Raise a glass to the end of Washington Organic Week with the winner of Tilth Producers of Washington organic cocktail contest. The spicy-sweet cocktail is delicious, and it just happens to be prime season for fresh hot peppers--Alvarez and Tonnemaker stands at farmers markets are loaded with choices to change the ratio of heat to sweet for Shane Sahr's winning cocktail.

More fun stuff coming up!

September 21-- Join Jill Lightner and an all-star panel to talk with Rowan Jacobsen, James Beard award winning food writer and author of American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields, about native foods. The $25 ticket price includes appetizers, Theo chocolates, and a guided tasting of ciders, apples, and oysters. Part of Kim Ricketts Book Events. 7-9 pm, Palace Ballroom. Buy tickets from Brown Paper Tickets here. 

September 23 and 29-- Cascade Harvest Coalition presents a Seed Saving for Gardeners and Farmers Workshop. The workshop on the 23rd will be offered in Port Townsend at The Quimper Grange and Midori Farm, and on the 29th at Whidbey Island's Greenbank Farm. Gardeners and farmers can learn to grow and save seeds, and create new varieties. Deadline to register is September 20, and space is limited! Find out more at Organic Seed Alliance's website. 

September 25-26-- The Market Foundation hosts the Pike Place Market Artisan Food Festival, a benefit for the services the Foundation provides for low-income people. Stroll through the outdoor pavillions to experience different food and beverage themes (chocolate, vegetables, beer and wine...), and check out chef demos, music, and activities for the youngsters. Looks like a great schedule!

September 28-- Another great Kim Ricketts event brings you a Cooks & Books jam demo with jam-master and author of The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, Rachel Saunders. The $65 ticket price gets you appetizers and wine, the jam demonstration, a jar of jam to take home, and a signed copy of the book. 6:30pm at Dish It Up. Tickets available here. To learn more about Rachel Saunders, listen to her interview with Jane Black on Edible Radio!

Our intreprid Recipe Maven is Jess Thomson. She's been with us since the beginnning, putting up with my repeated attempts to insert a "p" into her last name and more occasional nitpicking. She's a champ for reasons too numerous to list here, but most important is this: her recipes are amazing. Remember that Harvest Cake from 2008, when she figured out a way to cram a box full of vegetables into a cake and still have it taste delicious? Or how about that Salty Green Potato Salad, which my husband makes by the five-gallon bucket all summer long? Plotting out future recipes with Jess is a blast. So is eating a huge Thanksgiving dinner on her deck in July.

The thing you probably don't know about Jess is that she has lupus, an auto-immune disorder that can cause a huge and complex range of health issues. At this point, Lupus isn't something you cure--it's something you live with. Some days, or months, are more successful than others. A while back, Jess got wholloped, but lately her energy and appetite are good and she's participating in a benefit walk to raise funds and awareness for lupus. I've pitched in and asked her if I could mention it here, so anyone interested could throw some money to a cause very close to her heart. (And kidneys. And joints.) It's worth mentioning that there hasn't been a major breakthrough in lupus treatment medication in 50 years.

The 2010 Mad Hatter Walk, Run and Roll for Lupus is the biggest annual fundraiser for the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America. Jess has said that ridiculous hats are encouraged, but she has not mentioned whether she'll be wearing one. We can only hope.

You'll find her team page here, and from there you can pull up her specific page or simply donate to her team.

There's an initiative coming up for a vote this fall that is awash in advertising dollars from corporations that have a vested interest in Washington overturning a tax. The tax, which adds a bit per item to a relatively small collection of snacks, is expected to raise $30 million for the current fiscal year. That's money the state needs desperately, as revenue sources are down across the board, and programs have been slashed to the point where it's hard to find any more cuts without, say, closing our high schools.

Specifically, the grocery items being taxed: candy, gum, soda, and bottled water. Aside from the last, these are commonly known as junk food, and can be seen pretty easily as non-essential items. (In case you don't read my editor's letters: I have a serious sweet tooth, and my lunch today included a few pieces of something known as a 'Wonka Exceptionals Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate Bar.' I still call it junk food.) On candy and gum, you now pay our standard sales tax. For soda purchases, it's two cents per 12 ounces, so a 12-pack of cans will cost you 24 extra cents. Bottled water has a sensible exemption: If you're using a refillable container (like refilling a two-gallon jug at the co-op), there's still no tax. If you're picking up a disposable bottle after your workout and you forgot your usual refillable bottle at home, that's an extra two cents. This went into effect last July. Even with my regular (and ridiciulously named) candy purchases, and occasional addition of a carbonated beverage to the grocery list, I haven't honestly noticed the increases, or felt I was being unfairly singled out for punitive taxes--or at least, noticed them separately from the ongoing sticker shock of paying 9.5 percent in sales tax on every non-food purchase.

