Organic food co-op delivery delights Ozark County cooks

This week I’m getting my first organic produce co-op delivery, and I’m as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. I just learned this program is available in Ozark County. It’s something I hear friends in other, bigger towns and cities talk about, but I never realized I could have the same opportunity here.

Last week our publisher, Norene Prososki, posted a picture on Facebook of a box of fresh fruits and veggies that had just been delivered to the office. A friend of mine saw it, told me about it, and by the end of the day the friend and I had both signed up to start receiving the boxes of produce, too.

It’s all thanks to Bob and Wendy Semyck, owners/operators of Willow Mountain Mushrooms in Tecumseh.

The Semyck family started the co-op to meet a need in their own family—to get the best quality food on their dinner table.

Bob and Wendy have five children ranging in age from 9 months to 16 years. Eight-year-old Jacob, their middle child, has a rare disorder that prevents his body from absorbing all the nutrients it needs from the food he eats. In theory, he would have to eat five times the amount of food a child his age would normally eat in order to get the nutrients he needs to thrive.

Looking for nutrient-dense, affordable foods

After his diagnosis, Wendy says she started looking for the best quality, most nutrient-dense foods she could find for Jacob—and for her whole family. She stopped buying processed and “boxed” foods and started making everything from scratch.

But she still struggled to find organic produce that didn’t cost a fortune. Until one day when Bob was delivering mushrooms grown on their farm to Mama Jean’s Natural Market in Springfield and happened to see another truck there delivering produce.

It was from a co-op in Colorado. The produce was mostly grown by local farmers on small farms. It was all organic, and best of all, the prices were very reasonable. The Semycks joined the co-op last November. They invited a few friends and neighbors to join, but the word quickly spread. Before long, Bob and Wendy were making up 100 boxes per week and delivering them to Gainesville and Mountain Home on Wednesdays, and to West Plains and Willow Springs on Thursdays.

Many co-ops charge annual membership fees, but this one does not. Wendy says any fees associated with this service are already calculated in with the cost of the produce. And it’s amazing what you can get for just $20.

For example, this week’s $20 basic box (a mix of fruits and vegetables) includes something like this: one head of red leaf lettuce, carrots, bunched spinach, green beans, green onions, roma tomatoes, avocado, kale, red or yellow onion, a variety of apples, pears, lemons, oranges and bananas.

Certain things do have to be sourced out to larger growers, sometimes outside the U.S.—like the bananas, for example—to meet the members’ needs.

So, how does it work?

Wendy gets a product list from the co-op on Monday and another one on Wednesday. As soon as she gets the list on Wednesday, she decides what she’s going to put in the boxes and sends out an e-mail letting everyone know. She then places her order with the co-op on Friday.

For the most part it works out, but not always. Keep in mind there are variables in play when it comes to farming—this is Mother Nature we’re talking about. Sometimes the co-op isn’t able to send exactly what they put on their product list for the week, and occasionally the produce they do send doesn’t survive the trip, which means Wendy has to re-organize the boxes at the last minute.

And sometimes people cancel at the last minute, which really puts the Semycks in a bind. “Our family can’t absorb all that.” (See shroomshack.blogspot.com for their policies.)

Making deliveries,

tending the mushrooms

Once the order is placed, the produce is picked and loaded and leaves Colorado on Sunday. Bob drives to Marshfield every Monday to meet the truck and pick up the produce.

Tuesdays are spent sorting and bagging. And that’s an all-day job, says Wendy.

Most of the boxes go to Gainesville and Mountain Home, Ark., on Wednesdays. Bob has to make two trips to deliver them all. The rest go to West Plains and Willow Springs on Thursdays.

Sounds like a full-time job, doesn’t it? And remember, the Semycks also run a mushroom farm.

While Wendy spends most of her time planning and organizing the co-op and home-schooling their children, Bob spends a lot of his time working with the mushrooms.

Bob is the mushroom expert in the family. His first job out of high school, some thirty years ago, was picking mushrooms, and he’s been at it ever since. Before moving to Ozark County and starting his own family farm in 2004, Bob worked on farms in Illinois, Florida, North Dakota and Tennessee. Big farms. Huge. At ne One time the company he worked for produced 500,000 pounds of mushrooms a day.

Leaving the corporate farming world to start their own small family farm was a big lifestyle change for the Semycks.

In the beginning they were producing about 1,000 pounds of mushrooms per week and had close to 30 wholesale accounts. They were so busy they could barely keep up. Around that same time they were learning about Jacob’s disorder. So they made the difficult decision to cut back the mushroom business. Wendy says it was a big financial setback for them, but fortunately they had a lot of support from their neighbors and from St. William’s Catholic Church, which they attend.

“I just can’t believe how generous people are in this area,” says Bob.

A family business

Things are now starting to fall into place for the Semycks. Their 16-year-old son Robert helps Bob with the farm, and their 11-year-old daughter Miranda is showing an interest as well. She enjoys picking the mushrooms and often goes to farmers markets with Bob.

Wendy says they love this area and their little 2 ½ acres in the middle of nowhere. They were surprised how quickly word spread about the co-op, and they invite anyone who is interested in learning more to contact them.

“So many people would eat better if they knew something was coming each week,” said Wendy.

<p>Bob Symeck delivers a box of organic vegetables to the Times office Wednesday.</p>