(CSA Newsletter: Late Season Week 5)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
When the summer season ends for real, farming conference season begins. We attended our first conference of the off-season this last week, the Tilth Producers conference in Bellingham, Washington. For us, it was an opportunity to visit friends from our former life in B’ham as well as attend a great conference.
A highlight of visiting Bellingham these days is always getting together with friends we worked with at Cedarville Farm — both co-workers and the farmers themselves. We managed to see everyone in just a few days and caught up on the farm scene in Bellingham, which has been in continual flux along with the city. For such a small city, Bellingham has had more than its share of growth over the last few years. Since we moved there in 1998, the city’s landscape, culture, and population has changed dramatically. One major downtown intersection in particular (Holly and Railroad) stands out for us as representative of the transition: all four corners have been the site of significant new building or remodel. Where there was once a literal hole in the ground, now ‘Hamsters go to drink Starbuck’s coffee in the first-floor of a hip, modern new building. Change, indeed.
An influx of wealth and new people affects farming too, as we’ve watched and heard. Thanks to the area’s growth, the Bellingham Farmers Market has a new permanent building, which has increased its presence in the community and lengthened the open market season. But, we have also been saddened to hear about farmers we used to know who have since stopped growing for various reasons: one felt over-whelmed by the competition at market while others spread themselves too thin as they tried to meet the growing demand for local produce.
Since we only visit Bellingham about once a year now, we see the farming community’s change in quick snapshots. Whether that gives us a clearer or skewed view of the place is debatable, but we’re always struck by how different the culture and climate is for farmers there.
One significant difference is the absence of farm-oriented land-use laws. Everyone who cares about farming in Whatcom County agrees that finding land to farm is one of the biggest current challenges. The highest use value of land there is development — period. Nothing about the system protects farming as an important land use consideration. So, non-profit groups go ‘round and around talking about how to get more farmers on land, without the ability to create logistical long-term solutions to help more than a few people. It’s a struggle and frustrating to many young new farmers who have the skills and motivation to start their own farms. And, meanwhile, even older farmers still struggle with lack of land security as they continue to farm with year-to-year leases for decades.
But, in spite of these and other challenges, many small farms are obviously thriving all across Washington state. The conference facility was packed with farmers from all over Washington and beyond — many of them young like us. The energy of the event was positive and hopeful, as farmers shared photos and information from their own experiences.
The friends we stayed with in Bellingham asked us Saturday evening what we had learned at the conference that day, and I realized that I hadn’t really learned anything specifically. At this point, Casey and I ‘know’ quite a bit about farming (experience is still teaching us subtleties), but hearing other farmers share is important nonetheless. At some points, another farmer simply validates the decisions we’ve made at our farm; and sometimes, seeing their photos and hearing their stories is simply inspiring.
All in all, the positive energy created by a room full of excited farmers is motivating after a long tiring growing season. Among other things (including last week’s election results), everyone was eager to talk about the weather — particularly the cold spring, which affected every farmer present.
We came home late on Sunday night, exhausted but refreshed from our visit. We were also more grateful than ever for the life we’ve built for ourselves here in Oregon. Choosing to leave Bellingham, a place we loved, was a hard decision for us to make in 2006. But we feel that we’ve had unique opportunities here that may never have been open to us there (including the opportunity to buy farmland!!!!). Who knows? — maybe we gave up too soon, and we’ll never know.
But, in addition to being grateful for land-use laws, we’re also happy to have almost two extra hours of daylight here in the dark season. We’d forgotten how dark Bellingham can be in the fall! (It’s gorgeous in spring and summer though!) Today (Monday) we enjoyed the partly cloudy weather — perfect for harvesting!
We’re home now for awhile — no more trips away from the farm are planned until next February, and we’re looking forward to beginning our winter project list this week. Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
