You’ve probably enjoyed great food and supported your local farmers by visiting the farmers market near your work place, by signing up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) at work program, or by visiting a farmers market near your home. Did you know there are more than 40 farmers markets in King County between the months of May and November?
Here are a few of the resources available to make the most of your ability to explore farm-fresh food and eat like a local in and around King County.
In ‘Celebrating DNRP’s 2017 highlights,’ the Department of Natural Resources and Parks shares ‘Local never tasted so good’ on their home page features carousel.
The Farm Fresh Local program educated and inspired eaters across the region on how to access local food at farmers markets, farm stands, and CSAs in our community. The program, supported by a USDA grant, included a 2017 media campaign to promote farmers markets, creation of a CSA@Work program for King County employees, a Farm Fresh Local Healthy Eating Blog, and a new story map that offers a virtual tour of farm- fresh food in King County.
This brings you to Water and Land Services’ ‘Taste variety at your Farmers Market’ page (also in Spanish here), which – in addition to data and maps – includes the ‘Explore farm-fresh food’ link to the story map mentioned above.
This is a fantastic ArcGIS story map that dives into the history of Farmers Markets in our area, highlights a number of favorite markets, and provides mapped links to markets not only in King County, but throughout the Puget Sound area. The mapped links connect you to specific markets and their days and hours of operation.
Pike Place Market, which opened in 1907, remains the longest-running year-round farmers market in the United States. Farmers and consumers advocated for the market so they could transact with each other directly. In addition to Pike Place, the University District, Ballard, West Seattle and Broadway Farmers Markets are open year-round and are centered in Seattle.
In addition to our own ArcGIS Story Map, local and regional resources are available to explorers ready to visit the markets throughout the region.
Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets is a neighborhood alliance com
mitted to supporting and strengthening Washington’s small family farm businesses by creating and operating vibrant, successful neighborhood farmers markets. They are a 501c3 nonprofit that manages seven food-focused farmers markets in Seattle. They are online, have a Ripe and Ready Blog, and are social on Twitter and more; providing great information about the markets in Seattle proper.
Outside of Seattle and King County? The Tilth Alliance has a site that links to a list of regional farmers markets. You can search markets and information about them by location. They also have an app for that!
Eat well and enjoy the season by visiting the farmers markets near you!
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