Category: Community

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Healing through Nutrition

This is our new outreach for 2012. Last week we shared that the American Cancer Society donated 145 million dollars in 2010 and that 0.3% or $440,000 of that went to nutritional research. Cancer is a multifaceted disease, yet we believe that a healthy diet is vital in prevention, during treatment, and for recovery.  This year we have decided to tackle cancer and heart disease locally, one family and one person at a time.

Deborah was pregnant. During her pregnancy her family discovered she had breast cancer. Her friends opened an account with us and funded it so she could focus on her baby and her treatments, without having to worry about shopping. A soccer team just blessed a fellow player’s family after his father had a stroke. The team mom sent out an e-mail and at the next practice raised $250. That is 10 deliveries of fresh produce. Beautiful, touching, and impactful.

My heart is to alleviate some of the financial burden that our local families are facing as they fight cancer or heart disease by discounting our boxes of fresh produce. We already have a very successful food bank outreach called Neighbor Helping Neighbor. And yet our hope is to expand the good that we, as an organic community, can do and get some healthy produce into the homes of those with diagnosed cancer and heart disease.

Klesick Family Farm is good at growing, sourcing, and delivering nutritionally rich foods that can help the healing process and we want to and need to partner with you to expand our abilities to meet this need in our community.

Here is what I am proposing:
1. If you know of a family medically diagnosed with cancer or heart disease, consider purchasing them a box of good. We will discount your purchase 5% if we deliver it and 15% if you deliver it.
2. If you can’t afford to purchase a box of good for a family, send their name to us and we will try and meet the need through donated funds.
3. Consider donating to our Healing through Nutrition program. We will use these funds to bless those families fighting these diseases.
4. Consider organizing a fundraiser at your office, rotary club, church, etc. and open an account for a family you know fighting these diseases. We will do the rest. A few customers have done this and those families (those giving and those receiving) are forever changed.
5. Lastly, please let us know about the ones you know who are fighting these diseases. Just send us an e-mail to  [email protected]  with their first name and a short biography and we will add them to our prayer list. If they are important to you, they are important to us.

A few years ago, I learned a valuable lesson. Our family had stopped to help a family that was stuck on the side of the road during a snow storm. We got out and tried to help them, but in the process another car was rear ended, because neither of them could stop on the ice. In hindsight, we couldn’t really help that person who was stuck because we didn’t have the right vehicle (4×4 monster truck) and in some ways we made the situation more unsafe. The person did get unstuck, chained up, and going again, but it had more to do with the aforementioned type of truck stopping and helping.

I share this story because some of you have the ability to financially help another family and others don’t. I am asking you to partner with us where you can to make a difference in the local families fighting these diseases. For some it is to forward names, for others to sponsor a box, and for others help us to fund this Healing through Nutrition outreach. Any and all ways of helping are extremely appreciated.

I love being your farmer and it is privilege to work alongside each of you to make our community a better place!

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What is a Farmer to Do…

When it is snowing? Pray that it won’t in April! Although, this week I am assembling two greenhouses. After years of farming without a greenhouse, I have decided to build two smaller mobile style units. They will be on skids, so I can move them to new locations throughout the season. My plans are to start with early greens and move the houses to tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers for the remainder of the season and then move it again in the fall for winter greens. Disclaimer: dreaming is dangerous in the winter and I will not be held responsible for changing my mind when farming begins☺!

When cancer and heart disease are injuring lives and families? Pray for wisdom to be able to grow more nutritious food. The American Cancer Society spends $144,897,000 on cancer research every year.* Yes, almost 145 million dollars. How much is spent on nutrition research? $440,000 or 0.3% in 2010. Come on! Not even making it to 1%! What did Hypocrites say, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” One might conclude that the American Cancer Society missed that “memo.”

So what can KFF do? We can’t spend millions, but we can grow, raise, source and deliver life-giving foods. That is what we can do. We can fight cancer one family and one person at a time. So we need your help. We want to fund a local food outreach to people in our local communities who are fighting these diseases. We are calling it, Healing through Nutrition.

I was just talking to my team about how to make a difference in the lives of local people with cancer. And an hour later, we received a phone call from a customer who wanted to buy our Family Box for another family who is fighting cancer. Yes! That is what I want to be a part of—neighbors helping neighbors: a local solution for a local family fighting cancer or heart disease.

This accomplishes so many things. First, a box of good organic and nutritious food says, “We are with you. We love you!” It also saves that family time, by not having to go shopping. It also saves that family money that they can use on co-pays, medicine, travel and loss of work, etc.

Here is what I am proposing. We are a small company and a small farm, but we want to be your partners in good.

