Were you one of the est. 1500+ people who spent yesterday visiting farms on the Whatcom Farm Tour?

What was YOUR favorite stop?  What did you see that was new or interesting?  What was your favorite flavor of the day?

My favorite flavor was the Interlaken Grape at Cloud Mountain Farm, a green seedless grape that puts the normal storebought variety to shame.  Pure farm candy, complex and tart and sweet and bursting, mmm.  I once made raisins on a food dehydrator with similar grapes, and WOW, what a treat!!

Send in your farm tour favorites, I’d love to hear them!

For those of you that will spend a sunny day tomorrow touring and tasting your way through Whatcom’s farmland, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your tour guide can be found tucked inside this week’s Take Five, or in the Cascadia Weekly, or HERE.
• Don’t forget to visit Edelweiss Dairy and get a sneak peek inside a farm not normally open to the public.
• The trek to Heritage Lane Farm in Lynden will be totally worth it.  Some of their animal breeds are at risk of extinction!
• Remember that the Lummi ferry is passenger only…but there will be a shuttle to greet you on the other side!
• Bellewood Acres and Silver Springs Creamery are right next to each other.  Don’t visit one without stopping at the other.
• Note that there are only a few places you can cross the Nooksack, and they are marked on your tour map!
• Please consider making a donation at any tour stop so that there will be another tour in 2010!

And, most importantly, have a super fun day!

Another awesome-looking all-local menu being dished up tonight, this time at the Chuckanut Brewery.  The salmon??!  Could they make it sound any better??

September 10th – Chuckanut Brewery

Chuckanut Brewery's cozy dining room...it might also be a nice afternoon on the patio!

601 W Holly. Bellingham I (360) 75-BEERS I chuckanutbreweryandkitchen.com

Special:

1. Local-caught salmon from Barleans with smoked tomato Breckenridge cream sauce atop a bed of Bellingham Pasta fettucini, Cascadia mushrooms and grilled vegetables from the Bellingham Farmers Market.

2. Irish Bison Beer Stew with buffalo from Twisted S Ranch and veggies and potatoes from Devine Gardens.

3. Local’s Only Pizza with ingredients from Old World Deli, Farmers Market, Barleans and Devine Gardens.

Why buy local?

“You are what you EAT! Supporting the community in which we live provides peace of mind to our customers and staff that we know where our food is sourced from. In turn we are providing income to local businesses just as they do as our customers/patrons…hence the circle of community life…” - Chad Bowes, Chef

It’s harvest season and Whatcom farms are exploding with abundance.  What better way to experience the bounty of our precious farmland than to spend a day tasting local flavors, wandering fields and orchards, practicing your cider pressing skills, and hearing the stories of the hardworking folks who put food on our tables?

The 2nd annual Whatcom Co. Farm Tour features 9 unique farms plus the Bellingham Farmers Market, representing a diversity of local agriculture.  Choose your favorite few stops or be ambitious and hit them all!  This is a self-guided, free, family-friendly event.

Ride a wagon through the fields at Boxx Berry Farm with a berry shortcake in hand, amble through Bellewood Acres’ orchards munching on a caramel apple flower, and swing by Silver Springs Creamery to try your hand at making ice cream!  Marvel at curly-horned Navajo-Churro sheep and pet bunnies at Heritage Lane Farms in Lynden, or pull potatoes out of the ground, hug kid-sized animals and play with solar cars at Common Threads Farm on Lummi Island…and that’s just a small sampling of the delicious activities in store for you.

When: 10am-6pm, September 12th 2009

Where: Whatcom County

Contact: Amber Dawn Hallet, amberdawn@sconnect.org
Cost: Free!

10am-6pm September 12th 2009

Click here to download your TOUR GUIDE MAP to print and bring with you!

Click here to visit a Google Map of all 10 farms on the Tour!

Farms on the tour:

1)  Bellingham Farmers Market
2)  Joe’s Garden
3)  Boxx Berry Farms
4)  Silver Springs Creamery
5)  Bellewood Acres
6)  Cloud Mountain Farm
7)  Edelweiss Dairy
8)  Heritage Lane Farm
9)  Grace Harbor Farms
10) Common Threads Farm

For more information:  Tour guide maps are now available for download and at the Community Food Coops, Terra Organica, Village Books, and other local businesses.  The guides are also included in today’s Bellingham Herald and this week’s Cascadia Weekly.  Or visit the Google Map of all the stops on the tour!

MANY THANKS to the sponsors that made this year’s tour possible!  To help ensure that there will be a 2010 Farm Tour, please consider making a donation at any tour stop or by clicking HERE to donate online. Thank you for your support—we could NOT do this work without it!

Lead Sponsors: Peoples Bank, Organic Valley Family of Farms, and Lesa Boxx & Jamie Imus of Country Financial

Supporting Sponsors: Lithtex NW, Bellingham Farmers Market, North Fork Brewery, and Larrabee Springs

If you haven’t been to a workshop at Cloud Mountain Farm yet, you should, and fall is a wonderful time to visit their super-diverse and

A workshop in progress at Cloud Mountain Farm

interesting orchards.  Here’s one workshop coming right up, and you can find more at their website!

