SKAGIT’S TWO FLOUR MILLS ARE FLOURISHING w Demand up for locally raised meats w Food box program a success w Farmers adapt with online sales A S U P P L E M E N T T O T H E S K A G I T VA L L E Y H E R A L D A N D A N A C O RT E S A M E R I C A N A S U P P L E M E N T T O T H E S K A G I T VA L L E Y H E R A L D A N D A N A C O RT E S A M E R I C A N
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NEWFOUND APPRECIATION
Skagit County flour mills gain recognition Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON • Photos by OLIVER HAMLIN
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Oliver Hamlin Skagit Valley Herald
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AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC began and people retreated inside their homes, many stocked up and began to cook and bake more, leading to a flour shortage at grocery stores. In search of baking ingredients, many turned to Skagit County’s two flour mills — Cairnspring Mills and Fairhaven Mill. Both say the surge in sales in early spring brought a newfound appreciation for local flours made from Skagit County grains. “(Customers) are primarily like ‘wow, my bread just tastes better, everything tastes better, flour with favor,’” said Kevin Morse, CEO and co-founder of Cairnspring Mills. Cairnspring Mills, which opened in 2016 at the Port of Skagit, focuses on making flours that are more flavorful and nutritious than the white flours made at large-scale industrial mills. Prior to the pandemic, the business had primarily been a wholesale supplier for restaurants and bakeries. When eating establishments shut down in March, the mill lost 25% of its business, Morse said. The business responded by starting direct retail sales, offering pickup of 50-pound bags of flour on Fridays. Morse said on its best day, the mill sold about 18,000 pounds of flour. Since then, the mill has gotten its products into grocery stores throughout the Puget Sound region, and is offering smaller 2.2 pound bags. In October, it launched an
OPPOSITE PAGE: Stephanie Acton, a milling lead at Fairhaven Mill north of Burlington, fills a bag with flour Sept. 16. The mill has seen increased sales from home bakers since COVID-19 restrictions forced people inside. ABOVE: Trevor Hasenoehrl, the production manager at Fairhaven Mill, clears flour from the mill screen Sept. 16. The mill makes whole grain flour that uses the entirety of the grain. RIGHT: Fairhaven Mill CEO Andrew Miller and production manager Trevor Hasenoehrl show what grain looks like before and after it goes through the mill.
online store. “It’s sad it took a pandemic for people to realize how good smaller, craft products are and that they are here in their own backyard,” Morse said. He said the shift to retail will likely make the company more profitable, as margins in retail are better than in wholesale. The mill has boosted it staff from six to nine and plans to hire several more. Fairhaven Mill, a 46-year old mill located north of Burl-
ington, has also seen increased sales, both at grocery stores and at the mill’s small on-site store. The mill’s products include organic grains and flours and gluten-free flours. “I think (the pandemic) opened people’s eyes that they could buy local flour,” said Andrew Miller, CEO of Fairhaven Mill. He said the pandemic has also highlighted the resiliency of local production and supply chains. With the help of part-
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ners such as the Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative, a local distributor, the local flour mills were able to quickly pivot and meet demand, he said. “We are absolutely flexible enough to meet regional and local demand,” Miller said. “The silos are full of grain. No one was going to go hungry eating Fairhaven flour. That is encouraging.”
Miller said the new interest in local flours supports Skagit County farmers, many of whom have worked grains into their business models and crop rotation cycles. Both Cairnspring Mills and Fairhaven Mill contract with local growers to grow specialty grains developed by the Washington State University Bread Lab for flavor, nutrition and high yield. One Skagit County farm, Hughes Farms, grew a hard red spring wheat, a high-protein wheat developed by the Bread Lab, for Fairhaven Mill this year. Michael Hughes, partner at Hughes Farms, said wheat has deep roots that replenish the soil with water and nutrients, and that planting wheat also helps control weeds. Hughes said selling directly to a local flour mill is more profitable than selling on the commodity market because it eliminates the middleman. “We are able to keep more value in the valley, and provide residents and neighbors with locally-grown food the hasn’t traveled all over the world,” he said. Morse said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought national attention to Skagit Valley agriculture and the area’s flour mills. “Not only has the mill received recognition, people are discovering Skagit Valley because of the unique gem it is, from the quality and diversity of farming to the diversity of products,” he said.
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A SPIKE IN SALES
Small meat producers see growing demand Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON • Photos by OLIVER HAMLIN
Skagit Valley Herald
Erik Olson, owner of Well Fed Farms, pets a pig Sept. 10 at the farm in Bow. Olson, who raises pigs, sheep and chickens, says sales of whole and half pigs have increased during the pandemic.
