The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity here on the farm and I wanted to take a moment to send a note of thanks to all of you. We’ve received wonderful feedback and appreciate your shopping with us.
Some of you have asked if we plan to continue online ordering only and the answer is yes, for the foreseeable future! While it is a different experience to shop online for food, I’m sure many of you are getting used to this new normal and appreciate the sense of safety and convenience it provides. From bagels to strawberries, cheese, pasta, flour and salmon, we’re offering an array of high-quality, locally produced options in addition to our fresh produce, eggs, and salt from the farm. A number of our customers have mentioned that they regularly check our product availability online before heading to town - minimizing possible exposures and supporting our local island business.
All this to say thank you! The farm is entering full swing and we’re really just at the beginning of an abundant wave of fruit, flowers, produce and more, yet to come.
MORE STRAWBERRIES
We’re getting strawberries again from Cloud Mountain Farm Center. These sold out quickly last week so if you missed them, don’t delay. The strawberries are sweet, fragrant, juicy, and ripe all the way through - they are some of the best I’ve had.
Cloud Mountain strawberries are available in limited quantities and I think it’s unlikely you will find them at other stores. They also grow strawberries organically, which means they don’t spray with synthetic pesticides or herbicides, so you can rest assured that your berries are good for you and the environment.
SEA SALT FROM THE SALISH SEA
Mark harvested his first load of salt recently from the solar-evaporator and it’s beautiful and pristine. He and Roger have improved a couple of things this year to speed up the process and refine the salt a bit. We’ll write more about that soon, but for now it’s on the stand for all of you!
We can’t wait to sprinkle this on our tomatoes when they are ripe and drizzle with good olive oil. We’ll also be using our salt to make pickles and other fermented goods when our cucumbers and cabbage are ready - soon!
FARMHOUSE GRANOLA
We’ve also started stocking our Farmhouse Granola. We love this granola because it’s the perfect balance of salty/sweet - we use maple syrup and brown sugar to sweeten and our solar-evaporated sea salt Mark makes from Salish Sea water. It’s full of toasted sunflower & pumpkin seeds, crisp coconut flakes and lightly spiced with coriander and cinnamon. It is also nut-free, gluten-free, and vegan.
A handful of this granola is a quick fix for a little snack, but it’s even better with fresh berries and yogurt or milk!
HOMEMADE BOURSIN
Have you tried the “Vache” cream cheese from Samish Bay Cheese yet?
It is very creamy, slightly tangy, light and spreadable. We’ve been making all kinds of spreads with it and Livie recently mixed it with a bunch of chopped herbs from the garden (parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, savory) green onion and garlic, lemon zest, salt and pepper. It tastes like Boursin! We had it in an omelet this morning with our sautéeing greens and it was wildly delicious.
Next we’re going to try making a Basque Burnt Cheesecake with the Vache cream cheese. We’ll report back on how it turns out.
