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Living a Giving Life

I have been thinking about the act of giving. Giving is an opportunity to participate in making some thing, some place or some one’s circumstances better than could be accomplished by itself. Giving requires sacrifice, a lot or a little, but you have to be willing to deny yourself something in order to give.

This past week, the world celebrated Easter—a holiday to remember the resurrection of Jesus. Nothing has more radically impacted the world than His birth, ministry, death and resurrection. He is the ultimate example of giving.

We believe in giving. And we believe the act of giving, whether money, talents or time, is freeing. It reminds us that we are not the most important entity in this world. It changes our focus. It intensifies our senses and awakens us to the needs of others and other things. Giving also allows us to give more, and it is contagious and infectious. Being generous is a surefire way to live a happy life.

This is why, when an opportunity to give arises that we can participate in, we are all in, in whatever capacity we can participate. But we have had to learn where to draw our giving boundaries over the years. Here is what we have learned about giving:

1. We have planned giving and then we dig deeper for emergency giving.

2. We always pray for whatever the pressing need is.

3. Then we assess how we can help. Is it with time, knowledge, communication, money or all of the above?

4. Sometimes we are unable to participate because of location or skills needed.

5. If we cannot help physically at the location, that is okay. Help comes in many different shapes, sizes and methods, and all of it is needed.

6. Refer to #3 and decide what you can do and then do it with all your heart!

Lastly, we are grateful and thankful for your partnership as we reach out to the Oso and Darrington communities. As a group we are able to collectively do more than as an individual, but community can only happen when two or more agree to walk together.

Thank you for walking alongside us to help Oso and Darrington land on their feet again.

Tristan

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Spring

This week, it looks like we are going to have a decent stretch of good weather and every farmer is going to be hard at it working the ground. As much I try every year to get ahead of or prepare for the farm season, I never feel that I am quite ready for it to begin. We have been plugging along doing many non-weather-related projects, but these can be miserable chores when it is raining sideways or hovering around freezing. But we do get many of them done; albeit, all layered up and looking like the Michelin man trying to stay warm.

Although Urgency and Procrastination are distant cousins, they both can be task masters. I try to strike a balance between the two of them, between what has to happen and what can wait. Nevertheless, there is nothing like a few good days in spring to put a bounce in your step and a burst of “get ‘er done” coursing through your veins!

Much to the disdain of Cousin Procrastination, we have made some pretty significant changes this winter. We have realigned our farm fields to make them more efficient to farm, upgraded fencing for our grass-fed cattle and invested in farm equipment to help us with harvest and post-harvest handling.

I find it ironic how Cousin Procrastination lives with me, but I am not quite sure when Cousin Urgency is going to pay me a visit. Although I do expect a visit every time this year, I am just not sure when it will be. However, the thought of Cousin Urgency coming does tend to accelerate the pace of activity and the need to get ready for the visit.

Well, Cousin Urgency has arrived and the Klesick family is going to be busier than a “one-armed wallpaper hanger.” We still have fencing to button up before the cows arrive. We have 3,000 pea plants to get in the ground and trellised, plus another 10,000 peas to direct seed. There is a ton of potatoes waiting to be planted, so I need to get that ground ready, fertilized and composted, and IT ALL HAS TO BE DONE YESTERDAY! At least this is what Cousin Urgency is saying. In reality, it can be accomplished over a few weeks and everything will be just fine. Striking that balance is the hard part, and as sure as “the cream rises to the top” the most pressing tasks make it to the top of the list.

Thanks for checking in. Your good food team will be hard at it growing, sourcing and delivering organic and GMO-free fruit, vegetables and grocery items for you this week and every week.

 

tristan-sign

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Oso Mudslide Relief Efforts

My family is from the Oso community. My cousins have been among the many volunteers on the ground doing an amazing work. Being “locals,” their understanding of the area has been absolutely critical to the relief efforts. Their knowledge of the location and usability of back roads, the location of heavy equipment and where to find local resources, like gravel, is invaluable. I have cheered them on and checked in every day. I have listened to the stories and hardships—it is heart-wrenching.

 

The news is doing a good job of not over-sensationalizing this event because it really is as bad, and might be even worse, than reported. I have worked on many disaster sites and led a few teams, but I have never seen devastation like this before. The loss of life and the magnitude of the slide and its location have created a very challenging rescue and recovery operation.

