Updated: Saturday, September 18, 2010 10:29 AM
Restaurants, grocery stores seek local supplies at Thursday gathering
By FRED OWENS
For the Capital Press
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- While most farmers' markets cater to individual shoppers, Skagit Valley farmers have a new market aimed directly at institutional buyers such as restaurants and hospitals.
The Puget Sound Food Network, working with the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, opened the weekly wholesale farmers' market in mid-June in the co-op's parking lot beneath the Riverside Drive viaduct.
Lucy Norris, spokesperson for the network, said the volume of sales has grown during the first two months.
"We had two new buyers last week -- a local restaurant in Burlington and a Mexican restaurant from Seattle," she said.
Chefs Chris Johnson of United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley and Peter Roberge of Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon have also been regular customers.
Norris was enthusiastic about a rivalry developing between the two local chefs.
"There seems to be a friendly competition to see which hospital can serve the best and most local produce," she said.
Volume at the market has been growing. Spring rains and cool morning temperatures have meant delays in most crops, but the produce is available now, from string beans to kohlrabi.
The market is designed for restaurants, grocery stores and institutional buyers. The location underneath the Riverside Drive overpass means farmers don't have to set up a canopy to keep the sun and rain off their produce. Easy freeway access is key to attracting buyers from Seattle, 60 miles to the south.
Restaurant owners who feature local produce on their menus will no longer have to drive all over the Skagit Valley to get what they need.
The market is open from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. each Thursday -- a time that allows restaurants to plan their weekend menus.
Becky deVries of Ralph's Greenhouse in Mount Vernon came to the market with kale, leeks and other greens. DeVries is the daughter-in-law of Ralph deVries, who began growing vegetables in his greenhouse after he retired from dairy farming.
Ralph's Greenhouse is now one of the biggest growers of leeks on the West Coast, but they do not sell directly to the public at farmers' markets.
"We've always been strictly wholesale," deVries said. "This market is only a few miles from the farm."
In contrast, Hedlin Farms of LaConner sells at five retail farmers' markets in the Skagit Valley and Seattle areas. Kai Ottesen handles a lot of those retail markets, but he was also eager to reach new wholesale customers.
"There's no downside for us in attending this market," Ottesen said. "We're building relationships with customers. They're finding out what we have, and we're finding out what they want."
Jodie Buller, representing the co-op, said the market was put together in a fairly short time, with plans made over the winter. "We buy as much local produce as possible, and we asked our farmer-suppliers how we could help them out. This is the result."
Retail farmers' markets typically charge a daily fee and sellers must commit to coming every week during the season.
The new wholesale market charges no fee, and the farmers may keep a flexible schedule depending on what they have to sell.
Organizers hope the market will grow and attract more buyers from farther afield.