We played “connect the dots” this week, for veterans who are or want to be farming in the green, green, green state of Washington.

First stop, the Port Townsend Film Festival where Ground Operations scored the award for “Inspiring Community” and learned of a new project, the Peace Patch Farm (PPF). In its infancy, PPF is the dream-child of farm owner, Liz Goldstein, and Vet Connect founder (and master gardener) Bob Logue. It is intended to be an Ag training program for veterans through Washington State University’s Sustainable Agriculture program, which will offer reduced tuition rates. Starting with one veteran, they plan to include 8 vets a year, provide housing and grants willing, a pay stipend to interns. (Contact: liz@teenpeace.org)

Growing Veterans hosted a screening at Western Washington University, in Bellingham. Growing Veterans  (http://growingveterans.org) is an organic farm that offers veterans a place to learn hands-on farming and marketing skills while overcoming the isolation that marks so many veterans descent into substance abuse, depression and suicide. It can be difficult for vets to get the support they need to move forward, but working as a unit again with other veterans is an elixir for the spirit.  Professor Gigi Berardi opened the evening introducing her project, the Resilience Institute, which received a grant to define and promote small and midsize farm resilience.  She calls it a farmers’ support group of sorts. She’s a support to Growing Veterans and other Washington farmers.

Mike Hackett, a Vietnam veteran and Executive Vice President of Tilth Producers of Washington, (http://tilthproducers.org) spoke about TP’s beginning veteran outreach. Tilth Producers promotes ecologically sound, economically viable and socially equitable farming practices. They have an Intern Placement Service, publish a guide to organic & sustainable growers/suppliers/resources in Washington with a wealth of services.

We traveled to the town of Bremerton, home to the large Navy base and shipyard … and a glorious restored theater, the Admiral, where movie goers have elegant table & chair settings and a full bar (though we were serving only coffee and locally-bottled sodas like Americana Huckelberry and Cock-n-Bull Ginger Beer, from the Orca Beverage Company.)

Our hostess, Teri Fisher, was a Navy wife for 30 years and recently become a Vet Corp representative.  Vet Corps (http://www.dva.wa.gov/vetcorps.html) is a branch of AmeriCorps, and strangely (it seems to me) only exists so far in the state of Washington, catering specifically to helping vets re-integrate into civilian life.

Teri is the newest member of our Ground Ops team. For our screening, she invited her local politicos. County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido is the local hero for sustainable agriculture there — in fact, she even runs a monthly movie night for films about sustainable Ag and had to duck out of her event quickly to make it over to ours!  Again, we were benefitting Growing Veterans, who will keep in touch with Comm. Garrido and Vet Corps (thru Teri) for support.

Another woman attending is a veteran, works at the Navy hospital and farms a 160-acre farm. The farm being held in a conservation easement to protect it. She hopes to be able to open it to other vets in the next year or so, when the estate settles. Graduates of Growing Veterans farm training might have a home there — or at the local Veterans Home that also has about 100 acres and a barn that could serve as an incubator farm for beginning producers — and in turn, supply the Veterans Home with delicious, nutritious organic food.  Seeds of opportunity are sprouting.

Our final screening event, at the University of Washington in Tacoma, featured a very humorous, articulate and focused young Army veteran (Brian Kerrigan) and his wife, who are starting up a new dairy goat operation.  So naturally, we served platters of goat cheese (mixed with herbs, or berries, or pesto & tomatoes) along with   local fruit and those delicious sodas (did I mention the ambrosia-like Black Cherry?).

Lo and behold, another Vet Corp rep (a veteran himself) who works at the university, showed up — much to the delight of Teri.  They are now connected to work this agricultural angle together, through Vet Corps in neighboring communities.

The star of the evening was Sarah Wilcox, Program Manager for Washington Farmlink, which acts as a matchmaker between people who have farmland and those who are looking for it. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  WA Farmlink is just one program of the Cascade Harvest Coalition (http://cascadeharvest.org) – “Your Local Washington Food & Farming Resource Center.”  They’ve got the mother of all lists, news, events & networking. Their goal is to connect food producers directly with consumers, keeping the transparency and resiliency in the local food system diverse and strong.

If I were a vet (or anyone) who fantasized about farming in Washington (and I do!) …. I would start here with the folks at Cascade Harvest Coalition … they have the staff people who can help you look at that dream, explore it piece by piece, and offer services and resources to shape what is right for you.

And for all you foodies who want to know the who, where and how of your Washington food scene… their Food Guide and website are playgrounds of possibilities.