Category: Words from Tristan

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I will never forget…

How would you finish that sentence? I will never forget the first time I met my spouse? I will never forget the day my child was born, went to college or got married. I will never forget the stranger (or at least someone I didn’t know) who pushed our car out of the snow.
 
Some “I will never forget moments” are sad, heart-breaking, and filled with grief.  It might be the news of cancer or a heart attack. Every family has buried someone dear: a friend, a spouse, a family member, a child.  
 
For some, their “I will never forget” memory is when a soldier, an officer, or pastor/priest knocks on their door to say what they already knew in their heart. It is that “I will never forget” memory that we are remembering this week. America is memorializing that ultimate sacrifice for freedom that has left an unfilled void in our families, communities, and country. I have never experienced that “knock” on the door, but for those of you who have, my heart goes out to you.  
 
The Bible reminds us that there is no greater love than to lay your life down for another. Those who have died serving others have demonstrated this love. May we never forget and may we honor those who have never come home to their loved ones and may we show compassion to those who have had to stand in the whirlwind of that loss.
 
America has been, is being, and will be shaped by our collective “I will never forget” memories.
 
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Tomatoes

I have been getting used to using our new greenhouses. (In actuality, they are giant cold frames.) I have noticed that the crops closest to the door are smaller and, well, not quite as happy as the other ones in the back.  I keep the door open all the time, so I am pretty sure the initial breeze is making the difference. I will try and keep the door partially open and see if the tomatoes like it better. The plants are setting fruit and I just finished suckering (pruning) them.  
 
Suckers are the branches that sprout in the crotch of the main stem and a branch, if you don’t take those suckers off they will cause the plant to produce a lot of little tomatoes. Remember that a plant’s sole purpose is to reproduce or make seed, it is not concerned with the size of the fruit, but just making seed. So as a farmer, I try to manage the plants’ desire to produce seed by controlling how much fruit it produces, which forces the plant to put more energy into fewer fruits. Suckering makes the tomatoes larger since they are getting more attention from the plant. And just when the plant thinks they have produced enough seed, I pick the fruit and put in your box of good☺. By pruning to limit tomato production and timely harvesting, I am able to work with the tomatoes’ desire to make more seed and keep producing more fruit over a longer harvest.
 
In the other greenhouse, I am growing sugar snap peas, but don’t ask me why I am doing that though. On a whim, I planted some extra seed from my field plantings. Now I need to get busy trellising them before Jack, in Jack and the Bean Stalk, switches to climbing pea vines.
 
We still have a long ways to go before any tomatoes or peas will be ready, but when they are, they will be coming your way!
 
Growing good food,
 
 

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Farming has Begun in Earnest

We are especially busy this spring. Normally we have our usual spring farm work, getting the ground ready for vegetables, and that usually takes most of our time. This year, however, we have added replanting one of our pastures to the list of spring work, which essentially doubles the amount of land we have to work. We are getting it done, but we only have so much equipment and it has to be spread around and used in different areas.

 
I decided to replant the pasture and rejuvenate it about four weeks ago. I was hoping to get a jump on replanting in early April and have the grass available in mid-June for the beef cows to graze. With all the rain, that plan hasn’t worked out very well. Now I am hoping to plant this week for grass to graze in late July. Farming is like that—you make your best choice and move on.  
And we are moving on. The season doesn’t wait and there is lots of work to do every day, week, month and season. All I know for sure is that now is the time to plant and planting we are.
 
 
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Breaking out the Hammock

 

I just couldn’t resist. The weather was gorgeous, the day lazy and it was begging to happen. I try to keep Sundays as a day of rest, and for the most part I have been successful. Even with this nice weather, I still try to make Sundays a family day. Really, every day is a family day, but the other six are a mix of ballet, soccer, track, school and work. Yet somehow and some way we get through every day, so Sundays we rest and play to get ready for the upcoming week.

Naturally, I went into the barn and found the hammock and practiced resting in it J. I wasn’t overly successful, because my kiddos (and they know who they are) kept asking for a turn every 5 minutes and when you have as many kiddos as I do, every 5 minutes takes a half an hour to cycle through the requests. I was determined, but they were more determined and outnumbered me. Eventually, I found myself sharing the hammock or being swung in it and, to their glee, almost out of it! Of course, it was a lot of fun and served as a distraction so Joelle could enjoy her time in the sun (a “bonus” mother’s day gift). That hammock is a magnet for laughter, memories and fun, which are the best gifts a parent can ask for, save the “sea” sickness, of course.

