Northwest Explorer
Local Deliciousness in Bellingham’s Farmland Region
Episode 46 | 6m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
Sponsored: Angela explores how staying local is celebrated in Bellingham's farmland region.
Sponsored: From berries to veggies to fish, Bellingham farms produce staples that support the community. Staying local is celebrated with Farm to Table Trails, an agritourism map that features a variety of locations to get people out and eating local. Angela joins Jessica from Sustainable Connections as well as farmers and restaurant owners to see what local farms are providing for the community.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Northwest Explorer is a local public television program presented by Cascade PBS
Northwest Explorer
Local Deliciousness in Bellingham’s Farmland Region
Episode 46 | 6m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
Sponsored: From berries to veggies to fish, Bellingham farms produce staples that support the community. Staying local is celebrated with Farm to Table Trails, an agritourism map that features a variety of locations to get people out and eating local. Angela joins Jessica from Sustainable Connections as well as farmers and restaurant owners to see what local farms are providing for the community.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Northwest Explorer
Northwest Explorer is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThis is a farm.
And this is someone who knows a lot about a lot of far.. Jessica, can you tell me about some of the farms in this region?
Sure.
We're in Whatcom.. I don't know if you know that we produce some of the most raspberries in the world.
Also the most blueberries Washington state in the country.
So a lot of berries around here, but there's so much more than that that grows in western Washington.
We have a lot of small and medium sized farms that grow all variety of vegetables.
We have, orchards that are growing apples here.
We're also close to the sea, so we've got lots of seafood.
So we just have a plethora of amazing food that grows and comes from this land and region.
Where should people go if they want to learn more?
You know, we have an agritourism map here in Whatcom County called the Farm to Table Trails, which just gets folks out exploring local food.
And that's everything from farm stands to farmer's market.
And farm to table trails also points to restaurants that are using farm to table products.
So just get folks out exploring.
We've got some fun little names.
The Yummy Lummi Loop is out there, the Cream of the Crop from Blaine to Custer.
I can't wait to try all that.
Where's a great place to start?
You might start at Bellewood Farms.
We're kind of coming into fall now, and they're a great place to stop where you can pick your own apples.
You can check out their beautiful farm store that has pies of all kinds from their fruit.
You could pick some pumpkins in the fall.
Check out one of their summer concert series.
There's so much to do in local agriculture in our region, we hope you'll visit.
Absolutely, I can't wait.
Let’s do it.
Th.. Most people think apples and think Eastern Washington, but they actually thrive here in western Washington as well.
Let's go meet the apple father Eric.
Eric, can you tell me what makes this orchard so special?
Well primarily, I love it that we are a family organization.
My son handles all the agriculture, wife's works in the retail part of it, other family members and grandkids are hanging around, and that makes it really special.
One of the reasons why we got into farming was to look at farming a little differently.
We look at it about love and family and community and, it's just, it makes it a little bit different than just providing sustenance to people.
These guys look about ready to go.
What happens to the apples at this point?
Yeah.
Well, wh.. and we do test them to make sure that they're ready to go.
And then our team comes through and hand picks.
I don't know if you knew, but, all apples have to be hand-picked.
And then we take those apples and put them into our bins, and then they go into processing.
Can we go check out the process?
Let’s do it.
Okay, let's go.
Most people don't know that apples float and we bring apples in from our bins and put them in here, and where they are washed.
They go through like an assembly line where they're washed and cleaned.
And then, we have an apparatus down there at the end that sizes the apples and they go to these different tables where they're actually packed and they come out by size.
So these are the larger Honeycrisp apples, and then the smaller ones are down that way.
After we clean and pack the apples, then we put them in here in cold storage.
These are all ready to go to market, which is kind of fun.
We distribute all over, all the way down to Olympia.
And, you can see some of the open ones are, they go over to our, our farmstead store here in Linden and then some of the ones in the smaller boxes these go out to all the local schools.
And then, the ones in the bigger boxes over here are our 40 pound boxes, these will go out to all sorts of stores.
So we've been following the Farm to Table Trail.
We got the farm.
Now let's explore the table.
Here at .. Time for lunch.
If you're going to explore Holly's Meat Pies, strap on an apron and meet Holly.
Holly, can you tell me what we're doing here?
You bet.
We're going to make a .. And you're going to be a pro right away.
So first we have our pastry that has been mixed and flattened and rolled out into the perfect shape.
Perfect.
And then we're.. And so we tend to put it kind of if you envision a half of the pie.
Okay.
And so we're putting it on the.. Okay.
And then you're going to have a fork.
Okay.
And the fork that you have, you're going to kind of press this down just a little bit.
Okay.
Perfect.
Okay.
Then you're going to put your fork down.
and you're going to bring this up and let it just kind of go over the top of the meat.
Perfect.
And then you, I tend to take my thumb, and that, and that thumb and finger.
And then you're working at rolling.
Yeah.
Great.
You're just enclosing, you're just making a pocket.
Perfect.
Almost kind of like brai.. Okay.
There you go.
There we go.
And then you bring it all the way over.
Okay.
Wow.
That was fast!
See, look at that.
Holy cow!
Very nice!
Awesome.
I rolled a meat pie!
Woo!
She’s, yeah I gotta bring her in here.
Okay.
You're hired.
So we put it on the tray.
All right.
And then, and the neat thing is you can kind.. I'm going gonna keep this one, we're going to keep track of that.
And then we come along here and we use our markers to make sure that this is the marking for the, the classic beef pasty.
And, and there we are.
Beautiful.
Isn’t that wonderful?
My beautiful assistant.
There we go.
So we're gonna put those in.
And then you can go ahead and shut.
Okay.
Here they are.
Oh my gosh.
Angela’s pie is up in the corner.
Yummy.
And it's wonderful.
Look at those things.
Arn’t they pretty?
What makes the perfect beef pasty?
I think it's the, flaky crust, and then the organic ingredients have so much flavor.
Yum.
Can we try it?
Yeah.
Let's do.
It's hot.
Be careful.
Oh, man.
Mmm.
If you're going farm to table, this is the perfect table to end at.
I'm Angela.
Thank you for exploring.
I'll see you.
Support for PBS provided by:
Northwest Explorer is a local public television program presented by Cascade PBS













