This is a sponsored post for Genuine Skagit Valley to highlight their Farmstand Fresh Campaign-they have a Skagit Valley Farm Stand tour posted on their website too and we visited in late July 2023 for this farm stand tour.
My family knows that if there is a farm stand on any drive we do, I will stop for it. And we first found a few of these farm stands when we were at a soccer tournament at the Skagit Valley Playfields last year and I learned a lot about this area when I worked with Washington Potatoes. We tried to book accommodation near the fields for the tournament but everything was already full or would not take dogs (even Scout) so we ended up in an Airbnb in La Conner. This put us about 30 minutes from the tournament but we also got to drive by quite a few farm stands which made our days pretty fun. So when I was invited to partner with Genuine Skagit Valley to visit some farm stands I was totally excited and made a day trip from Seattle to create a Skagit Valley Farm Stand tour with my guys.
You can find all the farm stands participating in the FarmStand Fresh campaign in this post. One cool thing about it is that if you visit one of the 17 participating stands before August 31, 2023 you can sign up for the chance to have a 15 minute Zoom chat with a local chef as well as be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to a Genuine Skagit Valley restaurant. The sign ups look something like the setup you see in the photo below:
I left Seattle with my 15 year old boys around 9am with an empty cooler in our car and our goal was to stop at 3-5 stands in the morning before the guys’ online driving school lessons so we could create a locally-sourced meal for dinner. The drive to most of these Genuine Skagit Valley farm stands are within a 1.5 hours drive from Seattle and we discussed the stands we would stop at from the Genuine Skagit Valley website and I had one of the guys plot our route on Google Maps as we drove. You can read all about the farms we visited below and I also made a video on my instagram too.
Persimmon Bistro in Bow Washington
The first place we stopped was actually not a farm stand but a place to get coffee. Persimmon Bistro was open Wednesday through Sunday from 9am-3pm when we visited and it was even more beautiful than I imagined. This cafe is attached to Bow Sanctuary, a garden/spa/sauna filled dreamland that I will come back for an afternoon one day. I loved all the fresh flours in the cafe and I picked up a delicious blueberry pastry for later. It was the first thing to go in our cooler.
Blanchard Mountain Farm in Bow Washington
I was really excited to stop at Blanchard Mountain Farm because I had seen them post about their produce on instagram. I ended up purchasing a really beautiful ginormous tomato and an eggplant. I would have bought more things but we were visiting many stands so I had to limit myself to what we would probably use within a few days. One cool thing about Blanchard Mountain Farm is that they also have a guest house if you want a place to stay in the Skagit Valley too. I haven’t stayed here before so I don’t know much about it but I thought this was a lovely idea when I saw it on their site.
Bow Hill Blueberries in Bow Washington
Does anyone come through this area without stopping at Bow Hill Blueberries? We’ve definitely visited more times than I can count and this time we bought a box of heritage berries. They have really interesting blueberry products from bath scrubs to ice cream sandwiches at this shop and you can even pick berries here when they are in season. As always check the website and social media for up to date details. The little seating area outside the farm store feels like a place I’d like to sit for a while.
Breadfarm in Edison
Breadfarm is not technically a farm and yet it may be one of the most iconic places on this list and it uses ingredients from farms in the area too. Back in the days when it was cash only we’d be checking under the seats of our car for any lost change to increase our buying ability as much as we could. On this trip they now take credit cards and we purchased a potato bread to go with our dinner and a few other pastries to munch along our journey.
BoldlyGrown Farm
This farm stand is very substantial with a vast selection of dry goods and refrigerated items too. (It is also pretty adorable) I have not downloaded Venmo yet so I was limited to cash and one of my sons and I had to figure out the items we could buy that would add up to $20 especially when I insisted that one of the items had to be edible flowers. (We will now put edible flowers on everything. They just make all food so much more delicious.) This was actually such a fun way to shop and we had a really great time at this stand.
Schuh Farms in Mount Vernon
Schuh Farms is a family favorite ever since we visited during our soccer tournament last year. Every time we come through the area we stop to buy at least a pie and maybe berries too. This time I came here to buy a small pie because I already had blueberries and so many other treats. I ended up buying two ice cream sandwiches that were nearly as big as our heads because the guys insisted they each needed one. They were really delicious but both of the guys had trouble finishing their ice cream treats and these ultimately became lunch.
Hedlin Farms in La Conner
We visited Hedlin farms last year too but this year Hedlin Farms seems even more fantastic. I’m not sure if there are more flowers now but this is where I bought flowers and some smoked salmon to go with all our foods. Hedlin Farms has a season’s pass for their CSA that is quite unique. This farm stand is currently open daily from late May until the end of October and they have an instagram presence too.
The Red Shed Farm
I stopped by the Red Shed Farm just before they were opening for the weekend. It was kismet that I met Janet as I drove down their road. She walked me through this brand new farm stand and told me a bit of history of their farm. The Red Shed Farm has a great website and you can even order online and pick up at the farm stand. This farm overlooks some of the tulip fields and has a perfect picnic area and I can just imagine coming back here on a sunny day next spring. I will be heading back here in the next little while to check it out again.
I drove home a few hours later with two sleepy teenagers and a pup and a cooler full of delicious farm stand finds. After driving class we had pasta for dinner with tomatoes and a stir-fry of eggplant and zucchini as a side. The next day I put edible flowers on the watermelon salad I’ve been making all summer. And we are all looking forward to our next farm stand tour adventure. Do you love stopping at local farm stands too?
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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