Karl's Farm

2012 was an historic year for weather on the East Coast: a severe drought followed by a late-season hurricane. Throughout it, Karl and Paula managed (with no small amount of scrambling) to keep our weekly baskets full of a variety of vegetables. The year was yet another object lesson in the advantages of having a CSA subscription: you have a personal stake in the weather and a more intense awareness of the impact of weather on the food on your table. Kudos to Karl and Paula for coming through under such trying circumstances.

Each year of the CSA encourages the development of new skills to manage the variety and abundance of vegetables that appear at our door,and to extend the year beyond its formal December close. This year I learned to pickle and was surprised by how easy it is. We have jars of pickled turnips, beets, rutabagas, daikon, okra and jalapenos to see us through the winter, as well as pastes made from greens sauteed with shallots in our freezer, to use in sandwiches, pastas and soups.

This is our fourth year with Karl and Paula's CSA and there is no question that we will be signing up for a fifth. And a sixth. And a seventh...