SEQUIM — Nash Huber calls himself the “local, radical hippie” and “odd guy out.”
And for years — throughout the 1980s at least — his Nash’s Organic Produce operation grew the kind of food that was not all-the-rage in his adopted hometown of Sequim.
But over the past decade, a revolution has taken place.
Americans — including Seattleites and the people of the North Olympic Peninsula — developed an appetite for the organic carrots, cauliflower, strawberries and now wheat from Dungeness Valley fields.
Since his start here in 1979, Huber has expanded his operation to more than 110 varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruit and berries on some 400 acres, though much of that is leased, not owned, by Nash’s.
And along with watching his produce sell speedily at farmers markets from Port Angeles to Seattle’s University District, Huber has collected an armload of awards, the latest of which is the Pellegrini, named for a kindred spirit from Tuscany.
The late Angelo “Babbo” Pellegrini emigrated from Italy to Washington state as a boy who spoke no English; he grew up to teach Shakespeare at the University of Washington.
Pellegrini loved to invite students and other professors to his home, where he sat them down for feasts of foods he’d grown and prepared himself.
He wrote nine books about the joys of fresh vegetables, good friends and lively conversation; among them is The Food Lover’s Garden, in which Pellegrini brought Americans inside his Eden of delights.
“Nash approaches life the way Pellegrini did — put honest, good food in front of people and relate to them. It’s a tremendously important component to a good life,” 2006 Pellegrini winner Jon Rowley said when he nominated Huber for the award.
“Nash’s produce has helped Seattle change the way it eats,” Rowley added.
But the Pellegrini plaque, presented Wednesday at Seattle’s Paramount Theater at a restaurant showcase called the Voracious Tasting, was handed not to Huber but to his wife of 17 years, Patty McManus-Huber.
Nash Huber, you see, was busy enjoying life, nature, food and friendship in Moab, Utah.
An avid mountain biker, Huber takes this trip every year during the last week of April.
“It’s about 75 degrees right now,” Huber said Thursday afternoon, reached on his cellphone.
But “the water in the coffee pot froze last night. It kinda whiplashes you.”
Huber is looking back and forward these days at his life as a grower.
Many awards
He can place the Pellegrini plaque next to the American Farmland Trust’s 2008 Steward of the Land award and the national Ecological Farming Association’s Steward of Sustainable Agriculture, or “Sustie,” honor from January.
“When you get to the stage in your life when they start giving you awards, you wonder,” Huber said.
At least these aren’t being presented posthumously, he joked.
McManus-Huber, for her part, said her husband would have hit it off with Pellegrini.
Both men want people to sit down and share good food and talk, she said.
Pellegrini, McManus-Huber learned, loved to engage people — just as Nash Huber does in something called “men’s breakfast.”
It’s been at the Huber house every Thursday for 22 years and has grown to include about a dozen guys.
“It’s not ‘no women allowed,’” McManus-Huber said.
She’s stayed for the meal a few times before rushing to work.
“Everybody brings something,” such as fresh eggs from the men’s hens, jam and applesauce to go with waffles made with Nash’s Organic wheat.
“They make a huge scramble with fresh vegetables. And they love talking. They talk politics, especially local politics,” McManus-Huber said.
“It’s turned into an ad hoc support group — not deliberately; it’s just ‘Hey, we’re friends.’
“And they’ve helped each other through a lot of things. There have been bouts with cancer, divorces, deaths in the family.”
Famed Seattle chef Greg Atkinson, in a tribute to Huber in the Seattle Weekly, writes about the men’s breakfast as one reason the farmer was chosen for the Pellegrini.
Huber, as host, “is the glue that holds the group together,” using local food and freewheeling discussions to “nurture what’s growing, whether it’s a field of carrots or an entire community.”
“Nash certainly does bring people to the table,” McManus-Huber added.
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
