April = podcasts + zines
Friends! It’s mid-April! That’s solid spring, right? Tell that to the weather here in the Pacific Northwest please, because it hasn’t gotten the memo yet. Nonetheless, the cherry and plum trees are blooming, and when the sun DOES come out it’s certainly gorgeous.
I had a really big story to share with you this month — I even wrote a newsletter and everything — but things haven’t quite fallen into place to share it just yet. I thought about waiting a few more days, but I have other news I want to share anyhow. So! Consider this a teaser that my next newsletter will likely have some Very Big News! For now, here is some of what is happening around here these days …
Update on my farming + parenting book
I’m still deep in the work of drafting my farming and parenting book. I’ve been interviewing farmers from all over about their experiences and hearing diverse stories of how people have made these two different life roles work. Sadly, I don’t think I’m going to have time or space to connect with everyone who reached out to me, even though I very much want to! (If only books didn’t have word limits, I’d interview All The People!) But I am grateful for everyone who has offered to share their experiences! I can’t wait to share all of it with the world eventually, but there is still much to be done.
Podcasts!
In the meantime, if you want to dig into the topic of farming and parenting NOW, the new Growing for Market podcast recently featured two conversations between me and GFM editor Andrew Mefferd talking about how farmers address pregnancy, preparing for parenting, and childcare. You can find the podcasts wherever you get your podcasts or on the GFM website here — scroll down to Episodes 8 and 9.
(And, yes, I did post about these podcasts in January but there were some blips in the podcast launch that required them to be pulled and re-launched just recently. So if you wondered where those went, check again now!) The Growing for Market podcast has lots of other great conversations about farming in general. I’ve enjoyed every episode I’ve listened to so far — check it out!
Zine workshop coming soon
Oregon writers and creatives — there’s still time to register for Terroir, our locally grown creative writing festival coming up on Saturday April 29. The day is going to be loaded with good stuff, and my friend and zine-collaborator Rebecca Minifie and I will be leading a workshop on “Zines as a creative process.” We’ll be talking about how making little self-published pieces can help us break through blocks and have fun as creators!
We’re going to share some zine samples at our workshop and would love to have some local samples to share. Mail me your zines by April 22 to Katie Kulla, P.O. Box 1698, McMinnville OR 97128. Register for Terroir and find out more here.
April foods!
I already mentioned that it’s not so spring-like here in Oregon yet. No, it’s not. Days and days of cold rain have slowed down much of our spring progress on the farm.
I think we are officially in what I call “the pinch point” in the season — that’s the weeks sometime in mid-spring when our storage crops are running out and the spring-planted crops aren’t ready to harvest yet. Our food options are more limited now than in other time of the year, but we’re still eating from the farm every day. For fun, this week I drew a portrait of some of what we’re enjoying right now:
In addition to what I’ve pictured here, there are other foods that can get us through the annual “pinch point”: volunteer mustard greens (we always have these growing somewhere!), leeks, purple sprouting broccoli (we already ate all of ours — yum!), over-wintering cauliflower, hazelnuts, and walnuts.
What are YOU eating these days? Let me know!
With gratitude,
Katie