It’s all about preparation right now.

Wow things have been busy at the Farm! March has been all about projects and preparation. We are about a month out from when our next crew of Rogue Farm Corp interns arrive in early May, and in April and May we start to shepherd all our starts into their homes for the growing season. The goal is that all the bed prepping, seed starting, weed removal, burn pile burning, good habit forming, and organization we have been doing this winter and spring will lead to lots of delicious vegetables, healthy meat, and great learning relationships.

Once we started seeding alliums in late February it has been game on in the seed starting world. Lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, kohlrabi, tomatillos, fennel, carrots, spinach, green onions, kale, chard, hakurai turnips, yod fah/broccolini, napa cabbage, celeriac, celery, and summer squash have all been seeded. Over the next few weeks they will continue their progression from germination chamber to halfway house and in April, May, and June, into their homes in the hoops, the 2-acre garden, and our 25 acre field. These starts are foundations of our Summer CSA and our winter storage crops. It continues to blow my mind what these little seeds can do!

The Crew at the top of the Diving Board in Grand Canyon.
Here is the cost per day of each of our 18 week CSA shares (June 2-September 29, 120 days):

Small Veggie – $4.17/day
Large Veggie – $5.50/day

Small Meat – $3.25/day
Large Meat – $6.20/day

Small Veggie & Meat – $7.29/day
Large Veggie & Meat- $11.58/day

We focus a lot on the vegetables here at Rainshadow Organics, but our animals are also very important members of our farm. In the spring they like to perk up and really remind us that they are here, love our attention, and oh so cute! Over the course of this month we welcomed our first litter of piglets, a new baby cow, our first round of meat bird chicks, and our first year laying hens began laying eggs. These are all beautiful and timely reminders of the renewal that spring heralds. 

In March we also moved our Momma cows up to their spring and summer grazing home. We graze above Monument, Oregon in the foothills along the North Fork of the John Day river. This year we put a little extra time in and repaired miles and miles of fence before we released the cows to their summer pasture. Chef came and joined the fun using his dirt bike to check out the farthest fence stretches.

Spring & Summer Farm to Table Meals

Eating in the Rainshadow Organics Farm to Table Kitchen is always such a magical pairing between Chef Travis Taylor’s creativity and skills and the glory of what is growing at Rainshadow at a particular moment. We love serving our community lunches, brunches, and dinners on our deck and in our garden. We feel that serving our unique Farm to Table style meals – almost exclusively Rainshadow grown and harvested foods – connects our community to what is possible by eating locally and seasonally. 

Well, we have some news regarding our Brunch and Farm to Table Dinner schedule. We are in the midst of renegotiating our conditional use permit with Deschutes County and at this time we can’t book any more brunches or dinners, serve lunch, or schedule any other events. Our goal with a new conditional use permit is to increase the number of meals we can offer, but, in the interim, we have to keep it high and tight.
We are unsure when we will be able to add to our current very limited schedule. We hope that we will be able to expand our dinner and brunch offerings sometime this summer.

We appreciate your continued support. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to seeing you on the deck in the future!
Until then, please sign up for our Events List if you haven’t yet. This list will be the first to learn about when we reopen and what new dates we have on the calendar.

If you feel inclined, the public comment period for our updated Conditional Use Permit closes on April 2 and we would LOVE your support. If we do not receive an approval to our application, we will not be able to offer Farm to Table meals at Rainshadow Organics any longer. 

We outgrew our original conditional use permit and are applying for a new one that would allow us to continue serving our community Farm to Table meals. We would love it if you sent an email to [email protected] by April 2 in support. Please reference File number 247-21-000268-CU for Lawrence Farm LLC in your email and it would be helpful to include why you feel that we are a valuable member of the Central Oregon community and why our Farm to Table Kitchen is important to you.

The public comment period ends on April 2, this Friday. We know this is a quick turn around and we appreciate you so much!

This month’s photos from Natalie Leder, Christine Boyle, and Alison Holland.