Families gathered together this winter for our first ever family cooking class series! Learn more about this project below

Our team has been busy launching a new program: Family Cooking Classes!

Thanks to a grant from the Ashland Community Health Foundation and many local supporters, we were able to provide 40 families the opportunity to sharpen their kitchen skills and learn quick, delicious, nutritious recipes.

Phoenix High School graciously hosted us, allowing us to use their beautiful commercial kitchen where families learned how to make dishes such as grain bowls, kale chips, tortilla soup, and shepards pie! Check out some of the pictures below to get a glimpse of the fun!

Bella was originally born in Virginia but considers herself a Southern Oregon Native since moving here with her family 23 years ago-- and ever since she has delighted growing up in the wonderful breadbasket that is the Rogue Valley. Participating as a neighborhood coordinator with her family for the Medford Food Project in high school and overall being a seeker and consumer of local food, she has always taken an interest in where food comes from and how we relate to our plates at home and within our larger communities and ecosystems. Her higher education career saw her first studying Early Childhood Education, then a brief stint in an agricultural Terroir program before finally receiving her degree in Integrative Health Sciences where her studies focused on alternative health practices and philosophies, regenerative agriculture, nutrition and birth. She is delighted to now be a part of the RVFarm2School team where all of her interests and offerings can come together. In her free time, Bella enjoys reading, artisanal baking, expanding her homesteading skills, studying food cultures, nutrition, herbalism and homeopathy, and partner dancing from salsa to swing!

Having lots of Fun-gi in Garden Class: 

This winter, 3rd graders at Phoenix Elementary had the chance to learn about a different type of food we can grow-- mushrooms! Andrew Valdez, head custodian at Phoenix Elementary, sourced and prepped the logs and donated mycelium plugs for inoculation. Each student was able to place a plug in the log and seal it up with some melted beeswax. Now, it is time to be patient and wait for the lion's mane mushrooms to emerge in the fall!

See how your mushroom knowledge stacks up against our 3rd graders!

True or False:

Mushrooms are plants.

Mushrooms eat dead organic material.

Mushrooms don't need sunlight to grow.

Mushrooms reproduce with seeds.

We are Hiring! 

Maíz on the Milpa: A Chat with Sylvia Poareo

In case you missed it, here is an in-depth look into our partnership with Milpa Mariposa and an interview with founder Sylvia Poareo:

Answers to Fungi Trivia: False, True, True, False