COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE
‘THE HEALTHIEST FOOD YOU CAN GET’ By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune
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ecades before social distancing and mask requirements discouraged grocery shopping in person, local farms pioneered produce sales for pickup and delivery. Community supported agriculture programs have grown locally since the 1990s from boxes of seasonally fresh vegetables to fully fledged online stores selling goods from locally baked breads to pasture-raised meats. Adam Holtey brings the best of the region’s farms and artisan food producers to one platform in flexible quantities on customers’ terms. “To me, it’s the healthiest food you can get,” says Holtey. “It’s the freshest.” Acquainting himself with local farmers through his compost service, Holtey founded Rogue Produce in 2011. Originally conceived as an online farmers market with subscription options in the spirit of traditional CSAs, Rogue Produce always filled a niche for dropping orders directly on clients’ doorsteps. “As soon as COVID hit, we boomed,” says Holtey. “They were desperate for any food delivery. It’s continued to stay really strong.” Surging grocery prices nationwide — coupled with COVID’s aftershocks — are driving more and more Americans to reevaluate their shopping habits, whether it’s
Rogue Produce delivers food from the fields to your front door
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JAMIE LUSCH / MAIL TRIBUNE
Rogue Produce has always filled a niche by dropping orders directly on clients’ doorsteps, and when COVID hit, the service boomed.
consuming less meat or patronizing locally owned businesses that keep dollars circulating through their communities. Concerns over climate change and clean energy additionally are casting critical eyes on the environmental impacts of everyday purchases. “Some people, I think, are very picky about only choosing the local stuff,” says Holtey of Rogue Produce regulars. Sourcing from as far away as Northern California and the Eugene area, Holtey even acts as a middleman for moving small producers’ goods around the region. In the winter, he routinely relies on Oregon and Washington wholesaler Organically Grown Co., but in the warmer months, produce is almost exclusively from Southern Oregon. “In the main growing season … it’s all the local farms,” says Holtey. “There’s all these unique levels of
scale, and we’re all supporting the same thing.” Some of Holtey’s produce sources, including Medford’s Fry Family Farm, also support their own CSAs. In its purest form, the model solicits shareholders to front cash when farmers need it most. Late winter and early spring — when CSAs typically assign shares — is the time for purchasing equipment, tools and seeds and to hire workers for planting season months before farms can recoup any expenses through produce sales. Shares are paid out in boxes of farm-fresh produce that vary week to week, depending on what’s ready to pick. Most traditional CSAs run from late spring or early summer through fall. Some farms offer wintertime CSAs for a shorter duration, and many will add optional items such as eggs, bread, meats, cheeses, flowers or even wine.
| Our Valley
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4/23/2022 12:46:09 PM
