CSA Community

Meet The Members: Cody and Jenica

Meet CSA Members Cody and Jenica

Members since 2020

I want to introduce you to Cody and Jenica! They are committed and enthusiastic members. Their daughter loves it when it is CSA day and they go see “the ranchers”.

Jenica works in the local food movement at an organic farming nonprofit out of the Midwest.

I've had a long connection with food and farming and where it's coming from. Although I am not a farmer or rancher myself, I have dedicated much of my time to supporting people who do that very important work of feeding our communities. -Jenica

Cody is a former teacher that now works in education technology. His job helps provide opportunities for teachers to utilize real-world news and information content in the classroom. He grew up on a 120-acre old-growth walnut orchard as a kid. He spent a lot of time working on the farm and being out in the field.

Together they have created a life that focuses on a connection to their food, farmer, and the environment.

CSA Share Pick-Up Location

Portland

Type of Membership

10# standard share

Supporting Local Food

Cody and Jenica have been vegetable CSA members for a while now. They are well-stocked during the farmers market season but do enjoy going to the market in their neighborhood on occasion to enjoy being outside, and to purchase quality bread and flowers.

When they are not able to buy food locally or something that is produced in the United States, they buy fair trade. Jenica used to work for Equal Exchange, which builds long-term fair trade partnerships.

Choosing The Right CSA

Cody and Jenica had been casually looking for a meat CSA when Covid hit. At the time there was a lot of uncertainty around stores. Will they be closed? Will they have what we want? This unreliability pushed them to start looking more vigorously for a meat CSA.

Jenica got a recommendation from some friends about a local CSA. While she was looking into the other farm, she got a recommendation for the Double F Ranch page on Instagram.

The welfare of the animals and the transparency about farming stood out on the website. It was also evident that Nathan and Katia had a deep connection to their work and the land.

The CSA was affordable, pick up was close to their house, and there was this awesome community attached to belonging to the CSA.

When they were first getting started with a vegetable CSA, they joined one that was impersonal, and you didn’t connect with anyone when you picked up your CSA. It was just sitting on someone’s porch.

They eventually found a much more inclusive and community-minded vegetable CSA and wanted that same vibe with their meat CSA.

When we started with Double F, that’s what we were looking for as well and we were fully prepared to change it up and pick a different one if we didn't feel that. Right away it was very clear that kind of community was there.

I remember like the second or third time I went to do pick up. It was during the pandemic when we started wearing masks. Katia grabbed the bag that was ours before I even walked up. She said my name and I was like how did she remember this is me? I've been here twice and it was just one of those moments that shows how much they care. This is a real community.

It's really a gift to know where our food is coming from and to be supporting Katia and Nathan and their family directly. -Cody and Jenica

Connection to Food, Farmer, and Environment

When people make the conscious choice to join the CSA it is deeply rooted in who we are, our experiences, and our personal beliefs. The CSA enables us to demonstrate our commitment to supporting the community and the environment in very tangible ways. Cody and Jenica share some of their beliefs on the importance of supporting CSA:

“Farmers and ranchers don’t get enough money. They don’t get enough cut of the final price of food when it’s sold in the grocery store.

Philosophically and morally, when you are a part of a CSA, it is in line with my views of just getting money right into the pockets of the people who are doing all this work instead of it going to the middlemen and businesses along the way.”
— Jenica

Both Cody and Jenica shared their commitment to local agriculture in the face of climate change.

“It’s a commitment that the climate is changing, conditions change.

The farmers take the brunt of that risk, with some insurance backing that up.

But a better insurance policy is committed support from the community that benefits from their labor. ”
— Cody

Jenica pointed out that the key solution to climate change is regenerative and organic farming and ranching. They believe in supporting farmers and ranchers who are working hard on these solutions. “We are going to heal the planet and heal our communities with healthy food.”

Cody shared how important the quality of the meat is. There are so many different shopping experiences one can choose from. By being a part of the CSA, you get an upfront and personal experience that puts you in touch with your food and the people that are raising it.

