Year: 2020

Reflecting on the past year as we anticipate a new year is an important rite of passage. There is a special bond between December 31st and January 1st that has cause both evaluation and hope to intersect. And this year especially, as we move past 2020, let’s be filled with hope for a new year, filled with good! 

People are resilient and we can band together to inspire good!  Just this year at Klesick’s, the Box of Good community made an impactful difference in our local community! With your help we delivered almost 2000 boxes of high-quality produce to our local food banks. This is in addition to all the imperfect produce that we sort and send to the food banks each week. Your impact and generosity have made a difference and blessed many!  Even during these difficult times, families have been able to eat nutritious, organic produce, boosting their immune system and overall health!

As we roll over the calendar, I want to do more. Many people that have not been accustomed to job loss and disabling health issues have faced great challenges this past year. They are our friends and family.

Do you know people that could benefit from a delivery of fresh organically grown fruits and vegetables? Have you been wondering how you can help ease their burden and provide some encouragement and hope?  We’d like to partner with you.  If you buy one Box of Good for a friend or family in need, we will match that box and bring them a second box the following week. We will partner directly with our customers and donate to your friends and family up to 100 boxes! (1 donation per family please)

If you would like to participate, log into your Klesick account and “add a new address” to set up a delivery for a family in need and select the Box of Good to send to them. Then email or call the office and let us know the family you are blessing, and we will add another matching delivery for free for them.

You can also call or email the office and our team will help you set it up.

I look forward to partnering with you to meet local hunger needs. 

Talk to you in 2021,

 -Tristan

Important Delivery Day Information. 

With both of the holidays landing on Friday this year we will be making all of the deliveries by Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve over the next two weeks. Look for additional updates on social media and in your inbox. 

Here is what will be happening the next 2 weeks: 

1. Tuesday and Wednesday customers will be getting their deliveries on Monday 12/21 and 12/28. 
2.  Thursday customers will be getting their deliveries on Tuesday 12/22 and 12/29. 
3.  Friday customers will be getting their deliveries on Wednesday 12/23 and 12/30. 
4.  Saturday customers will be getting their deliveries on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

And in the New Year, we’ll be back to the normal schedule. Then some of us will focus on shedding a few holiday pounds before Valentine’s Day is upon us!  Or maybe some of you just know you feel better, eating healthier.  The holiday calendar can be like a yoyo calendar; celebrate, take a break, celebrate, take a break, and unfortunately most of the celebrating foods are not typically the healthiest.  Although, celebrating once in a while is actually not the problem, rather when junk food and overeating become the typical everyday fare, does it become an issue.  And sadly, that is the typical American way!   

We can choose to be proactive with our holiday eating, if nutrition and self-care is important to us!  Try being purposed and calculating with your holiday treats and then fill your meal with healthy, nutritious foods. Making good choices will impact how you feel after the holidays. For us folks north of the half century mark, losing a little weight isn’t as easy as it once was, and planning to not gain weight could be the right strategy. Also, excess sugar and complex carbs are known to impact our immune system negatively, while fruit and vegetables impact it for the good! Choose wisely and you’ll be glad you did! 

One good strategy to win the eating game during the holidays is to plan how much to eat. Some use the one plate method. This works great if you don’t fill the plate with pie!  Try filling your plate with healthy foods and lots of vegetable sides!  Set out veggie platters and fruit for snacks or appetizers!  Fill your belly first with a green or veggie salad!  Oh, and don’t plan to use Grandma’s turkey platter as a plate! You know the one I am talking about; it has a turkey on the bottom, and it doesn’t fit in any cupboards. Using the turkey platter as your plate, defeats the purpose of a one plate helping! 

We love celebrating with food!  Finding ways to enjoy nutritious, healthy foods in ways that satisfy your sweet tooth or hunger cravings is the best way to celebrate and leaves no regrets!  You’ll feel lighter, more energetic, and good about treating your body well, and that too, is something to celebrate!  Let us help you treat yourself and your loved ones this holiday season with Good Food and let’s do this! 

