The Dirt Issue # 50 – Support Local Farmers (in the era of COVID-19)
While living under COVID-19 protocols, we’ve all made adjustments in order to cope. We’re taking care of our families, ourselves, and looking beyond to the greater community. There’s been a lot of...
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How You Can Support Skagit Valley Farmers
It’s springtime and Skagit Valley farmers are busy planting crops, milking cows, and tending livestock. This month’s issue of The Dirt shows how you can support local farms, farm stands, and Consumer...
View ArticleCreating something special: Bow Hill Blueberries
“I feel lucky to be in Skagit Valley, and on a farm…” Bow Hill Blueberries is one of the oldest blueberry farms in Skagit County: Stanley, Rubel, and Jersey varieties have been rooted in the Valley’s...
View ArticleThe centerpiece of her life: Jenn Smith
“…the best thing we can do is to continue to make sure our products are still up to the highest standards.” Surrounded by farming her entire life, Jenn Smith has found more than one way to be a part of...
View ArticleNew Farmland Protection Report from American Farmland Trust
On Wednesday, May 20, 2020, American Farmland Trust will release its groundbreaking report: “Farms Under Threat: The State of the States.” Among other things, it finds that between 2001 and 2016, 11...
View ArticleA life changing adventure: Skagit Sun Farms
“I just fell in love with the Valley.” Don Kruse has called the Skagit Valley home for the past 42 years, operating Skagit Sun Farms for much of that time. Farming a variety of strawberries found at...
View ArticleThe Dirt Issue #51 – Crop Trends – Deciding What to Grow
In the 1930s, in an average cited by the USDA, an American farmer was said to produce enough food to feed four people for a year. By the 1970s the number fed had grown to 73. Today, according to the...
View ArticleDigging out a Destiny : Love Well Farms
“Farming just kind of found us..” Often, farming can be summed up as simply trial and error: trying not to repeat past mistakes and leaving plenty of space for new ones to happen—and learn from. Three...
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Celebrating the 2020 Our Valley Our Future Award Winners
Shauna Flores – SPF’s Future Achievement in Agriculture Scholarship Award Shauna Flores fell in love with agriculture when she was a third grader, showing her rabbits at the Skagit County Fair with her...
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Skagitonians DO Preserve Farmland!
Earlier this year, a concerted 3-year effort culminated in the permanent protection of just over 45-acres of prime farmland west of Burlington along State Route 20, a major east/west commercial highway...
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The Dirt Issue #52 – The Skagit Instream Flow Rule
Water belongs to everybody. No one person or group owns it. That’s simple enough. How water is used and by whom is another matter entirely. That can be very complicated indeed. In the 1990s a series of...
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From Ski Bum to Regenerative Farmer
“First you grow the soil. . . This is the right way that I wanted to farm.” Matt Steinman didn’t plan to become a farmer. The 38-year-old self-described former “ski bum” spent his 20s working as a ski...
View ArticleThe Dirt Issue #53 – Washington Farm Bureau
2020 is the centennial year of Washington Farm Bureau (WFB). Founded just one year after its national organization, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the WFB today consists of 25 County Farm...
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Farming Locally, Thinking Globally
“The Skagit Valley hooked me” Anne Schwartz is a self-described rabble-rouser. The 66-year-old blueberry and raspberry farmer has dedicated her life to growing organic food, fighting all the way to...
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