The Puget Sound Food Network (PSFN) is a collaborative project dedicated to connecting all aspects of agriculture, from producer to buyer, in mutually beneficial partnerships. PSFN, a project of the Northwest Agriculture Business Center, includes staff to assist in connecting producers with services and buyers, and has developed an interactive website to create dynamic listings which allow producers, consumers, infrastructure and more, to find each other, communicate needs, and develop working relationships. The much anticipated launch of this site will happen on November 5th at the Focus on Farming VI conference in Marysville, WA. NABC staff along with PSFN project coordinators will be on hand to showcase the new tool with live demos at the NABC trade show booth. If you are able to attend the conference make sure to stop by the booth for a demo.

One of the PSFN primary features is to provide a forum for producers to easily locate processing opportunities that exist. This will enable regional producers to meet the increasing demand for locally produced food. With a simple area search producers will be able to locate commercial kitchens, cold storage, and miscellaneous processing programs. Examples of this include cooler space that is available for long-term rent/lease at Mike & Jeans Berry Farm, processing space at Skagit Valley Organics new WSDA certified commercial kitchen, or the long running NABC poultry processing equipment rental program. The PSFN enables real-time communication between food producers, consumers, and other participants in the Puget Sound regional food system with the ultimate goal of facilitating transactions.

Contact the NABC office to inquire how you can participate today.
 

Maryon Attwood, Project Director for the Greenbank CSA Training Center, announced the final selection for the position of CSA Coordinator. “I take great pleasure in announcing the results of our extensive search for a CSA Coordinator for 2010, made possible from a new $68,000 Farmers Market Promotion grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. We interviewed five excellent candidates for the position and look forward to introducing Sebastian Aguilar to the Whidbey Island agriculture and food communities.

The Search and Interview Committee was made up of Whidbey Islanders Virginia Bloom, Director of the Greenbank Management Group; Linda Bartlett, owner and farmer at the Rosehips CSA; and Maryon Attwood, Project Manager of the CSA Project. Sebastian will take up his new responsibilities on November 23rd, in time to begin interviews of new farmer-trainees for 2010.
This was one of only about 80 plus USDA grants awarded across the country, so we feel very fortunate to have been selected, “continued Attwood.

Mr. Aguilar has been farming organic vegetables fulltime for the past 13 years. He and his wife, Kelly, have three children and have managed farms in New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Washington State. Sebastian’s goals of top quality produce, healthy soils, and social outreach have guided his farming practices and are an excellent match for what we are doing at the Training Center at Greenbank Farm.

On the Aguilar’s current farm in Port Townsend, they use minimum tillage, cover cropping, compost, and biodynamic preparations to build and maintain healthy, fertile soils. He has done seed trials for the Seed Alliance and sold produce to the Port Townsend Food Coop. Farm apprenticeships, CSA’s, youth education and community involvement have always connected Sebastian’s farm to the local community, thereby building relationships that strengthen the local food system and the awareness that supports it. Sebastian grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico and spent summers gardening with his grandfather in France. He started farming full-time at age 20 and has been passionate about developing a model of small scale organic agriculture that is ecologically, economically, and socially healthy ever since. Having started as an apprentice, Sebastian has learned how to host apprentices of his own – striving to offer them a thorough and holistic agricultural education.
 
The CSA Training Center at Greenbank Farm, the first of its kind in western Washington, is an innovative community response to what is an alarming reality across our nation: the steady decrease in farmland, a food system dangerously dependent on fossil fuel, and an impersonal food chain that transports food items an average of 1,500 miles from the farm to our dining tables. Having a CSA training center that will instruct farmer-trainees in diverse crop production of vegetables and fruits is important to assure consistent training with optimal success. The CSA Training Center at historic Greenbank Farm will put more acres of land back into food production, create new momentum for a ‘eat local’ program, increase food production, and delight consumers. Best of all, the center demonstrates innovation in utilizing local resources by developing working relationships between community groups and farmers.

