September in Sisters Country: Exploring the High Desert Food Trail

Just off the main street, Suttle Tea sits in a cozy, intimate, cabin-like café. Enjoy loose-leaf tea or “special-tea” tea-based barista drinks like a London Fog or honey lavender matcha latté, both sweetened with local Broadus Bees honey.

The menu offers caffeinated and uncaffeinated options. Try the iced chocolate chai latté, sweetened with Sisters-made Holy Kakow organic chocolate sauce. For a refreshing, caffeine-free option, sip on an iced strawberry hibiscus tea or try one of their bubble tea offerings!

Welcome to the farm! Your next stop, Rainshadow Organics, is a working farm, so please come dressed accordingly. Head to the farm store to begin your self-guided tour (map). Trek through the 2-acre produce garden, followed by a flourishing flower patch, and then to the “big field.”

After exploring, check out their farm goods, all grown or produced at Rainshadow Organics, including fresh flowers, pastured organic eggs, frozen meat, and produce. Take home a jar or two of their pickled veggies, or stock up on fresh wheat berries for milling.

Next stop, wine tasting! Lazy Z Ranch is a working bee farm serving farm-to-table mead wines.

Wait, what’s mead? It’s fermented honey! Similar to wine, minus the grapes. Their ranch wines vary from dry to sweet, still, or sparkling. The best way to enjoy their mead wines is the house flight featuring favorites like marionberry wine and smoky raspberry.

Opt for a light lunch with their charcuterie platters. Lazy Z offers private ranch tours with behind-the-scenes sampling — $20 per person and requires a reservation (book).

Choose from outdoor seating on the patio or inside the tasting room with roll-up doors and windows. If you can’t get enough mead wines, join Lazy Z’s wine club! Available to locals and in states that allow wine shipping. Don’t leave without a jar of honey!

The farm stand for Mahonia Gardens, a one-acre market garden, offers over 40 “no-spray” vegetable crops. The Stand runs on the honor system, selling pasture-raised eggs and meats, seasonal berries, honey, and flowers from other local growers they trust, like Sungrounded Farm and Boundless Farmstead. Whatever you’re taking home is sure to be some of the freshest food you can find. If it’s not in season, it’s not at The Stand. Be sure to have your cooler bag on hand for your farm stand finds! Next stop, dinner!