Yarn at the Saturday Farmers Market. Photo: Hungry Hill Farm

Hungry Hill Farm, based in Scio, is a new vendor at the Albany Farmers Market! They’ll be providing produce and sheep wool fiber (yarn and spinning batts) each week this season.

Here are a few items you can expect to see this week:

Lettuce
Rhubarb
Spinach
Mint
Radishes
Green onions
Chives
Thyme
Sheep wool fiber (both spun wool and raw fiber)

Glad to have you there, Hungry Hill!

They’re open daily, 10am to 6pm. Right now they are taking reservations for holiday prime rib, lamb leg, or ham. Or, considering that it’s already December 18 (whaaaaat?! How did that happen?), you would probably want to go there and just purchase what you need for your holiday dinner.

The city council will resume their hearing on December 21, but with no further public testimony.

Fingers crossed.

Deregulation opened the door for transgenic sugar beet production in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the world. The judge ordered that an environmental impact statement be conducted because USDA/APHIS failed to adequately consider the impact on the environment from stated cross contamination concerns, and the socio-economic impacts on consumers (eaters), farmers, and other market participants over the question of the continued availability of non-transgenic sugar beet crops.

Check out the ‘Cooking Up a Story’ video interview with Frank Morton, conducted earlier this year before the ruling.

There’s a good discussion about this taking place over at the We Love Corvallis blog, and there are comments on the Gazette Times story as well.

This issue has potential ramifications beyond the farm store itself, I would think. Yes, it would be supremely disappointing to lose the store — which consists of a couple of freezers, by the way, it is certainly not anything close to a grocery store — but Bald Hill Farm is steward to hundreds of acres of land in Corvallis. There’s the realignment of Reservoir Ave. that, to the best of my understanding, has been halted until it can be determined that this isn’t actually (now) a losing proposition for the farm. There are the trails, open to the public. There are the efforts of the farm to rejuvenate the land from its former use as a mill.

What could it mean to the community if the Land Development Hearings Board’s decision is upheld? Could we lose the trails? The road realignment? The ability to purchase meat from this local producer? What else? If the city proves to be unwilling to work with the farm for the good of the farm and community, and the farm owners say “to hell with Corvallis”… then what? I think this is news, and I think the community should know all the potential ramifications. A 299-page document is daunting, to say the least. I see people on the GT opinion pages throwing around words like “illegal”, which are just inflammatory, not helpful, and not true. The code is obviously not clear and open to interpretation, and may contain some errors.

I’d also like to know why this never came up during what I am sure were many talks and visits by the city and county with regards to the road realignment. It’s not exactly a secret that the store is there and has been operating for quite some time. Why did this not come up until after the generous donations were made by Mr. Martin and the farm, and work began on the road?

So many questions… and such a restrictive process.

The farm recently sent out this e-mail, which Amanda gave me permission to post:

Dear Friends,

We have some unfortunate news about the future of our little farm store.  The City of Corvallis received a complaint on the road construction; as a result, they came to our site and decided that our farm store is an illegal land use and want us to shut it down.

City staff classifies the sale of our farm products from our farm as “Food and Beverage Retail Sales”- like a grocery store.  We believe that our farm store is rightfully classed as an “Accessory Use” allowed under LDC Chapter 4.3.50 for Agriculture which allows “Retail outlets, cafeterias, and offices accessory to the Primary Use.”

As you all know, Bald Hill Farm LLC, has for many years been devoted to providing our customers with healthy and sustainably-raised meats.  We are valuable to this community.  We believe that raising food locally makes Corvallis a stronger and more united community.  It is our passion to have this farm store available for our friends and neighbors to provide safe, reliable, and healthy products you can trust.

Maybe if the city could see how beneficial we are to the community, they might rethink their decision to take all the good we do away from all of you.  We are appealing the staff’s citations against us thru standard channels to the City Council.  We would greatly appreciate your taking just a moment to submit written testimony to the City Council to assist us in our appeal.