It’s reflective of the true cost. What we see at the grocery store is not the true cost.

Especially when you take into account the impacts on the earth and on the people who are working and laboring to bring that food to the grocery store and ultimately to your table.

“Where else are you going to get direct from farm to table without it being filtered through a restaurant?
”
— Cody

Favorite Perks of the CSA

Jenica really likes that the meat comes frozen. People ask her, is that annoying? She thinks not. She finds it convenient to put the meat in the fridge the night before to thaw. “The meat is so much fresher, and it lasts longer when you put in that pre-work.”

They love how tasty the meat is and sharing it with others.

“When we have friends for dinner, we feel a little bit of pride. When they take a bite of the food that Cody has cooked, and they are like this is delicious. We are like yeah, you just put salt and pepper on it. That’s it. It’s just really good.”
— Jenica

Jenica also loves the pleasant vibe of the pickup. Connecting with the other members makes the CSA that much more enjoyable.

Another great benefit of belonging to the CSA is as parents, it allows Cody and Jenica to help their child connect the dots on where their food is coming from. She knows the meat is coming from a rancher and she gets to meet the people doing this important work. Jenica points out, “there is enough abstraction in the world. This is one less thing.”

Advice For New Members

“Schedule yourself some time to hang out at pick up. You don’t have to run. Sometimes it happens fast, and I always wish that we could stay longer on those days. ”
— Jenica
“If you find yourself intimidated by some of the cuts, hold off and add it when you’re feeling ready.

Also, you don’t have to overdo recipes. Sometimes ground beef can just be a cheeseburger or a steak can go on a grill and that’s fine.

The meat is high quality and sometimes just let that do the talking when you’re cooking.”
— Cody

Cody And Jenica’s Recommended Cuts And Recipes

I am obsessed with the maple breakfast sausage! Also the eggs are gorgeous. The eggs make me so happy every time I open a carton to see all the different sizes and colors. - Jenica

I love cooking with large hunks of beef or pork, like a pork shoulder. We enjoy the beef short ribs and the wonderful New York strips. It gets us thinking, why not have a random fancy Wednesday dinner? - Cody

Family favorites include:

  • Meatloaf

  • Meatballs in a homemade red sauce

  • Spatchcocked roast chicken with warm spices and perfectly crispy skin

  • Burger night

It has become a yearly tradition for Cody to make beef bourguignon.

With the larger cuts, Cody enjoys experimenting and trying new recipes. His go to recipe inspiration comes from New York Times Cooking. Cody finds the site straightforward, easy to use, and it has an active comment community.

Their highly recommended cookbooks include:

  • How To Cook Everything: The Basics, foundational cooking skills that make it easy to craft great meals.

  • Cooking For Good Times, a cookbook with improvising in mind, focusing on how to cook a few things really well and build on main dishes. Cody turns to this cookbook for gatherings and holidays for inspiration.



Websites of Interest


Thank you, Cody and Jenica, for sharing your experience with us! -Rachel

Meet The Member: Amelia

Meet CSA Member Amelia

Member since 2022

Let me introduce you to Amelia! After coming to Oregon for school 18 years ago, they fell in love with the place and decided to stay.

As a long-term middle school educator, Amelia’s current role has them wearing many different hats which includes providing professional development for teachers, as well as working in restorative justice with youth. Amelia enjoys the challenge of the many different roles, as well as having the privilege of building strong relationships by teaching whole families of siblings throughout the years.

Amelia and their partner, Luis, are both committed to being environmentally conscious as well as active in social issues impacting PDX.

CSA Share Pick-Up Location

Portland

Type of Membership

10# share with lamb add-on

CSA Aha Moment

Before joining the Double F Ranch Meat CSA, Amelia had already been involved locally with a vegetable CSA for 15 years. They admit that at the time, the thought of a meat CSA didn’t come up. Then they were in New York visiting their partner’s family.

On a trip to visit some friends with a farm, a light went off.

