Summer CSA Week 11 – It’s a Meat Week!

Farm News

Alison here writing the email this week! As you may have sensed, I do a lot of the back end work. I write and/or coordinate the weekly CSA emails, monthly Farm emails, the add-ons, and plenty of other things that all involve computers and spreadsheets and such. But what I don’t usually do is farm. This week, however, I got to tap into farming a bit more and I spent a morning “boosting” the farm crew: helping them harvest and then do a bit of weeding.

One of my responsibilities was harvesting a small amount of new potatoes. What a privilege. This was the first potato harvest of the season. Sarahlee undercut them with the tractor and then I got to crawl on my hands and knees literally combing through the dirt pulling out potatoes. It was like a tactile game of hide and seek with real stakes. You don’t want to be the one who misses all the potatoes because you didn’t look hard enough! Imagine, all that effort that went into growing potatoes, just left in the dirt!

It was such a senses utilizing activity. I was feeling for the potatoes and navigating around the dirt clods. I was smelling the damp richness of the freshly turned earth that I was sifting through. I was listening to Sarahlee and Izzy chat as they harvested leeks one row away. I was tasting the faintly metallic and earthy bits of dirt riding on the air that get stirred up when you are harvesting potatoes. I was seeing both Smith Rock and the Sisters in the distance (did I mention that it was a glorious morning).

Using your senses grounds you fully in a moment. That moment, all senses firing with the dirt and the potatoes, served as a very timely reminder of why: why I work here, why we farm, why you choose to support us.

This job, this place, is something bigger than just you or me. Rainshadow is truly working towards saving the world one well planted and cared for potato and pack of bacon at a time. Your decision to be CSA members makes our mission that much more possible.

Getting to partake in harvest, being outside in the early morning on what was actually a very cool and clear day, just made me remember how lucky we all are to eat this food, to live in this place, to be a member of our community!

~ Alison

Top Pic: We are in the middle of a systematic weed removal. Ideally, weeds would be pulled before they seed. This year we didn’t hit the ideal. Instead we are pulling them with their seeds on and then GETTING THEM OUT OF HERE up to the pigs where they get a snack and we don’t have to worry about them planting themselves amongst our crops. Here you see Izzy and Chris taking a whole flat bed of weeds up to the pigs. (Photo Credit: Sarahlee Lawrence)

Next Pic: It is piglet season! They sure are cuties pies! (Photo Credit: Ray Hansen)

Final Pic: Every now and then even farmers are stopped in their tracks by vegetables. Here you see Nat with a Napa Cabbage literally the size of a small child. (Photo Credit: Ray Hansen)

Veggie CSA

Every week, we include this section with what we think will be coming out of our fields and hoop houses for the CSA pick up. Keep in mind, that we send this email on Monday just as we start harvesting for the week. That means this is a guess/estimation/extrapolation of what we think we are seeing in the fields. Sometimes we are spot on, but other times we are not.

Harvest List will probably include:

asian greens & Napa cabbage
green onions
kale & chard
head lettuce, salad mixes, arugula
radishes & salad turnips
kohlrabi & beets
tomatoes & tomatillos
hot and sweet peppers
yod fah

carrots
zucchini & summer squash
fresh potatoes
cucumber
basil, parsley, sage, dill
fennel
broccoli & cauliflower
beans
ground cherries

Meat CSA

Each week we will let you know what you can expect in your meat CSA. Occasionally (although we try very hard for this not to happen), we do the math wrong and your CSA might look different then what is here. Embrace the surprise, we really tried not to have that happen.

Check the links below and the Wednesday email for recipe ideas and more information.

1 whole roasting chicken

+/- 1 package ground beef

1 chicken
1 package soup bones (check out Wednesday for a great ramen recipe!)

1 package pork links
1 package bacon
+/- 2 packages ground beef

1 whole roasting chicken
2 packages oxtail (this is a low and slow and long option! Here is a recipe for oxtail tacos complete with a tomatillo salsa verde recipe!)

1 or 2 packages soup bones
2 packages bone-in pork chops
+/- 2 packages pork links
+/- 2 packages ground beef

As you have heard, we pull the early shift here on the farm starting our days at 6am. That lends itself to moments of true beauty as the sun rises. Here, Ray captures the first of the suns…rays in the 2-acre!