If you’ve been following along with my blog or instagram for a bit, you know I’m a big fan of farms and learning about where our food comes from (we even visit farms on our travels like the cranberry farms in BC or Tanaka Farms in Orange County) My love for Skagit Valley, one of our nearest farming areas to Seattle, started when I was a young kid because we would drive through the area on our way from Vancouver BC to shop at the Mount Vernon Outlet mall and it’s just stunningly beautiful. Most people know the Skagit Valley for its tulips. I’ve since learned we also grow a ton of potatoes there. And most recently, I have been into visiting the local farm stands. And this is how I learned there are also Skagit Valley farm tours and tastings that the general public can participate in as well.
I recently tagged along on the Winter Crops of the Skagit Valley Tour. We started at a meeting point very close to Dorothea coffee and the Skagit Valley Food Co-op and all the cute shops along that street.
Then we got on a roomy shuttle bus and went to Hedlin’s Family Farm. There we met Kai Ottesen and Jules Riske who are 4th generation farmers. They talked to us about how they got into farming, how their days look and about their gorgeous farm stand that is open from around May-October in La Conner. (this could be a perfect stop if you go to see the tulips in May)
After that visit we hopped back on the shuttle and went to Boldly Grown farms. I have shopped at this farm stand which is open year round quite a few times and I found it really cool that this husband and wife team (Amy Frye and Jacob Slosberg) went to my Alma Mater UBC (that’s also where they met!) We visited their kale fields and saw baby tomato starts. We learned a little about the flooding that happened in the area in December of last year and how it affected their farm and neighboring farms as well. It is really eye-opening to see how hard our local farmers work to keep food on our tables and how they work together and build so much community in the process.
Lunch was a delicious spread made by the Skagit Table. We feasted on quinoa and mint stuffed Delicata, a Blood orange beet salad and kohlrabi fritters that were so tasty too. We were so stuffed on our ride back and this was such an informative and fabulous tour.
The next Skagit Valley farm tour is in June and it’s a strawberry one! You can sign up through this link on their website to be notified when registration starts.
We also found out that WSU is looking for sweet potato testers in Skagit Valley next week on Feb 18th, 2026 between 12-2pm if this kind of thing intrigues you. This will happen at WSU NWREC, 16650 WA-536, Mount Vernon, WA. If you choose to attend you should give yourself about 30 minutes to participate in the tasting and you will taste approximately 30 sweet potato varieties and breeding lines and rate their eating quality in a survey to help researchers and I imagine this is first come first serve. You might be able to find more information here.
WSU bread lab in Skagit valley is hosting a few toast buffets on Fridays this year as well.
And if you plan even farther ahead, look forward to the Skagit Valley Festival of Farms on October 4 and October 5 2026 which looks really fun too.
Do you love learning about farms in the area? Please let me know if I’ll see you on the next tour!
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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