“We started eating their farm fresh eggs. We were like, “Oh my God, this is life changing.” They taste so different.
”

The experience opened up a new thought - how can we get this at home? Some other friends shared their experience with a meat CSA and Amelia immediately started looking online.

Finding A Meat CSA That Checked All The Boxes

When Amelia began searching, there were several very important qualities that the “ideal” CSA needed to have:

“We were thinking about being conscious about what we were eating. We wanted to be selective and invest in meat that has a sustainable impact.

We didn’t want to go to the grocery store and get whatever. We felt we could have a relationship with the farmers.
”

They were looking for farmers who were environmentally conscious and had a focus on being good stewards of the land and caring for the animals. This is in large part due to concerns about the environmental footprint and impact of climate within industrial meat farming.

Another box to check was supporting farmers that upheld their values.

“For us, it was how do we support folks that are out there that align with our values.

We knew they were out there doing really good work.”

Some may remember the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Amelia and a friend had previously purchased meat from a rancher who they later discovered was involved with the occupation.

For Amelia, this complicated the picture of buying local food. By supporting local farms, they could indirectly find themselves supporting causes contrary to their values.

As a nonbinary educator, Amelia has supported a lot of kids dealing with some gritty stuff throughout the years. It mattered that the farm they chose was not in direct opposition to who they are, the youth they support, and the places they love.

Sure, it would be easy to find a farm with an aligned vision in the Portland Metro area but the high desert of Oregon feels like parts of West Texas where they grew up. Amelia has seen firsthand how strapped for resources these rural communities can be.

Amelia recalled a conversation with locals in rural Mitchell, Oregon who discussed the challenges of tourists going hiking in the mountains, getting lost, and requiring helicopter rescue. The community pays for these helicopter extractions out of their own budget and it hinders their ability to invest in school and medical facilities for the people that actually live there.

As a middle school teacher in a significantly under-resourced school, that really hit home for Amelia. “We all make choices that impact the places around us. For us, it’s how do we support folks that are out there that align with our values because we know they are out there doing really good work”. Supporting businesses outside the urban area is a conscious choice to direct resources to these rural communities.

When Amelia found the inclusive community of Double F Ranch Meat CSA, from rural Antelope, Oregon (population 38) they knew it would be a good match.

Impact Of The CSA On Daily Life

Amelia outlined some amazing ways the CSA impacts daily life. They include:

  • The ability to not have to shop around for meat. They get it all in one place.

  • No need to spend time figuring out what meat is local and antibiotic-free. The quality is built in.

  • All of the variety and options allow them to eat what they want, when they want.

  • The high quality of the CSA meat allows Amelia to modify meals to fit their health needs.

  • Picking up all the meat at one time helps make meal planning easier.

  • The ability to share the CSA community with their community.

“I like being able to share [the CSA] with other people, so they see it as an option.

It’s nice to be able to get people thinking about options outside of just going to the grocery store. ”

Advice For New Members

Amelia highly recommends weekly intentional meal planning.

My partner and I sit down every Sunday, have brunch and then we talk about what the week looks like and what meals we're going to cook and on what days. I feel like that has changed our eating habits. We are making much better use of the CSA and integrating it into everything. Then you're also not wasting so much food.

Spend time connecting with others around food.

A big part of my family was food sharing when I was growing up. I lived in collective houses for years. We cooked for everyone. Everybody cooked one night a week and there were like five of us. 

That piece of sitting down and really thinking intentionally can be a really powerful connector for family, friends, and community.

Final Thoughts

“I really love the winter market! We got soaps for the family and I found fingerless gloves that I wear literally every single day on recess duty.

It is really cool that there are all these ways, with the snacks and the winter market, that make [the CSA] feel like a community. I haven’t experienced that with other CSA shares.”



Thank you, Amelia, for sharing your experience with us! -Rachel

Meet The Member: Summer

Meet CSA Member Summer

Member Since 2022

I want to introduce you to Summer! She is a 4th generation Oregonian. She has two kiddos and along with her husband, they have made eating locally integral to their family life. They eat seasonally, buy locally, support the Buy Nothing group in their community, and love cooking.