Washington could use an overhaul of its tax structure; it's true. But this particular increase isn't being fought by protectors of those on fixed incomes--it's being fought by a trade organization/lobbying group known as the American Beverage Association. The board of this group relates to all the global high fructose corn syrup-loving soda companies: Snapple, Dr Pepper, Pepsi, Coke, Nestle, Sunny Delight, RC Cola, Canada Dry--you'll find them all represented on the board of directors list. They've given $10 million to buy our votes. Even the URL purchased by this group is misleading--it's www.stopgrocerytaxes.com, like somehow you're paying tax on carrots, tuna or even a bottle of corn syrup.

Part of the tax package included a $1,000 B&O credit to our state's candymakers, so the fine folks at Brown&Haley, Fran's and Theo aren't being unfairly dinged by the increase. 30 other states already tax candy and gum--it's not some kind of crazed nanny-state idea. And the guidelines as to what makes candy--things that include flour aren't candy--are followed by four other states (it's not ideal, but a more clear-cut guideline has proven tricky to invent).

I went looking for a "no on I-1107" campaign, and can't find one; this page at Rebuilding Our Economic Future is the closest I can track down. My neighborhood blog ran an informative op-ed about it last June.

So, in lieu of a "Vote No on I-1107" group to promote, let me just say: I hope you join me and vote No on I-1107.

Have an idea for a value-added product to sell at farmers markets? 21 Acres is hosting a class to help turn that idea into a viable business. Dale Nelson of Food Concepts, Inc. and Woodring Northwest will lead the Bring Your Food to Market Workshop on Saturday, September 11, at 21 Acres in Woodinville. Included will be information on health regulations, licensing, production, and more. As an added bonus, 21 Acres will be opening a commercial kitchen next spring that will be available to farmers and food purveyors-- way cool! Download the enrollment application here and read about their other upcoming classes. 

Also on Saturday, September 11, will be the 3rd Annual Whatcom County Farm Tour. Between the eleven farms participating, activities range from sampling handmade lotions, to making your own cider slushy, to riding in a horse-drawn wagon through apple orchards. You might even meet a bison! Farms are open from 10am to 6pm. Find the list of participating farms here, or look for it in the Bellingham Herald or Cascadia Weekly the week before the event. 

Finally, bring your picnic gear and a big appetite on Sunday, September 12, to Seattle Chefs Collaborative's 4th annual rooftop feast and fundraiser, Urban Picnic. An all-star list of chefs will be serving up the northwest's finest food in the Rainier Square Rooftop Courtyard to raise scholarship money to send a budding culinary star to the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts. (If you aren't familiar with these guys, take a look at their website. They're pretty awesome, and have a book that is one of my all-time favorites.)

Urban Picnic participating chefs:

John Sundstrom of Lark
Jason Franey of Canlis
Maria Hines of Tilth
Seth Caswell of Emmer & Rye
Ethan Stowell of Anchovies & Olives
Rachel Yang of Joule
Dan Braun of Oliver's Twist
Karen Jurgensen of Quillisascut Farm
Riley Starks of Willows Inn
Autumn Martin of Hot Cakes
Tara Ayers of Ocho (one of the recipients of the 2010 Quillisascut scholarship)
 
Tickets for the event are $60 (kids under 10 get in free) and include beer, wine, and music. Purchase through Brown Paper Tickets here.

Here in Salmon Nation, grocery shoppers might make a choice between wild or farmed salmon, but in general, we expect our salmon to be wild caught. We pay attention to things like salmon seasons, and know a few runs by the name of the individual rivers. A lot of us have gone salmon fishing a time or two, or know professional fishermen. We have opinions about which is better: sockeye or king. We munch ikura. When we have out-of-town visitors come in, we either take them out for salmon or we buy one for the grill. In other words, we take these fish for granted.