You can also donate towards this outreach. Just go to the Products page of our website, select the Gifts category, and choose the Healing through Nutrition donation you’d like to make. We will use these donations to meet the needs we know about. These donations are not tax deductible.

Lastly, we can pray. Fighting diseases like cancer and heart disease is physically, financially and emotionally draining, but it is also spiritually draining. Please let us know about people you know who are fighting these terrible diseases. Just send us an e-mail at [email protected] with their first names and a short biography, and our team will join you in prayer for them.

Please consider joining us as we tackle these diseases with local resources from local farms for local people. We can make a difference with good food.
* www.cancer.org/Research/ResearchProgramsFunding/CurrentlyFundedProjects/extramural-and-intramural-funding-in-selected-areas-of-research

If you know of someone who cannot afford organic produce, consider investing in their health by purchasing them a box. Klesick Family Farm will discount that box of healing 5% if we deliver it to them or 15% if we bring it with your order and you deliver it.

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Klesick Family Farm 2nd Annual Dinner Party Video

Another great event! As we watch this video of the 2nd Annual Dinner Party  we reminisce  on the wonderful organic dinner Chef Larry Fontaine and his team prepared for us. The evening evolved from a quiet and beautifully set up banquet room, to a room that was alive with interaction between our staff, farmers and customers. You could feel the energy of people connecting and sharing around the same passion for real food.

It was a true delight to see growers, chefs, servers, and consumers all sharing a common interest and to see them develop meaningful connections!

Special thanks to Eric Coleman for the production of this video. Follow us on facebook to stay tuned with our upcoming events!
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A Time to be Slow

There is a time and season for everything. There is a time when life demands speed—deadlines to make, schedules to keep, and appointments to meet. There is a time to be slow—reading bedtime stories to your children, a conversation with your spouse about the day, and a vacation where soft-sanded beaches and frilly blended drinks run plentiful.

Our culture tends to be experts on speed, but when it comes to slowing down we need much practice. My natural speed is fast. I get a thrill when I multi-task. It pains me to watch my young son take what feels like fifteen minutes to put on his jacket and shoes as I watch the clock tick on. I frantically push him along, creating tension that really doesn’t need to exist. Something inside of me naturally wants everything in life to move quickly.

There is great beauty in slow. In his book, In Praise of Slow, Carl Honore writes, “Slow is calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity. It is about making real and meaningful connections – with people, culture, work, food, everything.” Doesn’t that sound incredible?

There is so much to learn in the presence of being slow that can be easily overlooked when we’re moving too fast.

For me, being slow is a conscious decision. When feeling the desire to speed up I have to ask myself, “Is this a time I need to be fast?” If not, I breathe deeply and rethink how I’m approaching the situation.

This is true in the kitchen too—especially in the kitchen. Weeknight meals are often quick, simple, and prepared in the presence of three hungry children pushing me to hurry up. But it is in the process of slowly preparing a meal that I’m reminded of why I love food and cooking so much. I take the time to smell the fresh ingredients, enjoy the process of dicing a pungent onion, and joyfully stirring the pot as the flavors fully develop in the presence of much time.

There is a time to be slow—probably more time than we allow. Find time for slow, its company will reward you.

by Ashley Rodriguez

http://notwithoutsalt.com/

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Dating … at Home


When Gabe and I were first married we continued to date. Nearly every Friday we would eagerly anticipate dinner made for us by a restaurant we had yet to try. We loved trying new places, new foods and spending that time together away from our harried schedules.

Then three kids came and we found ourselves much more removed from the dining out experience while still needing that time together. We do make time to go out on occasion, as we realize its importance for our friendship and the health of our marriage, but we also feel the need to limit the number of those evenings in order to preserve our budget.

So we found ourselves with a need to date, but with a desire to not pay hundreds of dollars in childcare and fancy dinners a month. Thus, the in-home date night was created.

It’s a simple idea really, but one that has brought us closer together, created a beautiful model for our children and saved us quite a bit of money. First of all, let me say that we find it is still important to get out of the house every now and again. There is something about seeing the dirty dishes and the leaning tower of laundry that can often distract from good conversation and a pleasant date.

For me, the date at home starts in the morning. I scour blogs, cookbooks and magazines to create a menu that is simple, yet special enough to be noticeably different than our regular weekday meals. Throughout the planning process I’m anticipating our date and praying for our time together. I find great joy in knowing that I’m planning this meal for my husband  and loving him in the process.

We sit down to a nice meal after the kids have gone to bed. Their voices still linger in the air while we do a good job of pretending not to hear. Eating at our own pace provides much more room for conversation than when three young children are present. We’re relaxed, comfortable and not too worried if the dishes don’t get done until morning.