Both Summer and her spouse work in the environmental policy arena. One of her biggest joys in life is cooking, learning about different cuisine from other cultures, and trying new things.

CSA Share Pick-Up Location

Portland



Type of Membership

10# share with lamb add-on



Joining The CSA

Summer found out about the CSA originally through word of mouth from a coworker who is also a member of the CSA. At the time, the CSA was closed to new members, but the coworker urged her to still come and purchase something from the al a carte menu.

“She invited me one day to come to the pick-up and at first, I felt kind of like an outsider because I didn’t know anyone, and I was not a member.

I kept coming back and enjoying the hangout and the community of members.

I enjoyed talking about what was happening on the ranch, what was in the boxes, and learning more about the history of where the meat was coming from.”

Eventually, Summer was able to get a spot in the CSA and start getting her own share. CSA pickup day is now something her whole family looks forward to, especially the cookies. The kids love those!

Supporting Local Agriculture

Summer was a big supporter of local and sustainable agriculture long before joining Double F Ranch Meat CSA.

In college, she lived in Europe and was exposed to the idea of buying food locally, on a more frequent basis, and in smaller quantities directly from farmers. It was at this point that her interest in local food took a vertical jump.

Her food philosophies were further expanded as she worked in environmental protection.

“I worked in environmental protection on reducing toxins in the watershed. Everything flows down river.

I think about that in terms of a metaphor for the world. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but mostly as a parent in the last couple of years.”
“We are proud to show off and enjoy the resources that are pretty darn local to the northwest.”

Summer turned this introspective and creative eye towards her wedding planning and worked to create a locally-minded, sustainably-focused event. Hosted at a ranch in Central Oregon, the wedding showcased all of the bounties Oregon has to offer. Local wines, fish, lamb, wild rice, and cheese graced everyone’s plate. The wedding party even wore wool sweaters made with wool from the ranch where the wedding took place.

Continuing the tradition of local celebrations, Summer also hosts a local Thanksgiving gathering. Food brought to the table must be:

  • crafted with 2/3 of ingredients from a source within 250 miles

In these ways, she finds herself in the role of “pleasant educator” at the dinner table. Gently challenging family and friends to think outside the box and enjoy the process of exploring what our local communities have to offer.

It is no surprise then that Summer and her family can be found sourcing food from a variety of local resources. Including:

  • Fruit and veggie CSA

  • Bread CSA

  • Local farmers markets

  • Picking fruit at orchards

  • Purchasing dairy at farmers’ markets

  • Growing their own food at home

The Impact Of The CSA

Before joining the CSA Summer had experienced buying beef from a local farmer in one large purchase. But there wasn’t enough variety. One of the biggest impacts on her household from the CSA has been having more variety in the cuts they cook.

She recognizes that there is always more to learn and more the family could do on their local food journey. It’s why belonging to the CSA also inspires the family to do even better. A lot of the inspiration comes from the stories shared from the farm.

“I think when you learn about how much goes into what you’re eating, you’re inspired to waste less and choose your own resources even better.”

Through the sharing of stories, Summer feels like she is being educated in a lot of ways. She is more conscious of the food supply chain and how environmental factors impact agriculture and small farm businesses.

In addition, her children are getting up close and personal experiences by seeing the difference between purchasing meat through the CSA versus the grocery store. It prompts them to reflect more about where their food is coming from.

Favorite Meals And Cuts

Hands down, one of the all-time family-favorite meal is the pre-made beef hamburger patties. Summer reports that everyone, even friends who eat dinner with them, all love this CSA-prepared cut. Summer admits that before joining the CSA she did not enjoy hamburgers but has since come around.

More favorite cuts and meals include:

  • Steak

  • Ribs

  • Gyros with ground lamb

  • Breakfast sausage

  • Drumsticks

  • Cooking a whole chicken in the Instant Pot, browning it, and saving it for a meal later in the week

The family really loves the new pepperoni sticks being offered in the online store. They use it for snacks, kid lunches, and even purchased some to send to family for Christmas.

