Dear Earthly Delights Farm Friends,
Greetings from the frosty north! I hope this finds you warm and cozy, with a belly full of good food. I wanted to share a little update on my progress as well as about the farm. I’m currently in my last week of winter break from school, starchily working my way through the fall CSA share. The biggest breakthrough for me on the winter eating front this year is this Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai, shared by CSAer Anna. It’s So. Stinking. DELICIOUS!
Kendra and I are hard at work making crop lists for the season, planning our garden-in-a-box and fall CSA offerings as well as our Snake River Seed Co-op seed crops. It’s looking to be a yummy year! We’re going to offer the same farm options as last year (Garden-in-a-box, Fall CSA, and Happy Homesteader) to keep it manageable for Kendra as she does the opposite of what she did last year. After working alongside me until August, she commenced kicking ass and finishing the season out by herself as I headed off to school. Now, she’ll be starting the season alone, and I’ll be joining her when I graduate this August! Signups are now open for all our offerings, so please consider joining us this year!
I am very grateful to Kendra and to all of you for this opportunity to step away from the farm for a season and ponder my next move. I know once February hits and I’m not seeding in the greenhouse for the first time in 16 years I’ll feel quite discombobulated and sad, but this adventure is totally worth it. Last semester I took a bunch of place-based education classes and explored the research proving the many benefits that come from learning about and from the land that sustains us. I’ve had the opportunity to explore several models for incorporating educational offerings into an organization, and have spent far too many hours leading 5th and 6th graders on science and educational outings in Ponderosa Park (ahem, not exactly my cup of tea).
This coming semester the classes I’m most excited about are winter ecology and science communication. In winter ecology, we learn about how animals and plants survive the winter. In science communication, we get to explore what has for many years been my passion: how to fuse storytelling and art to help folks connect with scientific concepts and fall in love with the world around them. We’ll also have the opportunity to help the city of McCall develop a Climate Action Plan.
Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways I’m getting from MOSS is the confidence to see that the work we’ve been doing all these years has real value, and this on-the-ground experience is respected institutionally, which presents exciting opportunities for us as a group of like-minded individuals to influence Boise’s growth and development in ways that provide meaningful contact with the natural world we are wholly dependent on.
I realize this may sound abstract, and you may be shouting while reading this, “Casey, get on with it! When are you going to offer a full-season CSA and/or internship program again?!” I hear you. It is also unsettling for me not to know yet exactly where all this is heading. But I’m certain it is the right next step. So please hang in there with us. Incorporate the Garden-in-a-box and/or Fall CSA into your lives if you can, and I’ll see you when I return this fall!
Happy New Year!
Casey