With Thanksgiving only a day away, kitchens (including ours!) are abuzz. We'll be open again tomorrow (Wednesday the 25th) for prepared foods pick-ups and essential meal ingredients. Stop in to add some local goodness to your Thursday meal.

OTC Grocery Thanksgiving holiday hours:
Wednesday, November 25th 10:00 am-6:00 pm
Thursday, November 26th CLOSED
Friday, November 27th CLOSED

We'll reopen again for our regular hours (10:00 am-6:00 pm) on Saturday, November 28th.

Hitting the snooze button for the third time in my SE Portland home is a common occurrence at 6:00 am every morning. Living 30 miles away from my co-op home means a long day is ahead of me. Over the last year and a half, I've really come to love being a part of this home away from home that we call Our Table. One of my favorite aspects of being a part of this co-op are my co-workers and our day-to-day. It may just be a nudge or a giggle. It may turn into a long drawn out discussion on the importance of food justice or it may be because a few of them let me practice my Spanish without laughing at my accent. Whatever it is, it's why I ultimately stop hitting the snooze button and get myself to Sherwood. These are my people.

The dynamics of our co-op may change--people may come and go, policies and structure may evolve--but the one given you can always rely on is that the strong heart of this co-op will always remain. Steady, caring, fulfilling, and meaningful--our crew is pretty spot on. We are a diverse group of folks that have multiple talents in multiple fields. Our common connection has always been our shared values and goals. We each belong here because we believe. I want to have T-shirts made that say " I believe!", and you can only wear one if you truly get it. It takes a lot to believe.

I believe one person can make a difference. One person, along with another person, can create an idea to make an impact. A group of twenty can change our local food system.
I believed the second I drove down the dusty road and saw four attractive guys on top of a structure that would eventually turn into the store. Granted, it was 85 degrees that day, but seeing a couple of perspiring construction men working hard, can make any girl blush.

Fast forward seven months and the road is paved, the store is shining bright in the late November night, and I felt nothing but pride and happiness. We did it! We had put the whole store together in a matter of days and now it was only hours before opening day.

That saying "You've come a long way, baby" rings true for our sweet on-farm grocery store. The product mix has grown, the producer membership has expanded, and the prepared foods is finally where it should be--thriving. This store holds a special place in my heart. Where else can you have a full diet shopping experience and know that the produce was literally harvested just yards away that day. I beam with pride as I see our farmers out the window. Many of you have been pulled over to the window (multiple times) as I exclaimed "I love our farmers!". For the past seven seasons, I have been watching Jen, Karen, Louis, Eric, Steve, Eugenio, and Anatolio out in the fields and they have shown me what resilience and true, hard work really is. Their dedication, rain or shine, allows each of us to savor the gift of healthy eating. That gift is available every day inside our grocery. It is because of you, our equally important Consumer Members and regular customers, that we are able to share this gift with so many.
As the seasons have changed, the store has changed. Sourcing from only Oregon and California small farms has its challenges in the dead of winter, but, surprising to me, we have been exceptionally bountiful year round. My favorite day in the store thus far was the day I looked at our overflowing produce case (beautifully glowing in all its six feet of glory) with 95% of the produce just harvested the day before from our own fields. I had waited all year for that moment.

We have many goals to meet in the next year and I have no doubt that our team will meet them. We have spent hours together discussing how we envision our future and what steps we need to take to get there.
It has been such a pleasure getting to know so many of you personally. You have shared your stories, your laughs, your tears, your families, and even your meals with me. This year has proven to be that rare opportunity to witness something truly great happening and I'm honored to have started the journey with you.

Some of you may know that being a Worker Member of our co-op is a daily sacrifice. While we strive to get to the point in our business where we can increase our wages to make life more comfortable and to offer all of us health coverage, sometimes it's hard to make ends meet. Most of us have partners that have jobs that can cover our health insurance needs. Sadly, I am not one of these Worker Members. I have been offered a job outside of our co-op that includes health coverage and it is with a heavy heart, that I cannot refuse. I will be leaving Our Table on December 1st as a Worker Member.

The beauty of this transition is that I leave this store in the most capable hands I can think of--my husband Patrick. Pat has been in the Our Table kitchen for the last nine months, spearheading our prepared foods program and steering the grocery in the successful direction it has taken. It is with much pride that I announce he will be taking over the Prepared Foods and Retail Manager position moving forward.

I may not be behind the counter or stocking shelves when I see you next, but I will always be a loyal shopper and lifelong Consumer Member of Our Table Cooperative--my inspiring home away from home.

Because just like you, I truly believe we can make a difference.

See you on the farm,
Colleen

Hey everyone!  With one year on the books slinging some of the best veggies and foods that Oregon has to offer, out of the swankiest on-farm grocery in the country (probably the world), I thought I'd take a little time to reflect on the past year and share some of my feelings about what it means to me to be apart of something as special as this place.

