As a first-generation organic farmer, Anne Schwartz’s story is closely linked to the evolution of the organic industry as a whole. She has grown vegetables for wholesale distribution to natural food cooperatives across the country; she has worked for a large organic farm that was ultimately bought out by General Mills; and now she is primarily direct marketing her produce through farmers’ markets and two home delivery businesses. Anne seems to have the energy of several people, also running a tree nursery business and actively engaging in her community and in agricultural policy debates.

“My husband Mike and I both fled New Jersey in the mid-70s,” remembers Anne. “We had friends here in the Northwest and so we wandered this way. Back then the Skagit Valley was known as the ‘Magic Skagit’ and for good reason. It was a welcoming, abundant, beautiful, resource-rich place to stumble into.”

At the time, people from all over the United States were flocking to the rural Northwest as part of the “back to the land movement.” The movement consisted mainly of college-educated kids, many of whom were active with the Vietnam War, the environmental movement, and civil rights issues. Anne recalls, “We had a naive expectation that the world was going to crash and burn, and we wanted to be as far away from that crash and burn as we possibly could be.” While many of these young people had no intention of farming, for Anne it was a perfect fit. She explains, “The more time I spent farming, the more I realized that it fit my personal need for being outside as well as being mentally stimulated. Coming to farming as a suburban raised person, I quickly realized that this was an area I could learn about forever; there was no lack of challenges.”

Anne and Mike settled in the upper Skagit Valley, in the foothills of the Cascades, surrounded on all sides by the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. Anne remembers, “The dairy farmer I worked for back in the 70s used to say this country is good for growing two things: trees and grass. We took that to heart.” Thirty years later, Anne and Mike grow 170 kinds of bamboo – essentially a large grass – and about 5000 plants in pots. Anne says, “Three of our ten acres are in bamboo groves, so it has become a big part of our business.”

Anne and Mike market their bamboo all over the Puget Sound and in California, and have brokers that ship it around the country. The bamboo is mostly used for privacy hedges in the Northwest and in Asian-influenced gardens. As for Blue Heron being both a nursery and a vegetable farm, Anne likes the balance: “The blend of nursery and horticulture crops works well for us to spread out the workload, because the nursery industry really gears up in February and is done by the end of May.” Once the ground starts to dry out a bit in the late spring, Anne gets vegetable transplants in the ground to get ready for the early season crops.

All the produce Anne and Mike grow is certified organic, and marketed directly to consumers. Anne explains, “In 1982 there were 28 natural food wholesale distribution companies in the United States, and in 2003 there were four. I used to grow crops that I sold through produce brokers and organic processors; as they stopped buying from me, I started looking for other markets.”

Anne points out that while organic farmers have always had an interest in selling locally, as they’ve lost their access to wholesale markets they have had to shift to new markets and increase crop diversity. She says, “With the rise in popularity of farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA), producers are changing what they grow to appeal to direct marketing opportunities. The future for farmers across the country is going to rely on more people being interested in supporting their local or regional growers.”

Anne currently sells produce at four farmers’ markets, from Seattle’s Pike Place Market to the Methow Valley; she also grows for a large Seattle-based CSA and a company that delivers directly to the customer. To achieve a colorful market table, Anne and Mike grow snap and sugar peas, raspberries and blueberries, several kinds of beans, all different kinds of summer and winter squash, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, basil, sweet corn, and lettuce. They tried to do a local CSA several years ago, but found they didn’t have the customer base in their remote part of the valley. Anne explains, “Rural Washington is not exactly your mecca for buying high-end organic food, but people do buy potatoes, onions, winter squash, and carrots for winter storage. I found it a nice niche growing fall and winter crops for my neighbors who like to stock up on storage vegetables.”

Through involvement in local natural food cooperatives, Anne found that her passion for farming extended beyond organic growing all the way to an “undying interest” in agricultural policy. “Even way back in the 70s I was involved with folks who were working to change our food system,” she explains. “I have made a study of food and food policy largely from the perspective of rural livelihood, and the more I study, the more I am convinced that rejuvenating rural America is a critical challenge for our country.”

Anne has long been on the bandwagon that we can’t afford to lose any more farmers. She explains, “Even though I am president of the organic farm group in Washington (Washington Tilth Producers), my message is local, local, local. Organic is great, try to talk to the grower, push for them to adopt more biological pest management, but we need to support local farmers even if they don’t farm organically. If we continue to lose farmers at the rate we are losing them, I think our rural communities and our society in general will be much the worse.”

There is one national policy initiative that Anne is especially excited about – an expanded Farmers Market Nutrition Program that allows low-income people to receive coupons as part of the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and Senior Nutrition Programs. The coupons can only be spent at participating local farmers’ markets. “It’s a way to help low-income people have access to fresh food, support local growers, and get people out in their neighborhoods,” she explains. As soon as Skagit Valley was able to participate, Anne and Mike’s receipts doubled at the farmers’ market from people coming with their WIC checks. “The difference it has made for all of us is just phenomenal,” she explains. “The markets are crowded with people that have never been to farmers’ markets before and who don’t know what to do with many of our fresh vegetables. I realized I needed to bring recipes for what to do with winter squash, what to do with a Skagit sweet onion. The next step is to educate these people about what a huge difference it makes: I have local people that work for me, every bit of that money is going to stay in this community.”

Anne is proud to be part of a generation that is working to forge new visions of land and resource use. She says, “Okay, we are not going to change the world as much as we hoped, but we are changing the world. Everybody said organics was a fad that would go away, everybody laughed at us. It is not going away, and we are having an impact and decreasing the level of pesticides being applied to the planet.”

Anne concludes, “As a culture we are losing our sense of community. We are losing our time to relate to people, we are losing the time to do anything for our communities, and our culture places the accumulation of stuff as a national priority. There are many of us that don’t want to live like this; we are not the majority, we don’t go to malls, and we actually try to buy local. Even though my days and life tend to be overbooked in a chronic way, I know that my personal sanity is dependent on living in a rural place and having a direct relationship with the natural world.”

Contact
Blue Heron Farm & Nursery LLC
Anne Schwartz
12179 State Route 530
Rockport, WA  98283
Tel: 360-853-8449 (voice & fax)
als@fidalgo.net
www.marblemount.com/blueheron/