Author: Tristan Klesick

It doesn’t appear to matter much who is in control of the White House or Congress when it comes to the USDA Secretary. Back for round 2 is Tom Vislack who served under the Obama administration and is every bit the underling for the Genetically Modified (GMO) or Genetically Engineered (GE) community.  

One would somewhat expect the Republican party to appoint a USDA Secretary that was cozy with the Monsanto’s of the world, but the Democrats claim the environmental higher ground. Too bad it is only political posturing from the left. Talk is talk, but actions speak volumes.  

Essentially, it is business as usual for the Bio Engineered (the new term being used) growing community. In fact, start to pay even more attention to the genetically altering food producers. They are and will be rebranding themselves with cute and friendly imaging to lure and hide their products. 

Sadly, it will require even more diligence to avoid this unhealthy and unnatural part of our food system.  I am especially grieved for the unsuspecting consumer who expects that all foods available at the grocery or restaurants are safe to eat. After all, our government is looking out for us (eyeroll). Yes, they are edible, but eating a diet filled with GMO corn, soy and canola oils, along with excessive sugars will wreak havoc on the immune systems, waistlines and lead to many of our lifestyle diseases. What we eat is foundational to our health.

If our country needs anything, from the USDA, it is a level playing field and less dependence upon an overly processed food supply. Sadly, President Biden’s choice for the next USDA Secretary will be another Monsanto friendly supporter.

I am thankful that there is an organic food system. We are not interested in GMO’s or GE’s. We don’t mince words, organics are the only way to avoid GMO’s and GE’s. But let me also be clear, you can eat a lot of processed organic foods and suffer from many of the same lifestyle diseases. Eating primarily clean meats and organically grown fruits and vegetables is the foundation to better health. And for the last 24 years, I am happy to report that is what we have delivered to our customers. 

We believe that our bodies are resilient and when fed with nutritious foods it can fuel us, fight off disease and heal itself from a host of lifestyle diseases. We have chosen health and a healthy environment as our core values. 

Thankfully, who oversees the USDA does not affect our ability to serve your family or to buy organically grown foods.

-Tristan 

There is so much great citrus available right now! The grapefruit from Texas Reds to Melo Gold to Pomelo’s are crazy good. And the tangerine world is similar with Tangelos, Clementine’s and Blood oranges. Every season is unique and during this season it is Citrus’s time to shine!  

On the farm, John and I are busy finishing up the maintenance and starting seeds. We just seeded thousands of onions to be transplanted in the April/May window and we will be seeding our first round of lettuces (about 2000 plants) this week. We will be seeding and transplanting lettuces every two weeks until June. We grow lots of lettuce, cucumbers, squash, cabbages, kales, beans and tomatoes. All of them will either be direct seeded or transplanted at the appropriate times and “weather windows.”  Weather windows are those opportunities you get to get things done! Sometimes the ground is barely dry enough and other times we have to just mud something in.  

These weather windows tend to be fewer in the spring, requiring us to pivot our work schedules to accommodate some good weather. I remember one year when April was beautiful and it was like I was farming in California 😊. I could not have asked for better weather to start seeds, work the ground and plant crops. Then came May and it rained every day! We were dancing between rain showers trying to get crops in the ground.  

Another year, I had ordered 1200 lettuce transplants to transplant early into our greenhouses. He mistyped the order and 6 weeks later, delivered 12,000! Oh, my word! 12,000 lettuce plants ready to go in the ground in February! My heart skipped more than one beat that week. As it turned out, we had one of those rare Februarys that allowed us to get a seed bed acceptably ready to transplant into. It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough.  And as a side benefit, we had the earliest lettuce we have ever had that year! it also gave my soon to be son in law, an opportunity to help harvest on the farm. He showed up at 5am and pitched in. 6 years later, he is still making my daughter happy (and me, too). 

This time of year is all about maintenance, repairs, farm planning and praying. When it comes to maintenance, I took the opportunity to have knee surgery and “clean” up some cartilage that had been bothering me for a few years. It was one of those decisions you make because it’s better to be proactive and pick a season when the farm and business work would be the least impacted. Happy to report that the second time around for that knee seems to have accomplished the goal!  I’m ready to get farming! 

