Islands agriculture grabs the spotlight

Grand Marshall Al Sundstrom will set the pace as The Great Island Grown Festival kicks off with the Fall Farm Parade, Oct. 6, at 2 p.m., in Friday Harbor.

The Great Island Grown Festival is a month-long celebration featuring a variety of events, classes and workshops on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan islands, and offers a glimpse into the world of food and farming in the San Juans. The Festival includes a farm tour and talk on the wizardry of permaculture to scarecrow making; to old island historic barn tours and farm-to-table feasts; sheep dog demonstrations and how to farm with horses, vineyard harvests, a barn dance, pig-roast and more.

Highlights include:

• The Fall Farm Parade, featuring an assortment of tractors, old farm trucks, horses and more. If this funky, homegrown production of island produce and producers doesn’t turn your head, what will?

• Harvest Meal on the Village Green, Oct. 7. Long, linen-draped tables will be set on Eastsound’s Village Green, as well-known Orcas Island chefs, led by chef and author Christina Orchid, serve up a meal of the island’s finest dishes, made with local ingredients in celebration of community-based agriculture.

• Shellfish Farm Tour and Lunch, October 13. Visit the Sweetwater Shellfish Farm on Lopez to see how oysters, mussels, and clams, are raised, then taste them—there’s nothing fresher.

• Westcott Bay Ciderworks and San Juan Distillery will host tours and tastings of cider and distilled spirits, as well as an apple picking party, on select weekends in October.

• Chef Christina Orchid of Red Rabbit Farm will be offering a series of four cooking classes in October; classes focus on sustainable agriculture.

For a calendar of Great Island Grown events, visit www.islandgrown.net/islandgrownprogram.

 

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