From beer to blueberries, local businesses and farmers are adding value to Skagit County agriculture through creativity and collaboration A S U P P L E M E N T T O T H E S K A G I T VA L L E Y H E R A L D A N D A N A C O RT E S A M E R I C A N
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Three issues that face farmers in Skagit County By JULIA-GRACE SANDERS
Skagit Valley Herald
WHEN IT COMES to the top issues facing Skagit County farmers in 2018, Washington State University Skagit County Extension Director Don McMoran said it can be narrowed down to three: water, labor and the economic viability of local farms. McMoran, a fourth-generation Skagit County farmer with a master’s degree in agriculture and education, has a firsthand and academic perspective on the county’s agricultural issues. Here, he highlights the main concerns. Water Over the years, Skagit County has transitioned from mostly pasturebased dairy farms to high-value crops such as potatoes, berries and vegetable seeds, McMoran said. “Unfortunately, these new crops and hotter, drier summer temperatures increase the need for irrigation water with no avenue for Skagit
farmers to receive additional legal water rights,” McMoran said in an email. The current water regulations employ a “use it or lose it” policy for agriculture, which means farmers can’t sell leftover water rights to other farmers, McMoran said. “In a perfect world, a farmer could implement new practices and use the water savings for other
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fields or crops or be able to sell that water to a neighbor,” McMoran said in an email. “In the area of irrigation water law, there is much work to be done.” Opinions on agricultural water rights are diverse and contentious, McMoran said. “If you want five different opinions, talk to five different farmers,” he said. “But from a WSU
McMoran perspective, there needs to be incentives within the system for water conservation as well as new technologies and water saving through those technologies.”
Labor Labor has become harder to find for Skagit County farmers, McMoran said in an email. Most farmers are short at least a few workers, and if a farm doesn’t have labor, crops can go unharvested. To compensate for the shortage, McMoran said Skagit County farmers are increasingly turning
to technology to reduce their labor needs. “We’re seeing tractors that have GPS technology,” McMoran said. “We’re just a few years away from tractors that are completely automated.” As technology has advanced, harvesting by hand has given way to machines operated by steam, internal combustion and electricity, he said. “The farms of the future will have more robots and less people,” McMoran said in an email. He said he worries about the unintended consequences of this tactic. “My fear is that someday the robots will no longer function and because we will have become so reliant on their assistance, the masses will go without food,” he said.
Economic viability There are 6 million people living along the Interstate 5 corridor between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, McMoran said, and data
indicates many of them prefer to buy local. According to a 2017 report on regional food systems, 87 percent of consumers say availability of local food impacts their choice of a primary supermarket, and 75 percent of grocery shoppers purchase local products at least monthly. “There’s a lot of money in the consumer preference to buy in the local area,” McMoran said. “So we need to make sure we’re meeting the needs of those consumers.” One way of tapping into that market is agriculture-based tourism, McMoran said, something that’s beginning to show up in the county. “It’s a great piece for the puzzle and has some potential to bring in a lot of money,” McMoran said. “We just have to make sure it’s done correctly. Keeping our authenticity as an agricultural community is very important.” Many local farmers’ financial strife stems from having to stand out in the global marketplace, McMoran said.
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From apples to barley, Skagit farmers find themselves competing against large commercial farms all over the world. While Skagit County has the advantage of producing crops such as spinach seed, which can be difficult to grow elsewhere, McMoran said local farms are still grappling with the consolidation and commercialization of farming. “The larger the farm, the less cost-per-unit of production,” he said. This drives commodity prices lower, McMoran said, making it more difficult for Skagit County farms to remain in production. “We realize that the Skagit County agriculture we know and love today may not be the Skagit County agriculture of the future,” McMoran said.
