Just like many other universities across the country, the University of Oregon has its own urban farm. However, unlike other institutions, this farm exists entirely for the students and the campus community — with no financial motivations.

According to farm manager Harper Keeler, the urban farm “is two things: a place and a program.” The farm itself is 35 years old, but it didn’t truly find its footing until the ’90s. He teaches classes all four terms, from fall through summer, and instructs about 300 students every year.

“I’d say it’s as popular as any class at the university,” he said of his urban farm class, which is composed primarily of fifth-year seniors because of its high demand and their registration priority.

Due to this popularity, the ASUO recently granted the program a sum of money from the over-realized funds pool to expand the program to an additional plot of land and make it more accessible.

“We teach kids … the nuts and bolts of how to grow your own food,” he said. Then, they go out and do it.

What sets the UO urban farm apart from similar farms across the country is that all 1,200 pounds of produce harvested throughout the year goes straight to the students who grow it.

“I think that distinguishes us among university farms,” he said. “Almost all of them have some sort of marketing angle. I’m of the opinion that we have free air, free water, free soil, free labor — and we have no need to enter that sort of competitive market with our friends.”

While most farms exploit economic opportunities, such as farm stands or farmers markets, Keeler understands the money given to him by the university should stay on campus and out of his pockets. What his students can’t eat, he donates to the UO food pantry, which distributes free food to students who need it.

Another requirement of his program is each of his students must get out into the community and perform community service.

“My students perform hundreds of hours of service learning,” he said, noting that in the past year his budding farmers have logged over 1,000 hours of community service.

Smiling faces, long hair, dirty jeans and even dirtier hands are never far from the UO’s urban farm, which is located in the north side of Franklin Boulevard.

From farm to fork, the average American meal travels 1,500 miles before it’s consumed. For customers at the Excelsior Inn Ristorante, that number is just under 15.

Although only about 5 percent of the food consumed in Lane County is grown locally, businesses like Marché Restaurant and the Kiva Grocery Store go to great lengths to guarantee that all of their produce is sourced in the area. Buying locally is an increasingly common sustainable practice in Eugene, but no one does it quite like Maurizio Paparo and the Excelsior.

Paparo, the inn’s owner and head chef, took eating locally to the next level five years ago by joining Hideaway Bakery as the only restaurants in the area with their very own dedicated farms. He started the Excelsior Farm in October of 2008 to supply produce for his restaurant, which serves authentic Italian food, in response to the economic downturn. Today, the farm provides 100 percent of the restaurant’s produce for most of the year, whereas Hideaway Bakery’s South Eugene farm only supplies the bakery with fruits and vegetables during growing season and has a less-involved relationship with its restaurant.

“We needed to be more in control of what we serve,” Paparo said of the shift from buying local ingredients to growing his own.

The farm itself sits on a five-acre lot. It produces 45 different crops and a total of 120 varieties. Jeremy Mueller, the farm’s manager, is responsible for the entire farm during the majority of the year. He has to give enough attention to his 100 crop rows, 60 laying hens and two greenhouses to keep production on schedule, which frequently demands 70-hour weeks.

Each bite, which culminates in a few seconds of enjoyment for an Excelsior customer, is the product of months of planning and work for Mueller. First he makes the soil mix, which is composed of six different ingredients in specific proportions. Then he plants the seeds, puts them into seed trays and places them on a heated table in the propagation house. When the seedlings have matured, he moves them to larger pots, tills and prepares beds, prunes the plants, builds trelaces and finally harvests, packs, washes and delivers the crops.

“It’s a small farm, but it’s really intensely worked,” Mueller said.

Mueller delivers produce to the inn twice a week but drives both ways with a full truck. Having the farm and restaurant under the same ownership allows Paparo and Mueller to utilize an efficient compost system in which Mueller takes the restaurant’s scraps back to the farm to feed his chickens and fertilize his crops.

“It’s a nice full circle,” he said. “I’m not one to be on an ecological high horse about it, but we’re saving fossil fuels and plastics and using sustainable methods.”

But the ecological advantages aren’t necessarily to credit for the business’s success.

