Oakhill Organics

(CSA Newsletter: Week 5)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

We still have a couple weeks before the spring equinox, but we tend to think that seasons arrive several weeks earlier than the calendar mark here in Oregon. And, thanks to the unseasonably warm and dry weather we’ve had this year, it feels like spring has arrived even earlier than normal.

The daffodils are in full bloom, along with magnolias, camellias and other favorite spring flowers. Some of the fruit trees here on the island have already budded (the Asian pears for example) and others have been threatening to open for days now (peaches!). (Although this week apparently represents a return to more frigid winter temperatures!)

Spring is of course the beginning of our truly busy season here on the farm. I thought I’d share what some of that work looks like with you all …

In spring, we begin by sowing seeds into flats for later transplant. At this point, our hot house is almost full, and most of the flats already have healthy looking bright green starts growing in them. The starts in the hot house are always a source of hope and inspiration — they represent so much potential for the upcoming season!

We also take time to tidy up our storage areas and infrastructure (a great use of wet spring days!). Theoretically, we always aim to leave spaces ready to go at the end of fall, but it never fully happens. Having visited other farms, I think this is a shared phenomenon. In fall, you’re ready to close up shop but not quite ready to think about the next season yet. It’s important to get some weeks or months where it’s ok that the shed isn’t perfectly tidy or whatnot.

And, even if we did leave it ‘perfect,’ winter brings entropy: mice burrow into piles of tarps and eat holes for nests; wind blows down branches; rain brings films of mildew on greenhouse walls; a bin of forgotten squash starts to rot in the garage … these things are fairly inevitable but fixable. Spring fortunately arrives with a blast of fresh energy on the farm — after a winter of rest and darkness, the warmer, bright days get us moving again, and it feels great to clean up piles and get everything in tip top shape again.

As part of the ‘clean up’ and get ready process, we also assess our tools and equipment. We ask: what needs to be replaced or fixed, and what do we want to upgrade this year? This year, we’re buying very little compared to our start-up years, but there are still a few important tool upgrades. We recently purchased a 11’ tow disk for the tractor, because we wanted a way to do more field work without operating the PTO on our tractor … for those of you who less tractor savvy, the PTO, or ‘Power Take-Off,’ is the device that ‘spins’ the parts on moving implements. Running the PTO requires much more power and fuel to run than simply pulling a disk through the soil, so we wanted more low-power options. We’ve already used the new disk to prep ground in our new greenhouse (which will soon be sown to early spring greens), and it works beautifully! Now we can’t wait to try it out in the rest of the field, which brings me to the next activity of spring …

In spring, we also start looking to the fields and tapping our feet. In Oregon, the only predictable thing about spring weather is that it is unpredictable. We’ve experienced temperatures over 100° in May and snow in April, rainy weeks in June and mini-droughts in March. The one thing we’ve learned is that we need to watch the soil carefully and be ready to work it at a moment’s notice. There is no waiting, because tomorrow could bring another rainstorm (or weeks of rain!). But, eventually, a dry window will allow us to work the fields. Over several weeks, we’ll mow the cover crop, plow with our chisel plow, disk with our new disk, harrow with our power harrow, and then finally plant our mature transplants and direct sow other crops too!

And, of course, here at Oakhill Organics, spring means maintenance of over-wintered crops. As soon as we start back to full-time work in February, we’re weeding again, pulling out the tenacious Oregon grasses to give our precious over-wintered kales and chicories room to grow and thrive. Because these plants are in the ground so long, they require much more work and attention than quick in-and-out summer crops. We can’t just weed them once or twice and move on expecting that they’ll be fine.

And, on Mondays and Tuesdays in spring (as in every season), we harvest for the CSA! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

Parsnips can be deep-fried like pommes frittes. Peel and slice the parsnips about 1/8 inch thick or a little less. Fry as you would potatoes, in a deep pot of peanut oil heated to 365°, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels, salt, and serve immediately.

Another method is to “oven-fry” them. Toss the slices lightly in olive oil or butter, season, and spread them out on a baking sheet. Roast in a preheated 475° oven for about 5 mintues or so, until nicely browned but not too dark.

Sauté sliced onions and parsnips in oil or butter for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 cup water or stock and 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger. Cover and simmer 4-5 minutes. Add chopped greens (collards or rapini); cover and continue cooking 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until greens are wilted to your taste and parsnips cooked. Salt and pepper to taste. For a variation: substitute sliced carrots for parsnips.

Peel and chop parsnips; steam until tender. Mash thoroughly. Mix in one egg yolk and salt and pepper to taste. Form into patties, dip into egg white, then roll in bread crumbs. Sauté in oil or butter until golden brown. These can also be cooked in ungreased skillet or in the oven.

