Meet Local Yokels, your local farmer’s market and corner store rolled into one, delivering the best of Washington State products and produce – straight to your door. Co-owners Amber and Damon share their journey of building a community-driven business that supports over 60 small farms and local vendors. From humble beginnings to their current storefront in North Seattle, Local Yokels is more than just a grocery delivery service – it’s a passion project dedicated to strengthening the local food economy and promoting sustainable practices.
How did Local Yokels get started?
Damon: So we started seven years ago just as an idea of getting small farms and small businesses together and getting their products out to the people. We would say that we were a farmer’s market, delivered to your house.
We would pick everything up from the farmer’s market, bring it back to the warehouse, put it together, and then deliver it to our customers. What we’ve built is a full grocery store that’s completely sourced from small farms and local businesses all located within Washington State.
What types of brands and produce are you stocking in your grocery store?
Amber: The produce is almost all organic – that’s what we strive for. We’re looking for organic produce from small farms, and no large producers. You’ll find the farms that you’d find at the farmers market in our store.
We work with 60 to 70 different farms throughout the course of the year. We offer a subscription box – it’s like a CSA, but from multiple farms. You’ll see everything that’s possible in our region over the course of the season. We also work with a lot of restaurants that have wholesale products and other small vendors that you would find at the farmers market. We have really put together a completely local selection of food.
There’s an online business, as well as a retail storefront. Tell us about both customer experiences.
Damon: Customers just get onto our website where we have all of our products listed on our website. Customers can choose delivery (we deliver on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), or pickup from our store (we’re open five days a week – Tuesday through Saturday).
Amber: We opened the storefront in March of 2023, and most of our business is still delivery, but it’s been great to have a little neighborhood shop and get to know people in the area and have a place for customers to come in and get to know us.
What has it been like moving operations from Rainier Beach to Maple Leaf?
Amber: The neighborhood’s been great. One of the best surprises of the entire business, both delivery and the shop itself, is our customers. We seem to draw an amazing group of people who really support what we do and enjoy connecting.
We’ve designated a wall in our shop that’s full of the thank-you notes and letters and things that we’ve gotten over the years – we have an amazing community of people who support us.
Damon: During COVID, we weren’t able to meet many of our customers. We would just drop off their order and see them through their windows. Now they’re finally able to come in and we’re able to meet face-to-face!
How are you thinking about sustainability at Local Yokels?
Amber: We are 100% local, and we exist to support other small farms and small businesses, and we also value sustainable business practices. Our deliveries are made in reusable cooler bags that you then return along with ice packs.
We like how Seeking Ferments does bottle return option, and they get like 80% return on their jars. Left Foot Farm does an egg carton return, Tunawerth Creamery does it with their yogurt jars, and Alvarez Farms with their wax boxes – all of this promotes a closed loop with those return options. That’s something that we really value – we try to do as much as we can in terms of returns – whether it’s egg cartons or yogurt jars, we try to encourage reuse with the producers as much as possible.
We donate everything that’s left on Saturday evenings to Food Not Bombs, who cooks it up down in Pioneer Square. We basically run this entire business and produce the same amount of garbage as a small household.
How did you two meet and become co-owners?
Damon: We met on Tinder!
Amber: Dating didn’t work out, but the business partnership did.
Okay, so if I am new to the neighborhood and I’m walking by, what is the experience that a first time customer can expect?
Amber: First-time customers are going to see a lot of producers that they already see at their farmer’s markets, and a lot of fresh produce every week. We turn over our produce menu every week, so starting on Tuesday when we open, it’s fresh.
What’s your vision for the local food economy within the Seattle area?
Amber: I would like to see Local Yokels become an economic engine for local food. We’ve set it up so that 50 percent of the profits will go into micro-loaning for new small businesses and education opportunities for new small businesses.
So the overall goal is to eventually create a network of thousands of small producers that self-drives itself by creating new producers, who can then contribute to the system as well.
What are you proud of as small business owners?
Damon: I’m proud of our hard work, how hard we’ve worked to get here because it’s taken a lot to get here. So I’m proud of that and I’m proud of the customers that we have because they’re just great.
What advice would you give a new small business owner?
Amber: Schedule in your rest. Make sure you’re taking it so you don’t burn out because it is a long haul. You will never get to the end of your list, and you need to take care of yourself first and make sure you have what you need to keep going the whole distance.
What are some of your favorite local businesses to support?
- Two Big Blondes Plus Size Consignment
- Viva Farms – it’s a small farm incubator where they have all this acreage, but it’s made up of a lot of small farms.
- Tall Grass Bakery
- Toshi’s Teriyaki
Amber: Damon grew up on Capitol Hill and he’s been here for years and years. When we first opened the store, there’d be times that Damon wasn’t here and there was just a stream of local business owners who know him who would stop in to say hi. Damon is rooted here in Seattle and rooted in the local business community and it’s a cool thing to experience.