Special Sections - Harvest Festival and Farm Tour, 2016

20th Annual Clallam County Farm Tour Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lazy J Tree Farm • Jardin du Soleil Dungeness Valley Creamery Nash’s Organic Produce Lurkalee Gaare • Five Acre School Agnew Grocery & Feed Hayrides, demonstrations, great food, live music and fun for the whole family!

Event Sponsored by

2 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

g n i t a Celebr ! s ar e 20 Y

By Clea Rome

WSU Clallam County Extension Director Looking back over 20 years since the first Clallam County Farm Tour in 1996, agriculture in the United States and here in Clallam County has seen some significant changes. Small family farms, the kind found across Clallam County, play a bigger role in our economy and rural food security than ever. For example, farmers markets, where small-scale farms can sell their products directly to consumers, have tripled in number across the country in the past 20 years. Farmers markets are an important source of income for family farms. Their rise in numbers reflects the increased demand by consumers for locally and regionally grown food.

Twenty years ago, there were no national standards for the production ROME of organic food and organic food sales in the U.S. totaled just around $3.4 billion. Last year, according to the Organic Trade Association, organic food sales totaled nearly $39 billion. The number of organic farms is up over 250 percent since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began counting them in 2002.

Twenty years after the first farm tour in Clallam County, we have more farms in the county, but they are smaller and making less farm-related income. In 1997, the National Agricultural census recorded 292 farms in Clallam County, with the median size being 22 acres. The 2012 Agricultural Census reported 536 farms in Clallam, with a median farm size of 12 acres. Following national trends, few farmers in the county make their living solely on the farm today.

Many need other income to survive while maintaining their farming lifestyles. Local farmers face many challenges, including global competition, a changing climate and rising energy and land costs.

Despite the many challenges that farmers face today, the future of farming in Clallam County is bright. Farms continue play an important part in our local economy and contribute to the health and beauty of our natural landscapes.

The Annual Clallam County Farm Tour on Oct. 1 is an opportunity to celebrate our county’s rich agricultural heritage and showcase our thriving agricultural community. WSU Clallam County Extension, the North Olympic Land Trust and our farm sponsors are excited to showcase a range of diverse stops on the tour this year, including organic lavender, vegetable and raw milk dairy farms, an organic orchard and tree farm, a fiber farm, a school with a budding farm program and a local independent farm store. There will be fun for adults and children alike: farm-fresh food, live music and lots of family activities at just $10 per carload.

The stops on the tour represent just a sampling of the incredible diversity the farm community in Clallam County has to offer. Join us in celebrating 20 years of this wonderful community event and explore the rich farming heritage and amazing landscapes that make this area so unique.

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HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

Keep farmland for farming

By Tom Sanford

North Olympic Land Trust executive director Driving or biking across the Dungeness prairie and delta, I’m always awed by the open and beautiful farmlands, historic barns, rolling landscape and wildlife habitat — it’s impressive, peaceful, calming and idyllic. I silently give thanks that somehow, as if by magic, the wonderful rural character of this place remains intact.

Since working with the North Olympic Land Trust, I’ve learned that this beautiful rural landscape has not been preserved by magic, but by the purposeful and hard SANFORD work of a community of passionate local citizens, landowners, farmers, nonprofits and government agencies including groups like WSU Extension and North Olympic Land Trust.

Great strides have been made, but the work to conserve the remaining rural landscape from Agnew to Sequim Bay is not yet complete. Since 1950, Clallam County has lost over 75 percent of its farmland.

Thousands of acres of rich fertile soils and critical habitat remain unprotected.

In 2016, our community has the opportunity to ensure a 60-acre farm known as the Historic Ward Farm will remain available for farming forever. In 1858, William Ward settled in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and began farming along the Dungeness River on what is now Woodcock Road. For 158 years, the Historic Ward Farm has been in ongoing crop production. Donations currently are being collected to ensure the permanent protection of this farm. This Friends of the Fields Campaign will be wrapping up at the time of Farm Tour, so look for donation stations at the farms to join in the effort. You can drive, walk or bike past the farm located near the corner of Woodcock and Ward roads.

