Buy Local Food In Bremerton
The Bremerton Farmers Market will be held on Thursdays from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm for 2009. It is scheduled to begin in early May. Visit Bremerton Farmers’ Market blog or Bremerton Farmers’ Market
Harlow Gardens – Get Em While Their Hot
Last modified on 2009-08-27 17:06:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Local Flavors From Bremerton
Green, yellow, orange and red peppers create a vibrant palate of color throughout Doug Millard’s garden in Bremerton. It also contains a large number of tomatoes. At last Thursday’s Bremerton Farmer’s Market, Millard, who sells under the name Harlow Gardens, sold completely out of the 30 pounds of tomatoes he brought to market.
Hot Today, Gone Tamale
And he says it’s the beginning of what promises to be an excellent pepper season. Millard grows seven or eight varieties of which three are heirloom. His peppers vary in heat intensity from the mild Bell to the blistering Habenero.
“I’ve had an interest in peppers for a long time,” says Millard who also dries and grinds his peppers to preserve them.
As a child growing up in Connecticut he developed an early appreciation for farming by working on his family’s large summer garden in Vermont.
Doug Millard Tends Harlow Gardens
“I really missed the taste of fresh home-grown vegetables so I decided to start growing my own,” says Doug who has been selling some of his produce to neighbors for awhile but ventured into the Bremerton Farmers Market for the first time this year.
Reaching High For Products of the Sun
And he’s always looking for and trying out new varieties of peppers. Carefully preserved in air-tight packets, he’s ground many of his favorite peppers – some date back several years and have wonderfully complex flavors. He also saves seeds for next years crops. Most of his pepper seeds have come originally from Johnny’s Seed and can be ordered on-line.
“I have an heirloom pepper’s seeds that probably won’t even be available commercially as a disease hit the market source this year and wiped it out,” Millard said.
But it’s not just the garden that thrives here. Everywhere you wander on the property, combinations of lovely plants, trees, shrubs and flowers grace about an acre of his three and a half acres of property – all are tributes to the skill and artistry he’s developed in more than 30 years of landscape design and construction. Also a 25-year carpenter and contractor by trade he’s made stunning improvements to his 1933 home.
Retiring from full-time work after a back injury doing carpentry, he’s now specializing in creating raised-bed gardens for people with disabilities and older people. And he’s into recycling in a major way – most of the planks he uses for raised beds are recycled from discarded cedar decks and his garden hoops come from recycled electrical conduit. He’s also built a greenhouse so he can get early starts for his tomatoes and peppers.
His own carefully laid-out raised beds provide excellent examples of Millard’s handiwork. Large tomatoes and lots of greens like kale, collard and mustard greens, Swiss chard, and spinach grow with abundance. He’s also raising pole beans and different squashes.
Doug’s current garden is 60 by 70 feet, but he’s planning to put in an additional 50 by 70 feet garden behind this one. He’s also sporting prolific raspberry and loganberry vines as well as a couple of pear trees that had been rescued from construction sites in the San Juans. High wire fences protect his garden but he lost a hydrangea outside the fence to the ever-present deer population.
“That hydrangea was full of beautiful flowers and those deer ate every single flower in one night,” says Millard.
Doug Millard will be bringing large baskets of his delectable peppers and tomatoes as well as greens to the Bremerton Market this Thursday. But you’d better come first thing to get some …they go out fast! Through his company, West Sound Consulting, he’s also available for landscape design consulting and building his specialty raised beds. He can be reached at westsoundconsulting@hotmail.com or by calling (360) 479-2974
More On Summer Storms At The Bremerton Farmers Market and Water Rights
Last modified on 2009-07-17 16:40:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Bryn Grimley of the Kitsap Sun has written a good article with more details about recent developments with the Bremerton Farmers Market. Read more about it here:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/jul/16/farmers-market-spat-prompts-downtown-bremerton/
Chris Dunagan has done some followup on the water rights topic affecting farmers. Read more about that here:
Bremerton Farmers Market Issue: 9 July 2009
Last modified on 2009-07-08 17:26:50 GMT. 6 comments. Top.
Yakima valley produce comes to market this week!
Vendors are selling a variety of local fruit and produce as well as plant starts, fresh cut flowers, processed foods, crafts, and BBQ. See you Thursday!
Vote for Bremerton Farmers Market: American Farmland Trust, whose mission is to preserve farms and farmers, has a “Best Farmers market” contest going on right now. We’ve entered BFM and need your vote!!!!
