by Samantha Schuller
If you’ve been grumping and muttering under your breath all summer at your unproductive melon vines, short tomato season, and stunted peppers, now is the time to start gloating about our Pacific weather. We here in the Northwest are blessed—that’s right, blessed—with usually mild winters, which means that we get a growable winter
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by Jessica Harbert
Once-dairy farm turned thriving apple orchard, BelleWood Acres has grown from the aspirations of owners Dorie and John Belisle. Home to 25,000 apple trees and a vast selection of farm-made products, BelleWood Acres will expand in 2012 to include Whatcom County’s first distillery, a larger bakery, community space and year-round activities.
The Belisles, who
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On Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 1 and 2, the public can visit 14 stops during the 13th annual Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms. Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the participating farms and wineries open their doors to show their operations, talk local food and drink, give you a hands-on experience, meet animals,
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The month of September marks the first Eat Local Month in Whatcom County, a new campaign launched by Sustainable Connections’ Food & Farming Program. Organized in relation to a new Eat Local First initiative of Sustainable Connections, the month-long celebration will feature events like featured restaurants that support local farmers, a farm tour, book events,
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“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” -Kahlil Gibran
I have dirty feet. The kind of dirty, summer, gardening feet a lot of folks have this time of year. No matter how much I scrub, some of the dirt is there to stay.
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Common sense gardening
What a super publication. The July/August issue was so right on with old-fashioned common sense gardening tips. In my parents’ day (when ordinary basic soaps were used), wash water went out over the flower beds. Soapy water cured insects on vegetables. Urine was not wasted – it fertilized plants. Cow manure was a
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Self-guided tour on Sept. 10 includes farms, wineries, farmers market
WHATCOM – The annual Whatcom County Farm Tour organized by Sustainable Connections will take place Saturday, Sept. 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and feature a total of 10 farms, two wineries and the Bellingham Farmers Market.
The tour is free and self-guided,
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by Grow Northwest
A number of local fairs and festivals will be held in July and August, with a mixed focus on local food, agriculture, community, arts and heritage. Following are some of the events taking place in our northwest corner.
Northwest Raspberry Festival
This annual Lynden-based festival takes place Friday, July 15 and Saturday, July 16 in
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by Jessamyn Tuttle
One of the real perks of living near Puget Sound is being able to eat really fresh shellfish. I grew up eating crab and clams (not to mention the inevitable backyard summer salmon grills), but for some reason have only recently discovered the incredible world of oysters. Once converted, I was wildly excited
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by Shona Hilton
My internal compass has always been set North by Northwest. In fact I have always assumed we would end up in Alaska. So you can imagine my surprise when the Fates decided to pull a fast one and send us East over the Cascades to live in Okanogan County near Tonasket.
Yup, the Hiltons
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