Gail Nickel-Kailing, December 2nd, 2013 
Erick and Wendy Haakenson, and their son David and his wife Kristin, are farming in a floodplain skirted by the Snoqualmie River. An active farm nearly for 25 years, Jubilee Biodynamic Farm is home to one of the largest and oldest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs in the state. Jubilee is an intensively managed, diversified farm comprised of 14 acres of fruits, vegetables, and grains and around 35 acres devoted to beef cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks.
Read more: This Much and No More – Jubilee Biodynamic Farm: Small is Beautiful
Gail Nickel-Kailing, October 30th, 2013 
In a region that once supported 480 dairy farms and a rural agricultural landscape, now fragmented by 40 years of residential development, Nash Huber has pieced together 450 acres of rich farmland, almost all of it leased. Through the use of land trusts, restrictive zoning, conservation easements, and leasehold agreements, it has been protected from future development.
Read more: Nash’s Organic Produce – Making the 100-Mile Diet An Everyday Choice
Gail Nickel-Kailing, September 27th, 2013 
Whether it’s the urge to start a small bakery to sell a better loaf to the community or just a wish to make and eat a better loaf of bread than that available at the grocery store, the poor quality and poor nutritional state of our daily bread sends hundreds to gatherings like the Kneading Conference West to learn more.
Read more: The Business of Bread and Baking: Kneading Conference West
Gail Nickel-Kailing, August 26th, 2013 
Quinoa, a pseudo-grain closely related to a North American weedy plant, Lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album), was first domesticated about 5000 years ago on the high plains surrounding Lake Titicaca. August 12-14, 3102, researchers, seed breeders, and growers from 22 countries, the US, and Canada participated in International Quinoa Research Symposium, a platform for debate over access to seeds and seed genetics and an information exchange about research projects around the world.
Read more: Quinoa: The Passion and The Politics
The Snoqualmie Valley Farmers Cooperative, this week made their first delivery of organic produce to 21 Acres Food Hub to be distributed to 100 low-income, home-bound seniors in Seattle.
Read more: New Snoqualmie Valley Farmers Co-op Delivers Organic Produce to Seniors
Walk past any college laboratory and you could probably identify the subject at hand by the smell. The chemistry lab reeks of chlorine and sulfur, the biology lab sends off whiffs of formaldehyde, and even the botany lab smells earthy, fruity, and sometimes sweet. But never have such wonderful odors come from a lab until you pass something called the Bread Lab!
Read more: The Mad Baker in the Bread Lab
Freshly ground whole grain flour is alive – and lively – according to Dr. Steven Jones, WSU Wheat Breeder and founder of The Bread Lab. Age, processing, and chemicals will “kill” your flour, and will give you flour that is “nothing of interest other than to carry other flavors.”
Read more: The Bread Lab: Why Your Flour Should Be Lively
I am a novice baker trying my darnedest to learn how to make good bread. I would rather have bought a book by Michael Pollan called Baked. In his book, Cooked Michael talks about his time with guru bakers, farmers, and millers. He reminds us that to make good bread you only need a few basics: flour, water, salt, yeast, time, and heat. Here’s our take on local and regional grain and flour, and baking bread.
Read more: Dishing on Pollan’s Cooked
Today fishing industries around the world – both fin fish and shellfish – are continuing to harvest as large a quantity of fish as possible, mostly without regard to the remaining fish stocks, the environmental effects of wild and farmed catch, and the careful labeling and identification of the product in restaurants and markets. And to make matters worse, we are facing the introduction of genetically engineered fish into the American food system.
Read more: Fishy Fish Tales
If you think watching a documentary about wild fish sounds boring, this film may well change your mind. It provides sobering insight into the inner workings of government agencies, and includes rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with food and environmental safety. It reveals how the very agency tasked with protecting wild salmon is actually working to protect the commercial aquaculture industry, to devastating effect.
Read more: Salmon Confidential
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Montana Organic Association Annual Conference
 Dec. 12-14, 2013, Kalispell MT
Click for more information here. The A/V Department Bill Moyers Interviews Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry warns, “People who own the world outright for profit will have to be stopped; by influence, by power, by us.”
Bonus Video:
Dr. Jill Clapperton on Soil Health
Dr. Jill Clapperton, soil scientist, says that farmers need to focus on building diversity of organisms within soils. Poor soil biology produces poor crops in terms of both crop yields and nutrient content.
Click here to see more videos.
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