Summer and her family eat dinner together every day and they love sharing the CSA meat with others.

“We love entertaining. Sometimes the things that we get from the CSA make it beyond our table to the table that we share with other people.”


Advice To New Members

“I would say definitely go and hang out at pick up. Everybody is lovely.

I’m involved with a lot of nonprofit organizations. I go to annual events, and I feel like Friday night is the closest thing that the CSA has to an annual event.

But I bet if everyone got together for a hangout who was from the CSA, that would be a really good party. ”



Thank you, Summer, for sharing your experience with us! -Rachel



Meet The Member: Jessica

Meet CSA Member Jessica

Member since 2021

Say hello to CSA member Jessica. Jessica is relatively new to the CSA. As parents to a two-year-old boy, she and her partner are very conscious about what they consume and only bring into their home those things that enhance their lives and well-being.

As a chiropractor, Jessica has her own healing story to share as a kind and thoughtful practitioner and community member who seeks to make the world around her better.

CSA Share Pickup Location

Bend

Type Of Membership

10# Share

Moving To The High Desert

Jessica found her way to Oregon through friends - David and Sarah to be exact, our beloved Bend CSA hosts and Pure Light chiropractors! Jessica attended the same chiropractic program in Georgia with them.

Back in 2017, she decided to take a solo road trip and headed out to explore the west coast. At the time she didn’t think much about visiting Bend other than seeing her friends. In a wild turn of events, she decided that she would put down roots and start a unique chiropractic practice of her own.

“I was just drawn to the beauty, the nature, and the people that I met and spent time with. It was a beautiful, encouraging thing.

”

Joining The CSA

David and Sarah were the ones who first introduced Jessica and her partner to the CSA. Jessica enjoyed a lovely dinner at David and Sarah’s house that included a Mexican casserole dish. She was amazed at how good it tasted. They shared with her a lot of the behind-the-scenes details of what Katia and Nathan were doing to ensure the CSA provided high-quality meat.

At the time, Jessica followed an almost entirely plant-based diet. She really enjoyed it, and it made her feel great. Then she got pregnant, and she started craving meat ALL the time. As she started to introduce more meat into her diet, she was reminded of the time she had dinner with David and Sarah.

“It just always stuck in my brain how good this well-raised meat could taste.

The CSA made me want to bring the best quality and consciously raised meat that I could find into our family life.

I was already sold.”

Eating High-Quality Meats

Through Jessica’s own healing journey, she found that many of her personal beliefs and philosophies from her plant-based diet could be applied to eating high-quality, ethically raised meats. She found that when she ate nutrient-dense, unprocessed ingredients from close to the source, her body functioned at its peak.

She was already a regular at the farmers’ markets and supported local agriculture before joining the CSA.

At that point, it was just translating the same language over when looking for animal products. Getting something from the farmer’s market, where I knew the people raising the animals and where I knew they were doing everything they could to give them a healthy life.

Then when I consume that product, I would know that I'm taking in consciously-raised food rather than big, industrially raised meat. It just didn't make sense in my mind and in my understanding of health to eat sickly animals that had poor quality of life. It really didn't resonate with what I know to be true about the body, health and healing. 

New Member Experience

The CSA has been a welcoming learning experience for Jessica. One of the biggest hurdles when she first joined was learning to become more confident in her ability to cook meat. Coming from a plant-based diet, there was a learning curve. Especially with cuts like whole chicken, steaks, or pork chops. Now a year in, she feels more comfortable and confident using all the different cuts.

My partner has been really good at teaching me the basics and I've always had a knack for creating really lovely food in the kitchen, so I feel like my skills have translated.

Despite the initial learning curve of cooking the meat, Jessica found it pretty seamless to incorporate the CSA into her life.

