The Flavor of Hazelnuts – Final Project Multimedia Character Profile
The benefits of local and organic produce available at the Lane County Farmers Market, through the eyes of Linda Perrine – Honor Earth Farm.
People stroll leisurely among the booths overflowing with fresh natural produce. The Eugene locals chat amiably with farmers while enjoying the soft winter sunshine on a Saturday late in November. The Lane County Farmers Market sets up on 8th and Oak Street in downtown Eugene every Saturday between April and November.
Linda Perrine is a frequent vendor and the owner of Honor Earth Farms where she grows organic Hazelnuts, vegetables, and berries.
Perrine studied the environment and organic farming at UC Santa Cruz. She spent three years searching for the farm land of her dreams and finally settled on a 32 acre orchard, located 10 miles southeast of Eugene.
Early Saturday morning, Perrine drives into Eugene to set up her booth for the farmers market. There are only four growers of organic hazelnuts in the state of Oregon. Perrine offers a rare product and the people keep coming back to rave about the flavor of her hazelnuts.
Last Saturday Perrine did not run a booth but went to the market to shop. She was walking through the market and all these customers kept stopping and saying “aren’t you doing a booth today”? Perrine has formed close relationships with her customers. They talk about her style of farming and oftentimes Perrine invites them out to pick their own nuts and see the farm. Perrine believes kind of close and caring personal interaction can only be found at the farmers market.
Perrine says, “All of us are eaters and we all need to be foodies and we all need to care about how our food is produced.”
The air is cold and crisp. Perrine walks among her hazelnut trees pausing to inspect several branches. There are nearly 108 trees per acre for a total of about 3,500 hazelnut trees and Perrine knows every single tree.
“I love being outdoors, it feeds me every day just to be outside and working with plants and seeing them change and improve and evolve and watching the change in the soil.
“I walk the orchard every morning and I notice things on every walk.”
“There is beauty; there is a lot of peace. I Love the pruning time of year because it’s quiet.
“I’m out here with the birds and the other things and it’s very peaceful.”
“There is a spiritual component to doing this that I think many people miss.”
“I don’t think everyone needs to become farmer, but I think you should go spend some time on a farm.”