Another major change this past winter was the decision to “pull” out the orchard. It was a hard decision, but needed to be made for a variety of reasons, and before another season of pruning, thinning, tree maintenance and harvesting got started. I really enjoyed our season of tree fruit farming, but I also really love growing vegetables. The decision was difficult to make, but watching those tress come out, was even harder! This year the orchard spot will be filled with pumpkins and winter squashes. Assuming there will be no restrictions to farm visits, we look forward to inviting the Box of Good community to come out and get pumpkins on the farm this fall! Stay tuned! 

Thank you for supporting small farms and small businesses, 

-Tristan 

Whenever, I say, “It is Kale time” I immediately follow up with “It’s signing time with Alex and Leah”. Fairly random, but when our children were younger, they watched that show a ton and 3 of my daughters can communicate in ASL fairly well. Check them out on YouTube. 😊

We are harvesting our Red Russian Winter Kale this weekend. Winter Kales tend to be smaller and sweeter. Timing is everything when it comes to Kale. We are harvesting a lot of young leaves before the increasing day length sends a signal to the plant to stop making leaves and start making seed! When a plant shifts to seed mode, the name of the product changes from Kale Bunches to Kale Raab, Cabbage Raab, Broccoli Raab, Radish Raab. Essentially, when we bunch Raab’s we are bunching and eating the pre-seed plant portions. However, some farmers will market the Raab with more seed heads attached, my preference is to harvest it earlier in the winter and which makes the ground available for a spring crop sooner. It is all nuanced, but we have a plan and this year it worked out! Enjoy this last years Red Russian Kale in soups, salads or stir fries. 

Free Produce give away:

We still have more Boxes of Good to donate, so don’t be bashful, I want to meet the needs of local families that you know who have a financial hardship. No questions asked, if you want to bless them, we will send an additional box for free.  Here are the details on the 100 free boxes of produce giveaway.

Here is where you come in. 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 for free. We want to partner directly with the Box of Good community and donate healthy nutritious produce to your friends and family that could use some cheering up! (1 donation per family please)

If you would like to participate, log into your Klesick’s 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. You can also call or email the office and our team will help you set it up.

Cheers to a better 2021,

-Tristan

I am so excited about our box of good and the box of good community. It is such a privilege to serve your families. Last week we started hearing from many of you ordering Boxes of Good for families that you personally know and are struggling financially. The stories are touching and the gifts are so generous. Many of you are sending multiple deliveries to those families. I am in awe of your kindness. We still have more Boxes of Good to donate, so don’t be bashful, I want to meet the needs of local families that you know who have a financial hardship. No questions asked, if you want to bless them, we will send an additional box for free. 

Here are the details on the 100 free boxes of produce giveaway

1. Klesick’s will be offering 100 free boxes to families in need this January. 

Here is where you come in. 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 for free. We want to partner directly with the Box of Good community and donate healthy nutritious produce to your friends and family that could use some cheering up! (1 donation per family please)

If you would like to participate, log into your Klesick’s 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. You can also call or email the office and our team will help you set it up.

The second way we are giving away produce is for photographs (read below for the details). 

• Klesick’s is looking for photo of your Box of Good. Please tag us @klesicks or @boxofgood on instagram, FB or email them in, we will give you a $5 credit on your account for 3 photos (one credit per family) that we are tagged in. We will also enter your name for a drawing for one of 3 $50 Klesick credits to be applied to your account. By sending or tagging us in your photographs you are allowing us to use them (potentially) in our advertising and social media campaigns in the future. 

We are looking for 3 types of photos.

• A picture of our delivery van making your delivery.
• A box on your porch.
• A box with ingredients on your counter or just opened.

Both, the 100 Box of Good give away and the Box of Good photo contest will run between 1/1 and 1/31. 

Thank you for your help, your support for the Box of Good really impacts in meaningful ways our local community.       

Cheers to a better 2021,

 -Tristan

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

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

New Prices

Before I delve into the world of fall on the farm. Starting the week of October 19, we will be raising prices $1.50 to each of our standard boxes. It has been a few years since our last price increase. We appreciate your continued support as we all navigate living with the Covid cloud that hangs over our nation. 

