Q&A 1- Gus Eberhardt- Eberhardt Family Farm
Q: How did you get started?
A: I started by buying a farm in Elkton about 25 years ago, moved out of the city, and just jumped into it. I did get a degree in horticulture from many years before, and then actually worked as a nurse. I just bought a place that had some fir trees on it already, and went on from there.
Q: What do you think the difference between doing something like this in the Northwest is as opposed to somewhere else?
A: Well, there’s more rain here, and it’s a nicer place to live, although places like Arizona and Texas have their beauties as well… but we have more water here and more sunshine.
Q: Do you think anything specific about Oregon impacts the work you do?
A: I sell directly to the public- I don’t sell wholesale anymore. People here in Oregon support farmer’s markets all over the state. Eugene in particular has been very supportive for many years. This was an active market when there were only 4 or 5 markets altogether in the state. Now, there’s 100-something.
Q&A 2 – Joel Watson- Red Wagon Creamery
Q: What do you think the importance of doing something at a farmers’ market like this is?
A: Well, it establishes a good fan base. It makes us look humble and like we still have our roots here. This is where we started and that is why we still do this regularly.
Q: Do you think there is a difference between having something like this in the Northwest and Oregon as opposed to somewhere else in the states?
A: Yeah, I think you have a higher success rate at places like this. People here appreciate the hand crafted, organic ingredients, and local stuff, more so than L.A. or something you know?
Q: Is Red Wagon different than another kind of creamery or ice cream shop?
A: Well we make all of our ice creams onsite, as opposed to just receiving a shipment of it. That’s the major one, I think.
Q&A 3 – Michael Byrd – Northwest Natural Beef
Q: Would you mind telling us a little bit about this business?
A: We’re all grass-fed natural raised beef. We have a few different pastures in Bend County—south of Bend County, and we started about 8 years ago. We’ve been in Corvallis for 5 years solid, and this is our first year expanding to the Eugene market. We’ve got something also going on now. The owner, Ed, is a retired forestry professor from OSU, and the cattle are a limousin/angus cross.
Q: Can you talk about the importance of having natural beef as opposed to big companies that use GMO’s and hormones?
A: Well, first of all it tastes better, and it’s a lot better for you, and there’s not as much chemicals in it, it stays local and they’re driven to a local place and processed in a local place, so they’re not having the stress of traveling. So, that’s one of the best aspects of it. And you just get to support the people in your community who are growing things in a good, healthy way for their people. So far, the feedback is that people can tell the difference, and they do appreciate it.
Q: Why do you think it’s important to have such a big local support around Oregon? A: It keeps the money in Oregon, and anytime you’re traveling things and moving things from distances, you make a carbon footprint and use more fuels to move things around, so I think it’s in some way more efficient to buy locally—it keeps the money here, and exchanging with other people. You know, people buy from us, I’ll buy from our neighbor here, and our neighbor will buy from another neighbor here and it keeps it all here and kind of keeps the quality controlled.
Q: Do you think Oregon specifically has a part in giving people this vibe of keeping things local, and do you think it’s Oregon specific as opposed to other states?
A: I don’t know if we’re the only people doing it, but it definitely seems like we’ve got kind of a jump on things. It seems like people in Oregon are a little more in tune with the outdoors and wanting to keep things nice that way so, you know, maybe we have a little advantage over some other states that haven’t quite gotten it yet.
Q&A 4 – Rachel Murray- SLO Farm:
Q: So, how did you get started with this?
A: Well, this business is run by my partner, and so I met him and started volunteering, and I just got kind of absorbed into the business.
Q: Why do you think organic is important?
A: Well, I don’t think chemicals are good for us. Not for us, not for soil, not for water. So for me, organic is really the only option when it comes to ‘healthy’. Especially when it comes to food. I want the food that I provide to the community to be extremely healthy, so I would never put chemicals in it. And the certification is important for us because we sell to the grocery stores in town, and certain stores only accept organic produce, so you have to have that certification, that label, to be able to sell to them.
Q: Does Oregon make this particularly possible for you?
A: Absolutely. The Willamette valley is an extremely fertile place that allows us to grow a pretty wide diversity of crops for a good portion of the year. It’s a small enough population here where we can really produce a lot and share a lot with people. There’s a lot of consciousness here about health-it’s very important to people. So, there are a lot of potential customers who are interested in what we’re doing and are invested in it. This is an agrarian and farm-based economy. We’re an agricultural state, and there are a lot of states that aren’t. But here, we are, so that means a lot both economically and culturally.
Q&A 5 – Barbara Walraet- Caramel French Patisserie
Q: Would you tell us a little bit about your business?
A: So, it’s Caramel French Patisserie, and it was established in 2009, so it’s a new business, and is only at the market because it’s time consuming. I make pastries, French pastries, French desserts, and everything I make I use ingredients from mainly Oregon, and if I have to source out I will do that. Everything is hand crafted, I don’t use machines, so I do everything by hand. Every single thing you see here, you know, I touched it!
Q: Do you think Oregon is really important to small businesses and farmer’s markets and keeping it going?
A: Yes, I think it’s very important and I think it’s important for the customers and the people to learn to eat things that are local, and also it’s a good way to teach people, you know, what’s out there and that there are lots of things just around the corner. You don’t have to go far away at a farmer’s market. You have everything, so you can come once a week or twice, or three times a week now—there’s a Tuesday [market], there’s a Saturday [market] and the Thursday [market], so basically people can come to the market and buy their ingredients for the whole week so that they won’t even need to go to other places. Everything’s in one place.
Q: Do you think Oregon does this community style a little better than other places? A: Well, I have do not much to compare to but I know that here, people are very passionate about being local and I think that it is a good representation what we see around and that people embrace with it, so I think Oregon is a good state for that.
Q&A 6 – Shelley Bowerman and Kelly Stillwell- Agrarian Ales
Q: Can you tell us a little about the business?
A: We are a hops brewery on a farm in Coburg, and the owners of the property also have a farm, so there are actually two businesses on the property. There is Crossroads farm, which is the produce and vegetable side, and they grow about 45 different varieties of chili peppers that they specialize in. Whether it starts at the market, roasted chili peppers, and then the actual chili peppers when they come on at the end of the season. Her son partnered up with another gentleman and started up the brewery, so it’s one hundred percent seasonal brewery; we rotate through all year round and don’t have a flagship beer so there’s always something different on tap. We do a rotating chili beer to feature the chili pepper farm. We have two acres of hops and ten varieties and all of the hops that we grow are used in our beer. We get a lot of our grain from gamberniss, it’s organic, and we also use some local grains. We try to source as locally as possible, but for the barley it is a lot harder.
Q: Why do you think it is important to stay local?
A: To support local farmers and keep the food industry local and keep the GMO’s out.
Q: Do you think Oregon has a kind of bigger consciousness about why it is important to stay local within the community as opposed to other parts of the states?
A: We just have a better ability to do that. I mean this food shed is amazing. We are able to eat year round off of food grown in the valley. We’re really lucky. There is a lot of wonderful resources here that people in other areas aren’t able to enjoy.
Q: What do you think the importance that coming to a farmers’ market has on your business and on other businesses?
A: It’s about the community. I think a business, and any profit-driven entity should serve the community. Community health should be all of our goals. Of course, we have to make a living and profit is an important motivator, but I think we need to consider goals beyond the capitalistic profit motive.
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