Farm Tour - 2015 Savor the San Juans

Sample the bounty of the San Juan Islands ~ in october ~

This Special Section is a supplement of the Journal of the San Juan Islands, Islands' Sounder and Islands' Weekly

Find all events at

VisitSanJuans.com/Savor

Orcas Island • Lopez Island • San Juan Island / Friday Harbor

Mark Gardner

From wineries to galleries, farmers’ markets to farm tours and harvest dinners to cozy lodgings, the San Juan Islands set the table for a delectable, month-long feast.

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here is so much to do during the entire month of October when the 8th annual “Savor the San Juans – A Month-long Medley of Food, Farms & Art” takes place. This movable feast for the senses pulls together all of the elements of a memorable post-summer vacation getaway, including wine tastings, harvest festivals, farm tours and events, plus specials at some of the finest lodgings and restaurants in the “gourmet archipelago.” For more information about food and lodging specials and the following events, visit www.visitsanjuans.com/savor-san-juans.

Discover deliciousness in the San Juan Islands

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igger and better, the 8th Annual Savor the San Juans: a month-long medley of food, farms and art There is no better way to feel the pulse of island culture than to experience its food, and throughout October, the “gourmet archipelago” sets the table to experience the bounty of the islands at its peak.

A farm-to-table tasting at historic Brickworks in Friday Harbor, farm tours on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands, farm dinners, a historic Roche Harbor cemetery tour, a Friday Harbor Ghost Walk, and more. These are just a few of the signature events unfolding this October during "Savor the San Juans: a month-long medley of food, farms and art."

The San Juan Island Farmers

Market, Farm Parade and Harvest Chili Cook-off will keep the streets of Friday Harbor and the new historic Brickworks community center buzzing on Saturday, Oct. 3. All three islands will hold special all-day Farm Tours

and goodies from an outdoor wood-fired baking house.

There will also be a special Farm-to-Table Dinner at The Edenwild Boutique Inn on October 11. On Oct. 25, the Bite of the San Juan Islands will bring farmers and chefs from all three islands for a tasting to showcase the amazing quality of island-grown, organic fruits and vegetables, GMOfree meats, seafood, cheeses, baked goods, wine, cider, beer and spirits.

Grab your spirit of adventure and discover a month-long movable feast for the senses.

Savor the San Juans pulls together all the elements of a memorable post-summer vacation getaway, including harvest festivals, art festival, music events and lodging specials at the island’s inns.

All three islands will hold special allday Farm Tours – Lopez Island Farm Tour (Oct. 10 – 11), Orcas Island Farm Tour and Soiree (Oct. 4) and San Juan Island Three Farms Walking Tour (Oct. 11). The tours will include activities such sheep shearing demonstrations, a fermentation workshop, a sheep dog demonstration, a cider pressing and great snacks such as fruit and cheese sampling

Savor the San Juans and Share the Massage Experience!

Savor Special! $10 off a Duet Massage!

Two Therapists, two tables and the two of you create a healing memory!

Friends and family, enjoy an eclectic array of therapeutic fusions: Aromatherapy, Warm Stones, Foot Reflexology, Swedish & Deep Tissue 360.376.8006 • On the water in Eastsound 344 Main, Suite 103 / SeaStar Lofts / Main St. Station Building orcasmassage.com • Like us on Facebook at “A Massage By The Sea”

Savor the San Juans calendar of events Sept. 29 - Oct.13 Up! Up! Farm Film Festival – The Future of Farming, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 3 Friday Harbor Fall Farm Parade, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 3 Island Harvest Chili Cook-off, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 3 Seed Program, Friday Harbor/ San Juan Island Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31 Farmers’ Markets, Orcas Island and Friday Harbor, Saturdays Oct. 4 Orcas Island Farm Tour, Orcas Island Oct. 8 Savor an Evening Meal at School, Lopez Island Oct. 9-11 Orcas Island Film Festival, Orcas Island Oct. 10 Lopez Island Fall Farm Tours Day 1, Lopez Island

Wine Tasting Open Thursday – Monday

11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Oct. 10 Fall Gardening Workshop, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 10 Historic Friday Harbor Guided Walking Tour, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 11 Lopez Island Fall Farm Tours Day 2, Lopez Island Oct. 11 San Juan Island Three Farms Walking Tour, San Juan Island Oct. 11 Camp Orkila’s Fall Festival & Haunted Hay Ride, Orcas Island Oct. 17 Roche Harbor Pioneer Cemetery Tour, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 25 The Bite of San Juan Islands, San Juan Island Cheese & Island Grown, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island Oct. 31 Friday Harbor Ghost Walk, Friday Harbor/San Juan Island

San Juan Vineyards is locally owned and operated by Yvonne Swanberg. In 1996 the property was purchased, the vineyard planted with Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe. At the same time the old school house (ca 1895) was renovated for the tasting room and the winery building itself was constructed. It has since become a destination winery, producing wines from the vines grown in the vineyard and grapes brought from the Yakima Valley and Horse Heaven Hills Appellations of Eastern Washington. Our Estate grapes usually provide us with 20 to 30% of our total annual production. Since 2006, no herbicides or insecticides have been used in the estate vineyard.