Watch your inbox for delivery information and add-ons for your holiday celebrations. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, 

-Tristan 

Back in what seems like another lifetime, AKA February, the PUD called and asked if they could remove a cottonwood tree that is precariously located next to the road. My response was, “Absolutely.” This tree is mammoth and its branches could be considered trees by most standards. 

The reality is that tree is both a public liability and personal liability. It might be a football field tall and on any given day when it sheds a branch it is audible and dangerous. That age old question, “if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make any noise?” The answer is, “Of Course,” but when you do hear that “crack” it can send chills up your spine. And Cottonwoods suck up so much water and are heavy that their branches drop like a rock. 

Our family has a long line of Woodsmen in it and you don’t have to travel very far back to remember stories of “widow makers”.  Having that tree removed is good for the community, good for the powerlines, good for my barn that was built a little too close and good for my mental health.  Sometimes big pruning is healthy and the closer big trees are to where humans interact on a regular basis, it is prudent to manage them.

On the flip side, I am also sensitive to the needs of wildlife and wild spaces. It stems from a deeply held belief that I am a steward of the resources on our farm. If this tree was the only tree, I would have to weigh the benefits more intensely. But this tree is in close proximity to other cottonwoods and our family has planted 100 or more trees on our farm to create even more wild spaces for the critters.

Organic farming is about working with nature to grow healthy food. A healthy ecosystem is important to human life and farms are micro ecosystems. Our farm is a healthy farm because we work with nature and embrace the diversity of plants and critters. 

Yes, we have to have some efficiencies to farm and having trees and places for critters to use adds another layer of management, but trying to limit access and exposure has its own management issues. We have both the privilege and opportunity to grow food and interact with nature, so we do.

The farm is mostly at rest, the farmers not so much, as we are busy planning for the 2021 growing season, and Spring will be sooner than I expect it!

Where does the time go?

Sincerely, 

-Tristan

This morning God’s glory shone bright! The brilliant winter sunrise lit up the sky, while glistening through the frost that settled from the evening before. Given the usual months of gray here in Washington, we should take every moment we can to soak up the sun. Sunlight gives us vitamin D, improves our mood, gives us higher quality sleep, gives us stronger bones, and lowers blood pressure! The sun is so important to our physical and mental well-being! When the sun shines, make the healthy choice to take it in!

It is interesting how many of the benefits of sunshine also come to us in fruits and vegetables. The sun’s benefits are captured in the growing process and released to us when we eat and process them. Fruits and vegetables are packed full of the things our bodies need to fight disease and maintain health.

One of the simplest things we can do for our physical and mental health, besides taking in the sun, is to eat more organic fruit and veggies. There is not a better time to be eating the rainbow than during the NW winter months, and especially with the added stressors of this year. Eating a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables every day will help you get the full range of health benefits they have to offer!

Red is a strong color of life which can be symbolic of our heart and arteries. Red fruits and veggies serve as a major source for heart health and can help prevent heart disease. 

Orange as a color represents an abundance of strength and life, and foods with this color can help you feel the same way! Orange fruits and veggies are stock full of vitamin C, another strong antioxidant which boosts the immune system and also protects against cardiovascular disease.

Yellow is another bright color that represents happiness, joy, and health. Yellow fruits and veggies contain carotenoids and bioflavonoids, water-soluble plant pigments that function as antioxidants.

Green represents nature, the environment, and wellness! Green fruits and veggies are packed with fiber and beta-carotene. Green fruits and veggies also contain phytochemicals such as lutein and indoles which help lower your risk of certain cancers, improve eye health, and promote healthy bones.

Blue and purple foods contain, flavonoids, and vitamins D & K. They help promote bone health, can help lower the risk of certain cancers, improve memory, and increase urinary-tract health. 

When you eat a healthy variety of organic fruit and vegetables you not only fill your body with what it needs to stay strong, you feel good about the choices you are making to take care of yourself, improving mental health. So, take in as much sunshine as you can and eat more fruits and vegetables! Doing these two things are two of the easiest ways to serve your whole self: mind, body, and spirit. 

