Focus on Farming

Focus on Farming

Linda Neunzig

This winter we had the opportunity to host a fantastic event here at the Comcast Arena known as Focus on Farming. Linda Nuenzig is our Agriculture Coordinator for the Snohomish County Economic Development Division and each year she puts it all together. We fed 600 local farmers and agricultural people and was it ever fun! A few days prior to the event, Linda took me and my Sous Chef Jeremiah Marleau on a fun filled day of touring our local countryside, visiting several places in Bow. 

We started out at the Bow Hill Blueberry farm. They were pickling some of their amazing blueberry crop and were they ever good. I had never tried a pickled blueberry until then and I was hooked!

Samish Bay Cheese Company

We then went to the Samish Bay Cheese Company and did a tasting. Their cheeses are all wonderful and I progressed from some mild ones to the hotter variety. The last one I tasted was a Habanero infused cheese that really rang my bells (Or set off my “Five Alarm Fog Horn”!) and I purchased some for the road.
Next we visited Rhonda Gothberg at the Gothberg Goat Cheese Farm in Bow. Rhonda is an amazing lady who has a really cool breed of goats called “LaMancha” goats. They have no ears or horns naturally and are really cute. She makes amazing goat cheeses and we picked up twenty pounds of her chevre and fifteen pounds of her feta. We had to feed six hundred people! I also ordered a Christmas Lasagna that was unbelievable, but that is a whole other story……

Little Buddy

Rhonda Gothberg

On the way back to Comcast Arena we stopped at Linda’s farm and saw her flock of lambs. Linda has the largest flock in Washington State and I got a rack to go. I cooked it that night and it was the best lamb I have EVER tasted, along with the pickled blueberries and some really great cheese.

Linda's Lambs

We had one last stop to ‘The Farm” right across the trestle, where we picked up one hundred pounds of pumpkins for my forty five gallons of Moroccan Roast Pumpkin Soup. We then headed back to Comcast Arena having had a fantastic day of meeting our local farmers and sampling their wares. In my next blog I will tell you all about the actual event, including posting some great pictures. Thanks for reading me. Stay hungry!