3136 Roche Harbor Rd., Friday Harbor, WA 98250 | 360-378-9463 | www.sanjuanvineyards.com

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FARM TOURS THIS OCTOBER

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or three days in October, more than two dozen farms and farm-related businesses on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Island will be open to the public, with demonstrations on everything from apple cider pressings to sheep shearing.

LOPEZ ISLAND The Lopez tours span two days. On Oct. 10, the smell of fresh baked scones from a woodfired oven will greet you at Barn Owl Bakery on Midnight’s Farm, where you can tour a department of ecology-approved compost facility, and look through the microscope into the world of microbiology. At Wet Wool Farm and Island Fibers, watch a sheep dog demonstration, learn about the breeds of sheep on the farm, their fleeces, and meat qualities, followed by a tour of Island Fibers.

At the 55-acre biodynamic S&S Homestead Farm, learn how the farm integrates plant and animal production, visit the gardens, dairy and cheese facility, followed by a wood-fired pizza lunch. At Sweet Grass Farm, learn how to make a durable and flexible raised bed for gardening; fill it with a compost mix for growing your crops or flowers, all without tilling. Sunnyfield Farm is the islands’ newest licensed Grade A Raw Milk Goat Dairy, certified since November of 2014. You can tour the goat dairy and taste the fresh cheese with apples from the farm’s trees.

On Oct. 11, some of the earlier tours and workshops will repeat, with additional options. Join the bakers at Barn Owl Bakery and follow the path from grain to pizza.

Another workshop includes pasta making at Edenwild Boutique Inn’s kitchen, and a fermentation workshop at Vortex Café.

The culmination of both days of tours will be dinner. The first night, the Grange will host a barbecue with Helen’s Farm burgers or sausage with Sunnyfield chevre on Barn Owl buns with fresh green salad from Lopez Harvest. Wines from Lopez Island Vineyards will be served, and you can enter a homemade fresh pie in the pie contest.

Slices of pie will be sold with funds going to the LIFEschool farm to cafeteria program.

The second night, a 5-course farm-to-table dinner at Edenwild Boutique Inn will feature Lopez Island farms and wines.

Each tour or workshop is prices separately.

Tickets are available for cash purchase at each stop, or at www.eventbrite.com. Kids under

12 are free.

SAN JUAN ISLAND At the north end of San Juan, three historic farms share borders, and history. All three farms were homesteaded to grow fruit, from apples and pears to plums and now kiwi and Asian pears. On this tour, you can walk between the farms, talk to the farmers and purchase fruit and press cider to take home.

On Oct. 11 from noon to 4 p.m., you can tour the 20-acre Sweet Earth Farm, with farmers Elaine Kendall and Amanda Zee, and see the diverse fruit orchard, abundant market garden and livestock. Just through across the field and through the trees, is Mitchell Bay Farm, established in 1900. The farmers Colleen Howe and Bruce Gregory will discuss the commercial kiwi and Asian pear orchard, sheep and holistic management practices. Enjoy fresh brewed teas and home-baked cookies.

A short walk takes you to nearby Lacrover Farm, once part of a large family homestead from the late 1900s, and protected by a conservation easement through the San Juan Preservation Trust. It is now owned by Paul Lacrampe, Katie Hover and their son, Quinn.

A ticket price of $25 pp (children under 12 half-price) provides free farm tours plus San Juan Island Cheese Ploughman’s Lunchbox.

Visit Westcott Bay Cider and San Juan Island Distillery, located a short distance to the north, to tour the cider orchard and

Contributed photos / John Sinclair (left) & Barbara Marrett (right)

At left: The Barn Owl Bakery on Lopez Island. Above: A San Juan Island farm. For a full schedule of farm tour events and a map, see the last two pages of this section.

distillery. “Taste the spirits of the San Juan Islands” at the distillery from 1 to 4 p.m.

ORCAS ISLAND Last year, four Orcas farms welcomed more than 125 people to their barns and fields. Organizers Charles Dalton and Kathy Morris were excited by the interest.

