Wise Organic Pastures – The Processing Plant

This Article is Cross-Posted on KosherEye.com

Our Bubbie and “grand” Bubbies may have known how to make a famous roast chicken and of course, chicken soup, but certainly did not face the same chicken challenges that the kosher shopper faces today. Most chicken is no longer raised in the back yard! The consumer is now faced with numerous choices in quality, type and price.

Chicken has become a multi-billion dollar industry in America. Kosher chicken is no exception, but is somewhat more complicated. There has been extraordinary growth in kosher poultry sales in the last few decades. Along with observant Jews, many non-Jews and Jews who don’t necessarily adhere to kosher laws now purchase kosher poultry. Why? There is a perception that kosher certification adds a layer of clarity and transparency to poultry purchases. In addition to the FDA and government regulatory agencies, the processing plant must adhere to the specifications of a supervising kosher agency and rabbinical authority. Many consumers welcome this extra layer of inspection.

Kosher shoppers have choices to make. Our goal is to understand and to explain some of them to our readers.

Recently, as part of the KosherEye “kosher” summer road trip through Pennsylvania and Maryland, we were invited to tour both The Wise Organic Pastures processing plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania and a Wise Organic Poultry Farm, which is a 50-mile drive out into the Susquehanna Valley.

In Scranton, we had the pleasure of meeting Moshe Fink, founder of David Elliot Chicken and owner of the processing plant used by Wise Organic Pastures. He answered many of our technical kosher “processing” questions and provided background information.

According to Moshe, for poultry to be considered kosher, they must be in good health when slaughtered. The shochet must use a sharp knife and no stunning or electric shock is permissible before “shechita” (slaughter). Kosher poultry may not be heated, and blood must drip freely from the bird after slaughter. The knife must be sharp, the killing respectful, and the resulting blood symbolically “buried” under a floor covering – in this case a layer of sawdust, coal and ashes. The processing method is cold and no heat is ever applied.

Following slaughter, non-kosher poultry may be scalded with hot water. A natural occurrence from the use of hot water is that feathers just “slide” off. The result of kosher slaughter and cold processing is an unwelcome problem: residual feathers. If consumers are asked the one negative of kosher chicken, it is the feathers!

The David Elliot processing plant uses the “Cadillac” of defeathering machines, the LINCO, made in Sweden. But even with this mechanical wonder, which can be adjusted to the average size of the birds, due to the cold water processing system, feathers must be removed manually at the end of the processing line.

At the David Elliot plant, teams of workers stand with defeathering razor sharp knives and manually remove feathers after the machines have completed the initial process. Yes, this extra step of manual defeathering adds to the price of the poultry, and therefore, it is understandable that value priced poultry has more feathers when delivered to the consumer.

One positive aspect of the “kashering” process is very welcome. All kosher birds are soaked in fresh cold water for 1/2 hour, are than covered in salt for one hour, and then washed in fresh running water 3 times. This is done to follow the biblical prohibition to eating blood. Because of the salt “bath”, most consumers applaud the taste, which taste similar to culinary brining. Kosher chickens have won numerous taste awards including a contest held by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. In this contest, a main rule is no seasoning is allowed on the chickens. Empire Kosher Poultry has won several of these prizes and Moshe Fink attributes the consecutive awards to the kosher process – specifically salting!

Our poultry facility visit began with the gracious invitation of our host Issac Wiesenfeld, president and owner of  Wise Organic Pastures.His mother, Rachel Wiesenfeld started Wise Organic Pastures in 1992. She founded the company after the family faced a financial setback. According to Mrs. Wiesenfeld, there was “a need in the kosher poultry market for wholesome chicken raised the old-fashioned way — free range, organically fed, hormone-free — and processed according to strict kosher standards. At the time, there was organic chicken and there was kosher chicken, but no one was offering chicken that was both organic and kosher.”

Her son, Issac, the fifth child of 11 siblings, was the only sibling to join the company! The offices are based in Brooklyn, but the plant and farms are in Pennsylvania. The family has had a thriving business relationship with Moshe Fink for the past 18 years. Although the Wise Organic Pastures started 18 years ago, the company could not add the official organic label until the legislation was passed in Washington in Oct 2001. The Wiesenfelds are truly organic kosher pioneers! And, timing is everything. Since USDA established the National Organic Program officially in 2002, the organic food market has grown by almost 20 percent annually.

KosherEye was given a full tour of the entire David Elliott  processing plant. What did we see?

