We may have had to work most of the weekend, but at least we got to enjoy one of the best farm treats we've tasted yet: fresh strawberries served with Willa's cream!
Meet this week’s vegetables*:
- Strawberries — Who’s excited about strawberries! I imagine these half pint containers will get eaten before most of you arrive back home (or even get to the car), but nonetheless what a joy of spring! We only wish we had a bigger planting already (one is planted on the new land for future seasons), because we know that most people can eat a lot of strawberries without any instruction or prompting from us farmers. Also, rest easy knowing that these strawberries have not been sprayed with anything.
- Peas — Another spring favorite.
- Fava beans — How did you like last week’s fava beans? Here are some more for you to experiment with. I enjoyed adding the beans to cooked greens this week. It was super easy — once the greens were in the pan cooking, I just slowly shelled the beans. I peeled the larger beans with my fingernail and put the smaller ones in unpeeled. They’re so tender this time of year that by the time the kale was done cooking, the fava beans were perfectly warmed through and slightly cooked. All I had time and patience for was about half a batch of fava beans per batch of greens, but I was happy to have more for another meal.
- Lettuce
- Salad mix
- Kale
- Sweet onions — Over-wintering onions are still a great mystery to us. We have tried so many different tactics, and each spring we receive vastly different results (but none exactly like what we want) — some springs they size up and then bolt before we can harvest them; other springs (like this one) they don’t size up at all. We’ve had a couple really stellar spring onion years that keep us trying, but for now enjoy these small spring onion bunches!
- Green garlic
* This list is what will be available at the Mac pick-up this week and will most likely be at Newberg too — but we may vary the selection slightly for Newberg as new items come on in the fields over the week. Check with Emily or Jesse about what might vary at pick-up!
Each week when I sit down to write newsletters this spring, I find myself puzzled as to which story I should tell. There are always lots of individual interesting anecdotes and stories to tell about our recent doings, but how do I choose which ones? How do I group them into some kind of essay?
Part of the challenge is that as our farm continues growing in scale and complexity, there’s just a lot going on at once. This spring, in particular, it feels as though we are living three simultaneous stories — each one with a distinct narrative, but intertwined in our daily existence and work as well. Perhaps writing them out here will give you a fuller understanding of this particular spring:
Story #1: Slow start to spring
This is the hardest story we are living right now. I wrote a few weeks back that this hasn’t been “the most challenging” spring of our farm’s history, even though it has been hard. I may have to rethink that statement a bit. I think it’s fair to say that there have been other springs when everything has felt more tenuous (especially when water woes and weather aligned and we had very little history for perspective), but this year’s weather situation has really been quite challenging.
We are facing the latest lean period yet — we always know there will be a period of some weeks when we are finished with over-wintered produce but not yet harvesting the spring planted crops. Generally, we expect this period in May, but this year’s cool, wet spring pushed it later to June.
The fields are bursting with seeds and transplants right now, which we were able to plant during the extended dry period two or so weeks ago (a very late first dry spell indeed!), but now we still have to wait. And wait. And wait for them to grow. And, in the meantime, we added about 20 more households to the CSA (for a grand total of 200!), starting at a time that is generally “safe” for bumping up numbers. As always, we have contingency plans and contingency plans for our contingency plans. But we’re anxiously awaiting the moment when we look at the fields and feel overwhelmed by all the choices of what to pick. We will sleep better when that day arrives (later this month?).
We have a beautiful art calendar on our wall from Nikki McClure (an Olympia cut paper artist), and each month just offers a single inspirational word amidst the art (usually a natural scene or people working outside). May’s word was “persist,” which felt tremendously appropriate for most days when that was all we could do. I turned the calendar to June, wondering what inspiration I would receive and found a beautiful image of bees pollinating flowers with the words: “Good Luck.” I had to laugh, because that’s exactly what it feels like we need this month regarding these upcoming harvests — lucky weather.
Long-term weather models suggest that we should be planning for more springs like this one (and fewer like 2006, when we were planting in early May). We’re excited to be getting more perennials in the ground, along with animal enterprises, which will greatly help reduce the spring pressure.
Story #2: planting a’plenty!
Yes, spring was slow to start. Yes, we didn’t get ground adequately prepped and ready for planting until late in May. But, oh have we been planting since then. Planting and planting and sowing and sowing.
Something is going in the ground almost every day right now, and we are finally nearing the end of the big spring planting push. This is always a busy time of year, but this year we have planted more than ever, thanks to the luxury of having so much more land to work with.
