On the Farm

Biscuits are just right for soup season. Here’s the recipe I’ve been using, made with kefir cheese, which I suddenly have a LOT of.


Kefir Cheese Biscuits (makes 9)
(Adapted from Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit recipe.)

 2 cups self rising flour (240 grams)
4 tbsp salted butter, room temp
1/4 cup kefir cheese
3/4 cup plain kefir
1 tbsp salted butter, melted

1. Heat oven to 450F.
2. Combine four and room temp butter in a large bowl. Use fingers to break up the butter. The result should resemble grated Parmesan.
3. Add kefir cheese and mix it into the four with your hands. Add kefir and mix until dough is sticky and wet, but not sloppy. All flour should be incorporated.
4. Move the dough to a lightly floured work surface, being sure to remove all dough from bowl. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Roll out dough to 2 inches thick. I shape it into a rectangle. You can do a circle if you like that better.
5. Cut dough into 9 pieces (I do 9 squares with a bread knife; you can also use a biscuit cutter.) Arrange them on a lightly greased cookie sheet with edges touching. Brush with melted butter.
6. Bake about 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Biscuits should be golden brown. Move to a wire rack and allow to cool slightly. Serve immediately.

***Plain kefir can be purchased at stores (including Grocery Outlet). Want to try making your own? Check out the kefir grains that are available in our online store. You’ll find instructions for making the cheese here.

Rod’s House Meal Menu

This week we served up shepherd’s pie, Nona’s homemade bread, personal Boston cream pies and cranapple juice. We used our own peas, eggs and herbs plus potatoes, onions and garlic grown by Farmer Wren.

Have extra produce from this year’s harvest that you’d like for us to use in a recipe? Send an email and we’ll arrange a pickup.
Want to contribute a meal of your own? You can sign up to do that here.



Around the Valley

Yakima Indivisible presents:
“The Last Class with Robert Reich (Official Trailer), followed by a discussion about the effects of wealth inequality and its possible solutions.”
January 10, 2026, 4:30 PM, 4th Street Theater

You can now purchase tickets for yourself and/or sponsor tickets for youth to attend the event. KUDOS to Yakima Indivisible for keeping the ticket price low (just $15) and for making a tangible effort to invite our young people to the table for this conversation about basic human rights.

“I took away many insights from the camp, but what struck me most was the emphasis the Yakama Nation Tribal Forestry program places on connecting local youth with their environment, preparing them to manage the forests and pass along the knowledge to future generations. This focus on youth and career pathways is the foundation of a recent collaboration between the Intertribal Timber Council (ITC), which includes the Yakama Nation among its members, SFI, and Project Learning Tree (PLT) to develop Tribal Forestry & Wildland Fire Voices: A Career Guide, a resource aimed at promoting Tribal forestry and supporting workforce development. The guide provides a roadmap for students and young professionals interested in forestry and wildland fire careers, helping strengthen workforce development efforts and ensure the next generation of Indigenous leaders have the tools and opportunities needed to thrive in the forest sector.

The Yakama Nation’s forests are a testament to the care and commitment of their people. As I reflect on their choice to be certified to the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard, I feel a strong sense of pride in being part of the organization supporting the long-term health and resilience of their forests.” —Nick Johnson in YAKAMA NATION TRIBAL FORESTRY YOUTH CAMP 2025 (Source: Sustainable Forestry Initiative)


WA State

“Hope is a rare commodity, but if there is hope for the earth, generally it has to do with acknowledging indigenous sovereignty in the face of insatiable resource extraction. Indigenous people make up 6 percent of the world’s population, but their territory accounts for close to a quarter of the earth’s land surface, containing more than a third of remaining natural lands worldwide, often in northern boreal and equatorial forests. Tribes have built up a body of Indian law that is as dynamic as it is unacknowledged. ‘Tribal sovereignty is one of the most powerful and valuable public ideas that has ever touched my mind,’ Wilkinson writes.” —Robert Sullivan in The Third Sovereign (Source: The New York Review)


National and Beyond

“Another key takeaway was how other countries root the right to abortion in a human rights framework rather than on a right to privacy. This requires centering the dignity of the pregnant person and rejecting attempts to limit their human rights by creating a state interest in their pregnancy.  The human rights framework also provides the groundwork to make broader reproductive justice arguments on issues like maternal health, fair wages, universal healthcare and more.” from Beyond Borders: How the U.S. can learn from the global abortion movement (Source: Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council)

That’s all for this week. Back to the fall root harvest…
Maria