California and Oregon have each seen devestating loss in their salmon fisheries in the last few years, and we may not be far behind; Canada openly admits the folks in charge don't understand the fishery. Alaska is the only state left with a truly active wild salmon industry. Salmon canneries have been big business in Bristol Bay since the 1870s--about the time Atlantic salmon were being wiped out--and some of the earliest U.S. attempts at industry regulation happened in the 1890s, when it became illegal to block an entire river and capture the thousands of fish returning to spawn. (As you might imagine, this technique  was remarkably effective in ending the presence of salmon in the blocked rivers.) A blend of bad science and out-of-state cannery business interests resulted in Eisenhower declaring the salmon fishery a federal disaster in 1953. Things only got worse until the official acceptance of Alaska statehood in 1960, when the new state's fish and wildlife department was able to ban fish traps and create effective resource management by local fishermen. Continuing into the 1990s, the region saw some dips and peaks in the fish population, but was careful to manage the resource with long-term sustainability in mind.

In 2007, George Bush opened Bristol Bay for oil drilling exploration; Obama banned it again in March 2010. There's an ongoing mess of global corporate developers wanting to open a two-mile long open pit mine in the region. This mine will permanently destroy about 60 miles of salmon habitat (the pro-mine official site is here).

Washington continues to work on salmon protection projects: Salmon Safe certification, habitat restoration and dam removal are all beneficial to our local fish. But when it comes to thinking locally in relation to a species that swims thousands of miles in its life and disregards notions of national boundaries, it's important to raise our eyes past the horizon and see what we can do in Alaska.

• The Natural Resources Defense Council continues to fight the good fight by drumming up activist petitions and delivering tens of thousands of them to business leaders and policy makers. Signing an electronic petition is a quick action that may make a difference.

• Scott McAdams has won the Democratic primary for the open Alaska senate seat. He's decidedly pro-salmon, and decided to run after Senator Murkowski fought on behalf of lower liability caps during the BP Gulf oil disaster. He's sure to need some help raising funds in his election fight.

• Trout Unlimited wants to protect the bay's habitat for sport and commercial fishermen. Like Ducks Unlimited, this organization brings together dedicated sportsmen and passionate environmentalists to fight together to protect the species they love. They're big fans of the film Red Gold.

In June, I visited two wineries in Wenatchee that were just a few minutes apart (as the crow flies, it was about 45 seconds, but there were some winding gravel roads that slow us puny humans down a bit). One winery, Saint Laurent, was out on the edge of a bluff, with some of those lovely steep hills spreading down on a windy ridge, covered with vines. The other winery, Malaga Springs, was tucked in next to a sheer, steep mountainside of dark rocks. Those rocks retain heat like a cast iron skillet, and have a big impact on wind. Two wineries, minutes apart, with utterly different soil, wind, heat and hours of sunshine each day. It was a remarkably visual lesson in microclimate. (It was also an incredibly gorgeous afternoon: quail hopping about, sitings of hawks and magpies, a marmot on alert, sweeping clouds coming and going. Wenatchee in June is magnificent.)

That afternoon visit is what peaked my interest in reading this story from WSU today, about Geographical Information Systems. A grad student by the name of Ian Yau is working on an incredibly detailed tool (for WSU researchers now; for the public somewhere down the line) that analyzes soil, climate and topography to help determine not just how the land might be suited for a vineyard, but what kinds of grapes are likely to perform well. While everyone on the project agrees that there's still no substitute for walking the land, this system is exactly the sort of preliminary search tool that functions as a smart, efficient use of technology.

The  Cake vs. Pie Showdown at CakeSpy Gallery is coming up on Monday and the turnout has been astonishing. Not only are all the contest slots booked up, we have a waiting list for two dozen more hopefuls. I can't wait to judge! Don't forget to submit photos for our companion cake vs. pie photo contest! We still need more pie photos, or cakes are sure to win top honors.

Clearly, with this sort of sold-out popularity, we're not the only ones who think baking contests are fun. One of the proudest moments of my life dates back to the age of six, when I won a ribbon at the Goshen County Fair for my biscuits--and not in the junior class, either. If we'd stuck around 'til I was 10 or so, maybe I would've snagged that giant purple Best in Show ribbon from the elderly Mennonite lady who won every year.

The Puyallup Fair has a big selection of contests this year--the entire list is rather mind-boggling--and these days, you might win more than just a ribbon if you win. You can find the cooking ones buried in the "home arts" category, gardening falls more obviously under horticulture. Some have cash prizes of around $100, and some--like the Ghiradelli chocolate dessert contest--include prizes of generous amounts of product. (Note the $500 shopping spree at King Arthur, bakers!) There's even a cool one sponsored by Fleischmann's yeast that benefits the Susan G. Komen foundation: Fleischmann's is donating $10 per entry to the foundation for breast cancer research. You need to check deadlines and rules carefully; some of them (especially pickling) have a fair amount of fine print to read through.

