Students enjoyed local bites at an annual celebration of Washington grown foods earlier this month. 

Taste Washington Day uses school meals during the fall harvest season to showcase nearby bounty. In addition to using foods grown in the campus gardens, Chimacum Schools connected with four local farms to kick-off Farm to School Month in early October.

Thursday’s lunch on Oct. 7 included local burgers from  Shorts Family Farm cattle and Westbrook Angus.

Burgers were served with toppings like Walla Walla sweet onions grown in the Chimacum Elementary Garden, sliced tomatoes, and lettuce from Red Dog Farm. A side of roasted potatoes grown at Red Dog and carrot sticks from Sunfield Farm rounded out the meal.

Shorts Family Farm has operated in Chimacum since 1945. It raises 100 percent grass-fed beef, and sells compost and its trademark “magical soil” to farmers, gardeners, landscapers, and organizations. All of the school’s gardens have been boosted by the special soil mix.

Westbrook Angus, owned by Chuck and Julie Boggs, raises purebred Black Angus cattle on West Valley Road, just a few miles from Chimacum Schools.

Red Dog Farm grows more than 150 varieties of certified organic vegetables, berries, cut flowers, and plant starts just a short walk from the main school’s campus.

Sunfield Farm is a 81-acre biodynamic farm and Waldorf school, with 5 acres of vegetables, fruit, and cover crops.

While Taste Washington Day is celebrated by schools across the state during the first week of October, Chimacum Schools proudly serve locally sourced, school-grown, or made from scratch food nearly every day of the school year.