Today’s efforts to preserve farmland, such as the Historic Ward Farm, are building on the work and vision of those like John Willits. In 1995, Willits took his “Quacker Farm” in the midst of the Lower Dungeness basin and entered a land preservation agreement with North Olympic Land Trust. This agreement states that these 42 acres will be managed solely as prime waterfowl habitat into perpetuity. With this first land preservation agreement, or conservation easement, Willits also began to form a vision for the lower Dungeness that would ensure that the lands best suited for farming would remain as farmland, those best suited for wildlife would be left for the wildlife and that all of this area would retain the rural character that is so valued by our community.

Since, thanks to the vision shared by Willits and many others, more than 1,200 acres of land north of U.S. Highway 101 between Sequim Bay and Siebert Creek have been conserved for farmland and wildlife habitat by local landowners, agencies and nonprofit organizations, much of it by the Land Trust. Across Clallam County, that tally exceeds 3,200 acres.

On Oct. 1 you can experience the magic of the Dungeness prairie and our wonderful agricultural landscape. The Farm Tour is an excellent way to celebrate the harvest with family and friends. While out on the farms, you’ll discover that three of the farms in this year’s Farm Tour have been permanently protected as farmland through private land conservation.

• Dungeness Valley Creamery is one of the two remaining dairies in Sequim. The 38-acre creamery with its herd of Jersey cows is protected by a North Olympic Land Trust conservation agreement finalized in 2009.

• Lazy J Tree Farm, renowned for its Christmas trees and produce, includes a 19-acre Land Trust land preservation agreement along Siebert Creek that helps protect salmon habitat and is a connecting link in a wildlife corridor that stretches several miles upstream from the mouth of the creek.

Of the 700-plus acres Nash’s Organic Produce actively farms, more than 200 are permanently protected by a variety of groups including the PCC Farmland Trust and the North Olympic Land Trust. In 2013, Nash began farming on the 24-Carrot Farm immediately following a community effort to purchase an agricultural easement through the Land Trust.

• Two other Farm Tour sites — Jardin du Soleil and Agnew Grocery and Feed — are located immediately adjacent to permanently conserved farmland and are wonderful locations to look out on protected lands that define our community.

The Land Trust is proud to be a part of a community that values its land base and that realizes that if we work together to conserve the farms, fish and forests of this land, it will pay back direct dividends to our own quality of life.

Tom Sanford is executive director of the North Olympic Land Trust. To date, the Land Trust has conserved more than 460 acres of working farmland, over 12 miles of river and stream habitat, more than a mile of shoreline along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, over 1,800 acres of forests, including 460 acres of working forests, and over 650 acres of land open for public recreation.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 • 3

4 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

Farm Tour Profiles Dungeness Valley Creamery

Lazy J Tree Farm

225 Gehrke Road, Agnew Steve Johnson In 1955, Steve’s parents George and Eloise Johnson bought 20 acres and started a berry farm on Gehrke Road in the Agnew area. The farm grew and in 1960 the family changed the focus of the farm from berries to Christmas trees, marking the beginning of Lazy J Tree Farm. Steve took over management of the farm at age 16 following the death of his father and has developed Lazy J Tree farm into the diversified operation it is today. While the primary enterprise on this farm remains Christmas trees, it also features a certified organic apple and pear orchard, as well as organic potatoes and garlic. In 2007, the farm expanded into a composting operation which receives yard waste and other organic materials and sells finished compost.

Children will love the large grinding machine and excavator that moves the compost piles around, as well as a hayride through the beautiful apple and pear orchards and rows of Christmas trees. Visitors will see a display of cider-making equipment for fruit harvested from the farm’s certified organic orchard of various apple varieties.

Food and music by local musicians will be available throughout the day.

The Farm Store will be open featuring Lazy J organic vegetables, garlic, potatoes, apples and apple cider. Other products will be available, too; local honey and jams, handmade soap and gifts.

