Photos | Lonely Lane Farms | Mt. Angel, Oregon

December 13, 2014 by mkloft

Photos

We are looking for two volunteers! As you know, we

We are looking for two volunteers! As you know, we found out this year that our seven-year-old John has stage-four kidney disease and needs a kidney transplant. We have been incredibly lucky to be invited to work with the Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA - @cota_org) for kidney transplant fundraising. There are many immediate and ongoing costs associated with organ transplant that are not covered by insurance, and COTA specializes in working with transplant families with needs like ours.

COTA has asked us to assemble our volunteer team. They try to make sure that the parents can focus on the logistics of travel (for us, our appointments are in California at Stanford) and coordinating the support before, during, and after the surgeries. We will be planning for two near-term surgeries (one for John and one for the donor--both of us are a match, so that's good) and looking toward additional surgeries in the future.

We are so grateful for your support and we are looking for a volunteer in Mt. Angel and a volunteer in the Beaverton/Portland area to help coordinate the fundraising efforts. COTA provides training and resources. The ideal people will have a little extra time, be looking for a small and meaningful project, and enjoy working in a team and in the community. Our friend Evelyn will be part of the team handling the COTA website and communications updates as we move forward in our journey.

Email patty@lonelylanefarms.com with your thoughts or interest. We'll be so happy to hear from you.

These photos don’t really go with a post about h

These photos don’t really go with a post about home delivery... but if you were wondering how close our fields were to catching fire, here are some pictures of ash we found in the field while we were picking up straw Monday. Mike put his hand next to one to give it scale. Glad these were cool or at least didn't light the field when they dropped.

This smoky week is a good one to put in a grass-fed meat order for home delivery so you don’t have to go out. Deliveries are all happening on Thursday this week. Home delivery is free with a $75 minimum order, and is available in the Portland area west to Beaverton, all of Portland, and far south. Get in your orders by the end of the day today (Tuesday). Click on link in bio for order form. Email Patty with questions: patty@lonelylanefarms.com.

#grassfedgrassfinished #grassfedbeef #grassfedpork #grassfedlamb #meatdelivery #familyfarm #willamettevalley #farmtotable #farmtofork #eatlocal #oregonwildfires #mtangel #beachiecreekfire

Good morning from the Beaverton Farmers Market! He

Good morning from the Beaverton Farmers Market! Here are a few photos of some of the many vendors here this morning. Less than usual, but still plenty to choose from, and customers are out as well. We just met the mom of a customer who is up here after evacuating from Molalla. Glad she is safe and that the weather is looking promising to protect our small towns today. We were also excited to see so many vegetable vendors here at the market today. Fruits and veggie vendors have been hit especially hard this week. The smoke and air up here is significantly better than Mt. Angel, so that’s a bright spot for us (and also 😳😳). This has been A YEAR. Looking forward to chatting with you if you come out. It looks like we’ll be here past 11. See you soon.

No-filter photos of the farm from yesterday and th

No-filter photos of the farm from yesterday and this morning. Visibility is back down to 1/4 mile, but air quality is slightly better. Humidity is 83%, which is good. If the weather holds the fire should stay away, but we are not weather or fire experts, so it’s all hard to predict. Thinking of the folks who have had to evacuate or have lost people and things to the Santiam (Beachie Creek) Fire. We will be at the Beaverton Farmers Market Saturday, and are looking forward to slightly better air quality up there. #oregonwildfires #willamettevalley #wildfire #familyfarm

No-filter photos of the farm. We are currently 10

No-filter photos of the farm. We are currently 10 miles away from the Santiam Fire (formerly the Beachie Creek Fire). This is the worst smoke and fire season Mike or his dad Joe can remember in Mt. Angel. There’s much less wind currently, which is good. That means we’re more likely to still have electricity, which means we can run our irrigation well, and we have tripod sprinklers set up around the perimeter of the farm buildings. We also have our farm truck tanks loaded with water.

The smoke keeps coming in waves and you can see just about a quarter mile (if that).

We’ve moved a bunch of farm equipment out to one of our really green alfalfa fields and spaced all of it apart. There’s not much fuel around because we keep the farm cleaned up. Our buildings all have metal roofs and mostly metal siding, as well, so that’s good. The main areas we are concerned about here are the wooded areas we have on farm that have more fire fuel.

The animals are doing okay so far, no big declines, which is what we are watching out for. For us to go outside right now to check and keep prepping the farm, we have to be in full ventilator masks.

Right now the packing plant is still operating (it’s got filtered air), and deliveries are going out. We will be at the Beaverton Farmers Market as-of-now as long as air quality in Beaverton permits.