To vote:
Log onto the following site www.farmland.org/vote
Enter our zip code – 98337
Once the market info is displayed, click on the “Vote” button and proceed from there!
Let’s vote Bremerton Market #1
WIC/SENIOR COUPONS: Now being accepted at market!
VENDORS AT MARKET THIS WEEK
Farmers:
Gregory Farm – Paul has Yakima Valley fruit -peaches and apricots (tomcots). WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Harlow Gardens – Harlow Gardens will have vegetable and herb planters/hanging baskets for the deck or patio, ripe and green tomatoes, cucumbers, greens, blueberries, and ask about loganberries.
WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
The Old Wheelbarrow – Plants, locally grown produce, and fresh cut flower bouquets. WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Start Now – Start Now announces the beginning of the tomato harvest! We’ll have some eggplants as well, and more zucchini, basil, lettuce, fava beans, peas, kale, raspberries, escarole and parsley.
WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Sylvan Floral & Garden – David & John have fresh Yakima valley produce this week to include: pickling cucumbers, zucchini, walla walla sweet onions, fresh green & wax beans, handpicked Duke blueberries, bing and rainier cherries, along with pie cherries, apricots (tomcots), peaches, fresh asparagus, rhubarb and dill, along with bi-color corn (first of the season). WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Yun Lee – Bonsai and Lucky Bamboo
Pheasant Field Farm – Get your Farm Fresh Eggs and locally grown produce. WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Sanzalone Greenhouse – Come and visit our booth, we grow unusual plants specifically breed for the Northwest!
Lilliputs – Sandy returns this week with beautiful perennial flowers, roses and hanging baskets.
Crafters:
Dianes Dezines – Your summer attire will be complete with that perfect pair of earrings, necklace or bracelet designed by Diane. She has something for everyone, stop by and visit.
Candles by Edree - As always, all candles by Edree are 100% soy with all cotton wicks. Support farmers, burn soy. Stop by and see Edree!
Luli Girl – Dress those little ones in the cutest homemade summer outfits crafted by Amy. This will be Amy’s last week until August, as she will be giving birth to her little baby boy!
Made in Manette – Carolee handmakes aprons, soaps and children’s caps. Having that summer BBQ? Then you need to be outfitted with the perfect apron!
Sunnyslope Soap -
New soap this week, by popular demand, Fisherman’s Soap. Made with anise essential oil (smells like licorice), takes the human smell off and is irresistible to fish (so they say). Also, a new supply of French Green Clay. The scent is heavenly!
Food Vendors:
Humming Bird Hill Soda – Homemade soda by Mike & Dee. They have that homemade soda for you to take a six pack or individual bottle home tonight.
Vann’s Mini-Donuts – Vann’s Mini-Donuts will be there making fresh hot mini-donuts right before your eyes.
Bavarian Bratwurst & Roasted Nuts – Two extra lean Nuremberg brats on an organic roll. Served with a white kraut or a red sweet cabbage. There are no fillers in the pork and they are only 6% fat. We have our roasted nuts along with lemonade and other drinks.
Cap N Kettle Korn – Get your fresh popped Kettle Korn!
CJ’s Evergreen General Store: Honey, Williams Family Salsa – this salsa comes in mild and hot varieties, Hamburgers, Hot dogs, Salmon Burgers, Veggie Burgers and Hot & Mild Sausages along with water & soda make the list. Want someone else to cook and prepare for your special event? Talk to CJ about her new catering business.
Crimson Cove -
Crimson cove will have Smoked Swiss cheese. Come by and sample some!
London Maid Crumpets – Crumpets are wonderful toasted with ricotta cheese and your favorite jam or jelly on top!
Non-Profits:
Kitsap County Master Gardeners – Stop by and visit with the Master Gardeners, you can even bring them a sample or picture of your ill plant for diagnosis.
Bremerton Farmers Market Booth – Support your local farmers market by buying one of our eco friendly market bags for $5, or how about becoming a community member of the market for $30 a year? Stop by the market booth and talk with Kim our market manager for information!
Kitsap Food Co-op – Have you ever wondered what exactly the Kitsap Food Co-Op is all about? Stop by and talk to Laura and her crew, they also have homemade aprons and tote bags for sale.
Bremerton Urban Garden Society (B.U.G.S.) – BUGS is a nonprofit organization and member supported group located in Bremerton, Washington. We believe in creating organic gardening opportunities by inspiring people to connect with the earth, their food, and one another.
