SisterLand Farms

SisterLand was asked to co-present on organics waste at the recent Summit on Energy and Climate Resilience (alongside Myno Carbon and Jefferson County Community Wellness Project) hosted by North Olympic Development Council.

Our waste work is almost too simple to be showcased in the big world of climate resiliency—and it could be easy to write off such a basic approach to organics management. But we’ve been doing it for half a decade and think the resulting numbers are very cool when put into context!

Check out part of our presentation here. (Note: The last two slides are the most important!)

Thanks for choosing farms over landfills, Port Angeles!

The pumpkins have arrived! (As have the Halloween Harvest Crew.)

This week's harvest bags were packed by gnomes, goblins, and sinister freakazoids! You can order pie pumpkins, cabbage, broccoli, garlic, celery, onions, apples, and French Sorrel today for pick up next month.*

*Nov. 1st.

Reserve here, monsters and ghoulies: https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/HarvestBag/51?cs=true&cst=custom

It's that time of the year - the Waste Prevention Program is partnering with SisterLand Farms to bring back the 3rd annual Jack'o'Lantern and Pumpkin Rescue!
Got gourds left over from the spooky season, but don't want to landfill them? Bring them to us at County Aire in downtown Port Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 3rd from 11am-2pm for free composting service, and learn more about organics waste management.

Not being able to recycle and compost is *scaaaaary* isn’t it?

But this one acre farm, our local extension office, and the city’s beloved downtown grocer are all coming together to turn tons of trash into healthy local soils. Spread the word, and bring your jack-o-lanterns!

(This will be your only opportunity to compost pumpkins with us this year, so please try to make it out!)

It's that time of the year - the Waste Prevention Program is partnering with SisterLand Farms to bring back the 3rd annual Jack'o'Lantern and Pumpkin Rescue!
Got gourds left over from the spooky season, but don't want to landfill them? Bring them to us at County Aire in downtown Port Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 3rd from 11am-2pm for free composting service, and learn more about organics waste management.

*Edit: Whoa! You sold us out in under three hours! Thank you, Port Angeles!*

One last taste of Summer! We've got artichokes, cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, garlic, and more this week. Consider it our farm's ode to the 2024 sunny season.

Reserve a SisterLand Harvest Bag today, and pick up Friday:

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51

We've been wanting to make a centralized Little Free Food Pantry a reality in Port Angeles for years--and North Olympic Healthcare Network was the partner that stepped up and made it happen!

Look for SisterLand produce in the pantry every week of the growing season, and leave extra food for the community while you're there.

Thank you WSU Clallam County Extension and volunteer Michael! You made a dream come true!

This one-acre farm is still blowing us away!

We've got tomatoes, radishes, fennel, garlic, celery, squash, cabbage, kale, and apples in every (double-layered, because yoooo) Harvest Bag!

Order now, pick-up Friday! Thanks Port Angeles!

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/HarvestBag/51?cs=true&cst=custom

Harvest days make us happy (and sassy.)

This week, we've got bags packed with tomatoes, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, basil, kale, apples, and delicious French sorrel. Get this bounty while you can--and maybe you'll smile as big as Rita. 🌞

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51

The Official 2024 SisterLand Farms Crew Pic! (Better late than never?)

This year Benji, Eli, Jenson, and Sounder are joined by two Dignity Project partners: .witch (Rita) and .bakery (Brooke and Jeorgia).

What are we up to? Increasing fresh and processed food access, diverting waste, thinking up ways to normalize the composting of textiles, helping Clallam County meet its solid waste management goals, having endless potlucks, learning about resource and funds sharing, opening a freakin GROCERY STORE, figuring out what regeneratively grown flowers taste the best, harvesting tons of apples, rolling deep to neighbor’s work parties, experimenting with season extension, charting our plastics waste over time, collaborating on markets, burying each other under mountains of cucumbers, talking about Palestine and Appalachia, keeping each other hydrated, laughing, counting up box after box of donations, turning compost, listening to bird song, and swapping book recommendations.

We couldn’t ask for a kinder or more supportive team. This big-hearted, q***r crew brings each other joy in a very dark chapter of human history—and we hope everyone, everyone, everyone gets the chance to feel the power of a community like this.

Can we tell you a story about Summer Camp?

The event is run as a not-for-profit project. Every year we try to balance covering our costs, paying staff, providing the best possible programming to attendees, and trying to spend hyper-locally. At the end, we just hope to not be in any kind of significant debt.

Generally, the farm does pretty well! Past years have seen us pay about $1K or more out-of-pocket for Camp, however—and we really wanted to close that gap without sacrificing programming or raising costs in a big way.

Along came the community. Past Camp alumni, Pride Picnic attendees, local businesses, area farmers, peninsula artists, and two private donors raised a whopping, astonishing, heart-melting $2,378. We were able to award scholarships to every 👏 single 👏 camper 👏 who asked for one. We covered all of our costs, offered stipends to every educator—and friends? We had money LEFT OVER.

On the last day of Camp, we have a farm-to-farm banquet. And at that banquet, I announced the farm’s unprecedented Camp excesses. And then we let the Summer Campers vote. Option one: We divide the positive balance equally among Campers, and offer them a rebate (reducing their entry fees for the Summer.) Option two: We hold the balance and offer it to next year’s Campers who need help affording their fees and expenses.

