Business
AgLife
NEW OWNERSHIP
La Grande couple takes reins of Local Harvest Eatery and Pub
By TRISH YERGES • For The Observer
A GRANDE — Joe and Jamie Cox of La Grande are the new owners of Local Harvest
L
Eatery and Pub, 2104 Island Ave., in La Grande.
“We bought the business in January, and we took over on February 1,” Joe said.
Joe Cox left his railroad job to open the pizzeria with his wife, he said. The couple are new to
the restaurant business, but they felt confident taking over a well-established pizzeria developed in
2016 by former owners Harvest Rogers and her father, Bruce Rogers. It was Bear Mountain Pizza
and Klondike Pizza and Restaurant before that.
Joe and Jamie Cox decided to
retain the business name, Local Har-
vest, for the time being due to their
dealings with the Oregon Lottery.
“However, we’ll probably be
changing the business name down the
road because we’re looking at making
a theme change,” he said.
They specialize in pizza and wings
with a large selection of salad and
beer choices.
“Of course, pizza and beer —
those are like bread and butter,” he
said.
The next most popular food item
on their menu is the huge 50-top-
ping salad bar and also their chicken
wings.
“We also have hot sandwiches and
some fried foods,” he added.
They serve sandwiches hot on
a Ciabatta bun with a side order
of fries or a small salad bar. Sand-
wich choices include apricot chicken,
Philly roast beef, plain roast beef, The
Italian, and pesto chicken. Of course
there are also desserts on the menu.
Joe Cox works full-time at the
restaurant, one of four full-time
workers out of 20 employee positions.
Jamie Cox works at the business
administrative duties — “all the not
so fun stuff,” her husband said.
She also works at the Oregon State
Extension office on North McAlister.
“She teaches healthy eating to kids
in schools, among the other things,”
he said.
Party room and arcade
Local Harvest offers a party room
for group dining and gatherings,
which can be reserved by customers.
“We do a lot of business with
buses of high school and college
sports teams,” Cox said. “We have
enough parking to accommodate
about 30 vehicles and some buses.”
The Coxes have done quite a bit of
renovation, and they have a lot more
in the works.
“We added new pinball machines
in our arcade and more arcade games
are on order and coming. Our lottery
machines should be operational again
soon.”
Joe and Jamie Cox would like to
welcome everyone to their pizzeria to
Isabella Crowley/The Observer
New owners Jamie Cox, left, and Joe Cox pose outside of Local Harvest Eatery and Pub on
Tuesday, June 21, 2022. They will keep the name Local Harvest for the time being, but the
restaurant may get a new name in the future.
enjoy delicious pizzas, chicken wings,
a great salad bar, hot sandwiches and
beverages.
“We are family owned and take
pride in the quality of our products,”
he said.
B
Thursday, June 30, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Survey: Food
costs put pinch
on holiday
Cost of July Fourth cookout
higher than last year, but
farmers aren’t cashing in
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Hosting a party of 10
for a Fourth of July cookout could cost
between 11% to 17% more in 2022 than
last year, according to the American Farm
Bureau Federa-
tion and Wells
INDIVIDUAL
Fargo.
PRICES FOR
A Farm
SUMMER
Bureau survey
COOKOUT
found that U.S.
Prices
2022 compared
consumers
to 2021
feeding a party
2 pounds of ground beef,
of 10 will pay
$11.12 (+36%)
$69.68 for
2 pounds of boneless,
Independence
skinless chicken breasts,
Day foods,
$8.99 (+33%)
32 ounces of pork & beans,
including
$2.53 (+33%)
cheeseburgers,
3 pounds of center cut
pork chops,
pork chops, $15.26 (+31%)
chicken breasts,
2.5 quarts of fresh-
potato salad,
squeezed lemonade, $4.43
strawberries
(+22%)
2.5 pounds of homemade
and ice cream.
potato salad, $3.27 (+19%)
The overall
8 hamburger buns, $1.93
cookout cost
(+16%)
is up 17%, or
Half-gallon of vanilla ice
about $10, from
cream, $5.16 (+10%)
2021.
13-ounce bag of chocolate
chip cookies, $4.31 (+7%)
“The
2 pints of strawberries,
impacts to con-
$4.44 (-16%)
sumers are sig-
1 pound of sliced cheese,
nificant,” said
$3.53 (-13%)
Roger Cryan,
16-ounce bag of potato
chief economist
chips, $4.71 (-4%)
for the Farm
Total: $69.68, up about
17% compared to 2021
Bureau.
Source: American Farm
A similar
Bureau Federation
survey from
Wells Fargo,
which analyzed
popular Fourth of July food categories,
showed an overall 11% cost increase.
