-
Taproot Expansion Project
More equipment, space, and services! Did you know Taproot is working on expanding its services by adding a fully equipped cook room, offering businesses and individuals access to a modular space that will include a six-burner gas range, convection oven (for baking, roasting, and more!), a large steam jacketed tilting kettle, a fire-suppression hood, a…
-
2021 Farm Tours of the San Juans Event Schedule
Farm tours are back this fall on all three islands! Visit island farms, meet your farmers, and savor the harvest season. Maps and itineraries coming soon, so for now… Save the Dates! San Juan Island: September 22-26, 2021 Orcas Island: October 1-3, 2021 Lopez Island: October 15-17, 2021
-
Farmer Spotlight: Mitchell Bay Farm
Located in the northwest section of San Juan Island just up the hill from Snug Harbor, is Mitchell Bay Farm, owned and operated by Bruce & Colleen Howe-Gregory. The farm has been in continuous use since the late 1800’s when Peter Kirk, (the city of Kirkland is named after him!) a rich English industrialist who…
-
Member Spotlight: Madrone Cellars
Meet Shaun and Amy, of Madrone Cellars on San Juan Island! You can find their delicious wines and ciders – featuring island fruit – at their Friday Harbor tasting room on First Street. When they met in 2014, Shaun was about to move to Lake Chelan and Amy was returning to school in Bellingham. They…
-
Farmer Spotlight: Lum Farm
The Lum Farm on Orcas Island is a family operation! Owners Eric and Amy and their daughters Martha (19) and Rachel (17) are involved in all aspects of running the farm. They primarily raise livestock for meat, dairy and fiber. You can find their foods in their farm store, both on-site and online through their…
-
Farmer Spotlight: Roche Harbor Farm
Meet Tate Brumsickle of Roche Harbor Farm! You’ll pass the colorful rows of Roche Harbor Farm on the right side of the road just before you enter Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island. The farm initially began as an employee-run market garden for the resort, but after trying it the first year, the resort decided…
-
Little Earth Tortillas
Hi! We’re Little Earth Tortillas. We make small batches of corn tortillas on Lopez Island. Every batch is made with heirloom corn grown on small independent farms and cooked using the ancient method of nixtamalization – soaking corn in water, salt, and lime. We grind the corn with volcanic stones to create masa. We press…
-
Island Apples
The San Juan Islands are a living museum of historic American apple varieties by Madrona Murphy, Kwiaht Apples may well be the most long-standing crop grown in the islands, as native Pacific crabapples were harvested and tended by the Coast Salish families that were the islands’ original inhabitants. When planting orchards became a way of…
-
Some Pig! A Tale of Nose-to-Tail Farming
The venerated pig is a microcosm of the cycle of food, farmers, and the future of sustainable farming in the Islands With a history that includes a war named after the porcine species, the San Juans have a love affair with pork. And who wouldn’t? Because…bacon! But just as the simple hog revealed a complex…
-
A Bushel and a Peck: Growing Island Vegetables
Market gardens and farms have sustained islanders from the earliest people to Gold-Rush hopefuls, soldiers, settlers and sailors (Photo courtesy of the Town of Friday Harbor) Local restaurant menus tell just the current chapter of a long and varied story of the humble vegetable in the San Juan islands. Today, the carrots, kale and peas…
-
The Wild & Woolly History of Sheep in the San Juan Islands
From barging rams to the outer islands to running sheep through the streets of Lopez Village, the history of wool in the San Juans is a warp and weft of ingenuity and tall tales NAMING ISLANDS, RUNNING SHEEP Raised for breeding, meat, and wool, sheep have always been a major part of agriculture in San…