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Farming and family life are uniquely intertwined. Of course we all have to eat ☺, but the imagery, the metaphors the seasons of life are likened to farming. How precious is the seed of life that only a mom gets the privilege to understand? Seeds travel a similar journey from planting, to growing beneath the soil, to emergence. As a farmer, I am always waiting for the day the seeds appear, yes there are tell-tale signs, but oh the excitement when the seeds emerge.
 
As a father, I have been through that same season with my wife many times and every time it is exciting—the anticipation of waiting for your new precious little one to come. And they do come and they do grow up. 
 
We guide these little plants through thorns and thistles, stress and droughts, warm weather and gentle showers, always believing, hoping and eager for their future to unfold like May blooms on the lilac tree. All the while knowing that there will bumps in the road, but we continue to believe and hope and pray often with unbending devotion and unfailing love. 
 
For all you mothers, thank you for your sacrifice, your service and your love. Our community, our nation and our world is a better place because you have chosen motherhood.
 
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Hang On To Your Hats, It's Time To Farm!

Hang on to your hat, because these next few weeks are going to be a class 5 kayak ride!  We were behind a few weeks ago, but now we are getting nervous.  If the weather doesn’t break soon so that the rain lets up, I won’t be harvesting anything until August.  At least we have snuck in (mudded in) a few plants in between rain storms. Our first plantings of peas are up and our second plantings are just emerging. The strawberries and raspberries are sending out new leaves every day and those two nice weekends we had gave the bees enough warmth to get out and work in the orchard.   Now,it is a waiting game to see if (and how much of) the fruit will set. 

After last year’s horrible spring, I decided to diversify and plant some more perrienels , like raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, plums as well as herbs.  Even the beef help to mitigate springs like these. Every season has its ups and downs, challenges and triumphs. By diversifying we are able to cover expenses and even out the waves of life or seasons.  Looking forward to calm waters ahead.

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Please no more false starts

This Monday was the day to plant. After two serious days of rain on Thursday and Friday, the fields began to dry out, allowing us to move forward with planting shallots, beets, spinach, and round two of sugar snap peas. It is still early, but we aren’t getting greedy. The farming season is a long one and while getting out of blocks early does help, it isn’t a make it or break it deal. 

But with that said, the race has begun. The fruit trees are just about to “pop” and then we will have apples, plums, pears, and dandelions??? in blossom. I love this season, even with its erratic weather, because everything just wants to grow.

We have several farm trials going on this year, so I hope you can make it out to our Farm Festival on August 18th to see what is going on. We are doing a compost trial with Cedargrove and WSU extension, some Chinese medicinal herbs with Eastern Asian Medicinal Practitioners, some test plots on strip tillage, double digging, and soil microbe applications. I didn’t think this was going to be an overly busy year, but after typing this list I already feel tired J.

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Beef…the way it was meant to be

The good food community is making a difference! Thanks to committed “foodies” and connoisseurs of fine food, “pink slime” is being removed from the market place. And it is not because our beloved USDA or federal government had an issue with the product, but because the consumers spoke up and said, “Enough !”

Last week, Tyson Foods told their major investors to expect a 2-3% drop in sales because of the pink slime issue, and AFA in Pennsylvania, the major supplier (producer) of pink slime, filed for bankruptcy. 
The loss of this “filler” product is going to further cut into the shortage of American beef animals because pink slime was made of beef scraps and then added to hamburger. Without pink slime being added as a filler, it means that more beef will have to be used to replace the loss of this product. Also, because of the drought in the Southwest over the last few years and really high grain prices, many beef operations sold out and got out. The grain prices have been high for lots of reasons, but the primary reason is that a lot of grain is now being grown for ethanol and when farmers compete against automobiles we usually lose.
Ironically, the consumer is the biggest loser. When the cost of fuel increases, so does the cost of food. When farmers have to pay higher fuel prices then it costs more to produce, harvest and get our food to market. Fuel is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and it takes a huge bite out of everyone’s budget.
 
Thankfully, there is an alternative to rising fuel costs and grain-fed meat. Klesick Family Farm has been working with local family farmers since we began in 1997. We have a great network of farmers that care about their animals and raise them with dignity.  And because we are a local grass-based farm and work with other local grass-based farms, we are not contributing to the craziness of petroleum and its world politics. But even more importantly, we are not supporting the unhealthy GMO grain world and our cows are not beholden to Monsanto in any way, shape or form.
 
We still have shares of 2012 grass-fed lamb and beef available. A quarter share of beef is approximately 90 lbs. of meat, filling about two shelves of a large upright freezer, and costs around $6/lb. Imagine that! You can get locally raised, all natural grass-fed hamburger and T-bone (100% true beef) for $6 a pound. By purchasing beef the way it was meant to be, you are not only supporting local farms, but also sending an important message to Monsanto, Tyson Foods and other mega food companies!
 
