Buy Local Food In Kitsap

Gold Mountain Herb Farm

Pam Moyer and her family grow over 200 varieties of  herbs on their farm. You can visit her website at www.goldmountainherbfarm.com.

Herbal Princess

Last modified on 2009-03-02 02:18:56 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Pam Moyer, a mainstay of the market with 11 years on the board and two years as president, is retiring. Moyer, perhaps the best-known herb farmer in Kitsap County, owns Gold Mountain Herb Farm. It’s located on the original acreage her parents bought in 1953.  She says she is also retiring from the herb nursery business as well.

Pam Moyer On Left

Moyer’s guiding hand and steady presence will be missed by many at the Market but Pam says she won’t be turning in her planting and gardening tools just yet..  She’s pretty excited about the seeds she’s been procuring and getting read to plant for short season crops, though she’s not presently planning to sell any at the farmers market.

“It will be fun for me to just do what I want for awhile – I’m going to do some experimenting with different short-season crops to see which ones I like and will grow well,” says Moyer.

And Moyer says she will continue to maintain her amazingly comprehensive web about herbs.  Her web site,  www.goldmountainherbfarm.com is a virtual encyclopedia on herbs. Just about anything you want to learn about them can be gleaned from this site.  Here, you can learn about medicinal properties of herbs, which herbs to use with which meats, soups, casseroles and vegetables,  what effect different herbs have on each other, herbs that can be used for “deer proofing”, and other valuable information about herbs and herb farming.

Moyer has raised more than 200 varieties of herbs on the farm near Gold Mountain that her parents, Bob and Evelyn Seabolt bought in 1953.

Gold Mountain Herb Farm

“When I grew up on the farm it was an all-purpose subsistence farm to feed the family like so many others were at that time,” says Moyer.  “And we kids all had to do our share of chores to keep it going.”

Her dad traveled a lot in the Navy though the family always stayed at the farm.   Moyer and her husband John eventually built a house on the family property in 1989 and helped her aging parents who passed away four years ago.

At first, both Moyers were working six days a week off the property, she as a division manager of the old Bon Marche in Silverdale. She says with a chuckle that they decided to grow herbs because they thought they’d be low maintenance.

“I had to try to learn which ones grew best by planting massive amounts the first couple of seasons,” said Moyer.

She eventually retired from the Bon and hit her stride with herb growing to achieve one of the most comprehensive herb farms in the state.  In addition to the farmers market, Moyer also sold herb plants directly at the farm’s nursery.

But this year she will try her hand at raising 40 different short-season vegetables for the couple’s own consumption, something she has not had time to do for many years, though she says she might open the farm up to the public again if they have a surplus.

Like most active farmers, Moyer is concerned about the future of farming in Kitsap County.  She says the farming community needs to cultivate a whole new generation of farmers who can make a living from farming.  To that end, she feels that more CSA’s are needed, further diversification of farmers markets are necessary, and much more work needs to be done in forming direct sales links like farm to chef and farm to school sales.