Farm kids stop to play in random spots, including some soft sandy dust on a roadway. Oh, the joys of free time and children ...
June started with a bang of a weekend here on the farm. In my mind, late May and June are the busiest months of our year. As the farm has evolved and diversified, I’m not sure this is quite as true anymore — our work spreads out over many seasons. But still, in May and June, we do the bulk of our year’s tillage, planting and seeding, as well as harvest for our CSAs, take care of animals, etc.
This weekend, we employed some off-farm help to get a few projects done. As we’ve added acreage and crops we have judiciously employed neighbor farmers for certain tasks that make better sense with bigger equipment than ours. Thus, on Saturday two different neighbors came out: one to drill five acres of field corn for us and the other to make hay on fifteen acres.
Today the corn is fully planted and we’re mid-stride irrigating it all in. The hay is still in progress (it takes several days between cutting and baling), so I can look out the window and watch it dry in the lovely evening light. We are hopeful about both projects — last winter taught us many lessons about what it means to feed animals in the dark, wet season. Although we had put up grains and hay both, we eventually ran low and had to buy in extra because the Very Cold Winter limited our forage opportunities. So, this year we’re upping our efforts on our own hay and grain supply. Still working toward that goal of truly producing all the feed for our animals. The dribs and drabs we had to buy last year were expensive, and we prefer to be in charge of the quality of the feed ourselves.
Our family was also occupied with social things this weekend, including the McMinnville Women’s Choir concert (with Absolute and Calochortus), which was fabulous but exhausting for our farm family (the kids stayed up three hours past their normal bedtimes!).
I was grateful to have a quiet day here at the farm with the kids today, as our “school year” activities wind down and leave us more free time. Among other things, this afternoon, we wandered to the enormous Linden tree that grows by our creek to check on its flowers. The buds are just about to open, which will be a sweet smelling treat! (Plus, we harvest the flowers to dry for winter teas — the best!) That same Linden tree marks the spot we cleared out years ago to pump water from the creek, and we still like sitting there by the water under the tree cover. Sitting there in that deep shade with the kids was one of those Magic Moments in life. They were both barefoot, happily investigating the horse tail plants and tree roots and animal burrows. And all around us, birds were singing. This afternoon, I was delighted to hear the first Swainson Thrush calling in the trees (if you don’t know this magical call, listen here).
Meanwhile, today Casey and the crew harvested for the CSA, then planted another six 350′ rows of brassicas for late summer and early fall harvest. Oh, how we can plant in this season! And pick! The strawberries and the peas are both on right now. Casey came home with red fingers from picking all those delicious ripe strawberries for you all.
June is a magical season — full of work and light and activity and growth. We are chugging along out here, enjoying the mildness before the real heat of summer arrives. The kids are closely watching cherries blush on the trees and dreaming about the long stream of fruit soon to arrive. Here we are, in the midst of it all, at the beginning of summer, just about to jump head first into that sweaty, sweet season of juicy fruit and river swimming and dust and pipe moving and bike rides and potlucks and everything that is so wonderful about summer in Oregon.
We hope you are savoring this moment too! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Strawberries
- Snap peas — We hope you caught on that last week’s peas were shelling peas! I should have made a more significant note in the newsletter. I am so immersed in this farming world that I forget that people don’t always know that shelling and snap peas are quite different. Shelling peas develop nice big classic pea-like peas inside pretty fibrous inedible pods — so those are for shelling. Snap peas are a miracle of modern breeding programs — brilliant plant breeders selected for a sweet tender pod so that we can eat the whole thing as a green vegetable. Of course, tell that to children, who often insist on pulling out those little nibs of peas anyway!!!! Anyhow, this week’s peas are snap peas. Eat the whole thing!
- Head lettuce
- Salad
- Chard
- Chives
- Green garlic — Green garlic season is winding down. Soon the garlic will begin drying in preparation for our storage harvest. Enjoy this spring treat while it lasts! I think this year has been our best green garlic harvest ever. Just so delicious and tender.
