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Farmer cuts red tape, offers greens

by Bethann Stewart
| August 22, 2010 9:00 PM

KUNA - Minutes after her arrival at Rice Farms roadside stand, manager Grace Davila is on her Bluetooth phone headset asking a local grower if raspberries are available.

"People don't like it when we have a sign up and we don't have raspberries," she said. "They want to stone me."

Although farmer Lee Rice is cultivating about 11 certified organic acres this year, raspberries aren't something he grows.

The reason he can sell them at his seasonal farm stand this year is because he is now a resident of Kuna, not rural Ada County.

Two years ago, as the local food movement was gaining traction in the Treasure Valley and the economy was hitting the skids, Rice and fellow farmer Steve Smith found themselves afoul of Ada County codes for farm stand operations.

Over time, both of their stands had expanded to meet the demands of consumers drawn to locally produced salsa, butter and ground beef.

Among their violations, both farmers were offering products, such as milk and cheese, that came from farms that were not "neighboring" their own property, an Ada County requirement.

Both Rice and Smith found the costs of complying with Ada County codes prohibitive, and neither opened their stands last year.

Rice said selling his potatoes, onions, radishes, corn, turnips and other produce couldn't sustain the stand, so he started selling things like grass-fed beef, much of it grown by a childhood friend. The stand grew to account for about 40 percent of his income.

He thought he should have a grandfather clause right to the stand since the county didn't enforce its codes for a decade as his stand expanded.

Faced with an increased demand for more local products, Rice wanted to know, "Why can't they change the rules?"

"These requirements are all established with the intent to protect the safety of the public," said county spokeswoman Jessica Donald. "Beyond that, the county and development services staff have always been open to working with impacted groups to explore ways the code can be modified or enhanced to help provide for productive and safe environments."

Last fall, Kuna came to Rice with an offer. The city was preparing to annex a large parcel just north of Lake Hazel Road.

"We looked around and said, 'Do we know of other people who are interested in annexing right now? We can wrap them into this,'" said Steven Hasson, director of planning services.

Rice's property was annexed as agricultural land. Oddly, the city's rules for farm stands are more relaxed.

To operate a roadside stand in Kuna, the property must be zoned agricultural and the majority of the products for sale must come from the farm where they're sold.

Rice easily qualified and reopened his stand three weeks ago - after the sweet corn came in.

"You can open earlier with cherries and strawberries and bedding plants ... but we were hurt financially and didn't have the money to buy bedding crops," he said. "It hurts when you shut down for a year."

But the old customers remembered.

Three out of four people who came in during the first week knew Davila, who is managing the stand for the fourth year. "We were glad to see them, too," she said.

Smith, who operates Spyglass Gardens on Linder Road with his wife, Wendy, took a different route - he switched to a subscription-based model. People buy a membership in his community-supported agriculture program and in return get a share of the produce all season.

"Thankfully, we had about 400 e-mail addresses of customers that we could put the word out to," Smith said.

Since spring 2009, his CSA has grown from 64 to 106 members. The Smiths also sell at two farmers markets.

"It worked out OK, but I'm still not happy with Ada County and their extortion department," he said. "The last time we went in, they wanted to sell us an application for a conditional-use permit for $2,000, and that was just to review the farm to see if they're going to give (the permit) to us."

Ada County commissioners did not return calls seeking comment.

Rice said farm stands are essential to helping create successful farms.

"I want to see this thing grow to the point that I can help other farmers ... so there's opportunity for young people to get back into agriculture and have it be economically viable," he said.