Summer CSA Week 20
This week’s email is written by Sarahlee
Sarahlee is the captain of this fine ship, she is the owner/operator of Rainshadow Organics and one of the main reasons we are all here!
Where are you from?
The farm
What is your goal for the season?
To be Mel’s ice cream tester.
Where do you find your inspiration?
The thin desert air
What do you like to do when you aren’t farming?
Playing on the water with my sweetheart.
Farm News
Yo Yo! Sarahlee here. Gosh, this season has flown by. It was cold. It was hot. It was glorious. It was smokey. It was weedy. It was clear. It was smokey some more. It just felt out of order. Central Oregon has always been unpredictable, but this year felt more so. I’ve been feeling a lot of compassion for all the living things that depend on the light and weather to know where to go, when to go, and what to do. The gravity of misjudging the weather feels heavy lately. When to plant, when to harvest, when to hustle, when to hold fast. We use all our senses and weather apps all day every day to navigate the production and storage of our food. It’s kept me on my toes more than usual, I have to say.
The food coming to fruition is a miracle. A daily, stop you in your tracks, miracle. Growing it with such an incredible team and sharing it with you is my greatest pleasure. I want you to know how unique ya’ll are. As a group, you represent only .1% of Central Oregon committed to a local farm. That commitment is what allows us to farm. It is what allows us to exist at all, year after year. 15 years at this point. It is what allows us to also donate thousands of pounds of food each season and to be there when things get real tricky (Covid for example).
The CSA is a hard sell. It’s inconvenient. And while I demonize convenience in all of our marketing, because I believe it makes people soft and we need some tough folks doing the work to make any change at all to the trajectory that we’re on (climate crisis, agriculture built on human and environmental injustices), I cannot thank you enough for being part of our CSA. You make me feel seen and valued.
Thank you for figuring out the logistics of pick up when you could get almost any other food delivered to your door. Thank you for being excited to try new things. Thank you for all the cleaning, chopping, and cooking it takes to get the food into your body. Thank you for spending that time on the food when you could spend doing all sorts of other things. Thank you for celebrating all the funky vegetables; the big ones, the little ones, the ones with all the legs and sometimes dirt and bugs. Thank you for all the tricks it takes to get your picky family members to eat it. Thank you for being on the roller coaster with us and eating what grows here, where we live. I mean, if you can’t eat from where you live, should you live there?
Eating from this place is a profound act of love for our planet. It’s an honor to feed people capable of that kind of love; to learn your names and to gather you into community. If you are the one making the commitment and dragging everyone along with you, I hope that you can feel the difference in the food. This harsh ass place makes some resilient food that is particularly nutrient dense. Nutrient density equals tremendous flavor. God, I hope you enjoy it.
I love you.
Sarahlee
Winter CSA starts November 7!
- Choose your pick up location: Bend, Sisters, or Farm Store
- Meat only or Meat and Vegetable
- Select your own vegetables, meat is prepackaged for you
- 1st Thursday of the month pick up in Bend and Sisters, November-May
- Friday-Saturday after the 1st Thursday of the month pick up at the Farm Store, November-May
- Pay in Full or Monthly subscription payment –> with the monthly subscription, you pay for November when you sign up (maybe today…) and then don’t pay again until Dec. 1.
Photo credit for all pics: Melissa Harmon, Rachel Hansen, Dylan O’Leary, Sarahlee Lawrence, Coni Espinoza, Amanda Mythen
Summer CSA Pre-Sales are Open
Buy your 2025 Summer CSA today (or at least before November 10) and use coupon code 25earlybirdsummer when buying your CSA. 25earlybirdsummer saves you $50 and secures your invite to our exclusive Early Bird CSA dinner in early June, a night of farm dishes, live music, community, and a special farm tour. This deal ends on November 10 so sign up now!
After chatting with many of you this season, we would like to introduce a change in our missed pick up policy! We want to reimburse you for missed Vegetable CSAs. For each missed pickup, we will add Market Bucks to your account.
- Small: $25/missed pickup
- Medium: $35/missed pickup
- Large: $45/missed pickup
This way you can pick up extra veg later or purchase some pickles, grains, honey, or meats. All you have to do is send us an email and let us know you will be missing your pick up!
The 2025 Summer CSA will look similar to the 2024:
- Pick ups in Bend on Wednesday, Sisters on Sundays, and at the Farm Store Wednesday-Saturday.
- Small, Medium, and Large Meat and/or Vegetable CSAs.
- Foundations and your choice vegetable options each week.
- Varied meat CSA based upon enjoying a whole animal.
See you at Customer Appreciation Day, 10/27
Please join us on Sunday, October 27. Rain or shine; snow or sleet, we will be celebrating all of you, OUR COMMUNITY, and the end to a fabulous and prolific growing season!
Join us for lunch and live music at the Farm Store, $2-$4/plate, and the 25-acre field will be open for gleaning carrots, onions, and many other treasures, suggested donation, $10.
Come prepared for the whatever weather is in store and a day of chatting, eating, celebrating, and gleaning, but, please, NO DOGS ALLOWED!
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.
Our CSA is market style, this means that it isn’t a guarantee that we have of all these things for everyone. Instead, this will be the variety of what we will hopefully (fingers crossed) have for you to choose from this week.)
A note on foundations: SURPRISE! You will learn your foundations and all the details of your CSA for the week when you pick up.
Harvest List will probably include:
asian greens, napa cabbage, yod fah
green onions
kale & chard
head lettuce, salad mixes, arugula
kohlrabi
beets
red radish & salad turnips
Daikon radish
parsnips
celeriac
fennel
carrots
tomatoes
broccoli & cauliflower
cabbage
potatoes
winter squash
onions
garlic
