We’re off and running!

Two day old lambs and a ewe enjoy a misty and chilly morning on the farm.

As you know, last week was our first CSA pick-up of the year — and our very first CSA pick-up at our new storefront! We were excited before the day began, feeling super optimistic about our new space and routines for 2015. But, still, our expectations were blown out of the water by the enthusiasm of everyone who walked in the door during those five hours. People ooh’d and ah’d over the tidy packages of lamb and beef in our freezer (and bought lots of both); eggs sold out within the first hour; kimchi flew out out the door (we sold out, but thankfully everyone who wanted some got some!); and beautiful CSA vegetables were packed into baskets with joy. It was SO. MUCH. FUN.

It felt like the perfect start to our tenth season — a harbinger of good things to come. We honestly can’t believe we get to have another party like that this week. And the week after that. And so on, for another 44 weeks this year.

Here on the farm, good work has been happening too. We are almost totally done with our annual seed order (need to finalize our green onion and flower choices); we’ve been pruning our orchards and raspberries; and I finished up our 2014 employee tax paperwork this weekend. Up next on our lists: more pruning; the start of seed sowing in the hot house; and our organic certification paperwork. All of it feels so seasonal, even if this winter has proved to be relatively mild so far (our PGE bill tells us the average temperature so far has been tracking 5° warmer than last year).

At this time of year, I have to avoid constantly looking for signs of spring, because of course winter has several more weeks to go and these early signs are subtle and ongoing. I could bore you by pointing them out every week in the newsletter, but here on the farm they are very exciting. This week, as we were walking back to our house, Rusty ran ahead of me and then stopped and ran back at a full sprint, yelling: “Mama! Guess what I saw? … The daffodils are coming up!” Sure, enough, he had spotted the very first tips of the daffodils that grow under our pear tree. Having our son so excited about this world he inhabits plus those little glimpses of the season to come (spring! joy!) filled my heart so much.

Plus, the first of this year’s lambs were born yesterday (hence the cute photo above). And today the sun shone and warmed everything! Life! Growth! It happens! There is great and necessary rest to be gained from winter’s rhythms, but oh these signs of spring are too wonderful.

It’s official — this season is marching forward, and we are so glad to have you with us on this next season of local eating! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. Welcome to members who are joining us this week for the first time! We’re so glad to have you! I recommend at least skimming last week’s newsletter as well, since it contained lots of useful orienting information. You can find it here.

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Have you made your first payment yet? In case you haven’t yet, here’s another friendly reminder to deliver to us your first CSA payment of the year (either full value or 1/5). If you haven’t mailed your check yet, please bring it with you to pick-up tomorrow!

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Meet this week’s vegetables: As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I’m going to try to focus my attention on a few vegetables each week. If you ever have any questions about what to do with something, you can also ask us at pick-up! All three of us are extremely enthusiastic about cooking and are happy to answer your questions and provide ideas!