Back to the farm

We are busy wrapping up a few loose ends on the farm getting ready for winter and for spring. This is the one season where diligence really pays dividends. Every season is time sensitive, but in the spring, you have more good days to get your work done, the weather trend is in your favor. In the fall that script is flipped, with less days to get your work done. 

Like many of you, Joelle and I are busy taking care of those last few home and flower bed projects. It is the same on the farm, just a larger scale. Most of our crops are finished for the year and the winter crops are located together in one section of the farm. After we harvest the last of the cabbages, winter squash and celery we can spread the compost, assuming we get a few good weeks of weather. 

Last week, all my neighbors were as busy as beavers. The dairy farmers are harvesting the corn for silage and the potato guys are digging like crazy. In the Stillaguamish valley, unlike the Skagit, we can get an early flood or if the weather turns wet, you might not be able to get into the fields. A century of faming this valley has taught the local farmers to not dilly dally and last week, a whole lot of harvesting got done. 

Because Klesick Farms is less mechanized, we can get into our fields much later into the season. That doesn’t mean we like to put on rain gear and brave the elements, it just means we can ?. The large farms have really big equipment, and they would get stuck in the mud, we don’t have that issue. 

This week we are harvesting a smooth leafed kale called Red Russian. It has a soft red tint to it and is equally as nutritious as it well known curly green cousin. You might see a few cosmetic blemishes on the leaves, because the fall season imparts a weathered look and a few bugs have nibbled here and there, but it is tasty and healthy. 

We have also harvested the Conference and Bosc pears. The pear harvest was smaller this year. The pears are sweet, but the spring was less kind to pollinators, limiting the pollination windows, which resulted in a smaller harvest than previous years. These two types of pears are my favorite, but I am pear person. I like them firm, crunchy and often. 

Enjoy your box of good,

-Tristan Klesick

In addition to growing food at Klesick Family Farm, we also source organically grown food from eastern and western Washington, Oregon and California and beyond. Our food supply is a network of local, regional, national and international. While there is a local farm system, our community will always choose to supplement from other regions.

This year has it has been made very clear that America needs to have a more geographically diverse food producing system to feed its people. This was never more obvious than this spring when Covid descended upon communities and hoarding ensued. Our farmers were dialed into the rhythms of growing food for a normal spring season, but Covid flipped the script and food scarcity became a reality.

Making matters more challenging was the spring rains in California and Arizona. At that same time Covid was wreaking havoc in our lives, the weather was wreaking havoc on the “salad bowl” of America, making it impossible to harvest and in some cases destroying crops, at a time when we needed that food more than ever.

Thankfully, the American farmers and food producers weathered that season, and we got our bearings to prepare for farming with Covid in our planning. I will confess that I have no idea what is in store for this upcoming winter flu/Covid season, but our farmers and food producers are, weather permitting, better ready to serve the American public. 

Another Wrinkle

The wildfire season seems to be becoming an annual event that the farming community and other food producers need to plan for. Especially, because Eastern WA, OR and CA have increasing exposure to wildfires.

Wildfires not only destroy communities, jobs, homes, and thousands of acres of wild land, they seriously impact farms and our food supply. In many ways the last few weeks for Klesick’s were very similar to early April when food selection and variety were drastically reduced due to a rainy spring and Covid. With so much of CA and OR on fire, sourcing food from those regions was challenging because available trucking was reduced, many farms were on fire or near fires, and extreme smoke made it impossible to plant, cultivate or harvest. 

As farmers, staying inside is not an option when air quality rises to unsafe levels, we work outside.  Our work is outside.  Another interesting, but often overlooked by the media, wrinkle is that a thick layer of smoke and the ash particulates can ruin fruit, berries and vegetables as it falls to the ground causing crop losses. And do you remember how cold it was during the heaviest times of the poor air quality? A subtle, but real impact to our food supply was the weather change and those cool temperatures really slowed down the growth of vegetables and even caused some to “bolt” due to the sudden change, making the crop unusable.

Because here at Klesick’s we have deep and long-standing relationships in the food industry, and because of the hard work of our awesome team, we have been able to navigate these unforeseen events and keep your Box of Good supplied and on schedule!  We are thankful to be able to provide continued quality food, value and peace of mind to our customers during this tumultuous time.