A farmer irrigates a potato field on Fir Island in July 2015. That summer was part of a dry year that was exacerbated by a below average snow pack in the North Cascades. Skagit Valley Herald file
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GrowSkagit
Garden Path Fermentation focuses on local ingredients Story by JULIA-GRACE SANDERS • Photo by SCOTT TERRELL
WHEN BREWING INDUSTRY veterans Ron Extract and Amber Watts began looking for a location to build a destination brewery, they sought an area where they could grow everything they needed to make their products. That search ended when they encountered the fertile Skagit Valley. “We were thinking, ‘If we were to start a new project where in the world would we start it?’” Extract said. “Where is the best place on earth to grow everything that we need to make what we want to make? And that’s what led us to the Skagit Valley.” Extract said Skagit County is the ideal place to find all the ingredients needed to brew craft beer, cider, wine and mead,
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which is an alcoholic drink of fermented honey and water. “When you think about the ingredients you need to make beer, think of grains like barley, wheat, rye. Think about hops, think about some of the other ingredients we like to work with like berries, honey, fruits. All those things grow locally here,” Extract said. Their operation, called Garden Path Fermentation, is housed in a former industrial building on Port
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of Skagit property. They received a building permit to renovate in early February, and took a sledge hammer to the walls the very same day. Watts said they hope to open by the end of March. “What we are doing is a little bit different than a lot of other breweries in Washington,” Watts said. “All of our products are going to be sourced as locally as we possibly can.” Watts said their malt will come from down the street at Skagit Valley Malting, their fruit will come from local family farms and their yeast will be grown on site. The only ingredient they’ll have to bring in from outside the area is hops, Extract said, because there’s no infrastructure to pick and process them locally in bulk. Watts and Extract got their start in brewing on a ranch outside Austin.
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Amber Watts and Ron Extract plan to brew craft beer, wine, hard cider and mead at their location at the Port of Skagit. That’s where they began dreaming of an operation where customers could see the entire production process. “When we came here, we had the idea of actually starting an estate brewery,” Extract said. With an estate brewery, they would buy a piece of land where they could grow everything they needed, Extract said. Once they started meeting with local farmers, they realized an estate brewery may have been a misguided vision. “While we love the idea of growing our own ingredients, that’s not our background,” Extract said. “Our background is in fermentation and there are people here already who have an abundance of expertise on the growing side.” They have since hired employees who have local experience in agriculture, Extract said. “It would be kind of silly and kind of arrogant for us not to take advantage of all the other exper-
tise that’s already here in the valley and the region,” Extract said. Using ingredients from different micro-climates within the valley will also have advantages, Extract said. “If we can source apples for our cider from the eastern and western side of the valley, those apples are going to have different characteristics that add to the complexities of what we’re trying to produce as opposed to everything we use coming from one orchard,” he said. Right now, Watts said they’re focused on filling in the gaps for what doesn’t already grow in the county in bulk — cider apples, pears designed for fermentation, possibly hops and wine grapes. Moving forward, Watts said there are multiple stages to their vision. First and foremost is to get their operation at the port up and running, Watts said. Next, they want to find property where they can refine their vision — build-
ing a tasting room, growing some of their own ingredients, incorporating local farms and allowing visitors to witness the process of creating their products. “We’re not entirely sure how it will unfold.” Watts said. “But ideally in the next year or two we’ll have some land and ideally we will start the growing process. Our plan is to build out a larger space on the land.” Scott Peterson, director of business development and real estate at the port, said Garden Path is riding a wave of grain-related businesses getting their start at the port. “It’s all about keeping the value in the community,” Peterson said. Even if they’re not starting out with their initial vision, Extract said they’re determined to continue working toward that goal. “In our mind, there is nothing that would be more of an expression of local agriculture than to serve people the end product in the place that it’s made,” he said.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018 - 5
GrowSkagit
New festival brings local breweries together By JULIA-GRACE SANDERS
