Polk County
Living
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 11, 2015 7A
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Malinda Bermudez gets vegetable plants ready for the Independence Riverview Farmers Market, which kicks off in April.
LET’S GET GROWING
Bermudez Family Farm gearing up for farmers market season
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
D
ALLAS — Malinda
Bermudez has always
loved growing things.
Growing up in Monmouth, her
family always had a vegetable
garden in the backyard. It wasn’t
until she got to Central High
School, however, that she really
began exploring agriculture.
“It’s just really a passion,”
Bermudez, 35, said of gardening.
“We always had a garden. I love
that connection to nature and
watching things grow.”
While at Central, she met her
husband, Carlos, in horticulture
class.
Now she, Carlos and the whole
family work two farms — one in
Dallas and one in Independence
— to supply three farmers mar-
kets in Polk County from April
through October.
To be ready for the first market
in April, the work starts now.
With the unseasonably warm,
dry weather, Bermudez said they
have been able to do a lot of early
field preparation. In the green-
house, little seedlings raise their
leaves to the warmth, getting
ready to sell at market and then to
be transplanted into a garden.
Bermudez earned her bache-
lor’s degree in horticulture from
Oregon State University, learning
about nursery management, but
always enjoyed farmers markets.
“I have receipts from the (In-
dependence) original farmers
market that go back to 1997,” she
said, laughing. “It seems like I
have always gravitated in that di-
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Chickens at Bermudez Family Farms are used for both eggs and
meat at three Polk County markets throughout the summer.
Malinda Bermudez inspects old nopale cacti. These have run their
course, but others have already been planted to take their place.
rection.”
She was one of the founders of
the Independence Riverview
Market, seeing a need to expand
and increase products offered.
Bermudez said when Mon-
mouth started a market last year,
it meant three markets through-
out the season.
“One of our goals as a family
farm is keeping our product real-
ly local,” she said. “There’s some
financial perks getting into the
big markets, but we really like
dealing with local folks, taking
them from start to finish.”
The smaller markets in Dallas,
Independence and Monmouth
— compared to Corvallis, Eugene
and Portland — also allow her to
be a full-time mom as well as a
farmer. Carlos’ and Malinda’s 3-
year-old son, Dylan, often ac-
companies his mom to markets,
and has since he was an infant.
Having the family farms so
close to the location of the mar-
kets means it’s not unusual to
have produce literally right out of
the field.
“You can’t beat that,” Bermudez
said. “I make many calls to my
mother-in-law saying, ‘we just
sold out of whatever it happens to
be,’ and she’ll bring me another
box. Sometimes customers will sit
around and wait for it.”
Bermudez started farming full
time about five years ago. Each
year, more infrastructure is
added to the two farms to in-
crease production and make
things a little easier.
Flower and vegetable growing
beds at the Dallas farm are
worked over with layers of news-
paper and compost, keeping
weeds under control and the soil
from getting compacted.
She brings a variety of prod-
ucts to the farmers markets:
broiler chickens, turkeys, eggs,
vegetables, berries, dried beans,
fruits and nopale — a flat part of
the prickly pear cactus that is de-
licious, Bermudez said.
Bermudez is a Master Food
Preserver and offers canned
goods to customers, as well as
tips and advice.
“I always get asked questions
about canning,” she said. “The
Extension Service is a wonderful
outlet to make sure you’re doing
everything right. There’s a lot of
help out there to help people do
it, have fun at it and be safe while
they’re doing it.”
Nothing gets wasted at
Bermudez Family Farms. Left-
overs from the market are either
canned for the family, canned to
sell at the next market, donated
to the food bank, composted or
fed to the chickens.
“We do donate a significant
amount of our leftover produce
to our local food banks,”
Bermudez said. “It’s nice to be
able to give back that way and
not have the waste.”
The best part about running a
small, farmers market farm is
connecting people to the food
they eat.
“We always encourage people
at markets to talk to your
farmer,” she said. “The ones who
are doing it themselves are going
to talk to you because they’re
proud of what they’re doing.
They’re knowledgeable.”
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Jesus Bermudez readies fields at Bermudez Family Farm’s Independence location earlier than normal, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather this spring.