Lastly, take a stroll down to Siebert Creek and see some of the projects the farm owner, Lower Elwha and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes have worked on to restore salmon habitat. The area along the creek and a portion of the farm are protected by conservation easements by the North Olympic Land Trust, preserving the creek for salmon habitat and a section of the farm for agriculture in perpetuity.

1915 Towne Road, Dungeness Ryan and Sarah McCarthey Sequim natives and company founders Jeff and Debbie Brown built their small conventional farm Dungeness Valley Creamery from the ground up in 1989. To bring their daughter Sarah back to the farm after graduating from Washington State University, the Browns needed a niche to make the addition financially possible. They took a leap of faith in 2006 and became certified raw. The change proved successful and in 2012 the farm transitioned to the next generation, Jeff and Debbie’s son-in-law and daughter Ryan and Sarah McCarthey. This succession along with the preservation of their farmland through a conservation easement with North Olympic Land Trust, ensures fresh dairy products and more from Dungeness Valley Creamery for years to come. The farm is home to 38 acres of lush pasture, 60 milking Jersey cows and the creamery building,

ages. Lots of fun and learning to be had by the whole family awaits. The McCartheys welcome you!

Sequim-Dungeness Way) features the finest organic and local produce on the Olympic Peninsula, an extensive line of organic and GMO-free grocery items, local wine and beer, a super organic bulk section, gluten-free items and household products.

This year, the farm focus is on its seed production with seed art, seed cleaning demonstrations, displays and seed talks. Lunch will be offered for sale by Pacific Pantry.

Don’t miss the Community Potluck at 6 p.m., and a foot-stompin’ Barn Dance at 7:30 p.m. Enjoy the music of the fantastic Bellingham band Polecat.

Wine and beer are served by North Olympic Land Trust. No outside alcohol, please.

Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm

3932 Sequim-Dungeness Way, Dungeness Jordan and Paul Schiefen Sequim prides itself on being the “Lavender Capital of North America” and Jardin du Soleil is one of the most beautiful lavender farms in the area.

The certified organic lavender farm was planted in 1999 on land that was part of a dairy farm established in the 1880s. Thousands of lavender plants on 10-plus acres create a wonderfully fragrant vista at the farm. Join owners Jordan and Paul Schiefen for a tour of the farm.

Learn all about how to care for, harvest and process the lavender. See demonstrations of the distillation of fragrant essential oil of lavender at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Children will have fun finding hidden treasure, running in the maze and making farm crafts to take home. Annie’s Flower Farm, a flower farm and florist in Sequim, will be at the farm with her pop-up floral stand. She will have which also houses their lovely gift shop.

The milk and cream from cows grazing on pas- bouquets for sale, flower displays and an ongoing ture in the Dungeness valley was famous for its high children’s activity making Victorian nosegays. butterfat content since the 1800s. The McCartheys’ WSU Clallam County Extension Master Gardeners cows are grazing on some of the best and most and Master Composters will have resource booths abundant grasses in Dungeness where they spend to explore. Pacific Pantry will be onsite serving seven months of the year. During the winter they up amazing soups and sausages made with farmare fed non-GMO alfalfa hay and treated to a small fresh local ingredients. Come join us for farm fun at amount of corn and soy-free grain when they are one of the jewels of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley! milked. Each cow is named and registered through the American Jersey Cattle Association. Their milk Nash’s Organic Produce and type performance records are carefully kept and 1865 E. Anderson Road, Dungeness the milking facility is immaculately clean. No rBST Nash Huber and Patty McManus-Huber or growth hormones of any type are used.

