Wednesday,June2,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
5
GORGE LOCAL — IN BUSINESS
New service allows purchasing from Gorge farms
HOOD RIVER — A new
service, Gorge FarmBasket,
offers Columbia Gorge
residents an opportunity to
purchase locally grown and
produced fruits, vegetables,
eggs, honey, cured meats,
flowers, garlic and more
onine. It can then be picked
up at one of two locations ev-
ery week, combined into one
convenient order. The service
was launched on April 1 and
will continue through at least
late November each year.
Gorge FarmBasket was
founded by Bonnie Cox
and Ronny Tannenbaum,
farmers from Hood River and
Parkdale, respectively. Their
goal is to organize offerings
from many local farms for
the convenience of “one-stop
shopping” for fresh locally
produced food. New partic-
ipating farmers continue to
come on board, giving cus-
tomers an even wider variety
of products to choose from.
Across the growing season,
customers will find fresh
greens, vegetables, herbs and
garlic, pastured eggs, local
honey and cured meats. Also
available will be in-season
fruits including pluots, straw-
berries, peaches, apples and
fresh flowers.
Cox is the owner of Oak
Rose Farm in Hood River,
and grows tomatoes, many
kinds of unusual greens,
and other vegetables, said
a press release. She is also
known in the area for her
strawberries. Cox has always
loved produce, farmers and
farming and honed her
organizing skills in the Peace
Corps in Bolivia helping local
beekeepers set up business-
es. This has lent itself well to
this new effort with a diverse
team of farmers.
Tannenbaum and his
wife Ellen have run Nature’s
Finest in Parkdale for more
than eight years. They grow
mostly cool season crops
like spinach, broccoli and
carrots. He’s also the “logis-
tics nerd” who keeps Gorge
FarmBasket’s ordering sys-
tem running smoothly, said a
press release. Tannenbaum’s
depth of experience in
vegetable production and
operations is an important
asset to the group.
The team of farmers
selling through the Gorge
FarmBasket spans the five
Gorge counties of Hood
River, Wasco, Sherman,
Skamania, and Klickitat.
Many of the farmers have
decades, or generations, of
experience with their crops
and bring their expertise to
the shared marketplace. By
selling together, each farm
gains a new way to reach
local customers and to share
FarmBasket founders Bonnie Cox and Ronny Tannenbaum started operations April 1, allowing Gorge
residents to order from several different farms with a choice of pickup locations. Contributed photos
the specialties from each
individual farm, in one con-
venient FarmBasket.
How does it work?
Go to www.gorgefarm-
basket.com, where produce
and other products available
for the upcoming week are
shown. There are no surpris-
es at checkout — prices on
all items can be seen on the
website — and there is no
need to sign up for anything
to have a look.
Want to write a letter?
Columbia Gorge News encourages
readers to submit letters to the editor
for the weekly opinion page. Letters on
all topics are welcome.
Writers must include their name and
hometown (for publication) and day-
time phone number (for verification,
not for publication). Letters from an
agency or group must be credited to the
author or a contact person.
Anonymous or “name withheld by
request” letters are not accepted.
Letters must be 350 words or fewer;
generally, the briefer the message, the
better. Opinion pieces longer than 350
words may be published as a guest
commentary at the discretion of the
editor.
Letters are published as space allows,
and efforts are made each week to pro-
vide as much space as possible.
Deadline for letters is noon on the
Friday prior to publication.
We reserve the right to edit all letters:
Letters must be civil.
Vulgar or inappropriate language will
not be considered, nor malicious, false
or misleading statements.
Letters attacking an individual, rather
than an opinion, are not acceptable.
Letters criticizing a particular busi-
ness over a particular complaint or
grievance will not be considered.
The opinions expressed in letters are
“Your Voice,” and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the Columbia
Gorge News, its staff, publisher or
advertisers.
Letters may be submitted online at
www.ColumbiaGorgeNews.com: Scroll
to the bottom of the page and se-
lect “Submission Forms,” then
select “Letter to the Editor.”
NEW — Letters also
may be sent via email to
Letters@gorgenews.
com.
Or mail your letter
“attention editor”
to any of the Post
Office boxes
listed at bottom
of page 4.
Once you decide to order,
set up an account and place
your order. There is no mon-
ey required upfront and no
minimum purchase. You can
buy only when you want to
and you don’t need to make
any set number of purchases.
There is a $2 service fee add-
ed for packing your order.
The two pickup locations
are The Rockford Grange in
Hood River, and Nature’s
Finest Farm in Parkdale.
"These farmer-hosted pick-
ups are also a great way to
meet the farmers and learn
more about what’s fresh from
the field," said a press release.
"The group hopes to eventu-
ally expand to other pickup
locations including one in
Washington."
Ordering can be done from
Thursday through Sunday
and the pickup takes place
the following Wednesday
afternoon.
The Gorge FarmBasket
follows careful safety
procedures in the age of
COVID. Pickups are primar-
ily outdoors, the farmer on
pickup duty wears a mask
(and customers are asked
to do likewise) and safe dis-
tancing applies. Customers
bring their own bag or box
to transfer their order from
a pre-packed reusable tote.
The totes are sanitized each
week before they are re-used
and are good for the environ-
ment with the avoidance of
single-use boxes.
"The farmers involved in
the Gorge FarmBasket are
from the communities of
Hood River, Parkdale, White
Salmon, Trout Lake and
Mosier, providing the best
of the local farm offerings in
the Columbia Gorge area,"
said a press release. "Several
members of the group are
certified organic growers, but
all follow best practices for
farming including integrat-
ed pest management. The
eggs come from a licensed
egg handler’s operation, the
cured meats come from pigs
who graze in the pasture, etc.,
ensuring the best quality for
you and your family."
For a full list of the partici-
pating farmers, a description
of their businesses, and the
products available go to the
Gorge FarmBasket website,
www.gorgefarmbasket.
com. Offerings will change
from week to week based on
growing seasons. The group
expects to have fresh, local
farm products available for
you and your family through
at least late fall each year.
Wildwood Academy
welcomes Holly Walsh!
Wildwood Academy welcomes Holly Walsh as incoming
Head of School for the 2021/22 school year!
Holly is going to lead Wildwood Academy after spending the
past 17 years at Catlin Gabel School in Portland where she was
most recently the 8th grade English teacher and 6th -12th grade
English Teacher Leader.
We feel very fortunate to have someone with Holly’s
qualifications and experience to lead Wildwood and
we warmly welcome Holly, and her family, to Hood River.
Wildwood Academy is an independent
middle school, serving 5th–8th grades,
in downtown Hood River.
For more information please go to
www.wildwood-academy.org
info@wildwood-academy.org