Skagit Valley Herald
SKAGIT COUNTY is a great place for beer, but many aren’t aware of the brewing culture that thrives here, said Anacortes Brewery co-owner Rick Star. The first Skagit Farm to Pint FEST and Skagit Beer Week are meant to change that. “I’m hoping the festival will serve as a way of creating awareness of what is happening here,” Star said. “The whole process — the growing of the barley, the malting, the brewing — it all happens right here.” Organizer Julie Burgmeier said this will be the only beer festival in the county to focus completely on local brewers. “Skagit Farm to Pint FEST is focused on local and quality over quantity,” Burgmeier said. Skagit Beer Week kicks off March 31 with the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST— the first gathering of all 11 Skagit County breweries paired with
Skagit Valley restaurants or farmers highlighting local ingredients. The event will also feature three Skagit-grown bands. The following week, a series of beer dinners, tastings, tap takeovers and educational events will take place at various locations. The festival isn’t only about the beer, Burgmeier said. It’s also about how brewing connects to Skagit County’s agricultural identity. “It is definitely all connected together,” Burgmeier said. “Dr. (Stephen) Jones over at The Bread Lab breeds the grains, the farmers grow the grain, Skagit Valley Malting malts the grain, the Skagit brewers drive over to the malt house and pick up the grain, usually the day
before they brew, and then feedback from how the grain brewed goes back to the bread lab.” Scott Peterson, director of business development and real estate at the Port of Skagit, said by supporting Skagit County beer, the festival is ultimately supporting local farmers. “There’s an educational component to it,” Peterson said. “The more of these types of events we have the more the public learns about what’s going on here.” The Port of Skagit, a sponsor of Farm to Pint, said the festival fits in with the port’s goal of bringing jobs to the county. “If we can bring just one person to visit this really beautiful area with the top soils in the world, and they go back home and say ‘We want to locate our business there because I visited and I want to move there,’ then that’s a good thing,” said Andrew Entrikin, community outreach administrator at the Port of Skagit. Star said one element that separates Farm to Pint from other beer festivals is that it includes
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Cardinal Craft Brewing, Skagit Valley College’s Craft Brewing Academy. Both the head brewer and assistant brewer at Anacortes Brewery are alumni of the program, Star said. “Showcasing the program in the festival highlights the beer culture that exists here,” Star said. Burgmeier, who owns Skagit Marketing, said the festival is also a chance to bring tourism capital to the county. “Beer tourism puts more heads in beds,” Burgmeier said. The festival kickoff event will be limited to 500 tickets, and Burgmeier said she expects it to sell out.
Skagit Valley Herald file
Empire Ale House server Anna Chapin pours taster flights of a berry ale, a ginger light ale and a black ale on Aug. 2, 2016. The student-produced ales were created at SVC’s Craft Brewing Academy.
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A new vision for Eagle Haven Winery Story by JULIA-GRACE SANDERS • Photo by SCOTT TERRELL
Skagit Valley Herald
DARRELL DRUMMOND plans to make visiting Eagle Haven Winery a family experience. “I want this to be a family event center where people can bring their kids,” he said. “I want there to be less emphasis on the winery and more on the experience aspect.” orchard since 1968. Part of Drummond’s plan to draw more families to the site includes hosting more concerts, he said. The venue currently hosts about 10 to
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Darrell Drummond, owner of Eagle Haven Winery and Perkins Farm apple orchard arose to purchase the winery, he said it was his chance to realize that dream. While Drummond said wine isn’t his preference, the orchards captivated him. “Trees are easy to figure out,” he said. “They just grow in one place and either thrive or die.” Drummond said he’s currently looking for someone to manage the winery side of the business. “I want to find someone else who that’s their passion,” he said. Jim Perkins said selling his family’s property has been bittersweet. The sale followed a difficult time for his family: his mother died, his father moved into an assisted living facility and Per-
kins himself faced health issues. “It kind of forced us to sell the place,” Perkins said. “We had a lot of pride in that place for a lot of years.” When Perkins became ill, he said some former Sedro-Woolley High School classmates reached out to him. Drummond was one of those friends. He offered to help out with the farm, which eventually led to him buying it. Perkins said he’s comforted by the fact that he and Drummond share a similar vision for the property and winery. “I see it becoming more diversified,” Perkins said. “Stuff where it becomes more of a destination. We’re like-minded in that direction.”
