Snail of Approval Farms and Ranches

Garden Treasures Local Farm is a beautiful example of sustainable, community-driven agriculture offering heirloom vegetables, including varieties from the Slow Food Ark of Taste. Patricia Lovejoy’s impressive collection of hand-shelled legumes includes Mexican heritage beans brought from Oaxaca 30 years ago. The farmstand features a carefully curated selection of products from nearby farmers and producers, including fruit, cheese, eggs, jams, honey, and fermented foods. 

Another standout feature is Patricia's sustainable flower program, which not only attracts pollinators and aids in natural pest management, but also serves as an educational resource.

Learn more about Garden Treasures Local Farm …

Contact Information:
• Patricia Lovejoy
• Farmstand: SR 530 NE, Arlington, WA 98223
• Website: gardentreasuresfarm.com

Jones Creek Farms is a family-run orchard in the Skagit Valley where Les and Lyn Price have been stewarding the land since 1991. By growing locally adapted apple varieties alongside pears, figs, peaches, and garlic, they work in harmony with the region’s climate to produce flavorful fruit while supporting healthy soils and the surrounding ecosystem, including the salmon-bearing creek that borders the farm.

Community connection is at the heart of Jones Creek Farms. Their U-Pick orchard invites visitors to experience the seasons firsthand and build a deeper appreciation for where their food comes from, while their presence at local farmers markets helps make fresh, locally grown produce more accessible. Through thoughtful land stewardship and direct relationships with their community, Jones Creek Farms helps strengthen a vibrant and resilient regional food system.

Learn more about Jones Creek Farms …

Contact Information:
• Les and Lyn Jones
• U-Pick Orchard: 32260 Burrese Road . Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284
• Website: skagitvalleyfruit.com

SisterLand Farms grows heirloom and culturally significant crops using regenerative farming practices that honor both the land and the diverse food traditions of the Pacific Northwest. Through composting, waste reduction, and thoughtful stewardship, founder Jenson and their team cultivate healthy soil while preserving agricultural heritage for future generations.

Equity and community are central to SisterLand’s mission. The farm is committed to fair employment, ongoing education, and a transition toward shared employee ownership, creating a workplace where people can thrive alongside the land. Beyond the fields, business incubation, and community programs, helping build a more resilient, connected, and inclusive regional food system.

Learn more about SisterLand Farms …

Contact Information:
• Jenson
• Website: sisterlandfarms.com

Established by Kiswahili-speaking immigrants David Bulindah and Dickson Njeri, who yearned for the taste of East African food celebrations, Wakulima USA merged as a farming program dedicated to providing immigrants and refugees with access to land and resources for cultivating and marketing traditional, culturally significant food. The practice of farming and spending time in natural spaces promote wellness and mental health across all age groups within the community.

Currently, the program comprises 35 farmers who distribute their produce throughout King and Pierce Counties via markets, food hubs, and directly to immigrant communities. Additionally, they offer farm tours and participate in farmers markets to educate consumers about East African food traditions.

Contact Information:
• Maura Clotilde
• 23830 Pacific Hwy S, Suite 333 . Kent, WA 98032
• Website: wakulimausa.org

Riverbird Farm is led by first-generation farmers who raise high-quality pastured poultry. They rotate them on pasture and feed them a Washington-grown feed mix that is non-GMO and free of both corn and soy. They source their chicks from regional suppliers, raise them until fully grown, and process them humanely.

We’re especially impressed by the farm’s commitment to regenerative practices when it comes to reducing waste. Riverbird is committed to providing high-quality food for its community, offering a selection of products that spans a range of price points. They offer discounts through CSA membership and accept EBT at their farmers market stands. Their products are also on local menus of select Olympia restaurants.

Contact Info:
• Maia Erickson, Farmer/Co-Owner
• 2984 SE Kamilche Point Road . Shelton, WA 98584
• Website: riverbirdfarm.com

Sun Dog Farm (formerly Sundowner Farm) provides people in the community with a diverse array of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. In addition to cultivating heirloom and heritage varieties, owner and Caleb Poppe prefers starting plants from seed in order to build his relationship with the plants. He saves seeds and experiments with his own varieties, prioritizing “food that is meant to grow here.” 

Caleb is learning Korean natural farming methods, like making fermented plant juice from on-property nettles and comfrey, to boost plant health and growth. He also uses pollinator hedgerows, cover cropping, and follows as many plastic-free practices as he can. 

Sundowner makes food as accessible as possible for the community and works in collaboration with Kiwanis Food Bank farmers to address invasives and steward the land. And he has an attitude that meshes perfectly with good, clean, and fair principles.

Contact Information:
• Caleb Poppe
• Instagram: instagram.com/sundogfarm

Urban Futures Farm grows delicious, nutrient-dense food for their immediate neighbors through a CSA program and on-site farmstand. Over time, they have built robust agricultural soil through the use of cover crops, green manures, quality compost, and targeted application of essential micro and macro nutrients.

TJ Johnson, full-time farmer and former food and agricultural policy visiting faculty at The Evergreen State College, has grown various Ark of Taste varieties of fruits and vegetables, including Rockwell beans, Speckled Trout lettuce, Ozette potatoes, Incillium garlic, and more. They also grow a wide variety of vegetable and herb plant starts each spring, and produce pastured eggs.

The farm donates food to the Thurston County Food Bank and to Senior Services for South Sound, hosts interns and WWOOFers on the farm, and organizes a yearly music festival on the property that raises funds for farmland preservation.