This year, more than a dozen farms and farm-related businesses have jumped on the

hay cart, with demonstrations that include sheep shearing, wool spinning, seed saving, and seeing worms at work in a worm bin building demo. This free, self-guided tour is on Sunday, Oct. 4 and starts with a brunch available at The Kitchen in Eastsound, where Continued on page 5

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Savor these restaurant & local food offerings Lopez Island · Farm-to-Table Dinner at The Edenwild - October 11, after the Lopez Island Farm Tour, enjoy a farm-to-table dinner with wine pairing from Lopez Island Vineyards · Lopez Islander Resort Restaurant - Savor Early Bird Dinners Orcas Island · The Kitchen – October 4, Enjoy brunch prior to the Orcas Island Farm Tours San Juan Island · Coho Restaurant – October 2 Oktoberfest Dinner Special · Coho Restaurant - October 16 Barrister Winemaker’s Dinner

· Coho Restaurant – Chef’s Tasting Special, 5:00-5:45 p.m. each evening - Three course dinners for 2 for $70 · Duck Soup Inn – Autumn Harvest Family Dinner, Rustic dining in the woods featuring island-grown ingredients · San Juan Island Food Co-op - Savor Local Specials each week in October · San Juan Vineyards - Savor the San Juans Special for the Month of October · The Bluff Restaurant Bar Terrace - Savor our 3 for $30 Menu · The San Juan Islands Farmers Market - Saturday Savor Specials

Come in to check out menu

Happy Hour

Daily 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Open for breakfast daily

Come in for a morning Bloody Mary

7 Spring St. | (360) 378-2245

Seed equals food

by Cathleen McCluskey Organic Seed Alliance

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Organic Seed Alliance/Contributed photo

Carrot varieties from the Northern Organic Vegetable Collaborative and Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture.

id you know not all spinach is the same?

Spinach, like other vegetables and grains, comes in many different varieties – each one with different traits and best suited for certain geographical locations.

Organic vegetable varieties are developed through classical plant breeding techniques, where plant breeders and farmers carefully select seed from plants that perform best. This is done over the course of several years and eventually we have new varieties like ‘Abundant Bloomsdale’ spinach or ‘Who Gets Kissed?’ sweet corn. Heirloom seed varieties we plant in our yards were created by plant breeders and farmers before us who practiced these classical plant breeding techniques. Last week farmers, seed growers, plant breeders, chefs, and food retailers throughout the islands gathered on Orcas to learn about organic seed production

and developing new organic varieties that will thrive in the San Juans. Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), Washington State University, Greenbank Farm, Orcas Food Co-op, and Hogstone’s Wood Oven hosted the daylong organic seed training and tasting social.

The day started with a farmer training on how to conduct on-farm variety trials presented by OSA’s executive director Micaela Colley. Farmers learned how

to identify the best performing organic varieties available for their local growing conditions and toured an organic spinach trial being conducted by local farmers with support from OSA. Later in the evening, participants gathered at Hogstone’s Wood Oven where they taste tested pepper and colored carrot varieties from the Northern Organic Vegetable Collaborative (NOVIC) and Carrot Improvement

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for Organic Agriculture (CIOA) projects aimed at breeding new vegetable varieties for organic farmers.

Chef Jay Blackinton also prepared pizzas topped with a newly released organic ‘Who Gets Kissed?’ sweet corn grown at the OSA research farm in Chimacum, Washington.

Learn more about OSA and how to get involved at www.seedalliance.org.

Weekly Savor Specials on Local Products through the month October Stop by and see us at 775 Mullis St. | (360) 370-5170 M-F 9 AM - 6 PM. Sat & Sun 10 AM - 5 PM.

Barbara Marrett/Contributed photo

Plowing the fields on a San Juan Island farm.

FARM TOURS FROM PAGE 3

you can pick up maps (or clip them out of the island newspapers) to follow the route to the farms, which will have colorful flags flying to mark the stops.

Farms along the way – starting out by the ferry landing and moving towards town and out beyond Doe Bay – include Morningstar Farm, Warm Valley Farm will show how to spin wool from the sheep they raise. At Red Rabbit Farm, Christina Orchid will show her cookhouse kitchen and offer tastes of her perserves and sauces. If you are looking for cute farm animals, the residents of Orcas Moon Alpacas are the stop for you; farmers Amy Lumm and Jennifer Pietsch will also offer a chicken slaughter demonstration, where $50 gives you a bird to take home as well. Historic Coffelt Farm will give tours.

At Kai Dawg Farm, Caitlin Herlihy will talk about their new project Orcas Community Participatory Agriculture. See a sheep shear-

ing demonstration at West Beach Farm.