Bringing the sunshine,

Tristan and Joelle

*Consider gifting a Box of Good or one of our beautiful gift baskets, to a friend or loved one. It will nourish their body and brighten their day!  

It just keeps getting increasingly complicated to plan birthdays, weddings, and holiday gatherings. All I know for sure is that COVID is real, it is still rearing its ugly head and we have had to learn to hold onto our plans lightly. 

With Thanksgiving a week away, we are still pivoting at Klesick’s to help our Box of Good community celebrate and have some sense of normalcy during this season. For 23 years we have offered our traditional Holiday Thanksgiving box, a big box of good with all the fixings to feed a small army. And while we are seeing a lot of Holiday box orders, many of you have been asking for smaller portions this year with many of our holiday gatherings being curtailed.  

We have a solution consider ordering “sides” as a good alternative to the Holiday box. You can add-on Brussels Sprouts to potatoes to yams to cranberries to mushrooms or anything else that strikes your fancy.  Adding your favorite sides is a great way to enjoy your Thanksgiving meal. Just log in to your account or contact the office and we will help you order for your meal needs.  

I remember one really busy year with family events, that our family served croissant sandwiches and all the sides for Thanksgiving, still felt like Thanksgiving, even though we didn’t serve turkey as the centerpiece. 

As I write this newsletter, I think that this might be the year of “create and adapt.” With all the moving pieces and challenges we have all had to endure these past 8 months, being creative and adapting has been the more the norm than usual. And for the near future let’s continue to create and adapt and find ways to serve in our communities. 

We have experienced your tangible generosity through your “tips” for our Klesick’s Team and through your continued giving to local food banks. We have delivered over 1500 boxes of good quality produce that you have sponsored. This is in addition to all the number 2 produce that gets sent every week to local food banks. Because of your purchases, many local food banks are handing out nutritious, quality organic produce to our neighbors in need every week of the year, and even more during Thanksgiving. 

If you would like to add a holiday donation box or make a cash donation for this year’s Thanksgiving, call our office, or log in to your account and add it there. We send out tax deductible donation receipts in January, too. 

This connection we have fostered with the food bank community for over 23 years is one of the many reasons we refer to our home delivery service as a “box of good”. 

Check your emails or visit our website to order a food bank box or add on some delicious “sides” for your Thanksgiving meal. 

-Tristan 

This might be the craziest season as food company and a farm. We are gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday and please pay attention to your inboxes for information with regards to the holiday menus and delivery dates. 

During the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving we will be planning for your orders. For the last 23 years we have been providing a holiday box with all the traditional fixings and at the same time still offering our regular boxes and add-ons. We are here to help you plan and prepare for your Thanksgiving.

The other change is EVERYONE is going to get their deliveries before Thanksgiving, and it is going to be a little nutty as we cram 5 delivery days into 3. And PLANNING makes it all work. Which is why I mentioned checking your inboxes. We are sending out written and email order sheets and the sooner we get them back the smoother the Thanksgiving Holiday will be. 

We also have a Food Bank Holiday box that we deliver to several area food banks the week before Thanksgiving. If you would like to help us feed the less fortunate this holiday season, you can purchase a box or 10 ? and we will make sure the food gets delivered to the local food banks. Thank you in advance for your giving, it truly embodies what a “box of good” means!

Please get your order forms in early by emailing a picture, going online, calling us, returning it with your next delivery.  

Walnuts

Our 2020 walnut crop is drying in the greenhouse. We don’t have commercial dryers, so we use our greenhouses to dry them. This changes the flavor and texture than store bought walnuts. They taste “walnutty”, but have a softer texture to the bite. I did dry some in our home dehydrator. They tasted great, but I guess after 17 years of slow drying in them in our greenhouses, I prefer them that taste. You can check out the Walnut harvest and drying processes on FB or IG.

As a farmer and produce person, nothing is more rewarding than growing, sourcing and delivering nutritious and flavorful food – I love that!

