Category: Newsletters

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Fiber

I have been chewing on fiber for the entire summer; literally grazing my way through the season on tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, apples, plums, carrots, etc. But fiber is hard to come by in the American diet. The primary reason that it is so hard to come by is because Americans process it out of most of our food. And since fiber is only found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains, most Americans are not getting even close to the recommended 20-30 grams a day, simply because most Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables.

So, as I have been farming this summer, I have been thinking about fiber and how that if Americans just tried to eat the recommended dietary fiber from unprocessed whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds (not bran muffins), it would radically change our nation’s health profile. If getting enough fiber became our goal, we would accomplish so much more because whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains provide all the other nutrients that are good for our bodies and ultimately our health.

There’s no shortage of research showing how fiber may boost your health. Following are a few of the top potential benefits associated with eating fiber, from an article titled The Health Benefits of Fiber (excerpted from www.mercola.com):

  • Blood sugar control: Soluble fiber may help to slow your body’s breakdown of carbohydrates and the absorption of sugar, helping with blood sugar control.
  • Heart health: An inverse association has been found between fiber intake and heart attack, and research shows that those eating a high-fiber diet have a 40 percent lower risk of heart disease.
  • Stroke: Researchers have found that for every seven-grams more fiber you consume on a daily basis, your stroke risk is decreased by 7 percent.
  • Weight loss and management: Fiber supplements have been shown to enhance weight loss among obese people, likely because fiber increases feelings of fullness.
  • Skin health: Fiber, particularly psyllium husk, may help move yeast and fungus out of your body, preventing them from being excreted through your skin where they could trigger acne or rashes.
  • Diverticulitis: Dietary fiber (especially insoluble) may reduce your risk of diverticulitis – an inflammation of polyps in your intestine – by 40 percent.
  • Hemorrhoids: A high-fiber diet may lower your risk of hemorrhoids.
  • Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): Fiber may provide some relief from IBS.
  • Gallstones and kidney stones: A high-fiber diet may reduce the risk of gallstones and kidney stones, likely because of its ability to help regulate blood sugar.

As your fiber faming farmer, I am convinced that if we ate the daily RDAs for fiber, we would be healthier and happier. Eating enough fiber is no small task, and taking a fiber supplement pill doesn’t accomplish the same as eating an apple because where you get that fiber is also important. I am more and more convinced that eating more organically grown whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds will go a long way towards living a vibrant life.

 

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Wish You had been Here

It was a normal work day here in the office at KFF, as we were getting ready for the next day’s deliveries, when a visitor knocked at our door. When she introduced herself as Marlene Smith, we knew immediately who she was. Marlene is from Pateros, WA, one of the communities in eastern Washington so affected by the devastating forest fires, and is married to Phil Smith, who pastors the Pateros Community Church. That’s the church KFF is partnering with to bring needed funds to the people of Pateros as they rebuild after this recent disaster. Marlene was visiting with her mother who lives here in Warm Beach less than a mile from our office! What a small world. Marlene came by to express her deep appreciation to all of you who are contributing to our Methow Valley Fire Relief Fund.

What stories Marlene had to tell. The Smiths had lost their own home in the fire, but the church, which was right next door, was saved. A young volunteer fighter arrived on the scene and thanks to her efforts and those of three other volunteer fire fighters, they were able to save the church, which sustained some minor damage but still stands. One of those fire fighters happened to be our “own” Bruce Henne, from Earth Conscious Organics (ECO) in Brewster, WA—the  people who grow your apples, pluots and cherries. Gratefully, ECO’s orchards were spared in the fire, even though the fire came to the very edge of their apple orchards. We also heard how one of the people in Pateros purchased the old grocery store in town and turned it over to the people coordinating fire relief efforts, so there would be a place for people to come and get help.

As we talked, I told Marlene about a phone call we had from a person who receives deliveries from us. When she heard that we were organizing fire relief efforts, she just had to call. She grew up in Pateros and went to Pateros High School. She was so thankful that funds were being sent to help the people of this community recover from the fire. She too adds her thanks to all of you who are helping.

Connections. That’s what amazes me. The very people we are trying to help way over in Pateros have family just down the road from our office! Bruce Henne, whom we have known for years and talk to every week, was directly involved in fighting the fires there. One of the people we deliver to every week grew up in Pateros. We’re not just sending money to who knows whom and to who knows where. We can put faces to the people we are helping. We’re connected. They’re real people with real needs.

I wish you could have been here to talk with Marlene yourselves. You would have seen the gratitude and appreciation she has for your generosity. You also would have felt the connection. The Smiths have lived in Pateros for nine years now and have come to love and care for the people there. They know the community and its needs first hand. We can be assured that the money being sent there is being put to good use.