I'm also intrigued by the home brewing and wine making contests. These are popular hobbies around here--you chemistry nerd brewer types need to get out of the garage and enter these contests. Let us know in the comments if you'll be entering, especially if you'll be highlighting local ingredients in your entry--we'll turn this into our own edible March Madness.

You need only catch a glimpse of the expanding farmers markets these days to know that the season of summer abundance is upon us. With all that beautiful, colorful, fresh-from-the-farm food spilling out of the market stands, there's only one thing left to do-- eat! The calendar is filling up with amazing feasts, and here are four for the month of August.

First up is the Sunset and Stars Winemaker's Dinner at Terra Blanca Winery in Red Mountain. Winemaker Keith Pilgrim will match wines from the Certified Salmon Safe vineyard with seven courses from Chef Latoskie of Graze Catering in Walla Walla. Saturday, August 7. Appetizers at 7:30, dinner at 8. $125 per person, or $112.50 for Club Onyx members. For reservations or more info, email them here. 

On Sunday, August 8, join columnist Amy Pennington at Volunteer Park Cafe for a meal showcasing some of the delicious goods from her cookbook, Urban Pantry. Chef/Owners Ericka Burke and Heather Earnhardt will be serving up this amazing menu with Snoqualmie organically produced wines:

• Urban Pantry Goodies & Local Cheeses
• Carrot Bisque 
• Herb Roasted Chicken Legs with Heirloom Tomato & White Bean Panzanella 
• Braised Pork Shoulder with Sweet Corn Succotash
• Peach Bread Pudding with Bourbon Caramel

Cost is $65 and includes the meal, wine, and a signed copy of Urban Pantry. Dinner starts at 6pm. Call 206.328.3155 to save yourself a spot.

The 15th annual fundraising event Sunset Supper at the Market will be held on Friday, August 13. From 7:30 to 11pm, Pike Place Market will become a private party venue where 1200 guests will sample food from 40 Seattle resturants (on compostable plates and cutlery!), along with spirits, wines, and brews. (Maybe by 8:30 you'll have had enough to drink that you're ready to get down to the tunes of funk band Soul'd Out!) 

Sunset Supper at the Market is raising money to support the work of four groups serving the low-income community, Market Medical Clinic, Market Senior Center, the Market Child Care & Preschool and the Downtown Food Bank. General admission is $95, or guarantee yourself seating for $40 more. Tickets available here from Brown Paper Tickets. 

Finally, it's time again for An Incredible Feast- Where the Farmers are Stars. Head to the U-District farmers market location on Sunday, August 22, and feast on more than 30 gourmet creations prepared with local farm ingredients, as well as local wine and beer. The event includes live music, games and prizes, and a dessert auction. Click here to see the stunning list of participating farms and chefs!

Proceeds from An Incredible Feast will benefit the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance and the Good Farmer Fund. Tickets are $80 each, or save ten bucks if you buy in pairs. Purchase tickets here. 

I'm looking at two awesome events on the calendar that are coming up fast, so I'm gonna get right to it.

First, head out to Taylor Shellfish Farms in Bow this Saturday for the 8th Annual Samish Bay Bivalve Bash! The schedule of events includes a low-tide mud run for adults and kids (which sounds just filthy, exhausting, and wonderful), and the world's only oyster shell sculpture competition, offering some hefty cash prizes. Naturally, there will be great food and a beer garden. The event benefits community clean-water awareness programs. Find more info, and register for the run and sculpture contest, on the website. Saturday, July 24, 9am-5pm, 2182 Chuckanut Drive in Bow, Washington.


Mud run! (photo courtesy of Jon Rowley)




Oyster shell sculpture with the tide coming in. (photo courtesy of Jon Rowley)


The next day, Pike Place Market is having their 2nd annual Fruit Festival! The event is free and will feature lots of family-friendly activities, including music, cooking demos, and, of course, a speed pie eating contest (because no self-respecting fruit festival would be caught dead without one)! Also of note is the "Iron Chef" style competition between Chef Josh Green of the Virginia Inn and Chef Ron Anderson of Etta’s Seafood. At noon they will be given two secret ingredients and will have 20 minutes to shop in the market before cooking up their dishes. It is on! For more information, check out the Pike Place website. Sunday, July 25, 10am-4pm.

Summer has been taking its sweet time arriving this year, but these events are already making the season change feel more official!

