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Why Local Food?
Willamette Farm
and Food Coalition explains benefits of choosing local foods, including:
- Locally grown food tastes
better.
- Local produce is better for you.
- Local food preserves genetic
diversity.
- Local food is GMO-free.
- Local food supports local farm
families.
- Local food builds community.
- Local food preserves open space.
- Local food keeps your taxes in
check.
- Local food supports a clean
environment and benefits wildlife.
- Local food is about the future.
They also offer a free annual booklet called
"Locally Grown Guide", available at many cafes and
grocery stores.
The 2012 "Locally
Grown Guide" has information on
75 farms
29 CSA programs
18 farmers' markets
6 processors
23 restaurants
16 merchants
3 breweries
15 wineries
22 granges.
New this year ...
Beginner's
Guide to Sourcing Local
Defining local
Brands to look for in the grocery store
Where to find beans, grains and freshly
milled flours
About local brews and Oregon grown hops
Grape growers are farmers too
The "Locally Grown Guide"
is also available in on-line in a searchable
format at Willamette
Farm and Food Coalition.
WFFC has a number of projects, including one
called "Local Food For All". That project
is" exploring ways to increase access to locally
grown food in low-income neighborhoods and to
increase availability of subsidized CSA
[Community Supported Agriculture] shares and
Farmers’ Market Dollars for families in need".
Another WFFC project is the Farm to
School Program which is committed to providing
the children of Lane County with access to
local, affordable, nutritious, delicious, and
culturally appropriate food.
In April 2010, as part of a two-month-long
mission to gather information for a national initiative
called “Know
Your
Farmer, Know Your Food”, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm to School
Team visited Eugene and Bethel school
districts’ food service programs. Both
districts were among the 15
districts in the country selected for site
visits from an applicant pool of nearly 300.
The Ten Rivers
Food Web was formed by consumers and
farmers who want to see more of the food grown in
their Corvallis-area foodshed (roughly Benton, Linn
and Lincoln counties) processed and consumed there.
Their website includes a search button
for local farms as well as essays about local food
issues.
Another way to find farms, stores, restaurants and
other outlets in our area as well as all over in the
US and Canada is to check out the Eat
Well
Guide.
Still another way is an organization called Local Harvest.
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Occasionally, assumptions we make about a food don't
prove to be true. A student who makes every
attempt to buy organically-grown foods brought in to
class this label of something he'd bought at Costco.
Notice the scene featured on the front,
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as well as the name of the distributor.
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Now notice where the spinach actually was grown, at
least I think that's what "Product of" must
mean. Think of the fuel that was used to get it
here!
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I took a look at this can of crab in our pantry that I
assumed came from off the Oregon or Washington coast.
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So far, so good. It was distributed by a Seattle
company.
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I was chagrined to find where it was actually a
"Product of". I really like Indonesia and spent
a wonderful 2 months there, but we could certainly get
crab closer to home.
"A measured approach: Count the miles from the source
of your food to your table", by Jessica MacMurray
Blaine, The
Register-Guard, August 22, 2007.
This
article says that "In this country, average
food-mile estimates range from 1,500 to 2,000 miles.
In the United Kingdom, it's even higher, in the
1,500- to 3,000-mile range."
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Notice where this basil was grown. It was
delicious and so reassuring to know that it was grown
organically. But it's too bad so much petroleum
had to be used getting it here. Especially
considering that basil grows well here.
The following photos of our local foods are divided
into a number of groups:
- Retail Stores
- Farm Stands
- U-pick
- Farmers' Markets, including:
- Downtown Eugene (Saturdays, Tuesdays and
Thursdays)
- South Eugene (28th and Oak, Saturdays)
- Springfield Museum parking lot (Thursdays)
- Holiday Market at the Lane County Fairgrounds in
Eugene in December
- CSAs (Community Supported
Agriculture)
- Home Delivery
- Growing Your Own (including
Containers, Community Garden Plots and Home
Gardens)
- Local Food Products
- Restaurants
- "Free" Food and Edible Nature
(blackberries, etc.)
