In case you haven’t noticed, a recurring theme in our day tripping is the idea of buying local. Not only is it healthy for the local economy, it instills a great sense of pride.  Whether it’s produce, products or services, you are buying directly from the people that create them.

With that said, this is an especially good time of year for locally grown produce.  Between now and the end of October, your local farmers markets will be bursting at the seams with bounties of fresh produce.  And if that’s not …

The Northwest attracts visitors for a variety of reasons: the scenery, outdoor activities, fishing, major league sports, great food…  And Seattle, the state’s largest city, now offers an experience on par with North America’s other destination cities. What I find just as entertaining as a jaunt to the mountains or downtown are the less high profile outings in and around Seattle where my souvenir is usually a sack of freshly picked produce.
Washington State ranks second only to California in production of fruit and vegetables.  Several surpass California’s output – like …

This past week has been unusually busy for both of us.  By Friday we realized that we needed to make our bi-weekly trip to the farmers market.  So instead of making our usual in-town shopping rounds on Saturday, we decided to day trip to the Port Orchard Farmers Market.  We’d never been but had heard great things about it.  This would also give us a chance to stop at points in between.

One of the nice things I find about travelling across the Sound is that as soon as the ferry leaves the …

Update: 2009 festival dates are October 17 – 18th.
Recuperating from outpatient surgery, I was getting a touch of cabin fever so we set out for “Farming Yesterday & Today: A Snohomish County Fall Farm Festival,” a weekend that “offers visitors a chance to tour local farms not usually open to the public.”  The weather was ideal, cool and unseasonably sunny for a Northwest fall.  This festival was new to us and looked exactly like what we were looking for that day: something outside the city with a variety of area …