News From The Farm: Volume 1, Issue 4

I do believe summer really is here! I hope you are all enjoying it as much as I am. And as much as the veggies are! Our warm weather crops are finally coming on and starting to flower, which means the fruits are coming! Our lemon cucumbers in this photos, are loaded with flowers! I am just hoping our bees will get with pollinating them. We are still planting a bit… just a few rows left that are getting the final planting successions, but now we have beds that are harvested and needing to be seeded again. Its an ongoing process!! It seems crazy, but in the next two weeks we will be planting all of our late season, cold tolerant crops. One really has to plan ahead for an ongoing harvest! Aside from planting, its time to weed!! Our clean slates and carefully seeded rows are full of crops, but also full of weeds. Luckily we all love weeding around here. Put the ipod in and enjoy the zen activity of pulling tiny weeds. Come help if you like!

Bok Choi Stir Fry Recipe
1 1/2 pounds bok choy or baby bok choy1 1/2 tablespoons canola, vegetable or peanut oil1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger3 tablespoons broth or water (or 2 tablespoons broth/water + 1 tablespoon wine)salt to taste1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1. Chop up the bok choy
2. Finely mince garlic and grate fresh ginger. Grating the ginger helps break up the tough fibers!
3. Place wok or frying pan on your stove and pour in the cooking oil. Add the garlic and ginger. Turn the heat to medium-high. Let the ginger and garlic gently sizzle in the oil. When the aromatics become fragrant and light golden brown, add the bok choy leaves. Toss very well to coat each leaf with the garlicky, gingery oil for 15 seconds. Pour in broth, water or wine. Immediately cover and let cook for 1 minute. Yummy!

News From The Farm: Volume 1, Issue 1

We miraculously have our first vegetables of the season! This spring has been a most refreshing situation. Our cold weather crops are doing magnificently, though I wish there were more of them. With the beginning of June came out all the tender starts. We’ve been planting like mad. Hard to believe after two freezing nights last week. But we all know that we’re about to wake up to three months in the 90’s and it will be time to take off the long underwear. Central Oregon isn’t known for graceful transitions… So, here is my first offering of food, grown organically right here in Central Oregon. Its fresh as can be, though somewhat meager. We simply have to start somewhere. I can assure you that when the veggies get on a roll, there will be no stopping them! I really hope you enjoy what you find and please do give me whatever feedback you have…. About food, logistics, quantity, quality, etc… I am so excited to be growing for you!

Country Delight Rhubarb Desert

2 cups rhubarb
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Blend flour and butter. Add confectioner’s sugar. Press into 9” square pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
Beat eggs, add 1 1/4 cup sugar very gradually. Beat until light and fluffy (5 minutes on high). Add flour, baking powder, vanilla and salt. Fold in rhubarb. Pour over crusts. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes until light brown.
Serve just the way it comes from the oven or with strawberries and whipped cream.

On the news!

http://kohd.com/news/local/189700

check out the news clip online...

09/22/2010 Redmond

From the farm to the kitchen, 28 year old farmer Sarahlee Lawrence is growing about 100 varieties of vegetables at her farm Rainshadow Organics. "This is my first year growing, and first year on this ground here and it's definitley very abundant, it's very exciting," said Lawrence.

For the past three months she's been supplying her produce to St. Charles in Redmond, now she's about to expand to St. Charles in Bend as well. "I'm excited to help people that are ailing and I think that food is so important," said Lawrence.

The hospital gets a load every week. "Whatever's fresh that's coming off of her farm is what we serve for lunch," said Benjamin Brown, Food Service Supervisor at St. Charles Redmond.

On the menu Wednesday, an organic buttercup squash and purple peruvian potato medly and mixed greens with steamed carrots all from rainshadow organics 16 miles away in terrebonne. " you know it's like chef's dream come true to be able to deal with vegetables that are that fresh," said Brown.

It's a dream come true for Lawrence as well. She plans to start expanding her two acres to 25 and start harvesting more vegetables by next year.

A column in today's local paper....