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1. Retail Stores
At this
point in time grocery stores don't have a very large
selection of locally-grown foods, although perhaps
they would provide more local options if consumers
requested it.
This ad didn't mention where the foods were grown,
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while this
one did,
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as did this one. This ad as well as the
strawberry ad were in July, which was after our local
strawberry season and during our cherry season.
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July is also blueberry season as you can see in
the poster above. The blueberries below I
found in grocery stores in both Boise and La
Grande while on a summer vacation. They come
from a farm in Sheridan, which is near Portland.
As mentioned before, ways to find stores in our area
selling local foods are the Willamette
Farm and Food Coalition's booklet called
"Locally Grown" or the Eat
Well
Guide.
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Market of
Choice is a family-owned grocery store chain
whose first market opened in Cottage Grove in 1979,
under a different name.
"Local growers explore sales in new market", by Sherri
Buri McDonald, The
Register-Guard, September 4, 2007
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photo courtesy of
the
Bray Family
The above is a family-owned grocery
store, Bray's Grocery, in Eugene in 1936. The
building still stands at 343 High St.
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photo courtesy
of the
Bray Family
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photo courtesy
of the
Bray Family
The man on the left is Henry Standley in
about 1910, father-in-law of the owner of Bray's
Grocery. The wagon sold popcorn and peanuts.
Corn was grown then in this area but I don't
know where he peanuts came from.
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Newman's Fish Market started in Eugene in 1890.
In addition to local fish it has a selection of
groceries that accompany a fish meal, such as pasta.
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John Newman began by selling fish from the back of a
horse-drawn wagon. This photo was taken at their
store on Willamette St.
For
fishmonger,
hard work pays off in fins:
Newman’s Fish company owner Dwight Collins relies on the
work ethic he learned as a child, By Tina
Orem, for The
Register-Guard, June 18, 2009.
The article says that
John Henry Newman was 13-years-old
when he founded the business so he could fish
full-time in Alaska. The current owner, Dwight
Collins, has worked in the business since 1974.
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Although also not a full selection grocery store, Long's Meat and
Deli does have other choices, such as eggs and
sauces. It began in Eugene in 1927 when Ernest
"Butch" Long opened shop on Charnelton Street.
Employee Dick Wooley (shown in the photo above),
who began his career for Long's in 1959, eventually took
over the business, purchasing it in 1976.
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Mike Wooley, shown above, is the current
owner of Long's.
On the day I visited, he and his dad were behind the
counter cutting meat. Long's
also had eggs from Laughing Stock Farm, who raise
pasture-run hens, as well as free-range pigs & lamb.
"We strive for sustainable production methods,
purchasing feed grains locally, paying growers enough so
they can make a profit."
A much newer (2002) business,
Plaza Latina
Supermarket is thriving by appealing to Lane
County's rapidly growing Latino population. Owner
Sam Recinos, whose wife is Lebanese, estimates
that about 60 percent of his customers are non-Hispanic,
with about 10 percent being of Middle Eastern origin.
Plaza Latina offers a number of wonderful locally-grown
foods and also some that are not locally-grown.
Two questions to consider asking yourself when
considering a purchase are:
- Is a non-local food on the store shelf also
grown locally?
- If not grown locally, is there a
substitute acceptable to
you?
A food I saw on a produce shelf a day I was there was
yucca, which I had never seen, but I knew it to be a
staple food of much of the world, including Latin
America, Africa and Asia. (This yucca
(pronounced you kah) is a different plant than the large
ornamental evergreen that grows here, although their
roots are similar.)
What this says is "Once the outer bark is
removed, a linen-white meat is revealed. Very
dense in texture, the Yucca is very starchy.
Use in soups and stews to absorb moisture or as a
thickener in desserts. It can be fried as
fritters, baked or boiled. Use as you would
potatoes. "Good
source of iron".
