Newberg Farmer's Market Tomorrow

Every TUESDAY 1:30pm-6pm (now through Oct.)
at the Newberg Cultural Center
(across the street from the library)
Enjoy live music, get fresh local strawberries and
asparagus and much more!

Who's YOUR Farmer?

Do you want fresh, local, organic, seasonal veggies every week?
Maybe you've wanted to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) but weren't sure how or more likely, there were LONG waiting lists (since more and more people are aware of the need for local organic food)?

Well, now our farmers (Katy and Casey Kulla of Oak Hill Organics) are starting a NEWBERG drop off of their veggies. The last few years, we've had to go to McMinnville. They will be using our garage as the place where you pick up your veggies each week. You get a big bin of whatever veggies are freshly picked from the farm that day--you can taste a big difference--and at the same time you're supporting local farmers rather than giving your food dollars to big agri-business corporations out of the country. You get veggies every Thursday, and it costs about $20 per week. The season goes from June through November!

Click here to sign up. Applications are due by the end of March, and spots are filling up quickly. Here's a look at one week's veggies. Imgaine getting a bin of veggies every week--it's like Christmas every week, opening up the bin to see what you get that week. And they provide great recipes for how to prepare this delicious goodness.

Worms!

We're in the middle of a great worm fest! Celebrating the creatures that transform our trash into gold, and make food possible by producing the organic matter in soil.

Students, faculty and staff have adopted worms, made worm bins and we've got a couple dozen worm-composting bins (medium and large) across campus.

Those who are worm composting have the distinct privilege of being a 'worm herder' and wearing one of these great t-shirts. Thanks Karina for the awesome design!

We'll be having another opportunity to get started with a worm bin, and worms. God bless these wonderful creatures, as they bless us!

From Dirt to Dirt

Zooey has been with us for 16 and 1/2 years. She has traveled with us to 8 different places we've
lived, including driving all the way to the East Coast and finally back. I think each place cost her one life, and her last one ended yesterday. She hadn't eaten in four or five days, and she picked out her final resting place--this corner in the sun where she has sat and slept a lot in the last week. It also happens to be just a few feet from where we buried her sister, Franny, five years ago. If God is going to bring about a new heaven and a new earth, I can hardly imagine that it won't include trees, grass, apples and animals--including cats. May she rest peacefully in her corner in the sun next to Franny.

I Heart Oregon

This is a rock I found in the rock yard and picked it because it looks like our beloved State #33.

I've since placed it in the center of the walkway to our house. I sure love this place!

Corey

FLOATING CLASSROOM

As one student said while we were kayaking & canoeing down the river, 'It's hard to believe this is CLASS!" The Praxis class I'm beginning to teach this semester (and it lasts for four semesters with the same twelve students) is confirming that I feel called to INTEGRATED (and experiential) learning. We were able to do so much more in one overnight river-camping trip than I think we could have accomplished in half a semester in the traditional classroom. We read, we talked, we observed, we reflected on things as we paddled down the river and sat around the fire on the river beach, and slept under the stars. I'm looking forward to the next two years of learning 'in motion' and 'in practice' together with these great 12 students.

Below is a slide-show of the trip. Each slide is default set for 4 seconds (too long), so you can speed it along by clicking the forward button.

Free slideshow design customized with Smilebox

Tomatoes!

We've been eating heirloom tomatoes for a couple weeks now from the place in our parking strip where there used to be grass! Our tomatoes (not cherry tomatoes but larger ones) have ripened before most gardens I've seen or heard about in Newberg, and I was wondering why. Wayne Adams said it was because the street serves as a 'heat sink' which means our tomatoes have been exposed to more heat than most other spots. That has meant lots of 'Caprese' Sandwiches (basil, tomato, mozzarella--or sharp cheddar--and balsemic vinegar). We've also been having tomatoes in salads, tomatoes on pasta, and there's nothing like picking that tomato and eating it like an apple right there on the spot. So I just discovered one more reason to grow a garden in the parking strip!! Enjoy the taste of summer!

Agrarian Phenomenology

This May Term I taught a class called Agrarian Phenomenology and we spent a great deal of time experiencing the land and studying the various ways that humans relate to the land. This involved field study every day--everything from visiting big farms to small farms to family farms to wilderness areas to urban and suburban areas. Admittedly, it sometimes included field 'play' such as this field in which I required the students to run through with hands raised high. =) I really enjoyed teaching in this concentrated way--which involved meeting every weekday morning for three hours for three weeks. It was so good to have sustained attention on one subject, and to sustain our attention by immersing ourselves in reading and experiencing what we are studying.

One excellent work we read from was The Embers and the Stars: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Moral Sense of Nature by Erazim Kohak (a Czech Philosopher of Ecological Phenomenology). It is beautifully written and is a different type of philosophy. His goal is not to use arguments to reach a conclusion. Instead of seeking to argue, he seeks to "evoke a vision"--that is a different way of viewing the world and our place in it. There is a certain awareness of oneself and one's being that occurs when the embers are dying out in the campfire and one is gazing up at the stars--an awareness that is not argued TO (trying to prove or justify our existence in this world) but an awareness that argued FROM--or an awareness that helps us see our own reality differently.

NEWBERG FARMER'S MARKET IS HERE!

The Newberg Farmer's Market is here! Every TUESDAY from 1:30-6pm at the Cultural Center (next to the library and the park). And that means local Oregon Strawberries! Our strawberries didn't make it home before being eaten. That also means fresh organic asparagus and spring onions. We had some on the grill last night (a little olive oil, salt and wow--so delicious!) That also means fresh flowers--we got a huge bouquet last week for just $10 that are still on our table, and they are still opening up. That also means fresh eggs from chickens that are fed naturally and live a good life. And we can taste the difference! We had egg friitatta for dinner tonight--along with fresh greens and spinach (all fresh and available for great prices at the Farmer's market, too).

And here's a cool thing about Farmer's Markets. You run into really cool people! It's cool for kids, cool for parents, cool for students. Cool for anyone who loves fresh, organic, local food. And it's cool for June. Maybe next week, it'll actually be sunny! But all these people came out in the cool (and rain). Just think how many will be there when it gets sunny!