“It feels like another extension of going to a farmers’ market. I like the personal touch, knowing we are supporting another local family, and just keeping our resources so close to home feels really good helping this local community thrive. ”

Top 3 Favorite Things About The CSA

  • The amazing, delicious food and meals that we get to prepare.

  • It’s been a fun and adventurous experience, but really, it's just grounding to consistently know it's coming and know that we get to plan our meals around it. We pick one or two cuts and then we'll plan our meals for the week.

  • We are supporting the local community and that aligns with our values of keeping our resources in the local inner community. Also, to the best of our ability, to help the earth and other families.


Cooking With A Toddler

With any busy toddler, keeping them occupied and engaged in the kitchen is no small feat. Jessica has found ways to include her son in cooking and his personal love of all things meaty!

He loves helping to plan meals, cutting up simple veggies, and putting food from one bowl into the next.

True to his mother’s pregnancy, he still loves meat and as a family, they have appreciated being able to provide him with high-quality CSA meat through baby led weaning.

We let him suck on a piece of steak to get the juices out. He's always loved it. So, it feels so good to know that our whole family gets to enjoy the meal together.

Best Family-Friendly Meal

One of the family’s current go-to meals is meat and veggie bowls. They make different styles of bowls such as:

  • Taco

  • Mediterranean

  • Curry

  • Korean Beef

They love the ground meats for these recipes. While bowls are a great go-to right now, they still love experimenting with their CSA share each month as well.

Advice To New Members

Jessica embodies an adventurous and open-minded spirit when approaching her share. She invites others to do the same.

“I would say give [the CSA] a go and let yourself feel like a beginner.

You get really good supportive articles about the different shares including what to do with the different cuts of meat and things you may have never experienced before.

I would say just get after it and go experiment. ”

She uses a meal-planning app called, Meal Lime. She finds it useful for finding many kinds of recipes and it lets her add in her own preferences. She’s had great success finding recipes for the variety of meat cuts found in her CSA share. She recommends new members check it out!


Sharing The CSA Experience

Jessica and her family are eager to share their CSA meat with others. They create a community in their own lives through potlucks or having friends over to visit. They love to share their CSA experience with others.

“We are always eager to share where we get our meat from and how happy we are with the experience.

We are always sharing with friends and popping in details about the CSA in the conversations.”

Final Thoughts

“I feel a lot of gratitude for our share and what they’ve been able to put together for us.

I think this small community of people trying new ways of cooking, sharing recipes, and sharing experiences is just a really positive one.

Anytime you have the chance to feel more connected is a good thing in my eyes. ”



Thank you so much Jessica for sharing your experience with us! -Rachel

Meet The Member: Liz

Meet CSA Member Liz

Member since 2021

Say hello to Liz! She is a dedicated chiropractor at the wonderful Pure Light Chiropractic office in Bend. She is relatively new to Bend and the CSA.

Having lived in various parts of the US in large cities, small city living has grown on her. She loves how it fosters a strong sense of community and connection.

Liz loves being in the mountains, spending time at the river, and mountain biking. Liz is truly grateful she has found the Double F Ranch Meat CSA community.

CSA Pick Up Location

Bend

Type Of Membership

10# share

Life Changing Pivot

Liz’s decision to see a chiropractor in her early 20s had a profound impact on her life. At the time, she thought the way she was living was healthy and holistic.

“Chiropractic [care] really changed my life and the trajectory of how I lived. I do credit a lot of the way I think with getting adjusted. Because when you connect your mind to your body, it really allows you to look at the world differently. ”

This profound change in Liz’s thinking and body transformed her life. She left accounting behind and decided to go back to school to become a chiropractor herself. She made her way out to Oregon to join Pure Light.


Food For Nourishment

Liz expressed that her personal philosophies about food have changed out of her experiences as she has grown as a person. She shares:

Right now I'm going to start working with a nutritionist and I really love her philosophy. She talks a lot about making choices that nourish. Choices that nourish your cells and nourish your hormones.