Click
here if you'd like a recipe for Yucca Stew, a
family favorite of the student who sent it to me.
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Above is what
people in Latin America know as a yucca
plant. It's also spelled yuca
and called cassava or
manioc. The starch from these roots is
what tapioca is made from.
In general, the crop requires a warm humid
climate.
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Above is what
many
of us know here as a yucca plant.
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Eugene
Local
Foods is an online marketplace that gathers
together locally grown and produced food.
One of our students
named Vanessa said this, "I think the prices are great
for the quality and amounts. You register online
(free-easy), then they send newsletters to let you
know about arrivals or any other info. They stop
receiving orders on Monday. Pick up is Tuesday between
3-7. I pay credit/debit online when I order."
This is Vanessa's order being filled.
And this is Vanessa's daughter, Gatlin.
Before we leave
this category, I'd like to mention Growers Market, an
all-volunteer weekly food-buying
cooperative.
Food is distributed at the warehouse (located in Eugene
on what would be 4th St. just off Willamette) on
Thursday and Friday afternoons. |
If you go to the statue below at the Eugene train
station (by local ceramic artist Betsy Wolfston)
and turn around, you'll see Growers Market.
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The inside of Growers Market is mostly
unchanged since it began in 1971. Joni, a
coordinator who showed me around, said that in 30 years
of operation, they've never had a paid employee! Julia,
the
student who told me about Growers' Market, said
it's a "treat for those that like to reduce
packaging and get good food for as cheap as possible."
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Their selections on the day I visited included some
unusual vegetables, like the celeriac below:
There are also some more conventional choices, like
these beautiful plums.
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and also some bulk selections.
If you'd like more information, here is their website:
http://growersmarket.net
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Our neighbors have
coordinated a food buying club, with pickup happening on
their porch.
Click
here for more information about their club.
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2. Farm Stands
(a second way to find local foods)
This is a farm stand as part of a project of FOOD for Lane
County (our food bank, whose mission is to
eliminate hunger in our community by creating access
to food).
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Here is more information about the farm:
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Youth Farm prices, July 2007.
Click on the above image or the next two if you'd like
to a larger versions.
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Here are
some other choices for Farm Stands, as of July
2007. The Eugene
Register-Guard has an advertisement
in Wednesday's and Saturday's papers featuring a
variety of farm stand (and ¨U-pick)
opportunities.
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King Estate is a
vineyard and winery southwest of Eugene that grows and
used to sell at the estate organic produce. King
Estate's website says:
"The
beautiful estate of 1,033 acres is certified organic
and includes 465 acres of organic vineyards, as well
as 30 acres of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The
Estate is crowned by the charming, European-style
winery, where the winemaking process is also certified
organic."
Bria, an LCC student, said in the fall of 2008, "I went
to a wine tasting at King Estates a few weeks ago and
found out that they no longer have their farmers'
market. They said they didn't have enough shoppers
so now they just donate all of their organic produce to
Food For Lane County."
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Other Farm Stands with websites:
Hentze
Family Farm
Detering Orchards
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3. U-Pick
Picking
your own produce is another way to get
locally-grown food.
Click here
for a directory Lane County pick-your-own farms, some
of them offering organically-grown produce.
U-pick Growing Seasons
Apples: July to November
Blackberries (wild): August
Blueberries: July to August
Cherries: Mid-June to July
Peaches: August to September
Pears: August to October
Raspberries: Late June to July with everbearing in the
Fall
Strawberries: June
Tomatoes: July to September
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Emily is a Master Gardener who was visiting from
Baltimore, Maryland. This is either at
Thistledown Farm or Lone Pine Farm.
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Here's my office-mate and fellow nutrition instructor,
Tamberly Powell, u-picking peaches with her daughter,
Kennedy, at Bush's U-Pick near Fern Ridge Lake on
Territorial Road. She said they were great!
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This is my grand-nephew, Owen.
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Maybe this is why his bucket is so empty.... |
