Showing posts with label local food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label local food. Show all posts

Monday, June 1, 2009

Tempting Food Lust

Paddles Up!

How can we tempt you? Let us count the ways at this year’s Food Lust on Saturday, June with a mind-boggling booty of temptations that comprise this year’s auction. We’ve been hard at work, combing the land (or at least Puget Sound) and procured a smorgasbord of enticing items that will make your pens soar at the silent auction and paddles sing when we go live.

We love 'em all, and we think you will too.

Speaking of love, Clayton Burrows of Growing Washington http://www.growingwashington.org/ showed us some with a spectacular Gobble, Gobble Thanksgiving CSA Share.

The winner of this item is going to be the envy of the entire neighborhood. First, you take ownership of your own turkey, raised by Growing Washington’s farmers at Alm Hill Gardens. Your turkey is fed only the finest organic feed and, along with its chicken and pig friends, roams around 2 acres of rotating forage.

Your turkey will have only one bad day, and that is the day before Thanksgiving. On this fateful and glorious day, your turkey becomes the centerpiece of a fabulous locally produced Thanksgiving. If you are a lover of stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetable trays, pumpkin pie, cranberries, roasted vegetables, apple pie, berry desserts, winter squash, salads, and other traditional Thanksgiving fare, you’ll love eating an all-local Thanksgiving.

And, to show off your fabulous feast, you might need an equally impressive dining room. That’s where our new BFOF (Best Friend of Farmers), green interior designer Piper Lauri Salogga of Natural Balance Home and Office, http://www.naturalbalance9.com/ comes in with an amazing one-room makeover.

Here’s your chance to create the beautiful sustainable room of your dreams. Piper’s gathered up some of her favorite colleagues and created a full meal deal worth bidding on. You’ll get design consultation with Piper, professional organization consulting from Simplify, http://www.simplifyorganization.com/, and primo color consultation, courtesy of Nest, http://www.nestseattle.com/.

Once you choose that perfect color, along comes a full paint job from Hanoch Painting and of course the paint (non-toxic, of course) and four lovely accent pillows courtesy of Six Walls Interior Design, http://www.six-walls.com/. Of course, no room is complete without great lighting – you’ll get to choose a custom lampshade from Capitol Hill’s LiT, http://www.litshades.com/

However, without a ticket www.brownpapertickets.com/event/63334 you'll miss all the fun, not to mention your chance to bid on over 90 auction items.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Jolly Green Business Park

Looks like Dayton, WA is working to build an "eco-business park" to attract small-scale food processors to their neck of the woods. Great! Ever since the Jolly Green Giant jobs left for..you guessed it! Peru!, they have been searching for new industry to take up the employment/growth/revenue slack. How interesting that they picked small-scale food processing! Someone over there must be watching the trends closely (see post below). Also, with the booming Walla Walla wine industry nearby, it's conceivable that this new eco-park would be able to attract artisinal processors to their sleepy burg. This South East WA project dovetails nicely with our Puget Sound Food Project. Like the town of Dayton, we are trying to revive the food processing industry here in our region. It will be interesting to watch these two efforts develop.

Mark

Monday, November 10, 2008

Final Public Hearing for 2009 KC Budget

Hi all,

Mary and I just returned from the final public hearing for the 2009 King County budget at the Metropolitan King County Council chambers. Mary spoke on behalf of the Puget Sound Fresh program, the County Ag. Program staff, and the future of farmers and farmland in King County. Since many programs are on the "chopping block" to be cut from the County budget, there was a huge turnout of people to speak their minds to the council members. At the bang of the opening gavel, 63 people had signed up to speak. By my count, tenof the speakers spoke about county ag. programs, which is a fantastic percentage. In the ten, there was wonderful representation from various sectors connected to local farms and the ag. programs:

1. Seth Caswell, chef and president of Seattle Chefs' Collaborative
2. Andrew Stout, farmer and owner of Full Circle Farm (and president of Sno-Valley Tilth)
3. Wade Bennet, farmer and owner of Rockridge Orchards
3. Chris Curtis, executive director of Neighborhood Farmers Market Association, which operates seven farmers markets in Seattle
4. Larry Pickering, King County Ag. Commissioner
5. Kathy Pryor, Washington Toxics Coalition
6. Brad Gaolach, Director of WSU - King County Extension
7. Nancy Hutto, Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm andKing County Ag. Commissioner
8. Michele Blakely, Growing Things Farm and King County Ag. Commissioner
9. Dave Hedlin, Hedlin Farm

And, of course, 10. Mary Embleton, executive director of Cascade Harvest Coalition.

In addition to the ten speakers, there were many ag program supporters throughout the 150 people in the council chambers including:

Sarah Garitone from Pierce Conservation District, Debbie Arenth from Fall City Farms, Lori Taylor from Bellevue Farmers Market, and me.

The speakers hit on a number of quality points for continuing funding for ag programs and staff. Here are some of the best from my notes:

1. Agriculture is a long term investment. It takes time to build successful ag. operations. To reduce or eliminate County agricultural program funding would halt all momentum for current farmers and severly reduce the chances for success for future farmers.

2. King County has been a national leader for crafting public policy and programs that help agriculture and should continue to lead the way toward promoting and protecting local agriculture.

3. Public demand for local food is high and rapidly increasing. Existing markets are growing and new markets are trying to open. Farmers Markets and other market opportunties need support and assistance to best serve farmers, consumers and communities.

4. The County should treat farming as a valuable resource that needs preservation, conservation and help with development for future opportunities. For the future of agriculture, especially "fringe ag" near urban areas, it is important that the county continue to "go to bat" for farmers.

5. Importance of local agriculture in the health of the local economy.

6. Food and water will be the major crises of the 21st century...even more so than energy.

7. Farms have a hugely positive ecological impact on King County. Example: 16 certified Salmon Safe farms, with 5 more on the certification waiting list.

It was a good show of support for King County ag programs and staff. I hope the council members heard the words and acknowleged the people who turned out to voice their support for continued County participation in building a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Mark

Friday, October 10, 2008

Happy Friday

Well, it looks like the weather will be nice over the weekend, which bodes well for the penultimate Helping Hands Workparty at Full Circle Farm.

If you only read one article this weekend, read this one:

Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town

I love the idea of a "Community Supported Restaurant." That's great.

Mark

Friday, October 3, 2008

Eat Local Month in Puget Sound?

Ouch. My face hurts from the large, heavy gauntlet smacking we just took from the Seattle Weekly. Jonathan Kaufmann just challenged us and many of our partner organizations to step up and create an "Eat Local Month" here in the Puget Sound.

I think it's a great idea and I agree with Mr. Kaufmann that it's long overdue.

For this year, I suggest you take the Eat Local for Thanksgiving pledge...it's a start!

Read the full article:
Why Doesn't the Puget Sound Have a Local Food Month?

Mark

Urban farmer wins $500,000 MacArthur "genius grant"

An inspiring article about a man with a vision:

Mr. Allen said he learned it all from his parents. “We’re having to go back to when people shared things and started taking care of each other,” he said. “That’s the only way we will survive.”

“What better way,” he mused, “than to do it with food?”

Full article:

An Urban Farmer Is Rewarded for His Dream