Contact Information:
• TJ Johnson
• 928 Wilson Street NE . Olympia, WA, 98506
• Website: urbanfuturesfarm.com

Tracking Y Ranch is a first-generation, family-operated beef cattle ranch that focuses on regenerative ranching and land stewardship. They manage over 1,000 acres of grazing land across four counties in the South Puget Sound region. Two-thirds of these lands are protected in conservation easements, which safeguard endangered species and help restore native ecosystems. Tracking Y’s rotational grazing practices go hand in hand to support South Sound prairie restoration and protect local waterways. They even utilize the cattle to tackle invasive fescue!

Every step of managing their herds meets the highest ethical and environmental standards. They sell grass-fed beef directly to consumers; no cattle are ever sent to feedlots or confinement. From locally grown feed to embroidery on branded hats, the family makes business purchasing decisions that prioritize the regional economy.

Contact information:
• Jake and April Yancey, Owners
• Website: trackingyranch.com

Summit Farms serves as a habitat for local wildlife while also growing food for the local community. They sell seasonal starts and herbs, a wide variety of vegetables, flowers, Italian plums, pears, apples, and English walnuts. And they host events in their restored 1910 barn, serving as an important community gathering place. 

With 28-acres, Mitch and Michelle use regenerative practices on their historic property to manage their growing spaces while also preserving wetlands and riparian areas. They have a project with the USDA to promote bat and bee populations, a conservation plan with Thurston Conservation District, and a collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to increase habitat for the endangered Oregon Spotted Frog.

Contact Information:
• Mitch and Michelle Lewis
• Website: summitfarms.co

Spotted Frog Farm is a small, family-owned farm that produces organic, pasture-raised eggs and stewing hens in Olympia. Their deep commitment to responsible land management practices includes maintaining vegetated buffers around the sensitive wetland areas on their farm, protecting local waterways and native wildlife. To promote soil health and the regeneration of their pastures, Spotted Frog Farm employs multispecies rotational grazing. And with solar-powered mobile coops, their hens are able to move freely to feast on the diverse array of plants and insects.

They offer stewing hens, which are mature laying hens at the end of their productive egg-laying life. While stewing hens were historically common in home and small-farm food systems, they are now rarely available in modern grocery stores due to industrial poultry production favoring young, fast-growing meat birds. This whole-animal approach to farming ensures these hens may continue to provide nourishment and cultural value for customers preparing heritage recipes, preserving food traditions that are otherwise underserved by conventional retail supply chains.

Contact Information:
• Sarah George
• Instagram: instagram.com/spotted_frog_farm/

Dancing Goats and Singing Chickens Organic Farm is a 12-acre farm in Yelm, Washington that focuses on education. With a great amount of enthusiasm and passion, volunteers in their intentional community hold educational events for children at their petting zoo and hold open house educational events at the farm to share knowledge through workshops on soil fertility, greenhouse construction, solar panels, wind turbines, composting, Hugelkultur, honey bees, rain water harvesting, and more. They also welcome high school and college students to work and learn simultaneously through thier internship program.

They practice regenerative agriculture, value worker health, and offer a wide range of thoughtfully produced products, such as eggs, honey, chickens, fruits, vegetables and other goods.

“On your quest for happiness, please consider stopping by the farm to find tranquility!”

Contact Information:
• Dolphin Ayub & Lizzie Lake
• 14062 Yelm Highway SE, Yelm, WA 98597
• Website: dancinggoatsandsingingchickens.com

Colvin Ranch is a fifth-generation woman-run cattle ranch in Tenino and is the first ranch to receive a Snail in Washington State. Their Red Angus, Black Angus, and cross-breed cattle are born on the ranch and raised entirely on grass and winter hay. All beef is free of antibiotics, hormones, and additives.

The Colvin family is dedicated to prairie conservation through partnerships with the NRCS and Washington State. Their sustainable grazing practices contribute to biodiversity by allowing native and endangered wildlife to flourish, such as golden paintbrush, the Mazama pocket gopher, and Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly.

As part of their business practices, the ranch also invests in their local community, donating beef to the local food bank and regularly hosting ranch visits and workshops.

Contact Information:
• Jennifer Colvin, Owner & Rancher
• 16816 Old Highway 99 SE, Tenino, WA 98589
• Website: colvinranch.com

Helsing Junction Farms is not only one of the oldest, most established CSA programs in the country, the owners and staff are also dedicated to regenerative agriculture and soil health and to practices such as cover cropping and rotational sheep grazing that help them grow beautiful, long-lasting, highly nutritious vegetables for their many subscribers.

Helsing also works with neighboring farms to reduce food waste and they partner with the local food bank to make farm-fresh produce available to more people in their local community.

Contact Information:
• Jessica Armstrong & Angie Camp, Owners
• 12013 Independence Rd SW, Rochester, WA 98579
• Website: helsingjunctionfarms.com

Sasquatch Family Farms sells pork, beef, lamb, and eggs. Many of their practices are guided by their commitment to conservation. They work closely with a government agency to protect the rare prairie ecosystem where their family and animals live. 

Sasquatch is committed to organic practices and regenerative land management and takes steps to reduce waste, including a partnership with a local food distributor to source produce that would otherwise go to waste to feed their animals. Their animal welfare practices center around creating environments designed to support natural animal behaviors.

The farm is a family-run operation and is highly involved in the community, notably through open farm days for the public, a partnership with Future Farmers of America, and the Dark Sky Network.

Contact Information:
• Shauna Perez
• Website: sasquatchfamilyfarms.com