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A New Box of Good

Hey, Klesick customers, Alaina here! I am excited to announce our brand-new “Family on the Go” box. We know life can get busy, so we wanted to create a simple box of good that allows your family to still eat healthy while doing all the things!

This assorted box has easy to eat fruit and vegetables that can simply be washed and cut, and ready to serve throughout the week! This box avoids items that typically take more time to prep or cook. The Family on the Go box has higher volumes of fruit and will consistently have easy to eat vegetables! A sample of a Family on the Go box would include approximately 10 apples, 8 pears, 8 oranges, 3lbs bananas, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and celery. So, if life keeps you moving and it’s difficult to find time to meal prep, you don’t have to sacrifice feeding your family nutrient rich foods!  If you want your kiddos to get fresh fruit and vegetables, this might be the perfect box for you. The items in this box are simple and easy to take in the car, use for school lunches, or to throw together a quick snack or meal!

I always find my little one eats healthier when I chop up all the items and have them ready to eat. On the day I get my box I set aside 20 minutes to chop up the veggies, so they are ready for the whole week. This box takes little to no prep time to get healthy food ready for the whole week.

Also, one other thing I wanted to highlight! You may have noticed on the back of your newsletters there have been more recipes. We wanted to start highlighting a variety of ways you can use your box, aside from the typical one recipe. The recipes will start being posted on Friday for the upcoming week, so you can always go to klesicks.com, click the blog tab and then click the “Recipes” option. You can check out the recipes before your box comes and add on any extra items you may like to include in your order. I will be adding some of my favorite recipes to the back, as well.

And most importantly, THANK YOU for choosing to support local and for choosing fresh organic produce. We are thankful for every one of you, and here at Klesick’s, we are always here for YOU. We are happy to help you when it comes to customizing your own box, substituting items out of your box, adding items onto your order, or just figuring out what works for your family! We are just a quick call or email away. ?

-Alaina

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Supporting Your Health

Last week I wrote about seasons, farming, and cover crops. It would be very easy to make a similar analogy about our health.  

Planning is happening all the time. It is also overlapping, with multiple stages and events. One of those activities is eating. How do you plan for fueling your body? What is your eating strategy? Isn’t eating one of the most confusing things to figure out? Paleo, Keto, Plant based, Truly Plant based, Vegan, Vegetarian, Dr. Atkins, eat for your blood type, Mediterranean, High Fat, Low Fat, Fruit only, Starch only, No sugar, No carbs… when to eat, how much to eat, and how long to fast. 

It is flat out confusing. I do believe that eating plants is the most important part of the diet. But we sell plant-based food. Some meat proteins, but mostly plants. Big surprise that I would think that plants should be a large portion or your diet. But not just any plants. Plants that are recognizable and minimally processed, not food made in a factory or laboratory.   

High fructose corn syrup is plant based, much of it from GMO corn. Does that make it healthy? Eating mostly plants that we prepare ourselves is healthier than the premade, sweetened, and salted versions at the store or restaurants. I am not even sure how food manufacturers are even able get that much salt into bowl of soup! Of course, there are exceptions, but if America is going to change its health trajectory, it is going to have to change the way it eats. Exercise, while important, is not going to be the solution. The solution to our health crisis is at the fork. It is what we eat that will make Americans healthy again. 

Thankfully, in America we still have the freedom to eat what we want, most of what we are being offered as food is edible, but is it healthy? Klesick Farms started out 23 years ago offering organically grown fruit and vegetables. Today, we are still offering organically grown fruit and vegetables, but we also offer an assortment of organic groceries and grass-fed, organic, or wild meat. Healthy eating is an option, the hard part is getting our beliefs, our behavior, and our schedule to line up. Easier said than done.  

We are here to help support your health goals and, at the same time, help the environment by growing sourcing and delivering organically grown food to your home.  

Thankfully we still have the freedom to eat what we want, when we want. Thank you for choosing Klesick Farms as your partner in health. 

-Tristan

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THIS WEATHER!

It is winter in the NW. For those of us who have been juggling kiddos, school closures, and late starts, it sure is nice to get back to cold, wet, and gray! Although the white, while a challenge to navigate, is beautiful, and our region is dependent upon sufficient snowpack to keep our watersheds happy and functioning properly. 

I am really proud of our team and their commitment to pack and safely deliver your boxes of good! The packing team made it every day and our driving team chained up when necessary, and safely delivered 95% of the orders. A few of you live on the less travelled and moderately travelled roads and we couldn’t quite get there, sorry. 

On the farm, this weather is just fine. We take it in stride because we mostly focus on the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons. The only crops actively growing are our cover crops and garlic. The garlic is happy as a clam, not sure what that means, but it is a NW saying. They have poked through the mulch and are about 3-4 inches tall.

This year we are experimenting with a new mulching material. Normally we use organic wheat straw, but this year we added leaves from our walnut trees. Our farm produces walnut leaves in MASS! Normally they end up in the compost and then spread on the fields in the spring, but this year we raked them up and spread them out on top of the garlic. The work to gather and spread the leaves is comparable to the work to purchase, pick up, bring to the farm, and spread the wheat straw.  I will be evaluating how they decompose, weed suppression, moisture retention, and soil structure under each mulch. So far, I am pleasantly surprised. 

