Every other week or so the farmers will write the Sunday CSA letter. This will bring a different tone and story to your inbox and come even closer to telling the full story of the diversity that is Rainshadow Organics. 

This week, our newsletter is written by Angela

one of our Apprentice

Where are you from? Born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Moved to Bend last summer and just this January settled in Sisters.

Why Rainshadow? I chose to join the Rainshadow team out of a love for sustainable farming and reverence for local foods. I’ve farmed for the last 4 years on homestead permaculture farms and had a particular desire to experience farming on a larger scale with the full diet aspect in full
force.

What do you hope to learn at the farm this season? I hope to gain a better understanding of how to officially set up a small scale farm that the public can tap into for education. I also am excited to learn about the growing, harvesting, and storing of beans and grains.

Where do you find your inspiration? My inspiration comes from so many things… future generations, my family, beautiful food, music, sustainable living, watching others genuinely living their virtue.

News from the Farm

Greetings from the fields and kitchen at Rainshadow!

This last week was dynamic to say the least! Experienced the full spectrum of feels on the farm; chicken harvesting, glorious aroma therapy herb harvesting, mega-weeding for event-beautification in our 2-acre garden, embodying the endurance of our inner child doing “the crawl” (hands and knees weeding) in our 25 acre, and getting our healthy peppers transplanted into the hoop houses! 

photo credit: Angela Lariza
As a vegetarian, the experience of chicken harvesting always pulls me into a deeper state of reverence for all life and pretty blatantly begs the question: how is food truly grown and how do we treat it? For me, the absolute truth that comes through, is that nothing can truly be grown, “animal-free”. Our soils are teeming with biodiversity, some of which is animal-based. And whether it’s the manures of the animal or elements of their given bodies, we need them for creating plant-life. During harvest, we save all of the blood and feathers and in this way, close the loop so we cycle life directly back into the soil. 

Coming forth from our soils in abundance this coming week, will be lettuces very much worth mentioning! They are born from seeds we’ve grown from a company called Row 7. The company was built by chefs, farmers, and breeders and their ethos is that “flavor can change how we eat and in turn, how we grow.” I absolutely believe in the power of flavorful food (and life!) and how much that can foster a deeper appreciation for how we grow things – even beyond our food. Be on the lookout for these Row 7 lettuces; Spinach lettuce and Dino lettuce! 
photo credit: Angela Lariza
Through the glories of herb harvesting this last week and the gladiator weeding, I was truly inspired and wanted to share the power of wild weeds. Weeds serve as nurse plants to soils, communicating in their language what remedy is needed and I am constantly open to what she has to say. With temperatures rising and the sun blazing in the afternoon, nature has provided her medicine right in the weed pile! PURSLANE is one of many queens amongst the weeds. High in mineral salts for hydration as well as vitamin C and omega 3’s, I have been snacking and working through many a weeding mission this week.
photo credit: Angela Lariza

Vegetable ID: Yukina Savoy

Yukina Savoy is one of our favorite Asian Greens. It is dark green with ribbed almost wrinkly leaves and has a very milk and sweet flavor. We love making salads out of Yukina (it is an excellent spinach substitute) or sautéing/stir frying it. And don’t be afraid of those dark brown blemish spots. Those are just flee beetle bits and a great reminder that we are organic. If they were perfect, we would be spraying with chemicals you don’t want to eat 😉

To store: Place whole in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week. 

To prep: Wash and chop into the size of pieces you want. 

To use: Yukina is great raw in salads (think spinach) or as a bok choy replacement in stir frys, ramens, etc. 

To freeze: We highly recommend eating this fresh instead of freezing.

Vegetable CSA Harvest List

Every week, we include this section which includes what we think will be coming out of our fields and hoop houses for Wednesday pick up. Keep in mind, that we send this email on Sunday and we harvest Monday & Tuesday for our Wednesday CSA. Sometimes we are spot on, but other times, we discover that we have more of something else and substitute that. 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.)

Our foundation vegetables this week will be could include any of the following:
lettuce heads
carrots
 
We will let you know on Wednesday what the final foundation is how many other items you will get to select.
 

