To fully understand just how momentous this occasion was, it’s useful to know something about our existing tractors.

Meet our tractor lineup. It’s a motley, aged crew of machines.

The 886

The International 886.It’s an 80 horsepower tractor from the 1970s. We use this for primary tillage – to break up the ground to make the soil a soft medium into which to plant. It’s a monster of a machine – rusty red.

The Hydro 84.  Think slow. This is a 60 horsepower tractor than can go extremely slowly. Its main use is for transplanting. We hook up a water wheel transplanter to the back of the tractor. This implement marks and waters a hole into which a human hand will plant a seedling.  The Hydro is able to go slowly enough to match the pace of the human planters riding behind it. The Hydro can also go faster speeds, so we can use it for other things on the farm, like tine weeding, direct seeding, light tillage, and spraying the organically approved sprays we use on a few crops – Bt, copper, Spinosaid

Cultivating kale with the Kubota

The Kubota L245. Originally made for tobacco farming, this little orange number is from the 1980s. It’s 30 horsepower. We use it to cultivate tall crops on a 2-row system. Side note – I cultivated with this tractor for the first time last week, after bringing Mike his first strawberry of the season. Mental note – bring husband special treats and gets chances to drive the tractors!

The electric Allis Chalmers G. This little tractor is from the 1940s. It is used for cultivating (aka weeding mechanically) crops that we grow on a 3-row/bed system. It has a thin frame and travels low so that the driver can look down and see exactly what he/she is doing at the ground level. Mike converted this G to run electrically. No combustion engine necessary.

So that’s our lineup.

So why the new tractor?

1. This tractor can do everything our 886 and Hydro 84 can do. It has the horsepower to do primary tillage (it’s 100 hp) AND the ability to drive at very slow speeds for transplanting.

2. We farm at our home farm, and we also do some farming at the Pioneer Road fields, owned by Mike’s parents. It’s a lot of traveling back and forth between farms. This tractor will allow us to drive tractors back and forth less. And when a tractor does need to drive on the road, it will be with a newer, safer, more reliable machine.

3. We are finally in a financial position to afford a tractor that is brand new and built specifically for our needs.

Exciting times!  Perhaps a picture of Mike in the new tractor to come soon. Thanks and enjoy your veggies!

the farm kids: Edie and Zea

Tomorrow, I (Cassie, your trusty newsletter writer) turn 34. On the same day, we will officially begin the deliveries for our 9th CSA season.  While I can’t say I’m thrilled to add another year to my life count, I am thrilled to be adding another to the farming count. I feel so grateful to be able to do what we do.  I honestly love the farming life. Like any thing, any person, or any creation, there are upsides and downsides. But the particular set that come with farming seem to suit me very well.

The thing I love best about living and working on a farm, is being able to live and experience a truly seasonal rhythm of life.  Before farming, there were certainly seasonal differences to life for me, but they did not dominate my daily experience the way they do now.  I work all winter long, but at a slower, milder pace. But then, the intensity of my daily life explodes right along with the intensity of light hitting our particular patch of land.  When the sun is at its strongest, we are at our busiest.  We go, go, go from the moment the light awakens us until it goes down at night. And while this need to work so very hard – to practically photosynthesize right along with all the plants we grow – prevents us from experiencing the more chill, relaxing pace that many others associate with summer, I so appreciate the connectedness this rhythm allows me to feel.

I love that I hear birds singing while I work.

I appreciate having work that is both repetitive and mundane on a daily basis, but ever-changing along seasonal lines. The winter finds me planning, catching up on clerical work, and entering registration forms. The spring brings me to seeding in the greenhouse and transplanting in the fields and selling at farmer’s market. Early summer transitions to harvesting and washing crops.  And then there is the 6-month delight of new crops ready each week, and goodbyes to other crops another week. Late summer brings large harvests. Autumn into winter is characterized by lots of washing and packing. And then the cycle repeats and continues.

I enjoy working in fresh air and wearing clothes that are meant to become dirty.