 

I am heartened by the efforts of the Oso, Arlington and Darrington communities and the work of Snohomish County, the State and the Federal response teams. We are at the point where large sums of money are being donated and used to stabilize the situation and lots of government agencies and large non-profits are in full support mode and using their expertise to help these communities. Although this outpouring of giving and help is incredible, from my past experience during and after disaster responses, it usually wanes fairly quickly, but the physical, emotional and financial impact will continue for those rebuilding their lives. It is a part of human nature to rally our efforts at a time like this, but these efforts are hard to sustain long-term.

 

So here is what I am proposing:

 

The Klesick Family Farm would like to engage in the disaster relief for the long haul. I have budgeted $1,000/month to help put families back on the ground. We will be working with local community churches that are nimble and able to quickly get resources to the impacted families.

 

Like us, many of you have already donated –thank you. However, I would ask you to consider partnering with us for the long haul and setting up a recurring tax-deductible donation on your account. Imagine if half of our customers added an extra $1 per delivery—we could raise $3,500 per month to extend hope to our neighbors in Oso and Darrington.

 

How to Help the Oso & Darrington Communities

 

  • Give through Klesick Family Farm: Give your charitable contribution through Klesick Family Farm and we will get it into the hands of the locals. You can either make a one-time donation or add the donation as a recurring item to your regular produce delivery. Recurring donations will be scheduled to terminate at the end of June or sooner if you’d prefer. 100% of donations will go local community churches and other non-profit organizations to directly help families who have been most impacted. Donations are tax-deductible. Donors will receive a tax statement at the end of the year. Please visit our website to donate. 
  • Red Cross of Snohomish County: If you wish to help victims of the Oso mudslide, cash donations are preferred. The American Red Cross is no longer collecting items. Go to the Red Cross of Snohomish County at www.redcross.org/snoco to donate. People can also text “RedCross” to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
  • Darrington Community Center: The Darrington Community Center welcomes any donations brought into the center, which is located at 570 Sauk Ave. 360-436-1217.
  • Check with your local bank, as many have set up accounts to donate toward the relief effort.

 

Thank you for your generous outpouring.

 

tristan-sign

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Providence

I often quote to myself (and to others) that simple prayer by Francis of Assisi, “Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

planting_lettuce6

 

As the farm season starts to unfold, there are bound to be things that I have planned to do, but just won’t get to. It might be weather related, it could be a timing issue, or it could be just a lack of time. But one thing is for sure, I will get to a lot of things on my list and a few things that weren’t. And at the end of the day, at the end of the farming season, I will have gotten something planted, weeded and harvested.

This week, we are planning on doing something that wasn’t on my farming list. In January, I ordered 4 flats of lettuce to transplant into our greenhouse. Our greenhouse isn’t very big and I was planning on only planting lettuce in half and spinach in the other half. I planted the spinach by seed and then went to get the lettuce transplants—all 512 of them.

When I arrived to get the flats, we walked over to get them and I started to grab the 4 I ordered and the nurseryman asked, “Is that all, you ordered 40?” My response was “gulp.” 40 flats x 128/flat = 5,120 plants. I have never planted 5,120 lettuce plants in my life at one time. So much is really out of our control when it comes to farming, and this week I picked up the remaining 36 flats of lettuce to transplant.

This will be a big undertaking, because the weather has not been the greatest for preparing a seed bed. Well, when an opportunity presents itself, like an extra 4,608 lettuce plants to plant, I stop, pause and evaluate the opportunity and then I pray, “This wasn’t my idea, but Lord if you want to do that, I am game!” Then I start looking for an opportunity to plant 5,120 more heads of lettuce in the first week of spring.

This is a bold move and definitely qualifies as borderline stupid, which is why I normally don’t plant lettuce in March! But sometimes on occasions like this, you discover a new way of doing something and other times you affirm why you don’t do something. Time will tell. For now, I am going with Providence and growing a lot of lettuce at the Klesick farm!

Your local lettuce farmer,

 

tristan-sign

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In Remembrance

I often quote to myself and to others that simple prayer by Francis of Assisi,

God, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

In light of the recent mudslide tragedy in Oso, we are remembering those who were injured, those who have tragically lost their lives, those that are missing, and those that are grieving.

