French Prairie

French Prairie
By Josh Kulla

Wednesday July 29th, 2009

French Prairie is on the front line of the Portland metro area’s
ongoing debate over rural and urban land reserves.

Over the years, grass roots organization Friends of French Prairie has
led the opposition to urban development south of the Willamette River
in rural Marion County.

Now, the group, led by president Ben Williams, is expanding its reach
with the introduction of a new branding program aimed at touting the
area’s agricultural riches.

Dubbed the French Prairie Branding Initiative, Williams envisions the
effort bringing together local farms, nurseries and retailers under
the French Prairie banner. If it works, he says, the name will become
synonymous with quality produce, flowers and nursery products.

“We started over three years ago, principally as a land use
organization, because there is so much development pressure on various
parts of French Prairie,” Williams said. “It’s Oregon’s historic
breadbasket, it’s where the state was founded. It’s the richest soil,
not just in the state, but in the world. There’s all this agricultural
heritage.”

Changing the public’s perception of his group also is important, he added.

“Having spent a couple of years doing that as an organization, we
realized you can only be an active populace with pitchforks shouting
‘no’ for so long. You need at least as much positive contribution to
the subject as you have negative opposition. So, we needed to find the
best way to move forward.”

As Williams suggests, French Prairie is located on some of the
Willamette Valley’s finest farmland. The area’s farmers and nurseries
produce a veritable smorgasbord of fruits, hops, vegetables, nursery
stock, grass seed and other sustainable, local products.

The name French Prairie dates back to the 1820s, and now is used to
describe the area of the Willamette Valley bounded on the west and
north by the Willamette River, on the east by Canby and the Molalla
River, and extending south toward Keizer. It includes Champoeg State
Park and historic district, as well as the towns of Aurora, Donald,
Butteville, Gervais, Hubbard, St. Louis, St. Paul and Woodburn. It
also includes a small slice of Clackamas County that includes the
Charbonneau development.

At least 13 farms and nurseries have signed up to the idea to date, as
well as retail outlets Wilsonville Lamb’s Thriftway and Fir Point
Farms in Aurora.

For Dan Sands, produce manager at the Wilsonville Lamb’s Thriftway,
the branding initiative makes perfect sense for the family-owned
Lamb’s chain.

“We really embrace the living local idea,” Sands said. “We’ve done
this for a long, long time.”

Lamb’s already has working partnerships with over a dozen local farms
to supply the chain with fresh produce. Already, signs with the names
of local farms supplying the supermarket adorn the produce section,
while a display case features French Prairie produce. Right now, leafy
greens, including lettuce, are the staple of the day.

“It’s right in our back yard,” he said. “It’s dealing with your
neighbors and you see how things are going.”

Sands said he still has concerns over how the French Prairie name will
be marketed and protected from outside misuse. But he remains
enthusiastic.

“We’ve got to feel this out and coordinate everyone,” he said. “But
really, the product tends to speak for itself.”

The initiative consists formally of three parts: French Prairie Fresh,
French Prairie Grown and French Prairie Organic. The first covers
locally-grown fruits and vegetables, the second identifies non-food
products and the last singles out products certified as organic by
Oregon Tilth or the Stellar Certification Service.

“You don’t need to buy lettuce from California and you don’t need to
buy pork from Nebraska,” Williams said. “You can get all these things
from local suppliers.”

Sands agrees. He added that he hopes the initiative helps build a
strong agricultural community throughout the area.

“It will increase what we’re doing,” he said. “It gives us a baseline
for building relationships. I think it’ll continue to grow as people
recognize the quality in the store. They’ll go, ‘Hey, I recognize that
name.’”