A box of produce box from Jubilee Farm in Carnation. Members of its Community Supported Agriculture program help cover the farm’s operating costs and receive some of the produce in return.
Emmett Jones Toutant identifies insects living in his family’s backyard garden.
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Markets at a Glance
Seattle's neighborhood markets provide the widest selection of local farm produce and foods in the city, including Washington fruit, farmstead cheeses, eggs, wine and ciders. Here's a look at some of what each has to offer.
University District – The oldest market maintained by the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance. It started in 1993 and has grown to include more than 60 farmers and 5,000 shoppers. It’s the largest “farmers only” market in Washington with the most farmers and widest selection of local farm foods plus shellfish, wild mushrooms, French charcuterie and on-site chef’s demonstrations. Join in its 15th Anniversary celebration on July 12 at 10 a.m. It operates year-round every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: N.E. 50th Street and University Way N.E.
Columbia City – A popular “midweek” market in south Seattle featuring over 40 local farmers and vendors. It includes treats from the Columbia City Bakery, fresh roasted peanuts, hot-off-the grill veggie quesadillas, a kid’s crafts tent and regular produce tastings. It runs 3 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, April 30 through Oct. 22. Location: 4801 Rainier Ave. S.
West Seattle – A year-round market that began in 1999. There’s weekly shopping and strolling music as patrons enjoy French pastries, gourmet take-out and fresh salmon. It runs every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: California Avenue S.W. and S.W. Alaska Street.
Lake City – This five-year-old market opened in a new location next to the Lake City Library in beautiful Albert Davis Park. There’s a nearby playground and picnic area. The market includes 28 varieties of hot peppers in season, a children’s event tent and homemade ice cream. It’s held Thursdays 3 to 7 p.m., June 5 through Oct. 4. Location: N.E. 125th Street and 28th Avenue N.E.
Broadway – A Sunday market held in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It boasts fresh homemade ice cream, artisan cheeses and 15 varieties of heirloom apples in season. See it every Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., May 11 through Nov. 23. Location: 10th Avenue E. and E. Thomas Street.
Phinney – The alliance’s youngest market, Phinney was founded just two years ago. Its special attractions include wood-fired pizza, Vietnamese summer rolls, Pan-African soups and stews. It draws crowds 3 to 7 p.m. each Friday, May 16 through Oct. 3. Location: N. 67th Street and Phinney Avenue N., in the lower lot of the Phinney Neighborhood Center.
Magnolia – Opens at the tail end of spring. Located near a large playground and park where the little ones can frolic after a morning of shopping, the market offers a weekly kids’ crafts tent and on-site cooking demonstrations with local celebrity chefs. It operates every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., June 7 through Oct 25. Location: 2550 34th Ave. W. at the Magnolia Community Center.
And the Granddaddy of Them All …
Pike Place Market – A century-old landmark with hundreds of shops, restaurants, vendors and crafts stands that draws tourists and locals daily. Visitors meet local farmers selling fresh-cut flowers, produce, meat, cheeses and honey. There are also fishmongers, bakers and street musicians. The market is open year-round, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Location: Between Western and First Avenues, and from Virginia to Union Streets.
In July, the markets will have a wide selection of seasonal produce and treats: raspberries, strawberries, red gooseberries, wild blackberries, huckleberries, Bing and Rainier cherries, golden beets, apriums (a hybrid of plums and apricots), Sunchokes (a tuberous vegetable with a mild, nutty flavor), radicchio, fava beans, sweet corn, peanuts, hazelnuts, oysters, geoduck, dried beans, dried fruits, pork, beef, eggs, goat and cow cheeses, wild salmon, fresh pasta, honey, pastries, artisan breads, ciders, jams, jellies, sauces, spreads, preserves, syrups and seasonal cut flowers.
Eating Local: Families Go the Extra Mile to Find Food Close to Home
By Melanthia Peterman
Valentina Warner busily paws through the lush wall of snow peas lining the brick-red wooden fence in her backyard. Under the shade of a plum tree, she picks the light green pods, stopping occasionally to pop one in her mouth, each crunch sending a spray of juice into the air.
“I’m obsessed with organic and local food,” says Warner, a doctor who has many low-income patients at her family practice and sees the ill effects of a poor diet: obesity, diabetes and high-blood pressure. “Most people are eating foods that are so highly processed,” she says. “There’s not any of the micronutrients and things that keep you healthy.”
In the last year, Warner’s family has joined a growing movement of households where the week’s meals are made up primarily of fruits and vegetables from their own gardens or area farms.
It’s a trend that has sprouted beyond the growing popularity of organic produce. It’s born out of people’s desire to know where their food comes from, to be able to shake hands with the farmer who grows it, and to reduce the amount of fuel used to ship items from out of state.
As Warner works in her Mount Baker neighborhood home, she’s surrounded by five 4-foot by 12-foot garden beds stuffed with lettuce, spinach, garlic, chard, strawberries and bush beans. A grape vine winds its way up stairs leading to the upper deck off the back of the house.
She’s modest about her success in the garden, saying she relies heavily on books like The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, produced by Seattle Tilth, and Steve Solomon’s Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. She also praises local resources such as the Natural Lawn and Garden Hotline, which gardeners can call with questions.
With more people like Warner growing their own vegetables, suppliers have seen a jump in demand for seeds. “This year in particular we’ve noticed a larger than normal increase,” says Josh Kirschenbaum, horticulturist for Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove, Ore.
Kirschenbaum offered no specifics on just how much his sales have gone up, but he says there have been more and more new gardeners coming to his company for advice, all eager to start growing their own food.
“Really, it doesn’t get any more local than growing in your own backyard,” Kirschenbaum says.
For the most part, gardening is easy. It can be done using an 8-inch pot or an entire backyard. It can take a bit of research to understand the growing conditions plants need to thrive, but your county extension agency can help. Kirschenbaum credits first-time gardeners with having more success because they don’t over-think the entire process.
“There does come a point when you may know too much about it,” he says. “It’s a simple thing. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to grow your own vegetables.” For those wanting a garden who don’t have enough space, Seattle’s P-Patch program has almost 70 gardens across the city, with a total of 1,800 plots. They’re incredibly popular. Already this year, there is a wait list of 1,500 people, compared to the 800 to 1,000 the program usually has at the end of a growing season, says Rich Macdonald, program manager for the P-Patches.
If there’s no time to tend your own garden, Seattle is home to myriad farmers markets where locals can enjoy the fruits of local growers’ labor.
The granddaddy of Seattle's farmers markets is Pike Place Market, established in August 1907 as a place where farmers could sell their goods directly to the public. Today the century-old landmark draws tourists and locals alike who shop there for fresh produce, fish, sausage and spices, as well as to visit the many shops, restaurants and crafts stands it has to offer.
Pike Place set the groundwork for farmers markets around the city and throughout, giving people a way to get fresh, local produce without having to deal with the hassle and cost of a middleman.
The city’s oldest neighborhood farmers market is in the University District. Back when it was established 15 years ago, opening day featured 17 farmers peddling standard row crops like lettuce, corn and carrots to roughly 800 shoppers.
“It was an unusual new prototype for the city,” says Chris Curtis, director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, which operates six other neighborhood markets in Columbia City, West Seattle, Lake City, Magnolia, Phinney Ridge and Capitol Hill.
The University District market remains the organization’s largest, having grown to include more than 60 farmers and over 5,000 shoppers. “It has become a regular shopping venue for a lot Seattleites,” Curtis says.
Together, however, the seven markets attract more than 300,000 shoppers during the height of the growing season between July and September. They now include a broad spectrum of kitchen staples like meats, cheeses, milk and fish, as well as honey, flowers, baked goods, and fruits and vegetables.
“It truly has grown to be a complete shopping experience,” Curtis says. Laramie Holliman and her partner come every week to the Columbia City farmers market in south Seattle. “What we don’t have in our garden, we get here,” says Holliman, cradling her 10-week-old son as a friend loads up her 20-month-old daughter in the car.
This is the second year Holliman’s family has kept a garden. Last year they discontinued their organic produce delivery service and came to the farmers market to buy things like herbs, meat, honey and pasta. “We’re trying to support our community,” she says. “We’re trying to eat only things that we grow or that have been grown within a hundred miles.”
Holliman acknowledges that the cost of shopping local can be a challenge. They try not to spend more than $40 a week at neighborhood farmers markets. But trips to their local grocer costs $120 to $150 every time they go.
Stores like PCC Natural Markets pride themselves on providing customers with food from local growers like Full Circle Farms in Carnation, Wash., or Golden Glen Creamery in Bow, Wash.
“We always give preference to locally produced items,” says Diane Crane, communications manager for the natural food cooperative. She says that “local” for the store means grown in Washington, Oregon or southern British Columbia.
As shoppers become more savvy, they expect their local grocery store to provide them with fresh organic food. At the same time, people are more conscious of where their food comes from and the overall cost of getting it here, Crane says. “In general, people are getting far more sensitive to the fact that dollars that leave the local area don’t always come back,” Crane says.
To help shoppers find local produce, the Puget Sound Fresh Program uses logos to identify food grown or raised in the region’s 12 counties. Stores that feature the label include PCC, Whole Foods, Metropolitan Market, Madison Market, Safeway, QFC, Thriftway and Haggen/Top Foods. Produce delivery services New Roots Organics and Small Potatoes Urban Delivery (SPUD), which recently purchased Pioneer Organics, also participate.
Amanda Lopez Miller seeks out sales on organic, locally grown food to help reduce the cost of going to the grocery store. She’ll hit as many as four stores in one week. But the bulk of her family’s food comes from Jubilee Farm in Carnation.
The farm has a Community Supported Agriculture program, where members pay to help cover the costs of operating the farm and in return receive a portion of the crops. Some farms require members pay the entire fee upfront, while others allow payments throughout the growing season.
Lopez Miller researched farms online and found Jubilee to be the best fit. For around $30 a week, she gets a produce box of the season’s picks, which, on one recent week, included rhubarb, apples, cilantro, lettuce and other greens.
Jubilee delivers the boxes to a pick up location, which for Lopez Miller is another member’s home in Ballard. Other customers can opt to have a box delivered to their doorstep for added convenience, and in some cases an added fee.
Lopez Miller likes the idea that her family, including 2-year-old Sophia, know where their food comes from and can meet the farmers. “I wanted us – and particularly Sophia – to have the experience of going out to the farm,” she says.
Melanthia Peterman is a Seattle journalist and mother of a young boy. She blogs about gardening while raising a child at www.gardeness.com.