Growing up, I didn't always think about eating food for nourishment. It was just a thing that I did. Whenever I try to approach eating, I think about trying to be thoughtful about whatever I'm eating. Saying to myself, OK, my body needs this nourishment, my body needs these proteins. My body needs these fats.

My food philosophy is about approaching food and meals with gratitude, with community and with thoughtfulness as the most important. 

It is especially important as a woman in our society considering we are told what to eat or maybe what not to eat. It's super important for me. Your brain is so powerful and so what you think about can really come to fruition.

I never get mad at myself for eating something. No matter what it is, whether it is a piece of dark chocolate or a piece of celery. I want to approach both with gratitude and in knowing that it's necessary. 


Connecting With The CSA

Some of the first people that Liz met when she moved to Bend were Nathan and Katia. At the Bend CSA pick up outside Pure Light Chiropractic, they gifted her a pound of ground beef and it was the best beef she ever had.

She quickly signed up and has felt it has been a lot of fun belonging to a meat CSA.

“Prior to joining I would buy the same things at the grocery store. Now I get all sorts of different cuts that I’ve never made recipes with. It’s just so fun month to month thinking about how I am going to plan to cook this.

I actually really love the recipes they share because it helps me if I’m not super familiar with a specific cut.”


Sharing Her Meat CSA

Liz shares her meat CSA with her roommates and close friends. She has found that she doesn’t eat the full 10# of meat each month. It has been really helpful to share it with her roommate and then they order extras as needed from the online store.

She also shares with a friend who doesn’t live with her. The tricky part has been deciding on what meat cuts go to who each month, especially when it is a steak! One of Liz’s favorites. She finds the best solution is to plan a meal together once a month. Then they can cook together, share a great cut, and enjoy each other’s company.

The Top Benefits Of Being In A Meat CSA

Liz has found there are many benefits to being in the CSA. Two of those include knowing where her meat comes from and also having the ability to then share it with others.

A friend of hers had come over for dinner and was a vegetarian. He mentioned he didn’t eat meat unless he knew where it came from. He was in luck as Liz had plenty of Double F Ranch meat to share!

“That’s probably the biggest benefit, that no matter what you believe, you know you’re serving your friends and your family the best quality, and everyone’s pumped about it.

You never say I don’t know where this meat came from. I’m part of a community. Nobody’s mad about that, no matter what their philosophy is.”

Favorite CSA Cuts And Meals

Liz really loves the CSA all-time favorite cut- pork chops! Other favorites include:

  • Extra lamb bought in the online store

  • Maple breakfast links

She is also a big fan of the lamb meatball recipe first shared with us by CSA members, David and Sarah. They are now a staple in her house.

Liz’s roommate is a master griller, and she loves any cut of meat that they can throw on the grill.

Some other quick and easy favorites include:

  • Burgers

  • Yum bowls with steak or ground beef

Liz is looking forward to trying a new cut, the lamb shanks.


Finding Time To Care For Yourself

As a chiropractor, Liz understands the importance of managing your health. As a busy professional, taking time for yourself can be a challenge. Liz has found ways to weave exercise into her time off. She jokes, “I’m not a runner, but my dog wants me to be. So now I am a runner.” She focuses her time on the weekend to getting outside and finds it benefits her life overall.

“It is tough to find the rhythm and carve out time, but I feel like anytime you do exercise and spend time outside, you’re able to give a little bit more in your work and in your relationships. ”

Advice To New Members

Liz’s advice to new members is a good reminder to use our CSA share to foster connection with others.

“Once a month invite someone over and just share the meat with them. I think it just makes it so much more special when you can tell them about where you source your food.”

Final Thoughts On Staying In The CSA

When I asked Liz about why she stays in the CSA, she remarked:

“I don’t know if I could buy meat from the grocery store as often. I don’t think I can do it without knowing.

Even when I go the store if I run out of meat, I don’t know the face behind this packaging. I don’t know the story behind it. It never really tastes as high quality. ”



Thank you so much Liz for sharing your CSA experience with us! -Rachel