The CSA Training Center at Greenbank Farm will select 8-10 farmer-trainees who will be exposed to a diversified cropping system of fruits and vegetables on almost ten acres of organically certified land using a CSA model. Program funding includes an educational stipend for each farmer-trainee . Selected applicants will begin hands-on training beginning in February or the 2010 growing season. This year housing will be available through the WISH Foundation on Whidbey Island that matches housing with people who need housing. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply and to call with questions. For messages and questions, contact Maryon Attwood at the Northwest Agriculture Business Center office at 360-335-3727.

This project is made possible by a grant awarded by the USDA Farmer Market Promotion Grant and matched by the Northwest Agriculture Business Center. It brings together mentor farmers, food activists, agricultural organizations and local officials as a team growing new farmers and more food for direct distribution to consumers. For application materials, visit the NABC website at www.agbizcenter.org, or contact CSA Coordinator, Sebastian Aguilar after November 23rd at the CSA Training Center Office: 360-222-3171.
 

The Northwest Agriculture Business Center has hired Jeff Voltz as its new Project Manager for Whatcom County. The Center, through the support of the Whatcom Community Foundation’s Sustainable Whatcom Fund, will be joining with many other county-based nonprofits, agencies, educational institutions, local businesses and agricultural producers to help increase the availability of locally grown and produced food.

A Ferndale resident, Voltz has more than twenty years of experience in the food industry, community development, and sustainable agriculture, most recently serving as the General Manager of Community Food Co-op. “I’m pleased to be taking on this position and important responsibility. We’ll be looking to implement many creative ways to get our residents better connected to the nutritious and great tasting food our farmers and businesses produce here in Whatcom County.”

NABC has been selected as a lead partner in a Whatcom County Farm to School project. The primary goal of this project is to increase the amount of Whatcom county food being sold to Whatcom county schools and universities.

The project’s initial scoping meeting occurred August 14th and brought together over 30 individuals interested in making this project a success, including school food service directors, farmers, processors, distributors, educators, government representatives, and NABC staff. The main takeaway from this meeting was that while there are different constraints currently in place limiting the ability of Whatcom farms to sell to Whatcom schools, there is strong interest in working together to try and remove these constraints and generate wins for producers, schools, and ultimately the benefit of the county’s children.

NABC is pleased to have received funding for this work from the Sustainable Whatcom Fund of the Whatcom Community Foundation. Crossroads Consulting has been funded to coordinate research and outreach to the regional schools.
 

The weather was perfect for the 2nd Annual Pumpkin Hurl at Bartelheimer’s Farm in Snohomish, sponsored by the Snohomish Festival of Pumpkins Marketing Association. Trebuchets were lined up to hurl 8 pound pumpkins from 900 to 1800 feet through the air. This year there were some smaller machines that threw 1 to 2 pounders up to 100 feet. Medieval costumes were everywhere, setting the scene. Medieval recreation group the Barony of Aquaterra from the Society for Creative Anachronism offered thier volunteer services again this year, along with high school seniors, Northwest Agriculture Business Center staff and family members of Event Manager Carolyn Eslick.

Photgrapher Dave Berner from the Seattle Times was on hand to capture the event. He tried taping a camera on a pre-launch pumpkin but the squash disintegrated in midair. The camera itself was lost in the field for two hours. Seattle Times did film a section of the event and it can be seen on the Festival of Pumpkin's website by clicking on “Video”.

Skagit Fresh was the featured beverages at the Hurl, a delicious, all natural fruit drink. Food was plentiful, with vendors offering BBQ beef and pork, hamburgers, pizza, chili and kettle corn. The Koffee Koral sold expressos, fruit smoothies and baked goods.

Hurling trophies were designed and hand made by Larry and Judy Bruning of Bruning Pottery in Snohomish on Avenue D, in the shape of medieval mugs. The Overall Champion this year was Team Trebarbaric. The team tried to top the World Record set in September this year of 1919 feet, set by a team in Belguim. Trebarbaric’s top hurl was 1833 feet, just 33 feet short of their World Record set two years ago.  They will continue to try to recapture the title of world record holder.  We look forward to seeing them and the other teams at Pumpkin Hurl 2010. 
 