I love working where I live. While this can often lead to the feeling of never actually leaving or being done with work, it also creates an environment where work and family aren’t so separate. In the mornings and a couple afternoons each week, other families watch our two daughters. But when our baby, Edie (9 months) is hungry, I come into the house from the fields or shed and feed her, and often lay her down for a nap. While washing veggies in the pack shed, I can often hear the laughter of our older daughter, Zea (3 years). And on afternoons when I have the girls myself, I have the opportunity to integrate our time together into the wonder of living on a farm. We feed our 3 pigs, we water plants in the greenhouse, we look for mushrooms in the grass, we identify weeds and listen for birds, we take trips to the field and check on the readiness of the things (Zea is very excited about the strawberries), and we get vegetables from the cooler and cook meals together.  The veggies, the dirt, the girls, it’s all so integrated.

Just as our lives are very integrated, so will your newsletters be an integration of information about farm and family life. It’s just hard to keep it all separate. I look forward to sharing more with you as the CSA season continues. Thank you for support – as it makes it possible for us to make our living farming.

Enjoy your veggies!

And lucky we have been.  This week, Alex will finish his third season on our farm.   He has worked diligently for us, working the most hours of any of our employees and taking on the most responsibility.  As he prepares to leave for Utah, it’s impossible not to reflect back on the period of our lives that he shared with us.

We’ve been through a lot of change as a business and a family since Alex came. His first full season, 2010, the majority of our operation was still based at the Pioneer Road fields. Zea spent the summer on my back.  I changed each of Zea’s  diapers in the hatch of our car that year, as we were living and farming in separate locations.  We trialed a few crops at what is now our home farm on County J and financed our new pack shed here. I have sweet memories of Alex patting Zea’s head as she tried helping the crew break garlic seed that year. She had just learned to walk.

In 2011, we moved our operation to our home farm on County J. That year the barn was re-sided and the tractor shop added on. Alex came on for his 2^nd  season.  We thought we’d be saying goodbye to him at the end of that season as he was thinking of moving to Georgia to start farming. We were delighted when we found out he’d be coming back for a third year.  In the winter of 2012, Alex was one of the first people who knew about our 2^nd pregnancy.  We knew I wouldn’t be able to do as much, and so we asked Alex to take on some of my work.  And outside of family, Alex was one of the first people to meet our 2^nd child, Edie.

All of this chronicling is a way of saying Alex has been an integral part of our lives these past few years, as farming and family get all intertwined. When we remember back to these years, no doubt Alex will be part of many of those memories.

So it feels a bit like the ‘Alex’ chapter of our lives is ending.  He will be missed. We wish Alex and his fiancé, Lindsey, all the best in their move to Utah. We know that they will soon run a high-quality CSA that the folks around Salt Lake City will be lucky to have. Thank you, Alex, for everything you have done for our farm and family.

And thank you – our winter members – for another wonderful season as well.  Through you, vegetables create a roof over our head and presents for kids under the tree. Thank you for your support of our family. Happy holidays to you all!

Sincerely, the Notlnerwyss family (Mike, Cassie, Zea, & Edie)

Preparation

1. Put squash in a microwave-safe container with 1/4 cup water and cover with plastic wrap. Cook on high until squash is tender when pierced, about 3 minutes. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, cut and saute a leek.

3.Pulse bread in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add squash, leeks, and chickpeas and pulse until slightly chunky. Add egg, flour, sage, salt, pepper, and chile flakes. Pulse just until blended.
4. Heat 3 tbsp. oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Drop 1/4-cup portions of squash mixture into oil, making a few fritters at a time, and cook, turning once, until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a platter.

• 1 C butter
• 1.25 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 C cooked winter squash
• 4.75 C flour
• 1 T cinnamon
• 2 t baking powder
• 2 t baking soda
• 2 t nutmeg

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 2 cookie sheets.
3. Cream butter and brown sugar.
4. Mix in eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin.
5. Mix dry ingredients separately, then stir into first mixture.
6. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.
7. Bake 15 minutes.

• 1 tablespoon organic butter (or extra virgin olive oil)
• ½ medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 4 cups peeled and chopped parsnips (about 2 large parsnips)
• 2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apple (about 1 large apple)
• 1 quart (32 ounces) organic chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 ½ teaspoons curry powder

Directions:

1. In a large pot, melt butter over low heat. Add onions and salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add parsnips, apples, broth, and curry powder. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer  until parsnips and apples are soft, about 20 minutes.
3. Use an immersion blender (hand wand) to puree the soup until smooth (or transfer to a blender to puree).

