SEQUIM — Just 25 tickets remain for Saturday’s Harvest Dinner in Sequim, an event recognizing the diverse bounty of locally farmed food available on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Two conservation tours, one today and Saturday, also are planned for the lower Dungeness area to showcase land conserved by the North Olympic Land Trust, land trust Executive Director Tom Sanford said.
The land trust is sponsoring the 13th annual Friends of the Fields Harvest Dinner, set to run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at SunLand Golf & Country Club in Sequim.
Tickets cost $85 and will remain on sale until the end of today, Sanford said.
Tickets can be bought by phoning 360-417-1815, visiting the land trust website at http://bit.ly/Sa1HYh or stopping by the land trust’s office at 104 N. Laurel St., Suite 104, Port Angeles.
Tickets will not be sold at the door.
Christy and Kelly Johnston, co-owners of Johnston Farms in Agnew, will be recognized as this year’s Farmer of the Year for their efforts to grow and promote local agriculture in the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Harvest Dinner will feature locally grown food and chefs, and raise money for farmland conservation in Clallam County, Sanford explained.
The conservation tours planned for today and tomorrow will showcase examples of land that the land trust has helped conserve through land owner donations and money raised at the Harvest Dinner, Sanford said.
Lorraine Campbell, land trust stewardship director and organizer of the tours, said today’s tour, starting at 10 a.m., will feature a 3-mile hike of 180 acres of protected land in the Lower Dungeness area.
Tour attendees will be led through both wildlife habitat and farm, all owned by private land owners.
The tour, starting at Bell Farm just north of Sequim, will showcase land not normally open to the public, Campbell said.
Saturday’s conservation tour will run from 10 a.m. to noon at Dungeness Valley Creamery, 1915 Towne Road in Sequim.
The creamery, a producer of raw milk, also is not open to the public except during the tour, Campbell said.
For more information about the tours, phone Campbell at 360-417-1815, ext. 7. RSVPs are appreciated but not required.
The land trust bought the development rights for the Dungeness Valley Creamery in 2009 with money raised through the Harvest Dinner, Sanford said.
The owners of the creamery, who still own the land, sold the development rights to the land trust so the property cannot ever be developed for anything but agricultural uses, Sanford said.
The land trust has worked with numerous farmers in Clallam County to secure specific development rights, thereby ensuring their farmland will never be developed, Sanford said.
“They are really champions,” he said, “saying they want to make sure their farm remains this way forever.”
The land trust pays for the development rights through a combination of donations and state and federal grants, Sanford said.
Sanford estimated the Harvest Dinner has raised at least $10,000 each year since 1999, the first time the event was held. Ticket proceeds pay for the food, while the silent auctions held after the dinner raise money for land conservation, Sanford said.
For details on the land trust’s conservation efforts or the Harvest Dinner, visit www.NorthOlympicLandTrust.com or phone 360-417-1815.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
