A handful of fresh strawberries is the central draw for this Saturday’s third annual Boistfort Valley Farm Strawberry Festival. The kid-friendly event includes live music by Rosie and the Posers, a tour of the farm and tasty strawberry shortcake.
Last year’s Boistfort Valley Farm Strawberry Festival included music and a relaxed setting. The festival celebrates locally produced vegetables, and centers on the tasty strawberry as we enter into the first week of summer.
Workers prepare the produce for Boistfort Valley Farm as part of their operations that deliver fresh food to farmers markets, Northwest restaurants and anyone that signs up for the weekly service
Strolling through a garden, spotting a bright red strawberry hidden among the dark green leaves, picking it, giving it a quick wash and plopping it into your mouth. A taste explosion erupts, full of sugar and tartness. It makes for a blissful moment, all the more so if you’re slowly walking the grounds of a well-rounded farm.
Strawberry season is upon us, and the perfect way to celebrate this coming bountiful season is at this Saturday’s third annual Boistfort Valley Farm Strawberry Festival.
Heidi and Mike Peroni started farming their fields in the Boistfort Valley almost a decade ago. Heidi came from the hot and dry Southwest, and wanted to find a place that was friendly to sustainable agriculture and had an abundance of water. Today they have made the fertile Chehalis River Basin their home.
“A lot of people want to come out and visit the farm,” Heidi said on Tuesday while setting up her produce stand at the Chehalis Farmers Market, where she was stacking flat upon flat of just-picked strawberries, along with her other produce.
The Boistfort Valley Farm’s core business is growing certified organic produce and delivering it fresh. They sell out of several farmers markets, including Ballard and Olympia.
Several highly regarded restaurants also serve their produce, including Ray’s Boathouse, The Mark and Art of the Table. They offer a box of food delivered to various convenient locations throughout the year as part of their community-supported agriculture effort.
The summer season CSA is about to be delivered, and will include strawberries, spring greens, baby beets, carrots and other fresh produce — even a bouquet of yellow lilies. The produce is delivered weekly from June through October, and includes Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, the Twin Cities and down into Portland. Along with the food comes seasonal recipes and cooking tips.
The draw of subscribing to the weekly produce is summed up in a brochure explaining the CSA: “It’s fresh, it’s local, we care, we’re all yours!” Another slogan sums up their approach: “Boistfort Valley Farm: because life’s too short to eat iceberg lettuce.”
Before the festival, the Peronis held open houses for their customers. That evolved into this weekend’s strawberry festival.
“People love the strawberries, why not?” she said. “And we love a party, live music. ... It’s a great low-key day to bring the family out to a kid-friendly farm tour.”
The festival isn’t so much a party as a celebration of sustainable farming, a place to bring the kids, a folding chair, and sit under a tree in the orchard while watching the kids dance to live music (this year the music is by Rosie and the Posers). Tours of the farm are part of the lure, as is the strawberry shortcake.
A chocolate fountain to dip a fresh strawberry is the proverbial cherry on top of the cake.
Sustainable agriculture. Living close to the land. Celebrating the bounty of early summer. Eating a yummy strawberry. These are all part of the strawberry festival and its roots.
For Heidi, her favorite part of the day is a reflection of its core: “To be hokey, my favorite part of the day is my three-and-a-half-year-old — she gets such a kick out of it.”