“You’re getting better food here,” he said. “We are delivering a higher quality product.”

And the staff agrees.

“We provide local ingredients and have nice sized portions … (The food) looks great. It feels hearty. It’s filling and you feel good eating it,” said Arielle Bertolone, an Excelsior Inn employee who frequents the establishment.

One reason Mueller deems his produce a higher quality is the incredibly short turnaround time from the farm to the restaurant. Mueller harvests and washes the produce, loads it in his truck, drives 15 miles down Highway 58 and leaves his crops in the kitchen.

“Often what you’re eating there has been harvested in the last 24 hours,” he said. “You can’t beat that quality, even if it’s organic … it blows everything else out there out of the water.

“Traditional chefs will always say that you should get really high quality ingredients and let them inspire you in your cooking. If it’s a nicer restaurant and people are paying a little more, you want to make sure they’re actually getting more.”

University of Oregon student and food enthusiast Paul Metzler agrees.

“I think one of the biggest limits on a chef’s creativity is not being in control of the type of quality of products that are available to them, especially when they are trying to source locally,” he said. “I think being a small farm and having a supplier that is involved in what is grown allows for a lot more culinary, as well as agricultural, experimenting, risk taking and creativity.”

“Some of the stuff here, like that red hard-neck garlic, you can’t buy it,” Mueller said, pointing to a row of seedlings.

In fact, Mueller’s garlic, which he claims has twice the flavor as the organic store-bought alternative, was voted the best garlic in Eugene last year. “A lot of the things I grow simply can’t be mass-produced,” he said.

Metzler supported Mueller’s claim, noting, “I once bought a pepper from the farm that was longer and wrinklier than any I’ve ever seen before.”

Though Mueller believes only about half of the Excelsior’s customers truly understand where their food is coming from, it’s the incomparable freshness and taste that keep them coming back.

While Paparo started the farm to supply his restaurant, Mueller’s efficiency allows him to take advantage of other outlets, including farmer’s markets and harvest baskets, which are purchased by families or individuals who receive a fresh box of seasonal produce each week throughout the season. Despite these other income sources, the Excelsior Farm’s primary outlet is, and always has been, the restaurant.

Having one person govern both properties allows the two to work in a symbiosis that is difficult to replicate. Paparo can efficiently coordinate deliveries, facilitate his composting system and determine what should be grown in a way that other businesses cannot.

Harper Keeler, president of the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition and director of the UO’s urban farm, is aware of the advantage’s Excelsior’s methods present.

“If it’s all in-house, not only can you control everything, but you can say it’s all ours, and it’s totally unique,” he said. “Local is really good, but home produced — you can expect some kind of premium for it because it’s that much cooler. You’re definitely going to have a freshness advantage — you’re talking a matter of hours instead of a matter of days,” Keeler added.

Keeler applauded the Excelsior’s efforts, but noted that nothing should be taken away from restaurants like Marché and local farmers with similar accomplishments.

While other restaurants in the area source their produce locally, and others incorporate local farms into their compost and recycling programs, Paparo’s one-of-a-kind system allows collaboration and, many would argue, incomparable taste.

“Having a restaurant source its own food just makes sense,” Mueller said, whose produce’s trip is 100 times shorter than the national average. “We’re beatin’ (it) pretty good,” he said.

Stuart Phillips chuckled to himself as he thought about his newest creation.

“I’m proud to say it completely sold out in two days,” he said of Russian Meteorite. The vodka-roasted-beet flavored ice cream, made with fudge and malted milk balls, is the newest in a long line of outrageous flavors from Red Wagon Creamery.

Stuart and his wife, Emily, have been dreaming up crazy flavors for the past two years. Their company, which was born out of Emily’s desire for independence after her 13-year tenure as a chef, sells locally and organically produced artisan ice cream out of two food carts in Eugene. Flavors range from Liquored Leprechaun to Pear and Gouda but always change with the seasons. “If it’s not in season, you shouldn’t expect to find it,” Stuart Phillips said.

