Winter is Coming
I was looking back over the July email to remind myself what happened last month and chuckled because I just titled this email Winter is Coming and the last email was titled Summer is Here. That is certainly how it feels on the farm. All summer long we grow our summer crops AND our winter stores. One minute you are training cucumbers and the next you are harvesting potatoes. Summer is here and winter is coming all day every day during the summer at Rainshadow.
This month, towards the end, Winter really did start coming in earnest. And I am not talking about the fact that it snowed at Bachelor on Friday. Actually, I am referring to our harvest schedule. We have officially started harvesting our winter stores. Garlic was harvested in July and is curing. Onions are being harvested in waves to cure. We harvested our first row of potatoes last week and will be harvesting more, if not all the rest, this week. The first rows of beets are washed and in storage. Whew! And that is just the last week.
Between now and Customer Appreciation Day (save the date: Sunday, October 27 this year) we will fill all the nooks and crannies on the farm with nutrient dense and delicious real, honest to god food. Storage crops including carrots, parsnips, winter squashes of all the varieties, cabbage, onions, garlic, and potatoes are heading into the mill building, potato barn, and fridges. We are filling our freezers with chickens and pork and our beef are continuing to size up on the flanks of Mt. Hood. All of this is the food that will sustain us, our Farm Kitchen, and our Winter and Full Diet CSAs until the next summer growing season.
We firmly believe in the power of local food year-round; cooking this winter with food grown from this land is an opportunity to celebrate all the delicacies Central Oregon has to offer. A celebration that will fill your home with the warming smells and flavors of real food and entice you to dive into nourishing, rich recipes that will create delight in you and yours. Join our Winter CSA and extend your commitment to yourself and Central Oregon by eating from Rainshadow all year!
Sign up for the Winter CSA
Our Winter CSA members love the flavor, adventure, and community around the Rainshadow Winter CSA. Press play and learn why!
Dylan O’Leary, Melissa Harmon
August has been packed full of successes! The peppers, corn, and tomatoes are all ripening and delicious, the piglets and baby dairy calf are keeping our cute quotient ratcheted way up there, the weeds are finally under control and we can even begin removing tired summer crops in order to plant them with winter hardy cover crops, and, most importantly, camaraderie is high.
September Farm-to-Table Events
Join us in bidding Summer farewell, and in welcoming in Fall!
We’ll be hosting dinner in our Market Garden on the Fall Equinox, September 21st, and would love for you to join us. Let’s gather, give gratitude for the abundance that has come and which will nourish us for months to come, and enjoy each other’s company.