Vendors Out This Week:
Sundown Ridge Farm
Jane’s Handmade Treasures
Snooter-Doots
NEW TO MARKET
Schwerzlers’ Natural Creations -
We are brand new to the market! My husband, Kirk, & I make walking sticks and teacher’s pointers/wands. I, Linda, am an author and photographer. And Cynthia, our daughter, has prints of her drawings. You are in luck, I have just lowered my prices due to the recession, by 20%! Please stop by to meet me. I love to chat.
Schwerzlers’ Natural Creations, more easily known as, SNC Art and More.
Storybook Tea – Wendy Daniels owner of Storybook Tea & Boutique brings her magical and whimsical face painting to market. Visit her in the shared booth with Luli Girl.
Pat’s Handmade Crafts – Pat brings her cool tie dye shirts, beaded spirit dolls, natural body and bath products. Stop by and visit.
MARKET SPONSORS
The following have provided amazing support for your market this year:
Former Mayor Cary Bozeman
City of Bremerton
Bremerton Patriot
Kitsap Sun
Bremerton Farmers Market Issue: 3 – July 2009
Last modified on 2009-07-01 19:20:51 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Yakima valley produce comes to market this week!
Vendors are selling a variety of local fruit and produce as well as plant starts, fresh cut flowers, processed foods, crafts, and BBQ. See you Thursday!
Vote for Bremerton Farmers Market: American Farmland Trust, whose mission is to preserve farms and farmers, has a “Best Farmers market” contest going on right now. We’ve entered BFM and need your vote!!!!
To vote:
Log onto the following site www.farmland.org/vote
Enter our zip code – 98337
Once the market info is displayed, click on the “Vote” button and proceed from there!
Let’s vote Bremerton Market #1
WIC/SENIOR COUPONS: Now being accepted at market!
VENDORS AT MARKET THIS WEEK
Farmers:
Gregory Farm – Blueberries are here, Paul has blueberries and they are delicious – also to market this week Paul has Yakima Valley fruit – cherries, peaches and apricots (small tomcots). WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Harlow Gardens – See Doug for locally grown greenhouse cukes, green tomatoes for frying, Osaka purple mustard greens, swiss chard, onions, herb bowls, and vegetable plants. WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
The Old Wheelbarrow – Plants, locally grown produce, and fresh cut flower bouquets. WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Start Now – Start Now announces the beginning of the tomato harvest! We’ll have some eggplants as well, and more zucchini, and the strawberry harvest continues. WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Sylvan Floral & Garden – David & John have fresh Yakima valley produce this week to include: pickling cucumbers, walla walla sweet onions, salad onions, fresh green beans, handpicked Duke blueberries, bing and rainier cherries, apricots, cling stone sugar sweet white peaches (I’m told these are the best) and fresh asparagus and rhubarb. Put together your red, white & blue fruit basket with cherries, white peaches & blueberries! WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Yun Lee – Bonsai and Lucky Bamboo
Pheasant Field Farm – Get your Farm Fresh Eggs and locally grown produce from Lisa-Marie. WIC/Senior vouchers accepted.
Crafters:
Dianes Dezines – Need something special to sparkle up your 4th of July attire? Diane has beautiful earrings, necklaces and bracelets to go with that outfit.
Candles by Edree - As always, all candles by Edree are 100% soy with all cotton wicks. Support farmers, burn soy. Stop by and see Edree!
Luli Girl – Dress those little ones in the cutest homemade summer outfits crafted by Amy. Stop by and check out all the wonderful items.
Made in Manette – Carolee has that perfect apron for all you chicken lovers. Stop by and visit Carolee
Sunnyslope Soap – Last chance for 4th of July Star Bars! Only a few left in stock. Back again this week — Summer Berry. A pretty yellow bar with violet swirls, scented with orange and blackberry. A great summer soap! Stop by for a free sample. All our soaps are made with natural ingredients and all vegetable oils. Be nice to your skin!
Jane’s Handmade Treasures -will have handmade name badge/id tag holders, dog ruffs and a few small lap quilts…. we will also have dog water & biscuits in our booth/stall.
Snooter-Doots – SNOOTER-DOOTS are looking for a good home! There are many to choose from – veggee, fishee, buggee, and birdee friends. Come in and adopt your new BFF today.
Food Vendors:
Humming Bird Hill Soda – When was the last time you had a homemade Root Beer soda? Or a Sarsaparilla? Stop by visit Mike & Dee try a taste, then take some home for that 4th of July BBQ or enjoy a ice cold cup while visiting at the market.