 

tristan-sign

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Chives, Crocuses, Daffodils and Tulips

The time has come. All winter long I wander around doing this and doing that almost aimlessly, but not quite.  During the winter, our family tends to rest and recuperate from the previous farm season. (We even went to Disneyland for the first time in 23 years, which was not restful, but it was fun.) But I must be a farmer at heart, because it is this time every year that the winter fog becomes a little less dense and my senses awaken to spring. I think there is a little farmer in all of us during this time of year!

I get excited when I see grass growing. I don’t love to mow, but I love to notice the nuances in the shades of green or the thickness of the blades. I am also drawn to buds on the fruit trees. I notice the leaf buds and fruit buds, I pay attention to how much they are swelling and I wonder if a hard frost will set them back this year, again. I begin to think about the pollinators. Will it rain during the time the flowers are open, will the bees want to get out and work so there will be fruit in the fall?

I notice how much water the mud puddles are holding and how much they have dried or not dried out. I pay attention to the impression left by the tractor tires—how deep, how defined or not at all. I listen to the birds, the frogs, the coyotes—each species unique, but still calling this their home too. I also notice that the swans are still here, but I know that when they move on from this winter home, that it will be time to plant strawberries, peas and spinach.

Now I am looking for pockets of weather, openings in the curtain of heaven, to begin my annual dance with this farm. In many ways it has already begun because our farm is a living eco system with many types of crops growing. We have been pruning fruit trees and seeding greenhouses, we have been in the shop repairing and building equipment to help us this season, our seeds have been ordered, soil samples taken and fertilizer blends have been created to feed each of our crops.

So it is, as our daylight increases, so does our energy, focus and purpose. Our partnership continues with this patch of earth we call home, to grow fruits and vegetables that are so flavorfully packed with sunshine and nutrients that they will cause your taste buds and mine to dance—food that will feed your family and mine!

Always organic, always GMO-free.

 

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Organic, Conventional, and Chemical

I was reading in one of my farm papers and I was drawn to an article about biotech sugar beets and how this massive farm company (19,000 acres) was so thankful that the USDA had deregulated GMO sugar beets. I have actually met the president of this farm company a few years ago, which is also why the article caught my attention. I have been following the GMO debacle for years. What really set me thinking was a new shift in thinking.

In the past, farmers have been categorized as either conventional (those that use synthetic chemicals) or organic (those that don’t). But this president was also thankful that the USDA allowed GMO sugar beets, because one of his field managers said, and I paraphrase, “I was going to quit if I had to go back to conventional farming.” What this means to me is we have moved from two types of farming paradigms to three. We now have organic, conventional, and chemical farmers now! That field manager didn’t want to go back to using plows, discs and mechanical weeding, he just wants to plant, spray, and harvest. Talk about having to reread and reread and reread that statement. I am so grieved by this thinking. We are moving farther and farther away from the ability to farm without Monsanto’s GMO laced poison crops. Sure there are pockets of farmers like ourselves, but there are literally hundreds of millions of acres of acres now being farmed chemically and using GMO crops that it will be harder and harder to turn the tide on this trend.

We need to win this battle for good food. There are two ways to win this fight. First, don’t buy GMO products. This alone would cause these companies to change farming practices. Right now the money is too good to change. Hit them in the pocketbook and we will see change. And second, labeling. MANDATORY LABELING of GMO foods will “encourage” farmers, processors, and marketers to change more quickly when the public shies away from GMO products.

Future generations of people deserve the right to eat real food, from seeds that are not injected with pesticides and herbicides, grown in soil that is alive and fertile. That is what we believe and that is how we farm.

Thanks for being co-laborers in this fight for good food.

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What a Hit!

Alright, truth be told, I didn’t know what to expect when I announced to my team that we were going to have a Squash Fest. Having never hosted an event like this and with such short notice, I was thoroughly blessed to see so many of our customers on Friday and Saturday. An even bigger shocker to me was the turnout of seniors and super seniors.

In my mind, I imagined several young families coming out to “see” where their box of good comes from. While young families did show up, it was our “more mature” customers who wanted to buy squash, and lots of it. We even had repeat shoppers. Three customers in particular came back the second day for more of their favorites. As a farmer, it really blessed my heart to know they wanted more of the food that I grow and that it was worth the second trip in order to “stock up.”

