the Kimchi Couple: Summer CSA Week #3

 In CSA Newsletter

Eva, Alex, and I Transplanting with our Babies

In February of 2008, Mike and I sat down at a coffee shop on Johnson St. in Madison and interviewed Eva for a position on our farm. She was the first employee we ever had – and one of the best. She worked with us through 2015.

The Eva era encapsulates such huge milestones for our farm and family. Mike and I married in the fall of 2008 – Eva’s first year with us. She attended our wedding. In May of 2009, 9 months pregnant, Eva was driving our Hydro tractor to help us transplant, just days before her labor began.   I attended her labor and watched her daughter, Asha enter the world.  That summer season, I was pregnant with Zea. Together we worked in the shed at the Pioneer fields; me with a baby inside, her with a baby strapped to her back on the outside.

By the 2010 season, Zea was 7 months old; her daughter, Asha, a year. Together we worked at the farm, washing vegetables and d0ing all the upright work together. I have indelible memories of the two baby girls together on our backs and in play pens.  We strapped them on our fronts and did spring transplanting.  Asha and Zea played in the dirt as we harvested garlic that year. They smashed raspberries into their mouths. They played in splashing water and gummed cucumbers.

By the end of that season, with our babies now toddlers, the girls were getting into everything and our time of working with our daughters on our backs on was mostly over.

Eva transitioned to working farmer’s markets with me on Saturday mornings starting in 2011. For five years we did that work together.  She is well loved by many of our customers who came to know and love her vibrant, warm, loving energy. And no one, I mean no one can sell a salad turnip like Eva can.

On Saturday we had the honor of attending Eva’s wedding.  She found her love, Caleb, and together they are starting their own farming enterprise in Argyle.  They are raising sheep for meat and growing vegetables to make kimchis and krauts.  As one of their loved ones so aptly declared, as a couple they are like kimchi. Beautiful raw cabbages- both amazingly beautiful and delightful on their own. But joined together with a little salt and a little spice, time, and a healthy environment -a beautiful ferment is created. And such a beautiful couple they are.

Mike and I are so very happy for the kimchi couple.  Eva has been with us through our own union, and the growth of both our farm and family.  May she and Caleb find an equally wonderful friend and colleague in Argyle to shepherd them through their own creation of farm and family.

Cheers,

Farmer Cassie

 

In the Box:

  • Basil
  • Broccoli
  • Cabbage, Green
  • Cucumbers
  • Fennel
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Strawberries
  • Zucchini

REGS only:

  • Beets
  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Pearl Onions

EOs only:

  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Scallions

Recipes:

  1. Ground Pork with Cabbage and Apples
  2. Cabbage Beet Coleslaw
  3. Beet Fennel Soup with Yogurt
  4. Beet Greens with Raisins and Pine Nuts
  5. Orzo Cooked Risotto-Style with Shiitake Mushrooms and Garlic Scapes
  6. Chicken Zoodle Soup
  7. Strawberry Oat Muffins
  8. Shaved Fennel, Mushroom and Parmesan Salad
  9. Pasta Primavera
  10. Yogurt, Mustard, Cabbage Curry

Wednesday, June 22nd: Everyother Group A