The sanitation and efficiency we observed at the plant was impressive. Before we were permitted to tour, we had to dress from head to toe, (including boots and hats) in sanitary cover. The shechita atmosphere was antiseptic. The Rabbi inspects each bird for blemishes or problems, and then skillfully and quickly cuts through the neck with a slash of his constantly sharpened knife. The job must be both holy and professionally precise. From the off-loading dock to the packaging area, the plant appears clean, well run and intense in purpose. Certainly the atmosphere is not for the squeamish; however it was a realistic view of how the chickens we eat are slaughtered, kashered, cleaned and packaged.

Both the Organic and Kosher poultry market has grown over the years. The economy certainly affects the consumer’s ability to buy the higher priced organic chickens- but, conversely, the number of organic buyers is growing.

For more information about Wise Organic Pastures, visit WiseOrganicPastures.com. To learn more about David Elliott poultry, call 570-344-6348.

This list, from Consumer Reports, of Common Industry Chicken Terms, is very informative.

California is  ideal for olive growing, though the potential for making olive oil is not being reached by the community due to the cost and labor involved.  Andy Dale has decided to take matters into his own hands by using Kickstarter.com to raise the money needed to create a community olive oil press.  With olive trees already growing, the idea is that people will be able to put the fruit to use in creating natural, local, fresh olive oil.  Dale has calculated that with the oil press charging either a fee or a percentage of olive oil, it will be able to sustain itself and even grow, eventually becoming a fixture in the Bay Area community.

Dale has found a press for his project at a fraction of the usual cost, though he still needs money to make this dream come true.  His vision for the press as a way to turn a prohibitively labor and fund intensive process into a way for a community to become greener and more sustainable is a great example of a how to use a resource creatively.

Take a look at his project and consider making a donation.  Each donation level has an incentive, for example, $10 will get you a 375ml bottle of fresh pressed olive oil.  If the necessary $2,500 are raised by September 5^th, the project will be backed.  If not, donors will receive their money back and the community press will remain an unfulfilled dream.  Supporting initiatives like these is a great way to promote sustainable food.  Bringing self-sufficient olive oil (and other oils too) would bring the meaning of the word “local” to a new level in Berkeley.

Cross-posted on Food Forever � The AJWS Food Justice Blog.

“If $1 billion of the $11 billion pledged by international donors was put toward agriculture, the world could watch Haiti not only feed itself, but export billions,” said Haiti’s presidential candidate Charles Henri Baker in the Montreal Gazette’s feature “Can Farming Save Haiti?.”

A future in which Haiti is not only self-sufficient, but is exporting goods sounds great, right? Tell Congress to help make it happen.

The Haiti Supplemental Bill, now in committee in the House, will provide $2.8 billion in aid to Haiti. This money can more effectively help Haitians help themselves if more of it is used to support the community-based agriculture that Baker endorses. AJWS is calling on Congress to include language in the bill mandating support for local Haitian agriculture and to pass it right away.

As the Gazette article discusses, over the years, wealthy donor nations have pushed for open-market policies that undermined Haiti’s rich agricultural base. Now, so much of Haiti’s post-earthquake rebirth depends upon sustainable local food production and international support for the planting and procurement of Haiti’s agriculture. This is particularly crucial in rural regions of Haiti where food deliveries along bumpy roads that resemble dried-out riverbeds are nearly impossible. Agricultural renewal in Haiti will help promote dignified, self-sufficient livelihoods for millions of Haitian farmers. It will also serve as a foundation for social and economic growth. And as the Gazette article points out, there are many Haitian leaders poised to make agricultural reform a sustainable priority. We need to do our part to make this a reality.

Ellen Botnick shared the following photos with us from the Cleveland garden. Things are looking beautiful since last we posted. Check out that old story here and click below the jump for some more lovely photos.

You’ll notice the sign “Gan ha’Or”, the Garden of Light, which is the name of our garden. The confirmation students (10th grade) used recycled glass to make the sign, which was designed by Bonnie Cohen. She’s standing on the left, and I’m standing on the right. The garden signs were made by Dick Rossen, who used wood left over from the falling down jungle gym, which we refashioned into a tool shed. He routed the names of all the vegetables, flowers and herbs in the pieces of wood, and Bonnie Cohen wrote the names in Hebrew calligraphy. The Academy students painted the signs with Jewish symbols. We put lattice on the sides of the tool shed, and we’re growing gourds and sunflowers. At the far end of the garden we have two compost bins we built from wooden pallets.

Yasher Koach, Ellen! Congratulations.