Bon Appetit,

-Tristan

This might be the craziest season as food company and a farm. We are gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday and please pay attention to your inboxes for information with regards to the holiday menus and delivery dates. 

During the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving we will be planning for your orders. For the last 23 years we have been providing a holiday box with all the traditional fixings and at the same time still offering our regular boxes and add-ons. We are here to help you plan and prepare for your Thanksgiving.

The other change is EVERYONE is going to get their deliveries before Thanksgiving and it is going to be a little nutty as we cram 5 delivery days into 3. And PLANNING makes it all work. Which is why I mentioned checking your inboxes. We are sending out written and email order sheets and the sooner we get them back the smoother the Thanksgiving Holiday will be. 

We also have a Food Bank Holiday box that we deliver to several area food banks the week before Thanksgiving. If you would like to help us feed the less fortunate this holiday season, you can purchase a box or 10 ? and we will make sure the food gets delivered to the local food banks. Thank you in advance for your giving, it truly embodies what a “box of good” means!

On the farm, we are busy reconfiguring our layout to be more efficient and grow more vegetables next year. We, also, just landed our Garlic seed for next year and will be busy getting it planted. We worked up the garlic beds a few weeks ago, but with COVID everything seems to be a little later shipping. But it is here, and the weather is favorable, so we are counting are blessings and being diligent!

We have also managed to sell through all of our winter squash for the season. Next year we will plant a little more and have it available through the Holidays. The same is true for our 2020 garlic, we just didn’t plant enough, and I am a little sad about that. Those are two of my favorite crops. Thankfully, we have deep relationships with other farms and can access their supply. 

We are big roasted veggie fans at our home and serve them 2 or 3 times a week. Last week, I cut up the sweet potatoes, yams, yellow potatoes and a Delicata and Butternut squash. We didn’t season the squash, just halved it, cooked it at 425 cut side down for 45 minutes. It was so good, bursting with flavor. Normally we season our roasted veggies with garlic powder, salt and pepper with some olive oil, but that squash, Oh My Goodness, was heavenly.

As a farmer and produce person, nothing is more rewarding than growing, sourcing and delivering nutritious and flavorful food – I love that!

Bon Appetit,

-Tristan Klesick

It was a light, mild frost reminding us that winter is coming. I love all the seasons, but the last and first frost are like bookmarks on a season.  Peaceful, restful, a changing of the guard as the weather changes so does the farm, its rhythm, its cadence, its pace all foretell a shift is coming.

Rarely, am I ever caught off guard by an early or late frost, the severity of the frost can catch me off guard, but rarely a frost. Now a thunder shower, unlike a frost, can and often does catch me by surprise, especially since our family hasn’t grown hay for several years. Nothing dials in your weather acumen like hay farming! Those farmers could work for KOMO as weather people!

Clear, beautiful skies this time of year are a telltale sign that the first frost is coming. Some years we won’t have a frost until mid-November, mostly because of those gray, drizzly overcast Falls that insulate us from extreme weather changes. Still a mid to late October frost is about normal. 

This year John has been able to harvest all the squash before the frost and the farm is mostly put to bed. We are waiting for the garlic seed to arrive and are hopeful for a few more days to plant before it gets any wetter. I remember a few years ago, it rained all October, we just mudded in the garlic! It grew okay, but it was less than desirable planting conditions. Fingers crossed we won’t have that issue. Either way the Garlic is getting planted! 

We are also adding Daffodil’s to our farm. Just a few thousand feet to try them out. Flowers are fun to grow, but we are not set up to deliver bouquets. But Daffodils are different, they can be shipped to you just before they open. Our youngest daughter Joanna (and Joelle) love flowers, and I am thinking that this can be her crop. The daffodils are planted, unlike the garlic. 

Did you know that Daffodil bulbs are planted 6 inches deep and garlic bulbs are planted 1 inch deep, just barely covering the “hat” or top of the garlic? If I had not studied up, I would have planted them just like garlic. 