Twin Brook Creamery has experienced solid business growth over the past three years. Expanding sales created the need for the expansion of the creamery’s processing capacity. “We’ve doubled our processing capacity and made the necessary upgrades to our equipment to ensure we continue to maintain our ability to produce some of the highest quality milk available in the Puget Sound region,” states Larry Stap, founder and co-owner of Twin Brook.

“The Northwest Agriculture Business Center has been a great support, especially the marketing expertise and support of Gary Merritt (NABC’s Director of Marketing). Gary has been a great help with the development of our brand and was totally hands-on in presenting our milk to retail grocers. He helped get us into supermarket chains throughout the region. Pretty soon we were busting at the seams. Based on our business success we secured financing and purchased a new low-temp slow pasteurizing vat, boiler, and chiller. Now we can take our business to the next level.”

Twin Brook Creamery is a family-owned farm and business located north of Lynden in Whatcom County. The family owners include Larry and Debbie Stap, and their daughter and son-in-law, Michelle and Mark Tolsma. For more information about Twin Brook Creamery visit their web site at www.twinbrookcreamery.com.
 

The USDA Rural Development program is currently looking for agricultural producers and rural small businesses to considering applying for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). REAP provides grants and loan guarantees for up to 25% of the cost of making energy efficiency improvements to facilities.

The program is designed for purchase and installation of energy efficiency improvements to a building or process resulting in reduced energy consumption. Examples of these improvements could be replacing lights / energy-efficient fixtures, commercial cooler/freezer space, machinery, and equipment. An energy-efficient real estate improvement could be made through this program. This includes reimbursement of both materials and construction costs if the costs were incurred after submitting application. Conducting energy audits on your current operation would also be covered. REAP grants are awarded twice a year via a national competition. USDA only accepts applications during certain periods. The grant program does have some requirements in terms of matching funds and interim financing.

To explore this program further contact your local USDA Business Development Specialist or read about it online at: www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/farmbill .

 

The Eat Local for Thanksgiving campaign is a grassroots effort lead by Cascade Harvest Coalition in collaboration with dozens of community groups and organizations to shine a spotlight on the connections that buying locally has to the environment, use of fossil fuels and energy, supporting our community, and keeping local farms thriving. Last year we heard from hundreds of people who pledged to Eat Local for Thanksgiving. The stories were personal and heartwarming: a young man proposed to his girlfriend over homemade rhubarb pie, another said of her experience, “It was a lesson for life…keep it simple, savor the moments, and be grateful for the abundance of our region.”

Your choices make a difference. One person and one pledge to add one local food to your Thanksgiving meal. While you might think one butternut squash isn’t going to make a huge difference, think again. The power of one action multiplied many times over makes more than a difference. The humble butternut squash becomes an agent of change and you become a local food hero. Translate that into an ambitious goal of doubling last year’s efforts and securing a minimum of 5,000 pledges throughout Washington and that’s 25,000 people savoring the pleasure of what is abundant in our region and supporting the benefits that come with eating locally. It’s easy, delicious, and you’re standing up for farmers, and a healthier environment and economy.

• Sign up for the What’s Fresh Now newsletter
• Volunteer and find community, collect pledges, talk about the value of local farms, and have fun.
• Join our Online Community
• Join our Facebook page and Facebook Cause freshest place to get news, videos and events about our region’s food and farms, meet like-minded people and become central to the Eat Local for Thanksgiving Campaign.
• Video Contest: Candid interviews and testimony with people talking about their passion for eating locally and taking the pledge.

Eat Local for Thanksgiving starts with one action, but it doesn’t end there. Download discussion cards and get talking, not everyone knows what it means to eat locally and why it’s important. Even kids get to be part of the conversation; discussion and activity cards for children and youth were created to spark conversation to help them think about our food traditions, where our food comes from and what foods are native and/or seasonally available here in Washington.

Our goal is to get a minimum of 5,000 pledges, preventing approximately 11,000 pounds of CO2 emissions.

