Ag Guild to celebrate island farming in farm-to-table dinner

Sunday, August 11, 5 – 10 p.m., Straits View Farm, San Juan Island

— from Steph Coffey, Director of San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild —

A farm-to-table dinner under the stars on August 11 will benefit the programs of the San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild. Islanders and friends with a heart for supporting local food and farming in San Juan County are invited to gather at beautiful Straits View Farm for an evening of seaside cocktails, island-grown delicacies, live and silent auctions, and a barn dance featuring River Rye Bluegrass.

The Ag Guild relies on grants and on the community to fund its projects.  The August 11 benefit aims to raise $50,000 in financial support to put “boots in the field” to implement the following Ag Guild programs over the next two years:

Island Grown in the San Juans focuses on brand awareness and consumer outreach—spreading knowledge of island-produced foods and where to buy them. The Eat Island Grown marketing campaign, launched in 2019 with support from San Juan County LTAC and the Clif Bar Family Foundation, helps farmers and restaurants increase their profitability by marketing their products to island visitors. 

With the help of the Ag Guild, fourteen producers have signed up to pilot the first San Juan Islands Food Hub.  The Food Hub addresses the lack of coordination between wholesale food buyers and individual farmers that has hobbled the distribution of locally grown food. The Food Hub is an online market place that allows small farms to aggregate products for sale and makes it easier for buyers to select, order, and receive local products.

The Farmers-to-Farmland program works to preserve our pastoral landscape and build food resiliency through island farmland succession. With the help of a USDA grant, which ends this August, the Ag Guild matches aspiring farmers with suitable land in San Juan County and mentors them in business planning. Thanks to this program, twelve new farmers have leased or purchased farmland in the islands. As one beginning farmer put it, “I don’t think I would have been able to realize my goal of moving to the islands to farm without the help of this program.” 

Brickworks was the first Ag Guild project, begun in 2008 to create a permanent home for the San Juan Island Farmers Market. Brickworks today is an event space that includes a low-cost commercial kitchen for Island Grown producers.  Brickworks is a home for events that promote local food, such as the Bite of San Juans, the Friday Harbor Art Market, and the Old-Fashioned Christmas Market. The Guild now seeks to reconfigure the Brickworks plaza to control parking and add plantings to beautify the outdoor green space.

Tickets to the August 11 benefit dinner are available now for $125 per person at sjiagguild.com. Don’t miss this opportunity to kick up your heels at stunning Straits View Farm in the company of island farmers and fellow friends of farming in the San Juans.