September 5   10:30-Noon
Fall in the Orchard
When is it ripe?  How do I store it?  These are two of the most commonly asked questions in the fall.  At this workshop, we will discuss ways to determine if fruit is ready to be picked, proper picking, and best storage methods.  We will also discuss fall and winter orchard chores to help keep your trees at their healthiest.

Drop by the Bellingham Public Market tomorrow (Thursday, September 3) for perhaps the last BBQ of the season.

Panini Grill & Deli inside the Bellingham Public Market

The Panini Grill & Deli has a special menu in store for us, with vegetarian and carnivorous options.  And it’s a great opportunity to check out the Public Market if you haven’t–the food court is my favorite lunch stop, and a whole different story than the food court in the mall (but just as convenient).

Tune in to KGMI tomorrow morning at 7:20 to hear Gary Holloway, co-owner of the Public Market, elaborate on the menu of the day.

September 3rd – Panini Grill & Deli

1530 Cornwall Ave., in the Bellingham Public Market, Bellingham | (360) 312-5775

Special:

An outdoor BBQ featuring: Marinated Vegetable Kabobs served over grilled foccacia and all natural 1/4 lb Hempler Dogs served with sweet Italian red peppers, onion, garlic and herbs. Local veggies from Boxx Berry Farms, Terra Organica and the Farmer’s Market; vinaigrette from Seven Loaves Pizza and Breadfarm foccacia.

Why buy local?

“As a Deli, we produce an ever-changing and varied menu, featuring local products whenever possible.” – Kim McJury, Owner.

I don’t know about you, but my memories of school lunch are, well, less than appetizing.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in a school cafeteria, but I’m encouraged to see so much good work being done to pair local farms with institutional food service, and get the best, healthy, fresh food to our kids!

Slow Food USA has helped organize over 240 Eat-Ins for the upcoming Labor Day holiday to raise awareness for Time for Lunch, a campaign to get more fresh local food into school cafeterias. Their goal is to spur revisions to the Child Nutrition Act that would provide grants for school garden programs, additional cafeteria staff positions and locally grown produce. By bringing people together around the country, Slow Food hopes “to send a clear message to Congress: It’s time to provide America’s children with real food at school.”

Bellingham’s recently revitalized Fourth Corner Slow Food convivium is sponsoring its own local Eat-In at Birchwood Elementary School, co-sponsored by the Whatcom County School Garden Collective. Diana Campbell, chapter leader of Fourth Corner Slow Food, says “Children who grow up enjoying food that is both delicious and good for them learn healthy eating habits that last throughout their lives. By giving schools the resources to serve real food, we can make sure that the legacy we’re leaving our children is a future filled with opportunity, security and good health.”

Community members are encouraged to bring a dish inspired by the local harvest, picnic plates, utensils and non-alcoholic drinks to share. Birchwood Elementary is developing its own school garden this year, an event Slow Food wants to highlight at the Eat-In.

Slow Food Eat-In: Time for Lunch
When: Monday (Labor Day), September 7, 12 Noon
Where: Birchwood Elementary School
3200 Pinewood Ave. (at Birchwood Ave.)

To learn more about the Time For Lunch campaign,
visit slowfoodusa.org

Small Potatoes Gleaning Project is one of my favorite organizations in town.  Maybe it’s because I love a treasure hunt, or because I hate seeing good food go to waste, or because I think it’s wrong for people to go hungry (especially in this place of abundance).

I highly recommend that you drop what your doing right now and head over to Nimbus for a special-occasion dinner.  Maybe you have an occasion of your own, or maybe Eat Local Day is good enough for you, but you don’t want to miss the all-local special they have for you tonight.

August 27th – Nimbus
119 N. Commercial, 14th Floor, Bellingham | (360) 676-1307 | nimbusrestaurant.com

Special:

We will be featuring a 4-course all vegetarian, all local tasting menu for $35

Producers include: Moondance Farm, Rabbit Fields Farm, Holistic Homestead, Cloud Mountain Farm, DEVine Gardens, and Joe’s Garden, to name a few.

Why buy local?

“Why wouldn’t we?  It would be silly, especially at this time of year, to even think about buying produce from anywhere else.” - Josh Silverman, Chef/Owner

Yum!

Today is Fiamma Burger’s Eat Local Restaurant Special, and oh man, is it delicious…

Barbecue Bacon Blue Ring Bison Burger

Burger is made with Trilby’s BBQ sauce from Ferndale, bison from Twisted “S” Ranch, Hempler’s bacon, and pickles from Pleasant Valley Farms in Skagit Valley.  Also featuring heirloom tomatoes from Brandywine and a locally hand-breaded onion ring.  Option of burger served on a bed of organic spring greens from DEVine Gardens in Custer in leiu of a downtown baked fresh bun.

Fiamma Burger also has chicken, turkey, veggie and salmon burgers, a dazzling array of dipping sauces (curry mayo, chipotle ketchup, etc) milkshakes, and some pretty fantastic fries (both yam and standard potato). Something for everyone, and super yummy too!