NEWPORT — Sara O’Neill, the co-executive director of the Central Coast Food Web, wants to make business easier for local farmers and fishers.

“Our producers need reliable and positive marketing experiences, and we’re going to create those so we have viable food businesses here,” she said.

As the owner of Euchre Creek Farm outside Siletz, Ore. — O’Neill raises sheep and cattle, and produces hay, wool, beef, produce and flowers — she’s familiar with those issues.

The food web recently started an online market for food grown or landed in Lincoln County. Six businesses are involved, and more are welcome, O’Neill said.

O’Neill is participating by selling beef.

“It’s a welcome thing for farmers like me that don’t have employees and don’t have the bandwidth to sit at the farmers market all summer,” she said.

The Central Coast Food Web also offers seafood processing and storage options for 10 fishermen and other businesses, including Local Ocean, a well-known restaurant and fish market on Yaquina Bay, and OoNee Sea Urchin Ranch.

The organization is developing a commercial kitchen space for residents to make value-added products.

The USDA recently announced a $376,000 grant, with a $102,000 match required, for the food web to expand its efforts.

Challenging area to farm

While Lincoln County has a rich food culture — Newport is an Oregon seafood stronghold — it also has the fewest farms of any county in the state, O’Neill said.

That’s because it’s difficult to farm in an area of seasonal wetlands with 80 inches of rain every year.

“A lot of adaptable folks are putting in greenhouses to extend seasons,” O’Neill said.

Access to land also can be difficult, as most acreage is designated timber, and the housing market can be dominated by tourists and people seeking vacation homes.

Then there are elk herds that can devastate high value crops. “They can wipe out tens of thousands of dollars worth of product overnight,” O’Neill said.

Robust electric fencing is needed to keep elk away from vegetables and fruit.

“We can grow a lot here, but we do have these structural barriers that take time and money and expertise to overcome,” O’Neill said.

And there is demand for local, sustainable food from restaurants, residents and visitors.

“I want to match the really talented growers and harvesters and fishermen with some of those people who celebrate what they do,” O’Neill said.

She also hopes to educate people how to take advantage of seasonal food, including by maintaining a pantry and stocking a freezer.

Lincoln County focus

O’Neill hopes the food web will build partnerships with other food hubs both in the Willamette Valley and along the coast, but she’s focused on Lincoln County.

O’Neill is originally from central Texas, where her family raised registered black Angus.

She said she found her way to Oregon “as fast as she could” and loves the coast.

“I’m really interested in the climate, this sort of tail end of that temperate rainforest is absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think there’s any more beautiful place I’ve ever been,” O’Neill said.