Hey, Everyone, welcome to episode 141 of the Camano Voice. Today I speak with the founder of Farm Fresh Northwest, please welcome Mark Latham. Hi, I’m Brandon Erickson and you’re listening to the Camano Voice Podcast, where I interview local business owners, comedians, singers and more. I dive into their backstory to find out how they got where they are, what are some of the tips for you to do the same, and find out where they’re going. Tune in every week as I interview more of the people you speak every day. Hey Islanders and welcome to another episode of the Camano Voice where we release a new episode every Tuesday. How’s your guys’ week going? I don’t remember, I think it was two weeks ago now that I talked about putting myself into shock from a vacuum cleaner. So that was fun. Over this past week, one of our kids we had taken to the ER for rehydration through IV and the other one tried to knock out his front teeth by smashing them into the concrete. So this has been a fun few weeks for me. And so I hope your week is going better. As I record this right now, the sun is trying to shine through. And so I am also hoping that winter is finally over and that we are starting to really turn that corner into summer. So with all that being said, here we go. Anyways, like I said, I hope your guys’ week is going well. So today I’m interviewing Mark Lathim, who is the founder of Farm Fresh Northwest. And if you haven’t heard of them, they are a meat delivery company. They deliver fresh ground, well, ground beef and steaks and all sorts of other meat options directly to your door. And it’s actually delivering meat that their family, not Mark’s family, but his extended family, produce from their own beef and other animals that they slaughter. And it’s just an extremely high quality, delicious meat that you can get delivered straight to your door. So you don’t have to worry about going to the grocery store for it. You don’t have to think about it because I don’t know about you, but for me, a lot of times I will end up going to the, you know, being like, oh, a steak sounds great, or, you know, we want hamburgers tonight. But then you don’t have the meat with you. So then you’ve got to go run to the store and hope that you get good quality and all that stuff. They take care of all that for you because it delivers straight to your door. And throughout this podcast, I was like, I’m getting hungry for a steak. That’s what I was thinking about. So but he goes through kind of what a lot of business owners go through. He talks about this whole evolution of basically working in a day-to-day job and doing that. And then eventually coming to a point where he’s like, I feel like I could do this on my own and do well, so why don’t I do that? And finally kind of hitting that wall of being like, I’m just gonna go out on my own. And so I always find that fascinating, these people that have grown businesses from nothing and turn them into a very successful business, and especially when it comes to great products and good meat. I love meat, so I’m always up for that. So, we get into all of that more, a lot of the business lessons he had to learn along the way, some of the personal growth he had to go through to become who he needed to be to be able to run a business like this, and yeah, and kind of where they’re going from here. So we can do all of that and more. And stay tuned, because at the end of the episode, I will have a promo code that you guys, my listeners, can use to get a discount on your first order. I think that’s how it works. And so be sure to look for that. It’s also gonna be in the show notes, so be sure to look for that. So anyways, without further ado, here’s my conversation with Mark Lathim. Hey, Islanders, and welcome to another episode of the Commandant Voice. Today, I’m here with the founder of Farm Fresh Northwest. Welcome to the podcast, Mark Lathim.
Well, I grew up eastern Washington, about two miles from the Snake River. My family homesteaded there 1900, so we’ve been there a long time. And grew up there, didn’t really know anything different. And, but it was nice. We were a long ways from town, which is unique.
About 25 minutes to where I went to like middle school and high school. Wow. 30 minutes to Tri-Cities where like the grocery stores and stuff were. So it was unique, but it was nice because you have space to roam and ride four wheelers and all that kind of thing. Yeah, Wouldn’t change it for anything.
But you did feel, you know, you kind of feel isolated. You’re not running out of your friends or anything like that.
Way out there. Did you have a lot of friends and stuff that were kind of in that area as well? Well, I mean, yeah, we had friends, but it was like five miles away. It would be like the closest one. So we rode our bikes down there a couple times, but it was usually like having to coordinate to drive, you know, parents driving there or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, so definitely unique compared to what most people, you know, grow up with. But yeah, my grandpa farmed wheat there and it actually went into CRP, which is a preservation program, crop reduction program, back in the 80s when I was two, so I didn’t really get to experience the entire harvest season and all that, but he still had cattle and pigs while I was growing up, so we kind of got that side of farming.Yeah, very cool. And you said, I think on your website it says, the farthest records you guys have is like 1904 that you guys homesteaded there? Yeah, I think, well, I’ll have to check with my dad. I think I put in 1904, I think it might have been 1900. I’m not 100% sure. Okay. But it’s been, I was the sixth generation there. And so I think it was my grandma’s grandparents and possibly their parents that came out originally. That’s crazy. It’s rare to find 100 year old homesteads in this area. Right. Yeah, well, I mean, Washington was only, you know, 1889, so there’s just not that much history here compared to if you go back east. Yeah. Wow, that’s so cool. Awesome. Do you guys have like family stories and stuff like that that you have that’s passed down from generations or? Yeah there is a little bit. I’ve kind of been more curious you know the last few years and asked my grandma questions before she gets you know too old to recall everything but yeah it’s just that you know a lot of the things that they did oh I asked her when they got air conditioning a couple weeks out of the year, and she said that they got it after she got married. So it was like in the early 60s or late 50s. And so all growing up, and I was like, what did you guys do to get out of the, and so she said they would just like sleep under, outside under the tree, or go down into the basement. But people were definitely much tougher back then. I mean, I can’t imagine living in 100 degree weather without any AC to go to. And then they would ride down on the horses. They’d get water out of the river for their animals. And so they would drive down there in the wagon and then they’d jump out in the river to cool down. So stuff we take for granted, you know. Yeah. Is, yeah, it’s pretty amazing how resilient they were to just live in the desert and put up with that. Yep, that’s awesome.