Gathering Together Farm: Growing for 27 Years

"I still go to the markets because I love talking to people about food."
- John Eveland, Gathering Together Farm

On a quiet stretch of the Marys River just outside Corvallis in the tiny town of Philomath, John Eveland (top photo) and his wife, Sally Brewer, are running a certified organic farm on a combination of rented parcels and land that's been bought from neighbors over the past 27 years. John estimates that in 2014, total sales at their Gathering Together Farm will top two million dollars between 12 farmers' markets—three in Corvallis, six in Portland, the Beaverton Farmers Market and two at the coast—a year-round CSA, wholesale customers, restaurant customers and the farmstand and restaurant on the property.

John checking a hoophouse.

John and Sally don't get to keep all that money, of course, since, aside from hard costs, at the peak of harvest season John signs 128 full and part-time paychecks every month and even in the slower winter months he employs a crew of 40. The farm has two managers, Rodrigo Garcia and Joelene Jebbia; a chef, J.C. Mersmann, who runs the farm restaurant and catering arm; as well as an HR department.

All this started on just two acres of land in 1984. It wasn't meant to be more than that, originally, just enough to supply the vegetarian restaurant, Nearly Normal's, that John, his first wife and three friends started in Corvallis in 1980. Dissatisfied with the quality of vegetables they could get from distributors, a group of them decided to try to become farmers and grow their own. The other partners found it a bit more of a commitment than they anticipated and dropped out, leaving John and his first wife (and eventually him and Sally), to manage the new farm on their own.

Year-round markets were a game-changer.

John said that, unlike today when we have a rainbow of heirloom vegetables to choose from, back in those early days carrots came in one color, orange, and tomatoes were big red slicers, mostly beefsteaks. From the beginning the farm used hoop houses, a series of plastic-covered hoops set over rows of crops, to extend their growing season, but things would pretty much shut down in November until planting season began again in January.

"The game has changed with winter markets," he said, and more varieties of cold-tolerant crops that do well in the maritime Northwest made it possible to keep plants in the ground through the winter. But what really pushed Gathering Together Farm into its current year-round status was that his crew needed full time employment to stay in the area, so the farm now grows leeks ("They're bullet-proof," Eveland said.), turnips, rutabagas,  parsnips, kale and a popular winter salad mix, with more added every year.

The covered patio at the restaurant at the farmstand.

Plus, he said, "People are a lot more sophisticated in terms of their taste and what they're looking for." Unlike the old days where shoppers would turn up their noses at root vegetables or anything that wasn't a standard shape, he said they're now willing to try new things and buy non-uniform vegetables. And for those crops that might have blemishes but are otherwise perfectly good to eat, the farm has developed what are called "value-added" products like salsas, jams, pickles and sauces.

Delicatas are perfect for soup (recipe below).

Now pushing 66 years old, Eveland laughed and said he plans to be out in the field until he drops. Turning momentarily serious, he said that it's been critical to develop a staffing structure that provides a pool of expertise and knowledge to keep the farm humming along, especially since he considers himself "a creator, not a maintainer."

Reflecting on nearly three decades of farming, Eveland said it's certainly a much bigger, more complex farm than he would have ever dreamed of back in those early days.

"We're proud of what we've created in the community and the reputation we've earned," he said. "I just hope we've created something solid that makes the world a better place in some small way."

Ricky’s Delectable Delicata Soup
Adapted from Gathering Together Farm

The farm’s CSA coordinator, Hannah, says this is her favorite soup. It comes from Ricky, one of the cooks in the farm’s restaurant.

2 medium onions, julienned
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 leeks, whites only, chopped
8 oz. roasted red peppers
3 small delicata squash or 2 large ones (the flesh should equal 4 cups)
1 qt. vegetable stock (chicken stock works well, too)
1/2 c. cream
Pinch of cayenne
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

Halve squashes and scoop out seeds. Roast in oven until flesh is tender when pierced with a fork, about 40 min. Cool and scoop out flesh to make 4 cups. Purée in blender or food processor.

Over medium heat, sauté onions, garlic and leeks until they are softened and glassy.

Add roasted peppers, delicata purée and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add cream, cayenne, lemon juice and salt to taste. Stir well to combine.

