Farm Blog

We are harvesting garlic scapes, new potatoes, and herbs (chives, oregano, parsley and thyme) from our Grazier's Garden and we have been adding green garlic, red radishes, white and red storage onions and fennel to the store, all from nearby local farms. In addition, look for keepers like dried fruit, and various storage vegetables like potatoes, parsnips, and rutabagas.

Fresh Hot Italian sausage and our new Lamb Merguez sausage. Jeremy Hyland of Hyland Processing develops the recipes and prepares the sausages in Deck Family Farm's on-site commercial kitchen. And we are all great fans!

Farm Manager Raul Lopez can be seen all over the farm: There he is in the barn with the sows tending to newborn litters; now he’s riding the large tractor and moving equipment; then he’s taking hay bales to the paddocks with the skid steer; cleaning one of the hog barns; or helping manage the dairy herd.

Raul comes by this usefulness after 11 years of full-time work with Deck Family Farm. He also worked many odd jobs for us during the previous 6 years. Today, he is crucially knowledgeable about all aspects of the complex effort that is Deck Family Farm.

We are harvesting herbs (chives, oregano, parsley and thyme) and pea shoots from our Grazier's Garden and we will be adding zucchini, green garlic, red radishes, white and red storage onions and fennel to the store, all from nearby local farms.

In addition, look for keepers like dried fruit, and various storage vegetables like potatoes, parsnips, and rutabagas.

The honey we are currently selling was harvested in late July 2023. We harvest each year at that time because that’s when the major production ends in the hive. The honey is stored in buckets while waiting to be distributed.

Did you know that raw honey will crystalize, but honey that was heat processed never will? This is how you can tell whether your honey is raw. Raw honey will crystalize at varying temperatures - sometimes quickly and sometimes not at all, depending on the storage environment.

Our youngest flock has begun laying! These amateur layers will lay gorgeous, miniature sized eggs for the first month and a half or so of their laying lives.

We will be selling these miniature sized eggs as “pullet eggs” since Pullet is the term for a hen who has not yet begun laying. These eggs are small and beautiful, and even prized in some cultures for having less water in the whites.

You may have noticed that we sell some of our beef as organic certified and some as “natural.” Given that, you may wonder why our organic certification does not apply to all our products. The answer has to do with the dairy.

Organic certification is a big deal! It takes years, costs up to $5,000 annually and is a time commitment of around 40hrs hosting inspectors to certify our land, beef and poultry programs. The inspections are expensive, time consuming, and very, very thorough.

CSA employee Mohammed got some help at pack-out last week from Eva, his daughter and a Deck granddaughter!

We highly recommend the products from Creole Me Up, a Portland-based company making brightly flavored marinades and rubs from Haiti.

This marinade "With Sass" definitely works well as a marinade, but it does so much more!

Mix it with sour cream for a delicious dip or topping. In our house we like to use it like a salsa or chimichurri by putting it directly on meats of all kinds.

On any normal day, Ikaika can be found grazing animals on the farm. For more than 3 years now, he has been honing his grazing skills and is instrumental in all aspects of keeping Deck livestock. He works with beef, lamb, pigs and especially poultry now that he is our poultry manager.

In addition to strategizing the poultry grazing plan, he also must work out the logistics of brooder flow. The brooder barns are where young layers, roasters (meat birds) and turkey poults (baby turkeys) are initially incubated before being integrated into the farm. Ikaika also plans the harvest of roasters and turkeys as well as supervises the crew for feeding and egg collection.

Lamb is one of the most popular meats world wide and we know why: The animals can thrive in various climates and ecosystems, they are relatively hands-off to raise, and the meat is delicious and nutritious.

Most of the same techniques are used to cook lamb as to cook beef, but the cuts are smaller. Rack of lamb is excellent for dry roasting, while the shoulder roast are best when braised because the meat is tougher.

One more week on the Brisket Pick of the Pasture discount, perfect for St. Patrick's Day on March 17! If you purchase now, you have time to make the Irish-American staple corned beef!

The major process of "corning" a brisket takes just about a week. So if you'd like a boiled corned beef dinner for St. Patty's, or any other day (why not?), we do recommend ordering ahead!

For the next two weeks, Brisket will be our Pick of the Pasture, perfect for St. Patrick's Day on March 17! If you purchase now, you have time to make the Irish-American staple corned beef!

The major process of "corning" a brisket takes just about a week. So if you'd like a boiled corned beef dinner for St. Patty's, or any other day (why not?), we do recommend ordering ahead!

We were joined this fall by 24 y.o. Summer Spell from Seaside, Oregon.

Summer recently graduated from Azusa Pacific University in Southern California where she earned a degree in Global Studies. While in college she studied abroad in Uganda and loved it so much that she arranged a post graduation internship with an organization helping elderly subsistence farmers.

Did you know that Deck Family Farm has been working on stream restoration projects since 2006? That year, we fenced off ¾ of a mile of Owen’s Creek, planted 2000 trees, and implemented management intensive grazing in our pastures.

Farm Grown and Crafted by our chef, Jeremy Hyland. We make these here on site using our herbs, garlic and onions to create delicious recipes for you. These sausages will be a great addition to your Super Bowl festivities!

What do you do when you want to work after staying home with young children but you’d rather not go back to your field of training? This was the question for our new garden manager, Toni Migneault.

Have you noticed that along with the fantastic taste and texture of our bacon, our packaging can be inconsistent? That is because unlike large commercial hog farms that can finish tens of thousands of pigs per week, we finish 6-8 per week.

As they say, you can't change the weather, and you definitely can't change the turning of the sun! In this dark time of year it helps to realize that the sun is now coming back and the cycle is beginning again!