Local economy

We tend to think of Tillamook County in terms of cheese. The dairy industry has always been the backbone of the local economy, along with timber and tourism. Over the past few decades, all three of those industries have undergone dramatic changes. Timber is a fraction of what it used to be, dairymen are hanging on by their toenails, and tourists (while welcome) sure have made summer travel a marathon just to get to the grocery store!




The fisheries, consisting of commercial deepsea fishing, sport fishing, and oyster plants on two of the county bays, are also having a hard time, for various different reasons. Climate change and pollution being just a couple.

An article in this week's local paper, the Headlight Herald, caught my eye.

"...reported that Tillamook County, while still feeling gthe recession, has fared better in its unemployment numbers than neighboring coastal counties. ...said food production has remained steady here, which has helped Tillamook weather the economic downturn compared to its neighbors, which rely more heavily on the tourism industry."

That got me thinking, just what WAS that food production? There are no big beef outfits here, selling to Bar-S etc., but we do have a lot of "backyard" beef, sheep, and poultry. I know of a couple of organic farms which do very well with beef, lamb, poultry, eggs, and wool. One thing Tillamook has always had is lush grass pastures and the climate to support year round grazing, along with multiple hay cuttings. Towards the end of the summer, much of the cutting goes into silage - the white "marshmallows" we see stacked at many farms.

Tillmook is infamous for the "Tillamook aroma"...yep, cow manure. It's spread on almost every piece of land flat enough to keep it from running into the rivers! But that "green gold" is part of the reason for the good grass, high milk production, and award winning cheeses.

I decided to do a photo journal of just a two mile stretch along Wilson River Loop Road. The above photos were part of the shoot. I wanted to get a better idea of just what that "food production" entailed, and had noticed several interesting crops over the summer. That manure spreading helps with those crops, too.

There has been a change over the past several years along this stretch of traditional Tillamook farms. "Truck farming", or vegetable farming, has taken a strong hold in the rich river bottom land. This particular farm has put in several long green houses this year, for raising tomatoes.

They also have field crops. I boldly followed this kid right through the gate and out to the crops. I wanted a good look at what they were doing out there.

Artichokes became a "cash cow" in the south country a number of years ago, and now have migrated to at least two large farms along this stretch.

I dare say, there are about a million 'chokes harvested from this field!

Some of the other crops were broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and beets. These are showing up not only in our local chain supermarkets (Safeway and Fred's), they are being shipped to the outside.

The old farmhouses have had facelifts, just as the barns and fields have had. Dairying is still strong in many of the old-time families here, but we see more diversity in the land use. As I drove along, stopping frequently for scoping out the fields (much to the disgust of the cars that came along), I saw fields of corn, which is mostly going to ethynol plants rather than feed, there were several sections of Christmas trees, and a large field of crocosmia that I had admired when it was in full radiantly red bloom.

There is a farm up the Kilchis River called Oregon Coast Floral which specializes in hydrangeas and cut flowers for florists - they are growing, literally, by leaps and bounds. Again, the climate and rich land comes into play for their success.

Another phenomena that has really come on strong this summer are the local community gardens. This one is Bay City is one of three in our small town! Every town has a community garden, it seems. As a Master Gardener, I get the news and happenings of these efforts first hand, and it has been encouraging to see so many folks put their hand to growing some of their own food even if they have never had a garden before.

While I haven't seen any figures on pounds of production or income, I can see why the article mentioned Tillamook's food production as a mainstay for our ecomomy.

We're not just about cows and logging trucks anymore.

And anyone with a shovel and fishing pole will never starve in Tillamook County!