By Jeff Voltz, Executive Director

March always seems to provide a longing for spring, blossoms, and little green snap peas breaking up and out of the ground. But that doesn't happen until April, so it was a good month for getting prepared for the new growing and selling season with our growing number of Stewardship Farms.

At Farming & the Environment, getting prepared for the new growing season means working to provide market opportunities for stewardship farmers. The markets we are seeking include the new Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market, locally-owned grocery chains such as PCC Natural Markets, Penhollow Markets, Small Potatoes Urban Delivery, and Town and Country Markets, and local restaurants. During March, we continued to reach out and collaborate with a diversity of folks and organizations to make this happen.

Early in the month I met with Abbi Little, owner of Abbi’s Northwest, a local Everett-based distribution company that’s doing a good job of supporting local producers. Abbi represents and sells locally produced products to restaurants and local schools throughout the Puget Sound region.

Okanogan Producers Marketing Assoc. meeting

The second week of the month found me back in wonderful Okanogan County and working with a great group of growers who are forming the first farmer-owned Community of Stewardship Farms, the Okanogan Producers Marketing Association (OPMA). This group will be providing products for the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market as well as potential sales to grocery chains and restaurants. All these producers have applied to become Farming & the Environment Stewardship Farms including Karen Beller and David Morgan of Bunny Laine Farm, John and Cindy Bartella of Bartella Farms, Jim and Sandee Freese and Shea Saxe of J&B Orchards, Watershine Woods and Tom Cloud of Filaree Farm, Mariah Cornwoman and Bob Raymer of Twin Tail Farm, and Michael Simon of Applecart Fruit.

The Okanogan Producers Marketing Association and I held a community meeting to discuss a potential grant project with the Lee Debes from the USDA Rural Development Department. Also in attendance were Jay Kehne of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Mary Lou Peterson, Okanogan County Commissioner, John Butler, American Produce Express, and Farming & the Environment’s founder, Peter Goldmark. It was a good meeting and we hope that our grant proposal will be more than competitive with other proposals.

During the middle of the month, I attended a meeting to discuss the upcoming 2007 Federal Farm Bill. Don Stuart, of the American Farmland Trust held meetings throughout the State in preparation for the conference "Visions of the Federal Farm Bill" that will be held on Thursday, April 20, in Moses Lake. The meeting was hosted by Mary Embelton and Cascade Harvest Coalition with Maryon Attwood of Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network, Sylvia Kantor of WSU King County Extension, and Peter Moulton of Climate Solutions in attendance.

At month’s end we held our Farming & the Environment board meeting in conjunction with the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival. It was good meeting our new board members Lynn Bahrych, Fred Colvin, George Rohrbacher, and Vicky Welch. Over the weekend I presented "Farming with the Environment", sharing examples of our Stewardship Principles in action as a part of the conference’s lecture series. My wife Nita, board members Joan Thomas, Estella Leopold, and Lynn Bahrych staffed an information table and met many interested and interesting folks. As we left on Saturday, we drove by the agricultural fields where thousands of Sandhill Cranes were roosting and making a glorious racket. It was a wonderful reminder of the importance of our work.