Vann’s Mini-Donuts – Hot Fresh Mini-Donuts – watch those donuts being made.
Bavarian Bratwurst & Roasted Nuts – Two extra lean Nuremberg brats on an organic roll. Served with a white kraut or a red sweet cabbage. There are no fillers in the pork and they are only 6% fat. We have our roasted nuts along with lemon-ade and other drinks.
Cap N Kettle Korn – Blackberry Kettle Korn, regular flavor Kettle Korn all to go with your 4th of July celebration.
CJ’s Evergreen General Store: Honey, Williams Family Salsa – this salsa comes in mild and hot varieties, Hamburgers, Hot dogs, Salmon Burgers, Veggie Burgers and Hot & Mild Sausages along with water & soda make the list. Want someone else to cook and prepare for your special event? Talk to CJ about her new catering business.
Crimson Cove -
Crimson Cove will have fillets and half fillets of Poulsbo Style Smoked Salmon and Cajun Style Smoked Salmon this Thursday. Would go great with 4th of July parties. We will also have a new Smoked Extra Aged White Cheddar, come and try it!
London Maid Crumpets – Crumpets are wonderful toasted with ricotta cheese and your favorite jam or jelly on top!
Non-Profits:
Kitsap County Master Gardeners – Not sure your plants are growing correctly? Stop by and visit with the Master Gardeners, you can even bring them a sample or picture of a ill plant.
Bremerton Farmers Market Booth – Support your local farmers market by buying one of our echo friendly market bags for $5 or how about becoming a community member of the market for $30 a year? Stop by the market booth and talk with Kim our market manager for information!
Kitsap Food Co-op – Have you ever wondered what exactly is the Kitsap Food Co-Op? Stop by and talk to Laura and her crew, they also have homemade aprons and tote bags for sale.
Bremerton Urban Garden Society (B.U.G.S.) – BUGS is a nonprofit organization and member supported group located in Bremerton, Washington. We believe in creating organic gardening opportunities by inspiring people to connect with the earth, their food, and one another.
Vendors Out This Week:
Sanzalone’s Greenhouse
Lilliputs
Sundown Ridge Farm
MARKET SPONSORS
The following have provided amazing support for your market this year:
Former Mayor Cary Bozeman
City of Bremerton
Bremerton Patriot
Kitsap Sun
Bremerton Farmers Market Opening Day
Last modified on 2009-05-15 23:20:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
After a couple of gloomy, cold days, a bright sun came out to greet a number of shoppers and vendors at yesterday’s opening of the Bremerton Farmers Market.
Located in a new venue at the south side of the Rotary Evergreen Park (at the north end of Pacific Avenue), the market opening was also celebrated by some lively music played by the 56th Army Band from Fort Lewis.
Bremerton Farmers Market Has A Lot To Offer
About 15 vendors brought a large variety of veggie starts, vegetables, over-wintered carrots, delectable spinach, asparagus and a good mix of arts and crafts.
Returning vendors Chuck Muller and Eileen Maroney of Sundown Ridge Farm sported a table full of their famous jams and jellies, including pear and a to-die-for rhubarb raspberry. All were available for tasting.
Sundown Ridge Jams and Jellies
Next door, Jean Schanen and Glenn Huff of “Start Now” had an abundant display of the produce grown strictly on their urban rooftop. They even have eight fruit trees and grow melons, corn and spinach that grow up over their living quarters. The pair is more than willing to share their knowledge of rooftop gardening with anyone interested.
“We grew 250 pints of raspberries and strawberries last year,” said Huff. “And we had terrific crops of just about everything else too.”
Across the aisle, first-year market vendor, Doug Millard had a nice display of herbs and vegetables. He’s selling items that he grows on a 70 by 70 foot area but he also supplies produce for 20 people whom he contacts by e-mail to inform them of what’s available that week. His specialties include 11 varieties of tomatoes and 12 of peppers. As a professional landscape artist, he also helps people design raised beds to grow crops for their own consumption.
As the band finished their last number, market board president John Bridger walked over to thank them and offer some on-the-house sodas from the tasty assortment vendor Hummingbird Hill has to offer.
56th Army Band from Fort Lewis
“These sodas are the best… with a variety that no one else has,” said Bridger.
Bridger and his partner, David Johnson, who is market board vice-president, are excited about the new location and their Sylvan Flowers and Garden booth was brimming with flowers, veggie starts and a variety of herbs.
