Skagit Valley Farmers is my video journal of personal stories told by the women and men who farm Skagit Valley. Learn about their families, sacrifices, mentors, hobbies, ag issues, organic+conventional farming from field to office. We need more farmers. BUY something GROW something SAY something. My name is Denice and I'm an urban gal who made a rural transition and wants to connect you with Skagit farmers. I ♥ DRIVING TRACTORS and farm equipment.
Photo taken at Golden Glen Creamery / Jensen & Son Dairy in Bow, WA
It's impossible to say how many people grew up with Mr. Fred Rogers. I was one of the countless children who was comforted and entertained by the magic of his neighborhood and the calm presence, acceptance, encouragement, and gentle soul of Mr. Rogers. For me, Mr. Rogers was a friend and his neighborhood was a friendly and sane escape from the ugliness of a dysfunctional and abusive home. And I bet I wasn't alone. I bet a lot of kids emulated Mr. Rogers to feel closer to him. Like, when he said hi did you say hi? When he put on his sweater did you put a sweater on? When he changed his shoes, did you change your shoes? When he fed his fish, did you feed something? Or pretend to? In an era when ethnic and racial equality was many steps back from what it is now, Mr. Rogers accepted everyone in his neighborhood. Every child was special just because they were. Mr. Rogers celebrated differences. How interesting it is to meet someone different from yourself. What is it that you can do that I can't do? What is it that you know that I don't know? Maybe we can share and learn from each other. I've heard people hate on Mr. Rogers. Seriously, what kind of person hates on kindness and compassion. I wish there there were more Mr. Rogers in the world and representing on television.
I'm posting this here because the garden of our minds is one the most important gardens we can grow.
PBS Studios is responsible for this masterpiece. Enjoy and share.
END NOTES: All of my videos of Skagit Valley farmers are posted in this blog as well as on my YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/denicer.
Buy Something and support your local farmers.
Grow Something wherever you live. Even if it's just a flower or herb in the windowsill.
Fewer than 1/4 of Farmers Markets nationwide are set up to accept EBT-SNAP cards so people who rely on EBT (formerly food stamps) aren't able to make purchases of healthy farm fresh foods directly from these farmers. Recent USDA funding will be used to provide electronic technology so that Farmers Markets can accept EBT cards. It's a win-win that will provide access to healthy farm fresh foods and increase the customer base of farmers across the U.S.
In the Summer of 2011 I spent half a day with Anne Schwartz
of Blue Heron Farm in Rockport, WA. Anne's video is in 2 parts. I was also able to speak with 2011 intern Hailey Michel-Evleth and that's part 3.
I met Anne at the land she organically farms at the foothills of the North Cascades. Late morning July temps were beginning to rise. She was late because
she had to answer an EMT call. Such is life up river where residents are both
self-sufficient AND reliant on each other (the nearest hospital is over 30 miles
away, the fire department is volunteer driven). When she hopped out of her pickup I was pretty surprised.
Farm Talk of Anne is large and strong so I didn’t expect to be greeted by a
cute, petite lady with an enviably long ponytail and nurturing smile.
The more I listened to Anne, the clearer it became: this woman is living her heart. Anne's become one of the most respected farmers and agricultural activists in our area. I think you'll really enjoy her stories.
Anne offers a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) which you can buy shares of. She’s a North Cascades Institute Foodshed Partner. And she's involved with the WSU Major in Organic Agriculture Systems which is the first program of its kind to be offered in the U.S. Currently, Anne's planting tomatoes and peppers and warm loving veg in the greenhouse and planting greens, radishes, cilantro, brassicas, peas, squash, corn, beans, carrots and just about everything the weather is allowing.
If you’d like to volunteer at the farm during summers or purchase a CSA subscription give Anne a call (info below).
I asked lady goat farmer and artesian goat cheesemaker Rhonda Gothberg what her favorite ways to use her Queso Blanco and Queso Fresco cheeses are. She responded: 1. Quesadillas 2. nachos 3. chile rellenos 4. enchiladas 5. grilled chz sandwich anywhere melted chz w/ slight lactic flavor is enjoyed.
I used Rhonda's Queso Blanco and Queso Fresco to make bruschetta which also included organic butter spinach and tomato, local sourdough bread, and fresh crabmeat from Taylor Shellfish. Wine from Trader Joe's. Tulips and daffs, of course, from Skagit Valley. LIFE IS BETTER WITH FLOWERS.