The couple prides themselves on taking the chemicals out of ice cream and turning it into real food. “We hand-make all of our ice cream. We start with milk and organic sugar, then tailor each recipe to that particular flavor. Each one is really unique,” he said.

“We truly make our ice cream from scratch and don’t use mixes,” Phillips said, which he claims gives the couple flexibility in the production process. “If we have a flavor with a lot of strawberries for example — strawberries have natural sugar in them, so if you have a mix with sugar in the base, it will be too sugary. So we cut back the amount of sugar in that particular recipe until it’s right. We tinker the formula for each and every flavor.”

Red Wagon’s process differs from commercial production in that shelf life is never a concern. “Commercial ice cream has to be shelf stable for a long time, so companies are forced to add stabilizers, take out cream and add milk solids and all sorts of chemical substitutes for flavors that would go bad. Since we’re here, we’re making it every day, so the oldest you get it is a few days and we don’t have to do any of that,” Phillips said.

The company, which began two years ago as a single cart, now has two carts and is preparing to relocate to a shared storefront this May with PartyCart. The new venue will allow the couple to explore a new array of flavors but will also offer them a micro-dairy, processing-certified kitchen, their own pasteurizer and the ability to sell their ice cream to local grocery stores. “For us, the move is about being able to do the same thing we’re doing now, but on a slightly larger scale,” Phillips said.

Red Wagon Creamery is enjoying success in Eugene, which Phillips attributes in part to the spirit of the city.

“If we weren’t in Eugene, or a place like it, it would definitely be different,” he said. “Artisan ice cream is something that can catch on anywhere, but the creativity of the flavors needs an audience that can appreciate it.”

In fact, folks are driving across town just to get the stuff. Heather Goskie was hooked on Red Wagon’s ice cream after she tasted the salted caramel after attending a fundraiser at a winery. There was no food at the event, so she stopped by the cart. She stopped back one afternoon because, she said she’s been dreaming about the Phillips’ concoctions ever since. Goskie only ever buys the salted caramel flavor and doesn’t see a reason to try another.

“I don’t really like ice cream,” she said. “I don’t need to like anything else.”

Though Red Wagon is preparing to settle in to its new location, its carts will still be operational. In the meantime, you can find the mobile creamery set up at a farmer’s market or on a street corner around Eugene.

Michael Arellano and Eder Campuzano contributed to this report.

“Burgers” and “beer” are the first two words you’ll hear out of any Cornucopia regular.

If you’ve ever tried one of their 10 handmade burgers, you’ll understand why. Grass-fed and raised right here in Eugene at Knee Deep Cattle Company, the angus beef is natural-certified and hormone and antibiotic-free, so you shouldn’t have any moral qualms about enjoying it.

Local beers on tap and cold bottles in the fridge are staples of this lively joint, which often feels more like a bar than a restaurant. Cornucopia has two locations, one on the corner of 5th and Pearl and the other on 17th and Lincoln, but you can expect a similarly enjoyable experience at either location.

The specialty burgers average about $12 each, which might make you scratch your head at first, but considering the incredible measures the restaurant goes to in order to ensure that its product is local, organic and sustainable, the price is more than justified.

The restaurant draws people of all ages, but its most popular crowd seems to be in its 30s and 40s — those  men and women who like to eat and drink like they’re still in college, but opt for a touch of class with grass-fed beef and microbrews.

If you’re looking to mix it up, Cornucopia does offer 15 sandwiches, seven assorted house favorites, and various soups, salads, steaks and ribs, but the incredible burgers — from Jeros Bacon Cheeseburger to Lil Jack’s Hellion burger — are what keep the regulars coming back, and I suggest you stick to the script.

Cornucopia does deliver (including beer and wine), but I recommend going in for yourself, enjoying the atmosphere and discovering why Eugene Weekly named the restaurant “The Best Place to Sing Karaoke” in 2012.

Generally in America, not all restaurants are willing to offer gluten-free products — many believe gluten contamination is inevitable and don’t want to deal with the liability or the hassle of ensuring ingredients stay separate. Fortunately, many of the restaurants that have made the gluten-free commitment are right here in Eugene. Here are the city’s notable gluten-free hotspots, spanning six different varieties of food.