We're encouraging bakers from both sides of the fence to show off your favorite cake or pie at the CakeSpy Shop on Monday, August 9. The contest is open to amateur and professional bakers alike!

CakeSpy, Edible Seattle and Jenise Silva present:  Cake vs Pie.

1. If you bake, bake your favorite cake or pie for a chance to win a pie or canning class.
2. If photography is your thing, snap photos for an opportunity to be published online at Edible Seattle.
3. If you have have stories to share about cake or pie, then consider this event your soapbox.

Prize sponsors include Art of the Pie, Cupcake Royale, Edible Seattle, Chef Shop, Glazer's Camera & more!

Join judges Brittany Lee Adams, Jill Lightner, Kate McDermott & Jessie Olsen for the showdown August 9, 7 pm at CakeSpy Shop 415 E. Pine Street, on Seattle's Capitol Hill. We'll award prizes based on overall appearance, taste and texture (crust or crumb).All pies & cakes must be made from scratch and pans/plates marked on the bottom with your name and contact information.

To enter the baking or photo contest or for more information, email Jenise Silva. 
And for the complete details on the photos contest, click here.

If you love our local fruit, you need to make a trip to Mount Vernon, where the Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation is located. Aside from the opportunity to eat some great cherries, you can learn all kinds of things about fruit trees and our climate: diseases and pests, best varietals, how to properly care for your trees, and what surprising fruits do well in our own backyards. (Think figs, persimmons and yuzu.)

Hope you check out the "Sample The Cherry Harvest" event on July 10th 2010. Registration begins at 10:40 AM. From 11:00 to 11:30 Hollis Spitler will talk about the Spotted Wing Fruit Fly that is invading our area (attacking cherries, blueberries, and raspberries) and will demonstrate how to make a homemade trap for them. Then, at 11:30 we sample this year's Cherry Harvest!

The event will be held at  WSU NWREC at 16650 State Route 536, Mt Vernon WA. Click here for more info, or call 360-820-8586.

And, once you've pigged out on fresh cherries, don't forget to try Lara Ferroni's delicious cherry-rosemary focaccia.

Wilcox Farms in Roy, Washington, is hosting their June Jubilee event this weekend, June 26 and 27, 10am-4pm. There will be tractor pulls, hay rides, farm tours, food vendors, and music, and this family event is free! Find details on their poster (pdf). 

Planning a Fourth of July picnic? Place an order and drop off a basket at Volunteer Park Cafe before Friday, July 1, and they will fill it for you. For $15 per person, you'll get a baguette sandwich (vegetarian or meat), two side salads, watermelon, dessert, and house-made lemonade. Pick up your basket on the morning of the 4th. 

For wine lovers, consider the Ohme Gardens Summer Wine Gala in the spectacular Wenatchee Valley. Hosted on the gorgeous grounds of Ohme Gardens, the evening will feature 10 area wineries, as well as food and cooking demos from 10 local chefs and caterers. Ticket price is $45 per person if purchased before July 4, and $55 for tickets purchased after. For more information and to buy tickets, head to wenatcheewines.com. 

Since Jon Rowley showed up at my house six months ago with shortcake made from frozen Shuksan strawberries, I've been looking forward to this announcement:

As soon as the Shuksan strawberries come ripe, join us at the Thulen Farm in Skagit County for the ultimate strawberry experience. The first day of picking is expected to be around June 20^th. We will provide four days advance notice on the exact day the Shuksans will be ready to pick. 

The day starts at 9:00 am with coffee and a brief pre-picking strawberry discussion with fifth generation grower Chris McBride and Shuksan enthusiast, Jon Rowley. Then we hit the field to pick the very first ripe Shuksans of the year. If you haven’t tried Shuksan strawberries, you are in for a treat.  Bring kids and a camera. Priceless photo-ops. Lift the bright emerald green leaves and behold the most beautiful, glossy, sweet, red, juicy berries you can imagine. Pick one, eat one. Half flat baskets are furnished.

After a surfeit of picking we will gather for a  Strawberry Social where you will have the opportunity to taste several strawberry varieties side by side. Enjoy Chris McBride’s Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream and Jon Rowley’s scrumptious Strawberry Shortcake while we mingle and discuss our  visit to strawberry paradise.

Tickets are $25 each and include coffee, strawberry picking, one half-flat of  berries, Strawberry Social, varietal tasting, discussion and an Anthony’s strawberry shortcake  gift certificate good in any Anthony’s restaurant. Kids under 12 are free except for the berries they pick to take home.

