POTATOES, TULIPS, BERRIES, AND BIRDS

 

 

 

This is the time of the year when farmers on the mainland in the rich Skagit Valley, donate hundreds of pounds of potatoes to us for the winter.  We have been known still be enjoying them on the 4^th of July, which amazes our friends. We also receive beets and brussell  sprouts, which are still on their long stocks.

 "Skagit" can refer to the Skagit Native American tribe, a dialect of the Lushootseed language, or a geographic location like the Skagit River and Skagit County in Washington. In the Lushootseed language, the word originally meant "to hide away" or "place of refuge" and was applied to the people who lived in the area, specifically the Lower Skagit people on Whidbey Island, south of us. 

 This ultra-fertile valley is nestled under the Cascade mountain range, with farmers producing about $300 million worth of crops, livestock and dairy products on approximately 90,000 acres of land. 

The Skagit River valley is blessed with some of the most productive agricultural soil in the world. The valley's fertile soil has been rated in the top 2% of soils in the world, making the Skagit Valley one of the most important and productive agricultural regions in the world. 

Thousands of years of flooding on the Skagit River deposited a rich layer of topsoil in the Skagit Valley. European immigrants flocked here starting in the 1860s and built houses in the flats, along with an elaborate network of earthen dikes to capture land from the saltwater delta and prevent the rivers from flooding the land. 

Over 90 different crops are grown in the county. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, tulips, daffodils, pickling cucumbers, specialty potatoes, Jonagold apples and vegetable seed are some of the more important crops in this maritime valley. This summer one farmer brought us 30 flats of berries - to be frozen for winter- after we ate to satiety!

More tulip, iris and daffodil bulbs are produced here than in any other county in the U.S. And our friend at Roozengarden is the largest.  At Easter and Christmas (and special times in between) our chapel if filled with his flowers.

Ninety-five percent of the red potatoes grown in the state of Washington are from Skagit County.

In addition to food and fiber products, agriculture in this region provides habitat for thousands of swans, snow geese and dabbling ducks.  I remember the first time I saw the snow geese in a field. It was January and as we drove by I swore it had snowed. As we got closer and closer to the site I could see the wings flapping.  A magical sight, and people come from all over the world to see this wonderous bird, along with swans which feed amidst the geese.The Skagit Delta supports 70 percent of Puget Sound’s shorebirds during migration, the farmland being the reason why the Skagit Delta is one of the most important waterfowl wintering areas in the Pacific Northwest, supporting over 90 percent of the waterfowl wintering in western Washington.

The ongoing presence and preservation of farmland in the Skagit Valley supports one of the nation’s last strongholds containing all five species of salmon. The largest chum and pink salmon populations in the entire lower 48, as well as the most abundant population of wild Chinook salmon in Puget Sound are found in these rivers.

We are blessed to live in an area so rich in produce and to have so many farmer friends willing to share their crops with us.

Photos:

Top: Jacob R. King

Tulips: Ruth Choi

Bottom Geese:  Rahan Alduaij