Dear Mr. Sendak,

I have packed a wooden ruler in my box of supplies for the Farmers Market.  I never again will be without it… or without you, of course, even though my heart must adapt to your more cosmic body.

I spent hours and hours of childhood hiding in a corner of my grandparents’ house, wandering inside your illustrations for Ruth Krauss’s books.  I liked the lack of borders.  I liked that the kids had big heads and were playing hard.   Later, Max and Mickey became good friends of mine.  I grew up in a time when a child still could get lost for long hours anywhere as long as she or he made it home for dinner.  Your books made sense when the grown-ups around me were acting like monsters.

As a young grown-up, I spent hours and hours looking at your drawings.  For relief.  For hope.  You achieved a quality of line that is playful but serious.  As a bookseller, not a heck of a lot made me happier than handing someone a copy of one of your books and explaining why it might be a window into a new world.  Of relief.  Of hope.

I landed in NYC with Oregon moss on my shoes, two suitcases, nowhere to live, and a couple of lines on my face already.  I jammed up the phone lines at the youth hostel on Amsterdam Avenue and walked all over the city to figure out how to work in the world of children’s book publishing. HarperCollins came through, and it became my honor to send a Wild Thing around the country to support your work.

I helped on some other projects and learned how important rulers and pencil lines can be.  I tried really hard to understand every centimeter of what was being explained to me, but ultimately I failed at HC and with your editor.  My passion for your work and how it had changed my own life wasn’t enough in that environment.  I couldn’t separate enough from what Jack and Guy meant to me to look carefully enough at the borders that framed them in the advertisements.

So I left HarperCollins and then left NYC soon after.  I never left you, though, dear Mr. Sendak.

After I failed at HC, I kept trying to get back to center.  What is true?  Well, “a hole is to dig.”  Even though lions chase through my head, sometimes a forest can grow in a room, right?  “The ground is to make a garden.”

So I did make that garden.

And as Ms. Krauss would say, “ooie ooie ooie ooie ooie ooie ooie…  and Everybody’s yelling for more More MORE.”

Curious Farm wouldn’t exist without you.  Thank you for it all.  Even though.  In any case.  All of it.  Every jar of sauerkraut I make is a tribute to you.  And you know why.  Thank you.

Last year we experimented with a jar return program at the Curious Farm booth.  It went well.

Now that Curious Farm products are available at retail outlets, I’ve been trying to figure out how to create a jar return program that would be as inclusive as possible.

When you have empty Curious Farm jars and bottles, bring them back to our booth at the Beaverton Farmers Market, and I’ll give you 50 cents for each of them.

This includes Curious Farm products that you may have purchased at New Seasons Market or at Food Front Co-op.

Please understand that I only can take back bottles and jars for Curious Farm products.

Not all kimchi is scorchingly hot.  This is a picture of Curious Farm’s Spring Harvest Kimchi — uncrocked today and soon to be available at the Beaverton Farmers Market.  It’s sour, crunchy, and refreshing.  Most of its heat comes from lively ginger.  Garlic and chili flakes play minor roles.

We also offer two radish kimchi: Curious Farm Spicy Radish Kimchi and Curious Farm Sweet Radish Kimchi.  (The Spicy Radish Kimchi variety is available also at Food Front on NW Thurman Street.)

While I love making all of the products we offer, making kimchi is pure joy from start to finish.  I love the bright, zingy flavors in each variety of kimchi.  Each batch of kimchi seems like a flavor snapshot of a particular moment in the season.

Do you remember the fairy gate we made?  More than two years ago, the crape myrtle suffered wind damage so we kept her shed branches.  They had so much character that we decided to create the Fairy Gate.

And then there was this later in the summer:

And now there is this:

This was taken today, two years after the first photo — E missing her two front teeth and wearing the same shirt as almost two years ago.

Remember, though, that last year I found that a volunteer rose had come up at the base of the fairy gate? 

