Farm-fresh produce abounds as King County offers 39 farmers markets

Buying local, farm-fresh products is good for your budget, supports area farmers

Summer is here and farmers markets have returned to communities across King County, offering a tremendous variety of fresh, affordable, and locally grown produce and other agricultural products.

Of the 39 farmers markets in King County, five are new for 2009: Cascade Farmers Market in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, the Seattle City Hall Farmers Market, and the farmers market in Seattle’s Meadowbrook community. New farmers markets are also coming to Auburn and Maple Valley.

Markets are bursting with a variety of healthy produce in the last few weeks of June, including fresh local strawberries, early raspberries, cherries, tangy rhubarb, asparagus, sugar snap peas, radishes, Asian vegetables, lettuce, onions, greens and more.

Many farmers markets also offer farm-fresh eggs and meat, while some markets sell farmer grown and produced cheese, wine and other products. To find a farmers market, get recipes, find a farm, or sign up for the “What’s Fresh” e-mail, visit www.pugetsoundfresh.org.

Want tips for stretching your food budget when visiting the farmers market?

• Stock up on your favorite foods when they are ripe and abundant and then preserve them to eat throughout the winter.
• Ask the farmer about how to use the bargain-priced foods.
• Be flexible and substitute less-expensive, fresh varieties in recipes from a seasonable cookbook.

Buying local means consumers get to choose from the freshest foods possible while supporting our region’s small farmers, whose working fields provide beautiful open spaces.

Shoppers can take one more “green” step by taking along reusable bags to their favorite farmers market for carrying home their farm-fresh purchases.
The Puget Sound Fresh program was started in 1998 with the goal of encouraging consumers, wholesalers and retailers to seek out locally grown products, and to provide funding and technical assistance to farmers markets.

Puget Sound Fresh was created by the King County Agriculture Commission and is supported through a partnership between King County, the Cascade Harvest Coalition and Snohomish County. For more information about King County farmers markets visit www.pugetsoundfresh.org or contact Karen Kinney at 206-263-6429.

Related information

Farmers Markets video

Puget Sound Fresh

Agriculture

King County Water and Land Resources