]]> http://jcarrot.org/progressinclevelandatganhaor/feed 0 http://jcarrot.org/postville-procter-gamble-problem-pareve-margarine http://jcarrot.org/postville-procter-gamble-problem-pareve-margarine#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 01:45:54 +0000 Roxanne B. Sukol, MD http://jcarrot.org/?p=11979 The raid on the kosher meat-processing plant in Postville, Iowa, threw us a bone in the shape of a vigorous new debate�on whether it is fitting and proper to designate as “kosher” products made without regard for animal welfare, fair wages,�and the environment.� To these I would add human health.� What does it mean to approve the manufacture and distribution of products that are known to compromise the health of those who consume them?� Is there a distinction to be made between contaminants�that do their work quickly, like salmonella, and those whose destructive effects are slow and cumulative, like trans fats?

Trans fats,�an invention of the 20th century, permitted the development of such synthetic�food-like products as margarine and coffee whiteners.� Neither of these products�existed around the time my great-grandparents caught their first sight of the Statue of Liberty.� Nevertheless, as a result of focused, sustained, and wildly successful marketing campaigns to gain their recognition and acceptance,�they became an integral part of what is now considered �traditional� kosher cooking.� In 1912, for example, after Procter and Gamble of Cincinnati launched a nationwide campaign for Crisco, its new vegetable shortening,�it enlisted the support of American orthodox rabbis, notably Rabbi Moshe Zevulun Margolies (the �Ramaz�) of New York, to endorse Crisco as ritually pure.� P&G advertised that �the Hebrew Race had been waiting for 4,000 years� for a solution to its shortening problems.� Mazola worked with the Hebrew Ladies� Aid Society in Fargo, ND, to teach interested parties how to use their product, and made contributions to the local women�s burial society for every unit sold.� Other examples abound.

I went to my local supermarket to check out the ingredients in�pareve margarine and coffee whitener.� Mother�s lists �liquid and partially hydrogenated soybean oil� first. �Fleischmann�s lists partially hydrogenated soybean oil second, after liquid corn oil.��The first three ingredients in original Coffee-Rich are, in order,�water, corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil.� The first three ingredients in fat-free Coffee-Rich are, curiously, identical.� �Partially hydrogenated� means trans fats.

What’s wrong with trans fats?� The problems are numerous, diverse, and well established.� Trans fats cause heart disease.� They increase insulin resistance, which causes diabetes.� Trans fats decrease good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol. �They suppress the immune response, interfere with reproduction, and decrease the nutritional quality of milk.� They alter the properties of cell membranes.� They enhance deposition of abdominal fat.� In a famous study of 85,000 women conducted by Harvard University,�individuals with heart disease were found to have eaten significantly higher amounts of trans fats.

Trans fats have been banned in other countries, and in several cities throughout the U.S., but they have yet to be banned across our nation.� What the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated is that food containing less than � gram of trans fat per serving may be advertised as�”trans-fat free.”� That�s not good enough.� In the case of Coffee-Rich, a serving is 1 tablespoon.� This morning I felt like making my�coffee extra light, so I put 4 tablespoons, or � cup, of milk into�the mug.� If I had used Coffee-Rich, that would have added up to almost 2 grams of trans fat.� Just for the first cup.� So it would be easy, on any given day, to consume quite a bit of trans fat solely from trans-fat-free food.� That�s a problem.

What are our alternatives?� First and foremost, skip the coffee whitener.� Drink your coffee black, or choose tea with honey or lemon.� Try coconut, almond, soy, or rice milk if you�d like.� Bake pareve as our foremothers did for a thousand years, with coconut oil, which stays solid below 75 degrees Fahrenheit.� Decline to make�recipes that call for pareve margarine.� Don’t use it in place of butter; make different recipes.� We vote every time a bar code passes over a scanner, so don�t buy margarine or coffee whitener for your home, office, or synagogue.� There is no place for synthetic trans fats in a healthy community.

This week, as Earth Day came and went and I attended a fair here or an Earth celebration there, it also donned on me that Spring is here!

So, beyond my environmental excursions, I also attended of variety of events held on my very own Columbia University. Yet, what I found was an inability to fully appreciate some of the events due to the ubiquity of plastic water bottles. Some may laugh, but I find myself becoming more and more annoyed with these obnoxious bottles that I suddenly see everywhere. As I have previously written about bottled water, my awakening began when seeing the movie “Blue Gold: World Water War’s” on instant play on Netflix. Then, I really became irked when seeing “The Story of Bottled Water,” which I posted on this blog.