Rhonda Gothberg is a small dairy farmer who crafts
award-winning artesian goat cheeses (and yogurt too) in the beautiful space of
Skagit Valley called Bow where she lives with her husband Roy and her herd of
adorable La Mancha goats. I spent half a day with Rhonda last Autumn in her home and around her farm, and the following video is the result.
SNEAK PEEK: Rhonda bravely became a commercial dairy farmer at age 50!
She had never been a farmer before, her prior background was in nursing and
real estate. Rhonda is Texas Friendly, warm, entertaining, articulate, funny,
intelligent, generous, and full up on her share of business smarts. Rhonda
doesn't have a lot of "free" time which made the Southern Hospitality
she rolled out for me on this day all the more appreciated. Rhonda tells some
great stories about her life, her family, the love of her La Mancha goats, her
goat cheeses, the health aspects of raw milk and raw milk cheese, what goes
into participating in Farmers Markets, the business of being a small dairy
farmer, and much more. Enjoy the video and go visit Rhonda. Oh, and buy her fabulous cheeses whenever you can.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Gothberg Farms
15203 Sunset Road
Bow WA 98232
Telephone (360) 202-2436
Twitter @gothbergfarms
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gothbergfarms
END NOTES:
All of my video of Skagit Valley farmers are posted in this blog as well as on my YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/denicer
And you can communicate with me on Twitter at @urbantweeter
HAPPY EASTER. Filming and editing these videos is quite an endeavor but I'm back in the proverbial saddle and I ain't leavin' the barn till the work is done ... so to speak.
This anonymous writing pretty well describes how I feel about Easter:
Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tomes or tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown.
... to seek the slopes where the sun is rising. I love that visual.
Easter is about hope and faith. It's a perfect mindset to push our internal RESET buttons and get back to moving with the good foot.
I've experienced how stress can devour vaporize creativity, stagnate productivity, and tick away precious moments of the already short time we have on this planet.
I've been reading about stress from different perspectives (scientific, spiritual, religious, medical). About "good" stress and "bad" stress. About "positive" stress and "negative" stress. About "normal" stress and "abnormal" stress.
With myself, family, friends, clients, and people that I randomly cross paths with, I'm remind of these two descriptions of stress:
(a) a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation; and
(b) bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium.
Stress is expensive and dangerous. Here's a snippet of something I recently read:
Stress is recognized as the number one proxy killer disease* today. The American Medical Association has noted that stress was the basic cause of more than 60 percent of all human illness and disease .
It is estimated that American businesses lose approximately $200-$300 billion dollars per year to stress related productivity loss and the treatment costs.
Every week, 95 million Americans suffer some kind of stress related symptoms for which they take medication.
A 20-year study conducted by the University of London concluded that unmanaged reactions to stress were a more dangerous risk factor for cancer and heart disease than either cigarette smoking or high cholesterol foods.
A survey of 201 U.S. corporations revealed that 60% of all managers felt that stress related illness was pervasive among their workers and decreased productivity at an estimated cost of 16 days of sick leave and $8,000 per person per year.
On this Easter Sunday, regardless of your religious affiliation or non-affiliation, I'd like to throw a thought out into the Universe for you to catch if you like. I believe that most of humanity is hungry for Peace. We want to be Healthy and Happy, Heard and Productive, Loving and Loved. We want to be treated Fairly and we don't want to Suffer. We want to express ourselves Creatively and we want to feel in some way that our life matters.
My thought: From today through the rest of the year, or through as long as you like, spend at least 1 calm minute every day thinking about Health, Happiness, Dreams, Hope, Gratitude, and other thoughts that hold Redeeming and Renewing value.
There are so many beautiful roads to run away to in Skagit and the North Cascades. I hope to never stop finding them.
"Yah, running away, driving fast in one direction and never stopping until the cops run you down, the car runs out of gas, and you are too tired to think about anything ever again. Running away, hard and fast and long. Finally, what mattered and worried and feared no longer has the same hold. And, you can finally find a toe hold into some rest. Not peace, but rest for a moment. And, that little moment lets a ray of hope land. Not conscious hope, but the glimmer of freedom from what distorted the conscious mind and stirred out of balance the thoughts and emotions. A little window at the edge of the universe. No matter about the dragons and demons at the edge of known existence, at least they are out there....and just maybe they will eat all our inequities for lunch so we can be free and beautiful and perfect, and so we can return to a perfect place of existence."
