Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarahlee Lawrence.
Hi Sarahlee, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Rainshadow Organics is a highly diverse, certified organic farm, offering culinary hospitality with a mission to advance regenerative farming and eating practices.
Located just 45 minutes north of Bend, between Sisters and Terrebonne, our family-owned farm has been operating since the early 1970s. Sarahlee Lawrence, who grew up on this land, founded Rainshadow in 2010.
Sarahlee grew up on this land and has been in love with it forever. She farms so that she can be as intimate as possible with this land and the food it produces. She farms because she loves to work with her family and friends. She farms to do a little part in caring for the planet, because she believes that the food we eat is our greatest impact. If you want to talk to her, you can weed alongside her any ol time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Well, I grew up on the farm so I am very familiar with the land and soil and irrigation infrastructure and equipment. My parents raised hay, cattle, and horses and I grew up doing it with them. The most relevant skill I learned as a kid was work ethic. I don’t remember if I was a particularly hard worker, but my parents were and I tap into that on a daily basis. It wasn’t just that they worked hard, they were extraordinarily observant, they shouldered the daily life and death on the farm, they always put their crops and animals before their own needs and desires, they were poor and extremely resourceful.
They sent me away to college with no expectation of me returning to the farm. It was an essay by Michael Pollan that planted the seed that is now Rainshadow. He described an intimacy that comes from raising your own food. He pointed out that farmers are getting old and no one wants to do it. I wanted that adventure. I wanted to truly know my food. And I wanted to live on the farm and not have to commute to a job.
Rainshadow was a vision, not a plan. It started organically, is farmed organically, and evolves organically.
I’d like to say “voila” Rainshadow Organics, just like that. But really, I started on my own with no infrastructure. I had some mentors in the community. Namely my dear friend Glenn Cooper, who taught me a great deal about fixing things, tractors, welding, and generally being self sufficient. He also showed me his bookkeeping methods. Matt Mason farmed out here for a long time and then started a landscaping company and he helped me design my drip system. Ol Doug Gibney helped me build a greenhouse and the deer fence. My mom taught me to build a bed and plant seeds. I read Elliot Coleman’s Market Gardener. I built a website and made posters to sell 30 CSA shares in sisters before I ever grew a vegetable.
A couple years in, I got a smart phone and used YouTube regularly. I went to the Small Farms Conference at OSU. I worked with Mylen Bohle on a wheat and clover intercropping experiment. I attended seminars with soil scientists Dr. Christine Jones and James Cassidy. I took the Ag of the Middle course that EcoTrust hosted. I visited other farms like Fields Farm and Groundworks Organics. I worked with Katrina Van Dis from the beginning to create the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance. I attended farmer gatherings. I learned from the kindness and generosity of other farmers and by doing the dang thing.
These days many of our local veg farms are on a text chain that fills such an important sense of community and camaraderie. Megan from Boundless Farmstead does the very most to keep this community together. And I learn a great deal by teaching our apprentices to farm. Every year they bring such great questions and ideas. Nat, Mel, Rae, Momo, and I put our heads together a lot. And my sweetheart, Dylan O’Leary, opens my eyes to new ways of doing things, questions to ask, and the infinite intricacies of the natural world.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Why Choose Rainshadow?
At the core of Rainshadow is the understanding that the health and integrity of land and soil are the key ingredients that enable us to produce nutrient-dense foods to nourish our bodies and community. Our agricultural practice is rooted in a regenerative model that enriches the soil for the growth of heirloom vegetables and heritage breeds that are adapted to our harsh high desert climate. We are certified organic and use only sustainable practices, with no chemical pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides.
The importance of locally grown farm-fresh foods is paramount to solving the problems currently facing human health, regional food security, local economics, and the environmental conservation of a shifting global climate.
By making the decision to have a more intimate relationship with the source of your food, you immediately make an impact on the health of your body through a more nutrient-rich diet. Locally sourced foods also contribute to the underlying health of your community by supporting small farms that play a large role in carbon sequestration, securing generational food production, and strengthening local economies. In short, because we give a damn.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Resilience.
Pricing:
- all pricing on our website.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rainshadoworganics.com
- Instagram: rainshadoworganics
- Facebook: rainshadoworganics
