Growers with decades of experience in Jefferson County like Pete Brackney of Wildwood Farms along the Little Quilcene River say that it can be normal for a rainy summer to arrive once every few years. "We call it a cabbage year," he says, referring to the cool weather that surprised many local farmers. "The weather has been very difficult for me. In the farming business, I tell people I'm a gambler. This year, I grew crops that would do well in a very hot summer – and it cost me."

    Berries are among the crops hardest hit. Keith Kisler of Finn River Farm along Center Valley Road in Chimacum estimates that they lost about thirty percent of their blueberry and raspberry crops to weather-related issues. Intense warmth early in the season increased fungal growth in the blueberry fields, and the moist weather brought 'mummyberry' a condition where nearly ripened berries become mummified with mold. The high price of land raises the stakes for young farmers like Kisler. "We don't have a buffer system built in with small scale agriculture to absorb more than one bad year in a row," he says. "We're going to be subsidizing the farm this year with our personal off-farm income in order to make ends meet. So it very quickly becomes economically unsustainable."

    The cooperative growers at Frog Hill Farm in Port Townsend lost about $1,200 in berries this year, according to grower Caroline Morgan. "We lost at least half of our raspberries and probably half of our marionberries. We had a very wet July," she says. Tomatoes are ripening more slowly and basil is behind schedule.

    "Every year is different," says Adam Blake of Corona Farm in Port Townsend. "That's why diversity is key because you have to hedge your bets." But just as local farmers are among the first to suffer from extreme weather fluctuations, they also are in a unique position to develop new methods varieties that are adapted to the challenges of our micro-climate and local soils. Blake saves much of his seed from his crops each year and buys seed locally selected and produced by Tessa Gowans, formerly of the Abundant Life Seed Foundation. Developing local varieties, a long-term evolutionary process, is a critical component of local food security.
 

   Morgan explains, "Food security means there may come a time when we can't get fruit and vegetables from California or Mexico. Who knows where all of our produce is coming from? The most basic of human needs is food, so I feel that developing food security is a good place to start in terms of building a community and a home." Frog Hill Farm has been working closely with the locall- based Organic Seed Alliance to develop and test old, genetically rich varieties of spinach and other crops. Morgan says that because most commercially available organic seeds are produced in the eastern US, Frog Hill also develops seed specifically for its own conditions. "We've found that the seeds that we grow on our farm do the best because they're adapted to this climate and adapted to this soil. We select the strongest plants and save the seed. The resulting crop from that seed is vigorous. It germinates well and it produces a lovely crop the following year."

    "Food security means having control over my food supply, which most people in this country don't have," says Blake. "Even the people who simply support local agriculture — who buy at the farmers market, who buy CSA's are maintaining their own food security. Handing that control over to international conglomerates makes me nervous."     

The Organic Seed Alliance, which grew out of the Abundant Life Seed Foundation, has become an international leader in preserving genetic crop diversity and promoting seed saving for many reasons - among them improving food security among communities. OSA Advocacy Director Matt Dillon explains, "If the crops that are commercially offered are not adapted for the sometimes chaotic changes in weather and climate, we need to begin breeding - restoring old varieties and developing new varieties that can meet the challanges of a changing climate and the complexity of ecological issues that farmers face. We're lucky to live in a community with so many farmers who recognize the importance of stewarding seeds."

    Local growers tend to agree that increasing support structures for small farms will be integral to growing the local food economy and developing food security. The newly launched LandWorks Collaborative offers a beacon of hope for many small growers on the peninsula, uniting the work of many organizations.
 

   Many farms are also working to integrate the community into their operations, giving consumers a direct opportunity to participate. Corona has introduced a neighborhood market on Thursdays at their Dundee Hill location. Frog Hill has had great success with an extensive work-trade program, and Finn River hosts U-Pick opportunities. Farmers Markets in Uptown on Saturdays and Wednesdays, as well as in Quilcene and Port Ludlow offer consumers a chance to greet the farmers and build community.
 

   Brackney points out another reason to buy local: "The average grocery store produce travels about 1500 miles, so the amount of carbon footprint that goes with moving the product through the supply chain is really significant." Taste and nutrition are also paramount because crops lose nutrition so quickly on the way to market. "There is substantial data that suggests that freshness is the real key to healthy eating because nutrients oxidize and metabolize rapidly from the moment they're harvested," he says. Consumers can find growers interviewed for this article at the Port Townsend Farmers Market.