Sierra Gold like other chapters of CCOF began by acting as a peer review committee, whose job it was to ensure that operations who applied for organic certification were, in fact, meeting the standards. When USDA took control of the certification process, peer oversight came to an end. Many chapters believed they no longer had a function, and became less active.

Sierra Gold Chapter, on the other hand, had always participated in activities beyond certification review. Sierra Gold activities included; county fair booths, education for prospective organic farmers, assisting consumers in finding local organic growers, and support of cooperative farming ventures. It is the hope of the growers in the Sierra Gold Chapter that this website will continue this tradition.

Sierra Gold’s expectation is that initiating this website will assist organic producers and organic consumers in communication. We hope to be able to assist growers and processors of organic products to be able to find each other more easily. Too often farmers have difficulty marketing their products while potential buyers nearby have no knowledge of their farm. We hope to help organic farmers find markets for their products by getting them noticed. Those of us who participate in direct marketing (farmer’s markets, produce stands, CSA, etc.) know that organic consumers are also having difficulty finding fresh, local, organic products. It is our hope that this website will become the place where people in the Sierra Foothills go to find premium organic products.

The members of the Sierra Gold Chapter of CCOF continue to be dedicated to advancing organic production. We see the website as a logical next step in this advancement of organic agriculture. We hope this site provides information that assists consumers in finding local organic products. We also hope that the site will provide educational information to our community. It is the goal of the Sierra Gold Chapter members to provide information about organic production, nutrition, and identification of quality sources of organic food. We hope to initiate a recipe section on the site which will include the favorite ways the growers like to prepare their own products. In short, we hope that when people in the Sierra Foothills need information about organic agriculture they will visit http://www.SierraOrganicGrowers.com.