Funding will support staff and volunteer efforts to make a big final outreach and pledge gathering push before Thanksgiving and to develop and implement a follow-up survey to thank participants and get their feedback and stories. This information will be shared in our on-line forums and will form the basis for next year’s campaign.

Success means gathering at least 5,000 pledges to eat locally and reducing our impact on the environment.
 

To vote in favor of awarding funds to the Eat Local Thanksgiving campaign through the Brighter Planet foundation, follow this link and click on the title Eat Local Thanksgiving. You may vote once you are registered and your email address is confirmed.

From Capitol Press reporter Cookson Beecher:

As many of you already know, I have left Capital Press to pursue other endeavors, some of them ag-related.

But I can’t leave without thanking the many people who have extended their help, expertise, and friendship to me. Farmers, ranchers, researchers, educators, Extension agents, 4-H and FFA members, elected officials, farmworkers, farmworker advocates, ag lobbyists, agency directors and staff members, organization officials and members, tribal leaders and members, environmentalists, ag advocates and so many others — all of you made my job as a field reporter with Capital Press for the past 12 years an incredibly rich and worthwhile experience.

Whether I was driving down country roads looking for “the first big red barn on the left after the Y in the road” or on the bus headed for Seattle to attend a WTO or climate-change conference, I always felt as though I was headed toward yet another adventure.

I sometimes chuckle when I think of how naive I was when I first got the job. I thought farming was about farming. And since I had grown up on a farm in Delaware and later had a small farm in North Idaho, I thought I was well-prepared for the job.

But it wasn’t long before I received a call from Jim Jesernig, the then- director of the state’s Agriculture Department, telling me that we needed to get together as soon as possible and talk about an incredibly important topic that was going to affect farmers for years to come. When I asked what that was, he replied with one word: “salmon.”

Salmon? Well, having been the editor of a statewide fishing magazine for several years, I thought I was well-versed on that subject. Heck, I even knew how to catch them.

Once in Seattle, where we met in former Gov. Mike Lowry’s office, Jesernig, an attorney by trade, immediately brought out an incredible assortment of posters and charts that highlighted all of the legal aspects of doing harm to salmon and salmon habitat.

It was an impressive presentation, and as I rode the bus back home, I realized that because salmon live significant parts of their lives in rivers and streams and because so much farmland is located along rivers and streams that protecting fish and protecting farming as a livelihood were intricately tied together.

I also remember learning about the power of the consumer. I was attending a national biotechnology conference in Seattle, and after checking in at the press room, I rode the escalator upstairs and headed outdoors where a group of people — many of them in costumes depicting fish, tomatoes, carrots and other food items — were ardently protesting the conference. They told me that biotechnology wasn’t a proven science and that humans shouldn’t be used as guinea pigs to test out this new technology.

When I went back downstairs, I asked a scientist who was preparing her presentation if she had gone out to listen to what the protesters were saying.

“What do they know,” she said with a scornful chuckle. “We’re the scientists.”

Years later, when one dairy cooperative after another began prohibiting their members from treating their cows with Monsanto’s genetically engineered growth hormone rbST, I recalled that scientist’s words.

It made me realize that farmers need to keep their eyes on the weather vane of marketplace realties and be proactive in dealing with them. There’s no “hunkering down in the bunkers” once consumers decide that they care about such things as land stewardship, animal husbandry, and food safety.

From watching the news unfold over the years, I’ve come to learn that it’s important for farmers to remember that whether consumers’ concerns are based on science, pseudo-science, gut instincts, or misinformation, they have more power than lobbyists or scientists in the “pocketbook votes” they cast every time they shop for food.

As for me, I’ve come to appreciate the need to buy as much of my food as possible from local and regional farmers. Besides helping to keep farms of all sizes in business, shopping locally also helps keep farmland from being developed while injecting local dollars into the local economy.

Of course, agriculture is much bigger than that, but for many consumers, buying locally is a good way to help preserve the family farmer. I’ll vote for that any time.

(Feel free to contact me at 360-856-2265 or cooksonb@sos.net.)