‘Twas the weekend before Thanksgiving and all through the farm, not a creature was stirring, not even a turkey. The turkeys are not stirring, or pecking, or gobbling, or chirping, or calling and responding because they can’t do any of those things inside the freezer. Our freezers –two of them – are packed to the max; the chickens, lamb, pork, corn, and berries all had to shift around to make room for a few turkeys. Did you know that all organic vegetable farmers are not necessarily vegetarians? Not these ones anyway. I wish I could put a turkey in each of your boxes this week, but I can’t. It would be against the rules. Whose rules? The Washington State Department of Agriculture grants us a permit to process up to 1000 chickens for direct sales on farm only. The original draft of the rule included the word “poultry”, but somehow a mistake was made and the word became “chicken” in the final rule. There is potential for the rule to be changed in the next few years, but until then, might I suggest a Thanksgiving Chicken for your table? Or maybe a nice roast celeriac if you were thinking vegan?

With the notable exception of the Turkey, I did try to fill your boxes with everything I thought you might need for a Thanksgiving Feast. Pie Pumpkin for making Pie, Potatoes to mash, celery and onion for the stuffing. Farmer Colin really went the extra mile sorting and culling his way through the remains of the celery patch. The Celery plants did not stand up to frost the way I wish they would. Is the word “culling” familiar to all of you? I only ask because it wasn’t to me before my farming work. I might guess that it were some sort of fancy boat rowing if I didn’t know from years of experience that it is the practice of taking out the unsightly vegetable specimens so that only the most lovely ones go to market or CSA boxes. We often receive compliments on our beautiful produce and sometimes it seems to be implied that we are super duper farmers who grow only the best. Sometimes we admit to our ruthless culling practices, other times we just smile and say thanks. We love to be encouraged. So, the word cull is both a verb and a noun. Because we cull, we eat the culls. Culls are often good enough to eat but not good enough to sell.