WEEKEND: Harvest Dinner in Sequim on Saturday to honor landowners, showcase area food

Published 12:01 am Saturday, September 12, 2015

SEQUIM — The North Olympic Land Trust will host its 16th annual Friends of the Fields Harvest Dinner, a multicourse meal using ingredients from within a 100-mile radius, at SunLand Golf & Country Club on Saturday.

A few tickets may still be available for the dinner, which is set from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the club at 109 Hilltop Drive in Sequim, said Tom Sanford, executive director of the land trust.

Tickets are $100. To purchase them, call the land trust’s Port Angeles office at 360-417-1815.

More than 200 community leaders, area farmers and land conservation advocates are expected to attend the dinner.

For the past 15 years, the land trust has named a Farmer of the Year.

This year, in recognition of the 25 years of land conservation in Clallam County, the land trust will broaden this honor and recognize the 15 sets of landowners who have made the choice to permanently conserve their farmland and ensure it will always be available for farming.

Land trust officials also are expected to announce information about an upcoming farmland conservation project at the dinner.

The annual meal showcases only food from local farms, prepared by local chefs.

Staff from Nourish have taken the lead this year to provide a multicourse meal sourced from within 100 miles of Sequim.

More than 100 volunteers have worked on the evening, Sanford said.

“The creativity and the level of passion that goes into creating this 100-mile meal is just unbelievable,” he said.

The dinner will focus on the history of conservation efforts.

Friends of the Fields

Friends of the Fields was a Sequim conservation group that operated for 10 years and saved four farms from development before it merged with the land trust in 2010.

The group formed to halt a decline of the farming community in the Dungeness Valley.

“Nearly 75 percent of local farmland had disappeared in recent decades, and we kept running up against barriers as we attempted to address this,” said Bob Caldwell, longtime resident of Sequim and a lead advocate for the group.

“Therefore, we decided it was a crucial time to take a step for our local community.”

The group incorporated as the nonprofit Friends of the Fields and set out, with only $800 raised thus far, to purchase a farm that was threatened and protect it with a conservation easement.

“By placing an easement on the purchase, we would be able to ensure the land would be preserved in perpetuity for agricultural purposes,” Caldwell said.

The property that became available was a 30-acre agricultural parcel in the heart of the Dungeness Valley, now known as Plowsong Farm in Agnew.

“In one hectic weekend, our group contacted everyone we knew in the Sequim area and received pledges of nearly $40,000, enabling us to secure the land,” Caldwell said.

Once the purchase was made, thanks to an additional outpouring of community fundraising, the group then set out to find a family to farm the land.

Farm easement

Friends of the Fields sold Plowsong Farm in 2001 to John and Heather Erskine, who farm it today with a conservation easement that protects it from any other use.

The land trust and Friends of the Fields “as a combined entity have a 25-year history of weaving conservation-minded principles into the community fabric,” Sanford said.

“Together, we have permanently conserved over 3,000 acres, including over 450 acres of working farmland on over a dozen farms.”

Proceeds from the dinner will support land trust efforts to conserve local farms and food, and to preserve agricultural jobs in Clallam County.

For more information, see www.northolympiclandtrust.org.