Eco Food Movement Unstoppable

Every spring, the Touchet River Valley awakens. What lies dormant for months in winter, suddenly explodes with green life fed by rains and the welcome sun in skies blue to heaven. Everything stirs and moves and grows in this fertile soil that yields a bounty every year. It has been this way ever since the Palus Indians roamed these hills and fields, harvesting roots such as quamash, camas, kouse, bitterroots, chokeberry, huckleberry, gooseberries, rose berries and whortleberries, just to name a few.

The valley's European pioneers took immediately to the rich earth so close to the Blue Mountains where there was just enough rain- fall for certain crops such as wheat and peas, and where some farmers even grew fruit trees without irrigation.

This year, something new stirs in this promising envi- ronment - something that had its origins with modernday pioneers such as Joan and Pierre Louis Monteillet, who started the Monteillet Fromagerie on the edge of Dayton where they create cheeses and other foods known far and wide for their taste and earthbound quality.

That "something" is the artisan food movement that stresses natural growing methods close to home and encourages a direct connection between the consumer and the farmer. This year more than ever, the valley's residents seem to embrace the idea that the healthiest harvest is the one right un- der our noses, and that they have something unique that appeals to others.

Dayton Chamber of Co- merce director Brad Mc- Masters calls it a new "tra- jectory," a clear direction in which many in our com- munities are taking their agricultural pursuits, nurturing their organic possibilities and putting it on display to see, to taste, to sell.

Like the seeds in a pod, there are many manifesta- tions of this trend. The most obvious is the success of the Blue Mountain Station, whose first phase is now well underway, thanks to the earlier vision of the likes of port director Jennie Dickinson.

Another is the much better organized and plentiful Dayton Farmers Market, which started this weekend and amounts to a celebration of homegrown eco foods, manual arts and the beauty of growing things more slowly and carefully.

Now there's talk of a nat- ural food cooperative to be based at the Blue Mountain Station to possibly blend natural local goods with those brought in from elsewhere. A group in Dayton is studying the feasibility of a storefront in the new busi- ness park.

Closer to Waitsburg, Tawnya and Mickey Rich- ards are experimenting with a revolutionary new grow- ing method known as hy- droponics, which paves the way for abundant natural produce cultivation combin- ing aquaculture and agriculture using a fraction of the space a traditional vegetable garden would.

This approach - call it a lifestyle or a business model - makes all the sense in the world for our little valley that could. Why would we want to be another extension of the fast-food strip culture or big box commerce on steroids? Those aren't our roots and shouldn't be our ambitions.

By embracing the slow- er-paced natural way of growing things and the spirit that goes along with it, we connect with our own his- tory and set ourselves apart as a destination in a way that honors our legacy, promotes our health and refreshes the urban visitors who yearn to connect with the land and the people who grow the foods they seek.

This is a life we are build- ing for ourselves, but one that most assuredly will make them come as to a dia- mond in an Iowa cornfield.