Direct-market farmers at Green Bluff, the unincorporated farming community northeast of Spokane, are breathing a sigh of relief following their annual Harvest Festival, held Sept. 12 to Oct. 25. Sales growth flatlined, but the numbers of visitors and sales still were better than expected, given the ailing economy and losses due to early hard frosts, growers there say.

"Everyone was really scared going into October," says Jason Morrell, manager of Walters' Fruit Ranch. "The majority of our money was made in October."

The 38 farmers who belong to the Green Bluff Growers Association pool their resources every year to market their fruit, vegetables, and related products to Spokane-area consumers. Derrick Hansen, treasurer of the association, says it printed 60,000 brochures with a map and description of each farm this year, and gave away almost all of them. Hansen attributes the interest in Green Bluff to a rising consumer preference for locally grown produce.

"The local food movement is really gaining traction," Hansen says.

Despite that trend and the attraction of "you pick" farms, growers say visitors to Green Bluff have been slower to part with their money this year.

Both Morrell and Todd Beck of Harvest House & Orchard say they have experienced growth in sales every year for many years—until 2009.

"We never had a negative growth year in the last 10 years. I'd guess we're going to be down about 5 to 10 percent" in sales this year, Beck says. The numbers of visitors to Harvest House didn't decrease this year, but customers were more selective about the products and services they chose, rather than trying to "do it all," he says.

Nick Simchuck, a third-generation orchardist at Hidden Acres, says his farm sold about half the apples this year that it sold last year. He said the only crop that did well for the farm was peaches, because "you can't get a decent peach at a store—you have to pick it yourself."

Morrell says this year's sales at Walters' Fruit Ranch have been "about the same as last year." He says he heard complaints about prices this year, which hasn't happened in the past.

The down economy had one positive aspect: With employment opportunities at a low ebb elsewhere, growers had a better pool of applicants for their seasonal labor force than usual.

Beck says Harvest House employs a full-time core staff of eight people, but for weekends in October it hires up to 30 people. Other Green Bluff farms also hire a number of seasonal helpers.

"The quality of applicants this year has been exceptional," he says. "Many of them were college educated. We've all commented on how smooth it's gone this year because of the quality of the workers."

Along with more restrained buying caused by the soft economy, Green Bluff growers were hit by unusually cold temperatures early in the season.

Beck's mother, Marilyn Beck, also of Harvest House, says "It got down to 10 degrees the first week of October. This year there were a few apples we did not pick because of the frost damage."

Morrell says that if the temperature stays below 19 degrees for eight hours, the frost will reach the core of the fruit, and all of the apples will turn to mush. Fortunately, that didn't happen. He says the apples that are picked later in the season, such as the Braeburn and Granny Smith varieties, weren't affected by the frost, but apples picked earlier, like Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, were hurt by it, although the abnormally cold weather "wasn't sustained."

"We told our 'you pick' customers to use the apples right away, because their shelf life would be shortened because of the frost damage," Marilyn Beck says.

Hansen, part-owner of Hansen's Orchard, says the frost ruined pumpkins and squash left out in the fields, as well as some varieties of apples.

"We lost literally tons and tons of product in October. We couldn't even give it to food banks," he says.

Some Green Bluff farms also were buoyed by sales of value-added food products, along with their fresh produce.

JoAnn Smatlan says her family has added a bakery and bistro to their High Country Orchard store. She says it sells huckleberry scones made daily from scratch, as well as fruit smoothies and strawberry cheesecake.

The Simchuck and Conniff families are producing the Hidden Acres brand of apple butter, apple sauce, jams, jellies, syrups, and vinegars, which they market in their own country store, through other Green Bluff growers, through local grocery stores and gift shops, and online.

Caitlin Gaines, an employee at Hidden Acres, says the business produced 113,000 jars of products this year, and she expects that every jar will be sold before the 2010 season begins.

Harvest House sells pumpkin donuts, which Marilyn Beck says her husband, Gordon, first heard about at a farm direct marketing association conference. She says she and Gordon spent several years improving their recipe and equipment. Now long lines of people form at the farm waiting for freshly made pumpkin donuts during the Harvest Festival. Todd Beck says pumpkin donut sales were up this year, but "I can only do so many in a day."

"We couldn't make it without value-added products," he adds.

Morrell says Walters' Fruit Ranch's biggest selling item is its take-and-bake pies, which employees make by hand at the farm and flash freeze immediately. The Morrell's sell the pies through the country store at the farm, and distribute them to Spokane-area Yoke's Fresh Markets, Huckleberry's Natural Markets, and some cafes and also market them online.

"We can't keep up with demand. Our pie business is always growing. We definitely have had an increase in sales this year," Morrell says.

He adds that larger companies have tried to buy the pie operation, but he wants to maintain it as a family business, and he is working on plans to increase production and distribution.