• Cabbage
• Brussels sprouts — We have been eating a lot of Brussels sprouts lately. They are one of our family’s favorite winter staples. They do require a little bit of extra work on the cutting board, but I’ve gotten this process down to be fairly quick and simple. I use a paring knife (one of my favorite kitchen tools!) to trim off the butt and then slice each sprout in half. At that point, any yellowed outer leaves are extremely easy to just slip off, almost as quickly as you can move the cut sprouts aside. I have a habit of putting my halved Brussels sprouts in water at this point, to remove any soil or buggies — but this year’s sprouts have been so clean that this step is really unnecessary. Once I have a big pile of halved sprouts, I have a choice. Do I want to cook them as halves? This is very delicious — we love roasting halved Brussels sprouts for breakfast (yes, for breakfast!). If you put an even layer in a sheet pan (without overlap), they roast up quite quickly and have a crispy outside. Pan frying halves works well too, although it takes a bit longer and can be helped by a little broth in the pan (cover for a period too to help them sprouts cook through before they start to brown). However, if I’m feeling rich with time, I might cut my sprouts further. Sometimes I even chop them up into fine confetti, which — believe it or not — makes a great salad base. Toss with dressing and top with savory and sweet toppings like cranberries, goat cheese and walnuts. Delicious! Or, I’ll take that chopped Brussels sprouts and saute it up like kale. One of our favorite things is to cook chopped cabbage and Brussels sprouts together. Add chopped carrots too, and you end up with a beautiful mult0colored vegetable base for a stew or as a side-dish on its own. Need I say that such dishes usually involve lots of butter at our house? It’s true.
• Leaf celery — This variety of celery is grown for its leaf. Why, you ask? Certainly not for making “ants-on-a-log,” which requires stalks. Instead, this is grown for that unique, profoundly awesome celery flavor. Flavor doesn’t even seem to adequately describe what celery brings to a dish. In my experience, celery transforms dishes (especially soups) into something entirely different. When we make stocks and broths, we add some of this leaf celery, and the resulting broth is intensely satisfying. Use it to make a soup that will knock people’s socks off. You can also chop the leaf celery and add it to stuffings or any other number of warming winter dishes.
• Kohlrabi
• Winter squash
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Beets
• Potatoes
• Apples — This week’s apples are some of our absolute favorite: GOLDRUSH is the variety name. Why do we love them? Let us count the ways: 1. The trees are hardy and disease resistant (great for the organic grower!). 2. The fruit store well all winter long in our cooler. 3. They are delicious! I shared some of these with friends earlier today, and while the children were chomping them up with non-verbal displays of enthusiasm, the parents were all remarking on how unexpectedly wonderful the apples were. They had the idea that a yellow apple would be mushy or flavorless — perhaps this idea comes from the experience of eating Yellow Transparents or other very early yellow apples. Goldrush are nothing like that all — instead they offer a very dense, crisp texture and an incredibly complex flavor with full ranges of sweet and tart. They’re great for fresh eating yet hold up well (flavor and texture-wise) for cooking. Seriously, a wonderful all-around apple. We have extras of these for sale as well.
• Garlic

And this week’s extra goodies from the farm: Remember to bring containers when appropriate! We will have some jars for sale for kimchi and such at pick-up, but we know you’ve got loads of empty jars in your pantry already! Also, this week I am going to try to better track individual sales for our records (since it’d be nice to know how much money we are making from, say, lamb versus walnuts) — doing so may add a few extra seconds to each purchase as I do some computer input stuff. Thanks in advance for being patient as I figure it out! Here’s what we’ve got this week for you:

This weekend’s special kid activities included making corn pancakes with Papa — our favorite use for our farm made corn flour!

• Corn flour  — $5 lb
• Oat flour — $5 lb
• Walnuts — $5 lb
• Kohlrabi “kimchi” — $5 pint; $3 half pint ~ We sold out of our kimchi last week!!!! Hoorah! We were so excited to witness true KIMCHI ENTHUSIASM at work. We’ve got a new batch ready to go. Same recipe!
• Eggs — $6 dozen ~ We also sold out of eggs very quickly last week. No surprise there since our supply is still coming out of winter mode. The good news is that we have more eggs this week than last week, and that trend should continue!
• Ground beef — 1 lb packages; $7 ea. ~ These packages of ground beef were also very popular! We still have plenty in the freezer!
• Lamb roasts — We still have many different cuts available, at varying prices (ranging from $5 – 14 lb). Ask Katie at pick-up to walk you through what’s in the freezer!
• Beef organs — I forgot to mention this last week — we have organs for sale as well! Beef liver and heart are $6/lb and beef tongue is $8/lb.
• Lamb organs — Lamb organs are $8/lb. The fine butchers we worked with packed a lamb liver with a lamb heart in tidy little packages. These would make a perfect first introduction to organ meats for the uninitiated. Lamb organs are quite mild in flavor and yet still pack huge nutrition. I saw once a nutritional comparison of various vitamins and minerals in liver versus broccoli — liver was off the charts on everything. We have heard time and time again from folks who claim to have experienced significant boosts in energy and general vibrancy after consuming liver. Not sure how to prepare them? Slice your lamb liver (or heart) thin and pan fry with plenty of butter and some garlic.