Last week though, I attended another water documentary screening, this one a full length feature exclusively focused on the water bottle industry. Now, the movie does a lot of pointing fingers. Most obviously, the manufacturers, NESTLE, Coca-cola, and Pepsi Co., bear a large portion of the blame.

Yet, beyond these stormtroopers, the film also criticizes the manufacturing of plastic bottles, or specifically the type of plastic used for water bottles. Called “PET” or “PETE”, this plastic has traces of all sorts of toxins linked to all kinds of health hazards. The most common and perhaps scariest is the link between the toxins in the plastics and fetal development. You would think the Right-to-Life community would be all over this one?

We remember the BPA discovery that destroyed Nalgene and made SIGGs cooler than Uranus, but what we don’t realize is that much of the plastic in your “Poland Spring” “Dasani” “Deer Park” or “Aquafina” contains some trace of BPA, benzene, or some other kind of harmful toxins. Though it seems impossible to escape simply breathing in toxins because of the pollution we all breathe daily, it is more distressing that we choose (most of the time out of ignorance) to put these poisons in our body.

And just to reiterate, Dasani and Aquafina are JUST PURIFIED TAP WATER. It is exactly what you drink out of the sink! Only it’s less healthy because there are some other salts and chemicals in it, as well as, whatever has mixed into the water from the plastic bottles.

And this is the danger. We don’t know why and how these poisons leak into the water contained in the bottle. Now, we know not to drink a bottle if it has been sitting in your car in the heat, yet none of us know where that bottle came from before we bought in the store. Perhaps it was sitting in a heated area. Or perhaps, simply long liquid exposure with the plastic releases some of the toxins into the water. I don’t know, but either way, tests (from the film) found that the water in plastic water bottles is often highly polluted and/or toxic.

So, take all this information and then attend some University events I did this past weekend. Every event had an assortment of drinks, including plastic water bottles. The BBQ on Saturday Afternoon on the South Lawns, in the middle of the heat of the day, had plastic water bottles to drink.

Forget everything I have just written about the health dangers of bottled water. Consider this:

Imagine the price of a 6-pack of .5 L bottled water to be about $6 (let’s say 1 dollar for every bottle)
Multiply that by however many people are coming to your event (let’s say 50 ppl): $300

Already you have spent several hundreds of dollars on something you can get essentially FREE:
84 oz pitcher (from wal-mart.com): around $20
Igloo 10 gallon water cooler: Around $80

So it is obviously much cheaper to have someone refilling the water at your event, then buying bottled water for “convenience” (I’m sure your constituents won’t mind the poison you serve with that “convenient” bottled water).

One good thing about Tapped: The Movie was contact it made with another organization – Food and Water Watch – about how to “get off the bottle” and reclaim the TAP. The produced a brochure about how public events can easily be ran without plastic bottled water. The more we refuse to serve it in our public events, the more people will stop using it.

Please, if you are reading this and you are organizing an event soon, DON’T BUY PLASTIC BOTTLED WATER. There are other, healthier ways of keeping your peeps refreshed.

To read more astonishing facts, here is the No Impact Man’s opinion.

Check out this Cleveland Jewish News article about the new community garden just starting out at Beth El Congregation in Akron. Ellen Botnick and her friends were, in part, inspired by their connection to Hazon on the Israel Food Tour that we cosponsored with Heschel last Novemeber.  As Ellen says “Food connects us to the earth, to each other, and to something much larger than ourselves. We are building community through this garden.”

Mazal tov to everyone in Cleveland who will have the chance to get to get their hands dirty in the garden, harvest the veggies, feed neighbors at Good Samaritan Hunger Center, and eat the food grown from this new garden! We wish you a bountiful harvest.

Click here to read the full story.

PS – Ellen told me there will be plant markers for all the plants, made from wood that was recycled from the jungle gym they converted to a tool shed.  A volunteer routed the names of the vegetables in the wood, and Bonnie Cohen calligraphed the Hebrew names. The Hebrew School children painted Jewish symbols on the markers. Very sweet and sustainable!

So you promised your boss you would go to work 1/2 day Monday, but you haven’t finished your shopping for the big night.  It’s Chicago.  It’s winter.  OK technically it’s Spring, but we’re all still wearing parkas and fantasizing about the sun returning.  And most importantly, the farmers’ market season in Chicago doesn’t really being until April.

Or does it?

A little-known gem is thriving right under your L stop in downtown Chicago!  Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand, located at 66 E. Randolph Street, is practically under the Randolph/Wabash stop, across from the Millenium Metra Train station, and open 6 days a week ALL YEAR.

