: Joni Kabana

From Oregon Farms to Your Kitchen

Find fresh local foods with the new Oregon Taste online directory.
March 24, 2021

Editor’s note: Oregon’s COVID-19 restrictions have eased, but businesses may ask you to wear a face cover – bring one along and be patient and kind if asked to wear it. It’s also wildfire season – plan ahead and do your part to prevent wildfires.

The next time you’re tackling a new recipe and run across a special ingredient, don’t fret: You can find ingredients like chestnut, oyster and shiitake mushrooms from Rain Forest Mushrooms in Eddyville or milled corn flour and Buckskin Tepary beans from Dunbar Farms in Medford. You can find grass-fed ribs, steaks and burgers from Molalla’s Martson Farm, and buckets full of blueberries from Anderson Blues in Corvallis.

High-quality, locally sourced ingredients are an essential part of Oregon’s identity, and now you can find those suppliers all in one place from the comfort of your own home. That’s the idea behind Oregon Taste, a new directory of local food producers across the state’s seven regions. With a few clicks, you can see the diversity of products available from Oregon farms, fisheries, ranches and orchards, as well as farmers markets, roadside farm stands and farms with U-pick offerings. 

Two hands hold a wicker basket of blueberries.
Oregon blueberries are ripe in summer, usually around July, and perfect for pies, jams and more. (Photo by Joshua Rainey Photography)

“The goal is to help enhance the discoverability, marketability and searchability of Oregon’s farm-food producers across the state,” says Lori Warner-McGee, development director of the James Beard Public Market. While the public-market effort is currently on hold, staff have focused their energy to produce the Oregon Taste directory — which provides much-needed support to farmers and artisans at a time when it’s needed the most. 

Searchable by region and type of food (such as vegetables, grains and seafood), Oregon Taste makes it easier to connect with the robust local food movement and get even more hands-on with your home cooking. The free directory features about 300 vendors so far, with plans to grow to include more food producers as well as makers of craft beer, wine and spirits. “We thought, wouldn’t it be great if there was a clearinghouse for all of this information in one place?” Warner-McGee adds. “We started shopping the idea around and it was very quickly embraced.” 

Oregon's abundant mushroom varieties.
Oregon mushrooms fruit at different times of year, from morels in the spring to oysters in fall. (Photo by Greg Robeson)

On the website, you can filter your search by businesses that sell kosher and non-GMO foods, and search for businesses that are BIPOC-owned and woman-owned. “The goal is to connect consumers to farms directly in whatever way they sell: on-site, delivery, U-pick, farm stands, CSA, farmers market, online sales,” Warner-McGee says.

 

Here are some of the featured producers from across the state: 

  • Eastern Oregon: Apricot Apiaries in Kimberly raises and sells bees, as well as the sweet honey they produce. Park Produce in Ontario has you covered for seasonal produce like sweet peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and pickled cucumbers. 
  • Central Oregon: Larkin Valley Ranch in Redmond sells top-quality grass-fed meats, including rack of lamb, flat-iron steak and burger patties. Rainshadow Organics sells fresh produce, organic flour and artisan cheese at their farm stand in Terrebonne and through their CSA. 
  • Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge: Draper Girls Country Farm in Mt. Hood hosts a year-round self-serve fruit stand, U-pick fruits and berries, and an apple-cider mill. Brigham Fish Market in Cascade Locks is a Native-owned family business that sells fresh and smoked fish caught in the Columbia River. 

For more ready-to-deliver Oregon artisan goods, check out the cheese gift boxes from Food Field Trip

About The
Author

Emily Gillespie
Emily Gillespie is a travel writer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, CNN Travel and Afar magazine. She’s lived in three of Oregon’s seven regions, currently calling Portland home. She and her husband look for every opportunity to hike to a view, bike through wine country and eat their way through a new city.