Sweet Life Patisserie — Eugene’s most popular patisserie offers most pastries and all but three cakes and two pies with gluten-free flour.

Café Yumm — The restaurant removed gluten from its famous Original Yumm! Sauce, making the majority of its options accessible without a special order.

Off the Waffle — Any signature waffle can be made gluten-free for a one-dollar fee.

Tasty Thai Kitchen — Most options are gluten-free to begin with, but the restaurant has a separate gluten-free menu.

Papa’s Pizza Parlor — Offers gluten-free pizzas prepared in a kitchen approved by the Eugene Gluten Intolerance Group.

Laughing Planet Café — Offers any burrito or quesadilla in a gluten-free tortilla.

Loss of federal funding and money in the county’s general fund has forced the Lane County Correctional Facility to reduce spending in a number of ways — laying off employees, releasing inmates and removing bunks from the establishment among them. In an additional measure to cope with financial difficulties, Lane County completely overhauled its jail’s food service program two years ago.

In 2011, the county signed a contract with ABL Management, Inc, a leader in correctional food service management, which made the external company entirely responsible for food production and distribution inside the jail.

The switch to ABL, which employs inmates to prepare meals instead of county staff, saves the county more than 49,000 hours of paid labor and about $400,000 annually.

“Utilizing inmates allows for a learning environment where (inmates) can learn to work in groups, follow recipes and learn other culinary skills applicable to the real world,” said Sgt. Carrie Carver, public information coordinator at the Lane County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s also a cost saving measure.”

These cost-saving measures seem to be a trademark of the program as the entire system is built around cost efficiency — ABL imports competitively-purchased ingredients in bulk and uses free inmate labor to prepare and distribute food. The average meal in 2012, including both personnel and raw food expenditures, cost only $1.54.

“The menu is reviewed by a dietician to ensure compliance with laws and to maintain caloric count, ensure dietary needs are met, etc.” Carver said.

Under ORS 169.076, Oregon law demands that inmates be fed “nutritionally adequate meals in accordance with a plan reviewed by a registered dietitian.” ABL’s menus comply with specifications and requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Science, American Correctional Association, American Medical Association, National Sheriff’s Association and the National Commission for the Correctional Health Care.

The jail does not, however, offer alternate menus, such as vegetarian dishes, unless an inmate’s need is medically or religiously-based due to the additional expenditures.

As the Lane County Correctional Facility faces an additional $2 million in budget cuts and more significant cost-saving measures this July, its food service program seems to operate in the most cost-effective manner, as each of the jail’s 1,219 daily meals cost the county fewer than $2.

University of Oregon students Briana Jones and Jasmine Creighton-Manis have made a habit of pacing supermarket aisles and compulsively checking the backs of food labels.  Both women, who developed gluten sensitivities during their time at the UO, are still adjusting to life with this dietary concern.

Gluten sensitivity, which does not currently have its own diagnosis, differs from celiac disease because it can affect anyone at any stage of their life and reactions to gluten are generally not as severe. The Center for Celiac Research and Treatment estimates that about 6 percent of all people are gluten sensitive.

“Being gluten-free is going to be hard anywhere because there are a lot of things you have to give up,” Jones said, adding that gluten appears in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect it — soy sauce, salad dressings and soups.

Both students acknowledge the difficulties associated with the allergy but commend Eugene on being particularly tolerant.

“Eugene is really good for people with weird diets — it’s just a funky town,” said Creighton-Manis, a freshman living in the residence halls.

In addition to a number of restaurants with popular gluten-free products — including Sweet Life Patisserie, Laughing Planet Café, Holy Cow Foods, Off the Waffle and Café Yumm among others — Eugene has its own gluten intolerance support group, which meets monthly.

Eugene is also home to Capella Market, Sundance Natural Foods and The Kiva Grocery stores, which in addition to selling locally produced food are known for their large selection of gluten-free products, among other specialty items.

For Creighton-Manis, varying her diet can be a bit of a challenge.