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RANCHERS AND FARMERS IN SKAGIT COUNTY have seen an increase in sales this year of locally raised and processed meats. They say demand is up due to concerns about the national food supply chain that began during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a growing appreciation for sustainable farming practices. Erik Olson, owner of Well Fed Farms in Bow, which grows vegetables and raises pigs, sheep and chickens, said the spike in demand began in the spring, as panic buying emptied grocery stores shelves. He said he has had more customers reach out this year to buy whole or half pigs. He said demand has remained steady throughout summer and fall. “I think people are still a little uncertain,” Olson said. “It has reminded people that our food system is kind of over-centralized and precarious so there are potentially folks rethinking their options.” In the early spring, many large commercial meat packing plants had to shut down temporarily due to COVID-19 outbreaks. “(The interest in local meats) has been growing for several years, and COVID-19 sparked renewed interest because of the national production chain backlog that occurred in the spring,” said Shannon Neibergs, an associate professor and extension economist for Washington State University. Neibergs said once people became worried about supply chain disruptions, they started hoarding, leaving some meat cases at grocery stores empty over Memorial Day weekend. He said there was also increased interest in buying meat in bulk, such as a whole pig or half beef, and that there was a surge in the sales of freezers. In the Concrete area, Double O Ranch has sold more beef this year at
LEFT: Sheep stand in a pasture Sept. 10 at Well Fed Farms in Bow. ABOVE: Chicken pens are shown next to vegetable fields at Well Fed Farms.
the bed and breakfast it operates, and at the grocery store in town, said owner Cindy Kleinhuizen. She said customers worried about meat shortages and didn’t want to expose themselves to COVID-19 at larger stores. In addition, more were cooking at home. “People are really into homegrown and local and making stuff themselves at home,” she said. Kleinhuizen said in the past 10 years more have become interested in knowing their meats are raised without hormones or antibiotics. Hidden Meadow Ranch in Mount Vernon has also been busy. “I have sold just about every animal on my property that could be sold for meat,” said owner Laura Faley. “They are not only sold out, but I have a longer waiting list for next year.” The farm raises grass-fed lamb and goat, pork, heritage turkeys and freerange chickens. She said multiple factors are influenc-
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ing demand. “I think you have taste driving it,” Faley said. “There’s concern over civil unrest, and making sure you’ve got your own food in the freezer.” Olson said consumers are also interested in accountability — knowing where your food comes from and how it is raised. He said the animals he raises provide ecological benefits to his farm, such as fertilizing the soil and helping break cycles of pests and diseases. While the pandemic has helped widen the customer base for small farms, ranchers say a challenge in meeting demand is finding a local processor. Most processors are booked up and waiting lists are long. Food safety regulations, such as requirements to have a federal inspector present during animal slaughter, make it difficult to expand small-scale processing. In a July report, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) acknowledged the challenges of expanding small-scale processing, and noted a need to balance food safety requirements with the growing demand for meat purchased directly from farms. “There needs to be more room within our local economy and regulatory framework for more small processors,” Olson said. Olson is a member of the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative, which provides USDA-inspected mobile slaughter services to its 90 member-farms across five counties. The co-op is planning an expansion at the Port of Skagit that in several years would double its processing capacity. A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed this fall aims to expand options for local meat producers and processors. “I definitely see long-term changes driven by the necessity to find meat during the window when there appeared to be a shortage, and once they found it, then there was the taste,” Faley said. “It sort of filled a need to feel secure and to have food security. I think there were a lot of people for whom that felt good.”
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FARMERS TO FAMILIES
Food hub delivers 19,000 produce boxes to families Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON Photos by OLIVER HAMLIN Skagit Valley Herald
ON A WEDNESDAY IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, a team of five was busy at the Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative warehouse packing boxes of fresh produce grown by area farmers. In each box: 2 pounds of carrots, 1 pound of green beans, 1½ pounds of beets, one head of cabbage, one head of cauliflower, one head of lettuce, two ears of corn and a sprig of sage. At the end of six hours, the team had packed 1,000 boxes, which the food hub delivered to organizations to distribute to families in Skagit and Whatcom counties. From June through mid-September, the food hub distributed nearly 19,000 boxes to families in need as part of a federal program that began this spring to address hunger and support farmers, said Andrew Yokom, general manager at the food hub, located on Best Road west of Mount Vernon. Yokom said the food hub was awarded contracts totaling $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box Program, funded through the CARES Act, the federal COVID-19 relief package. The food hub worked with Viva Farms and Ralph’s Greenhouse to
Employees of the Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative fill boxes with fresh produce Sept. 9 in the food hub’s warehouse west of Mount Vernon. The food hub distributed 19,000 boxes from June through mid-September.
pack and distribute the boxes. Yokom said the USDA paid $22 for each of the weekly produce boxes, which included six to eight items to feed a family of three to four. The 19,000 boxes over three months amounted to about 200,000 pounds of locally grown produce, he said.
