Pilot project makes it easy for ferry commuters to purchase locally-grown produce every Wednesday beginning June 25

Ferry commuters departing the busy 4:40 pm and 5:30 pm ferries from Seattle to Bainbridge Island will soon be able to grab a bag of fresh local lettuce, some crisp sugar snap peas, and a box of sweet Island strawberries before they get in their car or board their bus or bike. A new “Ferry Farm Stand” will open every Wednesday evening beginning June 25 at the Bainbridge ferry terminal, offering a variety of locally-grown produce in convenient $5 bags.

A project of the local non-profit group Sound Food in partnership with Sustainable Bainbridge and the Chamber of Commerce, the Ferry Farm Stand is a pilot project to encourage Kitsap commuters to eat more food grown close to home. All of the food sold at the Ferry Farm Stand will be picked fresh at farms on Bainbridge Island and in North Kitsap. Sound Food will provide all of the staffing, organization and promotional support so that 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the farmers.

“We wanted to find a way to make it easy for people to buy local food – especially those who can’t make it to the Farmers Market on Saturday,” said Sound Food founder Sallie Maron. “What better place than right where they get off the boat on their way home to dinner?”

The Ferry Farm Stand will be located near the Bainbridge Chamber of Commerce’s yellow information station between the terminal and the Kitsap Transit buses. “This couldn’t have happened without the support of the BI Chamber and Kitsap Transit,” Maron said. “Both groups were excited about the opportunity and offered us the use of their space to make it happen.”

Produce will come from many of the local farms that sell at the Bainbridge and Poulsbo Farmers’ Markets. For the Farm Stand’s debut on Wednesday June 25, the produce will come from Butler Green Farms and Laughing Crow Farm. Offerings will include Butler Green’s salad mix, tender young carrots, sweet sugar snap peas, and Laughing Crow Farm’s fresh garlic and garlic scapes. If the weather cooperates, the Farm Stand may also offer the first local strawberries from Karen Selvar’s Day Road farm. Everything will be packaged in $5 increments to streamline transactions and get commuters on their way. There will be recipes and information available for each week’s offerings at the Sound Food website, www.soundfood.org.

The Ferry Farm Stand will be open every Wednesday throughout the harvest season from 5 pm to 6:15 pm. Its mission is to make it easier for Kitsap residents to buy locally-grown food. Eating locally has been shown to benefit both the economy and the environment. A recent study by a group called Sustainable Seattle found that a shift of 20% of our food dollars into locally-directed spending would result in a nearly one billion dollar annual income increase in the Central Puget Sound region, which includes KitsapCounty.

Most produce currently travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to table. University of Washington researchers have found that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with an apple grown in New Zealand and shipped to Puget Sound are double that of a Washington apple, and the climate impact of an Idaho-grown potato is double that of a Washington potato consumed here. Consider that Laughing Crow Farm’s Betsey Wittick grows her potatoes using horsepower (as in her horse Sam), and that difference grows even greater. It's also been said that one of the best ways to keep farmland from being developed for commercial use is to expand demand for local-grown produce, creating a higher value for those lands as active farmland.

The Ferry Farm Stand is organized and staffed by volunteers from Sound Food, a group founded in 2007 as a project of Sustainable Bainbridge.

About Sound Food

Sound Food, a project of Sustainable Bainbridge, was founded to encourage the use of local, seasonal and sustainable food by offering information, recipes, and community to residents of BainbridgeIsland and the West Sound region. Its first project was to map food producers in KitsapCounty. To find the map and more information on local food visit www.soundfood.org .

About Sustainable Bainbridge

Sustainable Bainbridge is a non-profit organization with a vision for a vibrant future, and a call for collaboration by a diverse group of island residents and organizations in order to meet our shared sustainability goals. For more information visit www.sustainablebainbridge.net

###