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Drummond bought Eagle Haven Winery and the adjacent Perkins Farm orchard last year from his Sedro-Woolley High School classmate Jim Perkins, whose family had owned the winery and
15 concerts a year, including former “The Voice” contestant Austin Jenckes. Drummond said he hopes to bring more people to the winery by collaborating with local organizations and participating in more events. During the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, he said he’ll host local chain saw carvers as a part of Woodfest. “It’s our goal to start partnering up with things that are already here,” Drummond said. That means collaborating with nearby operations such as Willowbrook Manor, an English tea house and chamomile farm. “In the morning people can go over there for their tea and scones, go for a bike ride on the Cascade Trail then come back and do the wine down over here,” Drummond said. After 28 years working in financial planning in California, Drummond said it was his dream to retire in Skagit County. When the opportunity
Wednesday, March 28, 2018 - 7
GrowSkagit
Berry farm embraces value-added agriculture Story by JULIA-GRACE SANDERS and KIMBERLY CAUVEL Photo by SCOTT TERRELL Skagit Valley Herald
EIGHT UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY sustainable agriculture students visited Skagit County in March to tour farms that are leading the way in sustainable practices. Their tour led them to Bow Hill Blueberries, where they learned abut the creative practices powering the 5-acre farm. When the Soltes family bought the farm in 2011, Harley Soltes said they immediately knew that selling fresh fruit in and of itself couldn’t keep the business afloat. Instead, he saw the processing plant on the property as the true value of the farm. “This has been an experiment in if you can take 5 acres and use value-added to make a sustainable product,” Soltes said. Bow Hill Blueberries’ business model is built on the concept of valueadded agriculture — when a raw product is processed into something new with enhanced value. At Bow Hill, that has resulted in a variety of products using blueber-
ries: juice, dressing, jam, ice cream and more. They use every piece of the fruit, said Harley’s wife Susan Soltes, including turning the skins left behind after juicing into a nutrient-packed powder that can be added to smoothies and meals. Harley Soltes said the farm’s products are more flavorful and nutritious thanks to the heirloom plants inherited from the original owners. Some of those plants are more than 70 years old. The heirloom berries possess more antioxidants than newer varieties, press into juice better and have a thicker skin that makes them easier to process, Susan Soltes said. This comes in handy for one of the farm’s specialties — pickled blueberries. “Nobody else could do this because you need heir-
loom fruit,” Susan Soltes said. “You try to do this without heirloom fruit and it’s complete mush.” Each of the four heirloom varieties at Bow Hill has a slightly different flavor that lends itself to a particular product. Harley Soltes said the farm markets to customers who will pay more for a product to know where it came from and how it was made. “The customers who come in here and actually buy our products — they get this is where they want to put their money and their value,” Harley Soltes said. Mark Williams, the University of Kentucky professor who brought his students to the farm, said he chose Bow Hill Blueberries because its model seems accessible to young people going into farming
Harley Soltes of Bow Hill Blueberries gives University of Kentucky students a tour of the farm on Monday, March 12. and because the farm has developed a successful marketing technique. “What’s so awesome about Bow Hill Blueberries is that they are totally aligned with the market,” said Andrew Miller, director of business retention and expansion at the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County. “They understand that people want to be involved in the food story. They’re able to provide that in a way that’s authentic, and people really resonate with that.” All the berries at Bow Hill are grown organically and handpicked on the farm’s 5 acres each summer. “We value add to make this farm sustainable,”
Susan Soltes said while providing samples of blueberry juice and jam. “We had no idea we were going to do all this when we started.” Susan Soltes said she enjoys sharing the farm’s sweet and savory products with guests. People are encouraged to tour the farm, and a walking tour is set up during the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms. “We have a crop that makes people happy. Everybody gets excited when the berries are coming up, and we do too,” Susan Soltes said. The majority of the summer harvest is frozen, which allows the farm to continue to produce
juice and other products throughout the year. For the past eight years, Harley Soltes said new products have been added almost every year. Next up is experimenting with fermented vinegars and probiotic drinks. Moving forward, Harley Soltes said they are looking to expand the processing side of the business. The farm has reached capacity as far as land goes, he said, but he is hoping to buy heirloom berries from other farms to add to Bow Hill’s products. “Now is the heyday to be a small, organic, sustainable farm,” Harley Soltes said. “It wasn’t always a viable idea, but now people will pay for that.”
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