Oakhill Organics

(CSA Newsletter: Week 21)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

At the end of last summer, we here at Oakhill Organics faced a tough decision. We were realizing that we’d taken on too much for our small farm: our market sales kept going up, and our CSA was continually growing in demand. We couldn’t keep up with both venues without significantly expanding, something we weren’t ready to do with our land and infrastructure limitations. So, after much analysis and mulling, we decided to become a CSA-only farm (with a few restaurant sales on the side).

Although it was very strange to not prepare for market this summer, the streamlining has allowed us to be tremendously productive in the fields. We now have four plus days for doing ‘field’ work (planting, weeding, etc.) instead of two and a half. The difference is continually startling to us, when we realize we once again have actually completed the tasks on our weekly ‘to do’ list.

Although we’re still learning so much about the best way to manage our farm, we are no longer falling behind the way we did the last three seasons. Back then, once market season began, our time became extremely limited for anything other than highly urgent tasks (usually harvesting, planting, and weeding). Until market ended again, we rarely had time to catch up on mowing, extra ground prep, or infrastructure projects.

But, the tides are turning. We’re hoping that this year sets a new precedent. The combination of more time and added help from our hired employees has completely changed our ability to keep up with the less urgent (but still incredibly important) tasks.

For example, this week we tackled a project that has been on our ‘to do’ list for almost two seasons: building a new, bigger cooler for post-harvest veggie storing.

When we harvest vegetables in the warm season, they come out of the field incredibly warm (farmers call this phenomenon ‘field heat’), and our first task is to cool them as quickly as possible for best storage and freshness.

For us, the first step in cooling is usually a dunk/soak in a clean bathtub of cold clean well water. (This serves the second function of washing clean many of our veggies.) The water helps start the cooling process quickly, but for best chilling, we need a cold place to store the vegetables until we have to transport them to town. Ideally, we want to bring their temperature down below 40° and keep it there for as long as possible.

In 2006 we built a simple inexpensive cooler structure that we have used up until this week. It’s an insulated 4’x5’x7’ stick-framed moveable shed with an air conditioner unit mounted in the side. The air conditioner’s thermostat is broken (so that it can cool below 55°), and we have it plugged into a greenhouse thermostat to regulate the temperature. The system works quite well; however, with the expansion of our CSA harvest this year, our Monday/Tuesday harvest has outgrown the space threefold. The last few weeks, we’ve had to pull chilled product out of the cooler in order to make room for newly harvested veggies, which sort of defeats the point.

We’d been planning to build a bigger cooler since 2007 (we even bought a larger air conditioner unit and new thermostat system that fall), but the project keeps getting put off. Last summer we were simply too busy, and in the winter the urgency of chilling hot vegetables lessens. But as the weather began to heat up again, the urgency returned. Last week, we were trying to find cool shade under our walnut tree to keep our many, many bins of greens and lettuce cool.

So, we did. Wednesday morning, we started framing (we’d already poured the slab foundation a few weeks back), and late on Thursday the cooler was operational. We still have a few finishing details to make it completely air tight and ready for winter weather, but it works!

The new cooler is a similar design: stick frame construction and super insulated. We have a slightly different thermostat system, called the CoolBot, which was designed by a small farmer on the east coast. And the best part — the new cooler is an 8 x 8 x 8 cube, giving us over four times as much chilling space as we had before. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!

We’re very excited. We’re excited because we have more than sufficient cooler space to keep your veggies in the best possible shape. But, we’re also excited that we had the time and energy to work on this project in late June. It’s hard to imagine making that possible when we were trying to do the CSA, attend market, and do restaurant sales every single week.

Just to make it clear: refocusing our farm’s energy hasn’t made farming easy or simple. But our continual task list doesn’t feel quite so out of proportion with the amount of time and energy available to us. We feel infinitely saner, especially in hard moments such as the storm last month. We have much more flexibility in our schedule for dealing with whatever comes up: whether it’s been planned for two years (the cooler) or is completely unexpected and scary (the storm). Hoorah!

Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

Although less well known in America, fennel is a traditional beloved Italian vegetable. You may be familiar with herb fennel, which is a strong flavoring similar to anise seed; however, this is a vegetable fennel, selected for its tender delicious bulbs (the greens can be used for flavoring as well, but the bulb is the star of this show). Fennel has a texture similar to celery (but less stringy) and a fresh flavor reminiscent of herb fennel but milder. You can add chopped fennel to many dishes raw or cooked. Our favorite simple preparation is to chop fennel bulbs and sauté in butter with onions until tender — serve over pasta or as a side dish. You can also finely chop fennel and add to egg or tuna salad.

Grilled fennel & onions with parmesan
adapted from From Asparagus to Zucchini

Prepare outdoor grill for medium heat. Slice an onion into 1/3-inch thick slices. Brush both sides of onions lightly with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Grill onions on both sides until tender and lightly charred, 3-5 minutes per side. Meanwhile, slice whole fennel bulbs lengthwise in the same manner as onions. Steam them over boiling water 8-10 minutes; drain well. Brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill on both sides until tender and lightly charred, 6-8 minutes per side. Arrange onions and fennel on a colorful platter; scatter Parmesan over the top. This is delicious with grilled fish or lamb, or as a side dish with Italian tomato-based pasta dishes.

Our generous parking lot host, First Baptist Church, has a large event happening on Tuesday evening and needs as much parking space as possible. We’re going to try to pack up and be gone quickly after we officially close at 6:30. So please be on time, and if possible arrive prior to 6, since that is when the event attendees will begin arriving and parking. That way, you can be sure you’ll find an easy parking spot. As always, we’ll be open and ready for business at 3:30 sharp, which leaves us plenty of time for pick-up before things begin to get a little crowded.

Thanks everyone for your flexibility and conscientiousness! See you all tomorrow!

(CSA Newsletter: Week 20)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

At a friend’s solstice party this Saturday evening, we found ourselves conversing with others about — what else? — this spring’s weather. Quite a few people (most of them not farmers) commented on how cool it has been.

Cool? That hasn’t been our impression, and nor is that what the weather page has reported. This spring we experienced consistently higher than average temperatures, and I think that the fields are showing it. We picked our first ripe raspberries over a week ago, and this weekend we scavenged for ripe cherries on the tree growing wildly in our slough. Both of these fruits are ready more than a few weeks earlier than the last two years.

But, we do understand where some of the ‘cool’ thought might be coming from. If nothing else, this spring (and now early summer) has been incredibly calm and mild. With the exception of one strong, quick slap in the face (the storm!), we’ve experienced relatively high low temperatures and relatively mild high temperatures. Each day is more or less comfortable — not too cold and definitely not too hot. We’ve had very few sweltering hot days yet, even during the long dry sunny spells.

Compare that to other springs, and I can see where people might be feeling a little bit cool. Even though last June was a record cold one (remember “June-uary”?), May packed a few significant heat punches, including a weekend with above 100° temps. Even the hot days we have had so far can’t compare to that early heat.

Whether the human folk can accurately gauge the nature of the season or not, the plants sure seem to be loving the mildness of this year. Just this last week, we’ve seen phenomenal growth in the fields. For one thing, plants are starting to recover more significantly from the hail damage. But the weather has just been absolutely gracious: warmth without any stinging sun, very little wind, and occasional gentle rains (although I hear Portland got hit with a slamming soaker on Friday evening!). Plants are literally doubling in size in just a few days, and we are feeling as optimistic as ever about the upcoming months.

Although, we’re trying not to get too comfortable, because the hailstorm taught us that there are no guarantees with the weather. A friend called on Friday to let us know there were more storm warnings (which were related to Portland’s drenching I think). I couldn’t easily dismiss the warnings, especially since we were experiencing a relatively rare (for this year) brisk wind on the farm. So, rather than make the same mistake of two weeks ago — when we were literally admiring the beauty of the fields 20 minutes before watching it all be blasted — we walked around the farm and spoke aloud of how “bad” everything looks. Our hope was to trick the hail gods into ignoring our beautiful fields, so we basically said the opposite of how we really felt about each crop: “Ack! Look at those weeds! We’ll never catch up!” “Those summer squash sure are growing slowly.” “Too bad the onions never recovered from the hail.” And so on.