The video of this TED talk is about 18 minutes in length. Give a listen with your morning coffee.
For those who aren't familiar with TED you MUST check out their About page. You can follow them on Twitter @TedTalks and on Facebook at Facebook.com/TED. The project is doing good things in the world.
A few of my notes from Roger's talk follow:
90% of vegetable varieties went extinct in the 20th century. (source?) 31 minutes. The average amount of time the American family spends preparing, eating, and cleaning up after meals, per day. (per day? dreadful) Gardens grow important economic savings for families. (amen!)
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Will be at Gothberg Farms in Bow in a few minutes. Decent afternoon in this part of the valley, overcast but not raining and I see shadows on the ground so I have hopes that the afternoon. I'm looking forward to visiting Rhonda Gothberg's farm, seeing her goats, getting some cheese, and hearing about how her life led to a dairy at 50 years young. Rhonda sounds like a fun and inspiring person.
Stay tuned, I'm still editing the video of my visit with Anne at Blue Heron Farm and Kai at Hedlin's Family Farm. Those will be posted shortly, too.
Thrilled to say that it looks like I'll (we'll) get to meet Rhonda Gothberg of Gothberg Farms in Bow very soon! Hopefully we can coordinate in the next week or two! I'll have video and photographs to share of my time with her and I absolutely will hope to leave her farm with a collection of to-die-for cheeses which I will brag about for days and days.
As a primer, get on Rhonda's website and read about the farm and goats. You can follow her on Facebook and on Twitter as @gothbergfarms.
Btw, you can also follow me on Twitter as @urbantweeter
And be sure to follow this blog (upper right-hand corner) if you like what you see
And with that, I leave you with a poem by one of my favorite authors of all time ...
Do you know how far cows can smell? I had no idea!!!!!! I learned the answer at Golden Glen Creamery / Jensen & Son Dairy in Bow, WA. Watch this short video and you'll know too, you can tell all your friends and sound super smart at trivia.
Couldn't leave Golden Glen Creamery without getting some chocolate milk, eggs, and variety of cheeses (plus an assortment of other stuff). Got apples, strawberries, honey, raspberry jam, and grilled corn from Sakuma Farms. Got some pie apples and a couple bottles of wine from Eagle Haven Winery, and some yummy felted soap from Country Time Alpacas ... and the FUZZZZZZZZIEST little teddy bear with the softness of baby alpacas.
It was a windy July morning in the valley when I was fortunate to have the booted, bundled up, and jacket-clad company of Steve Sakuma, a 3rd generation farmer at his family farm Sakuma Bros Farms and Market in Burlington, WA.
I wanted to get this posted so I'll be adding my photographs this evening. I lamely didn't ask anybody to take a picture of me and Steve so one of these days I hope to run into him so that can happen.
About the farm ... Sakuma business extends from Washington to Oregon and California. They're tractor drivers AND strategic business people. They're 100% "vertically integrated" in the small fruit industry which (in smaller words) means their hands are in every aspect of their farm from research to planting to harvesting to processing to selling to operating a wholesale and retail nursery, etc.
About the people ... Steve's talks about his Japanese ancestors and their farming on Bainbridge Island, how the Japanese Internment affected his family, how their business has developed over the generations, the family philosophy about the farm, thoughts on the future of the farm, thoughts about agriculture, commercial and small farms, and work of a farmer these days, and American ... America.
What I learned from talking with Steve could fill pages but the purpose of this blog isn't to read my writing, it's to see the farmers and hear what they have to say. I found Steve to be quite the conversationalist with sprinkles of dry wit and humor to flavor his experience and wisdom. Steve gives a good *serious face* yet don't let that fool you, he's also a really funny guy.
So without further ado, here's my chat with farmer Steve Sakuma. I split the video into two parts, Part 1 is about 14 minutes Part 2 is about 12 minutes.
HERE IS PART ONE
HERE IS PART TWO
Sakuma Bros Farms and Market
17790 Cook Road
Burlington WA 98233
(360) 757-8004