Since 1979, Nash Huber and his crew have Farm Tour day at the creamery buzzes with cultivated delicious, fresh, organic produce in the fun and activities. Guided hayrides visit the farm’s fertile Sequim-Dungeness Valley and brought it pastures and grazing milk herd. Feel free to tour to the local community via farmers markets and the barn and milking parlor where the creamery’s Nash’s Farm Store. Over the years, new products, delicious raw milk is produced and meet the calves! like organic grain, pastured pork, eggs, organic seed Interactive classes including butter and yogurt mak- and dried beans and peas have been added and the ing will be demonstrated throughout the day, as well acreage has increased to 650. The farm also mills as food vending from Curbside Bistro. Don’t forget its own flours and corn meal, and rolls its own oats to visit the petting zoo, a favorite for children of all and barley. Nash’s Farm Store in Dungeness (4681

Five Acre School

515 Lotzgesell Road, Dungeness Brian Walsh and Autumn Piontek-Walsh Five Acre School is an independent school, serving students pre-K through grade 6, located on 5 acres adjacent to the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge in Washington’s first commercial straw bale building. The school pride itself on its child-centered approach to education focusing on the whole person with an emphasis on the outdoors, community stewardship and sustainability. Created and founded by Bill Jevne and Juanita Ramsey-Jevne in 1994, Five Acre School is celebrating its 22nd year with current owners Brian Walsh and Autumn Piontek-Walsh.

The Walshes invite you to visit the beautiful school grounds. At the school, visitors can take short walks through the Wildlife Refuge led by student naturalists, see the elementary agricultural projects in action, experience the playground and preserved

HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 • 5

Agnew Grocery & Feed

Lurkalee Gaare

2863 Old Olympic Highway Chris Frankfurth The Agnew Store is one of the oldest operating businesses in Clallam County, playing an important role in local agriculture since 1926. For years, hay truck operators stopped here to weigh their crops while their children grabbed an ice cream. Although no longer in use, the scale remains on display. The cold storage building was in use until 1984 for

Lazy J Tree Farm *225 Gehrke Road

FARM TOUR

Agnew Grocery and Feed 2863 Old Olympic Hwy.

Lurkalee Gaare 702 Gunn Road

Herding demonstrations with Border Collies, and fiber processing demos

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5-acre sheep farm using Border Collies as shepherds!

515 Lotzgesell Road Visit student agricultural projects, a natural playscape, arts and crafts, and paths through the preserved wetland

Future farmers in action!

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Olympic

Discovery

Find more Farm Tour info at: clallam.wsu.edu

Trail

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Featuring a farmland conservation project in partnership with North Olympic Land Trust

Please leave your dogs at home !

Stop by the Fiber Festival and Museum & Arts Center in downtown Sequim to see fiber artisans in action.

The fiber festival runs Sat-Sun., Oct. 1-2

Saturday October 1st

10 AM to 4 PM

Simply go to whichever farm you want to visit first. At that farm, you’ll pay $10 per carload and receive a ticket to place on your windshield.

Then proceed at your own pace to whichever farms you want to visit that day. It's that simple!

Hayrides, games, great food, live music, and fun for the whole family!

Lazy J Tree Farm Agnew Grocery & Feed Lurkalee Gaare 5 Acre School

Dungeness Valley Creamery 1915 Towne Road

Come visit a raw milk dairy

Hayrides around the farm, tours of the milking parlors, butter and yogurt making demos, and a petting zoo

Great Food and fun demos!

Dungeness Creamery Hi g

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5 Acre School

North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim

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Nash’s Organic Produce 10 1

Jardin Du Soleil Fiber Arts Festival

Farm Goods For Sale Kids Activities

Highw ay 101

Enjoy a scenic lavender farm!

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Old Olymp ic Hwy

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Gunn Rd

Carlsborg Rd

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Woodcock Rd

Woodcock Rd

Tours of the beautiful lavender fields, lavender processing and distillation demos, and kids’ fun flower activities

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Jardin du Soleil 3932 Sequim- Dungeness Way

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Food to Eat Animals

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Wild Current Way

Finn-Hall Rd

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Kitchen -Dick Rd

Gehrke Rd

B Cays Rd

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See you on the farm!

Sequim- Dun ge

Clark Rd

Classic farm store built in 1926!

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Anderson Rd

Antique tractor display, petting zoo, live music, and fun kids activities

Organic Produce * Nash’s 1865 E. Anderson Road

Tour greenhouses and fields, watch seed cleaning demos, and come to the evening Barn Dance and Potulck!

Visit the area’s largest organic farm!

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Live music & great food!