(CSA Newsletter: Week 4)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Last week, we took a break from harvesting to attend two annual events and talk, talk, talk about farming.

First, we went to Breitenbush Hot Springs, where we spent two nights and two days gabbing with other organic vegetable growers about everything we learned (or didn’t learn) in our last growing seasons. We picked up a few good new ideas this year, ranging from small details (a new and unexpected practical purpose for the ‘crowd counter’ clickers you see at big events — pin them to work clothes and use them to count bunches while harvesting in the field!) to the big picture (how to best retain CSA members year-after-year).

Since we were at a beautiful hot springs resort, we also simply enjoyed the relaxing nature of the place. For the first time, there was no snow at all at Breitenbush, and we were able to walk more freely through the beautiful woods. We also soaked in the tubs and enjoyed delicious organic food. We hadn’t been away from the farm since last year’s event, so simply being away for two nights was a treat (and we resolved to get away again before next February, because we really do need occasional holidays in order to keep perspective and stay sane!).

After we returned home refreshed and enthused, we spent two days focusing on farm work. Casey and Jeff weeded; we sowed more seeds into flats (eggplant! peppers!); and started preparing our new field hoophouse for planting later this spring.

Then on Saturday, we were off again — this time to the annual Small Farms Direct Marketing conference at OSU in Corvallis. This is one of our favorite farming conferences, because it is well organized, farmer focused and affordable. A record number of people attended this year: over 600!!! The space was packed, and the energy was invigorating.

David Mas Masamoto, author of Epitaph for a Peach and other books, was the keynote speaker. I (Katie) had the honor of sitting on a panel with Masamoto later in the day exploring the idea of “Farmers as writers.” The other panelists were my friends Zoë Bradbury and Josh Volk, who are also farmers who write and regularly publish articles and essays. We had a rousing conversation about why we write, how we write (how we make the time!), how writing affects our farming life, and more. This was a fun conversation for me, since my background is equally in writing and farming.

I personally didn’t have the opportunity to attend any other workshops this time around, because of course we now travel with Rusty in tow. He and I hung out in the hallway much of the day, nursing, sleeping, and chatting with the many friends we knew at the conference (it was like a ‘who’s who’ of local agriculture — it seemed that everyone was there!). Even though I didn’t attend many formal sessions, I definitely enjoyed these informal sessions with friends: we discussed everything from food safety to family dynamics on the farm.

As if all that weren’t enough, that evening we enjoyed a meal with other young farmer friends in Corvallis that evening. We spent the night eating delicious food (nettle pesto pasta, hardy winter greens salad) and sharing funny stories about our many experiences farming.

Through all these events, we were continually grateful for the thriving farmer community in Oregon. It is amazing how generous people are with their knowledge. Even though many of us farmers sell in the same markets, we are all willing to share our experiences freely. I think that the friendliness between competing businesses is completely unparalleled in other trades. We have learned so much from other farmers — more than we could ever learn from books or classes.

We have one more farmer event this upcoming Sunday — a meeting of the Portland Area CSA Coalition — and after that, we’re done with the intense talkity-talk-talk for this winter. Just in time too, because the weather is looking a lot like spring. We’re preparing to begin ground prep soon, followed by the first plantings of the year. After a winter of rest and hibernation, we’re ready to stop talking and start really farming again! Our heads are full of great ideas and knowledge that we’re ready to implement this season.

But while we prepare to plant our early spring crops, we’re still relishing the flavors of winter. If you haven’t before, be sure to try our ‘Cabbage & Egg Noodle’ recipe. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

Ok, honestly, some people find the winter cabbages to be overwhelming at times. They’re kind of the ‘distinctive’ winter veggies that people love to hate, even though most people enjoy them too.

For those of you who might still be struggling with some of aspects of seasonal eating, here is (once again) our absolute favorite cabbage recipe. We eat this regularly all winter long and it has become a real comfort food for our household. (We originally found the recipe in Saveur magazine — it’s a type of Austrian street food.)

Begin by chopping an onion or two. In a deep pan with liberal amounts of butter or olive oil, sauté the onion until translucent. Add to the pan: finely chopped cabbage, preferably lots of it. (We usually try to use either a half or a whole cabbage at a time. We’d rather have leftover cooked food that we know we’ll eat for lunch the next day than a small amount of leftover raw cabbage that gets pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten.)

Add more butter or oil to prevent cabbage from sticking. Stir and then cover to let cabbage wilt. Stir occasionally and cook until cabbage is very soft, adding more butter or oil as necessary.

