Farmers market at your fingertips

An online farmers market makes its debut Monday, bringing a new model to both producers and consumers in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and on the Palouse.

Orders can be submitted now at rekohub.com for the LC Valley Food Project pilot program, with the first distributions set for 4-6 p.m. Monday at Valley Community Center, 549 Fifth St. in Clarkton; Blue Lantern Coffee House, 326 Main St. in Lewiston; and Terracotta Pullman, 107 S. Grand Ave.

Customers who register on the website can choose from available items, such as meats, eggs, mushrooms and root vegetables, with pickup set for Mondays through the rest of the month.

The model helps more shoppers access local foods and allows local producers to sell more efficiently, project organizer CJ Kalysten said, an attractive option at a time when food prices and availability are a growing concern.

“You can get really deep into the fragilities of our food systems,” Kalysten said. “Local systems are the answer. I hope this is the beginning of that shift here in the valley.”

Kalysten, who lives in the small Camas Prairie town of Gifford, described the effort as a not-yet-incorporated farmers cooperative, operated by volunteers.

“It’s the farmers who are directing the movement,” she said.

The food hub concept was familiar to her as an employee of worker- and farmer-owned LINC Foods, based in Spokane.

“It’s a mind shift to how to buy food,” she said. “Think of this as your grocery store. You can get meats, honey, bread, grains, eggs. You can do one-stop shopping, and it’s not a guessing game of who is going to be at the farmers market today.”

The project, which Kalysten said she hopes will become a year-round service with additional distribution points around the region, currently includes Clarkston Farmers Market and Pullman Market Monday, formerly Pullman Farmers Market.

Clarkston Farmers Market manager Danielle Evans, herself a producer, said the online food sales will complement the traditional market, which typically starts in June.

Selling online means producers know exactly what and how much to bring on distribution day, but Evans said some producers might still want to sell in person, and some of the online sellers might choose to bring extra inventory to the pickup sites for customers to browse.

She’ll be looking for feedback, assessing how the online ordering system works for producers and customers, she said.

Pullman’s farmers market, which recently announced a rebranding to Pullman Market Monday to coincide with the food project, will operate strictly through the online portal, manager Alyssa Link said.

Link’s volunteer efforts managing the Pullman market and serving on the Pullman Good Food Co-op board led to her meeting Kalysten, whose food hub model seemed like a natural fit.

“I think everybody in our post-pandemic world has become accustomed to ordering online and picking it up,” Link said. “It just made sense to do it with local food.”

The market will be managed by the Pullman Good Food Co-op this season after the co-op’s board voted last month to take on responsibility for its operations, which had been overseen by the Pullman Chamber of Commerce for the past 15 years.

“Frankly whatever’s best for the market is wherever I’m going to lean into,” Pullman Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marie Dymkoski said.

The chamber will remain involved as a sponsor, paying for the market’s insurance, Dymkoski said, but the co-op’s involvement fulfills a longtime chamber expectation of a vendor-led market.

The final in-person Pullman Farmers Market will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 16 at The Lumberyard, 305 N. Grand Ave.

Link said she’s optimistic about the market’s new, online-ordering era.

“When things come together and align so well, why reinvent the wheel?” she asked. “Let’s streamline: Let’s make this good for producers; let’s make it good for customers.”

Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.