Please mail, email or hand deliver it to:

The City Council
c/o Kevin Young, Senior Planner
501 SW Madison Ave.
P.O. Box 1083
Corvallis, OR 97339-1083
kevin.young@ci.corvallis.or.us

For more details on these zoning issues, please see* the attached appeal letter submitted by Andrew Martin, our Managing LLC Member, to the City Council for the appeal.  We will send you more information on when the hearing will be held, as soon as we know.

Hopefully together our voices will be heard.

Sincerely,

Amanda Heeter, Member, Bald Hill Farm LLC.

*If you want to see the appeal letter written by Mr. Martin, send an e-mail to Info@4baldhillfarm.com.

The public hearing will be held on Monday, December 7th at 7:30PM in the city fire station meeting room at 400 NW Harrison Blvd.

Let the city hear from you. Bald Hill Farm is an asset to the community and the store is GOOD for the city!

Update: Mayor Tomlinson of Corvallis answered a question I asked on Twitter… even if you are not a resident of Corvallis, your support can have an impact. But, he cautioned, “…no one will have any impact if they do not stick to the applicable criteria of the case.” Here is a link to the CC Staff Report on the farm’s appeal of the violation. Be advised, this is a 299 page document.

2nd Update: For more discussion about this, and whether the code meets the community’s values, check out this post on the We Love Corvallis blog.

My friend Veronica shows off a pumpkin she chose from the patch at Detering Orchards in Harrisburg.

A couple of websites I turn to when I’m looking for farms to visit are Local Harvest and Pick Your Own. On the Local Harvest site, you can search by state (here are my search results for pumpkins in Oregon), or narrow it even further by city or zip code. The Pick Your Own site is rather dizzying, but you can follow the links and end up on a page listing out farms by county (for example, Salem and the surrounding areas).

Don’t forget to call before you go! Many of the farms are currently offering hay rides, fresh cider, corn or hay bale mazes, and more.

I’ve updated the Recipe page and added a Baked Pumpkin Pudding recipe from HobbyFarms.com. Happy baking!

Flipping through the October, 2009 issue of Bon Appétit magazine, this little item about home milk delivery caught my eye. Curious if there were any dairies which provide home delivery in Oregon, I hit up Google. I found one and I have to say, I really thought there would be more. It seems like such an Oregon thing to do.

But, anyway, I found certified organic Noris Dairy, based in Crabtree and providing service to several cities throughout the Willamette Valley.

Hormone and antibiotic free, the cows at Noris graze on pasture year-round. Items available for delivery include milk, yogurt, cheese, and butter. Click here for distribution areas and days.

Aside from the convenience, I find the idea of home dairy delivery a sort of romantic notion. Glass milk bottles, cream rising to the top. Supporting a local farming family and healthy farming practices. I’d love to hear from anyone in the comments if you’re a current Noris home delivery customer. Let our readers know what you think of the products and service!

A friend and I have decided to try it out, so I’ll report back in a few weeks.

(Photo credit: cafemama on Flickr)

The chickens are in heaven too, since they get treats of whatever we can’t finish.

And… a comment I’ve been wanting to make in general: Collectively, we have to get over our bias towards “perfect” produce. That stuff doesn’t always have the best taste. Something with a little dirt on it, or slightly bruised or blemished, or maybe the color isn’t perfect… we have found that this means nothing, in most cases, when it comes to good tasting produce. Go forth and cut around that bruise.

I just went and looked again at all the participating sites and I realize, I’ve only ever visited four of them. What a great opportunity to visit some new places and help a worthy cause at the same time.

The event runs from noon to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, $10 passports are available at Corvallis Tourism Visitor’s Center as well as each of the tour sites.

I also wanted to point out Kisler Farms. They are a bit off the beaten track and unless you already know about them or happen to catch sight of the sign on Hwy 20 & Garden Ave.,  you might never know they are out there. Their site confuses me because I thought they had more than tomato and peppers, but maybe I am thinking of someone else out that way.

I’ll just have to take a drive out there and see what’s up!

Edit: Okay, when I went by this morning I studied the signs — Kisler has tomatoes and peppers, and it’s Drahnacre Farms that has other produce. They are on Strawberry Ln, off Garden Ave.