“Eating in the dorms is a lot harder. Sometimes I just get a bowl full of chicken,” she said. “I eat the same stuff every day.”

That being said, visiting a friend at Seattle Pacific University and eating on their campus put things in perspective for her.

“Overall, I think (UO’s dining facilities) do a great job given they’re dorms,” she said.

Both women agreed Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Market of Choice are among Eugene’s top gluten-free grocery stores, but Jones’ favorite doesn’t quite fit the mold: “Surprisingly, Wal-Mart is the easiest place for me to find gluten-free stuff … They have a section designated to just gluten-free snacks.”

Whether it’s on campus, in a restaurant, a grocery store or a support group, both students made it clear that Eugene makes the dietary concern a little easier on them.

“I definitely have to think more and be more aware, but living in Eugene, I wouldn’t say it’s hard,” Creighton-Manis said.

Carson Central Kitchen, located directly beneath Carson dining hall, is the largest and highest producing kitchen of the eight campus kitchens. Commissary Chef Manager Doug Lang is in charge of orchestrating everything that goes on behind the scenes and coordinating the timely preparation and distribution of 15,000 meals a day.

Lang’s days typically begin early and end late.

“I need to make sure I have enough staff and ingredients here to pull off making all the food. Then I have to get it delivered,” he said.

To do this, he checks the requisitions from the other seven kitchens across campus, fills the orders they’ve placed, then figures out how much of different ingredients to thaw on different days. He sources out ingredients, talks to vendors, monitors the temperatures and dates of different products, makes sure safety systems are in place, schedules manager’s meetings and creates schedules for his staff — 55 of the 100 of whom are students.

And that is only the beginning when it comes to his duties.

“It’s a high volume of food going out of here, and the quality has to be good all the time; that’s one of the biggest challenges: consistency and standardization,” Lang said.

Not only does he need to worry about the inner workings of his own kitchen, but Lang also frequently collaborates with the Department of Molecular Gastronomy as well as the custodial, catering, recycling and composting programs.

Despite all of this, Lang hasn’t lost sight of the true purpose of his job.

“It’s coming up with what the students want to have; that’s why we’re here,” Lang said. “You have people screaming for organic this and that, and others for fried chicken tenders at the same time.” Lang acknowledges that the balancing act isn’t easy.

“We want students to be happy, but also healthy. We’re always testing, changing and freshening our products,” he said, mentioning that he recently reduced the level of sodium in the clam chowder as an example.

Lang’s concern extends beyond the student body and to the entire Eugene area, as he says he strives to support local businesses whenever possible. In fact, of his estimated 14 vendors, more than half are local companies, including Hummingbird Wholesale, which delivers its produce by bicycle each week.

He recently returned from a personal visit to Childers Meat Company, which raises cattle here in the Willamette Valley, to ensure that the animals are raised humanely before he agreed to purchase their beef.

The kitchen, which is composed of six different work areas, or “shops,” as the chef calls them — the vegetable, bake, sushi and sandwich shops, as well as the main kitchen and warehouse — looks forward to relocating soon to a new commissary kitchen on Agate Street.

“We’re outgrowing this place,” Lang said, indicating that the $8.5 million new kitchen, which will hopefully be fully operational by June 2014, will open up a new array of possibilities. “I think we’re just scratching the surface.”

Steve Knox of Winter Green Farm measures the weight of several fruits and vegetables a customer is purchasing. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)

Each Saturday this winter, local farmers from Noti, Coos Bay and other nearby areas flock to the Eugene’s largest winter market to put their crops on display, setting up shop on the corner of East 8th Avenue and Oak Street. These are the ones who have swapped out their berries and vine crops for greens and root vegetables to make the Lane County Winter Farmer’s Market possible.

A sparse crowd of Eugeneans clad in drenched raincoats mingle with the farmers and pack reusable shopping bags full of the week’s vegetables. Several booths offer the standard winter crops — cabbage, arugula, potatoes, turnips and assorted greens — while a few push traditional winter market boundaries. Biancalana Pork Growers sells hormone-free, pasture-raised, antibiotic-free, USDA-inspected pork, while Red Wagon Creamery offers locally made ice cream in outrageous flavors, including one made with locally brewed beer and another with locally owned Wandering Goat Coffee. 