Whether it worked or not, we were spared that day from a second big storm. Thank goodness.

And, today (Monday) is another mild day of early summer: partly sunny, gentle temperatures, and lots and lots of growing plants in the field. Hope you can make it out to see the fields at this weekend’s open house! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

CSA Open house this Sunday: June 28, 2 - 4 pm

Come out and see your veggies in action! We’ll have light refreshments and be giving tours throughout the open house period. We hope you can stop by!

Directions to farm from McMinnville:

Take HWY-18 south out of town towards Dayton. Take the Dayton exit and drive straight through town on Wallace Rd/HWY-221. Stay on Wallace Rd headed south for approximately six or seven miles. Eventually, you’ll see blue signs for “Heiser Pumpkin Patch” (another farm also on the island). Follow those signs, and turn LEFT onto Grand Island Rd. Stay on Grand Island Rd as it goes over a bridge and drops onto the island. At the first four-way intersection on the island, turn RIGHT onto SE Upper Island Rd. Our driveway is immediately on your LEFT. Please park and stay to the RIGHT side of the driveway (by the greenhouses and red pole barn), because the left side is our next-door neighbor’s property.

If you have any questions, you can email (farm(at)oakhillorganics(dot)org) or call us 503-474-7661.

Chard with sweet-and-sour ginger sauce
(also useful for Asian greens)
adapted from Farmer John’s Cookbook

Normally, we pair chard with French or Italian themed flavors (hard cheeses, anchovies, ham, bacon, shallots), but I couldn’t resist offering this unique recipe. I’d serve this chard over rice, quinoa, or Asian noodles. A similar treatment/sauce would work for this week’s Asian greens as well.

Wash and chop chard leaves from one large bunch. Bring a cup of stock or water to boil in a large skillet or pot. Add the chard and cook, stirring, until it is wilted. Drain the chard, saving the cooking liquid.

Arrange chard over rice or quinoa or noodles and garnish with chopped green onions.

Meanwhile, pour the reserved cooking liquid back into the skillet or pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil it until it is reduced to 1/3 cup or so, about 8 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar (rice or balsamic) and a tablespoon of brown sugar or honey. Stir in one tablespoon chopped/grated fresh ginger (or less of powdered) and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Boil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and spoon mixture over the chard. Serve immediately.

If you prefer, you can cook your chard (or Asian greens) by sautéing in oil and prepare the sauce separately. These ingredients are highly flexible, so experiment with quantities and types.

Sautéed chard with Lemon and Hot Pepper
adapted from Chez Panisse Vegetables

Stem the chard, wash and drain the leaves, and cut them into a rough chiffonade (fairly thin strips). Sauté in olive oil, covered, for 5 minutes or so, until the leaves are wilted and tender. Remove the cover and cook away the excess moisture. Season at the last minute with a pinch of red pepper flakes according to taste, and with salt and pepper, and squeeze lemon juice over just before serving.

Pasta with Broccoli Florets
adapted from Asparagus to Zucchini

Cut the florets from broccoli and chop up any remaining tender stem. Cook broccoli in boiling water for 2-3 minutes to blanch. Remove with slotted spoon. Cook some pasta in same water (or use fresh). Meanwhile, heat olive oil and butter in a skillet. Sauté chopped garlic scapes (and mushrooms if available) for 3-4 minutes. Stir in broccoli and cook to your preference. Drain pasta when cooked. Toss with broccoli mixture and top with grated Parmesan cheese.

(CSA Newsletter: Week 19)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

It’s been a week and a half now since the storm slammed our farm with hail, rain and wind. This last week we continued our recovery efforts to good results.

We began by finishing the tomato house rebuilding. As of Wednesday evening, we had replaced the plastic and planted new starts in place of the broken or dead tomatoes. On Friday we sprayed the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant with an organic-approved ‘foliar feed.’ Usually, we apply all of our fertilizers to the ground, which helps feed the plants and also the living organisms in the soil. However, our tomatoes looked in need of some further boosting, so we decided to try foliar feeding for the first time.

