Foraged and Farm to Table: How Local Food Ecosystems Thrive in Snohomish County

Step into Roger’s (1011 1st Street) and you’re on their turf -- if you can find a table, that is. This popular little bistro in downtown Snohomish has a rotating menu that mirrors seasonal ingredients and the whim of the chef. One of their mainstays are craft cocktails, featuring spirits from Skip Rock Distillers, located a mere one block (0.1 miles) away. It doesn't get much more local than that. Skip Rock’s ingredients are sourced from chestnuts, raspberries, and other ingredients foraged or farmed in the Snohomish River Valley. Experience the Snohomish symbiosis – we'll cheers to that!

Few things taste as delicious as summertime blueberries. The only way these little juicy orbs could taste better is if you’ve spent the day in the fields harvesting them yourself. Mountainview Blueberry Farm (7617 E. Lowell-Larimer Road, Snohomish) offers you the opportunity to pick your own treats. It’s a fantastic way to soak up a sunny interval of Washington summer. The Stocker family has farmed in this valley for nearly a century, so they’ve got berry growing down. Hot tip: Mountainview reopens for a few weeks in September and October for sunflower season. Yes, it’s the perfect photoshoot location – tickets sell out fast.

Andy’s Fish House (1229 1st Street Snohomish) stands on the end of the ever-popular First Street in Downtown Snohomish, WA. As bustling as this streetcorner can be, many of the ingredients for this seafood eatery come from a pastoral property just up the valley. Silver Maple Farms in Sultan, Washington is a certified organic farm dedicated to growing fine produce literally at the feet of the Cascade Mountains. If you’d like to go straight to the source, you can visit the Silver Maple roadside farmstand (32801 120th Street SE, Sultan) or find them at the Sultan Farmers Market.

Salt + Iron (321 Main Street) bring the brine to the seaside streets of Edmonds, WA. Step into this upscale restaurant and check the chalkboard for a rotating menu of local oysters plucked from the shores of the Salish Sea. Their most desirable bivalve in my opinion is the Hama Hama: an oyster farm held in reverence by local oyster aficionados. Hama Hama is a sixth-generation family-run oyster farm with a reputation for quality built on hard work and clean water. Based in Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula, this farm delivers oysters par excellence in Edmonds: tasting is believing.

Little Lake Stevens is growing up. Once a tiny bedroom community, this town now boasts a duo of top-tier restaurants: The Pines (805 Frontage Road) and LJ’s Bistro and Bar (430 91st Ave NE Ste 1). Owned by the same couple, these sister eateries are bringing fresh food to a corner of the county that has been often (and wrongly) overlooked. LJ’s gets a fresh shipment of Choux Choux Bakery goods delivered daily. Choux Choux is located in nearby Everett (2900 Grand Avenue), where it has garnered a cult following for making baked goods the authentic French fashion (read: plenty of butter!).