Nella Mae:
Local Food Builds a Community
The Wallowa Mountains cup the town of Cove, Oregon, in a curving wall of snow-dusted peaks along the eastern edge of the village. The Blue Mountains rise to the west, across a wide, fertile valley.
Drivers wave at each other over the steering wheels of their pickups. Small houses and farm fields line Cove’s streets. And at the edge of town near her small vegetable and beef operation, Nella Mae Parks built a farm stand offering just-picked salad greens and tomatoes to her neighbors.
“The gal down the street said that sometimes she comes to our farm stand at the farm twice a day. Her husband says she has a problem!” Nella Mae said, setting fresh greens out on her farm stand. In addition to supplying her neighbors with fresh food, her farm also supplies the farmers’ market and other businesses around the Grand Ronde Valley. “The six restaurants I supply are really loyal and easy to work with.”
Building a community
While Nella Mae’s farm wasn’t the first in her area to bring local food to the valley, fresh food hasn’t been as much a part of the culture since the food revolution of the 1930s turned the market toward processed and packaged food products.
“As we get further from that, it’s kind of a new experience for people to come back and eat something that was really homegrown,” Nella Mae said.
“I don’t think that what I’m growing is all that special,” Nella Mae said. “I think because it’s fresh and that makes a huge difference in taste and shelf life.”
It’s not just the freshness that has made her food a hit. Nella Mae’s hard work has made her food accessible, and as a charismatic person who loves interacting with other people, she has built a support network and helped bring about a change in local attitudes toward local, organic food.
“I have worked really hard to make local produce accessible to low-income folks,” Nella Mae said. “I have lobbied for the Farm Direct Nutrition program which provides vouchers for low-income seniors to purchase Oregon fruits and vegetables.”
Nella Mae accepts those vouchers at her farmstand and the farmers market.
“Last year I helped fundraise $10,000 with the farmers market board for our Double Up Food Bucks program. It provides a match for shoppers using SNAP, so if they spend $10 they get another $10 for fruits and vegetables,” Nella said.
How farmers help each other
Nella Mae is boisterous when she talks about how the farm has evolved over the year. Her passion seems to pour out.
“In order to be in agriculture, you have to marry into it or inherit land,” Nella Mae said. “I grew up on a really small hay and cattle farm, and that’s what I had to work with.” Her lack of acres meant she had to try to make growing for the local market work.
Nella Mae converted some of her land into a space for growing crops like pumpkins and tomatoes that people in the local communities were looking for. She also has three hoop houses where she grows vegetables like leafy greens and tomatoes most of the year. These conversions were big investments of time and money. Like a lot of things in farming, Nella Mae had to rely on hope that local demand would support her.
While Nella Mae had to endure the risk of converting the operation to a local foods farm, she had no shortage of help. “I’ve had people absolutely come out of the woodwork to lend me equipment or give me advice,” she said. “I have never found myself wishing that I could find something that I didn’t have because people just show up.”
She credited that to the way people in small towns support each other. There are only a few other farmers her age in the area. Nella Mae is able to count on another avenue of support, that of the established farmers in the area. “I can capitalize on all of the older folks who really want to help people that are coming up,” she said. “If there’s only two of us, we have a monopoly on their knowledge and help.”
The rural support, and Nella Mae’s passion for growing wholesome food, have helped her grow her business throughout the valley. Her produce is available every day from April through October at her self-serve farmstand in Cove, Oregon, and at the La Grande Farmers’ Market every Saturday from May through October.
Next year Nella Mae plans to increase her agritourism options with more classes, events and something new—overnight farm getaways for families and small groups of adults.
