Food Safety Workshop in Enterprise on Friday, March 7th

Make the most of your winter time by signing up for a Rural Roots Food Safety Workshop.  This workshop features four keynote speakers talking about different aspects of food safety; local farmers telling (perhaps even showing) what they do to make sure the food they produce is safe to eat; and regional health department representatives explaining local regulations and their reasoning.

Workshop participants will receive free copies of two excellent resources developed by Cornell University: Food Safety Begins on the Farm: A Growers Guide and Food Safety Begins on the Farm: A Grower Self Assessment of Food Safety Risks; and lots of other take home resources to help you build or assess your own farm to market food safety plan.

A little extra knowledge can go a long way towards protecting your customers and your business. Why not see what you can learn from the workshop presenters and from each other!

If you are a certified organic producer, this opportunity to earn organic education credits from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.
 
Registration is only $15 per person. Thanks to a generous grant fromWesternCenterfor Risk Management Education and in-kind support from UI Extension, WSU Extension, Idaho State Department of Agriculture, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and other local partners, we are able to keep the registration fee well below the true cost of these workshops.

Visit the Rural Roots web site at www.ruralroots.org to find more information and to register today! Or call their office at (208) 883-3462 and they will be glad to answer your questions and get you signed up to attend.

Visit the Find A Farmer page of this site to learn more about our local growers.

The local food directory is available now!  Call Oregon Rural Action at 541-975-2411 for a paper copy.

At first glance, a discussion of the local economy may seem unrelated to the farmers’ market or perhaps just uninteresting!  But this is actually a fascinating topic that deserves a moment of our attention.  How does our money circulate in this beautiful valley we call home?  Or, more to the point, does our money circulate here before it leaves?

 

Every dollar we spend has the power to influence our community.  Whether we realize it or not, we are shaping the world we live in each time we make a purchase or pay for services.  Economic growth resulting from a strong local economy increases our standard of living by improving city services such as parks, police, and fire protection says La Grande city mayor, Colleen Johnson.

 

When we think about strengthening the local economy, we often think about bringing in new jobs but it is equally important that we think about where the money goes once it gets here.  The Local Multiplier Effect is the economic term used to describe how many times a dollar recirculates within the local economy before leaving.  The beauty of this system is that we all have the power to improve our local economy because each new round a dollar makes has the same impact as a new dollar coming into the community.

 

It is estimated that over the past 100 years American towns have gone from a typical recirculation rate of 25-30 to something less than 10.  With the expansion of national businesses into local markets, we have unwittingly redirected a lot of the money that once fueled our local economies.  100% of our dollar is lost from the local economy each time we spend money outside of our community (on-line purchases, shopping in a bigger city, using services from out of town).  Even shopping at a national chain located in the community brings a much lower recirculation rate.

 

Two studies comparing locally owned businesses with nationally owned bookstores in Texas and Maine showed that $100 spent at a national retailer yielded a return of about $15 to the local economy while the same amount spent at a locally owned business yielded a return of about $45.  The reason for this difference is that local retailers are much more likely to use local services such as accountants, banks, bookkeepers, and advertising.  These businesses are also more likely to purchase office supplies or other materials they need locally.

 

About 90% of the vendors at the La Grande Farmers’ Market live in Union County and the other 10% live in neighboring counties within about 100 miles of La Grande.  I spoke with four local vendors about what portion of their equipment and supplies are purchased locally.  Their estimates ranged between 25% and 80%, averaging around 60%.  “I buy the majority of my supplies here,” says Denise Arnold, who sells handmade clothing, bags, and jewelry at the market “probably 75% of what I spend is here in town.”  This was echoed by all of the vendors I spoke with.  “The only time I spend money out of town is when I can’t get it here,” says John Scott, a market farmer from Cove who estimates 80% of his business purchases this year were made locally.  Ned Bayly of Northeast Farms in Cove summed it up by saying “I think all of us prefer to shop here for convenience as well as buying from people we know.”

 

It is inevitable that some of our money is going to leave the area eventually, but the longer we keep it here the more good it does for our local economy.  Not only are you getting the freshest, tastiest tomatoes available when you shop at the farmers’ market.  You are also supporting our local economy by giving your dollar another chance to travel through town.

 “Eat your vegetables!”  You can probably still hear it ringing in your ears from childhood…or was it just last night at the dinner table.  We pass this mantra down from generation to generation.  We all want to help our children off to a good start in life with a healthy body but those darn vegetables always present a problem.  It seems we’ve never eaten enough of them.

 

We wish there were a simple solution to this age-old problem.  Maybe there is…the secret may lie in seeing this as an opportunity rather than a chore.  Maybe we could learn to love eating vegetables. 

 

Vegetables, unlike any other food group, can be eaten in abundance.  We never have to say no to vegetables.  The new food pyramid recommends that children 4-13 years old eat 1 ½ to 2 ½ cups of vegetables and 1 to 1 ½ cups of fruit each day.  Some days this seems like an impossible goal but the best thing we can do to come closer to this goal is make fresh produce a regular part of our meals and snacks.