The cover crops we plant are to nourish the soil, hold nutrients in the plants, and protect the soil from compaction. Cover crops are a vital part to farming, but they do have their limitations. We use them on 90% of our soils and leave that remaining 10% “open” or “uncovered.” One of the purposes of a cover crop is to prevent the leaching of nutrients like Nitrogen or Phosphorous out of the root zone, and also out of the aquifers or watersheds. Think the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.  

Why do I not cover crop the remaining 10%? Through experience, I have learned that cover crops also have a downside. In a wet spring, they can grow, REALLY GROW, and once the weather warms and I can get into the field to till them in, it will take a few weeks for them to break down. The soil bacteria are busy breaking down the cover crop and won’t get to work on growing vegetables for a little while longer. So, we intentionally leave that 10% uncovered for our early plantings of peas and lettuce. It’s just that simple! 

Stay warm, 

-Tristan

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Leaning Into the Harness

When I farmed with Susie, Katie, and Karen, I had to learn to work with them, and at their pace. They were the most willing workers, and farm work is hard work. It will leave your body sore for days until you get farm fit. Those girls were amazing and made farming a unique experience. It has been half a dozen, or so, years since I worked with them.  

When I first got the bug to farm, I knew it would be organic, and it would involve Draft Horses! A friend named Lynn Miller shared some great advice about getting my first team. He said, “When you look out into a big herd of horses, which horse catches your eye?” Romance and farming go hand in hand. I was always drawn to brown with a splash of white. I knew if I ever got to farm with horses, it would be Belgians! Practically every Hallmark movie used to have horses in them. Susie and Karen were my trained team, and Katie was just learning. 17 hands and 2 tons of horse, they could pull a plow and never get stuck.  

When I worked with them, time stood still, and so would we. The horses need rest when we were working, and rest was the perfect time to contemplate the next steps, the next project, the last conversation with my spouse, or maybe just nothing. Sometimes we would stop under the old snag and watch the bald eagle peer down on us and, as we moved on, he would move on. 

Last week, I delved into will power and how hard it is to change a habit; how we only have a limited amount of will power at our disposal, and the harder the change you are tackling, the harder it will be to accomplish. That is why will power, which has about a 15-minute reserve, will quickly get used up if you tackle several lifestyle changes at once. 

What I learned from farming is also important to making lifestyle changes. When I would harness the horses, I would make sure that all their equipment fit well, especially their collars. Having a smooth, well fitted collar was key to working long days and not getting sore shoulders. 

Equipment aside, I wanted to talk about “leaning into” your new goals or lifestyle changes.  For the horses, when we were going to tackle a big project, everything became important. I knew what the goal was, and how long it would take. After my team was brushed, harnessed, and hooked to the single trees, we would calmly walk to the field. They knew it was going to be a good day of work ahead.  

The very first moment I set the plow, it was always the same. We would pause, then I would cluck to the team, “Susie, Karen ‘step’.” I would release the lines a little, and they would ease into the harness and begin to move the plow. Slow and steady, leaning into the harness, we would get the work done. When you tackle those lifestyle changes, know your goal and how you are going to get there, then “lean” into your work slow and steady. 

I believe in you!

-Tristan

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Looking Back and Being Thankful

Last year in partnership with our box of good community, almost 1100 boxes of high quality organically grown produce was donated to 12 different local food banks in our delivery areas totaling over $24,000 in giving.  In addition to the high quality organic produce that is donated to local food banks every week, Klesick’s also donated last year a considerable amount of #2 imperfect produce to local food banks. We make sure that none of the edible food goes to a landfill.  

And what produce doesn’t meet our quality standards for our customers and isn’t food bank quality is composted on our farm, where the soil bacteria convert it to nutrients for our crops completing the circle of life (think Lion King here). If you started singing the CIRCLE of LIFE you were not alone (SMILE)! 

It has been our passion to serve alongside the tireless volunteers and staff at our local food banks and recovery kitchens partnering where the most vulnerable and those teetering on the financial edge could extend hope to them. This is one of the primary reasons that we call our organic home delivery program a box of good! 

For the last 23 years, we have tried to extend hope in tangible ways through our box of good community. If a customer loses a job or has a financial crisis we offer a discount or deliver produce at no charge. We have a Health discount we apply to customer orders for families battling Cancer. We also found a way to serve the local food bank community creating the Neighbor Helping Neighbor program. And lastly, we believe in prayer. there is a web form on our home page that you can fill out and send your prayer requests to us and that are only seen by our team members. 

A box of good truly embodies our family mission and is how we serve you and your family, other local farmers and the local food bank community. Together (Klesick’s and you) for the last 23 years have made a difference in the lives of those around us and 2019 was another banner year of giving that reached many vulnerable families in our local communities. 

If you would like to partner with us in 2020, consider adding a Neighbor Helping Neighbor food bank box once a month and extend nutrition and hope to the less fortunate in our communities. We have 12 different food banks to select from. Pick one and we will do the rest. 

Thank you for partnering with us. 

Tristan