3 minute read
Farm-to-Fork with Valley Fresh Harvest�������������������������������������������������
Story by Katlyn Sanden
Imagine a service where you can order wholesome, organic food directly to your doorstep. Even better, how about knowing the farmer who grew that food, and better yet, what if that farmer was your neighbor and the food was grown in your home county. Wouldn’t that be a tasty and environmentally-friendly way to get your food?
That’s exactly what Tony Stirling of Valley Fresh Harvest thought too. Stirling grew up in a family grain operation and went on to receive a master’s degree in agronomy. He then spent a number of years doing corn research, so the importance of growing and consuming fresh food is not lost on him.
“The nice thing about what we’re doing is giving someone local a chance to buy local products to help out farmers in a one-stop shop,” Stirling said.
Valley Fresh Harvest is a farm-to-table online market serving the Illinois Valley area, as well as the Milton, Wisconsin area. The difference between this online market and the local farmers market is that they can serve customers throughout the entire year, versus being tied to specific growing seasons. Working with 60 different farms across central Illinois and south-central Wisconsin gives Valley Fresh Harvest the ability to offer produce, meat, dairy, and other specialty seasonal items.
They currently offer citrus, cheese, and a variety of greens, including kale, arugula, swiss chard, and spinach. In addition, they offer red and yellow potatoes, purple radishes, heirloom tomatoes, a variety of herbs including cilantro and basil, eggs, quail eggs, honey, coffee, maple syrup, sunflower oil, popcorn, mushrooms, flour, wheat, rye, oats, rice, a variety of milks, Greek yogurt, sour cream, beef sticks as well as cuts of
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED Tony Stirling of Valley Fresh Harvest with his wife, Leah; daughter, Nelia; and son, Brooks�
Left: Here is some of the produce that customers can choose from on a weekly basis�
Above: Besides fresh produce, Valley Fresh Harvest also offers specialty items that include honey, flour, and other seasonal items�
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED
beef, cuts of pork, chicken, duck, turkey, and cuts of lamb.
All of the produce is either certified organic or raised with organic practices, and all the meats are pasture-raised and fed non-GMO feed if grain-finished. All the milk is non-homogenized. The specialty items that aren’t grown within a 150-mile radius of Ladd come from groups of farmers in other states, but Stirling said it gets shipped directly to him from farm-to-farm.
The idea of Valley Fresh Harvest dawned on Stirling when he was delivering produce he grew in his greenhouse to a group of buyers that stock city restaurants. He wanted to be able to bridge the gap from farmer to consumer directly. And if by filling a need on the consumer side with fresh food, he could help out local farmers on the other side, that sounded like a win during his long delivery routes.
“Our whole goal is to let people order whatever they want,” said Stirling. “There are no membership fees, no minimums. So if you want a gallon of milk, you can do that. We try to make it as easy and simple for everyone as possible.”
Prices vary, but order forms are sent out Friday evenings, with orders being due at noon on Sundays. Stirling said that way customers can get whatever they want, when they want. If they don’t need anything one week, they can get back on the next week.
“Whatever we can do to help out our local community is what we do,” Stirling said. “We work with 10-20 farmers from the Illinois Valley to supply daily needs.”
In the future, Stirling hopes more local farmers can get involved in order to offer a larger variety. He also has high hopes to add green beans, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, snap peas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew in the coming year.
For more information or to get on Valley Fresh Harvest mailing list, visit valleyfreshharvest.com.
Tony Stirling
