About Us
Sally
Recent insight: Were it not for the urgency of trying to save a planet for our children, living sustainably would just be another way to enjoy the good life.
Childhood drama: A snapshot might feature pastures, fields of potatoes and sugar beets, the fumbling pursuit of chickens and horses. Each made their impression, but my grandmother’s half-acre vegetable garden and its sun-warmed tomatoes were the clincher; with the deliciousness of those earliest tomatoes began my visceral relationship with the character of certain foods. I must admit, for example, that I’m involved in a pretty serious long-term relationship with tomatoes.
Fate: When I began making dill pickles, canning tomatoes and sauce, jam and chutney with produce from our backyard garden and farmer’s markets, I recognized the inevitable, that we do eventually become our mothers and grandmothers.
Past, present & future: A career educator, teaching continues but with new vision, new tools, my own version of those farming roots, and a focus on food, photography and sustainability.
A mission: Seems like the right time to get reacquainted with the distinct produce of the Pacific Northwest and seasonal cycles unique to our particular place on the planet.
Poppy Barach’s interest in healthy living began during college in the 70s. Her fascination with the back-to-the-land movement inspired her to live on a 40-acre farm in rural North Carolina where she learned a modern version of homesteading.
She turned her interest in crafts into a cottage industry making a collection of hand-woven clothing. This laid the groundwork for her clothing line “Akimbo.” As it grew into a corporation with accounts all over the US, she realized she had moved away from her original vision. She closed “Akimbo,” started studying photography and made her way back full circle to her interest in living closely with nature.
Although she no longer raises chickens or grows her own food, she is passionate about shopping at the farmer’s market and finding new ways to live locally and preserve our environment for future generations.