In town, Smith and Speed Mercantile will be open to share and discuss their handforged farming tools. Audra Lawlor of Girl Meets Dirt will offer tastes of preserves made from fruit gleaned from historic island orchards in her new tasting room.

The tour then winds out to Buck Bay Shellfish Farm, where Toni Hermanson will talk about the process of growing and harvesting oysters and clams. Tours at Doe Bay Garden and Taproot Farm will then lead you to Orcas Farm, where George Orser will host a farmers’ potluck soiree. There will be Hogstone’s Wood Oven pizzas, a Lion’s Club/Island Hoppin’ Brewery beer garden and fun music to cap off this big day behind the scenes at the farms.

The San Juan Shuttle will be available for $8 for the day, and will loop around to the farms. Car-pooling or shuttle use is encouraged. The Orcas Senior Center will also be offering a shuttle for seniors interested in attending the tour.

Welcome to our Restauraunt

Vinny’s Ristorante is a casual, elegant restaurant offering gourmet Pacific Northwest seafood and steak along with Italian specialties. All of our food is prepared with only freshest ingredients by our chefs. Our menu features crisp salads, fresh seafood, tender lamb, steak, chicken and so much more. We have the right wine or cocktail to make your meal unforgettable. Come visit our Restaurant today for a savory dining experience.

Please note that our menu changes monthly. Check back regularly to see what seasonal items we are featuring!

Summer Hours (June - October)

Monday - Friday, 3 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Small plates and happy hour available Monday - Friday, 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Saturday - Sunday, 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.

165 West St. • Friday Harbor, WA • 98250 • (360)378-1934

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San Juan Islands Agriculture: A Snapshot from Orcas Island

Contributed photo

A delivery from Maple Rock Farm to the Orcas Island Food Co-op.

by Rhys Hansen Produce & Marketing Manager for Orcas Food Co-op

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n Orcas Island, local agriculture is getting a boost. In June of 2014 Orcas Food Cooperative opened its doors. At the heart of their mission: supporting and developing a robust, sustainable local food system. What has that looked like so far?

Since their opening, Orcas Food Coop has worked with over 25 different San Juan County farms. These producers have supplied the Co-op Members with meat, seafood, cheese, berries, vegetables and a variety of apples, plums and other tree fruit. Combined, this has resulted in more than $135,000 going into the local agricultural businesses. For several of these farmers,

their sale to the Co-op was their first foray into growing crops for market.

Beyond the numbers, the convenience of a central location has demonstrated the increasing consumer demand for locally-grown and made products. In the last 12 months, over 25% of all produce sold at the Co-op was grown in the county- but the demand has continued to outstrip the supply from area farms. Many favorites like broccoli and lettuce are only available sporadically, and must be regularly sourced from the mainland.

The main two challenges? Coordinating crops to ensure a steady supply of staples and storage of harvested product. In order to keep meeting the demand, farmers and food businesses will have to coordinate to develop increased infrastructure for transportation and storage; a goal that was outlined in the San Juan County Strategic Plan for Economic Development. Currently the Co-op is collaborating with local organizations to develop and implement plans for a possible San Juan County Food Hub, a project that is just beginning to be explored.

The second major challenge has been the impact of our on-going drought. Those who have followed the news even casually will be aware of the California drought, but may be less aware of the impact changing weather patterns have had in our own state. The entire state of Washington has experienced a shortage in rainfall, and San Juan County has been no exception. Currently the county is classified as experiencing a D2 Severe Drought. According the mostly recently released data from the U.S. Drought monitor, that still puts San Juan County in a better position than the majority of the state which is marked as undergoing a D3 Extreme Drought.

What has that meant for local farmers? A great deal of uncertainty. Crops that have been reliable in the past were stunted by early heat, and it was challenging to keep water-hungry plants satisfied with less and less groundwater. More concretely, normally reliable products like kale, spinach, salad mix and other greens were available at only limited quantities, or not at all. Heat-loving crops such as melons, tomatoes and peppers arrived in bumper quantities, ripening in great waves that left several farmers challenged in finding outlets for their sudden overabundance.

How can you best support our farmers in these challenging times? Buy local and buy seasonal. Bumper crops can mean great deals for households on a budget- use your deep freezer or dehydrator to store some of this fall bounty. Currently apples, pears and squash are at peak season- with heretofore-unknown varieties being showcased at the Co-op and farm stands around the island. These are great storage crops- buy in bulk and eat great local food all winter when your garden has run fallow.

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Refer to the map on page 8 of this section

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