Farmland Fund Flash! Help protect the Shipley Fields
by Jody Aliesan, PCC Farmland Fund President and Operating Officer
This article was originally published in May 2002
The Bullitt Foundation will match the first $25,000 raised
We did it — our Delta Farm is safe from development, in the hands of an organic farmer and producing food. Now the Farmland Fund steps forward to protect another piece of prime quality farmland, the Shipley Fields.
Mother’s Eve Concert
City Music for the Farmland Fund
Saturday, May 11
8 p.m.
Town Hall
Byron Schenkman and Rachel Matthews, duo pianists, perform works by Mozart, Schubert and Brahms. One hundred percent of single ticket sales will support the Fund.
Single tickets are $18, $14 for students and seniors (60+). Children ages 6-17 admission FREE (limit four children per paying adult). Please mail ticket orders to City Music, PO Box 75447, Seattle, WA 98125-0447. For more information, call City Music at 206-418-1066 or visit www.citymusic.org.
Town Hall, at 8th and Seneca in downtown Seattle, is wheelchair accessible. Ample street parking is available. Refreshments will be provided.
The owner had planned to cover fertile Dungeness River bottomland with tightly packed residential development. He had punched an access road through a wildlife corridor along its boundary. After our conversations he reconsidered his plans and has agreed to a purchase agreement for $850,000.
Our partner, Sequim resident Steffan Sherman, will initiate purchase and hold title. He’ll farm the land organically, participate in local farmer’s markets and feature his fruit and vegetables in a restaurant in the farm’s restored dairy barn — along with cheese, bread and wine produced by local artisans.
The Fund will retire development rights by purchasing an agricultural conservation easement requiring organic farming in perpetuity. Based on current easement values, we need to raise at least $250,000 to do this. The Bullitt Foundation will match the first $25,000 contributed.
The Fund chose to act once again on the Sequim prairie because of its combination of fertile soil, long growing season, and imminent threat of rapid development. The Shipley Fields satisfy all four of the Fund’s criteria: prime quality soil, a functioning landscape, rural community, and wildlife habitat.
Look for more information in upcoming issues of the Sound Consumer.
Introducing futures cards from PCC Farmland Fund
“Futures” are crops bought for future delivery. They haven’t yet been grown and harvested. The Farmland Fund’s “futures” are the gifts we make toward saving our next farm. Together we assure a future for the land, for farmers, farming communities, and all who depend on fresh, local organic produce.
Each full-color card is 4″x 6″. A card will be mailed to you in series order to acknowledge each donation of $25 or more. The Bullitt Foundation will match your gift, dollar for dollar. Ask for your favorite card. Collect the whole set!
Mothers, music and memory
This month two holidays allow us to acknowledge important people: our mothers, and those who have passed on. Honor your mother with a gift in her name. Take her to the City Music concert. (See below). She’ll love that you’re saving farmland.
TalkingRain supports the Farmland Fund
by Michael Fox,
Vice President TalkingRain
TalkingRain Beverage Company is proud to partner with the PCC Farmland Fund. Five cents of your purchase of any TalkingRain product sold at PCC goes to support the Fund’s work saving farmland, helping organic farmers and protecting our wildlife.
Founded in 1987, TalkingRain Beverage Company makes its home in the foothills of the Cascades in Preston, Washington. Our natural artesian spring flows in excess of 100 gallons per minute from a depth of 170 feet. Here we bottle carbonated, non-carbonated and natural beverages.
Just as important is the TalkingRain commitment to our community. TalkingRain annually supports more than 450 cultural events, community partnerships, sporting events and school programs. Among the many programs we support include Special Olympics, United Way, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Farmland Fund.
TalkingRain Beverage Company invites other businesses to support the Farmland Fund and encourages all PCC members to do their part by choosing products from the many companies that sponsor the Fund through PCC. The most important part of Community is ‘U’.
Contribute $100 or more to the Fund and receive a free print
Original illustrations in color pencil and watercolor by Northwest artists are printed on high quality recycled paper and are donated by Good Nature Publishing. Sunset Magazine calls these illustrations “Horticultural Fine Art!”.
Donor Roster (March 1 -31)
Anonymous: 2
Benjamin Haskell
Mary Jane Helmann
Nancy and Mark Tucker
Bil Moorhead and Margo J. Leishman
Marina Skumanich
Chantal Stevens and Dennis Wajda
PCC staff:
More than 100 PCC staff members make voluntary payroll deductions twice a month. Laurie Lombard and Catherine Sherman began theirs. Elin Smith made an additional gift, Chuck Davies honored the birth of Penelope Hannah Guy, and an anonymous staff member contributed a PCC anniversary gift.
In memory of Henry Tyson Appleyard:
The Bible Study Group
Businesses and Organizations:
TalkingRain
The PCC Farmland Fund works to secure and preserve threatened farmland in Washington State and move it into organic production. For more information, see the PCC Farmland Fund web page.