Area farm growing a new trend

By Lily Raff / The Bulletin

Sarahlee Lawrence

If I told you this column is about a Central Oregonian's first-ever farming season, you'd probably expect a sob story with dreams of a High Desert bounty crushed between a cold, late spring and an early autumn frost.

Spoiler alert: It's not.

Make no mistake, this is a success story, despite this summer's, well, challenging weather.

The farmer is Sarah- lee Lawrence, a 27-year-old who grew up on her parents' ranch near Terrebonne, left to study environmental science in college and graduate school, then worked as a river rafting guide for several years. She was teaching a course at the Wild Rockies Field Institute, in Colorado, when she came across some alarming curriculum materials about food. She learned, for example, that our food travels an average of 1,500 miles from the field to our plates.

“I just didn't realize that all these environmental issues existed with food,” she says. “I didn't realize that food is the biggest (part of our) carbon footprint and our biggest use of petroleum.”

Then she thought: “I could do something about that.”

Two years ago, she went home and planted cover crops to restore nutrients to the land where her parents had grown conventional hay. She shoveled 200 tons of manure onto the property to transform a three-acre patch of thin, volcanic soil into rich humus capable of prodducing vegetables.

Onlookers raised their eyebrows skeptically. Did she forget how cold it gets at night? There are other places where growing seasons are long and mild.

But Lawrence's reasoning was simple. “Why do we need to grow food here? Because we live here,” she says.

“Besides, it's not like we're tackling something impossible,” she adds. “It just takes more time and money than in some other places.”

She plowed ahead, naming her farm Rainshadow Organics, and turning to other farmers in Central Oregon for mentorship.

“They're skilled and super dedicated,” she says of local organic food growers, “and maybe a little crazy.”

Then she joined them. In early spring, she started seeds in the greenhouse.

She found an experienced helper, Michael Adcock, through a program called Willing Workers on Organic Farms.

In May, they began transplanting the sprouts into a one-acre plot they call the “baby garden,” where well water and a warm microclimate allow them to pamper delicate plants.

Meanwhile, word of her farm spread, especially in Sisters, which didn't have as many Community Supported Agriculture options as Bend and Redmond.

“People have been so, so enthusiastic,” she says. “I thought people would be supportive, but this ... blew me away.”

By late June, nearly 40 families had joined the CSA. They paid a flat fee at the start of the season in exchange for a weekly box of whatever produce she could provide. Lawrence is optimistic she'll find 60 members next year.

She also struck deals with St. Charles Redmond and several restaurants in Bend. Farmers markets, on the other hand, turned out to be an inefficient way to sell her goods.

All summer, to Lawrence's delight, food kept popping out of the ground.

“Everybody says, ‘You can't grow anything in Central Oregon.' Well, it turns out you can grow a lot,” she says.

From exotic-sounding green zebra tomatoes (in the greenhouse) and dragon-tongue beans to common spinach and onions, the farm did, in fact, produce a bounty, albeit for two short months.

Lawrence is getting close to winning the equivalent of the local farmers' lottery. She's in talks with St. Charles Bend to provide more produce to the hospital system next year, which could mean expanding by as many as 50 acres.

In other words, Lawrence isn't giving up her farming dream anytime soon.

“I love my job,” she says. “I hope I can do this until I'm, like, 100.”

Some Recipes from CSA members

Hi Sarahlee,

Thank you again for all the lovely and fresh veggies. You have definitely changed the way we eat around here!! Previously we had a tomatoes/spinach/field greens habit - now here we are with fennel, eggplants, turnips, all manner of beans and some really tasty greens. Thank you!! The kids love it and we now have another reason to dread the cold weather. (It's a good thing we all like snow.)

I wanted to pass along a really good recipe for fava beans that I found on epicurious. Very simple and healthy. It doesn't explicitly state that you need to husk the beans after boiling them, but of course you do. (A little trouble, yes, but definitely worth it.) It claims to be an appetizer but we have it for dinner.

Enjoy!

