Trip Report

The bounty of the fertile Willamette Valley was clearly on view for the More Food IV trip. Eating locally sourced food has come back into vogue and evident on our five farm visits. Our first stop was the new Camas Country Store on the Hunton Family Farm near Junction City. It sits beside the local white one room school house moved there several years ago and now used for group functions, including our morning coffee break. Moving the store to the farm gives the mill the opportunity to expand and to handle milling for a major bread company. Three new Danish mill stones are currently on their way to the mill. Our shoppers inaugurated the store with purchases of various flours, grains, beans, mixes and bird seed. Being able to buy grains locally grown is new in the last ten years. The second stop was Groundworks Organics on River Road. This farm distributes organically grown produce to specialty grocery stores, farmers markets, CSA participants, restaurants and their own farm stand Thursday through Sunday. Located on 125 acres the farm harvests by hand traditional, heirloom and root vegetables, ethnic specialty crops, salad and other greens, dry beans, herbs, orchard fruit and berries. The third stop was Lavender Lakes Farm north of Monmouth on Hwy 99W. This Roberts Family Farm has over 12 acres of lavender varieties developed by Dr. Don Roberts. The lavender smell was very pleasant as we had our lunch under the trees near the blooming fields. Lavender lemonade was provided, a tasty liquid for a warm day. Dr. Roberts explained the distilling process resulting in essential oil and his grandson showed us the distillery producing it. We visited the large retail store that is open year around with a huge variety of all things lavender. Stop number four was the Willamette Valley Cheese Company located just north of Salem. We passed many vineyards and hazelnut orchards on the back roads to the cheese company. Here the cows are on the farm next to the creamery so the entire process happens right there. The large variety of handmade cheeses from Willamette Valley Cheese has won many national and international awards. Our final stop was the Horse Creek Farm on Peoria Road at the Irish Bend junction. This family farm has been in operation since the early 1900’s. It started as a small table with an honor system for payment. It is bigger now, but not by a lot. The peaches smelled ripe and luscious as we shopped among the fruits, berries, vegetables, refrigerated pork, beef and eggs, jams and oatmeal cookies. Our special treat was an oatmeal cookie made with grains, dried fruit and eggs from the farm. Enjoying food as close to nature as possible were: