Looking for a fun, family-friendly way to explore local food options? Check out the Farm to Table Trails created by Sustainable Connections. The program, which uses a digital passport to track your explorations, includes nine different “trails” with a total of 57 destinations throughout Whatcom County — including restaurants, farm stands, cheese shops, seafood markets and farmers markets.
Each food trail covers a specific area with a mix of different types of food producers. One route goes from Blaine down to Custer, including restaurants like Drayton Harbor Oysters, The Vault and Packers Kitchen + Bar. The Everson trail includes several berry farms and Cloud Mountain Farm, and the Bow-Edison trail takes you to destinations like Terramar Brewstillery, Breadfarm, Samish Bay Cheese and Garden Path Fermentation. There are also trails in Lynden, on Lummi Island, along Route 542, North Bellingham and a loop through Bellingham itself.
I decided to follow the Foodie Fun in Ferndale trail (all the trails have names with either alliteration or rhyming.) We drove between stops, although this route, along with a few of the others, can also be done via bicycle through Bike Northwest, which offers guided educational bicycle tours in both Skagit and Whatcom counties.
Note that you don’t need to participate in the digital passport program to enjoy the food stops, but there are deals and prizes available if you choose to take part. After visiting four locations, I had earned an Eat Local First sticker, with the next level offering a colorful spork. Prizes can be shipped to you or picked up locally.
Lummi Seafood Market
4920 Rural Ave., Ferndale
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
This shop carries local seafood primarily caught by Indigenous fishermen from around the Pacific Northwest. The shop is small, but a wide variety of seafood awaits in refrigerators decorated with drawings of ocean creatures, and an ice-filled cooler stuffed with huge salmon sits right inside the door. They also carry excellent house-packed Salmon Woman canned Coho, Sockeye, and King salmon, plus a few condiments.
In addition to the shop, you can find Lummi Seafood at the Bellingham Farmers Market as well as the Bellingham Dockside Market at Squalicum Harbor.
Twin Sisters Creamery
6202 Portal Way, Ferndale
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday
This family-owned creamery is named for the owners’ twin daughters (not after the mountains, as I might have supposed). I had tried their excellent Whatcom Blue many times before, but when I visited, they also had several flavors of their Farmhouse cheese, plus a new gorgonzola. They also carry a nice selection of both international and local cheeses.
Cheesemaking happens on Tuesdays and can be viewed like a spectator sport behind a large window. The shop doesn’t have much space for lingering but you can pick up some blue cheese dip or some of their house made corn salad for a picnic. They also have an online store with curbside pickup if you’re in a rush.
Oak Meadows Farm
6285 Noble Oaks Lane, Ferndale
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, or by appointment
Beef, pork and chicken, as well as chicken and quail eggs, are available from this small sustainable farm. The pigs and chickens are pasture-raised, and the beef comes from other farms in Whatcom and Skagit counties and is completely grass-fed. The farm store is only open on Saturdays but purchases can be made online and picked up by appointment at other times.
Boxx Berry Farm
6211 Northwest Drive, Ferndale
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday–Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday
Boxx, which is easy to find with convenient parking, sells vegetables and flowers as well as berries. They have a well-stocked farm store with fruit and bouquets, or you can take advantage of their U-pick fields.
On a recent visit, they had some of the best strawberries I’ve eaten this season, and raspberries that melted in the mouth, plus a strawberry shortcake counter! A self-checkout table (every berry box has a barcode) helps speed things along.
The Cheese Shop at Appel Farms
6605 Northwest Drive, Ferndale
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday
The entrance to the Appel Farms shop brings you into a dining area with tables and a service counter where you can order cheese plates and wine. You can also pass through to an eclectic gift shop with cheese samples, a case of cheeses, yogurts and other goodies. (If you haven’t tried Appel Farms paneer you’re in for a treat.) Shelves are also full of all kinds of condiments, cheese utensils, wine and glassware, linens and other fun gifts.
This is a great stop if you want to pause a while and cool down with your family (with or without a glass of wine). Sit out on the shady porch, or walk around the building to sit by a pond looking across to the neighbor’s cornfield.
Jessamyn Tuttle is a freelance writer and photographer based in the Skagit Valley.
This holiday season, supporting local businesses is more important than ever