Meet Onion Thrips, aka Thrips tabaci, aka minute sap-sucking insects. The little lice-like insects like to hang out on the leaves of onion plants and suck. They leave behind small, circle-shaped discolorations. In a normal Wisconsin summer, we can control them with an organically approved insecticide called Entrust. (Entrust is a brand name for spinosad, the product of a naturally occurring soil bacterium.)  But with the heat and dry weather this season, the thrips thrived and our attempts to keep the populations down were unsuccessful.

The thrips populations soared and instead of the usual cosmetic damage to our onion leaves, this year their damage lead to systemic disease in the plants. Basically the thrips weakened the immune systems of our onion plants, making it easier for other diseases to attack the plants.  The result?  Very small onions (about 50% of their normal size) and some single-layer rotting inside the bulbs. The problem with the rotting, however, is that we can’t detect it from the outside. The outside of the onion will be hard, and then inside one of the layers is rotten.

We really have no idea what percentage of the crop has some sort of damage inside the bulbs.  After the last delivery, a CSA member emailed us letting us know she was unhappy with the quality of the onions. We realized at this point that the damage to the crop might be higher than we realize.

So the question now is, do we give you, our members onions, or not?  If we do give the onions, but members aren’t aware of the reasons why the quality is lower, we risk losing members.  But if we don’t give onions at all, we also risk losing members.  To give onions or not give onions?

After some discussion, we have decided to continue giving them to you. We are a CSA farm afterall, and you are our members. That means you have joined on with us in the risks and trials of farming. We hope if you find a couple of onions in your bag that aren’t perfect you will understand, and do what we do in the kitchen:  use the good layers and peel off the rotten one. Thank you for your understanding.

Thanks as well to all of the everyother members for your support this winter season! We hope you enjoy your final box.

Sincerely, Mike, Cassie, Zea, & Edie

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp. whole-grain mustard
• 2 tbsp. minced shallot
• 2 tsp. minced cilantro
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• ¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
• ¾ cup grapeseed oil
• ¼ cup white truffle oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 lb. celeriac
• 4 medium-large carrots

Directions

1. To make the dressing, briefly toast coriander seeds in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat (this will take only about 3 seconds—be careful not to let them burn). Remove and crush seeds. Add seeds to other dressing ingredients, whisk together until emulsified, and set aside.
2. Peel celeriac and carrots and cut into finger-long, finger-wide sticks. Blanch in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain.
3. While still warm, toss in a stainless-steel bowl with 1/2 cup of the cilantro-coriander dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 4 to 6.

• 1 butternut squash, about 2-1/2 pounds
• 4 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
• grapeseed oil (or other neutral oil)
• 1 large leek (about 2-1/2 cups chopped)
• 6 cups flavorful chicken or vegetable broth
• 4 cups of cooked white beans
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• For the pistou:
• 1/2 (heaping) cup of chopped parsley
• 1 (scant) cup of chopped fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 smallish garlic clove, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   Halve, peel, seed and chop the squash into 1/2-inch cubes. Place on a baking sheet along with the unpeeled garlic cloves, drizzle with grapeseed oil and roast in oven until squash is just tender and starting to color, about 30-45 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, trim off and discard the tough dark green leaves of the leek. Cut the leek in half lengthwise and rinse off under running water to remove any grit. Slice the leeks into 1/4-inch half moons. You should have about 2-1/2 cups.
3. Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil into a large pot or dutch oven. Add the leeks with a pinch of salt and sauté gently over medium heat until wilted. Add broth and bring to a gentle simmer. When squash is done, remove from oven and set the garlic aside. Using a slotted spoon (to drain off any excess oil) transfer squash to the soup pot and add the beans. Squeeze the garlic from its skin and add to the pot. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Bring to a gentle simmer to heat through but do not boil or cook for a long time as the beans and squash should remain whole.
4. To make the pistou:
   Combine herbs, garlic and olive oil with a pinch of salt in a food processor and pulse until blended. The texture should remain fairly rough, so don’t make a smooth paste. Alternatively, chop the herbs, garlic and a pinch of salt together on a chopping board until well-combined. Put into a bowl and stir in the olive oil. As a shortcut, use pesto!

from thekichn.com