Other Vegetable Options will probably include:

potatoes
radish
salad mix
turnip
oregano
peas
mint
lemon balm
lovage
baby fennel
yod fah
chard
dill

beets
arugula
asian greens
carrots
kale
kohlrabi
lettuce heads
rhubarb
zucchini
basil
green onions
cilantro
cucumber

Meat CSA
No meat this week! Check back next week

Recipe Corner

Every week I try to send along a few recipes that utilize the meats and vegetables in your CSA share. Check out the recipes below for some inspiration! These are some of Cami’s favorite recipes for this time of year.
 
Herby Cucumber & Lettuce Salad 
(created by our Apprentice, Angela!)
INGREDIENTS
1 head of lettuce, coarsely chopped
1 cup of mixed fresh herbs, coarsely or finely chopped; basil, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley
2 cucumbers, thinly sliced 
1 bunch of turnips, thinly sliced 
1 bunch of turnip greens, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss. Use dressing as desired, perhaps adventure towards the tahini dressing?

 

Put-This-On-Everything Tahini Dressing
(created by our Apprentice, Angela!)

INGREDIENTS
1 cup tahini
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup nutritional yeast
¾ cup water
2 teaspoons salt
¼ cup honey
4 cloves raw garlic
1 tablespoon onion powder
Pinch of cayenne
 
DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Feel free to add more water if the desired consistency is a bit thinner. 

Dill Purslane Sauerkraut
(created by our Apprentice, Angela!)

INGREDIENTS
2 cups fresh purslane, thoroughly washed, coarsely chopped
½ tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons dried dill
 
DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together. Massage purslane into salt and dill for 3-5 minutes. Pack an empty pint-sized mason jar with massaged and herbed purslane up to the shoulder line (where the jar starts to curve). Fill water till shoulder of jar. Cap jar and store in a cool, dark space for 7-14 days. Sauerkraut will be ready when jar lid has domed at the top, pressure has built and the top will be rounded. Open with caution as the pressure can be strong. 

 

Kohlrabi Fritters
(adapted from the Spruce Eats)
CSA member Mary O’Connell wanted to share this one “So so good. I used one kohlrabi and one small zucchini, plus some green onion since that’s what I had in hand. One for the books!”

INGREDIENTS
2 bulbs kohlrabi
1 large egg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup canola oil
 
DIRECTIONS

  1. Gather the ingredients.
  2. Peel the kohlrabi. Peel it vigorously and completely—the peel is quite tough and fibrous so don’t err towards keeping any of it around.
  3. Grate the kohlrabi on the large holes of a grater into a bowl (or use the grater attachment in a food processor).
  4. Lift the grated kohlrabi out of the bowl and onto a double layer of clean kitchen towels or multiple layers of paper towels. Lift the corners of the towel(s), twist them together, and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Seriously, squeeze hard—properly “drained” and pretty much dry-to-the-touch kohlrabi is the absolute key to ending up with tender fritters rather than leaden pancake-like flops.
  5. Crack the egg into a large bowl and beat it thoroughly with a fork—you want no strands of white clinging to the fork when you lift it from the bowl. Combine the kohlrabi and the egg.
  6. Sprinkle the mixture with the flour and salt and stir to combine thoroughly.
  7. Heat a generous layer of oil (about 1/4-inch deep) in a large frying pan or pot over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers when you swirl the pan. A bit of batter dropped into the pan should sizzle immediately.
  8. Put generous spoonfuls of batter into the pan and flatten the resulting mounds a bit with the back of the spoon. You should be able to fit about four fritters in a large pan at a time. Partially cover and cook until the fritters are browned on one side, 2 to 3 minutes, flip, partially cover again, and cook until they are tender and browned on both sides. Transfer the fritters to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve immediately.

 

Mama’s Chard Patties
(from CSA member Piper Muoio’s mom’s recipe)
Piper Muoio raved about this recipe from her mom’s saved recipes when she picked up her CSA this week. I am excited to try it myself. 

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated cheese
1 cup cooked and cooled chopped chard (be sure to squeeze all the water out)
 
DIRECTIONS

  1. Mix the eggs, flour, salt, and cheese together and then add the chard.
  2. Drop by spoonfuls in hot oil (or lard!). Brown on both sides.
photo credit: Natalie Leder

Just a bit of cuteness for your day! We will see you Wednesday, July 5! Don’t forget your reusable shopping bags (especially for getting things like salad greens)!

The Farm Crew