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Exploring Treasures Right Here

On the San Juan Islands, it's easy to dive deep into the local riches

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STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES For a classic fall salad, chef Laurie Paul of The Market Chef in Friday Harbor gathers local beets, apples, arugula and goat cheese.

FOR THE 12 YEARS I lived in the town of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, I worked as a chef. For most of that time, I also wrote a weekly column for The Journal of the San Juan Islands. Even though the island was small, about 55 square miles and inhabited by less than 7,000 people, every week afforded some new perspective on food or cooking.

In part, this was because the island is surrounded by one of the richest marine habitats imaginable. Five varieties of salmon, a dozen forms of rockfish, plus spot prawns, crabs and bright pink swimming scallops abound. The place was also a veritable Mecca for good cooks. Everyone I knew seemed to have a special talent for making some dish better than it was ever manifested anywhere else. But by far the greatest source of inspiration for a food writer was a host of small farms that covered the island in a patchwork of rolling pastures, lush orchards and vegetable plots.

Two decades of steady development have not diminished the number of farms. In fact, new farms have sprouted up and old farms have been revitalized. The latest roundup I could find (on a Web site called www.navigatingourfuture.org) lists some 28 small farms on San Juan Island alone. The number does not include the dozens of small farms on Orcas, Shaw, Lopez and Waldron, other major islands in the archipelago.

This success story has not come without its share of struggles, but each hurdle has been cleared with a determined brand of creativity that characterizes San Juan spirit. Farmers who raised meat on the islands, for instance, could not sell the meat unless it went off island to a USDA slaughterhouse — until the farmers rallied and commissioned the state's first USDA-approved "mobile slaughter unit."

Another milestone was recently crossed when Alayne Sundberg earned Washington state approval for her handcrafted goat cheese. Sundberg has been milking her own goats and making cheese since she moved to San Juan in 1987, but until she could pass the state inspection for dairies, governed by regulations covering much larger operations, she could not sell her cheese.

"I couldn't even list all the restrictions," says Sundberg, "but 20 years later, I'm finally there."

The key to maintaining all these small family farms, says Jane Burton Bell, director of the local farmers market, has been the market. But it's not just home cooks buying produce at the market that keeps San Juan County farms viable. Island produce shows up in the local supermarket and restaurants as well. All the best restaurants in Friday Harbor serve something produced on local farms.

Greg Atkinson is author of "Entertaining in the Northwest Style." He can be reached at greg@northwestessentials.com. Steve Ringman is a Seattle Times staff photographer.