ules Opton-Himmel and team ran an oyster
farm, launched a home delivery shellfish business
and opened the Walrus and Carpenter Oyster
Bar and Farmstand in the middle of a pandemic.
JNot every farmer would have the drive and skills to do all of this at the same
time, but when the oyster farmer saw his sales to restaurants plummet during
the COVID-19 shutdown, he knew he had to do something to move his product
quickly. In March and April, the bivalves were rapidly growing inside cages
below the surface in Ninigret Pond in Charlestown and Dutch Harbor in
Jamestown, and if he didn’t clear them out, there’d be no room for the next
batch of seed to grow the next generation of oysters.
During the beginning of the COVID-19
crisis early this spring, many farms found
themselves pivoting business models out of
necessity. As restaurant closures halted
distribution from greenhouses, fields and
the bay to dining room tables, purveyors
had to find new ways to sell produce and
proteins to consumers at home. Many farms
created websites where customers could
order products directly and pick them up
curbside or have food delivered, and others
teamed up with Farm Fresh Rhode Island’s
Market Mobile and the WhatsGood local
food delivery app to offer goods dropped
directly on customers’ doorsteps.
Farms like Walrus and Carpenter, Deep
Roots, Gnarly Vines, Pat’s Pastured and
Brandon Family Farm all created their own
retail websites, and some of them teamed
up with other food producers, fishers, makers
and farms to expand available inventory.
Many of these savvy farmers learned these
adaptable tech skills through networking
with other emerging and established farmers
in Southeastern New England.
“Those who were able to go down that
path, benefited from it,” says Ken Ayars, chief
of the Department of Agriculture at the
Rhode Island Department of Environmental
Management. “I’ve heard from talking to
many farmers and fishers that some of them
did better than they have ever done this
year by using that technology.”
Unfortunately, not every farmer has the
technical skills to launch digital initiatives,
delivery and pickup. But the convenience
is here to stay now that COVID-19 made it
44 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l OCTOBER 2020