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CapitalPress.com
March 13, 2015
Farmstand puts special emphasis on ‘fresh’
By SARAH KICKLER KELBER
For the Capital Press
Sarah Kickler Kelber, for the Capital Press
Nancy Hendricks points out some of her favorite seeds in a display
at Fresh to You Produce.
berry business, she and her hus-
band, Carl, a third-generation
farmer, sold that 6 acres and
bought their current 15 acres just
down the road in 1999.
“In 2000, we put up an ‘on
your honor’ box, where peo-
ple could just pay for what
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vice nursery, “this will be our
first year with only edible plants
and no landscaping.”
Hence the new tagline: “All
things edible.”
It’s a strategy that seems to
be working. In addition to their
sales at the shop, they sell pro-
duce to their local Roth’s Fresh
Market grocery store.
“Katie the produce manager
tells us what she needs, and we
go harvest it,” Hendricks says.
They also have a partnership
with Bon Appetit Management
Co., which connects restaurants
and schools with local growers.
Carl Hendricks walks in with
a couple of bags of just-picked
salad greens that are bound for
Oregon Episcopal School via
Bon Appetit.
A few minutes later, he men-
tions that a local chef has put in a
request for mixed berries, and he
and Nancy discuss how they’ll
fulfill that order with their fro-
zen stock.
Even with the need to con-
stantly be harvesting their crops,
one of the dominating issues in
the winter is planning.
“This time of year, we’re
talking with our chefs and
Roth’s to plan our crops and
order seeds and starts,” Nancy
Hendricks says.
She and Carl are particularly
Fresh to You
Produce
Owners: Nancy and Carl
Hendricks
Where: 41639 Stayton-Scio
Road, Stayton, Oregon
Contact: (503) 769-9682
Online: www.ftyp.com, www.
pinterest.com/freshtoyou
Crops: strawberries, carrots,
chard, corn, kale, green
beans, snap peas, tomatoes,
peppers, fennel and more
Farming since: 1980
Acres: 15
Available: At farm store year-
round and at the Salem Public
Market
excited about their new piece of
equipment.
“We just got a new planter
that plants seeds more accu-
rately and makes the harvest so
much easier,” she says.
“We’ll save on seeds, too,”
he adds.
“It’s especially good for car-
rots and beets because if they’re
too close, it’s harder to harvest
them,” says Nancy.
She notes that they share reci-
pes on their Pinterest page, sorted
by crop, as well as plenty of infor-
mation about preserving foods.
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Nancy Hendricks’ phone
buzzes, and she pauses to look
at the message.
“I got an order from a chef
just now,” the owner and op-
erator of Fresh to You Produce
says. “I need to look and see if
we need to go harvest some-
thing.”
If you were wondering
whether the “Fresh” in the farm
name is a marketing gimmick,
the answer is a resounding no.
In 1980, Hendricks got her
degree in horticulture from
Oregon State University and
promptly bought a 6-acre blue-
berry farm.
After several years in the
they took,” she says.
They expanded to a larger
stand, then another, and then
in 2005, they purchased their
current building. Originally
a log-truck repair shop, their
farmstand building now houses
their just-picked produce, seeds,
locally made products that com-
plement the fruits and vegeta-
bles, a line of jams and syrups
and more.
“Everything we sell in here
is related to food,” Hendricks
says. Besides the produce and
the other products, there are
seeds, starts, fruit trees, potting
soil and compost on offer.
Fresh to You recently refo-
cused its mission, she adds. Af-
ter about 10 years as a full-ser-