Thanks to all of you who are contributing. Any of you can still do so by either going online (select “Giving” on our products page) or by contacting our office to either make a one-time contribution or make a recurring one. Together we can make a difference.

Mike Lama

KFF Customer Care

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The Kick

This time of year is the best! I love fall. Fall is when farmers, well at least fresh market farmers, are in that part of the race where you start your “kick” to finish the race well. By now most of us have been harvesting all summer and are tired. The summer harvesting is what pays the bills (e.g., weeding, fertilizer, seed, and labor), but now we are heading toward fall.

Every farmer I know has a bead on what the fall will look like in July. We can tell if the crops need water, weeding or some feeding, and based on these observations, reasonable expectations can be drawn. Nevertheless, getting the crops out of the field and into your boxes has a lot of variables in play. For the most part, however, farmers know how the fall is shaping up in July!

After getting through my son’s August wedding, I am turning my attention to the winter squash and potato crops. All summer I have been eyeing those delicatas, carnival, acorn, turbin, two kinds of sugar pie pumpkins and few cindarellas. I love growing squash. We plant it by the handful and harvest it by the truckload. All squash have an amazing yield and a diversity of flavors and cooking methods: baked, pureed, roasted, steamed, soups and pies. Hmm! Hmm! A few more weeks and we will be picking the first squash of the season.

Potatoes are a close second. This year we have four varieties: one yellow, two reds and a purple. Every year I am always surprised by the amount of potatoes under the “hills.” I know I planted them, but it just seems like a miracle every year. The kiddos and I head out and pull up a couple plants and there they are—big beautiful potatoes! The ritual just brings a smile to my face every time we do it. And now that I have a grandson, the tradition gets to continue!

Lastly, we are “harvesting” a new packing and processing facility in the City of Stanwood. It has been in the works for over a year, but it looks like we will be moving to the new facility in October.

Between the wedding and the building, plus all the farming, the final leg of this year’s race (aka, farm season) will surely require a little R&R. I just might need the whole winter to recover. Oops…got caught day dreaming! Back to work—there is still a lot to do before then!

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Freezing the Summer

The Klesick family has been in full freezing mode for the last few weeks and will probably continue here for the next few as well. Years ago, canners (those people who canned fruits and vegetables) would put up lots of jars for the winter food supply.  People canned meats, veggies, fruit and sauces when the items were plentiful and in season. The canners, for the most part, are a very small component of food buyers today. I know that a few of you still exist, so you can relate when I say that I can barely find a freestone peach to can anymore. Pickles have bucked that trend, however, and are still made every year, but most other canning items have fallen on “hard times.”

Ironically, the practice of canning has declined with our prosperity, stable electricity to run refrigerators and freezers, and a plethora of fruits and vegetables widely available all the time. Except for opening a can of black beans, I hardly even remember using a can opener—and we don’t even own an electric one—but when I was growing up it was the main kitchen gadget. I Still remember watching that can go round and round!

Today the Klesick family freezes and freezes and freezes. We freeze lots of berries, mangos, nectarines, peaches and grapes. The freezer has replaced the shelves of cans! It is not a perfect system – when the power goes out we NEVER open the freezers, and if it looks like it is going to be an extended outage we will fire up the generators.

The Klesick’s cannot be the only family in the off-season that enjoys a splash of summer on pancakes, or in hot cereal, or as a frozen treat. Joelle and I enjoy a green smoothie every morning and those frozen berries with fresh greens transport your taste buds right back to those “chin dripping” juicy peaches and nectarines of summer.

So, from now till the end of August, Klesick Family Farm is running a “Freezing the Summer” special! Check out the offerings in your email inbox, on Facebook and our website, and order a case or two of local summer goodness for your next delivery and start looking forward to winter

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Know Your Produce: New Potatoes

New potatoes are freshly harvested young, or small, potatoes. They have paper-thin skins and lots of moisture inside, and they tend to be sweeter than older potatoes (in much the same way that freshly picked corn is so much sweeter than cobs that have been sitting around for a few days). New potatoes are pure perfection in potato salads or simply boiled with a bit of butter and a few chopped herbs. Skins that are starting to flake away from the potato are fine – that’s the price of such youth and delicacy! New potatoes are freshly harvested and a bit of dirt just shows that they really are new potatoes and not just small potatoes.

Store: Because they have such thin skins and high moisture levels, new potatoes don’t keep as well as more mature potatoes. Keep them in a paper bag or loosely wrapped plastic in the fridge and use new potatoes within a few days of buying.

Don’t fall prey to the temptation to wash new potatoes before storing them. That bit of dirt clinging to their skins will actually help keep them fresh and any water on the outside will hasten bruising and softening.

