Oregon’s Tangent Farm Makes Transition To Organic Wheat

Stalford Seed Farms in Tangent, Ore., is trading its conventional grass-seed crops for more sustainable —and profitable — agriculture. And owners say their organic wheat is setting a new price standard in Linn County, where restaurants and bakeries are paying twice the price for locally grown wheat flour, branded as Green Willow Grains.Roughly 10,000 acres in size, Stalford Seed Farms helped make Linn County "the grass seed capital of the world" by growing grass seed over the last 50 years, said Gian Mercurio, who heads up planting decisions, crop rotations and administrative research for the farm. But concerns about the amount of pesticide needed to grow the crop caused the farm’s co-owner Harry Stalford to set 200 acres to fallow around the farmhouse.

Mercurio said it was her daughter who first raised concern about pesticides.

"Willow (Coberly) got concerned about the grandchildren, her children, and she was really concerned about having the chemicals so close to the house," said Mercurio.

But after patrons at the First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis pointed to a need for organic, locally grown wheat, co-owners Coberly and Stalford made the decision to put the 200 acres to use.

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