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Plant starts let families grow their own food

By Lorie Hutson lorieh@spokesman.com(509) 459-5446

Here’s a chance for low-income families to try growing their own food this summer.

People for Environmental Action and Community Health (PEACH), the nonprofit parent of Fresh Abundance, is giving away plant starts for families who receive food stamp assistance at the Division Street store, 2015 N. Division St., across from Mountain Gear. The store can be reached by calling (509) 533-2724.

There are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, kale and basil available. Low-income families can get plants and tips for growing them at the store. The plants are for sale, as well. Proceeds benefit the PEACH Permaculture Farm in Spokane Valley, 3324 S. Best Road. Find out more at http://peachlocal. blogspot.com/.

Fresh Abundance recently closed its store on 25th Avenue on Spokane’s South Hill, says PEACH president Brightspirit Hendrix.

The store opened when Fresh Abundance, a local food delivery service, became too big for Hendrix’s living room. The home delivery also quickly outgrew that space and it became a small Fresh Abundance grocery. Hendrix says they had trouble attracting enough shoppers to the store, which was in the back of a building and hard to find.

The two remaining Fresh Abundance stores are on Division Street and at the PEACH farm in Spokane Valley.

Spring on the Farm

Farmers and chefs near Colville are joining forces for a spring dinner at Lovitt Restaurant.

Get a taste of spring at the Quillisascut Farm with a five-course dinner prepared from ingredients grown there by owners Lora Lea and Rick Misterly. Norman and Kristen Six will prepare and host the meal at Lovitt Restaurant in Colville, Wash. on June 14 at 6 p.m.

Dinner will feature recipes created by Chef Kären Jurgensen in the book “Chefs on the Farm: Recipes and Inspiration from the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts.” The meal opens with pea shoot soup, followed by nettle gnocchi with spring mushrooms, onions and egg. Then, lamb potato sausage with tarragon-infused carrots and lavender scented turnips, sunchokes and bacon will be served. Dessert is rhubarb and cherry shortcake with licorice crème fraiche.

Dinner is $25 per person. Or, dinner for two, plus one copy of the book is $75. To reserve seats, call (509) 684-5444.

If a trip to Colville is too much, Rick Misterly will be at the Spokane Farmers Market, on Second Avenue between Division and Browne, this Saturday and June 20th. The market is open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Misterly will be selling Quillisascut goats’ milk cheeses and signed copies of “Chefs on the Farm.” The book is $24.95 plus tax.

We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call (509) 459-5446, fax to (509) 459-5098 or send an e-mail to lorieh@spokesman.com.