If you haven’t ordered local meat from our farm or network of local farmers, it is easy, healthy and straight forward. Just click on the meat page at our website or call the office and we can walk you through the process. 

 
In support of local farms and real food,

 
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Annual “Share the Good” Contest!

It’s our annual Share the Good Contest! Refer your friends and win! Refer your friends to our delivery service and you’ll be entered into our contest for the chance to win a 5-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator (a $238.86 value)!

How it works: The contest takes place March 26 through April 30, 2012. When the person(s) whom you refer to our service signs up for delivery, they must give your name as the person who referred them. When we receive a referral from you, we will enter your name into the drawing for the chance to win. For each additional referral you send our way, your name will go into the drawing in addition to any previous referrals entered within the drawing period.
For example:

Refer 1 person: your name will be entered into the prize drawing once.
Refer your 2nd person: your name will be entered two more times, additional to the previous entry.
Refer your 3rd person: your name will be entered three more times, additional to the other entries, etc.
Refer 4 or more people, and, in addition to having your name entered into the drawing, you will receive a special gift! It’s our way of saying, “Thank you!”

We will choose the winner through random selection on April 30th, 2012. The winner will be notified immediately thereafter.
There will be a second prize for the runner-up: a wonderful gift basket full of delicious organic goodies, arranged by Lori, of Middleton Organic Specialty Foods.

Now for the small print:
• You must be a customer to win.
• Your referral person must actually sign up and place an order to qualify. New customers who create an account, but do not place an order within the March 26-April 30 time period do not qualify as a referral.
• For each person you refer, you will still receive one of our standard referral gifts as a thank you.
We are excited about making your referrals more rewarding! So spread the word and share the good!

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One Family, One Person

I have figuratively been chewing on a piece of alfalfa lately, mulling over how I can—our farm can—make a bigger impact in our local community in our fight against cancer, heart disease, and other health issu es. These diseases are classified by some as being diet and lifestyle-related. Change…it all comes down to change. Changing the way we think, the way we live and the way we eat.

If you, a friend or family member are fighting one of these diseases, you are literally in a fight for your health and your family’s health. This means our community is in a fight for health, which means our state is in the fight and our nation, as well. As I lean on my hoe and contemplate, “What can I do?” I realize that the answer to the question is a question: “What can we do?”

You have already made a huge choice to change—you get a delivery of fresh, healthy, nutrient-rich foods. You are intentional about eating better and in that intentional choice you have improved your family’s health. You have saved time, money, farmland, you have shored up local farm infrastructure and you have sent a message to Corporate America that you are not buying their products. You have also helped our farm support several other local farms which has turned into to more local jobs. Wow, just by getting a delivery of local food, you accomplished all that. All of these benefits come because of one intentional choice, a choice to be a part of the solution, a choice to get a box of good!

I want to thank you for your intentional choice to partner with us, but I want to do more. I want to expand our ability to reach out to those families and that one person, who is fighting for their health.

KFF has personally funded our Healing through Nutrition program with $1000, but we are looking for others to join us as partners in healing.

You can join us in several ways:

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.

Your farmer and partner in good health,

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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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Healthy by Choice

Joelle and I just got back from two power packed days of good farming information. Yes, the information was good, but I am talking about how to farm to produce good food. We went with three other growers who work with us. It is nice to be saturated with material that gives information on how to work with nature. One would think that working with nature would be a “duh,” but in the world of agriculture most farmers are at war with nature.

This conference was hosted by Tainio Technologies (makers of Biogarden products). I have been using their products for years. Instead of better farming through chemistry, they focus on better farming through working with and enhancing nature’s biological systems. And you know what, it works, hands down, bar none with better yields (important) and healthier food (more important).

Growing healthy food is my passion. I am obsessed with feeding my soil everything it needs, so it (the soil) can feed the crops everything they need, so I can come back later and harvest nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables for your box of good. The soil is everything! If your soil is rich in nutrients, so is your food. And isn’t that the goal—nutrient-rich food that feeds our bodies, brains, circulatory system, etc.?

We have to eat and we are going to eat, so why not choose food that is alive and bursting with nutrition! Of course I am talking to the choir, since you are already getting your box of good. But what about your neighbor, associate or other family members? Referrals are the best source to build our healthy food communities. As our consumers increase, we are able to grow more food and also support more farms. We can make a bigger impact in our local food bank systems and we can take a bigger bite out of the GMO food world.

Your referrals have a huge impact. As a thank you for every referral we will send you a “Thank You” gift and your friend who signed up a welcome gift. And to top it off, Mike gets to call you and say, “Thanks!”—those of you who have had a conversation with Mike know how special that is.

Our farm and company are committed to only offering food that is GMO free. Eat away!