Joanne MathewsTagliatelle with Fava Beans and Pecorin0 Romano

yield: Makes 6 first-course servings

An appetizer that is simple to make, delicious and very appealing.

subscribe to Bon Appétit

ingredients

• 3 cups shelled fresh fava beans or frozen lima beans, thawed

• 2 cups coarsely chopped fresh basil
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 12 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine

• 1/3 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese

Cook beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer beans to large bowl. Reserve water in pot.

Combine 2 cups beans, 1 cup chopped basil and garlic in processor. Using on/off turns, process until beans are coarsely chopped. Transfer mixture to bowl with whole beans. Add remaining 1 cup basil, olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Stir to blend. Season bean mixture to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in same pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot.

Stir 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid into bean mixture. Add to pasta. Add 1/3 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese and enough remaining cooking liquid to moisten. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

GREENS COOKBOOK PAGE 214

I used large Zucchini instead of the winter squash.

2 tbl spoons olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp thyme or 5 to 6 branches
1 bay leaf ( I left this out)
Salt
Heat the oil and add the above and cook over medium heat stirring often
until soft, then add.
1/2 tsp dry white wine Let the mixture reduce by half.
Add 1/4 tsp of Cayenne Pepper or 1/2 Paprika, I used both.
1 pound of tomatoes, fresh or canned, peeled, seeded and finely chopped,
Cook for 25 minutes stir occasionally until the sauce is thick.
Taste and add salt and a little sugar if needed.
Slice 4 oz of Fontina or Gruyere cheese.
Now time to prepare the squash. I cut the Zucchini in thick slices allowing
for two full lawyers in a 9x12 glass baking dish. They suggest hard squash,
removing hard skin, slicing 1/4 inch by 3 inch pieces.
Generously coat large fry pan and fry squash on both sides until brown and
slight tender, remove to towels and drain, then add salt and pepper.
Preheat oven 375 degrees, then spoon tomato sauce over bottom of baking
dish. Lay squash in overlapping layers with 4 oz of Fontina or Gruyere
cheese. I used what I had on hand, sharp cheddar and it was tasty.
Bake until cheese is melted and well heated through. 15 Minutes was fine
with the Zucchini, scatter fresh herbs over the surface.

Jean Kern

Cookin' it up!

Believe it or not, I had fingerlings for the first time ever tonight. Absolutely blew my mind. And kale with a couple of those heirloom tomatoes. Shopping out of the garden is a fabulous thing.

I want to share some great ideas from other CSA members who have been cookin' up the bounty!

Hi Sarah,

Just wanted you to know we took your mom’s advice and cooked the carrots. We cut them up, parboiled them, drained and put them on the grill with olive oil & seasoning. Oh my . . . they were delicious. Thank her for the tip!!!!

Joyce from Sisters

P.S. The seasoning we use is a new one from Penzeys Spices called Sunny Paris seasoning. It’s a combination of: purple shallots, chives, green peppercorn, French basil, French tarragon, chervil, bay leaf and dill weed.

Hi SarahLee!

I hope all is well on the farm and you're enjoying these beautiful days.

Folks keep warning me it's coming to an end, but I refuse to hear them.\

I wanted to share a very good recipe I found that uses the following ingredients form the farm: Fava Beans, Fennel, Dill, and Onion.

My dinner guests just loved it! You can find it here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/reviews/Saute-of-Fresh-Fava-Beans-Onions-and-Fennel-106490

When cucumbers come in, be sure to share your friends pickle recipe - those were the best pickles ever!

Take care and see you Thursday,
Stephanie

Thanks again to you all for taking the challenge to cook locally and seasonally. I'm so proud of everyone's creativity!

August is almost over?

This feels silly even writing after all these months... The field has transformed into an abundance of food that I can't hardly fathom. Especially since I haven't done this before... the farming thing. I am flabbergasted by the power of a seed as a little capsule of life. I am overwhelmed by how hard these plants work with the cold spring and the HOT summer. This is the high desert and we get tough or die around here... but seems like things get tough, no problem... and here we are... little gluttons out there popping peas in our mouths and cracking open fava beans for mid-morning snack.... each one a little jewelry box, each bean packed in pure white fluff.

