The Co-op Farmer Fund

Dharma Ridge Farm, Quilcene, WA

The Food Co-op Farmer Fund collects donations from shoppers and then divides those funds equally between three local farms each quarter (the farms rotate each quarter). You can donate any amount online at https://www.foodcoop.coop/change-for-change or when you check out at the Co-op—just say you want to donate to the Farmer Fund or Change for Change. The farmers use the funds to provide their food to the Food Bank, the schools, or to subsidize CSAs, etc.

This summer our three farms are One Straw Ranch, SpringRain Farm & Orchard, and Dharma Ridge Farm. Keep checking back for blogs on each of the farms.

Dharma Ridge Farm

 As you head south on 101 from Discovery Bay towards Quilcene, you cannot miss Dharma Ridge Farm, which fills a small valley between Crocker and Leland lakes. Row after row of vegetables line the highway, and a striking, wood-embossed sign for Bouton Farms marks the entrance.

Haley grew up near Quilcene, but Zach’s path to the Olympic valley began in New York City and included a job with Abundant Life Seed Company (which grew from Abundant Life Seed Foundation, a local non-profit). Haley and Zack started their farm off Dharma Road in 2003, hence the name, but they eventually settled onto the historic Boulton Farm, on land that has been farmed since the early 1900s and is now protected by a conservation easement through the Jefferson County Land Trust. Like most of the valleys at the foot of the Olympics, the land here is surprisingly flat. This is due to glacial action in the last ice age, which cut valleys and deposited glacial till in them. Many a flat valley was once a glacial lake.

On about 50 acres of the 140+ acre farm, Zack and Haley grow a variety of organic vegetables with the help of their farm crew. Like many local farmers, they used to sell through the Farmers Market and the Co-op as well as to many restaurants, but today they sell wholesale in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, so they can concentrate on their farm and their family. Consequently, you won’t find them at the Farmers Market anymore, but you will find their produce at the Co-op. (They distribute through the Organically Grown Company, which has a piece on the farm at https://www.organicgrown.com/blog/blog-post-title-four-jre5e-dyfja.)

Local animator Andrea Love created a wonderful video about the Boulton Farm, which you can see on her website at https://www.andreaanimates.com/#/archive-1/.

You can also check out a video from the Tilth Alliance on the farm at https://www.farmwalks.org/food-safety-double-feature/dharma-ridge.

And the Dharma Ridge website is at https://www.dharmaridgefarm.com.