May this upcoming season bring a breath of fresh air, hope and healing to all of us!

-Tristan Klesick

I am so thankful for the rain to help clear up smoke and put a damper on a lot wildfires.  A few decades ago, a decision to manage the forest more minimalistic and allow nature to manage itself, has led to a really tumultuous period in our history. With a less hands on approach to managing our forests combined with global warming causing drier summers, more wildfires were to be expected. In essence we got what we planned for and then some. 

We see the same thing with reintroducing wolves into areas they once roamed. And if you combine them with Grazing permits for cattle or sheep ranching in an open range grazing environment one should expect wolves to eat cattle and sheep and deer and elk.  

Wildfires and wolves are more interconnected than we would think. Less intensive harvest of trees and less grazing permits has allowed the forests to grow an underbrush. Reintroducing wolves creates tension between the farming community and the natural resource community which has led to less grazing permits on public lands to allow the forests to act more naturally and wolves are a part of helping a forest to act more naturally as an apex predator. These two decisions are really an urban versus rural debate. 

In addition to the choices we have made as a society, we have also allowed people to move into these or closer to these wild areas. Now we have added a human life and a political issue to this policy. The clash between let nature be nature and managing nature will be really intense for years to come.  Ironically with Covid19 more urban folks are moving to rural areas and working from home. They will have a new perspective on living in “wild” areas that many of them were in favor of when they lived in the urban core. 

I am not advocating either way that the policies to let nature or reintroduce wolves are bad or good. I am saying that the current outcomes are what we should expect from those decisions. Allowing a forest to act more wildly is a good decision for a lot of natural processes. All that “tinder” and dying material feeds into a lot of biological processes. It could very well be that a wild forest will be healthier as it develops a cycle of fire and rebuilding itself. Mount St. Helens is an excellent example of nature rebuilding itself. 

The question now becomes will we (America) say, “enough is enough” and stop this experiment after a few decades of a policy change.  Will the potential good that comes after this tumultuous period be allowed to play out? Or could it better to go back to a more managed forest solution? 

As always, the answer is somewhere between, there are a few hard and fast rules in life, but this isn’t one of them. While I do not like wildfires and the harm they cause, I have to acknowledge that this is the expected outcome. What we (America) decide going forward will have an expected outcome as well. 

-Tristan Klesick

We are rolling out the Sugar Pie Pumpkins this week. Almost all our squash is ready, but we are starting with our pie pumpkins. I know a few of you are wondering if we sell pies and the answer is nope. It would be fun to add a bakery someday, but we are plenty busy growing and sourcing good food for your Family.  

Before I forget, you can now add Kombucha Town Kombuchas and Seltzers to your orders.  

Back to pies, any squash, except Spaghetti squash, will make really good pies, but pumpkin carried the day. And just to be transparent, a lot of pumpkin pie is actually made with Hubbard squash. Shocking I know, but to be even more transparent, I am pretty sure there is no pumpkin in a pumpkin spice latte either.  

This year’s squash patch has Sugar Loaf (a Delicata variety) Acorn, Butternut and Sugar Pie pumpkins. Winter squash is an important crop for farmers like us. It allows us to extend our farm goodness well past the growing season. In a few weeks most of the winter squash will be ready for harvest and we will be selling our Mixed squash box with all the varieties inside it. They will keep for quite a while and just need to be stored in a cool place like a garage floor.  

Joelle was commenting on how she was going to make a chill pie the other evening and, though I am not sure how to make it, I will be more than happy to eat it. Many of you know that I love to cook, but baking is not that exciting to me. When I get home from the office and there is a pile of vegetables on the counter, I grab my apron, wash up and get to creating, but if there are a bunch of apples or berries, I would rather eat them than make a dessert.  

But squash season is win for all cooks! Squash is so versatile and healthy. You can roast it, make savory or creamy soups, and incredible curries. And then when it comes to baking you can make deliciously moist pumpkin bars, cookies, breads and pies. Winter squash Is easily steamed or roasted and then frozen for future uses.  

This week cook the whole pumpkin and plan to save a portion for later in the week or freeze (with the date on the bag) and plan to use it later. Send us a photo or tag us on FB or IG with your culinary creation. 

Be well, 

-Tristan