Meanwhile, cook egg noodles, drain and add to the pan with onions and cabbage. Mix vegetables and noodles together and … add more butter if necessary to coat noodles (this is comfort food, not health food!). Salt and pepper to taste and serve hot with a side of cooked bratwurst, hard cheese and/or crusty bread.

(CSA Newsletter: Week 3)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

After finishing the CSA harvest last week, we focused our energy on one big task: picking up more trees and planting our second small fruit orchard!

Last winter at this time, we put in our first small orchard of apple, pear, and plum trees. We were so excited to be started on the path to fruit (talk about delayed gratification!), but we realized belatedly that we wished our orchard was closer to our home instead of at the other end of the field. We love trees of all kinds and wanted to be in closer daily proximity to the orchard in all seasons.

Solution? Plant another orchard! Which we did over two days last week. So, now we have two small orchards (210 trees total), each filling in an awkward spot in our field that wouldn’t be terribly conducive to row crop production. Permanent trees seem like a good solution for these little areas on the farm, and we can’t wait to watch the trees grow and grow (and, eventually, produce fruit for us and our community of eaters).

The tree planting definitely has us thinking of summer … juicy plums and crisp apples seem so far away, both in terms of the trees’ production and the seasons themselves. Summer will arrive eventually, and in the meantime we’re excited to go on our annual retreat to the Breitenbush hot springs — the highlight of our winter!

We’ll see you in two weeks … while we’re gone, enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

Reminder! Next week, February 23, there will be NO CSA harvest or pick-up (that week was not included in your CSA price). We are taking the week off to attend an annual farmer retreat at Breitenbush Hot Springs. Hoorah! We’ll see you again in two weeks!

Heat oven to 400°. In a medium bowl, mix 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic salt, ½ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon paprika, ¼ teaspoon cayenne. Peel half or more rutabaga and cut into chunks that are about 2 inches long and ½ - 1 inch wide. Toss with spice mix. Transfer to large baking sheet, spreading pieces out evenly (add more oil if necessary). Bake until tender and somewhat browned, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

Peel and dice one rutabaga, and cover with lightly salted water in medium saucepan. Cook until tender, 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat; add and sauté one thinly sliced leek until dark brown. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Drain rutabagas and puree with 2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature), 2 tablespoons olive oil, ¼ cup half-and-half, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add more butter, oil or seasonings as needed.

Spoon rutabaga puree into individual dishes; sprinkle leeks on top. Serve hot. Four servings.

Preheat oven to 350°. Peel and dice one rutabaga and steam until tender, about 30 minutes. Mash and set aside. Mix 2 beaten eggs, ¼ cup cream, ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ cup dry bread crumbs. Combine the two mixtures; place in buttered 2 ½ quarter casserole. Dot with butter; bake until lightly browned, about ½ hour. Five servings.

You can use any kind of cooking greens in this recipe, including this week’s collard greens (also good: kale, turnip greens, and mustard greens).

Heat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a large pie plate. Cook 6 ounces vermicelli or orzo according to package directions; drain. Stir 2 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese into hot pasta. Beat 2 eggs and stir well into pasta. Spoon mixture into pie plate, and use a spoon to shape pasta into a pie shell. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake 10 minutes. Set aside.

Heat oil in a small skillet, add an onion, one bunch finely chopped greens and sauté until tender. Beat 3 eggs and combine with greens and onions, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 1/3 cup milk, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Spoon greens mixture into pasta shell. Cover pie with aluminum foil. Bake 35 minutes; uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Six servings.

Mushroom and leeks work very well together. Although this is superb with wild mushrooms, any more common kind, such as crimini or portabella, will do.

Brush or briefly wash ½ pound mushrooms and cut them into thick slices, including the stems. Cook ½ pound fresh linguini or other pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add one or two chopped leeks, salt and pepper; sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in minced garlic. Cover; cook until the leeks are tender, about 5 more minutes.

Add the mushrooms and 1/3 cup dry white wine; gently simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Add the pasta and 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme to the mushroom mixture; toss well. Top with grated Parmesan.

(CSA Newsletter: Week 2)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

This last week was a big one here on the farm. Not only did we begin the CSA season again for 2010, but we also started back into other farm work as well. In year’s past, this time of year was relatively slow — over February and March, we’d slowly ramp up our daily grind until the main season began in April (at which point, we’d start working more than full-time, making up for the quieter winter work weeks).