I had to move back to my hometown after living in Santa Monica, CA for 9 years and the first culture shock was the absence of farmers’ markets from November-April.  In my sluething, I was directed here.  However “here” was embarrassingly difficult to find.  Meaning- when I finally found it, I gave myself the requisite thump on the head because it’s not terribly hidden – but I’ve since learned I’m not the only one who spent many weeks driving/walking past it without noticing it.  It’s part of a larger structure of community galleries, meeting rooms, etc.  So stick to your guns and remember “66 E. Randolph” and you’ll notice the lovely neon sign calling you into the little magical wonderland inside…

The mission here is to carry produce, meat, and baked goods grown, raised, baked within 250 miles of Chicago.  And it works.  I can get a full week’s worth of groceries here due to the variety offered.  And being vegetarian, I’m excluding some of the vendors.

So- what’s good for Passover?  Each week I get BEAUTIFUL greens for salads from Living Water Farms.  Add on onions, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes – the expansive vendor list can be seen online here: CDF Vendor List

Need vanilla?  How about some coffee extract? Rose Water?  You can find a solid variety of vanillas, sugars, extracts from the incomparable Waukegan-based, Kosher, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas.  They even have stacks of recipes at their display in case you are looking for an excuse to buy that Rose Water but have no clue what to do with it (like me).

More kosher yummy can be found in the front refrigerated section – top shelf – Futters Nut Butters. I can’t stop raving about their amazing chocolate nut butters – wow.

Some of my favorite items at this farmstand come from Nicole’s Divine Crackers.  Not kosher, but healthy, unleavened, organic and – wow – I just met her last week (more on that later) – this woman and her business partner “Little Grace” have a lot of chutzpah starting a new bakery/career when they were in their late 50′s (Nikki is now approaching 85).  Get some of Nicole’s “In Your Wildest Dreams” crackers (cranberry & pepper!) to munch on before sundown and then come back next week for more!

So – stop by this hidden year-round farmer’s market during your lunch break or on your way home Monday.  I’m sure you’ll find goodies to add local, organic love to your seder.  And if you need any help, the staff there is friendly, knowledgeable, and passionate about their farmers, their produce, and you.

…during the winter

…on a day other than Saturday

Those of us organic, sustainable foodies in Chicago are keenly aware of the famous Green City Market which stays open year-round by moving into the Nature Museum November-April.  But for us who observe Shabbat, the Saturday-only schedule they keep in the in winter months is sad news indeed.

So I finally kvetched – kvweeted? – to all the Chicago farmers market Tweeps I follow about how Jews are blocked from farmers market goodness in the winter.

The good people at The Local Beet promptly directed me to 2 markets, The Downtown Chicago Farmstand (open daily) and The Logan Square Farmers Market (Sundays 10am-1pm).  So I ran- ok I took 2 buses- to Logan Square last Sunday.  Tucked away in the Congress theatre at 2135 N. Milwaukee Avenue (just north of Armitage), here is what I found-

First I found none of the baked goods nor meats were kosher – so this won’t be your stop for Passover matzah, lamb, cheese, or macaroons if you adhere to rules of kashrut.  But the produce is fresh, organic, and local.  The baked goods are created using local ingredients.  Everything is grown, stirred, canned, and baked with love. So here we go…

First stop? Logan Square resident, Sarah Marino, from Oak Park’s Reform synagogue, B’nai Abraham Zion.  She stood behind a table directing shoppers where they could find each item for their seder.  Brilliant!

Next? Mushrooms! wow- beautiful, healthy, gorgeous mushrooms compliments of River Valley Ranch.

Across the way, the incomparable Paula Jeremias of Tiny Greens is juicing wheat grass and clipping fresh sprouts- sunflower, broccoli, arugula (yum!), onion, alfalfa… any of these turn a bowl of mixed greens into a gourmet entree.  Not to mention sprucing up that seder plate – something other than parsley would be a nice change, no?

Moving on…past the artisan cheeses, french baguettes, herbal teas, macaroons (more on these later)… Apples! Baskets and baskets and baskets of beautiful, apples from Hillside Orchards in Michigan.

Next stop? Free Range eggs from chickens fed organic greens while living at Tempel Farms.

Across the way, is the lovely Anne Kostroski of Crumb with her homemade matzah made with eggs and honey from this market!  Sadly it is not kosher for Pesach – she explained to me this is something she’s made for her family seders for years, and finally this year she decided to bring it to the market.  It’s the BEST matzah you’ll ever eat, I promise. 1/2 dozen pieces are $4, Dozen is $8.  If you’d like to learn more about Anne and her matzah, check out Brad Moldofsky’s article This is NOT your Mother’s Bread of Affliction.

