May 30th: Livin’ the Dream
Whoops: we blinked and May is over! It has been non-stop this month with new projects, fluctuating crops, new rhythms of farm hands and planning out the summer. Reflecting back on the past month we are so grateful for some big achievements:
Carlos finally got the second fridge up and running (shout out to Jordan Marr from Unearthed Organics for the hand-me-down) which will help all of us keep our cool as we sort and pack produce and the temperature (hopefully) starts to rise in June.
Justin officially joined us as a full-time farm hand! You might remember Justin from last year; he joined the team part-time as he was volunteering at a few farms to gain a deeper and varied understanding of farming. For our farm team this year, we have Amanda back in a part-time position and are thrilled to have Justin as a full-time member of the team working with Carlos.
We are starting to do some of our first wholesale orders for some other farm box programs! We are excited to offer our herb salad at Urban Harvest (located downtown and running the Harvest Box program) and Rosehill Orchard (located in Lake Country and running the StockBox program).
Justin and Carlos at this year’s lunch spot, framed by the garlic patch.
a note from Carlos
As the season ramps up, I’ve had a persistent thought on my mind for the last few weeks. I remember in cooking school (maybe 2008?), I had an assignment to dream up and describe our ideal restaurant. I was trying to find it in my stash of old school files, but was unsuccessful. From what I can remember, I ended up describing “El Jardin”; ‘The garden’ in Spanish. It was a restaurant tied to a farm. A place where I could cook well into my 70s, if only for a few nights a week on a seasonal basis. While the ideal of the restaurant has (mostly) faded, it’s grounding to realize that the farm and food preservation have been in the works for a long time. It’s pretty remarkable to see so many things materialize this year. Now that I have full-time help on the farm, I’m looking forward to doing more cooking this summer. I’ll be working on prepped salads and ready-to-eat goodies for the market… all herbaceous, of course!
We were back at the market this Wednesday with Carlos’s dad holding down the stall, slingin’ easter egg radishes and herb salad (now with new lettuce leaves!) while Carlos was out on deliveries. It was great to receive a warm reception from regular marketgoers and to make new connections with the “Wednesday” crowd.
Thursday, as the sporadic rains downpoured, we pulled and sorted our last bed of spinach and are calling it! As the weather heats up, it’s more difficult to keep a consistent harvest, so we’re flipping the beds and moving onwards to summer crops! Be sure to get in on our last spinach harvest tomorrow at the market!
As we finish with certain crops, others are just gettin’ going: we’ve got baby romaine and leaf lettuce heads back at the market. The stall will be stocked alone with our usual fare of classic herbs, radishes and turnips, herb salad, baby kale, teenage kale and rhubarb.
Have a great weekend and hope to see you at the market!
-OKHP Crew