Information and resources for eating only food locally produced in Whatcom County
Category : Beverages, March, Recipes, Wildcrafting
So now you’ve gone out and foraged some stinging nettles, and you know how to handle them comfortably. How do you cook them? Easiest place to start is making tea. Nettles tea is very healthy and will give you a good opportunity to see what nettles taste like. I thought it might taste kind of “green” but it’s got a sweet note that makes it very pleasant. The color is simply spectacular. Continue Reading
There’s nothing like the crispy crust of a well-grilled hamburger! Commercially available local grassfed beef is a little hard to find in this area, but it’s well worth the effort in terms of flavor and quality.
I went to the online Farm Finder and searched for beef. Only one farm, Third Thyme Farm in Sumas (360) 988-5805, reports specializing in grassfed meats, including beef. There are also farms who produce meat only for friends and family.
The difficulty is the absence of a USDA inspected meat-packing facility in the County. The Lopez Island Community Land Trust came up with a novel idea to solve the problem for farmers who are members of their Island Grown Farmers Cooperative (IGFC). They built a Mobile Processing Unit (MPU) which operates under a USDA Grant of Inspection and travels to the farms to do the butchering on site. While most of their members are outside Whatcom County, there are some local members, too. They have an outlet grocery on Lopez Island, but many of their member sell directly from their farms. Continue Reading
