By Iris Graville
Special to the Weekly
Tired of jet-lagged produce – fruit and vegetables – that have traveled the globe to arrive at your table? Did you know it’s possible to eat well by shopping only on Lopez?
Two Lopez Island organizations, Lopez Community Land Trust and Lopez Locavores, work with farmers to promote local eating. Now they’ve embarked on Bounty – Lopez Island Farms, Food, and Community, a three-year, community-funded project to tell the Lopez food story.
Sue Roundy, past LCLT board member and current secretary of the Lopez Locavores, conceived of Bounty. “Our goal is to use photographic art to acknowledge and educate our community about the abundance of delicious food available on Lopez,” Sue says. “Some people don’t realize it’s being grown just down the road and they can buy it right here.”
The Bounty team of photographers, interviewers, advisors, a graphic designer and a writer is working to increase awareness and support for the local farms that feed us.
In the project’s first year, Lopez photographers Steve Horn, Robert Harrison and Summer Moon Scriver are developing a color slide show of the 27 participating farmers, their land and the food they produce. In Fall 2015, framed black-and-white portraits of farmers will be exhibited at various Lopez venues. The project’s third phase, a book including the photographs as well as stories and recipes, is scheduled for release in 2016.
The Bounty slide show premieres Oct. 25 at the LCLT’s annual Harvest Dinner. This year’s event at Lopez Center celebrates the 25th anniversary of the LCLT and also will include a silent auction, potluck dinner and dance. As in the past, judges will award prizes to dishes for best presentation and best use of local foods.
“At a time when so many of us stare at computer screens,” says photographer Steve Horn, “our island farmers look directly at the natural world – soil, plants, animals, weather and more. I learn so much with each visit.” He and the other Bounty photographers have been faced with the happy dilemma of figuring out how to portray the diversity of many of the local farms. Notes and images from a variety of their photo sessions are posted on the Bounty website blog – lopezbounty.org/blog/.
As for the farmers, they welcome the opportunity to inform the community about what they do.
“There’s a lot of agriculture, both large- and small-scale, happening on Lopez that so many people don’t know about,” says Ken Akopiantz of Horse Drawn Farms. “Kathryn [Ken’s wife] and I are very excited about the project. Our hope is that in telling these stories, more folks will be encouraged to participate in our Lopez food system, both as producers and consumers.”
Todd Goldsmith and Diane Dear of T&D Farms view Bounty in much the same way: “We think this project has the potential to provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of all that’s involved in bringing food from earth to table in this community, as well as to offer a little insight into why we farmers chose to do what we do, and why we chose Lopez.”
Andre Entermann and Elizabeth Metcalf of Sunnyfield Farm enjoyed the photo sessions at their goat dairy. “To have someone ask about our story and listen and take photos felt really good,” says Andre. Barn Owl Bakery, part of Midnight’s Farm, is among the Bounty participants, too. Bakers Sage Dilts and Nathan Hodges see themselves as part of the Lopez food system and economy and like the idea of being included with the growers on the island, “… because we depend on them for fruit and grains in our bread and baked goods.”
In addition to the Bounty photo project, the LCLT and the Lopez Locavores have also organized the “Lopez Bounty Food Experiment.” Inspired by “Blessing the Hands That Feed Us,” the latest book by Whidbey Islander Vicki Robin, a variety of Lopezians will choose a month, or part of a month, to eat locally and blog about it. Henning Sehmsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson of S&S Homestead Farm stepped up first, and they’ve shared their month-long experience in words and images on the Bounty Food Experiment website (http://lopezbounty.org/the-bounty-food-experiment/).
They not only describe the bounty from their farm (one of those photographed for the slide show) but include recipes and information about planting, processing, beekeeping and cheese-making, as well as reflections on the benefits of small-scale homesteading.
Amy Studzienko (also known as Table) and Suzanne Berry have taken the challenge of local eating for October and are posting their experiences on the website, too. Contributions to the project can also be made at the site or through the LCLT.
Bounty shares a vision of the future expressed by Henning Sehmsdorf: “Our dream is the community will feed itself.”
The only question people will ask about their food is which of their neighbors’ farms it came from. You’ll see evidence of this dream coming true on the Bounty website and at the LCLT Harvest Dinner.
