We want to extend a huge thanks to all of our committed CSA members, old and new!  You allow our farm to be diverse, accessible, and abundant and we are so grateful! Because of you, we are able to buy our seeds, our fertility, our fuel, our water, 7 new greenhouses, 600 chicks, 50 turkey chicks, replace the tire tractor, non-GMO feed for our animals, house and pay our interns, and much more…. So that we can raise food food food.  Good food.  Real food.  Nutrient dense food.  Food that is available to those that need it through subsidy and donation.

THANK YOU!!!

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your food better.  We hope to inspire you with new things each week.  I know this might be baffling sometimes, but I hope you love the adventure!

Some tips for this week:

These lovely things to the left are pea shoots.  They are Austrian Winter peas and we planted them as a cover crop.  They put nitrogen in the soil and protect it and its billions of microorganisms through the winter.  Usually we would till this in as a “green manure” and plant something else as a summer crop.  As many of you know, this is looking like a serious drought year here in Central Oregon.  So we kept our peas on 40% of our field to conserve water.  Peas mature very early, especially with the jump of overwintering.  They will hold the ground and the moisture and not require any further irrigation.  And right now they are in their glory.  The bees LOVE them and so do we.  You saw them this week in your CSA and might see them again.  They are best eaten raw in a salad, including the flowers.  They have a sweet pea flavor and are a favorite at the farm.  You just need to pull the leaves off the stalks.  The tips are the best.  And pluck the flowers off to sprinkle on the top of your salad.  You can also saute them.

You also got those little white salad turnips.  They are very mild and wonderful sliced, but Rebecca loves them cooked and says they turn sweet and buttery.  The greens of both the radish and turnips are extremely good for you.  Should be blended, massaged, or cooked.  Raw for the toughest members.

You got some Yukina Savoy, which if I had a flag this vegetable would be on it.  My favorite asian green.  Very rich flavor.  The flowers and central stalk is tender like a broccoli raab.  Leaves and stems are great.  I eat them in salad, but massaged like dino kale or put in a drink… whatever.  All good.

You can always be you should be eating your tops!  We cut the tops off of things (parsnips) that are not edible.

I hope you love your first round!  We have even more food and would love for more people to join the CSA.  If you know anyone that might be interested, please encourage them to eat local organic!

Also, we have pigs that will be ready for harvest shortly and are taking orders on whole and half hogs.  The best pork.  The only pork.  If you eat pork that is not from a farmer you know, please check out Inside the factory farm, where 97% of US pigs are raised