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Winter: a time to reflect

The farm is anything but quiet during this time of year. The trains rumble by, the coyotes join in the chorus and trumpeter swans trumpet as their wings carry them barely above the house. Ah…the sounds of a farm at rest.

The pruning is finished and if all goes well there will be lots of pears, apples, plums and raspberries. The garlic is making its presence known as the sentinels of the garden. The potatoes have been ordered and other seeds are on their way.

We are installing two new greenhouses this winter in attempts to provide more local food earlier and later for you. We are busy fixing fences, building fences and getting ready for the grass-fed beef to arrive in April. In addition to mending fences, we are making compost and servicing our equipment. Right now we are focusing on the things we know that need repairing and we will worry about what we don’t know later, when it becomes obvious (sigh).

But mostly, winter for us is the calm before the storm. It is the warm up before the symphony begins—lots of tuning of the strings and tightening of the bows. For me, it is the time (lots of time) I spend with my children, reading and reading and reading and playing lots of games—right now mainly Mexican train dominoes and Settlers of Catan.

I am purposely investing in them, because I know that in a few weeks to a month the weather is going to change. We are going to be farming and outside from sun up till sun down. We will still have lots of fun as a family, but it will be busy fun, not the quiet fun that we get to have right now. Thankfully, the transition from winter to spring is a gracious one and gradually comes upon our farm like the incoming tide. But I also know that our younger children will become young adults before I know it and I want to enjoy them as much as I can now.

I am looking forward to tomorrow evening when my kiddos pick a book out and we all somehow, four or five of us, will snuggle into that easy rocking chair and read together.

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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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All Natural Lamb & Pork for Sale

Our friends, Ken and Kathryn at Horse Drawn Produce on Lopez Island, have again offered to make their premium family-raised all natural grass-fed lamb and non-GMO pork available to our customers! We are really excited to be able to offer these quality locally raised products. Ken and Kathryn are excellent farmers, but even more important to us is their sincere commitment to sustainable, healthy farming. It is their way of life, not their job.

The reason I am willing to offer Ken and Kathryn’s lamb is because it is grass-fed and their pork because it is only given organic feed. Every other farm that markets their animals as natural or whatever and does not specify them as organically fed, has actually fed them GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) corn, soybeans and canola—and hogs, in particular, eat a lot of grain. And lastly, hogs are one of the farm animals that are getting a lot of genetic modification research and I want to support real hogfarming on real family-friendly farms. If you are interested in supporting some local hog farming, here is your opportunity.  The hogs are sold by the half and whole shares and will be available in mid June. The lamb is available only as a whole share, so smaller portions will not be available.

For more information or to place your order for lamb and pork, either give our office a call or visit the Meat category under the Products page of our website.

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From Farm to Fork – A Celebration of Real Food

You are Invited to our Second Annual Dinner Party!

Welcome to 2012!  I can’t speak for you, but it is time for me to take a deep breath after racing through the Holiday season! Youknow—to stop and enjoy some quiet time before the farming starts to demand my attention again.

I have been watching Cinderella with my little ones, and I have to admit, I am enamored with Cinderella’s pumpkin. So much so, that I plant them every year. Last year, I called up Osborne Seed in Mt. Vernon and ordered my Cinderella pumpkin seed. And Ada, bless her heart, asked me, “Which type of Cinderella pumpkin seed?” In my naiveté I didn’t realize that Cinderella had her own personal line of pumpkins. Of course, being a purist and true to Disney’s original Cinderella, I order the Rouge de Estampes (French) variety—the beautiful flat reddish orange type. Their taste is rich and they are so beautiful.

Klesick Family Farm is bringing a little of that Disney wonder and excitement to our From Farm to Fork dinner party on the 20th of this month. We are going to be having Cinderella Pumpkin Bisque soup. And while Chef Larry Fontaine and his team aren’t using magic wands to transform these Cinderella pumpkins from my farm to your plate, he is using his repertoire of culinary skills to delight our palettes.

Please join Joelle and I at Comcast Arena at Everett for an elegantly catered evening connecting with KFF team members, farmers, vendors, and other customers. This is a great opportunity to converse in an adult-only venue while savoring organic, non-GMO culinary masterpieces prepared by Chef Fontaine.

This year we will enjoy appetizers and a four-course meal with your choice of Crab Stuffed Wild American Shrimp or a Garlic Herb Grilled Vegetable Stuffed Portabella. There will also be a cash organic wine and beer bar.

We will also have a panel of farmers so that each of you will have the opportunity to connect with those who make our boxes of good taste so incredible!

Last year we sold out quickly, so order your tickets early! This is going to be an amazing evening.

We look forward to sharing the evening with you!