Farming is all about taking care of babies

And growing vegetables at Rainshadow is about relationships. While some of our plants are only around for a few weeks (carrots, radishes, salad turnips), we have many more that spend months on the farm. We start them as seeds, transplant them after they spend a month or two in the 4-season greenhouse, and then plant them in our fields where we spend 4 to 5 months or more weeding around them and witnessing their magical growth into food. It blows my mind the time and care that farming takes and the delayed gratification of it all.

Baby beets (Left) baby onions (Right)

I spent today walking around the farm looking at all of our baby vegetables. One of the things that we focus on in June is our storage crops for our winter CSA and restaurant needs. As I walked through our 25 acre field and poked my head into the hoop houses, I saw starts that won’t come to fruition until September and October. These are two to four inch plants that won’t be harvested until fall and might not be eaten until December, January, maybe even May.

This includes potatoes, onions, leeks, shallots, daikon radish, and different varieties of beets. We start harvesting some of these little ones in August and September for our summer CSA, but the majority of these crops are grown for winter eating. In fact, we have plants in the ground right now that will only be available for our Winter CSA members. They won’t even be harvested and ready for eating until after the Summer CSA is finished. This includes sweet potatoes and garlic.

Shocky sweet potatoes (left) and adolescent garlic (right)

We planted our sweet potatoes this week. They are still a little shocky from the transplanting, but we have high hopes for this crop. They are a farm and Winter CSA favorite.

Did you know that we planted our 2021 crop of garlic in November of 2020? Right after we returned from Thanksgiving, we got those plants into the ground. They are already 2 feet tall! We can only hope that the delicious bulb of goodness is growing strong under ground. (Soon we will have garlic scapes as a CSA option, but not yet.)

Vegetable Harvest List

Each share will need to take 1 bunch of your choice herbs, 1 head of Magenta Lettuce, and 1 head of your choice of Asian Greens. We will know how many “other items” large and small shares will get after harvest on Tuesday.

We have been keeping an eye on the hoops and 2-acre garden and have a pretty good idea of what is out there and ready to be harvested, but this is a Sunday estimation of what we will be harvesting on Tuesday. Also, because we have a market style CSA, this isn’t a guarantee of 1 of all these things for everyone. Instead, this will be the variety of what will hopefully (fingers crossed) have for you to choose from this week.)

Herb options will hopefully include:
    Chives
    Dill
    Parsley
    Thyme
    Oregano
    Chives w/blossoms

Other Items will hopefully include:
Kohlrabi
Lettuce Heads
KaleChard
Napa Cabbage
Asian Greens
Hakurai Turnips
Baby Fennel
Zucchini
Peas
Salad Mix
Arugula
Spinach
Carrots
Green Onions

Meat CSA

Our Meat CSA this week will include chuck roast, ground beef, and, depending on how the weights of those go, a steak cut.
 

Recipes

It feels like salad season is upon us! Almost everything in your CSA can turn into a salad. Shred the fennel, carrots, beets, kohlrabi. Slice the radish and turnip. Sliver the peas and green onions. Add chopped herbs and kale to the lettuce for a diversity of texture and flavor. And nothing, I mean nothing, finishes a salad off like a good dressing.

Sometimes I take the lazy route and sprinkle salt and pepper and some fresh herbs into the mix and then toss the salad with a drizzle of olive oil and a couple dashes of vinegar or just some fresh squeezed lemon juice. But at other times I take the time to make a salad dressing.

To honor salad season, I wanted to focus on some basic salad dressing recipes. I will start with my all-time favorite, go to basic vinaigrette and then include a few others that look delicious and I hope to try in the next couple weeks.

By the way, if anyone knows of a good ranch dressing (thicker, great for both dipping, think carrots and pizza, and salads) I would love a suggestion…maybe share it to the Facebook group :).


Alison’s Mom’s Basic Vinaigrette Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 part oil (olive oil, canola oil, a mix of the two)
1/3 part vinegar (whatever you have on hand, balsamic, red wine, white wine, the classics)
1 squirt or glop of dijon mustard
salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Shake the ingredients in a jar or blend in a blender until everything is mixed together. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.