Tomatoes, and many other plants, can take in small amounts of fertilizer through their leaves, allowing them to get the nutrition they need from more than one spot. We sprayed a very dilute mineral-based product that contains nitrogen and calcium. We’re not sure if it will be a miracle cure, but we feel good about our ability to continue tending them through their hard recovery.

We also spent a lot of last week re-doubling our efforts to weed some major crops, especially our onions and leeks. Between some slight weed pressure and the hail, both were growing but not necessarily thriving. A few days after a thorough weeding, both are looking awesome. The onions have grown several inches now since the hail, and once again we feel hopeful for the season.

We were also amazed by the recovery other crops made on their own. The lettuces, which showed the most significant hail damage, continued to grow at a rapid rate until they essentially outgrew the damage. The hurt leaves simply moved to the outside and new tender, perfect leaves grew out from the middle of the plants. The lettuces don’t look at perfect as before, but the majority of the eating material is completely unscathed — just a week and a half later!

The recovery we’ve seen so far is a testament to late spring vigor. This time of year is one of the best for growth. The days are warm but mild; the plants have plenty of water; and our organic sources of fertility are fully available to the plants. It’s sad to for us to imagine how good things would look if the storm hadn’t happened, but we’re extremely grateful for how well everything is progressing in spite of the damage.

And, once again, the share is at full value. Hoorah! The farm is outdoing itself once again, and we are rejoicing in the harvests! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

Two dates for your calendar …

Farm CSA Open House, Sunday, June 28, 2-4 pm: Come out and see your veggies growing in the field! More details and directions will be in next week’s newsletter.

Next big payment due July 1: For those of you who are either on the quarterly ($225) or three payment ($200) plan for the CSA, your next payment is due by July. You can bring a check to the CSA pick-up or mail to us: P.O. Box 1698, McMinnville, OR 97128. Check with Katie at pick-up or email us if you have any questions about your payment status.

The News-Register reported this weekend that Western Oregon Waste is proposing to expand its curbside recycling program to unincorporated Yamhill County.

Those of you who live in town might not even realize that county residents don’t currently have curbside recycling pick-up, but it’s true. As county residents, Casey and I can attest to the fact that lack of curbside pick-up makes recycling challenging. Because we are deeply committed to limiting the landfill-bound trash we create, we carefully collect, sort, and then haul our recyclables to the recycling center every few months. Our system works out, but it takes time, space, and dedication to follow through on. I imagine that many (if not most) county residents just skip the hassle and put everything in the garbage can each week.

Having access to curbside recycling could immediately and easily reduce the amount of material added to our local landfill by county residents. We whole-heartedly support this change, even if it slightly raises the overall cost of our garbage service.

For the change to take place, however, the County Commissioners will need to approve it. Help this significant change happen by contacting Kathy George (georgek(at)co.yamhill.or.us) and Leslie Lewis (lewis(at)co.yamhill.or.us) to voice your support!

Hopefully soon, curbside recycling will be available to all Yamhill County residents! What a great statement to make for our county’s commitment to sustainability and our future.

Hopefully, you’re in the majority of our CSA members and love love love your beets. However, if you’re in the small but vocal minority of beet haters (or beet ‘kind of not likers’), then here are a few tips to help you move towards future beet love.

First of all, don’t be prejudiced if the only beets you’ve ever tasted came out of a slimy can. Fresh beets are a different creation entirely.

The beet is composed of two edible parts: the root (of course) and the greens (which are a sibling to chard and can be prepared in the same manner — delicious!). Make sure you enjoy both this week. For best long-term storage, remove greens from beets immediately and store separate in bags in the fridge.

To prepare your beets, begin by scrubbing them clean (no need to peel fresh tender beets) and trimming off the stem and any hairy roots.

We prefer simple preparations in our household. Try chopping your beets into even sized, large chunks (perhaps cut in half or quarters) and steam in a small saucepan until completely tender. I’ve noticed that people tend to undercook beets, which can be tasty but also risks leaving the ‘earthy’ flavor some people find distasteful. Check your beets frequently to avoid cooking into mush, but keeping cooking until they are definitely tender with speared with a paring knife. You can eat steamed beets plain, but we love slice them into smaller chunks and then marinating in a simply vinaigrette. We put beets into a small mason jar for this purpose and then serve straight from the jar. If we don’t eat them all in one sitting, then we just put the lid on and return them to the fridge for later (the oil might slightly congeal in the fridge, but will return to liquid at room temperature).

