PORT HADLOCK — Most mornings, Pennie Lujan is up by 4 a.m. to go to work at Fairaview Farm near Sequim.
Building the fire in the wood stove, she makes a pot of stew for dinner and sets it on the stove, mixes bread dough and sets it to rise, then feeds the cows, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks and turkeys with grain that is ground on the farm.
After that, she milks the cows, using a 1940s surge milker unless the power is out, when she does it by hand.
By 6:30 a.m., she is starting to make cheese, a process that takes four hours.
Three afternoons a week, she also picks and cleans salad greens in the two greenhouses, which she vents and waters as needed.
In the afternoon, she feeds the chickens and gathers the eggs, and milks the cows again.
Wednesday morning, however, Lujan — who owns the farm with her husband, Freddie Lujan — was out the door by 10 a.m. to join 22 other women who came from across the North Olympic Peninsula to a Women in Agriculture round table in Port Hadlock to talk with other women who live and work on the ground level of food production.
“It’s hard for me to come, but it’s important for like-minded people to get together,” Lujan said.
Patrice Barrentine, coordinator of the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Small Farm and Direct Marketing program, said the roundtable at the Washington State University Extension Service office was the 13th conference that she had held in the state to address issues shared by people who have small farms or food production businesses.
“This is also a great time to network, to share successes and challenges, and to brainstorm,” Barrentine said.
Participants in the four-hour conference ranged from novices to old hands at farming, and traveled from the Dungeness Valley, Chimacum, Quilcene and Port Townsend to attend.
They discussed everything from ways to process their crops for consumption to food-based festivals to encouraging schools to use locally grown food in their cafeterias.
Food processing
A problem many remote areas face: lack of food processing and storage facilities.
“We are rebuilding the village, and need to rebuild the village infrastructure,” Barrentine said. “You’re already growing food. It’s the processing steps you’re missing.”
One women said that some restaurants will allow use of their kitchens on days the restaurant is closed in exchange for some of the product.
Food producers also can have a home kitchen certified by the state Department of Agriculture for a small fee, Barrentine said, which allows the farm or business owner to can, dry, smoke and freeze food for retail sale, although prepared foods and baked goods must be done in a commercial kitchen.
Using shipping containers and underground bunkers to store food were among the suggestions for dealing with the lack of food storage facilities available on the Peninsula.
Clea Rome, a Natural Resources Conservation Service coordinator based at the USDA office in Port Angeles, suggested working to create a food policy council for Clallam and Jefferson counties that would help small farmers deal with government regulations.
Educational programs
Julie Jarman, a long-time advocate for local, organic food, suggested that educational programs, such as the “farmer in the classroom” and “farmer in the cafeteria” were key.
“We used to say, it’s not enough to be a farmer. You also have to be a business person,” said Katherine Baril, WSU extension director.
“Now you also have to be a story teller and build a relationship between the customer and your land.”
Kia Armstrong of the Dungeness Valley’s Nash’s Organic Produce, who attended the conference with Patty McManus-Huber — co-owner of the farm with her husband Nash Huber — and four other women, discussed obstacles to schools serving locally-grown food.
“At school gardens, they can grow and eat anything, but they [the school food service companies] can’t buy food grown on local farms,” Armstrong said.
Parents could urge public school boards to offer their children such food, several women said.
A Peninsula-wide Farm to Cafeteria conference recently looked at ways to remove barriers between food service companies and local farmers. Follow-up meetings will be held in Port Angeles on Dec. 14 and in Port Townsend on Dec. 15, it was announced.
Food festivals
Christina Pivarnik of Christina James Winery of Port Townsend — and the marketing director for city of Port Townsend — talked about the value of festivals and culinary tourism.
Pivarnik said that the Olympic Peninsula Culinary Loop Tourism Association plans a two-day event Feb. 10-11 to bring together farmers and people who work the tourism industry.
The goal, she said, is to create an “Eat your way through Washington” itinerary for travelers interested in eating good food and seeing how and where it’s grown.
Karen Kenyon of G & R Quality Seafood in Quilcene mentioned a possible “Rock the Oyster” festival.
Offering health insurance discounts for people who subscribe to community-sponsored agriculture, or CSAs, which is allowed in Wisconsin, was another suggestion for promoting locally produced food.
Other participants in the conference included Julie Boggs, who runs an Angus cattle ranch in the Chimacum Valley and her neighbor Suzanne Tyler, the owner and operator of Wild Harvest Creamery, as well as Christie Johnston of Johnston Farms in Agnew.
Diane Dyer, owner of Whiskey Hill goat farm and Hanaka Myers of Udori Farms, have small farms near Port Townsend. Also attending the conference were Kelly James of Frog Hill Farm and Amy Grondin, a commercial fisherman based in Port Townsend, and a member of the Pacific Marine Conservation Council,.
Barrentine said she will return for a follow-up meeting for the North Olympic Peninsula’s Women in Agriculture program.
For more information, go to www. jefferson.wsu.edu.
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