We’re also increasing the volume of staple crops significantly as part of our long-term plans to provide a greater percentage of our eaters’ diets (more on this topic in future newsletters and meetings). And, we’re trialing large plantings of crops that are relatively new to us, for example grains. We’ve also planted large sections of crops that are space hogs and that we felt limited in growing before, for example sweet corn and melons (fingers crossed on this one).
At this point, these recent plantings are doing great. The potatoes are up and growing, as are most of the direct sown veggies. We’ve already begun the endless work of weeding, beginning with some good tractor cultivating this last week on the part of Jesse. We’re watering and tending in other ways too, so in this story it feels that summer has arrived and we are well on our way toward plenty.
Story #3: animal adventures!
And, in the midst of all of this normal-to-us work is the new work: taking care of the animals. To recap, right now we have: three cows (two mamas and a calf), 18 sheep (a mix of ewes and lambs), and 310 chicks (to become layer hens).
Casey and I both have loved the daily rhythm that animal chores bring to the farm, and it has helped to have four of us to carry that burden. We’re trading off who takes care of animals on the weekend even, which will eventually give Casey and me the luxury of leaving the farm, but for now just gives us more space to focus on other spring weekend tasks like tractor work.
But, there’s no question that the animals have brought new mental and physical challenges to work through. None of it is unexpected — we simply have to deal with each new component of operation as it comes up. There’s no other way. (This is the “one step at a time” method of dealing with big things!) So, we’ve been slowly but surely working the animals into a stable management routine, addressing key needs first with interim methods and then working into the long-term systems as we develop them.
This last week brought two big milestones in the animal story. First, on Friday morning, we finally moved the cows and sheep from the home farm over to the “new land” (we’ll have to come up with a better name eventually, since someday this land won’t be as new to us!). We started with all the animals here so we could keep a close eye on them while working through initial adventures, plus we were waiting until our well was up and running (a slow ordeal that was more or less completed one week ago, allowing us to now irrigate crops and water animals).
If you haven’t been to the farm before, let me quickly orient you to the lay of the land so this story makes sense. The home farm is a longish 17.5 acre rectangle on the west side of a creek. The new land lies adjacent to our parcel, but on the other side of the creek. The new land is also now the majority of our acreage (over 80 acres) and is mostly in oat and clover cover crops that would also make great pasture, so we knew we wanted to get the animals over there ASAP.
However, right now the only connection between the two parts of our farm is via a county road with a bridge that lies at the north end of the properties. So, we’ve been working the animals toward that bridge over the last few weeks (in their electric net fence enclosures), and Friday morning it was time to make the final move to the other side.
Casey set up a new enclosure just around the corner on the new pasture — not very far away at all, but involving a u-turn, a county road and a bridge with no guardrails. We were all sure we could do this, but we knew we had to keep the animals as calm as possible in order for everyone to get over safely. We set up a chute with the net fencing. We temporarily blocked off the road with a tractor and some cattle panels, and then my mom (who raised the sheep before us) and Kimmie led the sheep and cows with some food, kind words, and gentle patience. Once they realized they were being led, both species of animals just calmly walked the chute, went across the bridge and around the corner, and WOW we were done! What a relief!
But there’s one additional big milestone to report — we drank milk from Willa! Willa is the shyer of our two cows, and Emily and Kimmie have been patiently working her into a handling and milking routine. This work was interrupted by her calf Leo’s arrival (which made her even more cautious at first — naturally!). Since this is her first experience of being milked, we were all in a learning situation. We’re definitely still working on all elements of the routine (this weekend we set up our first draft of a sanitary “creamery” set-up and routine for milk handling), but we have also been enjoying our first sips of “Willa milk” (as Rusty calls it).
So, there you go: the rough sketches of our three overlapping themes on the farm these days. Obviously, day-to-day existence is fairly integrated, but each story does have its own narrative, problems, and solutions.
Then, of course, there are the personal stories too, which can’t be separated out cleanly — especially Casey and my family life, which is wholly one with the farm. Taking care of Rusty and preparing for baby #2’s August arrival are certainly a big part of my days and affect that farm too. The good news of all these stories is that plants, animals, children, and babies are all growing! And, we adults are growing too in our knowledge, understandings, appreciation and ever-present gratitude for the gifts of this world. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
… and the rest of the farm crew!
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Next week’s vegetables (probably!):
Strawberries • Peas • Fava beans • Radishes • Head lettuce • Chard • Sweet onions • Green garlic
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Reminder: June open house! We’ve set a date for our first CSA open house — Sunday, June 24. We’re still working on the details, but it will be in the mid-afternoon and will be on the new land! Farmer Casey will give tours of all our new stuff, and we’re planning a fun treat — very possibly strawberry ice cream. We may ask for people to RSVP so we know how much to make. Look for details in future newsletters, but get the date on your calendar now!