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Disasters

UPDATE: 8/5/2014

Klesick Family Farm will be working with Pastor Phil Smith of Pateros Community Church in Pateros, Washington to engage in rebuilding our Eastern Washington neighbors’ lives. This local church is currently involved in distributing resources to people who have been adversely affected by these fires, and will be involved in the long-term process of rebuilding their community. If you would like to partner with us, you can add a $1, $5, or $10 donation to your deliveries or make a one-time donation, here.

7/30/2014

This has been a devastating disaster season for Washington State. The Oso mudslide earlier and now the Carlton Complex fire, which now has the dubious distinction of being Washington’s largest forest fire. As most of us know, due to the various media outlets, a good portion of the city of Pateros has burned, leaving another community with its world turned upside down.

I just spent an hour with our longtime friend and grower, Bruce, from Earth Conscious Organics (ECO) Farms in Brewster. Bruce is a volunteer firefighter and has been working around the clock trying to save people’s homes in and out of the city of Pateros. I was grateful to know that the ECO family of farms were spared from the fire, just skirting the Pink Lady block of apples. In fact, it appears that none of the farmers we work with in Eastern Washington have lost any of their farms. Thankfully, the loss of life with this disaster pales in comparison with the Oso mudslide; however, the magnitude of the disaster area is unreal and these farmers’ communities have been hit hard.

We have received a few phone calls asking if Klesick Family Farm will be doing a similar outreach to the one we did with the Oso/Darrington communities. The answer is, we are currently looking into how we can help. And based on our long-term relationships in some of the fire damaged communities, I am confident that we will be able to partner with a local nonprofit organization or church to help those communities rebuild their lives.

As with the Oso disaster relief outreach, we will want to be giving into these communities for a longer period. Currently, there are lots of dollars and supplies flowing into these communities, but we would like our efforts to extend beyond this initial blitz and be a “reminder that people still care in the months that follow.”

So, if you would like to partner with us as we engage in rebuilding our Eastern Washington neighbors’ lives, you can add a $1, $5, or $10 donation to your deliveries or make a one-time donation. We will diligently seek to locate an “on the ground” local nonprofit through our network of growers to get your donations to the most pressing need.

On a personal note, I want to thank you for trusting us with your family’s healthy food choice and also working with us to help others in need. You have shown yourselves to be a generous and giving family. And it leaves me humbled to work alongside each of you. May each of you be blessed as you have blessed others.

 

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Note: you can donate to the Methow Valley Fire Relief Effort on our website.  

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Farming

A few more days and we will be heading to August and then September and then October. This farm season seems a lot longer than years past. Maybe it’s just because the weather this year has felt more out of sorts with it getting hot in May, raining in June, and then blistering in July. I guess it has felt more like August and my farming clock is still adjusting.

Most crops have responded well to the heat, living off some of the earlier rains and our irrigation. The raspberries keep kicking out fruit, the strawberries are coming along, greenhouse cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are thriving and the green and yellow zucchini are over achievers.

Our late season crops, like potatoes and winter squash, look fabulous, which makes this farmer pretty happy. Now only if the sugar snap peas could have joined that list. Our pea harvest is normally double what it was this year, but with the hot weather the peas set a bunch of fruit and then quit!

The short harvest on the peas, while sad, will give us a little breathing room to catch up on some needed weeding and a little R&R. Hopefully, we can get our family into the canoes and out on the Stillaguamish River, which we find very relaxing, especially if you pay attention to the tides!

And just as that R&R comes to an end, it will be all hands on deck as we begin harvesting green beans! Ironically, we were well into picking beans by this time last year, but our first planting this year never got going during that cold spell in June, so technically, we are picking our second planting with the third well on its way.

Grandma always said, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” and we know that all too well, but that saying’s cousin, “Don’t count your chickens till they hatch,” is the kicker. For us, diversification of our crops helps this farmer to sleep a little deeper as the harvesting and farm season marches on!

I consider it a privilege to grow, source and deliver the freshest and healthiest fruits and vegetables for your family. Your purchases mean a lot to our local network of farmers and their families. Thank you!

 

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Farm Update

This is the part of the season where farmers are planting, weeding, and harvesting as well as planning for the next season. Last week, the harvest rotation was cucumbers, snow peas, snap peas, raspberries and zucchini. This week, we have the same harvesting schedule, but less of some and more of others. Raspberries will taper off, with peas, cucumbers and zucchinis kicking in to high gear. We will also be harvesting red leaf lettuce and kohlrabi and a few bunches of chives and sunflowers. Once the harvesting is finished, we have weeding, and lots of it.

Now we are adding irrigation. Irrigation—some farmers lovingly refer to it as “irritation” J. No water, no crops, no food—funny how that works. Fortunately, our soil has a good water-holding capacity, so we get by with a lot less “irritation” than most folks.

