Farm-direct sales

Harvest is in full swing for many crops and produce. Whether it be on a large commercial farm or maybe in your backyard. The Okanogan is definitely representative of a bounty of food that can be grown and raised here. A great place to witness that is at your local farmers' market where you can buy directly from your local farmer. So I thought this would be a good time to share some informative data on farm-direct sales.

• The 2007 national average for farm-direct sales was $4 per consumer. Washington is above that average at $6.75 per consumer.
• There are 0.84 farm-direct farms per 1000 consumers. Twice the national average.
• 77% of Washington farms that sell direct are smaller than 49 acres
• 1250 farms larger than 49 acres also had direct sales and 166 farms larger thatn 500 acres had direct sales. In total, 5418 farms in Washington sold directly. This is 14% of all farms in Washington.
• These farm-direct sales had a total value of $43,537,000.

These statistics came from the 2007 Agricultural Census http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/index.asp. Farm-direct statisitics from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service were not available on the county level.

Well that's my first posting for the WSU Okanogan Extension blog. I hope you find it and future posts informative. I plan to make postings on a weekly basis. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does.