We are not on evacuation go-now orders. But we are ready and have bags packed and friends ready to take us in. Information here current as of 9/9 at 3:30pm.

Photos show: farm in read, smoky haze, goats grazing in haze, ash on a farm truck, Mike in a ventilator out on the farm

#oregonwildfires #santiamfire #mtangel #familyfarm #willamettevalley

We wanted to give you all an update on how John is

We wanted to give you all an update on how John is doing: John’s kidney function seems to be stable. He continues to diligently take his medications to keeps his kidneys working (so many pills—and he has to swallow them, not chew!). Mike and I are both compatible to donate a kidney to John. (Our kidneys are healthy too!). This was great news. Mike will continue on to more tests to screen for kidney donation. Stay tuned for a future post with details on John’s new health-focused website that will have a donation link, and lots more information about our journey. It’s hosted by a wonderful organization called COTA that focuses just on kids who need organ transplants. Transplant kids have a unique set of needs, as we are learning, and we are so grateful to have an organization like this to work with. 💕🥰 Photo shows: John and Patty posing together on the combine at the farm in August.

Mike is stacking hay bales tonight that our friend

Mike is stacking hay bales tonight that our friends are sending up the hay elevator. Mike says, “We are putting up what I like to call ‘cow sheets.’ All of this straw will be used all winter long to keep the buildings [for livestock] clean and dry. That way when it’s wet outside, the cows have some place nice and dry to be when it’s wet in the winter.” Keeping livestock dry and comfy in the winter in the Willamette Valley is an important part of raising cattle. They always have full access to open pasture, in addition to our clean and dry (and not muddy!) loafing shed. #willamettevalley #familyfarm

It’s alfalfa time! This is Mike’s uncle out on

It’s alfalfa time! This is Mike’s uncle out on the tractor. #familyfarm #willamettevalley

This week we were busy as usual! Here are your fav

This week we were busy as usual! Here are your favorite farmers 🤠 at work at our USDA-inspected processing plant on the farm. Just on Monday alone we were linking our Maple Breakfast Sausage (shown here), cutting lamb, smoking bones for your pups, grinding our fresh ground beef, slicing shoulder bacon and our classic bacon, and more. It’s rare for a small- or medium-sized producer to have their own processing facility. We are incredibly proud of this, and of our farm employees for helping keep everything running. Your purchases continue to help grow the local food system, which keeps the Willamette Valley and our customers robust.

We love it when customers send us photos of things

We love it when customers send us photos of things they are making with our grass-fed, Willamette Valley meats. This delicious plate comes from one of our home delivery customers. The meatloaf pictured is made with our extra-lean ground beef and our pork sausage. We offer home delivery with a minimum $75 order to many Portland-area and Salem-area locations (as well as to Mt. Angel and Corvallis). Visit our website for details.

Photo shows a plate filled with homemade meatloaf drizzled with sauces, mashed potatoes, and sautéed greens, with a wine glass in the upper right corner.

#grassfedbeef #familyfarm #willamettevalley #farmtotable #farmtofork #quarantinecooking #meatdelivery #grassfedgrassfinishedbeef #homecooking

It's going to be a hot one this weekend! We are lo

It's going to be a hot one this weekend! We are loving our new spot under the trees on 3rd Street. Come see us this Saturday at the @beavertonmarket to see our full selection of sliced deli meats. These are perfect for a quick, cool sandwich lunch. Or grab a pack of our smoked sausages for dinner during this heatwave—they are ready to eat right out of the pack (although we do love to throw them on the grill for an extra smoky flavor). Our cows love to be in the forest and under the shade during the heat. We hope you find some shade, too! #grassfedbeef #grassfedpork #grassfedlamb #willamettevalley #farmtotable

Here's the short version of how a combine works. M

Here's the short version of how a combine works. MIke and John finished combining today. Comment below with questions if you have them!

Our wheat crop is sold in Portland and not fed to the cows. We raise wheat for the straw so our cows and goats have lots of fresh bedding during our wet Oregon winters.
#combine #stillfarming #fatherson #Oregon #grassfed #grassfinished

We wanted to give a big shout out to our Beaverton

We wanted to give a big shout out to our Beaverton Farmers Market crew and farm crew who handled everything while we were gone on 8/1. We got back safe to Mt. Angel late Saturday after doing a day full of tests at Stanford on Thursday for John’s kidney issues. We will have another more detailed update sometime soon about that. But in the meantime, THANK YOU to everyone who has been reaching out. Thank you to our amazing customers, and thank you to our market team and farm crew! Our farm crew doesn’t like to be pictured, but they keep the farm and meat processing plant running. We feel so lucky to have you all. 🥰 #familyfarm #beavertonfarmersmarket #willamettevalley

We know you are supposed to put some space between

We know you are supposed to put some space between the meat, but with so much deliciousness and such a small charcoal grill, sometimes you get a little too excited. Shown here: our #grassfedpork cut for kabob and our #flankenstyle #grassfedbeef ribs on the grill.