Saturday was also a production day for us, so we had a crew out harvesting squash and bunching spinach. With all the activity of my crew working, customers picking, and tractors in the field, one customer commented that the picturesque scene remind her of Norman Rockwell’s artistry.

To help sort and accumulate the pumpkins into nice piles, I enlisted the help of a few young strapping boys. My crew, after handling several thousands of pounds of squash, was thankful for their help. So, thank you Caden and Chase for your help. And, of course, thank you Brenda for bringing your boys out to the farm.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, we harvested lots of squash that we will be sending your way over the next few months.

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Cover Crops, Soil Fertility, and Labeling

We have planted all of our open ground to cover crops this fall. Cover cropping is the practice of covering your fields or gardens with a living crop. It can be wheat, vetch, rye, peas, clover, and even weeds. The purpose is to maintain organic matter in the soil, which helps hold nutrients in the growing zone areas of the soil. Another purpose is to prevent erosion.  Down here where it floods, a lot of bare soil can move around quickly, but ground that is covered rarely erodes.  Also, the cover crop will take nutrients up into the growing plant and hold those nutrients all winter in the plant, preventing them from leaching away in the soil.

In particular, with our rainy winters, nutrients can migrate out of the upper six inches of soil and be lost. The loss of nutrients is a big deal because those nutrients represent lost money to the farmer and in the spring more fertilizer will need to be purchased to replace what nutrients leached away. But even more importantly, our environment is impacted when minerals are leached away and end up in rivers, streams, lakes, the ocean, and even work their way down to aquifers. And polluting our drinking waters with excessive agricultural chemicals and nutrients is not wise.

While farming can be a culprit for water table issues, in areas like the Puget Sound  our urban neighbors have a huge impact with the use of lawn and garden fertilizers and chemicals. Sadly, agriculture usually gets targeted for this issue because a lot of the urban chemical use is upstream of farmers and is filtered through the flood plains on their way to the ocean. Another reason the regulators sometimes blame farmers for water pollution is because, quite frankly, farmers represent less votes (approximately 1% nationally) than urban corridors.

On our farm we plant cover crops so we can grow healthier food, prevent erosion and feed our soil microbiology in the spring.  Without healthy soil, you can’t have healthy food. And if American’s health issues are an indication, American farmers should change their farming methods!

I think we could change the health of the American food supply by doing two simple things: first, start requiring labeling for GMO foods and secondly, before any farm subsidy is given out, the farmer needs to demonstrate that their soil fertility is being maintained by submitting soil samples. By doing these two things we would radically change the direction of our food supply for the better.

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Each day deserves to be special

Slowly backing my car out of the unfamiliar driveway, I watched my friend shuffle for her keys and lead her two young girls into the house they were staying in while visiting from out of town. As I drove away, tears began to well up inside me as I thought of my friend carrying on with her life after suddenly losing her husband just two months prior.

It is so cliché to come away from that scene and think that I will live my life differently, as her tragedy was a reminder of life’s frailty. Driving the ten blocks back to my house, I imagined myself collapsing into my husband’s arms, shaking from tears and trying to squeeze out the words, “I love you.” But by the time I got home my mind was already focused on tomorrow’s activities and all that needs to be done in and around my home. I said a quick hello to my husband and then set about my to-do list.

Our days are so filled with activities: lists of things that need done, children to care for, a home to clean, businesses to tend to, etc. It’s too easy to forget that at any moment it could all be gone.

For me, food has the ability to gently remind me of life’s gift—that this place is temporary and we are just passing through. Often when we eat, we have a moment to press “pause” on our day. I hope that perhaps we can press “pause” for a bit longer.

On the days when meals become another thing to simply cross off the to-do list, I try to remind myself that, as with life, food is a gift. Taking a few moments to slice fresh tomatoes and to top them with goat cheese, basil and olive oil, provides me the soft, sweet reminder that this day deserves to feel special. Each day deserves to be special.

Food is used to aid in celebrations, to welcome life, honor unions, and mark traditions. When an ordinary day is marked with a meal that feels somewhat out of the ordinary, then suddenly I am reminded that each day is a gift and there is no reason for it to feel like every other day. Life is far too short.

by Ashley Rodriguez

Chef, food blogger, and full-time mom. Read more of her writings at www.notwithoutsalt.com