By Anna Degnin
“Eat fresh & local” might as well be Bainbridge Island’s official slogan. Island residents crowd the Farmers’ Market, stock up with CSAs and consume omelets made with eggs laid that morning, often in their own backyard by a chicken they’ve known since it was hatched.
So it only made sense that Town & Country wanted to stock their shelves with produce grown just a stone’s throw from their store. The two greenhouses at Wyatt and Weaver are a recent expansion of a local farming program the store has been operating for over eight years.
And while some may have imagined the mysterious structures to be grow operations in post-502 Washington state, the focus of these fields is primarily vegetables and gourds, with pumpkins, squash and zucchini representing the largest crops.
Growing some of its own produce means the store reduces its environmental footprint by transporting less product from large farms to market shelves. Over time, T&C hopes to slowly and safely expand the project.
The Nakata family owns the acreage on Bainbridge and the produce is grown by Brian MacWhorter of Butler Green Farms. The farmland is named MiddleField, a literal translation of the Nakata name, and has been owned by the family for generations. It doesn’t get more local than that.