Wedding

Our second son, Aaron, has found the love of his life and asked her to be his wife. We are delighted to add Emily to our family and host their wedding in late August on the farm.

The wedding date has precipitated a change in our annual farm festival, which has traditionally been the third weekend in August. As parents and hosts of our son’s wedding, we have decided to change the festival to a series of educational farm walks and events.

So, in lieu of our annual farm festival, we are hosting two farm tours, a fun run (tentative), our squash fest and a garlic planting day. We are excited to share our love of farming and our farm with each of you through these fun, interactive and informative farm days. Each of the listed events are free to our customers, except the Harvest 5k Fun Run. If your school group, church group, book club, etc. would like to come see the farm on a different day, give the office a call and we would love to schedule a farm tour.

Schedule of farm events:

Friday, August 1st, 7pm and 8pm, 1 hour farm tour with wagon ride through the farm.

Thursday August 28th, 7pm and 8pm, 1 hour farm tour with wagon ride through the farm.

September 27th Harvest 5k Fun Run, supporting the Port Susan Food and Farming Center.

September 27th (same day as the Harvest 5k Fun Run) noon to 5pm. Come and help farmer Tristan harvest winter squash and potatoes.

October 12th Garlic Planting, 9am to noon. It will be a clove-popping, garlic-planting party.

See you this summer,

 

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Farm Update Wednesday

Every week for the last few months, I have been vlogging (video blogging) on Wednesdays about something on the farm.  It has taken me a few years to warm up to the idea of vlogging. I have been writing a weekly blog since 1998, but vlogging that took some coaxing. But eventually Marty, our social media and menu planner, was able to talk me into it. And she is quite faithful to send me reminders, but this week I beat her to the punch and sent one in before she even asked!

 

I have covered berries, apples, pruning, potatoes, chives, sunflowers, winter squash, and greenhouses. It has been a lot of fun to chronicle what is happening at that moment and what is going through my mind at that same moment. If you could hear the bloopers! I usually take three or four videos before I get an acceptable 45 – 60 second “winner”. I always seem to start with, “Hey, Klesick Family Farm customers, Tristan Klesick here……”  Last week, we talked about raspberries. This week’s topic will be decided on Wednesday morning, where I will find something that catches my eye and get to vlogging.

 

My hope is to communicate how we grow your food and the importance of growing good food.  It is about a way of farming that nourishes you physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our message is one of hope through good farming and good food, hope through good customer service and hope through being a part of a community that cares about the environment now and in the future.

 

So when Wednesday rolls around check out our Facebook and Twitter pages and see what is on my mind and what is growing on the farm!

 

See you Wednesday,

 

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What Are You Wearing?

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Handmade La Conner Laundry Soaps

Now that you’re on the road to better health by eliminating toxins that go into your body, what about the toxins you’re putting on your body?

Laundry detergents usually contain chemicals that are dangerous to the health and irritating to the skin. A residue of these chemicals remains on clothing after it is washed that then transfers to your skin. Clear evidence of this can be found in scented products, because chemical fragrances would be useless if they were simply washed out. Chemical fragrances are especially bad and are known for aggravating asthma. Laundry product manufacturers sometimes add formaldehyde to their formulas. Formaldehyde is carcinogenic, a skin irritant, and a respiratory poison.

We’ve recently come across a natural laundry soap crafted locally by Handmade La Conner that we are really excited to share with you. These ultra-concentrated laundry soaps are handmade in small batches, absolutely never using fillers, parabens, phosphates, chlorine, artificial colors or fragrances, making them ideal for those who have sensitive skin. They are safe for both septic systems and high-efficiency washing machines.

We are making this laundry soap available to you in these refreshing options: cedar & lemongrass, lavender, sweet orange, spicy citrus, as well as unscented (fragrance comes from pure organic essential oils). Each 16-ounce jar of this powdered soap will wash up to 64 loads of laundry in a high-efficiency washing machine. Order some today and take your detoxing efforts to the next level.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to check out the natural, skin-loving, earth-friendly soaps and lotions handcrafted by EcoSations available on our website.

 

Septic Cents™

Septic Cents™ is a liquid enzyme product that stimulates broad ranges of desirable microbe populations commonly found in septic tanks to ensure optimum performance from your septic system.

Benefits of Septic Cents™:

  • Reduces and liquefies contents of your septic tank and drainfield.
  • Reduces build-up of solid organic waste and allows it to flow freely through the leach bed.
  • Improves percolation and absorp-tion many times over, even in clay.
  • Helps eliminate messy back-ups.
  • Cleans and maintains drainfields, septic tanks, cesspools, pipes, and grease traps.

Visit the products page of our website for more information.

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