything and everyone in the best possible ways (including ourselves). Every season has its vagaries and surprises, but looking back, it’s clear that we met that goal. Smiles abounded most of the season, which is always the best sign of our farm’s success. We grew a lot of amazing food. We continued growing into our role as stewards of 100+ acres of beautiful Grand Island farmland. Truly a satisfying year.

And, now, we will take our pause. Advent is right around the corner, and even as we look toward 2015, we still know we need this moment of rest in the annual rhythm of our life. The darkness and the cold naturally bring introspection into our lives. You’d hardly know in popular culture, but in the liturgical calendar Advent is a penitential season (the counterpart to Lent in the calendar) — a season of waiting and preparing ourselves for what is to come. A time to take stock of who we are, where we are, where we are headed. It’s not always a comfortable time of year, in terms of the hardships outside our door or the inner work that needs to be done. Already, I have found myself chafing against the forced rest of the season. After a long beautiful glorious warm season, spent running around outside with the kids, I have found myself annoyed with fall’s weather and our household’s rounds of colds. Nonetheless, I can also feel myself slowly building up reserves again, feeling those places that were stretched thin by the activity of summer starting to renew themselves amidst those hours spent reading on the couch with sick kids. Truly every season brings something necessary to our lives!

In that spirit, I want to share with you one of my favorite poems as we walk into even darker days. The tone of this is in the spirit of these short days, when we may feel a bit sadder or lonesome than in the brilliance of summer. Plus, the geese are back, filling the air with their calls. Here you go:

Wild Geese ~ Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Peace to you all as take your own breaks this coming winter. May the lights of friendship and family fill your hearts as we wait for the sun to return. We wish you a very merry holiday season, followed by a happy new year! And, then we are excited to welcome you to our new space as we all begin 2015 together! I can promise you that there will be many delicious vegetables (and more!) awaiting you!

(And, I should add here that although the next month and a half will feel restful, we also have a lot of fun projects on our “to do” lists: greenhouse construction, storefront build-out, dairy start-up! Oh my! But there will be plenty of sitting by the fire in the dark too, because this season is full of such things.)

As always, thank you for being a part of our farm. Feeding your family is an honor. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

~ ~ ~

Sign-up now for 2015! Our first CSA pick-up of 2015 will be on January 15!!!! (Yes, we are changing to THURSDAY pick-up.) If you haven’t filled out your paperwork for 2015 yet, we invite you to do so soon! You can bring your form to our final pick-up this week, or you can mail it to us at our P.O. Box.

Not in our CSA yet? You are welcome to sign-up now too! We would be happy to have you!

Need more time to consider your options? That’s fine! There is plenty of room, but we hope to hear from you within the coming weeks so that we can best plan for 2015.

Need the info and form again? I included a lot of info in last week’s newsletter. Or you can download the info and form here: 2015OakhillCSACommitment (click to download the file). We will also have hard copies at pick-up again this week.

Want more info about our farm and the new offerings? Take some time with the info on our website. I’ve spent many hours this last week updating it and adding content, so you’re likely to learn something new! (More updating to come too, so keep checking back.)

Have specific questions? Email us: farm (at) oakhillorganics (dot) com. If you prefer to talk to a person, you can call me at 503-474-7661, but I warn you that you may hear screaming children in the background! Ha!

Want some veggies to get you through the break period? Order veggies from our Holiday Harvest! See below!

~ ~ ~

Thanksgiving Holiday Harvest info! This is a long-standing tradition of our farm, to offer the opportunity for members to order extra food, which we will carefully custom harvest and bring into town for you to pick-up. You can order food for your holiday meal or just to store for eating during our CSA break time! Our first Holiday Harvest will be next Wednesday, November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving). The actual pick-up location is to-be-determined — somewhere in downtown Mac. I will email you the details after you place your order. Here’s how it will work:

You look over our availability list below and make a list of the items and quantities you’d like to order. Email us your order by 7 pm on Tuesday, November 25. (Email is farm (at) oakhillorganics (dot) com) Wednesday morning, we will carefully harvest and gather your order and bring it into town 2-4 pm for you to pick up (again, exact location is TBD). You can pay for your veggies with cash or check.

This is also a great opportunity to give some of our grains and nuts a try! Find out more info and see recipe ideas for flour here. Find out more about our walnuts here.

Items available for order (this is the Holiday Harvest list — scroll down for the usual list of CSA veggies):

  • Salad mix — A mix of the hardy salad greens in our field. $7/lb
  • Brussels sprouts — Order by the lb. $3.50/lb
  • Cabbage — Order by the each. We will weigh for price. $2/lb
  • Kale — Order by the bunch. $3/bunch
  • Collards — Order by the bunch. $3/bunch
  • Chard — Order by the bunch. $3/bunch
  • Parsley — Order by the bunch. $2/bunch
  • Leaf celery — Order by the bunch. $2/bunch
  • Kohlrabi — Order by the each. They are large! $1/lb
  • Carrots — Order by the lb. $2/lb
  • Beets — Order by the lb. $1.50/lb
  • Sunchokes — Order by the lb. $2.50/lb
  • Celery root — Order by the lb. $2.50/lb
  • Potatoes (Yukon Golds) — Order by the lb. $2.50/lb
  • Parsnips — Order by the lb. $2/lb
  • Apples — Order by the each. We will weigh for price $3/lb
  • Walnuts — In shell. $5/lb
  • Oat flour — Order by the lb. $5/lb
  • Corn flour — Order by the lb. $5/lb

We’ll have a second Holiday Harvest opportunity on December 19. A few days prior, I will send out an email and post a list on our blog (and do a little Facebook posting too). It will be a fun moment to touch base amidst all of our busy holiday celebrations! Plus, you can stock up on good food again!

~ ~ ~

Meet this week’s vegetables:

  • Brussels sprouts
  • Peppers — These are for sure the last of the season. When the very cold weather showed up on the forecast, Casey and Jasper went out and harvested the last of the peppers, knowing that the plants would be done. And, they are! (It is November after all!)
  • Pie pumpkin or Delicata squash — Your choice between these two items, either of which makes for delicious seasonal eating! Winter squash has been a staple of our diet lately, making an appearance at least once/day in some form (pumpkin muffins, pureed squash, Delicata rings …). To me, there’s nothing quite so satisfying as squash on these very cold days.
  • Rainbow chard
  • Parsley
  • Kohlrabi — Be prepared; these kohlrabi are large. We grow this variety for winter storage, and surprisingly it is also the most delicious kohlrabi we’ve ever tasted. The hardest part of eating these giants is the peeling and slicing. A large chef knife is useful. I usually hack off a chunk and then peel it with a paring knife. Our favorite ways to eat kohlrabi? Sliced and peeled as a snack (great for dipping in your parsley pesto!). Sauteed in liberal amounts of butter until soft and then pureed (so good!). Chopped and added to brothy soups (we made a turkey soup this weekend that featured kohlrabi, carrots, onions, and chard — so satisfying!). Chopped fine and tossed with a creamy dressing to make a unique winter slaw (this is probably our all time favorite way to eat kohlrabi; add chopped chicken or canned tuna to make it a meal!).
  • Parsnips
  • Garlic
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