CHIMACUM — This small crossroads community will celebrate this weekend its agricultural diversity and cooperative actions in an event that organizers say could draw more than 1,000 people.
The family-friendly event will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at Finnriver Orchard, 124 Center Road, and will end approximately two hours after dusk when a movie screening ends.
The Chimacum Inter-Dependence Day Party celebrates the Chimacum community and the growing business environment that includes restaurants, grocery stores, fuel and, just recently, two recreational cannabis stores.
“We depend on each other to thrive and survive,” said Kristin Berg, grocery manager at the Chimacum Corner Farmstand.
“Building a sustainable economy is our mission, which needs everyone in the community in order to make that happen.”
Six years ago, the first Chimacum Inter-Dependence Day Party was a small gathering at the farmstand, 9122 Rhody Drive, where it grew steadily, moving this year to the new location.
This was done to accommodate increasing crowds, according to Rob Story, the farmstand’s general manager.
In the past few years, 700 people have attended the annual event.
This year, the new Finnriver facility was recruited because of the expected crowd, which could top 1,000, Story said.
“We were stretching our capacity,” Story said.
“When the new Finnriver facility became available, we saw a better opportunity to morph into a larger celebration of Chimacum businesses.”
At 5 p.m., live music and dancing will feature Wild Phil and the Buffalo Gals.
Five food carts, cider on tap, free ice cream, a bake sale and the opportunity to climb in and out of a firetruck also are planned.
The World’s Sweetest and Bravest Talent Show begins at 7 p.m., an unjudged event that allows performers five minutes onstage.
“We’ve had everything from a 4-year-old singing about her kitty-cat to people in their 70s who grew up here telling stories,” Story said.
Hopefuls can sign up on-site at Finnriver; at Farm’s Reach Cafe, 8972 Beaver Valley Road; or via email at music@jcfmarkets.org.
Movie time comes after the talent show, beginning with a short film produced by WSU Extension promoting Farm Tour 2016, starring Chimacum’s Roger Short.
It will be followed by a showing of “Babe,” the 1995 Academy Award-winning drama about a lovable sheep-herding pig.
The movies are to be shown on the same inflatable screen used by the Port Townsend Film Festival.
Story said Chimacum is unique because of the seven working farms located within miles of the retail outlet for their produce.
“This place is special because a lot of people want to be involved in what’s going on in a wide array of food activities,” he said.
Added Berg: “This place feeds us in so many different ways. We feed so many people in different ways, and they feed us.
“We have developed a mutual relationship, which is interdependence.”
For more information, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-inter.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