 

Introducing a variety of fruits and vegetables at an early age will make a big difference later on but it is never too late to start.  Don’t be discouraged if your child does not like new foods.  It is normal for a person to reject unfamiliar foods and you may have to offer something 15 times (or more!) before it becomes familiar.

 

The simplest way to put vegetables on the table is to cut them up and serve them fresh.  This is also a great way to introduce kids to new foods without overwhelming their taste buds with a recipe containing many new flavors.  Vegetables can be juicy, refreshing and even sweet, especially if they are ripe and freshly picked from your garden or a local farm.  Sweet peppers, carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and snow or snap peas with edible pods are great finger foods.  Broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini slices are also yummy, especially with a savory dip such as ranch dressing or lightly steamed and drizzled with a hot cheese sauce.

 

Beets are another tasty treat.  They are sweet and can be served hot or cold.  Try boiling them whole until they are soft enough to poke with a fork.  Then cut off the ends and slide the skin off.  Cut the beets however you like and butter them for a hot dish or chill them and serve later.  Beets come in many colors:  red, gold, and even striped like a candy cane.  Try new varieties of beets, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, and lettuce.

 

Share the abundance of the growing season with your children.  Eat plentifully when fruits and vegetables are in season.  Let them gobble up a pint (each!) of fresh berries at the farmers’ market, eat cherry tomatoes straight of the vine, or pull a carrot from the soil and eat it with the greens hanging off the end.  Kids love to take part in gathering their food and are more likely to give something a chance if they helped to grow it, pick it, or even just choose it from the produce aisle.

 

And, last but not least, it will be much easier to help your child learn to love vegetables if you model your own pleasure in eating them.  For adults, this might mean spending more time preparing vegetables into a flavorful and interesting concoction.  We often spend a lot of effort making flour and sugar into a tasty dessert or pasta and meat into a savory delicacy.  We add vegetables to the menu at the last minute without thinking about how we might enjoy them as a main part of the meal.  So give them a try! And remember, you might need to try them 15 times before you like them!

Spring has arrived in Northeast Oregon!  The time has come for sowing this year’s crop of fresh vegetables.  There’s nothing sweeter than peas straight from the garden in June or a freshly picked tomato in August or an over-wintered carrot pulled from the soil in April…  Gardening is a hobby with tasty rewards!  It is also the first link in our local food system.

 

Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about where our food comes from.  We know that our food is grown on farms but what happens after that?  Where are the farms?  How does the food get from the farm to the supermarket?  Studies show that the average tomato travels about 1500 miles to get to your table.  As the cost of transportation rises, we should be concerned with how this will affect the cost and availability of food.  How can we build a stronger and more stable food supply?  One thing we can do is support local food producers by seeking out and buying from farmers and retailers who sell locally grown foods.

 

There is more locally produced food available than you might think.  However, local growers experience many challenges in trying to sell their products in Northeast Oregon.  “Our biggest challenge is probably getting people to eat in season and try new varieties” says Michael Bettis of Cop Copi Farms in La Grande.  It is true that most of us don’t give a thought to what is in season.  We have become accustomed to having everything available all year round, even if it doesn’t always taste good.  Finding markets is another challenge for family run farms because the big supermarkets where most of us do our shopping have contracts with large companies and don’t allow the sale of local products.

 

Andi Sexton’s family of Sexton Ranch near Haines raises natural beef and lamb.  Their biggest challenge lies in government regulations which require processing at USDA approved facilities.  The nearest facility is in Idaho, a 2 ½ hour drive from her family’s ranch and even further for those producers in Union and Wallowa counties.  This adds significant time and cost to their product.  But in the end, “building friendships with customers and finding out first hand what they desire in terms of product” makes it worth finding a way to sell locally, says Sexton.  “It is very satisfying to know we are providing a safe, quality product and customers know exactly where their meat is coming from.”

 

Sandy Sorrells, owner of Ten Depot Street Restaurant and Mamacitas in La Grande, refuses to buy meat from big companies because of poor quality and is working with local producers to have their meat packaged “restaurant style”.  Sorrells buys from Northeast Oregon farmers whenever she can.  In the summer, she purchases up to 90% of her produce locally and uses potatoes from Baker and Wallowa counties through the winter.

 

When all is said and done, it really comes down to the exceptional taste and nutrition of these fresh foods.  While beautiful, much of the commercial produce we find at the supermarket is of poor quality.  Produce in our current food system must be a hardy traveler.  To withstand the journey, many fruits and vegetables are picked before they are ripe.  In contrast, “food grown here in the region is probably picked the very day you buy it at the farm stand or farmers’ market” says Lisa Breckenridge, an organizer of the Pendleton Farmers’ Market.  When you compare a fresh, ripe, red strawberry to one that was picked green, you find the green one does not have the quality of taste, texture or nutrition.

 

As individuals, we have the ability to influence our local food system through the marketplace.  So next time you are making your shopping list, think about your options before you head off to the store.  You may discover that what you’re looking for is at the farmers’ market or the farm stand down the road.  And you might even be amazed by the abundance you find, all grown here by families in Northeast Oregon.