FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PCC Farmland Trust sponsors “Farming in the Winter!”
Challenge of year-round farming is focus of day-long event in Sequim, Wash.
Seattle, Wash. (December 3, 2007) — The PCC Farmland Trust (Trust), is sponsoring a tour, dinner and lecture event to educate participants about the challenges of year-round farming and saving farmland from development.
The event will take place at the Delta Farm in Sequim, Wash., on Saturday, January 19. The Delta Farm is home to Nash’s Organic Produce, and one of four Washington state properties the Trust has secured for organic production.
Event participants will tour Nash’s Organic Produce, viewing the entire 400+ acre operation, including the 97-acre Delta Farm purchased by the Trust in 2001. Owner and operator Nash Huber, and field production manager Scott Chichester, will discuss the challenges they face in growing vegetables twelve months a year, and the particular issues involved in winter vegetable production.
A dinner prepared by Field to Fork, Nash’s catering team, will follow the tour, along with acoustic mountain blues performed by local musicians. WSU Clallam county extension director Dr. Curtis Beus will discuss “Food from everywhere and nowhere;” local farmland saving group, Friends of the Fields, will talk about land use issues on the Olympic Peninsula; and Trust representatives will provide updates on their work.
Event cost is $45 and includes the tour, transportation between farms, meal, one drink and evening entertainment. Tickets for children 4-12 are $20; 3 and under are free. A tour-only option is available at $15 for adults, $8 for children 4-12, 3 and under are free. Online event registration is available.
About the PCC Farmland Trust: The PCC Farmland Trust is an independent, community-supported 501(c)(3) land trust, founded in 1999 as a separate, non-profit organization by PCC Natural Markets, a certified organic retailer headquartered in Seattle, Wash. Their mission is to secure, preserve and steward threatened farmland in the Northwest, to ensure that generations of local farmers productively farm it using sustainable, organic growing methods.
About the Delta Farm: Located in Sequim, Wash., the 97-acre Delta Farm was the Trust’s first purchase in 2001. It is a thriving, diversified and organic farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State that is leased to Nash Huber, who has farmed organic produce for the past 25 years.
The farm has Class 1 soils and an optimal location for farming, including mild maritime growing climate, river bottom soils and lots of sunshine. The Delta Farm received organic certification in 2002 and is certified Salmon Safe. In 2003, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife purchased 23 acres of the Delta Farm for wildlife conservation and purchased a conservation easement on the rest of the property.
About Nash’s Organic Produce: Nash’s Organic Produce received Farming & the Environment's 2006 Vim Wright Stewardship Award. Nash was Producer #4 in the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s (WSDA) organic certification program, is renowned for his internship programs, and is a tireless advocate for farmland threatened by development.