Green Goddess Dressing

From the blog, Love & Lemons
makes just over 1 cup

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup whole milk Greek yogurt*
1 cup parsley
1 cup mixed soft leafy herbs, dill, mint, tarragon and/or cilantro
2 tablespoon chopped chives
2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus ½ teaspoon zest
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons capers
1 garlic clove
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. In a food processor, combine the yogurt, parsley, mixed herbs, chives, lemon juice, zest, olive oil, capers, garlic, salt, and pepper. Pulse until well combined. Season to taste.

  2. Serve as a dip or toss with salad greens. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.


Easy Homemade Caesar Dressing

From Bon Appétit
makes just over 1 cup

INGREDIENTS:
3 oil-packed anchovy fillets, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
¾ teaspoon (or more) kosher salt
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons Parmesan, finely grated

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Mound anchovies, garlic, and salt on a cutting board. Using the side of a chef’s knife, mash and chop until well combined, then continue to work mixture, holding knife blade at an angle, until a smooth paste forms. (Alternately, you can use a mortar and pestle or mini chopper to do this step.)

  2. Whisk egg yolk, lemon juice, and mustard in a medium bowl. Place a kitchen towel in a medium saucepan, then place bowl in pan. (This holds the bowl in place while you whisk with one hand and pour oil with the other.)

  3. Adding drop by drop to start and whisking constantly, drizzle a few drops of oil into yolk mixture. Continue, going slowly, until mixture looks slightly thickened and glossy. Continue to whisk, gradually adding oil in a slow, steady stream until all oil has been used and mixture looks like mayonnaise. Add a dash of water and whisk, adjusting with more water if needed, until dressing is the consistency of heavy cream. Add anchovy mixture and Parmesan and whisk until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, if needed.

 Chuck roasts make great beef barbacoa, pot roasts, and pulled BBQ beef sandwiches. These all look like promising recipes. The most important thing to keep in mind with a chuckroast is to cook it low and slow!

Beef Barbacoa

Pulled BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Pot Roast

Veggie IDs

Magenta Lettuce are a red Summer Crisp lettuce with good flavor. They have shiny, slightly puckered, red-tinged leaves that form a whorled, conical head with a crispy green heart. We like using Magenta Lettuce in our chopped salads and they can also be an excellent substitute for romaine in a Caesar salad.

We have a variety of Asian greens including Yukina Savoy and Pak Choi/Bok Choy. These are traditionally stir-fry vegetables and grow in elongated, upright heads of dark green leaves. The leaves can be cooked and eaten like spinach, while the crisp stems can be used like celery or asparagus.

Are you interested in wild caught salmon?

We are building a relationship with Joe Martinez, a Warm Springs tribal member and commercial fisherman, to secure wild caught Central Oregon Salmon for our CSA members. This week we are looking into interest on our end and he is out on the water getting a sense of the run.

Would you be interested in purchasing some? Here is some of the information we know so far:

  • Price: $12/pound whole and gutted

  • Filet and packaging fee: we are thinking that we will charge around $10/fish to get it filleted and packaged, but that might change.

  • Season: this is a June-October season and, depending on interest and the salmon run itself, we hope to have a consistent and steady supply.

  • Ordering: we will get back to you about that when we have a better idea of what we can expect from Joe and what the overall interest is. We are still trying to work out if this would be a weekly or monthly type of thing.

Interested? Email us and let us know if you are interested and about how much you would like to purchase (think about stocking your freezer for the winter) and we will get back to you with availability and timing.

These are the first steps in something we hope will be a long term relationship with Joe!

Add-Ons

Email us if you would like us to pack you anything extra from the store for pickup with your CSA. You can pay when you pick up at the Farm Store or our Farm Stand at the Bend Farmers Market.

Flours and Wheat Berries:

  • 2 lb bags hard red, hard white, soft white flour: $5/bag
  • 2 lb bag buckwheat flour: $7/bag
  • 2 lb bag corn flour: $12/bag
  • 2 lb bag rolled Tibetan black barley: $5/bag
  • 3 lb bag hard white or hard red wheat berries $5/bag
Meat: 
  • $8/lb: ground beef
  • $10/lb: chuck roast
  • $14/lb: rib steak (2/pack)
  • $12/lb: Top Sirloin (2/pack)
  • $15/lb: New York Strip, boneless (2/pack)
Honey:
  • Pint: $10/jar
  • Quart: $20/jar

farm. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Please email us let us know if you can’t make Wednesday or if someone else is picking up for you.

Thank you so much for being an integral and important part of our farm. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Please email us let us know if you can’t make Wednesday or if someone else is picking up for you.