Submitted by Genuine Skagit Valley
Genuine Skagit Cooking (working title for the cookbook) is a collaboration between Genuine Skagit Valley, an organization that supports Skagit Valley growers and producers to help sustain farming in the region for generations to come, and Raspberry Bow Press, Skagit’s first independent book publisher, featuring books and zines about women, food, and whatever else catches their interest. They print and bind their own books from their small studio in Skagit Valley.
Call for Submissions
To curate a community-driven cookbook, the authors are calling on all Skagitonians to submit recipes for possible inclusion.
“Given the treasure trove of bounty throughout the Valley, we know our community tables are filled with fresh, local, and distinctive farm-raised flavors,” says Blake Vanfield, director for Genuine Skagit Valley. “We’re welcoming residents to open their recipe boxes and share their most prized dishes with us.”
Submissions are currently open on the Genuine Skagit Valley website through February 1, 2022.
The cookbook is slated to hit shelves in the spring of 2023.
Genuine Skagit Cooking (124 to 136 pages, paperback) will feature 30 to 40 recipes from producers, business owners, and residents around Skagit Valley highlighting the unique agricultural diversity of the region. Readers can expect recipes for a range of dishes for every meal of the day, all utilizing some of the fantastic produce grown right here in Skagit. Included within the recipes will be interesting facts and stories about the foods featured. Readers will also learn more about Skagit Valley producers through farmer profiles. Paired alongside food photographer Charity Burggraaf’s photos of recipes and ingredients, Genuine Skagit Cooking will bring to life the region’s agricultural way of life, inviting both locals and others across the country into the kitchen to cook the Skagit way.
The Magic of Skagit ~ Agricultural Offerings from Skagit Valley (information courtesy of Genuine Skagit Valley)
From the fertile river-fed flats of the Samish Delta to the foothills of the North Cascades, the farming community just an hour north of Seattle produces roughly $300 million worth of crops, livestock, and dairy products on approximately 95,000 acres of land, according to Washington State University Skagit County Extension in 2018.
Skagit Valley soil is noted to be among the world’s top 2% of soils.
The Skagit Valley produces almost 95% of U.S. table beet seed (50% of the world supply), 75% of U.S. spinach seed, 25% of global cabbage seed stocks, and more tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs than any other U.S. county.
From Our Home to Your Table
Publisher Michelle Gale is excited to marry her years of editorial experience with her interests in gardening and cooking. “Moving to Bow was the realization of so many years of driving through the Valley struck by the beauty of the sprawling farmland and views of the islands and Mt. Baker. I can’t imagine a better project to pursue than working with my community to share our way of life and our time in the kitchen, cooking with produce we grow right here, with the rest of the world.”
Acclaimed food photographer Charity Burggraaf has been tapped to capture the beauty of food for the cookbook. Throughout 2022, she will be documenting the Valley’s growing season and photographing the various stages of the community-submitted recipes.
How to Submit Recipes
Please find a link to all of the submission requirements and details here.
“Since the first commercial harvest of potatoes in 1853, Skagit farmers and their fertile soil have supplied the Northwest, nation, and world with nearly every crop imaginable,” says Vanfield. “We’re now taking the tastes of the Valley one step further and sharing farm-fresh recipes straight from the kitchens of our little corner of the country to homes across the globe.”