Next to Anne is the Elgin-based, Dennanne Farms.  They have the most extraordinary soaps- seriously, get your clean on at with Denny & Anne Bukala while grabbing yummy honey to make your own homemade matzah.

After the sweet, is the savory of Herbally Yours.  I picked up a bottle of their Rosemary Garlic vinegar and have enjoyed the best salads all week.  Their Basil Oregano Vinegar is ridiculous (and award-winning).  And, of course, these herbs and more can be purchased from them sans vinegar.  Just ask.  He LOVES his product and the herbs and will insist you taste everything he’s got.  And it’s all amazing.

So that’s all that’s safe for Passover – not counting the matzah – but I wonder if the love and care put into this matzah could possibly be considered worthy of kosher status – just minus the official man officially supervising the love and care…so I had to mention it.

One more worth mentioning, but not kosher for Pesach, Macaron Chicago – Beth Jacob handcrafts these little lovelies and ohhhhh that Mayan Chocolate one is out of this world delight.  When shopping Sunday morning, stop by, grab a box or two (or 5), to munch on while cleaning and prepping Sunday night and Monday afternoon.  You will be so happy you did!

So this was late posting- sometime technology gets the better of me (like spilling soda on my dear little mac – thank goodness for the computer fix-it saints in that basement shop around the corner from me).  Hopefully you’re reading this as you sip your morning coffee Sunday thinking “gosh I wish I could go to a farmers market this morning instead of Whole Foods”.  Go! Enjoy!

Zachary Agopian is a chef in Portland, OR and an intern working with an exciting project called Food-Hub: food-hub.org/. This project promotes the use of local foods by directly connecting local farmers and ranchers with local buyers. Thanks, Zachary, for sharing this project with us!

If you’re like me you’re always on the prowl for the freshest ingredients to nourish your body. Now, this may involve an assortment of ridiculous activities; from a full inspection of your milk aisle for the freshest carton, or the heated family “discussion” over your highly guarded mushroom foraging stash. My personal favorite, over-dosing on peaches until you can’t stand the sight of one until next summer, as to not give-in to the temptation, in the long winter months, of a well traveled piece of fruit.

But Wait, Locavores! We now have technology on our side. No, I am not speaking of bioengineered, modified, high yield, “enhanced” vegetables. (Who really wants all of their food to look and taste exactly the same?) I’m talking about FoodHub.

FoodHub. www.food-hub.org.

A new online directory and marketplace which connects some of the region’s most passionate farmers, ranchers, and food producers with regional buyers. What is so amazing about FoodHub is that it can benefit everyone. If you’re a school district looking to purchase 500 lbs of organic carrots, or a local grocery store wanting to stock your shelves with local products, or just throwing a dinner party and want to find locally raised chickens; FoodHub is your tool!
FoodHub is a not-for-profit, there is a membership fee of $100 per year and is open to food buyers and sellers of all kinds throughout OR, WA, AK, ID, MT, and CA. Members create online profiles that include contact info, products they buy or sell, preferred methods for doing business, and many other useful details. Sophisticated search capabilities allow buyers to instantly discover ready suppliers with a few clicks of their computer keyboard. Conversely, sellers can use FoodHub search features to identify new buyer leads and build targeted customer databases. With over 3,000 items in FoodHub’s pantry, the search options are endless.

My favorite tool on FoodHub is the Marketplace function which is a kind of Craig’s List for food. Buyers and sellers post immediate needs and opportunities in FoodHub’s Marketplace. Consider the following posts recently placed on FoodHub:

• Artisan Cheese Coming out of the Caves: Our newest blue cheese – Caveman Blue will be ready to release from our caves within the next two weeks. Contact us now for information about ordering.
• Local Baker Looking for Rhubarb: We are in search of local rhubarb for pie season. We prefer once a week deliveries to our North Portland Bakery. We need 250 – 350 pounds per week while in season (April – July). Please email through FoodHub to provide us with more information.
• Do Your Products Need a Ride? We deliver ice cream in our freezer truck from Bellingham to Seattle/Eastside, San Juan Islands, Skagit Valley, Port Townsend to Port Angeles. We would be willing to deliver your frozen goods along our regular routes for a nominal trip charge.

Give FoodHub a tour; this is a tool that is going to reshape our nutritional landscape.