And here is that rose today:

And again from a different perspective:

While I love the images that show how my daughter has grown, I also am so touched by this rose that grew on her own right next to the fairy gate.  She grew in the middle of a bed of brassicas.  She hasn’t flowered yet, but I think she’s a dog rose or a climbing rose of some kind.  These small miracles keep me going.  How could a climbing rose know to grow right there, where she could stretch happily over some old branches?  I think the fairies planted her. 

Magic is afoot at Curious Farm. 

Even though I’ve made thousands of pounds of sauerkraut, I hold my breath when I open up a crock after two months.  Sometimes I even avoid opening up crocks for a day or two if I don’t feel “up” for crushing disappointment.  There’s always a risk of that.

But here is today’s gorgeous sunshine:  a new, delicious batch of Curious Farm Ginger-Turmeric Sauerkraut.  This particular batch will be in jars at Food Front Co-op this week (Thurman Street store only) and at the Beaverton Farmers Market in May (soon!  soon!  can’t wait to see you all again!).

Hope you find sunshine in your day, too!

We’re thrilled to announce that two customer favorites — Curious Farm Leek-Horseradish Sauerkraut and our magenta-hued Pink Lady Sauerkraut — are now available at New Seasons Market stores on the west side (Cedar Hills, Orenco, Progress Ridge, and Raleigh Hills).  Look for these sauerkrauts in the refrigerated cases near the dairy section in each store.

Do you have this growing in your yard, too?  It’s called bittercress or popweed, and I love it in salads.  We’re going to eat this particular lovely and a few of her friends tomorrow night.  It tastes like watercress or arugula, and it is a wild brassica (cousin to broccoli and cabbage).  The texture — raw, in salads — is springy and fun.

Look!  The lovage is peeking up (red spears below) – just in time for Spring!

And Hello, Rhubarb!

This is its first full year here, and it’s growing nicely on the herbal lawn with the clover, yarrow, and dandelions.  Someday its proud red stalks will be a structural element in the front yard — and a pickling ingredient, too.

Happy almost spring!

Friends, I’ve been busy.  As of today, 600 pounds of sauerkraut ferment happily in the Curious Farm Pickle Lab.  The Beaverton Farmers Market begins on Saturday, May 12th.  Since Curious Farm Sauerkraut takes two months to ferment, this week is the beginning of our Market production season.

I miss the Market so much.  I miss your stories about Aunt Glinda’s and Grandma Ruth’s pickles and how you helped these treasured relatives. I miss glimpses of the gorgeous produce in your bags as you walk by.   I like getting up at an ungodly hour to watch the magic of a vibrant Market  building itself in a suburban parking lot.  I love sharing live-cultured sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles with you.  It’s a joy.

All during the cabbage shredding and the work in the garden, my husband has been busy turning the garage into a commercial kitchen.

We think the new Pickle Lab will be ready in May.  It will give so much more space for working with vegetables and for jarring up finished product.  We can’t wait!

And we can’t wait to see you again in May at the Beaverton Farmers Market :  Growing Together for 25 Years.

Remember when I was double-digging all the beds in the garden in 2010?  Aside from marrying D, that was probably the best decision I have ever made.  (I’d count E in there, too, but she was a gift, not a decision.)

Today I weeded, broadforked (for deep aeration), and used a regular garden fork over the top of one of the beds to prepare it for spring planting.  The broadfork is heavy so requires some full body effort, but the entire job was manageable in two hours – even on a 100 square foot bed.

I found few rocks, hundreds of worms, and great tilth.  After planting, I’ll put some top dressing on it, but this particular bed needs no ammendments this year.

The only thing it really needs is for me to figure out how this particular hen keeps escaping her luxurious digs down by the creek.  Hens are *not* helpful in a just-planted garden.  Today I put her back over the fence four times.

The new banner for the Curious Farm booth at the Beaverton Farmers Market arrived today.  It’s bigger than the old one with the old logo, and I didn’t plan for that.  This means that I’ll have to change the configuration of the other signage.  I don’t mean to complain…  because it looks nice…   it’s just that every step forward seems to create another problem to solve.  I’m trying to knock things off my to-do list, not add more things.  My sanity depends on some downtime soon.

The new business cards came.  They are just fine.