In any case, everyone said this would happen... no time for blogging. Indeed, there really isn't much extra time. I don't feel frazzled... I feel full of energy collected from touching all these plants :) Appreciating and being appreciated. Michael says the pinnacle of a plants life is to be nurtured and consumed... the whole point of their journey on life is that transmutation. Well, they thrive here and we give them a lot of love and they fill many mouths. The CSA boxes are too full to close. All our extra is going to restaurants like the Terrebonne Depot, 900 Wall, Jackson's Corner.... Or places like Divine Earth in Sisters or Natures in Bend... and our biggest fan.............. the Redmond Hospital! Thanks to chef David who believes in fresh local food. If you get sick, we'll heal you through the hospital cafeteria :)

So... I'm excited to be here, sending out a "howdy dudy" from paradise. Please come visit any time. The garden is a great place to be and the hammock is probably the very best part :) But we've got flowers and and bees and a couple snakes and three dogs and lots and lots of veggies. Its a masterpiece, thanks to many many people. Namely Michael :)

So, come on down!!

June

Summer has finally arrived in Central Oregon. After a long, cool, wet spring... our skies have cleared and our king sunshine is back. We're still covering tender things outside, but I am having more and more faith in our growing conditions.

The garden gets bigger every day. Little gems of buttercrunch lettuce in the evening light. Fava beans, peas, radishes.... its all coming.

Last week was our first week of our Community Supported Agriculture program. Full shares and half shares were delivered to Bend, Sisters, and Redmond. So much fun to fill those boxes and to have people be so excited to eat local food... meager, but local and a labor of love.

Anna Green, very excited about her veggies! Whats in there??? Rhubarb, Tat soi, Baby bak choi, Basil, Tarragon, Sage, Oregano, Flowers, Zucchini, chard, kale, radishes, maybe some new potatoes...... much more to come!

My dad found a gopher snake on his bike ride and brought him to me for pest control in the garden. He is very welcome here!

Just a little peek at our skyline... and barley field. Its funny to be split between large scale farming and very small scale farming.

The boxes will keep on coming every week from now until I run out of Pumpkins. I hope everyone is enjoying their food and I look forward to seeing you again this week!

My dad.

This is my dad...

...with his old horse, chief compost contributor,

and his old chevy Cheyenne full of onion and tomato starts....

Today was a funny day...

Doesn't this look like some kind of elaborate burial ceremony? Well, maybe... maybe not.

I was clearing out the greenhouse.. making room for more starts and some of my favorite heirloom tomatoes. We had a volunteer acorn squash plant in the west corner... hiding in the midst of the round zucchini plant. The zucchini plant has ripe fruit... the squash had started its fruit, but it will be a couple months before we can eat them and I could only imagine him trelised to the ceiling of the greenhouse. He had to go... So, I yonked him out and carried him out like a small person in my arms. I was headed for the chicken yard. But Dad stopped me in my tracks.

"Where are you going with that guy??"

"Chickens," I said. "Just don't have the room."

His face twisted, "Now Sar... that guy should go right back in the ground. He wants to make fruits for you. Now lets make him a little warm spot and get those roots back in the ground." He gently touched the roots... assessing their ability to bring this octopus back to life.

We headed back to the garden... made him a hoop house all his own... and we'll see what happens! I have to say, I am so so so busy... elaborate ceremony is not something I have time for... but can't squelch any participation in the production of food.

Tiny update

This is the time to transplant... and transplant... and seed... and seed...

celery

We sure have struggled with hard rain, hard wind, deep cold. hmmm...

transplanting broccoli and cabbage and such...

Michael's Photos

Well, we've been working on our drip irrigation system with my dear family friend, Matt Mason of Artemisia Landscape Co. We've got over 100, 150-foot beds with double drip lines. I bought 5 miles of this brown tubing. And have been getting beds raised and the stuff in position.

