Farm Crew
Shari Raider
Founder, Partner, Business Manager
After earning my BS from Cornell University, majoring in Hotel and Restaurant Management it was time to move west. I landed in San Francisco where I was able to work and apprentice in some of the finest restaurants in California's Bay Area. I apprenticed at Chez Panisse, Le Trou and The Acorn Café, and then spent a year cooking at Greens in San Francisco. I had the privilege of being taught by great chefs who truly believed in connecting with local farmers. The next step in my journey was to learn more about growing the food that I was cooking. I entered the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) Farm and Garden Apprenticeship Program. Upon completion of this program I moved to Portland and in 1993 founded Sauvie Island Organics. The farm has grown tremendously over the past 16 years in both size and efficiencies, but one thing that never changes is the farm's commitment to growing delicious, seasonal, local vegetables for you and your family. I am honored to be part of this process.
Tanya Murray
Partner, Farm Manager
My interest in farming grew out of a life long love of the natural world combined with a desire to do work that felt meaningful to me. While working on a self-designed program at Prescott College in Environmental Education focusing on school gardens and educational farms, I got my first tastes of growing food. My senior project led me to Portland, Oregon where I discovered Urban Bounty Farm, a small CSA that was farming on the site that is now Zenger Farm. My initial interest in helping the farm set up educational programming evolved into an interest in learning more about farming myself. After graduation I pulled on my work boots, picked up a hoe, and went to work for Urban Bounty. I spent the next several seasons in different corners of the country. Inspired by the farm's partnerships with community social service organizations and their mission to provide fresh local produce to low-income people, I went to work at the Hartford Food System's Holcomb Farm CSA. Here I plowed my first field, became intimate with the Colorado Potato beetle, and devoured a few too many watermelons. From Connecticut I made my way to Huasna Valley Farm in Arroyo Grande, California. Along with growing vegetables for the CSA, I helped tend to an acre of blueberries and staffed the farm's booth at the weekly market, amidst a bounty of juicy peaches and ripe avocados. Eventually I made my way back to Portland. In 2003, I joined the team at Sauvie Island Organics. I am grateful to be doing the good work of growing food and to the community with which this work connects me.
Scott Latham
Field Manager
Three years ago I came to Oregon from the Garden State. While living in New Jersey I was working as the Superintendent of the Rutgers University Botanical Gardens and as Co-Manager of the Cook College Student Organic Farm CSA. This is the start of my third growing season at Sauvie Island Organics as Field Manager. I enjoy the challenge and many rewards of growing your vegetables.
Brian Wood
Field Assistant
While attending The Boise State University Horticulture program I got a summer job at Peaceful Belly Farm in Boise. It was the only CSA Farm in the area at that time and a radical departure from any agriculture process I was used to seeing anywhere around Idaho. After that wonderful experience I knew that the agrarian lifestyle was the one for me but I still had a lot to learn and places to see. A few years passed without doing any real farm work until I decided that I would take the plunge and dedicate myself to farming. I then worked as an apprentice with Beth Gibans at her farm in Joseph, OR for a season and apprenticed here at SIO for two seasons. I now work as the Field Assistant here full time and couldn't be happier.
Heidi Noordijk
Crew Leader
Working on my cousin's orchard and farm market in the Hudson Valley of New York, after my first year of college, sparked my desire to grow and share healthy food with others. I attended Michigan State University and Cornell University studying horticulture and specializing in pomology (fruits). I spent several years working on orchards in New York, Indiana, Michigan and Washington. After spending seven years researching ways to reduce conventional pesticide use in orchards, I realized that what I enjoy most about horticulture is growing food and being able to share the bounty with people in my community. I decided to switch from fruits to vegetables and follow my brother and sister out to Portland. I joined the team at Sauvie Island Organics in 2008. I enjoy being out in the fields growing and sharing delicious and healthy food with you.
Francesca Benedetti
CSA and Restaurant Coordinator
It has been quite the journey from my childhood fear of eating anything green, to my now strong passion for eating, growing, and sharing fresh, nutritious, delicious, and yes, even green food. I grew up in Spokane, WA and every summer enjoyed helping my dad tend to, but not eating anything green from, our enormous raised garden beds and fruit trees. From there I went to UC Santa Cruz, succumbed to the peer pressure of eating fresh food, and completed my undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies with a focus in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. After graduating in June of 2008 I moved to Oregon with a strong desire to reconnect with the Pacific Northwest and to work in sustainable agriculture. Before joining the SIO team as the CSA Assistant in November of 2008 I served as youth educator for the summer camps at Zenger Farm in outer Southeast Portland. I thoroughly enjoy all the daily activities that ensure our CSA members and restaurant accounts are always receiving the fresh, high quality, organic produce.