Ticket details and farm location at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/116895

_{photo by Jon Rowley}

There's no doubt that this is events-and-happenings season, and the calendar just keeps becoming more and more loaded. Luckily, it's loaded with really cool stuff. Here are just a few opportunities coming up in the next couple of weeks. 

First is the Tonnemaker Farm Tour on Sunday, June 27, in Royal City. Take a walking tour of the 400+ varieties of fruit and veggies, and enjoy a leisurely lunch from Chef Matt Dillon of The Corson Building. Drive yourself, or take advantage of the buses provided. Including travel time, this is an all day event! Get more information at the Tonnemaker booths at U-District and West Seattle farmers markets, or by emailing Kurt Tonnemaker. $130 for bus riders, $90 for those driving themselves. (Kids 12 and under $50 and $35.)

Next, a great reason to bike to dinner (as if having fabulous legs wasn't enough): on Tuesday, June 29, participating restaurants will donate a portion of the night's proceeds to Lettuce Link, a group helping lower-income families through gardening and fresh food access. The event is from Spoke & Food, and you can find a participating restaurant in your area here.

Looking to volunteer? Lettuce Link invites you to help harvest unused urban fruit this summer through their Community Fruit Tree Harvest initiative. Volunteers will scout trees, pick fruit, and deliver it to local food banks. Email Sadie or call 206.694.6751 for more information.

   

At last week's Edible Conversation (the next one is 9/21), Chris Curtis of Seattle's Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance mentioned that they would be releasing the results of a study completed by students at Seattle University's Albers School of Business. The topic? How prices compare on produce between farmer's markets and grocery stores.

Most folks have an assumption that markets are more expensive. My anecdotal evidence (about a decade of shopping local, notepad in hand) has taught me that it's possible to find both cheap deals ($1/bunch for non-sprayed carrots) and glorious specialty items that aren't really in my typical weekly budget (my famous example:  $15/lb pie cherries). What the business students turned up is more carefully tracked than my scribbled notes, and more surprising. According to the report, “The study concluded that prices at the Farmers Market were almost 30 percent lower on average than those at QFC.”

The study looks at five items (gala apples, green leaf lettuce, radishes, strawberries and chives) and four grocers (Safeway, QFC, PCC and Whole Foods), and they checked prices at two market locations (Broadway and University District). Chives are the big price winner for the markets: 75 cents per ounce, rather than $3.59. On the other hand, radishes are cheaper at grocers--the price average at the markets was $3.16/bunch, compared to $1.99 at PCC and Whole Foods. (Surprising to me: Safeway didn't have radishes. Also surprising: QFC's radish price was nearly $6.)

Chris also mentioned a less-cheerful but no less surprising detail about market shoppers, that led to a short back-and-forth with those of us in the conversation. We were discussing the relatively new EBT (food stamp) programs at the markets, and how I now commonly saw them being used in my neighborhood. She said that EBT use soared about 200% last year, but it was impossible to know how much of that was their outreach efforts and how much was community need. Surely it's a mix of both, but still--that's a huge jump. We can hope that 195% is their impressive outreach program
but given the unemployment rate, that seems unlikely.

While we're on the topic of hunger, it's worth mentioning that last year, the farmers who sell through the NFMA markets donated 47,000 pounds of fresh food to our city's food banks. Thanks, y'all. Your hard work and generosity keep this city fed.
 

Visited with this little fellow at Tiny's Organic on a recent trip to Wenatchee. I know it's a turkey...but can't remember which of the four breeds it is! If this is seen by some turkey-identifying genius, be sure to add it in the comments.

Join us at the Palace Ballroom on Tuesday, June 8th for the first Edible Conversation: a new author series on food, sustainability and community. Our editor Jill Lightner will interview Ben Hewitt about his life as a farmer, and the way a group of farmers and entrepreneurs banded together to create a comprehensive food system and revive the dying economy of Hardwick, Vermont. Joining Jill and Ben will be Eric Tanaka, executive chef at Tom Douglas Restaurants, Kia Kozun of Nash's Organic Produce, Chris Curtis, Director of the Neighborhood Farmer's Market Alliance, Mary Embleton of the Cascade Harvest Coalition and Zachary Lyons of Seattle Chefs Collaborative.

The $25 per/person price includes appetizers and Theo chocolate confections; a cash bar will be available as well. Copies of The Town That Food Saved will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Click here to purchase tickets.

We're relaunching the Fresh Sheet blog in June. Stay tuned...

Let's see if we can re-launch a comment section!