Bike tour visits three local organic produce farms

In what became a perfect weather day Saturday, 28 people combined the best of the Skagit Valley, riding their bikes to three organic farms that provide produce to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op for the co-op’s eighth annual Bike to Farm Tour.

The bikers meandered just over two miles from their Edgewater Park gathering site to Skagit Flats, Andy Ross’ farm on Kamb Road. Ross was peppered with questions as he stood out standing in his two-acre field of various lettuces, facing the dismounted bikers.

The questions ranged from animal pests to water usage. Ross said rabbits weren’t a problem in his open fields far from tree lines. Aphids were the insect problem. His focus on lettuces and zucchini, with crop rotations over his 20 acres, of which three are rented, limits insect pests.

He puts on half-an-inch of water at a time every seven to 10 days. “The $100 for an inch of water (on two acres) sounds like a lot of money but look at the dollar value of an acre of lettuce,” he said. For 15 years the farm has supplied all the income for him and his wife, Laura.

The second stop was a bit down Kamb Road, where Tim Terpstra, a farm manager with Ralph’s Greenhouse met the group with his four-year-old son Levin and their bikes in front of 140 acres of leeks in a couple of fields. That harvest, going to Whole Foods, will be shipped nationwide, Terpstra said.

Ralph’s Greenhouse is in the second generation of ownership, run by son Ray DeVries.

Terpstra took the group east on a wood chip lane to potato fields next to where some 15 workers were harvesting beets. He reminded the group that potato color matches the flower: white and yellow potatoes with white flowers, red skin and purple potatoes with pink flowers.

Terpstra led the group to Penn Road, where they followed then climbed on the dike, biking to recently planted leek fields south of Calhoun. Those fields are irrigated with Skagit River water, the pipes laid underground, with risers marking the valve locations.

The accolades for Skagit Valley soil are true, Terpstra said: “The glacial silt from the Cascades make Skagit Valley soil some of the richest in the world. Crops are determined by the soil in which they are planted.” Location is everything. Ralph’s fields are sandy, the heaviest soil particles dropping out first. Great for potatoes.

While Ross employs five, and only two full time, Ralph’s Greenhouse this year has 100 workers, down from their high of 115. Ralph’s need for employees wans in the spring. The farm has an arrangement with his neighbor and brother, John DeVries of Living Rain Farm. This DeVries grows asparagus and rhubarb, spring maturing crops. A group of employees rotate from Ralph’s to Living Rain in March and back to Ralph’s in June for keeping good workers employed year-round.

John and Ray agreed not to compete in the market, with John evolving his farm to a spring harvest cycle.

Living Rain also sells down the west coast, with rhubarb going to the Bay Area and southern California.

The group split, with about a third continuing to Hedlin Farms in La Conner. They were greeted at the farm stand by Kai Ottesen, owner Dave Hedlin’s nephew. Ottesen is the fourth generation working the farm: his great grandfather started in 1906, having emigrated from Denmark.

The inter-generational constant has been seed crops, harvesting seeds.

Ottesen walked the group to a set of 12,000 square foot greenhouses, where tomatoes were strung up.

Quoting his uncle, he said, “The great thing about a greenhouse is you can control all the variables. The terrifying thing is you have to.” He discussed the cherry, beefsteak and heirloom varieties they grew and the “trade-off between juicy and ripe and firm and longer shelf life” and noted “tomatoes want to be mercilessly coddled,” which his farm excels at.

Hedlin Farms has 30 employees at the height of the season and shrinks down to seven or eight.

Co-op Marketing and Outreach Director Nicole Vander Meulen organized the ride. In an email, she summed up its purpose: “We want people to have a stronger connection to the food they find in the Co-op every day, so we created the Bike to Farm Tour. The tour gives people a closer look at the food they eat: where it’s grown, the inputs and planning and science required to grow it and really, getting to know the hard-working humans who are responsible for feeding us.”

This group of bikers were back at Edgewater Park about 2:30 p.m. They had gone close to 20 miles.