Its been quite the wait for water this year. Our irrigation district has been piping our canals for the past four years and this is our first year under pressure. We've done away with our pumps and electric bills and are conserving 70% of our water to leave in-stream for endangered fish. Its been a fantastic project and much thanks to Mark Thalaker for leading us all by the nose... or kicking us in the ass.. however you look at it. Almost the entire project has been done with volunteer labor and large federal and state grants to pay for materials. I have very much enjoyed running the track hoe, pulling pipe with the bulldozer, helping my dear friend Glen on the welder, etc... A wonderful project in the winter to get to know my neighbors. In fact for two winters in a row I took an extra month off of graduate school to work in the mud and snow on the pipeline. And its all finally paying off!

The water and energy savings from the project also made our sub-district eligible for some irrigation system improvement grants. I got my drip system! Such a blessing for vegetables. But talk about a lot of work!! I'm so glad to be done with the PVC primer and glue. I was loosing brain cells every day, working with that stuff.

The water IS on, but I have to tell you that it came on over a month late due to dissension up the canyon about the completion of the project. It was touch and go for a while... whether we would have water at all. Needless to say, I was not eager to plant into ground with no irrigation. Not to mention in my greenhouse with no water. So, I'm feeling a tad behind what i was hoping for reasons out of my control. I have been making up for it. Totally took over my mother's garden and greenhouse in an effort to get my early start, since it wasn't going to happen on my two acres. So... I've got some photos below of things we got started that will fill our first boxes. Which are NEXT week!!!!! I am just keeping the faith that we'll have some gorgeous greens, and people will be forgiving of meager early boxes. I'm learning lots... and lots and doing my very very best.

drip line.... 5 miles of it.

Bak choi and Tat soi

beautiful Bok choi

Our resident great horned owl

Tomatoes in the greenhouse!!! Some already have tomatoes on them.

Darling robin eggs. They were little peepers with gaping mouths today.

Things are growing!!

The Zucchinis are flowering in the greenhouse and making tiny zucchinis. So exciting!

Inside the four season nursery

Got this idea from Mexico.

The entire lower garden is planted

1400 broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc...

Field Test

I am doing a field test on our 25 acre corner field that is in organic transition. We disked down a cover crop and then planted a soft white spring wheat. Then we drilled legumes over the top. I am testing 5 legumes at 2 seeding rates and replicating the test three times. 33 test plots!

First we disked down our Hairy Vetch cover crop.

Then I drilled the legumes

Persian Clover. Very hard to find. Maybe for good reason.

Arrowleaf Clover.

Test plots.... the whole field was filled in by the time I was done, but there was some careful navigation involved... straight lines to stakes... much use of binoculars.

I feel like this greenhouse has been an awfully long time coming. I've been getting the skeleton up all winter and then on Saturday afternoon several friends showed up just to visit and it just seemed serendipitous to me... no wind... my favorite people... unplanned... lets put up the plastic!

My dad and aunt and mom and grandma... Kit and Pam... Peggy and Lee... Michael of course...

I swear I can smell the tomatoes!!!! I have 15 varieties in the four season nursery greenhouse. They are three feet tall, some of them... and some even making tomatoes!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!

April in a flash!!

Every farmer needs a little break before the season... so I headed to Costa Rica....

Upon my return, I planted potatoes!!!

Potatoes of every color!!!

Mom and I also built a chicken coop in the garden so the chickens could weed, exterminate pests, and fertilize. Next winter they'll be busy for six months. This time they only had a few weeks, but they did a fabulous job. Little dinosaurs!

I love pink.

This is the junk pile that we built the coop out of. We love to re-use and recycle!!!

Welcome Michael!!!

Michael is our newest addition to the farm!! He found Rainshadow through the Willing Workers on Organic Farms website. He has worked on farms in Hawaii before this, but he seems to like Central Oregon despite the sun and snow and wind and sleet and rain... all within a few minutes. He is an absolute godsend and eases my workload tremendously... or at least makes so much more possible here. He works like crazy and had so much initiative. I appreciate him so so so much. Welcome Michael!