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by leader staff
In February, the Port Townsend Food Cooperative awarded its first Farmers’ Fund grants to six local farms using funds raised through its Change for Change point-of-sale program. The grant supports a variety of projects, from kraut production to indigenous farming practices, which the co-op believes will make communities more resilient and bring them more delicious food. .
“We are excited to support innovative and dedicated local farmers through the Farmer Fund grant,” said Kenna Eaton, general manager of Port Townsend Food Cooperative. “These grants represent our collective commitment to building a resilient and equitable food system that benefits producers and consumers alike.”
The co-op was able to subsidize these farms because of a new registration prompt updated last November that increased contributions to the Farmers Fund from $1,700 in eight months to $10,000 in one month. This is because it has increased.
The latest recipients of funding include Woodbridge Farm, Longhouse of the People’s Fast Food Project, Goosefoot Farm, Hopscotch Farm & Cannery, Midori Farm, and White Lotus Farm.
At Woodbridge Farm in the Chimacum Valley, Peter Mastin raises flowers, produce and chickens. The 24-acre farm had been untended for many years, so Mastin has gradually worked to bring more acres into cultivation. He needs a tractor attachment to remove rocks and level the land, but the co-op grant will allow him to buy a rake bucket. Chimacum Farmers Look for Woodbridge in his market.
The Longhouse for the People’s Fast Food project restores indigenous foodways by planting indigenous edible plants and learning and teaching traditional methods of growing, processing and serving these foods. This is an initiative to do so. They are building a longhouse in Kilsheen, where they plan to celebrate the local relationship with food and share traditional knowledge. The grant will be used to rent equipment and purchase plants and tools to prepare flower beds.
Goosefoot Farm is a Chimacum collective farm established to reduce food insecurity in Jefferson County. Their mission is to provide high quality organic produce for free, and in 2023 he distributed over 16,000 pounds of produce. Goosefoot started in 2019 with support from Finn River and the Tri-Area Food Bank, and their work has been done in partnership with nonprofit organizations, neighboring farms, and volunteers with and without farming experience. . They will use the grant money to purchase organic vegetable seeds and farm improvements, as well as essential repairs and maintenance on farm trucks and tractors.
Megan Mix grows heirloom crops at Hopscotch Farm and sells them at farmers markets, local grocery stores and CSA. She also processes her farm’s bounty into jars of shelf-stable pickles, jams, and relishes, one batch at a time. She farms using no-till methods and other techniques that improve the soil and require few “off-farm” inputs or fossil fuels. Mix currently cooks all of her vegetables by hand, but as her business has grown this work has become so time-consuming that she has used the grant to make robots is planning to purchase a coupe vegetable cooker.
Midori Farm grows a myriad of organic produce, from classic vegetables like potatoes and onions to less common vegetables like bitter greens, pumpkin, and radicchio. Hanako Myers and Marko Colby are also known for their award-winning variety of krauts, from kimchi to curtido to scallions and more. Making kraut requires a lot of garlic, and peeling garlic is a very time-consuming process, so Myers and Colby plan to use the grant to buy a garlic peeler.
White Lotus Farm’s Natalie and Niall Motson left behind their engineering careers to become part of the Olympic Peninsula’s vibrant food system. Over the past six years, the farm has gradually expanded its production from eggs, cut flowers and bread to lamb and wool, and also offers farm stays and event venues. They are collaborating with other local farms, including Chimacum Valley Grainery, which produces organic flour, and Space Twins Provisions, a land tenant who grows vegetables using no-till methods. White Lotus Farm was planning to use the grant money to purchase a bread slicer, but circumstances changed and the funds will be used to make much-needed repairs to the bakery’s roof.
Food Co-op is a full-service, member-owned, cooperative organic food market founded in 1972.
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