Sustainable Eats

I’ve been a little distracted lately by more than just the holidays. In light of the Kenmore milkshed closing up this month I’ve done lots of digging. It seems the issue is around just who is a Grocer, or Food Establishment in the eyes of the law.

One year ago I switched my family from pasteurized, homogonized milk to raw milk from Dungeness Valley Creamery and St. John’s. After a year of drinking it my resolve is even stronger – my kids are healthier and seem even more resistant to illness despite all the plagues that Seattle Public Schools have to offer and the taste is amazing.

The milk is quite pricey at the store but there are drop points around town you can join. The farmer sells directly to you, bypassing the middle man and we all reap the benefit of that reclaimed margin. It makes local, pure and raw milk cost sometimes less than what you would pay at the store

These small farmers don’t want to and can’t market to end consumers nor do they want to be in the milk delivery business. They want to stay small and focus on farming, ranching and dairying if that is even a word. To pull this all off they set up drop points around town where you can go pick up your milk.

What I have been trying to find out in the last few weeks are what exactly the laws are that govern these drop points. To do this and to protect future food purchases from small, local farmers I am forming a greater Seattle food buying group and applying for membership to the Farm to Consumer Legal Fund.

Anyone on the list that I send in on Monday, January 4 will be included in the group and will be eligible for all the benefits they have to offer.

If you are in the greater Seattle are and interested in being a part of that group please email me at annettecottrell (at) yahoo.com and I’ll get you on the list. If you partake in a local CSA you may want to point your farmer to this post as well since most small farm CSA’s currently use this same drop point system and fall under this law as well.

Think this doesn’t apply to you? According to the King County Dept of Health if you even buy a box of apples from a farmer in Eastern Washington for your neighbor and she doesn’t pick it up right away you are a food establishment and subject to the laws they are. As near as I can determine that means you need a grocers license, dedicated shelving, refrigerator units, a dedicated bathroom and sanitizing facilities. So don’t even think about picking up anything for your neighbor at Costco. You’ll be breaking the law.

I can’t guarantee what protections or counsel they will offer us but it seems they will be able to help us research guidelines and create a foodshed that perhaps will increase the reach of local farmers and ultimately make local, real food more affordable and convenient for us all.

Wouldn’t it be nice if this ultimately led to a real food coop where you could join, pay an annual membership fee and shop? Where smaller farmers who perhaps don’t have enough crops to make it worth their while to sell at an existing farmer’s market could bring surplus pastured eggs, fruits and veggies, local grains and beans or foraged items?

And you and yours reaped the benefit of that surplus food? Perhaps this could even be a system that paired up with surplus backyard veggies and fruits to deliver to food banks. That would be my ideal. And this is the beginning.

So please forgive this hasty post with a clingy 3 year old wiggling on my lap but I wanted to get this up since your chance to join this group ends on Monday when I mail the names in.

It’s time to start voting with your food dollars, your fork, your heart and your health. But if you bother reading this blog you probably already do.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this
• Recommend on Facebook
• Share on Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet this
• Follow this posts comments