Dave Johnson and John Bridger
They own a half acre of land, are clearing another five, and looking for more acreage. They say they will be supplying fresh produce for their own business, Henry’s Deli and Café, in the Norm Dicks Center as well as the farmers’ market. They also plan to bring fresh fruit in from east of the mountains that isn’t as available here.
“Our mayor helped select this location and we can’t thank him enough for paying for the permitting – we’ve had the best turnout we’ve ever had for an opening,” said Bridger.
Urban Farming – Start Now
Last modified on 2009-06-25 22:48:56 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
If you strolled along the little side street of Bloomington Avenue off 11th in West Bremerton, you might not believe your eyes if you came upon the house and yard of Glenn Huff and Jean Schanen.
Urban Farmers Glenn Huff and Jean Schanen
Everywhere you look, something is growing, blossoming, or fruiting. An amazing plethora of fruit, vegetables, flowers, and plants are found everywhere…including up on three levels of rooftops! The couple’s farming enterprise, called Start Now, is a living tribute to urban gardening using only organic farming methods.
But their gardening origins were originally planted elsewhere. Huff’s mother was widowed in Kansas with five children when he was two so she supported her family by raising and selling vegetables from her garden. Little Glenn helped out by pulling his coaster wagon around hawking her produce. Following service in the Navy and a civil engineering degree at Kansas State University, he worked for the State of Alaska designing and rebuilding roads, and then became a land developer in the Matanuska Valley.
Glenn Huff, Outstanding in His "Field"
Schanen also had gardening roots in her home town of Cincinnati Ohio where she grew vegetables as a toddler in her family’s victory garden. After obtaining an undergraduate degree in social science she went to the Washington University School of Law in St Louis. She migrated to Washington State, took the bar exam and on a whim, went to Alaska while awaiting the results.
Jean Schannen, "Up On The Roof"
Here, the star-crossed couple met in 1979 in what would evolve into a life-changing course for both. Their first venture in farming began that year when they went to Belize to embark on a citrus farm project on about 750 acres of 8,000 acres of land that had been deemed worthless by the clear-cutting of mahogany trees. With some earth moving, fertilizer enhancement, and research into organic agriculture solutions, the couple was able to replace sand with fertile soil and bring about thriving sustainable crops of 30 varieties of citrus trees, guava, mango and other fruit trees on their farm, called “Parrot Hill”. Part of their work involved composting organic waste from citrus, sugar and fish processing industries. It also became a teaching center for some of the techniques that Huff and Schanen pioneered.
mmm urban cherries
mmm urban strawberries
The ecological significance of their research and work here and later on led to the eventual formation of “Start Now”, a non-profit corporation formed for the purpose of teaching about establishing commercial projects that would enhance the earth, rather than detract from it.
Turning Back The Meter
But 13 years later in 1993, Huff and Schanen sold Parrot Hill and started on a new project in an entirely different climate – they bought a small farm in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Here they found 57 acres of land that had been diminished by relentless rotation of corn soybeans, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. With far less rain and a hard winter, the challenges posed a different set of problems but again, using organic principles with readily obtainable items such as composted turkey manure, they were able to turn the land around as well as adding a solar greenhouse made from hay bales, the first such building in the state. Crops flourished and the couple also ran a restaurant on the farm specializing in vegetables and soups that emphasized direct field to customer consumption.
In 2003 the couple once again decided to embark on yet another new farming venture so they moved to Bremerton to be near Jean’s two children and start their urban farm. Here they’ve created 19 solar panels for energy, a small green house for tomatoes, and will have more than 200 pints of succulent strawberries emerging from raised bed boxes as well as more than 2,000 heads of lettuce, 250 plants of basil, 125 half-pints of raspberries, 400 zucchinis, plus peas, fava beans, okra, corn, melons, asparagus apricots and numerous other crops. This amazing array of crops using organic principles is planted on their rooftop, a 60 by 100 foot garden space in their yard plus a 51 by 50 space their neighbor allows them to use.
Start Now fruit and vegetables are available at the Bremerton Farmers Market but Huff and Schanen feel very strongly about people growing their own food too.
“Get started growing your own food now…before you have to,” says Schanen.
Schanen and Huff are sponsoring the excellent movie “Fresh” that will be shown at the next KCAA meeting on July 14 at 7 p.m. at the Norm Dicks Center in downtown Bremerton. For more information about their projects go to their web site at: www.startnow.org
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