You can also try eating beets raw. Some people love this; and others find it ‘funny’ tasting (I’m in the latter category, but Casey and my mom swear by raw beets). Grate or chop finely and add to a salad. Enjoy!

(CSA Newsletter: Week 18)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Last Thursday brought a bitter end to an otherwise beautiful, productive week of work out here on the farm. You most likely experienced the big storm in your own way. Here’s what happened here:

We spent Wednesday and Thursday taking care of the many new plantings we’d put in the ground over the previous two weeks: trellised the tomatoes, weeded lots of stuff, and diligently irrigated during the gorgeous warm sunny weather. Things looked good.

Thursday afternoon we received calls about a big storm heading our way. We naively dismissed the warning, because we’ve often heard talk of big thunderstorms headed north that never arrive here.

By four o’clock, however, a truly ominous looking cloud filled the southern sky. We were finished hoeing the cucumbers and began to think more seriously about what those clouds might be bringing our way. We looked around, tightened some of the ropes on our field greenhouse, picked up scattered tools, and headed up to the house for the day.

At 4:20, the four of us watched the storm hit. The best words to describe what we saw: dramatic, intense, forceful, dark, powerful. Strong wind blasted out of the south, bringing with it driving rain. Instantly, everything changed on the farm.

At first, we were a little excited by the change in weather. But we soon realized that our tomato field house was bursting at the seams. This modified poly-hoop house is what we call a ‘three season’ type of greenhouse. The poly is held on with ropes, and the resulting structure performs fine during mild normal late spring to early fall weather — but it can’t stand up to extremely strong gusts. This storm brought extremely strong sustained winds and gusts (later we heard that Mac measured 75 mph winds!).

We ran out to do our best to salvage the house and/or the tomatoes and peppers inside of it. We tried to pull the poly down, to eliminate the kite effect, but the winds were whipping and snapping it 40+ feet in the air above our heads. As we worked, the storm picked up intensity, driving more rain and hail into our backs. Eventually, we could no longer hear each other screaming back and forth and could barely see 100 feet away. After 10 or so minutes or struggling, we realized the futility of our actions (and the danger) and retreated to shelter.

We were soaked through to our skin. Casey and I left enormous puddles all over our house as we peeled off dripping wet clothing and changed into dry clothes. The storm continued raging for another 10 or 15 minutes. We could barely see out of windows to the south, which were covered with continual sheets of water and hail. We watched puddles and rivers form on our fields as the rain fell incredibly quickly.

Eventually, things quieted down. The storm didn’t even last an hour, but our farm was completely changed. Almost all our crops were flattened to the ground in a clear pattern from south to north. The texture of the ground itself had changed. Before, the surface was loose and made out of many different sized chunks of soil. After the hard rain and hail, the surface was incredibly smooth and looked like the beach after a receding tide. The hail battered most of our crops as well, especially our mature tender greens: lettuces, chard, bok choy. You’ll see marks from the hail on almost everything in this week’s share: dings on the peas, slashes through some salad mix leaves, broken leaves on the lettuce.

Fortunately, most of our long-season summer and fall crops are still small and were damaged lightly enough that they’ll most likely recover. They will probably be set back by the stress of the event, which we hope won’t make them more susceptible to disease and pests while they regrow. The hard rain also splattered mud on everything, so even the less damaged crops look a lot less pretty than before.

We’re grateful for the help of our employees Daniel and Erika and a few other special friends who came out on Saturday to help us start cleaning up the farm. With their help, we hosted a highly productive workday. Our crew picked up branches that had blown into our fields, started taking apart the tomato house so we could rebuild it again, cleaned up row cover that blew off of beds, staked the seed crop that blew over, and sowed over 90 flats of vegetables. The sowing was partly for fall, but also partly to feel like we’re moving towards good quality vegetables again. Doing something positive felt like a success after such an enormous dramatic setback. As with all aspects of farming, our work can’t produce instant results — the newly sown seeds will take time to grow, and the crops in the field will take time to recover. But we’re moving in the right direction now.