Steve Knox (left)and co-owner Chris Overbaugh (right) work the Winter Green Farm booth at the Lane County Winter Farmer’s Market. Winter Green Farm, based out of Noti, Oregon, was founded in 1980 and specializes in organically grown vegetables, fruits and herbs. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)

It is no secret that heavy rain and cold weather make the wintertime difficult for Pacific Northwest farmers. Jack Richardson from McKenzie River Farm admits his business is not too lucrative this time of year.

“We make just enough to get fuel in the tank to go home,” he said with a laugh.

“We wouldn’t miss it, though,” his partner, Nick Hackney, added. “This is our social outing for the week.”

In fact, many farmers leave their stands unattended to huddle under a neighbor’s canopy.

“We love to just BS with the other farmers,” Richardson said, nodding towards his peers. “They’re the best people on Earth.”

The Lane County Winter Market offers farmers a pleasant escape from isolation and shoppers a fresh alternative to supermarket produce. Just because the Eugene sun has set for the winter doesn’t mean everyone is holding out until spring. As one shopper declared, “I don’t care what the sky is doing; this place has the best people and vegetables around.”

According to Professor Stephen Wooten, one of the creators of the food studies initiative at the University of Oregon, food studies is “an interdisciplinary approach to understanding food’s place in our world. Food is at the center of inquiry, and the study looks at how food mediates all the different realms.”

Food studies isn’t new to our campus. People like Geraldine Moreno, professor emeritus of the anthropology department, have been teaching it for decades. But the excitement surrounding the topic certainly is new, agree two professors, Professor Wooten and Professor Jennifer Levin.

Both Wooten and Levin, who has also played a big role in the initiative’s beginnings, said that the Food Justice Conference had a lot to do with the initiative’s early success. The event, held here in February 2011, hosted food studies experts and activists and “created a huge buzz and really made people interested in the subject,” Levin said.

In the wake of the event, an inspired Professor Levin started the Food in the Field Research Interest Group, based out of the Center for the Study of Women in Society. The group, open to all members of the campus community, began as a small niche of food enthusiasts but has expanded to include 50 faculty members and graduate students. It serves as a great growing point, according to Wooten. It has also been responsible for bringing renowned food figures to campus, including wild food expert Hank Shaw and fermented foods specialist Sandor Katz.

Now, Levin, Wooten and their fellow enthusiasts have their sights set on turning the initiative into a full-fledged program. A $6,000 investment in the winter of 2011 from the College of Arts and Sciences, combined with $6,000 more from programs across campus, gave the initiative some traction. The initiative, as with any other, must be housed under a pre-existing program until it eventually becomes its own and hires dedicated faculty — it is currently aligned with environmental studies.

The first order of business is establishing a graduate specialization, which the graduate school recently awarded an additional $10,000-$12,000 grant to help grow. This specialization is not a degree but will be a way for graduate students to indicate food studies as an area of expertise. It will tentatively be available next year.

“I think they’re the future of education, these cross-discipline projects,” Levin said. “There’s so much promise in terms of interdisciplinary education and connecting students with what they put in their mouths.”

The subject can be viewed from many different angles, according to Wooten. “There are a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds who would be drawn to it,” he said. Wooten also commented that the study can draw scientists, English teachers or historians because there are so many lenses through which you can view food.

Food studies is an up-and-coming field across the country, with notable programs at New York University, Boston University and Indiana University, among others.

“Our developing program is very distinctive and doesn’t actually exist anywhere,” Wooten said, adding that this is particularly true because of the unique northwest climate.

“We really want to use it as a way to cross the faculty/staff divide and galvanize the campus community,” Levin added.

If all goes according to Levin and Wooten’s plan, next year’s food studies graduate specialization program will evolve into a minor, and ultimately, food studies will become its own program at UO.

“We’re approaching it progressively, building it slowly and deliberately,” Wooten said.