It’s that time of year when the earth is warming, and waking up, and most of us are looking to get outside and stretch our legs. Instead, COVID-19 and Governor Inslee’s stay-at-home order have kept most of us cooped up inside.
You can still responsibly practice social distancing, support your local producers, and get out of your house by heading over to your local farm stand.
The Snoqualmie Valley, just 30 minutes away from Seattle, is a bucolic landscape of lush, green fields and historic barns framed by the Cascade Mountains. Visiting the Valley is both stunning and relaxing. Snoqualmie Valley is home to several farms that have farm stands currently open for business.
Hollyhock Farm in Duvall is open Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 5pm, hosting their farm’s eggs, meat, and fresh produce, as well as goat milk soaps from Growing Things Farm. Farmer Jennifer Dwyer, a graduate of WSU’s Cultivating Success program, will be there with gloves on, ready to help pick out fresh eggs or a goat milk shampoo bar.
Local Roots is a family-run vegetable farm with a farmstand on NE 124th Street just west of the SR-203 traffic circle. Their honor-system farmstand offers fresh, seasonal produce and plant starts, too. The farmstand is open daily from 9am to dusk.
Finally the Carnation Farms Farmstand, home to the farm’s iconic cow “Possum Sweetheart,” has fresh cream and flour, but not just any flour: Hard Red Winter Wheat Flour. This is not your (pardon the expression) run of the mill flour, but made from grain grown right there at Carnation Farms as part of the Growing Grains Project funded by KCD.
Staying home and staying healthy is essential. Food is essential. Supporting our local farms is essential – you can help by visiting your local farmstand or going to Farm King County to see other ways to connect with, and support, your local farmers.
For more information on how you can find and support your local producers, visit Farm King County’s COVID-19 Consumer Information Page.
Natalie Quist, AmeriCorps Projects Coordinator, Community Agriculture and Engagement