Towne Rd

Hayrides, great music, organic orchards, plus a giant sand pile for kids of all ages

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702 Gunn Road, Agnew Patricia Pedersen Pronounced “Lurk-a-lee Gore,” the name of this farm is Danish for “Lucky Sheep Farm.” This 5-acre sheep farm owned by Patricia Pedersen is home to 18 sheep, including three different breeds.

Pedersen uses working border collies as shepherds! You will be amazed at the intelligence, energy,

discipline and enthusiasm of these working dogs as they deftly maneuver sheep around the pastures during regular herding demonstrations throughout the day. A second featured herder, Suzanne Anaya, will demonstrate alongside Pedersen. Anaya often competes with her dogs in the border collie trials and also has trained her dogs for agility and tricks.

Longtime spinner, weaver and owner of The Local Yarn Shop in Sequim, Terry Medicino will be on hand to both demonstrate and talk about the many different ways that fiber can be utilized.

“I love everything about fiber,” she says. “Watching it go from the sheep to yarn to a garment is amazing!” She also has border collies and maintains a herd of sheep to work and train her dogs.

This stop on Farm Tour is guaranteed to be a fun and educational experience for the whole family.

A M d is o hi n’t s

wetland. On the Farm Tour, be sure to enjoy arts and crafts, cider pressing and a community bake sale at Five Acre School.

families to rent freezer space. The building had to be torn down because of fire damage, but there are still customers that remember their locker number.

Some of these locker doors now decorate the store.

During the Farm Tour, stop by and see how the store is keeping a bit of the area’s history in everything it offers! There will be antique tractors on display, a small petting zoo, live music from local artists, a U-pick pumpkin patch and lots of local goods and drinks, including sandwiches from Olympic Bagel Company. Neighboring Johnston Farms also will have a fresh produce stand.

6 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

Welcome to the 2016 Clallam County Farm Tour!

By Mark Ozias Clallam County Commissioner

Welcome to the 2016 Clallam County Farm Tour!

Every year some of our county’s most interesting and progressive farms open their gates to the public giving us OZIAS a glimpse into what it takes to produce food for ourselves, our friends and our neighbors. I encourage you to visit each participating farm to see (and taste!) for yourself the amazing food that Clallam County farmers produce each day.

From sheep at Lurkalee Gaare, to one of our state’s few raw milk dairies at Dungeness Valley Creamery, to lavender at Jardin du Soleil, to the multi-faceted certified organic operation at Nash’s, to Christmas trees and potatoes at Lazy J Tree Farm, you will end the day with a deep appreciation for our farmers and the importance of their efforts.

Of course, the Farm Tour is just one special

weekend each year. I am happy to report that many of our local farmers give us the chance to visit their farms and access their fresh products every day of the week at their roadside farm stands. One of the great pleasures of living in Clallam County is the wide variety of farm stands that offer fresh, locally grown produce throughout the season while also providing insight into our local farming community. If you aren’t from Clallam County, you will be doubly impressed at how successfully our farms employ the honor system at their stands!

The best part of visiting a farm on the Farm Tour or stopping by a farm stand at another time of year is getting to meet your farmer. It means something to have a connection with the person who is growing your food. For example, if you are lucky on a visit to Sofie Farm on Evans Road, you might have the chance to meet Mr. Sofie and learn about the proprietor’s great-grandfather who homesteaded the land in the 1800s, operating one of the area’s first dairy farms.

Now Mr. Sofie’s farm stand is stocked with garden vegetables like spinach, radishes, tomatoes,

berries, lettuce and more. Just follow the handpainted white signs with red lettering advertising “organic produce.”

Nearby is Nick’s Organic Garden, a charming farm stand on Sequim-Dungeness Way just south of the entrance to Sunland. The stand features fresh farm eggs and all of the garden’s bounty; from the stand you can look out at the large flock of laying hens roaming on pasture. If you have never seen a chicken, take a good look. Hard to believe each one of those ladies produces an egg nearly every day.