This year, however, we have Jeff working with us, and he and Casey have begun an almost full-time workweek schedule already. Consequently, last week was more productive than what we typically expect for early February. In addition to harvesting for the CSA, Casey and Jeff got some big projects done. On Wednesday, they pulled the greenhouse plastic skin on our new permanent field house for tomatoes and peppers. Casey had been slowly building the structure all last fall and winter, but the poly covering completed the greenhouse and made it functional. This new greenhouse is bigger and taller than our prior one (and permanent so it shouldn’t fall down except in a very extreme storm), so we can drive the tractor through it. It’s now ready for ground prep. Depending on how the spring goes, we might plant some early spring crops there; or, we might just wait until it’s time to plant this year’s tomatoes and peppers.

On Thursday, we celebrated another milestone of the season as we sowed the first seeds of 2010 into flats. We sowed 63 flats, ranging from broccoli and cabbage to lettuce. These will become our first transplants of the spring, which we will plant in late March or April. We’ll keep sowing through the spring and summer, but seeing the first little germinating seeds is always an exciting sign that spring is around the corner.

In between all these big tasks, Casey and Jeff also managed to do some winter weeding and equipment maintenance. At this rate, we’ll fly through our long winter/spring ‘to do’ list!

We’re flying towards spring in other ways as well. Even though December brought some crazy low temperatures, January was an extremely warm month. There were many days that felt more like March, and that feeling has continued now into early February. Casey and I basked in this weekend’s warm sunny weather. We had temperatures in the 60°s in the shade on our farm — in early February!

We are loving this warm weather — it’s helping our over-wintered plants recover beautifully. Our mustards and kale are putting on tasty tender new growth and everything remaining in the field looks lush and healthy.

Of course, every kind of weather has pros and cons. In this case, the ‘con’ is that the warm weather is speeding up the usual winter cycle of growth and flowering. Many of the crops we over-winter are technically ‘biennials,’ which means that they flower and set seeds in their second year. In some cases, we welcome those shoots since they are edible and delicious ‘rapini.’ But the appearance of buds also means that the plants are beginning to approach the end of their edible life cycle. Once all the rapini is picked, the crop is usually done. This year, we’re seeding shoots and buds earlier than normal. The cabbage in this week’s share is already just beginning to unfurl and send out its buds, which is many weeks earlier than last year for the same variety. There are more factors in this than just the warm weather, but we’re definitely consistently seeing everything happen earlier this February than in past winters.

Hopefully, this early and warm trend means that we’ll be able to plant earlier this year too. We have some ground that will only need a little bit of ground prep to be ready, so we’re anxiously awaiting the arrival of longer dry and warm spells. Now that we have seeds germinating in our greenhouse, we’ll be ready!

And, of course, we now have another sprout on our mind too. It was fun this week to restart our farm routine with Rusty around. It’s a big adjustment, especially for me (Katie), now that I’m no longer working in the fields and instead spending most of my time ‘baby wrangling.’ We’re still figuring out our new rhythm, but we feel so blessed to live and work in the same place. The farm is bringing new joy to our life as we realize how wonderful it is to raise our child here. Part of my new daily routine is to put Rusty in our baby carrier and go for a walk in the fields to say hi to his Papa. At this point, Rusty pretty much falls asleep immediately on these walks, but before he nods off I tell him about all the vegetables and birds and people in the fields.

We hope that you too have been getting outside on walks to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather — sunny winter days are so good for the body and soul. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. Reminder! There will be no CSA harvest or pick-up on February 23! We will be gone that week at a farmer retreat.

We just wanted to say a quick and heartfelt ‘thank you’ to everyone who has given us a gift, card or kind words on the occasion of Rusty’s birth. Your generosity and support and enthusiasm have been overwhelming and beautiful. We have received so many touching notes and cute items — thank you! Our goal is to give you all real thank you notes, but our hands are busy with baby (or farming) most of the time, so in the meantime: THANK YOU! We have never felt so grateful for our community as we have during this beautiful time of change in our farm family.

adapted from From Asparagus to Zucchini

Rinse and quarter a whole chicken. Place chicken quarters in a large pot with water; add a bay leaf, 10 peppercorns, and 4 whole cloves. Bring to low boil, skimming as needed. Reduce to low simmer and cook about 1 ½ hours, skimming as needed.

Remove chicken; let cool. Remove any fat floating on remaining stock, then strain through a very fine mesh colander lined with cheesecloth. Clean out soup pot and return stock to it. Add three (or more) finely chopped leeks and one large chopped peeled carrot, bring to boil, and add ½ cup pearl barley. Simmer until barley is cooked, about 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove skin and bones from chicken; shred the meat. When barley is cooked, stir in chicken. Heat through. Season to taste.

(CSA Newsletter: Week 1)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Welcome back everyone to our 2010 CSA season — our fifth season serving the greater McMinnville area with fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables. We have much to share after our seven-week break …

Meet Rusty!

