Welcome

Welcome to Eating Local in the Willamette Valley. It’s about my passion, food grown in Oregon’s beautiful Willamette Valley. I’ve lived in rural Marion County Oregon for 22 years. I love the amazing bounty of local foods here. I’m not a purist about eating local, I just try to build my diet around as much local food as I can and visit the farms to buy it direct whenever that makes sense. While the farms I go to tend to be close to my home, near Independence, I scan the papers and the internet and make special trips for things like u-pick peaches, walnuts or pastured chicken. There is so much to find when you spend just a little time looking.

I’ve filled this blog with the resources to help you find great food here as well. Along the right hand side you’ll find web resources for local food. Most of these links are lists of farms that sell direct or search engines meant to help you find farms near you. If the listing has an address and specifies when the farm, or stand, is open to the public, then it’s pretty safe to just head out there. But, if you want to be sure that you can get what you are looking for, call first. Some of the farms have websites, and I’ll keep adding links to those. But most farmers are too occupied with growing food to maintain much of a web presence, hence the usefulness of lists like these.

My favorite farm stand section is currently focused on those open in the winter, but I’ll add the spring and summer ones as the seasons change. Some farm stands sell only produce from their farm, and sometimes a few nearby farms; others sell a mix of their own produce and products from around the world. If you see bananas, you can assume they buy from a traditional distributor in addition to moving their own goods. So ask where the item you want is from. Most farm stands are proud of their fruit and vegetables and will happily tell you about their origins.

I also include local processors here in creators of great local food. Oregon’s bounty is often canned, frozen or turned into jam. It’s still local, and buying it supports jobs both on the farm and in the processors. I love to buy fruit and vegetables fresh in their season, but I’d rather eat a canned bean that traveled around the valley a bit than one whose origin is a mystery. We also have an abundance of small specialty processors here from Cherry Country to Wandering Aengus Cider to Christine and Rob’s whose oatmeal really is different from anyone else’s.

I hope you enjoy my stories about finding local food and the farms it comes from. Please feel free to add your own stories of Willamette Valley food and farms.