By Jennifer Duty

September is Local Food Month in Humboldt County, actually, every day is “Local Food Month” in Humboldt County.

I grew up in Lake County, California where my Grandparents had been in the AG industry since the 1940's. Growing up my family had the most beautiful home garden with an abundance of everything green. At the end of the season, there was canning to be done while the fruits and vegetables were prepared for the huge chest freezer we had. All winter long we ate from the summer harvest.

Everyone I knew had a large home garden and plenty of chickens. It was just a 70’s thing. As a farmers granddaughter, I grew up knowing the time and season for harvesting everything.

Pears were the first to picked and usually finished up by Labor Day weekend, then came the wine grapes, as the cooler nights started to creep in the leaves started to turn orange, red, brown the valley begins to smell like "the crush". That magical smell does something to me every year. The first rain means walnut harvest. Even a light rain turns the green, hard shell surrounding the English Walnut black and bursting it open, to drop the nut to the ground. Everything has a time. 

Since PacificFlake.com moved to Humboldt County in 2016, we have been educated on a whole new level of what local food quality tastes like. Humboldt is an undiscovered paradise with the coastal air and fertile ground producing some of the most beautiful fruits and veggies I have ever seen in my life. Organic and heirloom magnificence. The famous Arcata Farmers' Market is a beautiful showcase of natural abundance and a happy community. At PacificFlake.com we are proud to be a part of this community. 

There are so many local producers who work tirelessly to feed their neighbors throughout the year, I am still learning just how many farmers there are in the greater Humboldt area. I am constantly overwhelmed by the self-sustainability in this region of northern California. If Humboldt were to be cut off from the rest of the world the county could easily survive.

Humboldt Beef is amazing, they say there are more cattle than people in Humboldt County. The cattle feast on dew-soaked grasses from the sea and the fog as they do their cow thing and wonder about in large open fields just as cattle were meant to be raised. There are world-class dairy’s in Humboldt producing yummy local milk, cream, ice-cream & cheese like no other place in America.  

The number of local food producers is too many to mention and I would not want to leave anyone out.

So please visit Humboldt Made at the Visitors Center in Eureka and don't forget to shop at your local Co-Op, Wildberries Market, or Farmers' Market to support the makers and growers of our blessed community.

Try not to take it for granted, not everyone gets to live this well.

Health & Love

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