Partners for Rural Food Systems
On Monday May 1st, 2023 I attended a food industry conference at the “Big Red Barn” located at the Tillamook Creamery Visitor’s Center (scroll down for info about this conference and some photos i took during it).
During this conference we were given an update on an incredible project that has been in the works since 2017.
In a nutshell, Tillamook County is going to be getting seafood and farm innovation centers. A farm-based center will be located at the Port of Tillamook Bay and a seafood-based center will be at the Port of Garibaldi.
This project is going to help so many small Tillamook County culinary businesses! From the Partners for Rural Food Systems website:
“Tillamook County is home to more than 200 small farms, fisheries, harvesters, bakers, and value-added product makers. Yet there has been no infrastructure to support them, such as cold storage, shared commercial kitchens, co-packing, food hubs and training centers.”
Partners for Rural Food Systems is going to focus first on setting up cold storage at both the farm-based center at the Port of Tillamook Bay and at the seafood-based center at the Port of Garibaldi. Next they will build a shared, licensed commercial kitchen at the Port of Tillamook Bay, then a seafood processing center at Port of Garibaldi.
As someone who cheers on small culinary entrepreneurs and who also loves the Oregon Coast and the hard-working people who live there – I can’t tell you how excited I am about this project.
This much-needed infrastructure is the result of a community endeavor and is being championed by the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association (TCVA) as part of their culinary/agritourism initiative.
For a long time, Nan Devlin, the Executive Director of the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association shouldered much of the work for nurturing this enterprise and for the past year or so she has been joined by long-time Tillamook County resident Ken Henson, founder of Refettorio Consulting.
I will be keeping you updated on this fantastic project! In fact, I hope to record an episode of the Culinary Treasure Podcast with Ken Henson about it very soon.
For more info about Partners for Rural Food Systems you can go to their website here – https://ruralfoodsystems.org/
The May 1st, 2023 Food Industry Conference
During this conference we heard from a number of excellent speakers including Nan Devlin with Visit Tillamook Coast, Ken Henson with Refettorio Consulting, Mike Saindon with the Port of Garibaldi, Charity Coon with Tillamook Bay Seafoods ,Carly Boyer with the Bohemia Food Hub, Sarah Masoni with the Food Innovation Center in Portland, Oregon, DJ Josi with Josi Farms, Oregon Trevor Rogers with de Garde Brewing, and Jason Brandt with the Oregon Hospitality Foundation.
Below are a number of photos I took during this informative conference.
Cheers,
Steven
