Capital Press: Okanogan farmers unite at Des Moines market

Isolated farmers team up to transport their crops to new farmers' markets

Peggy Steward
Capital Press Staff Writer

In what may become a model for others, a group of Okanogan Valley growers has teamed up to market their crops at a new farmers' market on the west side of the state.

"We have great farmers and great land, but we’re isolated," said Watershine Woods, a long-time organic grower of heirloom apples, stone fruit and garlic seed, and a member of the Okanogan Producers Marketing Association. "We needed help with marketing and transporting our products to market."

With a grant from the Seattle-based nonprofit Farming and the Environment, the eight Okanogan farmers received help marketing their crops, ranging from fruits and vegetables to shiitake mushrooms, at the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers' Market. Not coincidentally, Farming and the Environment helped to organize the new Des Moines Saturday market.

Jeff Voltz, executive director of Farming and the Environment, said his group hopes to demonstrate that regional producer marketing and distribution alliances can help keep farming profitable.

"Call it priming the pump," Voltz said of the $72,000 grant provided to the Okanogan growers. Voltz, a former CEO of PCC Natural Markets, said he hopes to connect more groups of stewardship farmers with farmers' markets, grocery stores and restaurants.

Voltz identified high-population Puget Sound communities that did not have farmers' markets, and which appeared interested in supporting sustainable farming. The Des Moines community was especially eager to set up a farmers' market, and now has its fourth weekly market under its collective belt. About 21 farmers, including the eight from the Okanogan, plus crafts vendors, set up each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. along the waterfront. About 900 shoppers have attended each week, a number Voltz expects to increase as word of the market spreads.

For the Okanogan growers like Woods, the marketing association and grant has already reaped benefits. The farmers were able to hire an operations manager to help with logistics. And, because they shared the responsibility of transporting crops and staffing the market, they were able to rotate days, lessening the time away from their farms.

"No one can sell your stuff as well as you can," Woods said. "But by sharing responsibilities, we've developed bonds. We’re making our neighbors our allies, instead of our competitors."

The concept is working well, Woods said.

"It's igniting enthusiasm and hope that we can survive here on small farms," she said. "We're stronger together than we are separately."

It has also helped to connect with consumers who value and are willing to pay a premium for produce grown by farmers who use sustainable practices, she said.

Using the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers' Market as a model, Voltz hopes to organize five new farmers' markets in the next three years, with possible sites in Shoreline, Mill Creek and Sammamish. Building on the Okanogan Producers Marketing Association, he also hopes to work with other groups of farmers on the access-to-markets program.

To participate in the program, farmers must use conservation measures to protect water, soil and wildlife habitat while conserving energy and promoting genetic diversity, Voltz said.

Farming and the Environment has received $135,000 in grants to foster the program. Private foundations and government agencies that have provided support include the Bullitt Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, USDA Rural Development, the Western Center for Risk Management Education and the Washington State Department of Agriculture.