Higher food prices, however, doesn’t
always mean higher farm profits.
“This is not a windfall for farmers and
ranchers,” said Cryan, AFBF’s economist.
Farmers generally receive a small por-
tion of each dollar spent on food.
According to USDA’s “food dollar
series,” off-farm costs including mar-
keting, processing, wholesaling, distribu-
tion and retailing account for 84 cents of
every food dollar spent in the U.S.
About a decade ago, American farmers
received 17.6 cents of every $1 consumers
spent on food. By 2019, that had fallen to
14.6 cents. This June, a USDA statement
said “just 14 cents of the food dollar go to
producers on average.”
For years, USDA’s Economic Research
Service has tracked the share of retail
food prices that farmers receive by com-
paring prices consumers paid for foods
with prices farmers and ranchers received
for commodities.
See, Holiday/Page B6
RimRock Inn reopens after being closed for a year
Canyon overlook draws
guests from far away
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
FLORA — After being closed
for a year, the RimRock Inn near
Flora reopened earlier this month
for a unique lodging and dining
experience — unique even for
Wallowa County.
“A lot of the locals recommend
it to the tourists,” said co-owner
Cabot Carlston, who has the inn
since 2016. “They’ve had the TG
(Terminal Gravity) or they’ve
eaten at the lake. They’ve looked
up at the mountains — the Wal-
lowas are there, the Eagle Caps
are there. It’s great, but this is just
a different vibe, a different view.”
The experience RimRock
offers is a bit different, Carlston
said.
“It’s canyonlands, in the moun-
tains. I’d been coming (to the
county) for 15 years — Hurricane
Creek, Lostine Canyon, the lake,
and I’d never come out here for 15
years,” he said. “Finally, we came
out here and I was like, it’s cool
out here. So we came out here
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Cabot Carlston, who with his wife, Kim, owns the RimRock Inn, points to the view of
Joseph Creek Canyon from the back yard of the inn Thursday, June 16, 2022.
and had a steak dinner and saw
the tepees and thought, ‘Oh my
gosh, this is awesome. We could
stay in a tepee.’ And then we were
talking to someone in town and
learned the place was for sale, so
we bought it a year later.”
‘God’s country’
Normally open from Memo-
rial Day weekend to Labor Day
weekend, the weather slowed this
year’s opening.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t
open Memorial Day because it’s
been raining ever since,” Carlston
said.
He said he had guests booked
and RimRock is usually full all
summer long.
The unique setting atop an
overlook to Joseph Creek Canyon
is one of the inn’s greatest draws.
“This is God’s country. Carved
right out of the rocks,” Carlston
said, looking at the geological for-
mations of the canyon.
He pointed out a windy ranch
road to the bottom of the canyon
that he said is mostly used by
ATVs and horses.
A short hike about 20 minutes
from the inn gives guests a grand
view not only of the canyon but of
much of Wallowa County.
“Once you get to the edge, you
can see the river more clearly and
the cool thing is you can see Zum-
walt Prairie and the snowcapped
Wallowa Mountains,” he said.
“It’s the best view of the canyon-
lands I know of.”
Carlston also emphasized the
wildlife, both flora and fauna.
Deer are regulars at the inn and
they see a few elk. He said they’ve
seen one bear and even found a
cougar skull.
“There’s fish in that creek,
but no fishermen,” he said with a
laugh. “I just love the ruggedness
of it. Look at the cliffs.”
Carlston is fond of the many
wildflowers in the area.
“I’ve identified 22 different
wildflower species out here and
every year’s different,” he said.
“This year, we have more prairie
smoke than usual. A few years
ago, it was more larkspur. Every-
thing depends on the temperature
and the rain, I guess.”
Gourmet dining and
lodging
After enjoying the scenery,
guests can come in for a gourmet
dinner. Carlston is the cook,
assisted by his son, Tristan.
Guests are treated to coffee
beginning at 7:30 a.m. and
breakfast at 8 a.m. They can
order dinner from 5-7 p.m.,
as can nonguests who make
reservations.
For lodging, the inn has one
indoor suite, three tepees and a
trailer. One of the tepees, with
its private parking, is unofficially
known as the “honeymoon tepee,”
Carlston said. Officially, it’s the
Appaloosa Tepee, while the others
are the Bison and Dreamcatcher
tepees.
For sale
After enjoying operating the
inn since 2016, the Carlstons are
putting it on the market.
Built in 1940, the RimRock
was originally known as Canter’s
Inn. Then it was sold to Loren and
Wilma Raymond, who sold it to
Rahn and Becky Hostetter, Carl-
ston said.
See, RimRock/Page B6