Good morning! See you at the @beavertonmarket from

Good morning! See you at the @beavertonmarket from 9-1:30 today! It’s been an incredibly busy week preparing for our trip with John down to Stanford, getting all the #grassfed meat stocked for when we are gone, and combining the wheat. We grow wheat for winter bedding for the cows. They have full pasture access all year but they like to hang out under the dry loafing shed a lot when it’s super wet and cold. So that’s why we make straw. 🙂 Click on the “Farming” button on our Instagram stories to see some great photos and videos of the combine and making hay/straw. #grassfedbeef #grassfedlamb #grassfedpork #familyfarm #willamettevalley #farmtotable #farmersmarket

Remember: Beaverton Farmers Market preorders are d

Remember: Beaverton Farmers Market preorders are due today (Friday) by 12:30pm. And today is a great day to get in your orders for home delivery for next week. Link in bio, and email patty@lonelylanefarms.com. See you tomorrow at the market 9-1:30pm. 🙂 Look for the red tents along 3rd Street near the plant vendors. #familyfarm #willamettevalley #farmtotable #grassfedbeef #grassfedpork #grassfedlamb #beavertonoregon #mtangel

As many of our customers noticed, Mike and John we

As many of our customers noticed, Mike and John were not at the market a few weeks back, and we’ve also not had the chance to get to cutting or smoking some things. You’ve all been very kind and patient. We’ve spoken to some of you, but wanted to update our customers on our news. We recently found out that John needs a kidney transplant.

About 8 weeks ago John was having side pains. After a series of tests, we received the diagnosis that John has stage 4 chronic kidney disease. Basically, one of his kidneys isn’t functioning at all and the other not well. But we did get some good news: John is accepted into the transplant program at Stanford in California. They are an excellent program and we’ll be driving down at the very end of July to do the first set of tests. We’ll be gone from the Beaverton Farmers Market the first weekend in August—luckily we have a fantastic group of market employees to cover us.

Right now John is doing well and we are monitoring his energy and activity—keeping things as normal as we can, and watching for changes. As long as he’s thriving and doing normal activities, we just monitor him. He won’t get the transplant until his condition gets worse. He’s been such a trooper, and his doctors are impressed how “normal” he seems. This is all good news amidst the bad news.

Most likely Mike or I will be John’s donor. We’ll go down to Stanford a second time later to do the donor tests.

We’ve been able to talk to some of you about this news in person—and we’re so grateful for your thoughtfulness and concern.

Many of you have asked what you can do. First, we want to say that buying from us and supporting what we do is the biggest help. Because of you, we have health care for us and our employees.

People have still asked to do more. There are a couple ways you can help (no pressure). We love @nourished.beginnings and are delighted to accept gift cards. We have Venmo (@patty-Kloft) and are working on a GoFundMe page. Any money donated will go toward expenses traveling back and forth to California.

Again, your loyalty, kindness, and support of Lonely Lane is the biggest help. We are so grateful to all of you, and we will keep you posted.

Flankenstyle ribs going on the charcoal grill 💕

Flankenstyle ribs going on the charcoal grill 💕 These “Korean-style” beef ribs take just a minute or two on each side, and are so flavorful! Perfect for a family barbecue. They can sell out fast, so make sure to pre-order. #farmtofork #farmtotable #familyfarm #meatraisedright #grassfedgrassfinished #pastureraised #willamettevalley

Stuffed #grassfed pork tenderloin! Put in your pre

Stuffed #grassfed pork tenderloin! Put in your pre-orders for the Beaverton Farmers Market by 12:30pm today so we can have your order ready whenever you come to the market. Have a wonderful Friday and THANK YOU for supporting your local family farmers. 💕

We love having goats at Lonely Lane. Adding goats

We love having goats at Lonely Lane. Adding goats to our family farm has given us a lot of joy (and fence mending!) over the past year, and we are looking to expand our herd. We are in search of 20 goats. We prefer Boer, Kiko, Spanish, or Savanna. But we are open to dairy crosses (Alpine/Nubian/Nigerian) No mini/dwarfs please. Private message us the details if you have goats or information. 🥰🐐#goatsofinstagram #goats #pacificnwgoats