So next spring look for some Daffodils to show up you can add them to your order. It is fun to grow different crops and adding flowers will be fun.

-Tristan Klesick

I don’t know if it’s because I am a Pacific Northwest grown girl or what, but each year when autumn decides to roll around, I feel like I come alive. Maybe roll around isn’t the right word though – autumn usually appears very fast out of nowhere! And she’s so beautiful, because despite the fact that leaves are dying, plants are being pruned, and there is an all-around passing away, the world feels so fresh and vibrant. It reminds me to look at what habits of mine are not serving me well. That way I can shake them off and try something new. Autumn reminds us that even amidst death, there is also hope and color as room is made for new life.  

I have found that because of covid, and life’s struggles in general, many people right now are experiencing that sense of death, or loss – be it a season of life, a career, or a relationship. There are people in our communities and lives who could use a friend. And just maybe, we are the one equipped to bless and reach out to them! I would encourage you, sage that I am (haha, just kidding), to take a look around you. There might be someone in a season of change who you can share some of that hope and life with.

Speaking of changing seasons, let’s all give another hip hooray for it being squash season. Am I right? Squash is exciting to me for two reasons: it’s delicious and smooth, and it’s easy to cook! Literally. Just cut it in half, brush some butter on that baby and sprinkle it with salt. Then roast it at 425 degrees until it’s golden brown, and BAM. Pure golden goodness. This week, our menu is featuring petite butternut squash from the farm, thanks to Tristan and John’s hard work growing them. Alaina was just cooking one the other day (so yummy). She commented that the butternut squash tasted like a cooked nut, and I thought, “Well, it’s probably called butternut for a good reason, then!”. Kinda funny when you think about it – it’s not often a food is named for how it tastes.

As you probably know, butternut squash is super versatile to cook with. Being a more starchy vegetable option, this makes it very filling to eat. It’s also high in some key nutrients like vitamin B and C, potassium, and beta carotene. Plus, they store for quite some time if kept in a cool, ventilated place. In fact, that’s why our winter squash assortment is such a good deal! It’s 35 lbs. of squash that you can just keep in your garage as you use them over time, all delicious varieties. Check it out on our website! And lastly, as always, know that we so appreciate each and every one of you.

We hope you have a joyful and blessed week!

-Joanna Pruiett

We are putting our celery in some of the boxes of good this week. Celery is one of the most demanding crops I have ever grown. Like any crop, it is incredibly rewarding when it is time to harvest. So many factors come into play from seed to harvest that are outside a farmer’s control, not dissimilar to parenting ?. 

This celery crop has sweetened up nicely and is much darker in color than its California cousins. This crop of celery took its sweet time and is maturing in stages, which is why is it only in certain boxes of good this week. You can always add celery to your regular order as an add on. Our celery will be available for the next few weeks.

Add on sales are a great way to customize your box of good. Roughly 600 families a week are adding on to their orders and we love that. Our system is designed to allow you to shop the way that best fits your family and to have access to the highest quality fruit, vegetables and groceries. Many of you like to set your order and go and other like to log in and buy every week and a whole bunch of you order the box of good that best fits your family and then add on eggs or coffee or meats. We designed our system to give you a lot choices and ways to get healthy food delivered for your family.

For us, we are here to serve you and help you source the best ingredients. I know, personally, having a full refrigerator makes eating healthy a lot easier. I rarely open a cookbook or follow a recipe. I am more prone to search for inspiration online and then start cooking. I, also, hate the current blog format that makes me have to hunt for the recipe, pictures are great, but it shouldn’t be that hard to get to the ingredients!

Once I get the ingredients, away I go. This week I wanted to use Cannellini beans in a recipe with a steak from our new locally raised 10# meat packages. I googled Cannellini beans and steak and got some inspiration, and I was off to the kitchen. Now where is my apron?  

You can find the recipe in your weekly reminder email.

Beans are so important to our diet that finding a way to eat them two or three times a week is a goal around here.

Thanks for allowing us to be your partner in good health. 

-Tristan Klesick