1889 August | September 2018

WHEN IT COMES TO SOURCING
INGREDIENTS IN WASHINGTON,
GOING LOCAL SEEMS NON-NEGOTIABLE. THANKS TO THE REGION’S RICH TERRAIN, TEMPERATE CLIMATE AND
NETWORK OF TALENTED FARMERS, GROWERS AND FISHERMEN, RICHES ABOUND WHETHER WE’RE TALKING
HOPS FOR BEER (THE STATE GROWS NEARLY 80 PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY’S SUPPLY) OR SEASONAL FAVORITES
FROM CHERRIES AND APPLES TO WALLA WALLA SWEET ONIONS.
Some products, however, fly under the radar.
Washington, for example, is the highest blueberryproducing
state in the country, having yielded about
120 million pounds in 2016. Washington asparagus,
which comes in several varieties and is one of the first
products to arrive each spring, supported the local
economy in 2017 by bringing in $45 million.
Sara Morris, president of The Beecher’s Foundation,
launched by creative food company Sugar Mountain
(famous for its award-winning Beecher’s Handmade
Cheese), said food grown here proves so remarkable for
many of the reasons the region is also home to countless
entrepreneurs and tech pioneers. “There’s something
in the water,” she said. “This region attracts a certain
profile, and the rest of us get to benefit from that.”
“Washington’s climate is ideal for organic production
because there aren’t too many insect pests,” said Susan
Ujcic, co-founder of Helsing Junction Farms (located
outside of Olympia) with Anna Salafsky. “We also
have a long growing season and summers that usually
aren’t too hot.”
In the educational yet approachable workshops
Beecher’s Foundation hosts for adults and
schoolchildren, Morris and her team discuss how food
has evolved over time. The way Americans eat today,
she noted, has dramatically shifted from how humans
ate for centuries, leaving us far removed from “pure,
real, true food.” She and her team recently launched
a ten-year campaign “to change Puget Sound’s food
for good.”
“When we buy local or grow our own,” she said, “we
are getting that much closer to the food source. … We
know what we’re putting in our body and not harming
the earth while we’re at it.”
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER 2018 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE 53