South Whidbey Tilth

Among people everywhere there is increasing concern about the quality and safety of our food as well as concern about harm to the environment from ill-conceived agricultural activity. Tilth's mission is to promote environmentally sound and sustainable agriculture. We are devoted to learning about and promoting ways in which to raise food, ornamentals, other farm crops and farm animals without damage to the environment. Our group, South Whidbey Tilth, is part of the Washington Tilth Association, which is composed of several regional chapters.

Puget Sound is in Trouble! By encouraging local, organic agriculture and making green choices in our daily lives we can create a Puget Sound that continues to be one of the most fertile places on earth. Find out what what you can do and get started. Learn more here and on the Puget Sound Starts Here web site.

Installation of watering hoses and manifolds has begun in the pea patches. As a member of Whidbey ECO Network , South Whidbey Tilth is promoting “Whidbey Waters Are in Your Hands", a Puget Sound Starts Here collaboration.

Submit items in the Whidbey Island Area Fair. For rules find the premium list on the fair website. Download these fliers and post.

Learn about how native bees play a major role in plant pollination. In the Pacific Northwest there are bumblebees, mason bees and many others which are hardier than the European honeybee and begin pollinating orchards and crops earlier. Ecologist Ida Gianopulos is presenting a 30-minute program at 12:30 p.m. in the classroom to the right of the pavilion.

Shoppers can find fresh berries, cherries, new potatoes and more at the market. The market operates from 11 to 2. There is plenty of parking, children’s play areas, clean restrooms, plus arts and crafts, hot food, baked goods and flowers. Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program coupons and SNAP cards are welcome.

Produce vendors include Lesedi Farm, Full Cycle Farm, Gourmet Organics, Tom's Market Garden, Nettle Hollow, Maha Farm & Forest, J&R Flowers & Vegetables, Do Re Mi Farm, Blackberry Moon and Hunters Moon Berries.

Local artisans include the Herbal Workshop with handcrafted soap, fiber arts by Mulberry Hill Alpacas and Thistledown Handwork, Louise Holloway Stanley’s original artwork, and Pam Winstanley's hand painted silks, Christina Moats art. New vendors, Through the Reading Glass, will buy your books or sell you some. Captain Dan's has baked goods.

Dorcas Young of Lesedi Farm has both produce and hot soup and samosas to eat.

Edward Hueneke is vending from the pavilion kitchen this season preparing his famous roasted potatoes and eggs, as well as a la carte lunch fare. Organic coffee, tea and selected cold beverages are available to drink. Fair-trade, organic bulk coffee is available to order, too.

Located at 2812 Thompson Road off Highway 525, see the map and look for the scarecrow at the corner.

New vendors welcome, see the market page.

Vounteer hours

South Whidbey Tilth depends on its volunteers. Please download a volunteer form as a pdf file. Keep track of your time all year. Hours for 2013 are due by May 1, 2014. Mail to South Whidbey Tilth or email to Treasurer Edward Hueneke.

Our Organization

Enjoy the Sustainability Campus

The South Whidbey Tilth 11-acre Sustainability Campus provides a unique, leisurely ambience and focus for learning. The campus is open for walking, and you can view our ongoing projects: demonstration field crops, community garden and orchard, forest trail and understory recovery project, native plant salvage beds operated by Native Plant Stewards, the highway vegetation management model, and bluebird nesting boxes established by Coupeville fifth-graders. Dog walkers, please usethe poop bags behind the restroom where the directional signs are. Use the trash can there.

Volunteer Opportunities

South Whidbey Tilth has opportunities for you to help with classes, farmers' market, community gardens, facilities maintenance and improvements and forest restoration projects. Work parties are often held on Saturdays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. See recent newsletters below for more information.

Tilth History

On August 27, 1977, more than 70 people gathered at Pragtree Farm near Arlington, WA, to develop strategies for the sustainable agriculture movement in the Pacific Northwest. Known as the "Regional Planning Meeting," the gathering established the framework for the Tilth Association.

Recently the Berry Center in Kentucky posted a video of Wendell Berry's July 1, 1974 speech in Spokane. Wendell's insights are as powerful today as they were forty years ago. The full transcript of his speech is available on the Tilth Producers website.

The meeting at Pragtree Farm laid the foundation for organizing local Tilth chapters. The next spring the first chapters were formed in Seattle and in Southwest Washington, followed by Willamette Valley Tilth and Rogue Tilth in Oregon. By the summer of 1982 there were 15 Tilth chapters in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, with an estimated combined membership of 2,000. At the Regional Planning Meeting three years later Anthony Judge's ideas were incorporated into Tilth's strategy of organizing autonomous local chapters empowered to respond to the needs of their communities. Over the past three decades the Tilth movement has ebbed and flowed, with the central organization dissolving into statewide organizations in Oregon and Washington, and local chapters forming and fading away. Because of its decentralized, ecological strategy, however, Tilth has continued to adapt, survive, and thrive. Today Tilth is experiencing a resurgence parallel to the growth of the organic food and farming nationwide. The complete story by one of the founders, Mark Musick is on the Washington Tilth website select History.

All the Tilth organizations celebrate the 40th anniversary this year at the Tilth Producers Conference, November 7 to 9 in Vancouver, Washington. Mary Berry, Wendell’s daughter, will be one of the keynote speakers.

See our chapters at:

Oregon Tilth www.tilth.org

Seattle Tilth www.seattletilth.org

Sno-Valley Tilth www.snovalleytilth.org

Tilth Producers of Washington www.tilthproducers.org

Vashon Island Growers Association www.vigavashon.org

Online newsletters

The current newsletter issue is June/July 2014

Acoustic Music Festival..................1

Enter your bounty in the Fair...........1

What Is Tilth?..............................2

Farm Tour destination....................2