Hello Sustainable Connections members and friends! 

It’s harvest season and Whatcom farms are exploding with abundance.  What better way to experience the bounty of our precious farmland than to spend a day tasting local flavors, wandering fields and orchards, practicing your cider pressing skills, and hearing the stories of the hardworking folks who put food on our tables? 
 
The 2nd annual Whatcom Co. Farm Tour features 9 unique farms plus the Bellingham Farmers Market, representing a diversity of local agriculture.  Choose your favorite few stops or be ambitious and hit them all!  This is a self-guided, free, family-friendly event.
 
Ride a wagon through the fields at Boxx Berry Farm with a berry shortcake in hand, amble through Bellewood Acres’ orchards munching on a caramel apple flower, and swing by Silver Springs Creamery to try your hand at making ice cream!  Marvel at curly-horned Navajo-Churro sheep and pet bunnies at Heritage Lane Farms in Lynden, or pull potatoes out of the ground, hug kid-sized animals and play with solar cars at Common Threads Farm on Lummi Island…and that’s just a small sampling of the delicious activities in store for you. 
 
When: 10am-6pm, September 12th 2009
Where: Whatcom County
Contact: Amber Dawn Hallet, amberdawn@sconnect.org
Cost: Free!
10am-6pm September 12th 2009

Farms on the tour:
1)  Bellingham Farmers Market
2)  Joe’s Garden
3)  Boxx Berry Farms
4)  Silver Springs Creamery
5)  Bellewood Acres
6)  Cloud Mountain Farm
7)  Edelweiss Dairy
8)  Heritage Lane Farm
9)  Grace Harbor Farms
10) Common Threads Farm
 
 For more information:  Tour guide maps are now available for download and at the Community Food Coops, Terra Organica, Village Books, and other local businesses.  The guides are also included in today’s Bellingham Herald and this week’s Cascadia Weekly.  Or visit the Google Map of all the stops on the tour!

MANY THANKS to the sponsors that made this year’s tour possible!  To help ensure that there will be a 2010 Farm Tour, please consider making a donation at any tour stop or by clicking HERE to donate online.  Thank you for your support—we could NOT do this work without it!