Everybody put their heads down on the tables (good ol’ elementary school voting procedures) and we said “All in favor of option one, raise your hands.”

Not a single hand raised. Not one.

Unanimously and without hesitation, every Vol. 4 Camper voted to apply their share of Camp funds to another Camper in a future year.

We asked them to sit up and look around them. Most people smiled and laughed. Some people (Jenson) started crying.

If there’s a better illustration of the power of community, q***r family, kindness, and powerful optimism than that: It’s not coming to mind right now.

It goes to show: Folks who know what it is to spend three days in the company of brave, sweet, open-hearted cuties also know that such a thing should be protected, made more accessible, and grown radically. Just give them the power, and they’ll make it happen.

Am I shivering in the rain on a muddy, overcast day? Yes. Does the SisterLand harvest list look like a Mediterranean Summer Menu? Also yes.

Edit: Sold out this week! We’ll be back on Thursday with more. 🥬🧄🍎

Stock up on tomatoes and tomatillos and basil and beans! (Because if you don't get 'em, the frosts will!)

Reserve now, pick up Friday the 27th:

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51

The Harvest Bags this week are sunshiny and scrumptious! 🌞 We've got tomatillos, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, garlic, collards, and more! Reserve Thursday and pick 'em up Friday:

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51

Summer Camp Vol. 4: The Sessions

Things you might have learned at SisterLand Summer Camp:

⭐️ How to play Dungeons and Dragons
⭐️ How to administer NARCAN
⭐️ How to patch your blue jeans
⭐️ How to vaccinate livestock
⭐️ How to shoot a recurve bow
⭐️ How to center clay on a potter’s wheel
⭐️ How to inject T safely
⭐️ How to legally change your name
⭐️ How to arrange flowers
⭐️ How to collect honey from a hive
⭐️ How to skip octaves on a trumpet
⭐️ How to carve spoons
⭐️ How to find a better therapist
⭐️ How to brew mead
⭐️ How to protect native pollinators
⭐️ How to differentiate between common wines
⭐️ How to saber a champagne bottle
⭐️ How to repair a busted bike tire
⭐️ How to get consent in a health emergency
⭐️ How to make a rubber stamp
⭐️ How to decorate a cake
⭐️ How many new-to-you books and zines you can fit in your backpack

And maybe most of all:

⭐️ How many sweet new friendships one heart can handle.

Edit: Sold Out! Catch us next Thursday!

Oooh, these harvest bags are cute! Beans, artichokes, tomatoes, eggplant--need we say more? Reserve today, pick up tomorrow (Friday the 6th.)

May you eat beautiful food and smile beautiful smiles, Port Angeles!

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51

Every Camp starts with hope and ends with gratitude. So before we show you the marvel that was SisterLand Summer Camp Volume 4, we’d love it if you just read through some of the names that made Camp possible in 2024; the folks were thinking of today.

For the warmest welcome:
For the most gorgeous food: and Wild Edge
For the blooms that made one hundred smiles:
For keeping us hydrated and hyped:
For your freakin generous and heartfelt Pride gift:
For your creative fundraising effort that started it all:

And to the committee of alumni that raised funds for scholarships and made this the Best Weekend Ever for so many who needed it badly: Our unending love and respect to .witch and

This list is huge! But there are more. Time, craft, and energy were all given by teachers, makers, friends, volunteers, musicians, and the hardest working crew we’ve ever seen. Instagram won’t let us tag everybody, but you must know by now: We couldn’t do it without you!

The final numbers are still coming in, but two things are certain: 1. Every Camper that asked for a scholarship was awarded one. And 2. We’ve raised enough for Volume 4 to cover costs *and* apply excess funds to scholarships in 2025. Every donated tomato, every giveaway ticket bought, every fiver stuffed in the Pride jar made a difference. Camp was a glowing example of a community effort.

Thank you. We’ll be saying it forever, but: Thank you.

Update: Sold (Ow! Ow!) Out! Thanks, Port Angeles!

I don't care if our carrots are wonky. This right here is the prettiest Harvest Bag we've ever posted! Reserve yours for pick-up tomorrow--and the artichokes** are on us!

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51

**Because we've never harvested artichokes before, don't know if folks are into that sort of thing, aren't 100% confident we know what we're doing, but reeeeally liked growing them and want to see how they'll be received by the good people of Port Angeles. ❤️

How many career records do you think a one-acre farm can smash in a season?

✔️ Best cabbage yields
✔️ Best broccoli yields
✔️ Most donated food ($4K, y’all. Almost 1,000 pounds so far!!)
✔️ Most small biz wholesale orders
✔️ Biggest haul of cut flowers EVER
✔️ Most donated literature (Over 400 zines and almost 50 non-fiction paperbacks)

Every season has ups and downs, but just help us celebrate these major ups for the moment. This feels great. 🌻

Edit: Sold out! Catch us next Thursday, friends!

Delectable broccoli, candy-striped beets, gorgeous Swiss chard, tender salad mix, buttery baby zucchini, the fluffiest kale, and (Finally!) cucumbers! This week's harvest bag is ready to reserve, friends:

https://sisterland-farms.square.site/product/sisterland-farms-harvest-bag-for-august-2nd/51