With Valentine’s Day approaching and a beautiful box full of fresh produce, an in-home date is a beautiful option. Even if you aren’t married, giving yourself the opportunity to try something new in the kitchen provides the opportunity for a wonderful evening and sets apart that time as something special, which we all need every now and again.

Special food doesn’t have to be complicated—part of the pleasure is in the process. With stunning produce there is little that has to be done to make it distinctive and memorable.

by Ashley Rodriguez

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

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The Organic Alternative

In 2001 scientists studying pesticide residues discovered that all of the 96 children in their research group had measurable levels of organophosphate metabolites in their urine, except for one child, as reported in Environmental Health Perspectives. Upon questioning this child’s parents, they discovered that the family bought exclusively organic produce.

Two years later, these same researchers found that pesticide concentrations in urine samples of children on conventional diets were approximately six times higher than in children on organic diets.

“Consumption of organic produce appears to provide a relatively simple way for parents to reduce their children’s exposure to organophosphate pesticides,” the researchers concluded.

Publishing in the same journal, another team found similar results. Median concentrations of metabolites for two neurotoxic pesticides, one of them chlorpyrifos, decreased to “nondetectable” levels immediately after the children were switched to an organic diet.

More research on the links between neurotoxin residues on foods and neurological diseases is needed. But while we wait for science to catch up with common sense, we have a healthy alternative, thanks to the farmers who choose organic production.
USDA certified organic foods repeatedly show up “clean,” except for the long-living breakdown products of organochlorines like DDT, which have even been found in the tissue of mammals in Antarctica.

This is a reminder that we are still paying for the mistakes made by our parents and grandparents who, decades ago, trusted the chemical companies’ promises. We do not yet know how my son’s generation will pay for today’s hubris. We only know that, somehow, they will.

We should think of every conventional food as bearing the label, “Warning: May Contain Traces of Pesticides That Can Harm Your Child,” just as food produced near nuts bears a similar warning. If it’s not organic, it could lead to long-term health consequences we are only beginning to understand. It is time for preschools, in addition to banning nuts, to start prohibiting the conventional foods that may contain traces of neurological toxins harmful to our children.

—Vallaeys, Charlotte. “School

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That was a dinner party!

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to introduce my team of employees and team of farmers to our customers. Together we have an incredible community of folks and together we can do an incredible amount of good. The Comcast Arena at Everett was the perfect place to host our 2nd Annual Dinner Party. Chef Larry Fontaine and his team did an incredible job of dazzling our taste buds with culinary delights and magnificent service.  I was ultra excited about the standing ovation given to our farmers and later to Chef Larry’s team that served us. Growers, cooks, servers, and consumers all sharing a common theme from farm to fork: a celebration of real food.

At one point, Joane from the Rents Due Ranch shared during the farmer panel that organic farming practices can feed the world. That it was no longer pie in the sky rhetoric, but proven scientifically. She is absolutely right!

This week we have an opportunity to drive this point home in Washington State.  There are currently two bills working their way through the Senate and the House.  These two bills will require Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to be labeled in Washington State. I am a huge proponent of GMO labeling and will be contacting my legislators about these bills.

This is going to be a fight, especially from the farming community and the biotech lobbyists.  They will be crying that the world will starve or that GMO labeling will put Washington farms at a competitive disadvantage.  Yes, it will put Washington farms on a different playing field, but this could be a good thing. Yes, a good thing, because it will make Washington a state where companies that want non-GMO ingredients for processing first in line, and there are plenty of countries around the world that have already restricted the sale/use of GMOs, further expanding the market potential.

Usually, I am more of a proponent of letting the market choose, but the GMO side has been using legislation to, dare I say, shove GMOs down our throat, and it is time use the legislative process to make them come clean and label their GMO products so the consumer has the right to choose.

Please join me and contact your Washington State legislators this week in support of these two bills: HB 2637 and SB 6298

To learn more about these two proposed bills, please visit http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e5hef8bfd71360f1&llr=h4hsqkiab 

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Face to Face

I often find myself appreciating the fact that I am alive now. I mean now, as in 2012. The technology available to us today, I never could have imagined would even be a possibility. Back in the 90s, when my dad installed a 12” long “car phone” in his silver Jeep, I thought we had arrived. Now, I find myself explaining to my children that the square shaped object with the circular cord on the desk in our hotel room is actually a phone. All they know are iPhones, and they think nothing of the fact that in an instant we can be talking to Grandma and Grandpa’s face on a 3” screen and then moments later they can return to their game on the same device as if what had just happened was really no big deal at all.

I utilize technology in order to help out with the task of managing a family of five. I often get groceries and produce delivered to my door. Now I realize deliveries have been occurring for centuries but Grandma never placed her order online at midnight only to have her groceries waiting for her when she woke up the next morning.

