The long-awaited capital budget passed in January, and included crucial funding for a top-priority local farm project. And it’s one that brings a smile to our faces: We can now move forward on the work to protect Serendipity Farm in Quilcene (neighbor to Midori farm).
Farmer Chris Llewellyn told us, “I am thrilled to go forward with this project.”
Funding to protect her farm comes from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Farmland Preservation Program and the Jefferson County Conservation Futures Fund.
Chris said, “My dream of preserving farmland goes back a couple generations. One of my great grandfathers was a homesteader in the Renton Valley. His son my Grandfather lost his dairy farm to highway 167. Where his cows used to graze alongside a lazy stream is now warehouses… My other grandfather bought land on the West side of Bainbridge Island in the early 1900s. I knew I would someday be the steward of that land and hoped to land trust it for future generations to enjoy, it too was lost to development.
“So I carried my grandfather’s dreams to Jefferson County. I chose Jefferson County because of the parks, the waterways, the mountains, the conservation futures program, and the rich farming history. I felt that because of those amenities that this county had the best chance of almost any county in the nation of preserving its rural nature and farming community. I truly believe that organic, biodynamic farmers hold the key to clean water, clean air and food security and preserving real rural economies.
“Serendipity Farm is all that is left of a large homestead from the early 1800s. I feel like we owe it to those who have come before us and those who will follow to preserve land . Three generations live on Serendipity farm. I want my grandchildren to enjoy some of what I had as a child and I want their children to be blessed with a farm and open spaces to play in too.
“I am so grateful to be able to participate in the preservation of Serendipity Farm in perpetuity. Thank you all.”
