SANDPOINT — This might be the ultimate online networking experience.   At Six Rivers Market — a Web-based food co-op that opened for business this spring — real people connect with real producers to order real food.   

Think of it as Facebook for farmers.

Every Wednesday, these producers deliver their goods to a pick-up site on the ground floor of the Sandpoint Business & Events Center, where consumers collect purchases that are locally grown and totally fresh.

“The convenience factor with Six Rivers is the big thing,” said market manager Vicki Reich.  “You have access to all of this great, local food without having to drive around to all of the farms that produce it.”

Since mid-April, the online market’s consumer base has grown from just a few names to more than 100 people who buy items over the Internet and then pick them up a day or two later.  A co-op membership costs $100 per year or $15 per month, which currently provides access to about 30 local producers of everything from produce to tofu, honey, jams, jellies, meat and poultry, market president and founder Meadow Summers explained.

“We leave it up to our producers as to what they’ll post,” she said.  “Right now, we’ve got lettuce and greens coming in, along with potatoes, artichokes, rhubarb and all the meat products — sheep lamb, beef, pork and even yak.”

Several of the producers will start posting additional items as farms and gardens move closer to harvest season and fruit trees begin to bear.  The online co-op site is also beginning to offer new, non-foods options.

“Our focus is food, but we’ve got a soap maker who uses local milk and a beekeeper who has branched out into heath and beauty aids,” said Reich, who worked as the grocery manager for the Moscow Food Co-op for 12 years.  More products, she believes, will create more interest the innovative, online market concept.

The co-op’s name was derived from the network of rivers connecting the region — the Pend Oreille, Priest, Kootenai, Clark Fork, the Upper and Lower Pack, and Moyie Rivers.

“They also define the scope of the market,” Summers said.  “Anything produced within 250 miles is considered local.  We’re not about creating borders.”

Producers are required to adhere to “transparent” production practices, the president added.  Along with their goods, they post information about their farms and stories about how they operate them.  In addition, producers give updates as new items are about to become available and let buyers know when they will be offering post-season “storage crops” after the growing season ends.

The market hosts a free “Community Days” event on the third Wednesday of each month, with product samples and presentations on a variety of topics.  Next month, the focus will be on bees and honey, with an additional workshop on floral arranging for the home gardener.

“Our producers keep coming up with tons of ideas for Community Days,” Summers said.  “The idea is to extend the farmer’s market spirit into winter so people can continue to gather.”

As a way to support the Bonner Community Food Bank, the co-op offers consumers the option of making an additional click during the purchase process to donate $5 to the local organization, which uses the money to make its own online purchases.

Once producers post their weekly offerings, the “market” stays open until Monday evening, when they get a notice of their sales.  The fresh goods are then dropped off at the pick-up site on Wednesdays, where consumers may collect them from 3:30-6 p.m.

Six Rivers Market might transact its business on the Internet, but the connection between those who produce and those who buy is actually stronger than that found in a traditional marketplace.  Information on the co-op’s Web site states that the market was formed to “help buffer our community against the fluctuations of the larger world economy by encouraging local production and local jobs.  In return you receive fresh, healthy food and a closer tie with the caring hands that produce your food.”

“The potential is huge,” Reich said.  “As time goes on, gas gets more expensive and people see how buying locally produced food and goods supports their neighbors, it will keep growing.

“And as people can do a larger part of their shopping through the market, it will start to get even bigger,” the manager added.

Summers thinks it could take a few growing seasons to reach that point.

“We expect that within three years it will be really solid,” she said.  “I’m impressed that we have product already.  Now it’s just a matter of getting the word out and letting people know about it.”

For more information visit: www.sixriversmarket.com