Summer CSA Week 13 – It’s a Meat Week!

This week’s email is written by Amanda

Amanda is our Propagation, Greenhouse, and Garden Manager

Where are you from?
I migrated to Bend several years ago but, I was hatched and raised near Seattle, WA.

How did you find yourself at Rainshadow? 
I came to Rainshadow last summer to learn how to farm regeneratively. I’m back this year because, between working with great people, eating amazing food, and being outdoors, nothing beats this place.

What is your goal for the season? 
I have two goals this season. One: to convince to Sarahlee to please, please let me drive the tractor. Two: to lose fewer harvest knives in the field this year.

Where do you find your inspiration?
I’ve been inspired by how much food we are able to produce on this land; thousands of pounds a week for hundreds of people, that’s pretty wild to me.

What do you like to do when you aren’t farming?
When I’m not working, you might see me putzing around the farm with Bitty, the mini donkey and picking snacks.

Farm News

This week, it seems to me that Fall is not waiting patiently for its turn and is, instead, attempting to cut in line. It got down to 46 degrees last night so we closed the greenhouses and our bedroom windows for the first time since June. There are other signs. The year’s first Siberian kale plants, which will provide for all of us winter CSA and Full-diet members, are now nearly two inches tall.

Siberian kale is a whole different breed of crop. These crazy guys love the cold and actually get better in flavor following the first time they are frozen, producing the sweetest, crunchiest, most delicious leaves of any leafy green. These young plants parked quietly in my greenhouse are a pesky reminder that winter will come again.

More signs that time is marching forward. The corn is well above my head these days, and I am catching glimpses of big winter squashes hidden and ripening under their thick shelter of leaves. We’re all wearing sweatshirts in the morning and no longer dripping sweat at the end of the workday.

As a farmer, I am intensely interested in the weather. We like to joke that we scroll through forecast apps before bed the same way that many scroll through Instagram. I like to imagine that a farmer could very easily be kind of a funny guest at a dinner party, waxing with energy and sincerity on the weather and emphatically steering the conversation back to weather when it strays, like a planet ellipsing around its parent star. Acutely significant in the farmer’s solar system, weather is many times less consequential to the rest of society. It’s what you talk about when you’ve got not much else to say.  Luckily, the other guests will not need to keep up their polite interest for too long. The farmer is leaving early, they need to get to sleep because work starts with the sunrise in the morning.

I believe we are in a sweet spot in time. Seems like the hottest days have been spent; the sun is being mighty friendly with these eighty-degree days and cool nights. We’re situated in mid summer abundance while out in the field the corn, potatoes, onions, squash, melons, and buckwheat are all getting ready to come in. I am at once lamenting the aging season and eager for the new things the process will bring.

~ Amanda

Top Pic: Do you remember when it was cold out and we lost our buckwheat crop? Well, it came back better than ever. Current buckwheat status: water has been cut to dry out the groats so that in September we can combine and save for buckwheat flour.  (Photo Credit: Amanda Mythen)

Next Pic: The last round of baby plants has been planted in the big field! These are perking right up and will be part of your future late summer/fall CSA shares. (Photo Credit: Ray Hansen)

Final Pic: Piglets, piglets, piglets. Need I say more? (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
kohlrabi & beets
tomatoes & tomatillos
hot and sweet peppers
corn (?)
melon (?)

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 package steaks (New York Strip or Rib Steaks)

1 quart lard
+/- 1 package ground beef

1 package steaks (New York or Rib Steaks)
1 pack stew meat

1 package bone in pork chops
1 package short ribs
+/- 3 packages ground beef

2 packages country style ribs
2 packs boneless pork chops
2 packages New York Strip steaks

1 quart lard
+/- 4 packages ground beef