Meet CSA Members Taylor And Tyler

Members Since 2020

Say hello to Tyler and Taylor! Taylor worked previously as a veterinarian technician and now works for a pet medical insurance company. Tyler manages the customer service team for the Oregon lottery. In recent years, their jobs have allowed them to work from home full time. They love how working from home has given them the flexibility to care for their son and spend time making tasty meals.

Tyler loves to bake, and Taylor loves to eat his creations. Both enjoy spending time outdoors and engaging in various hobbies. Taylor and Tyler are joyful consumers of local food. Whether they are carefully crafting a meal at home for a weeknight dinner or entertaining friends, they love the experience of making, eating, and sharing food.

CSA Share Pick-Up Location

Bend

Type Of Membership

10# share with lamb upgrade

Incorporating Local Food Into Their Lives

Taylor and Tyler have been members of a vegetable CSA and were familiar with the CSA model. At the time there were looking for a better way to support the local farming community and expose themselves to vegetables that they may not look for or buy at the grocery store.

As a veggie CSA member, they were forced to use up whatever they had in their share, and it helped them grow in their creativity and love for cooking. Aiming to make the best with what they had was a motivation that pushes them as cooks even now.

When Taylor first met Tyler she was a vegetarian. When Tyler’s father passed away it got Taylor thinking about past experiences at the dinner table with family. She started contemplating about eating meat again. She thought about if this is good for me, brings others joy, and brings me joy, maybe I should try it. Soon after she started mixing meat back into their normal diet.

Over time as they grew in their understanding of local food, they had a desire to also purchase local meat. They came across the Double F Ranch CSA and joined the waitlist for a bit before becoming full members.

The CSA Difference

After joining the CSA they were super excited to be supporting a farm where the animals lived happy lives and were not crammed together like on industrial farms.

I think that everything in life is about balance. I love to eat. It's a source of joy for me and in my everyday life. So, if what I'm eating brings me joy, that's wonderful. Even better if it’s good for my body. With the CSA, it brings me joy to know that the animals that I'm consuming were happy. I feel like you can taste that in the food that we eat, that they lived good lives, and you know they were treated respectfully when it came time for them to serve their greater purpose. -Taylor

They immediately tasted the difference between the CSA meat and supermarket meat.

The CSA difference means having a connection to the people who grow your food.

How The CSA Changed Mealtime

Taylor and Tyler find they have to focus on planning their meals more thoroughly. They live outside of town and since they both work from home, they have to be strategic about when they go to the store.

They love having the meat in the freezer and use it to build their weekly menu. Supermarket meat is no longer an option for them, they just don’t buy it. So the challenge is creating a meal plan that is now centered around what they have available to them.

It also means that their son is growing up only eating Double F Ranch meat and that is really special for both of them.

Both find the benefits of working at home together allow them to do meal prep throughout the day on breaks. They aren’t spending time commuting and it frees up more time for working in the kitchen.

Top Reasons We Love The CSA

In no particular order they quickly listed:

• The handmade soap and other add-ons

• The variety of the CSA meat

• Quality of the meat

Although Taylor loves all the Double F Ranch soap, she really enjoys peppermint or the grubby gardener bars. Other add-ons such as the whole wheat flour are a big perk. They love making bread and pizza dough with it.

Favorite Meals And Cuts

Taylor thinks you just can’t beat when Tyler cooks a filet mignon. When they get that cut, they squirrel it away for time when they feel a little bit fancy.

Since joining the CSA, they have started the tradition of using a Double F Ranch whole chicken on Thanksgiving.

When they got lamb shanks in thier share they were super excited. They had been waiting for it for a while. Tyler braised them with red wine, garlic, rosemary and it was amazing. It was one of his favorite meals so far.

Their toddler son also loves all the meat he can munch on. He eats a lot of the CSA eggs. When he was six months old they started baby led weaning. It has been a great approach for their family to introduce new foods. Having the CSA means he gets to try new things all the time.

Mealtime Inspiration

When Taylor and Tyler are thinking about what to cook they lean heavily on the different cultural and regional cuisines that they prefer the most. These include dishes from India, Mexico, and Asian fusion.

We will see the ground pork and think, that needs to be larb. We see something and it immediately sparks inspiration. -Taylor

Other times they will look at specific food blogs or recipes from specific chefs. Tyler has a cooking superpower; he is really good and making something from nothing. He can scan the pantry and come up with a fantastic meal.

Tyler finds a lot of inspiration from meals he eats at restaurants. After eating at a really great place, he will try and recreate the dish at home.

Final Thoughts

Taylor graciously shared a sweet memory of when they first introduced their son to Katia and Nathan.

Feels like not that long ago we went to our first CSA pickup after we had [our son], and introduced him to everybody. Katia was so sweet in saying that's one of her favorite things about the CSA. It’s seeing all the CSA kids and watching them grow up, and feeling like she has a small but important part in them becoming the little people that they are by feeding them. I think that's really beautiful.

Tyler just loves the CSA and reiterated that appreciation.

Thank you, Taylor and Tyler, for sharing about experience with us! -Rachel