When I agreed to take a break from farming for the 2014 season to help put up this building, I will admit, I did it for semi-selfish reasons.  I was really interested in acquiring some carpentry skills, i wouldn't have to get up as early, I got to learn about and use lots of different tools, etc.  It seemed like a win-win situation, and for a season why wouldn't I do it?  I was excited about the fact that the building would become the outlet for what we would grow on the farm in the future, but I had no idea that it would come to represent so much more than that, to me, and to our organization as a whole.

Over that 2014 season I got to watch an unassuming piece of muddy ground transform into a beautiful grocery store and professional kitchen.  I learned a lot during that season, and it was an amazing transformation, but lots of nice buildings get put up every day.  Over the past 2015 season, though, I have seen that space transform into something I believe is much greater than a sum of it's parts.  I have seen it transform into a venue, full of people, for conversation, community building, eating (glorious eating), and problem solving - and not just the easy problems, I'm talking the big nasty ones that nobody really wants to talk about, but they're super important.  I think what it boils down to for me is that in the past year I have shared more meals with more new people, had more interesting conversations, laughed more, been more...inspired, engaged, challenged, enlightened than I think I ever have, and it's all flowed through that building.  It's like this special arena where things like Pat's lasagna, beer on tap for your growler, and veggies harvested a stone's throw away create a sort of magic that makes you want to eat, drink, and strike up a conversation with somebody new.

The past year has brought a lot of ups and downs for me and for the co-op, but through it all the things I remember and the things I try to hold on to are those full of love and hope.  And almost all of them have taken place in that building, that I can say I got to help build.  This is why I think it is more than just a building, it's a symbol of what we are trying to achieve as an organization.  A place, built, owned, and operated by the people who inhabit it, where everyone collaborates and together reap the benefits of their hard work.  The only reason we want to grow good food in the first place is so that we can feed it to you, and the store represents that connection to you in the most physical sense.  You can become apart of our community just by coming in to shop and chat, and you can even do one better and own the store by becoming a member!  I've had a wonderful time being apart of this community and watching it grow over the past year, I can't wait to see what else we can accomplish together!

Happy one year anniversary OTC grocery!!
Til' next time,

Louis

This is it for Sarah's Eat Local Challenge at OTC Grocery! We've come to the end of the month, which means her last post is up on Will Run for Pasta. What a glorious 30 days it's been together--we've gotten to know each other, we've shared meals, and now we're fellow business owners. This is what the co-op experience is all about. Thank you, Sarah! It brings us joy to share our love of food with you and so many others. Read Sarah's sign-off to the month here.

Our resident co-op blogger Sarah was feeling under the weather this past weekend (feel better Sarah!), but she still managed to give us the lowdown on the most recent CSA share. Whether or not you're a CSAer, take a cue from Sarah and scroll through our blog to learn what's currently in season and ideas for what to cook with our ingredients. If you're not receiving a fall CSA share from us, then come see us at OTC Grocery for organic vegetables and more. You may run into Sarah there! For now, read Sarah's latest installment on Will Run for Pasta.

Sarah takes us back to the joy of last Sunday's member potluck in her recent post on Will Run for Pasta. Describing our meal, she reminds us how time at the table is a particularly important moment of connection and communion, especially when it involves s'mores. We promise there are more of these gatherings ahead, but, in the meantime, come see us at OTC Grocery because we love feeling in community with everyone every day that we're open! Check out what Sarah wrote here.

Head into the field for dinner with Sarah today! Consumer Member extraordinaire and author of the blog Will Run for Pasta, she recounts her experience attending our July Our Table in the Field dinner. Discover the magic of eating in the field through her post. Keep in mind that all Consumer Members receive a discount and first pick of our dinner tickets each year. In fact, there are still a few tickets remaining for our dinner on Saturday, September 26th.

OTC CSA vegetables, Deck Family Farm pork sausage, Rogue Creamery blue cheese, and Roman Candle Baking Co. bread--Sarah's basket from OTC Grocery for the week sounds amazing. In her next post on her blog Will Run for Pasta, she takes you into both her kitchen and the OTC CSA. You'll notice that she never leaves the grocery without her Roman Candle Baking Co. bread. If you have suggestions on how she can cook her Deck pork sausage, send them her way! Check out her post here.

Sarah takes us deeper into her OTC story today with another post on her blog Will Run for Pasta. Lovingly titled "A Girl and her Co-op", she describes how we first met and what keeps her coming back. After reading, you'll need to plan a trip to OTC Grocery to experience some of the foods she highlights--lots of appetizing photos in this post! Among them is OTC Producer Member Oregon Brineworks' line of organic, fermented veggies--they're tasting their products at OTC Grocery this Saturday starting at noon during Co-op Community Day. Sarah's latest post can be found here.