PARTNER FARMS

DSC_0007Beech Family Farm, located in Sherwood,  provides a great view of Mt. Hood as well as a you-pick opportunity for several generations of blueberry lovers . Their blueberries go into several recipes, including blueberry preserves, blueberry syrup, and blueberry barbecue sauce.   27626 SW 147th Ave, Sherwood Call  503-625-6314 for information when they are open.

Bethel Springs Farm is a certified organic farm located in Rickreall, about 6 miles south of Amity and  12 miles northwest of Salem, Oregon. Michelle and Steven raise a variety of fruits and vegetables to sell directly to individuals, to organic grocers, and starting in 2015, to share with Can-Do Real Food. Michelle’s specialty is providing heirloom varieties that are cultivated for flavor. Steven jokes his specialty is crawling in the mud on his hands and knees to fix things. Together they are trying to bring back the mighty vegetable and place it where it belongs; on your table.  They have a farm stand open for purchases on Zena Road on Saturdays from 10-2pm during the harvest season.

Michelle wrote in her blog about her involvement in the first year of the new venture. “It is exciting to have the extra and not so perfect fruits and vegetable come to the table, instead of the compost pile.” Michelle and Steven had great comments from their customers about the dehydrated recipes that were tested for production in the 2016 growing season.2014-09-17 08.52.45

Keeler Estate Vineyard, owned and operated by Gabrielle and Craig Keeler, is located in Amity and produces premium wine grown using biodynamic methods. Their partnership with Can-Do Real Food involves their kitchen garden produce as well as table grapes. Additional, grapes too small in size to be considered for wine production have been pressed and used for making jelly during 2015.  In May 2016 production of jelly from pinot noir wine and pinot gris wine started and those are amazing!  Charlie Garrell of Oregon Wine Guides provides guided wine tours out of Portland. He has become a huge fan of Keeler Vineyard and has purchased  a lot of the wine jelly for his customers. IMG_5071

Sunshower Hill Farm commands an amazing view overlooking Newberg from Parrott Mountain Road. When Ranee and Jody Solmonsson purchased the nine acres they inherited a lot of overgrown apple and cherry trees. Now, following organic farming and sustainability practices, they offer fresh market herbs, seasonal vegetables, golden and red raspberries, jostaberries, Stella dark cherries, farm fresh eggs, hardwood cherry and apple wood chips for smoking, artisan herbal tea blends, bulk dried herbs and small batch culinary syrups.  The Garden Huckleberry syrup processing also provides for a small batch of huckleberry powder, a high nutritional value flavoring to add to oatmeal or yogurt. syrup

Other partners: Can-Do Real Food sourced additional produce as much as possible from other local farms and backyard gardens. Marionberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, plums, pears, apples, quince, as well as tomatoes, peppers, garlic, tomatillos, and more. We also purchased cranberries from Bandon, Oregon.  Any person who has surplus produce from their garden can and should contact BethRankinOR@gmail.com to discuss an opportunity to partnership. Most of the time we can work a trade for raw produce and finished products.

Effort is made to use local produce as much as possible and other farmers who are at the Thursday Farmers’ Market downtown and the Saturday market at the Grange have been sources for some recipes. We use only produce grown organically.

Commercial partners: As mentioned above, Charlie Garrell purchases a lot of Keeler wine jelly for his Oregon Wine Guides tours. Another commercial partner is the RStuart Tasting Room in downtown McMinnville. Maria Stuart had long prepared an onion rosemary jam, a sweet-sour chutney concoction, served as a condiment on their cheese plate. As they were receiving increasing requests to purchase the jam, they approached us to provide that for them.  It not only makes a superb addition to a cheese plate but also would enhance hamburgers to a higher level of satisfactions.

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