Two online markets for Oregon grown products

Eugene Local Foods

Eugene Local Foods is a 24/7 online farmer’s market connecting real food grown by real farmers with real families, throughout the Willamette Valley. Each week, local farmers post their fresh, in season produce, meats, dairy and eggs, creating a virtual farmers market for our entire community. Buyers place their custom orders based on available products sourced from 45 area farms and orders are available for pick up at two Eugene locations on Tuesday evenings. Depending on location, the customer may also request home delivery by Pony Express for an additional fee. With convenient drop-off locations for farmers and convenient pickup locations for consumers, everybody benefits from local, sustainable agriculture.

The user friendly web site allows customers to search for a specific product, browse broader product categories or peruse a list of new items each week. A special section describes each of the participating farms, helping customers “know” their farmer. All products offered are grown within a hundred mile radius of the city of Eugene.

By developing a sustainable network that supports the promotion and distribution of locally grown food to our region, Eugene Local Foods strives to serve the growth and long term health of our farmers and our community. Although the majority of their customers are individual households, Eugene Local Foods has brokered sales for the University of Oregon, Lane Community College, and several area businesses.

Eugene Local Foods is dedicated to promoting local community solutions to global environmental issues.

Eugene Local Foods
(541) 579-3195
eugenelocalfoods.com
info@eugenelocalfoods.com

FoodHub

Sourcing local foods has just gotten easier for wholesale buyers in the Pacific Northwest! FoodHub, the searchable online database connecting food producers and food buyers is already generating results. This virtual wholesale market offers robust profiles of farms and food businesses and sophisticated search capabilities that make it possible to source a product or find a potential buyer, in minutes. Never before have Northwest food producers been so highly visible to the region’s wholesale buyers, and never before have food buyers had it so easy.

Launched in February 2010, FoodHub is a social venture business of the Portland-based nonprofit Ecotrust that makes it possible for regional food producers and food buyers of all scales to find one another, connect and do business. Annual subscriptions are $100, but there are many discounts currently available. Log on to food-hub.org or call for more information (503) 467-0816.

Success Stories from FoodHub’s Marketplace:
Got Rhubarb? A post from Grand Central Bakery: “We are in search of local rhubarb for pie season. We prefer once a week deliveries to our North Portland Bakery. We need 250 – 350 pounds per week while in season (April – July).” The Reply: FoodHub member Big B Farms responded to the post, struck a deal, and is now set to deliver rhubarb. “It was like magic,” said Grand Central Bakery’s Laura Ohm.

Need Lettuce Fast! In late April, Clare Columbus, Nutrition Services Director for the Gervais School District, found out that her regular farm would not be able to supply the lettuce she needed for the April Harvest of the Month she had planned. (The Harvest of the Month is a program in which the cafeteria features one seasonal ingredient from a local farmer in their menu.) Instead of panicking, Columbus used FoodHub to send a quick message out to several farms nearby that listed themselves as having lettuce, as well as posting to FoodHub’s Marketplace section. By the end of that day, she had found her lettuce! Ivan Maluski from Tipping Tree Farm in Colton (only 6 miles down the road from Clare) got in touch and delivered the lettuce himself the next week.

Peppers anyone? Margot Wilcoxon, chef of Salvador Molly’s restaurant, posted an inquiry in FoodHub’s “marketplace” about needing to find a local farm to grow habañero peppers, 80+ bushels of peppers. Anne and Rene Berblinger of Gales Meadow Farm in Washington County in the Gale Creek Valley, were one of 10 farms to respond. With over 250 varieties of vegetables and herbs—among them ancho, cayenne and jalapeño peppers—the farm had what Salvador Molly’s sought in terms of “variety, quantity and price.” Wilcoxon made verbal contracts with Gales Meadow – which will grow jalapeños, tomatoes and cilantro—and two other local farms to provide her with not only peppers, but also other ingredients for salsas and tamale fillings.