First of all, the most exciting news of all: the birth of our son Rusty on December 11! Thank you to everyone for your incredible flexibility and understanding at the end of last year’s CSA season — we really appreciated being able to take off the final CSA harvest in order rest and nest after a long birth (46 hours!). Rusty is a great little guy and we had great fun hanging out with him over our winter break. We feel very blessed that we get to spend our days watching him grow here at the farm.

Cold cold cold December weather

Of course, at the same time that we were welcoming Rusty onto our farm, we were also experiencing some record cold temperatures. On the three nights that I was in labor, our low temperatures in the field reached 6°, 5.8° and 7°. That’s cold!

Fortunately, we were able to protect many beds of vegetables with row cover before the freezing temperatures hit. Unfortunately, the lows were so cold that we incurred some damage anyway. Our roots were damaged the most, since we primarily store them in the field. During ‘normal’ winters, they store beautifully. Even in slightly colder winters, they store well, but this was an extreme situation. We’re still uncertain about the total level of damage, but it looks like we’ll be lighter on roots this winter than usual — most of the potatoes and beets were damaged, along with some carrots and celery root.

What to expect this winter

So, what can you expect to receive in your shares between now and when spring plantings begin to produce? Lots of delicious stuff! We have a wide variety of winter greens — mostly cooking greens (mustards, kales, cabbages, etc.) but also a few hardy fresh eating greens like this week’s Castelfranco chicory. To accompany the greens, we also have a variety of alliums: garlic, onions, and leeks. And, we do still have some roots out there, as well as yummy sweet starchy stuff in storage like this week’s Ambercup winter squash.

As usual, winter vegetables require a bit more cosmetic tolerance than veggies harvested at the peak of summer. These vegetables are in the field much longer than main season produce — the leeks were planted last May! Consequently, there are simply more opportunities for them to get dings and bruises from pests and weather events (such as the cold).

We are very picky in the fields about what we harvest to give to you, but sometimes you will find minor damage on your vegetables. We recommend that you give all your vegetables a ‘look over’ before preparing. Simply trim off any parts that look browned, soft, or otherwise less pleasant. Also, winter rains make mud. We thoroughly wash all the veggies here at the farm, but we still recommend that you take extra care in giving your vegetables a good washing at home.

I also want to remind our returning CSA members that last fall’s shares were especially big, since we were trying to make sure you had more than enough vegetables if we ended up skipping a CSA week because of the birth (which we did!). This time of year is naturally leaner (and especially after the cold spell), so the shares will be relatively smaller in volume. You will still be receiving your per week dollar amount in vegetables, but we won’t be going much over that value until warm spring weather arrives in earnest and brings with it the main growing season’s abundance.

As always, we will accompany each week’s carefully balanced vegetable share with an entertaining and informative newsletter featuring news from the farm, serving suggestions and recipes. If you miss picking up the newsletter, you can find it here online on our blog. You can also read past newsletters and recipes here.

Meet Jeff!

Before we close this week’s newsletter, we also want to introduce another new addition to the farm: Jeff Bramlett, our new employee for 2010. Now that Rusty is around and requiring my (Katie’s) full-time attention, I won’t be in the fields as much. Jeff is Casey’s new right-hand man in the fields; he’ll be harvesting and helping with the full gamut of farm work: sowing, planting, weeding, etc.

In addition to helping us four days a week, Jeff and his wife Carri Heisler will be busy starting their own small vegetable farm on part of our land. They live in Salem and will be marketing their produce there under their farm name Pitchfork & Crow. Check out their website for more info about their fledgling operation: www.pitchforkandcrow.com.

So, as we look towards 2010, we are excited, in spite of the setbacks delivered by the cold weather. Having a beautiful child in our life provides so much perspective, joy and hope, and the vegetable fields amazed us with their growth during the warm January. Life feels vibrant right now, even in the dark, wet weather of winter.

We hope that you can taste the aliveness of the world in every bite of squash and greens in your first 2010 CSA share. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. Reminder! There will be no CSA harvest or pick-up on February 23! We will be gone that week at a farmer retreat.

Folks who love simple foods can slice and eat turnips completely plain. Turnips have a crisp fresh flavor that’s quite lovely.

We, however, find that turnips are immensely more enjoyable when dressed and made into a salad or slaw. Trim and peel your turnips. Chop into bite-sized pieces or coarsely grate. Toss in a bowl with a creamy dressing made out of plain yogurt, cottage cheese, mayonnaise (you can leave out one of these three ingredients and still have a yummy dressing). Add a dash of balsamic vinegar for sweetness. Salt and pepper to taste.