Purée the soup in a blender in batches or use an immersion blender. You can also serve it without blending; the finely sliced onions and slivers of pepper make it quite a pretty soup as is.

Note: You can also speed up the process by peeling the delicatas with a vegetable peeler, halving them, scooping out the seeds and chopping them into 1" cubes. Add cubed squash when you add the stock, increase the cooking time to 30 minutes, then purée. This also works with other types of cucurbitaceae like butternut, acorn, etc.

This article was developed in collaboration with the Beaverton Farmers Market, a sponsor of this blog. Top photo of John Eveland by Jake Stangel.

Cruising to Corvallis

It's one of those silly things. You have good friends, people you've known for years through kids, work, church, whatever. They only live an hour-and-a-half drive away, but somehow that seems like a really long way to go. (I can hear you folks outside the metro area saying, "What? We drive an hour-and-a-half to the dentist!") And you just never make the time to get in the car and get your complacent butts out of the city.

On the left, Marys River* as it flows into the Willamette just south of downtown Corvallis and (right) a new condo/retail development along the Riverfront Park walkway.

But sometimes you actually get yourselves in the car and go see those friends. So, of course, that's just what we did on a recent weekend at the end of summer, and we had a great time visiting and getting a personal guided tour of their hometown of Corvallis. First up was a short walk along the new award-winning Corvallis Riverfront Park to the local farmers market. Along the way are great art installations, including this vintage movie marquee from the Midway Theatre, a former local landmark. And instead of first-run features, it now showcases poetry, this one by Freda Fredricksen:

At
last
buds appear
sky still grey
war's sorrow never clears quickly
the world wants peace, blue skies, and spring.

The market is overrun with the last surge of the summer's harvest, tables laden with red, yellow, green and purple peppers, and baskets bulging with squash, mushrooms, cabbage and greens. There's an air of conviviality, with neighbors greeting each other and admiring the day's purchases, and waving at vendors who also taught their kids social studies in high school.

For you history trivialists, the city was originally called Marysville after the Marys* River that flows south of town, and was briefly the capital of the Oregon Territory in 1855. It was renamed Corvallis after the American-French "Coeur de Vallis" or "Heart of the Valley."

The building on the left housed the original capitol of the Oregon Territory, and the curious interior courtyard on the right is the home of the Old World Deli and Oregon Trail Brewing.

But of more concern to us after all the sightseeing and walking was where we'd have lunch, so our friends walked us through downtown and into The Old World Deli, also home to the Oregon Trail Brewing Company. This funky-but-fun place usually has anywhere from three to five beers on tap at any one time and a full complement of large and filling deli sandwiches, which hit the spot perfectly, and we were regaled with tales of Mr. A's pranks as a young man working in a cannery. You really don't want to know, but I can tell you it involved something other than what was supposed to have been pears in heavy syrup.

After strolling back to our friends' place, we took their 8-month-old, 75-lb. chocolate lab puppy to large and beautiful Avery Park on the Marys River for a late afternoon swim (the dog, not us). A quick change back at their house and we were ready to head out for dinner at Magenta, advertised as "an organic asian fusion restaurant."

Now, I'm normally not a big fan of most fusion cooking. I like my cuisines pretty clearly delineated, though most ethnic food served in this neck of the woods makes concessions to what is available locally, much like early Italian immigrants made do with what they found here. But this place features fresh, local ingredients like beef, lamb and elk with subtle nods toward Asia. We started with cocktails from a house menu of tropically-themed but not froo-froo drinks that were well-mixed and refreshing, along with an appetizer of Vietnamese coconut pancake balls with King crab and kaffir lime crême, an unusual but stunning take on the fried foods found at street stalls in that country.

The banana leaf-wrapped wild salmon in fresh dill coconut curry that I ordered was a good-sized piece of fillet, moist and tender. The choice of a disk of polenta on the side was odd and the sautéed vegetables that accompanied it were fairly innocuous. But as a whole the experience was a good one, with attentive, friendly service and busy-but-not-too-loud sound level.

So to sum up? As I said before, get your backsides in the car and get out of town. You might just enjoy the experience!

* For you copyeditors (or wannabe nitpickers out there) there is no apostrophe. Check it out on the wiki.