Meet Our Farmers: Sea Breeze Farm
We’re proud of Washington’s small farms, proud of the shoppers who support them, and proud of the work we do to create connections among these groups to help ensure that quality, local foods continue to be available to nourish the whole community. Ever wonder about your favorite farmer or vendor’s backstory? Read on and Meet Your Farmer.
Sea Breeze Farm, with their fresh, pasture-raised meat, is not just a farmers market staple but a beloved member of the communities where they set up shop each weekend. George and Rose take pride in the friendships they’ve built with farmers market customers over the years, many of whom have known their two young children, Roman and Madrona, since before they were born.
George’s path to farming wasn’t exactly linear. He has a degree in physics from the University of Washington, and was working as a software engineer when he purchased one little chicken that would change the course of his life. George’s curiosity about self-sufficiency grew into a full-fledged family farm with pigs, fowl and 10 cows that roam roughly 100 acres on Vashon Island.
Aware of how the fast food industry has coopted buzz words like "locally grown" or "natural," George and Rose refer to their method of farming as "pre-industrial, traditional, family-based agriculture." All the animals eat what they would eat in the wild. They are never given feed with hormones or chemicals. Sea Breeze uses pre-industrialized farming methods that were the standard for hundreds of years, including only breeding one type of cow and chicken. Having two types, one for meat and one for milk or eggs, is a recent development in farming, and having one type for both was the standard for hundreds of years.
You can usually find this old-school farm at the University District Farmers Market and Ballard Farmers Market year-round, and the Columbia City Farmers Market seasonally, and nearly 100% of their income is farmers market based. Keep up to date about how to support small local businesses like Sea Breeze Farm by checking our Shopper Sourcing Guide and signing up for our weekly Ripe + Ready email.
In 2019 the Good Farmer Fund helped Sea Breeze Farm when February snow resulted in loss of livestock in addition to product loss when power outages knocked out their freezers. Learn more about the Good Farmer Fund here.