On an evening where I simply don’t feel like cooking I reach for the computer, tell it what I want and in under an hour dinner is at our door. I have even managed to build a social network around technology, creating deep friendships with many and some whom I’ve yet to meet.

I’m so grateful for many modern conveniences, as they’ve helped ease my burden in many areas of my life. But then I find myself in a room with real people – people who are more than just a ¼” avatar that shows me who I am talking to on Twitter. I see their expressions, I hear their inflections, I feel their touch, and I am reminded that there is never a replacement for the real thing.

Last year, Gabe and I had the pleasure of attending the 1st annual Farm to Fork dinner hosted by Klesick Family Farm. The room was ripe with conversation and studded with beautiful produce. Having had the privilege of sharing with you all for quite some time now through this newsletter, it was such an honor to meet many of you face to face and not just on Facebook.

To hear some of you say that you’ve made the recipes and enjoyed them made me smile for weeks after. To be able to come out from behind the computer and meet the farmers who tirelessly work to grow the produce that I, and I’m sure you as well, enjoy cooking with on a daily basis. It was an honor.

Technology is a blessing and has the ability to do great things, but it can never recreate the real life. I am so excited to be able to have the opportunity to attend the 2nd annual dinner. I’m eager to hear your favorite ways to use fennel and what vegetable you enjoyed for the first time this year. What recipe you can’t make often enough and what you are anxious to try. Most of all, I’m excited to meet more of you, face to face.

by Ashley Rodriguez
www.notwithoutsalt.com
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The Year in Review

Supporting Local Farms Since the inception of our home delivery business in1999, we have always focused on purchasing our fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers first. Every week, I contact my farmer friends to find out what they currently have available that I can add to our boxes. If I need to find more produce, I then source it from farms outside our area. As your personal farmer, I really appreciate your dedication to the local farm community. With your box of good purchases this last year, you have blessed several local farm families:

Bartella Farm, Beld Family Farm, Blue Heron Farms, Bunny Lane Fruit, Camano Island Egg Company, Filaree Farms, Hedlund Farms, Motherflight Farms, Munks Farm, Paul & Janice Madden Orchards, Ponderosa Orchards, Ralph’s Greenhouse, Rents Due Ranch, Skagit Flats Farm, and of course, the Klesick Family Farm.

Helping Local People Another core principle at Klesick Family Farm is to give back to our community. One of the ways we do this is by offering our customers the opportunity to donate a box of good to a local area food bank (Stanwood/Camano, Everett, Marysville, Monroe, Snohomish, Edmonds). For every four boxes donated by our customers, we donate an additional box. This year, with the generous support of our customers, Klesick Family Farm delivered over 808 boxes of good (approximately $19,950 worth of quality organic fruits and vegetables) to local area food banks! There is no way our farm could meet this need without your help. This is one of the most satisfying aspects of our business. I love meeting local needs with local resources! Thank you for partnering with us to meet this local need.

If you would like to join us in helping provide quality organic produce to local food banks, either give us a call or order a food bank box under the Boxes category of the Product page of our website.

Thank you for a great 2011! We look forward to next year!

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Second Annual Klesick Family Farm Dinner Party

From Farm to Fork: A Celebration of Real Food

In August we host our family farm festival and now we are hosting an elegant evening to connect in an adult-only venue.

Joelle and I are so excited to host our customers, farmers, and KFF team members for an incredible evening of great organic conversation and organic and non-GMO culinary masterpieces prepared by Chef Larry Fontaine.

This year we are having appetizers, a four-course meal with your choice of garlic roasted wild crab and shrimp or a vegetarian stuffed portabella. Last year, it was buffet style, but this year we are having it part family-style and individually served. Check out our Facebook page for all the details.

We are also going to have a panel of farmers so that each of you can get to know the other growers who make our boxes of good taste so incredible!
Sign up early! This is going to be an amazing evening.

Location: Edward D. Hansen Conference Center at the Comcast Arena, in Everett WA

Friday, January 20th
Four course meal, appetizers, and dessert
Cash organic wine & beer bar
Business attire
$45 per person
Order tickets online (in the Non-Food category
on our Products page) http://www.klesickfamilyfarm.com/main/order-non-food-items
or by giving our office a call 360-652-4663.
NOTE: You will need to specify if you’d like the Stuffed Portobella Mushroom Vegetarian or the Garlic-Roasted Wild Crab & Shrimp Seafood course when placing your reservations.

Schedule
6:30 Doors Open
7:15 Dinner
8:30 Q&A with Your Farmers
9:15 Ciao!

~ Tristan Klesick