Also at Nick’s Organic Garden stand is a small chalkboard filled with notes and updates about what’s happening on the farm, connecting you to your farmer and providing insight into the variety of daily tasks necessary to raise food for others.

The Family Farm is located just west of McDonald Creek on Old Olympic Highway. Upon entering you will be treated to a wide selection of flowers and flower arrangements, dahlias and fresh vegetables galore. A half-dozen hoop houses (and experienced growers) allow for the widest variety of local products available at just about any farm

stand we know.

A short jaunt farther west on Old Olympic Highway is Johnston Farms, located on Heuslein Road.

Christie and Kelly Johnston were recognized as “Farmers of the Year” by the North Olympic Land Trust in 2013 and are vendors at the Port Angeles Farmers Market.

At the entrance to the farm is a sign listing all the fresh items available at the stand, including spinach, lettuce and mixed greens, garlic, potatoes and eggs. The Johnstons grow a wide variety of crops throughout the season (Christie’s celery is a favorite!) and their farm stand provides regular access all year long.

There are many more farm stands out in and around our area; do yourself a favor and finally STOP at that stand you’ve driven by a hundred times.

You won’t leave with just a bag of fresh delicious vegetables; you will leave with a feeling of connection to your community and possibly to people you haven’t even met.

Thank you Clallam County farmers!

Cultivating Students of Agriculture: Peninsula College’s Sustainable Agriculture Certificate Program

By Jennifer Santry

Peninsula College instructor Who knew that something our grandparents used to do would come back as the new hip trend? City people, college students and other folks across the nation are turning their televisions off and turning soil instead. People are learning that you can participate in the local food movement and live just about anywhere… city to country and everywhere in between.

I’ve yet to see a more perfect setup for this opportunity than the peninsula. It’s already happening. We have small and large farms, pick-your-own, value-added, agritourism, community gardens, farmers markets, co-ops, CSA’s and the annual Farm Tour.

More importantly, community members feel that connection to food. They care about where their food comes from and how it is produced.

A person’s connection to food — the land, soil, working with your hands, seeds, the harvest … has always intrigued me. There is so much opportunity for our community and future generations to learn the story of our food. To me it’s about education, hands-in-the-dirt experiences, and pulling carrots out of the ground in late summer after planting tiny seeds in the spring.

If you can relate to this, you know how easy it is to lose several hours in your garden taking care of your plants as if they were your own children. Watering, feeding, weeding, observing, smelling, cutting, planning and sowing… just a few of the blissful benefits.

As you can see, there are many ways to connect to food at any age. However, I believe the most significant and lasting connection can be made with college students. I also believe, wholeheartedly, that Peninsula College has amazing potential to be that vehicle for our community.

Young farmers, also referred to as “The Greenhorns,” include 20and 30-somethings that get the bug to abandon “city” life and move to small rural plots to form farming communities. In feeling this inherent connection to the land and returning to our roots, the Greenhorns are a fundamental piece to a functional and sustainable food system.

We need young people to fall in love with agriculture (and agriculture done right!) so the next generation of farmers can continue to produce our food. At the same time, we need community members to carry on their micro-farming endeavors to ensure our local foodshed prospers and grows.

That’s why I am excited to tell you about the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems short-term certificate program at Peninsula College. The courses are ideal for anyone wanting to learn more about the major challenges impacting today’s food system as well as how to address these issues with local, community-based,

sustainable solutions.

The certificate program is offered online and is designed for both aspiring farmers and community members interested in learning how to work in a regional food system in the areas of advocacy, education and production. Students who complete the certificate program will gain foundational knowledge and skills to work on a farm or operate their own farm business. The program will also benefit those seeking careers in local food and green businesses, urban agriculture, permaculture and related jobs in farm-based education, healthy food access, public policy and community development.

I hope you’ll consider joining us as we cultivate new students of agriculture! To learn more about the program and available courses, please visit www.pencol.edu/proftech/sustainable-agriculture. Get started at pencol.edu or contact Student Services at 417-6340.

HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 • 7

North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival

By Renne Emiko Brock

Director of the North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival The 11th Annual North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival in Sequim is Oct. 1-2. Join us for this interactive fiber arts event connecting to the community with activities like a museum exhibition, workshops, educational demonstrations of fiber processes, hands-on projects for children and adults, Fiber Arts Market of local artists’ work and fiber supplies, and information about local fiber activities, groups, businesses and instructional resources. This community event is produced with the assistance of several local fiber arts groups, artists and fiber-friendly businesses

and educational organizations.

The Fiber Arts Festival is an opportunity to experience positive inclusion, creative expression and the economic enterprise of art. Always encouraging genuine growth and artistic integrity, most activities are free to the public and all forms of fiber art are welcome.

To inspire you and the next generation of fiber artists, the Fiber Arts juried exhibition has a unique, accessible theme each year to inspire artists to create new works or bring out older works that they haven’t had occasions to share. This year the themed “Material Measurement — Magnitude, Meaning & Makers” exhibition is about vindicating the volume and importance of all fiber in its many forms while reflecting on textiles, tales and talent through enlightenment, abundance, accumulation and perception. Conspicuous consumption or considerate consequences, creators convey cloth’s transformation from meaningless mass into something that matters.

The “Material Measurement — Magnitude, Meaning & Makers” exhibition is at the Museum & Arts Center at 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim, and will be on display Oct. 1-Nov. 26.

Each year on Saturday from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., we have an actionpacked Fiber Arts Extravaganza full of free educational demonstrations, hands-on engagement for all ages and Fiber Arts Market. The Fiber Arts Extravaganza is at the City of Sequim Civic Center Plaza on the northwest corner of Cedar Street and Sequim Avenue. Visitors will have the opportunity to shop for items from fleece to finished products including apparel, household goods and supplies to create your own fiber works. Demonstrations vary from spinning yarn, felting, knitting, hooking, weaving and

Enjoy Farm Day! We invite you to learn about farming in Clallam County as you experience the great local family farms on tour. We’re in our fourth generation and still committed to farming.

HAY • LOGGING SERVICES • SANDBLASTING • NATURAL BEEF

FAMILY FARMS

360-683-3655

workshops and locations.

Excellent volunteers make this community event possible and we are grateful for their fostering natures and fiber arts talents. Many fiber arts events and exhibitions happen throughout the month of October on the Olympic Peninsula that are

inclusive partnerships with the North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival. Curious about upcoming themes for the festival and exhibition? In 2017, it is “Threads Count — Textiles, Technology & Tales” and in 2018, the theme is “Transformative Style — Originality, Revolution & Repute.”

Available

• Apples (many varieties) • Potatoes & Garlic • Mixed Vegetables • Certified Organic

Selling compost, mulch and topsoil too!

U-Cut Christmas Trees Christmas Greenery Boughs and Wreaths

Thanksgiving through Christmas

STEVEN JOHNSON

225 Gehrke Rd., Port Angeles

(360) 457-5950

Direct Farm Sales

Farm open to the public during regular business hours

691680777

BEKKEVAR

273054 Hwy 101 7 miles East of Sequim

hand-stitching. Learn more about local artists and fiber-related groups to join our growing and supportive community. Bring your friends and family to discover the many forms of fiber arts and make some new friends, too.

On Sunday from noon-3 p.m., come to the “Material Measurement — Magnitude, Meaning & Makers” artists’ reception at the MAC where you can meet the exhibiting artists from near and far who may reveal the stories behind their creative and splendid work.

These fiber artists also enjoy hearing your fiber tales. You might inspire a collaborative project for next year!

Also on Sunday, we have workshops by local artists who teach various fiber methods that might include quilting, dyeing, spinning, felting, knitting and creating custom fabrics. These workshops are a great way to try out different fiber arts and discover your talent for color and craft. Please visit the website for

8 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

HARVEST CELEBRATION 2016

WE HAVE THE POWER

TO GET THINGS DONE! YANMAR We have the tools and equipment to make things happen Tues-Fri 9am - 5:30pm, Sat 9am - 4pm 2624 E. Hwy. 101 • Port Angeles • 360-452-4652