We’re also extremely grateful at times like this that we are a CSA farm. While we’re still very disheartened by the damage, we also don’t have to worry about a significant loss of income too. Even though we’d always prefer to give you absolutely perfect, beautiful vegetables, we also know that our CSA members would rather receive slightly damaged food than no vegetables at all. Thus, our farmer-eater relationship can continue even during rough times. If we were primarily a wholesale or market farm, we would have little to no flexibility in dealing with imperfect produce — it’d be an almost complete loss.

This week, we’ve amazingly managed to scrape together enough good tasty vegetables to fill the share to full value. In the three and a half years that we’ve been producing vegetables for the CSA, we’ve so far never had to dip below our promised weekly value. Hopefully we’ll continue to be able to do so, but the aftermath of the storm is still uncertain, and we hope that you will embrace the reality of this extreme event if future weeks are lighter than normal. We’re still watching and waiting to see how this turn of events affects the season and the harvests. Thank you for your patience, generosity, and understanding as we progress forward together.

But the weather can only keep us down for so long. We’re smiling again on the farm. And, how can we not, when we still love our work?! Despite the damaged veggies, we hope that you too delight in this week’s share of yummy spring treats. The fava beans are one of our favorite late spring delicacies, so make sure you try them out.

More than ever: thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting real local agriculture! And, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

Fava beans, also known as ‘broad beans,’ were the only bean in Europe before the introduction of beans from the Americas. Favas continue to have a solid place in Italian cooking but are rare in the United States. We only began eating them in the last few years and have completely fallen in love with their sweet tender flavor. Although preparing them takes extra time, they are worth the effort—especially since favas are available only briefly in early summer!

To enjoy fava beans, you must first shuck the bean from the outer shell, much like shelling peas. However, unlike peas, there is a second step as well. Each individual inner bean has a slightly bitter skin that should be removed for best flavor and texture. You can peel each one with a paring knife. However, we prefer to quickly blanche the shelled beans in boiling water (about one minute), then cool them by dunking in cold water and draining. After blanching, they should more or less ‘pop’ or slide out of the skin.

Once you have only the inner beans (which are a delightful bright green), you’re ready to include favas in your meal. If you’ve blanched them, they should be partially cooked already, but we recommend cooking them further in order to achieve a tender texture. You can boil them for 5-10 minutes or add them to another baked/sautéed dish.

Before deciding what to do with your favas, try tasting them plain. You may be inspired to serve them in a simple preparation, such as salted on pasta. Or, you may prefer to mash them and spread on toasted baguette slices as a tasty appetizer. Or, try a simple pasta dish: sauté a diced sweet onion, then add diced ham. After cooking for a few minutes, add shelled favas and let them simmer with the other flavors to finish cooking. Finally, toss the spring vegetables with buttered pasta. Delicious!

I’ll write more in the actual newsletter, but I thought I’d at least let you all know immediately that the freak storm this afternoon did some major damage out in the fields. Our beautiful tomato field house came down dramatically. Thanks to big hail, all our lettuce is damaged beyond repair. Some beautiful ready to harvest bok choy is completely gone. Crazy wind. Crazy water. Crazy fast. The whole storm lasted about 30 minutes, but our fields looked dramatically different when it was over. Here are some photos, taken about one hour after the storm:

The view of our fields from our house after the storm. You can see that the tomato field house is not looking good. (We tried to save it, which was exciting but useless.)

There’s no wind anymore when this photo was taken. The chard is just smashed to the ground. But it should survive.

The beets also got smashed down.

The fallen down house.

Another view of the house. Some of our tomatoes were actually pulled out of the ground by the force of the house falling down.

Within minutes, there was standing water everywhere. And we have very well drained ground. You can also see some row cover in the distance that was dislodged and spun across the field.

View from the south.

We’ll survive, but the farm is set back in many ways. Unfortunately, the fields were possibly in the best shape ever. Of course. We should have known something would happen. That’s farming!