One of our recent farm visits brought us to Left Foot Farm, an amazing oasis 40 minutes from Mount Rainier. Owner Jeremy Foust raises goats and chickens on the farm with the help of an ever-rotating crew of WWOOFers (Word Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or travelers who work on the farm in exchange for a place to stay), interns, and his sons.

Bryan and Natalie Mesa’s small-scale urban market garden is one of the most efficient uses of space we’ve ever seen. Their farm, De La Mesa Farms, is 2.5 acres and they are working towards using every bit of it to grow beautiful and delicious produce to bring to the farmers markets every week.

If you look at Sydney Victor’s life now, it’s hard to believe that she grew up not liking mushrooms as a kid. Now Sydney grows and sells a wide variety of mushrooms at the Columbia City Farmers Market. Sydney is from the Midwest and didn’t get a lot of exposure to different types of mushrooms growing up, but as she got older and tried different varieties, she realized just how delicious and versatile they can be.

Mayra Sibrian is the owner, creative, and baker behind Selva Central Goods. Running the small business entirely on her own, Mayra will often wake up anywhere from 2 to 4 am to start baking, to ensure that every item she sells is baked fresh that day.

Among farmers, there is always talk of weather. You might hear them refer to February as “mud season” or May as “irrigation time.” In this business, the weather is all at once predictable and full of surprises. That’s farming. This year however, is noticeably different.

It’s no secret that farming is not a job for the faint of heart. From the ever-changing climate to intensive manual labor, taking on farming has to come from a place of passion, drive, and resiliency. Kimmy and Emma of Eternity Farm certainly exhibit all three.

Moving to a new city is never easy, and moving in the middle of a pandemic is an even bigger challenge. When Wenting Chang moved to Seattle two years ago for her job as a Software Engineer, she knew that she would need to find a community outside of her work and focus on a work-life balance.

After growing up eating fruits and vegetables from her family garden, Krissi Pearson learned what food was supposed to taste like, and the importance of eating seasonally. “You can get beautiful strawberries from the grocery store in January, but they’ll taste like nothing,” she says.

“Have you ever had Ethiopian food?” Jonathan Sinton asks farmers market customers as he hands them a sample of injera, or Ethiopian spongy flatbread. 70% of them say no, they haven’t, or say that they’ve tried it once. Once they try the sample, however, the food speaks for itself.

It’s 8:59 on a Saturday. Joany Higgins pushes her 5 month-old daughter in a stroller down rows and rows of fresh fruits and vegetables on The Ave. The time changes to 9:00, and the sound of the farmers market opening bell rings out above the din of the early-morning shoppers, getting ready to snag the best fruits and veggies.

When Suzy Knutson says that food access and supporting local farmers is important to her, she means it. When she’s not working on community relations for Fresh Bucks, (a program that we partner with to make fresh food accessible to everyone), she can be found at the University District or Capitol Hill Farmers Markets, experimenting with new recipes in her colorful kitchen, or working in a community garden that donates to local food banks.

Winter celebration season is upon us and we want to help you get the perfect gifts for everyone on your lists! Over the next few days, we will be sharing our official NFM gift guides for everyone (yes, even the one who has it all).

There are so many amazing gifts available at the markets this year, so not all of them could fit into one of our special categories. Here is a list of some of the other great gifts you can pick up for anyone on your list!

Fermentation is a crazy scientific process that can drastically change the flavor and shelf life of foods. No one has mastered the art of fermentation quite like Jessica Huszar of Haxan Ferments. Haxan Ferments makes delicious fermented hot sauces and vinegars that are flavored with local produce to create super unique sauces.

“We do a little bit of a lot of stuff,” Kevin Helfrick says, describing his farm, Hell or High Water. Their 7-acre farm produces vegetables, dahlias, pastured chicken and duck eggs, and pastured meat chickens. Kevin and his family run the farm together. He does the majority of the planting, harvesting, and cultivation, while his wife, Desirée supports the farm through crop planning, plant propagation, and CSA coordination.

It’s the season of giving thanks, and it wouldn’t be a proper Thanksgiving if we didn’t take a moment to give a big “Thank You” to all of our sponsors this year! We are so grateful for all of their support. Our markets rely on support from our community, and we are so lucky to have so many amazing people and organizations working behind the scenes to keep our markets running.

Brandon Rill has brassicas in his blood. Well, not literally, but his father was one of the first farmers to successfully grow brassicas like cabbage and cauliflower in Washington back in the 1980s. Brandon uses the knowledge (and some of the tools) that he gained from working on his father’s farm to run his own farm with his wife, Yamel Bustamante, called Rill-Bustamante Farms.

We are so excited to welcome Water Tank Bakery to the University District Farmers Market starting November 6! Water Tank is an artisan bakery that specializes in naturally leavened bread, made the slow way. One loaf can take 13 hours to make, but it’s the time and care that goes into each loaf that makes them so good.

At a long wooden counter up against a brick wall, you take a sip of your wine before turning back to the seared foie gras in front of you. The atmosphere is loud and fun, and you hear the chef from the kitchen talking to another diner sitting next to you at the table. No, you’re not in Paris or New York. You’re in Off Alley, Evan Leichtling & Meghna Prakash’s restaurant in Columbia City!

Chef Dan grew up in Everett and attended Western Washington University to get a degree in Business Management, before he moved to San Francisco to attend California Culinary Academy. Following his education, he worked in Michelin-star restaurants before he moved to Rome for a year. Dan eventually returned to his roots and worked as the Executive Chef at Rider; a restaurant located in Hotel Theodore in Downtown Seattle.