“It was a staggering amount of local produce that was purchased,” Yokom said. The boxes were distributed by Community Action of Skagit County and the Bellingham Food Bank. Cole Bitzenburg, food manager for Community Action, said the nonprofit
moves between 500,000 and 650,000 pounds of food a month throughout the county — about double what it did before the pandemic. It received about 6,500 boxes — about 39,000 pounds of fresh produce —through the USDA program. The food hub, a member-owned coopera-
tive of about 50 farmers in Skagit and Whatcom counties, helps small farms connect with large commercial buyers by providing a website to list products, cold storage and distribution. Yokom said the food hub had the perfect model for the food box program because it
already had ties with local farmers and the infrastructure to put the boxes together. “It was a pretty incredible the amount of sales that local producers were able to achieve because we had the capacity to seek it out, coordinate, pack and distribute it,” he said.
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LEFT: An employee uses a plate to carry carrots to a scale before being added to a produce box. RIGHT: An employee of the Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative brings a box to be filled Sept. 9 in the food hub’s warehouse west of Mount Vernon.
David Bauermeister, executive director of the Northwest Agriculture Business Center, a Mount Vernon-based nonprofit, said the program was successful in part because of the food hub’s ability to pivot from normal operations to the food box program. “It supported farmers and got a lot of food to a lot of people in a hurry,” he said. The food hub sourced the produce from about eight area farms, including Hedlin Farms near La Conner. In early spring, as farmers were planting their crops for the season, Hedlin Farms discussed with the food hub and the Bellingham Food Bank ways it could help meet a growing need for food,
said farm manager Kai Ottesen. “We planted additional crops in anticipation of an increased need at the Bellingham Food Bank … in light of the economic impacts of COVID-19,” he said. Ottesen said the Bellingham Food Bank provided initial funds for the farm to ramp up production, and the USDA provided funds when the food box program began. “We stepped way up on cauliflower, beets, cabbage and winter squash,” he said. “Those were not volumes of any of those crops that we would have planted without a market established.” Hopewell Farms in Everson also supplied produce for the food boxes.
Lisa Dykstra, the farm’s office manager, said the farm experienced a dip in sales from restaurants and educational institutions when the pandemic began. There was also uncertainty over fresh produce sales at grocery stores, she said. “We didn’t know if there was going to be an abundance of crops we weren’t able to sell,” she said. “It was really nice for the food hub to offer the support, and to say ‘we’re all in.’” A third round of the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program began this fall. Yokom said the food hub submitted a bid but did not receive a contract for the program’s third round, which will conclude Oct. 31.
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Farmers adapt to virus challenges with online sales Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON Photo by OLIVER HAMLIN Skagit Valley Herald
SKAGIT COUNTY FARMS ARE EXPLORING online sales as a way to adapt to business challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some have reported a surge in online sales this year. Like many small farms, Farias Farm, an organic vegetable and berry farm east of Burlington, was left with fewer options to sell at farmers markets — a major source of income — due to COVID-19 restrictions. To adapt, the farm launched online sales, said Juan Farias, who runs the farm with brothers Francisco and Sergio. He said prior to the pandemic, the farm hadn’t seen much of a need for an online store. “That need did come up so we had to be creative so food didn’t go to waste,” Farias said. The farm’s online store gave customers the option to pick up produce directly from the farm in Skagit County, or to preorder and pick up at the Shoreline Farm-
ers Market in King County. Farias said the online store will remain open into the fall, giving the farm the option to extend its usual farmers market season. He said customers have appreciated options for pre-ordering and limitedcontact pickup. Farias Farm sells its produce through Barn2Door, which helps farmers sell directly to customers online. “I personally think it’s worth it once you get it all set up,” Farias said. “It takes upfront work, and once you have it set up and have the processes and systems, it can be something that is very worthwhile.” Bow Hill Blueberries in Bow has seen a 400% increase in online sales since the pandemic began, said co-owner Susan Soltes. She attributes the increase to a surge in interest in immune-boosting foods, such as the farm’s pure blueberry juice. The farm expanded its shipping department to accommodate the increase in online orders. “I think if you can (start online sales), do it,” Soltes said. “You can get your product to more people further away, and you can still have your locals.”
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Juan Farias, co-owner of Farias Farm, gathers corn for a customer who showed up to buy vegetables Oct. 7 at the farm east of Burlington.
Blake Vanfield, marketing coordinator for Genuine Skagit Valley, a branding program for Skagit County agricultural products, said the COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest in no-contact sales and online purchasing. “It really is nice because you can still go directly to a farmer,” she said. “It goes straight to them. Not through Amazon or another Goliath.” She said one challenge for farmers is
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figuring out how to drive traffic to their websites, which can be like running a second business. Silva Family Farm also started an online store this year, though sales have been slow, said owner Pablo Silva. Silva started farming in 2017 at Viva Farms and now operates his own farm in Oak Harbor with wife Maura and their two children. The farm grows organic blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. “We want to get more online customers because it would be nice for them to order and they can come pick it up,” Silva said. “Not many people know about online stores.” Alex Perez, project manager at the Northwest Agriculture Business Center in Mount Vernon, said he assisted Silva in setting up a website several years ago, and that he recently worked with him on making creative social media posts to promote his business. Silva said the more people know about and trust the farmers in their area, the more they will buy directly from them. “It will work, but it will take time to know about the farmers,” he said.
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