Tilth Alliance has been happily coordinating with local growers for many years to grow and supply edible plants for both of our annual Edible Plant Sales. We purchase from farmers and growers who use certified organic or regenerative and sustainable methods. Over the last few years we have added more small farms to the mix – get to know the growers for this year’s March Edible Plant Sale!
Rents Due Ranch
Mike Shriver of Rents Due Ranch has been the main grower for our Edible Plant Sales for many years. In 2025, he will be growing almost 24,000 plants for us to sell! He grows starts for many nurseries, as well as produce for PCC Community Markets and other local grocers, at his farm in Stanwood, WA. Even without an online presence he is a well-known producer throughout Western Washington.
This year we expect to see plants from Rents Due Ranch in every plant group we sell: veggies, edible flowers, herbs and pollinator plants. Some new varieties coming from Rents Due Ranch for spring and summer include ‘Mary’s Peak’ Strawberry, ‘Salt and Pepper’ Cucumber, and ‘Rosita Brandywine’ cherry tomato.
This spring, expect to see an array of Snap, Snow, and Shelling Peas, plus a plethora of bulbing onions and scallions, artichokes and vibrant greens. For summer you will find a rainbow of tomatoes from all categories like ‘Amish Gold,’ ‘Bumblebee Purple,’ and ‘Green Zebra,’ as well as a myriad of eggplant, squash, and peppers! Rents Due Ranch plants are the mainstay of many Pacific Northwest gardeners each summer and we are happy to continue our relationship with Mike and the farm.
Sunseed Farm
Up in Acme, WA, on the south fork of the Nooksack River, Nick Guilford and Margaret Gerard of Sunseed Farm grow an assortment of plant starts for us each year. A few truckloads of 13,000 vibrant and healthy plants arrive in spring and summer, including 1,200 ‘Sungold’ Tomato plants.
Sunseed also brings us a huge assortment of basil, dill, cilantro, and parsley, perfuming the air as we unload the plants in the days before the sale. This year we are also expecting spring deliveries of colorful pansies and violas, broccoli, cabbage, collards, kale, and lettuces. For summer, expect to see ‘Emerald Towers’ Basil, a wonderful Genovese type that delays bloom and allows for robust leaf growth all summer.
Also be on the lookout for chives, German thyme, and parsley and everyone’s favorites: ‘Early Girl’ and ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes and purple and green tomatillos. Nick drives the truck down himself, so we are charmed to meet and accept the plants from one of the growers each year!
Cascade Cuts
Cascade Cuts, a wholesale nursery in Bellingham, WA, focuses on flowers, herbs, bulbs and succulents and sells to PCC Community Markets and many local nurseries. We purchase some of our most beloved perennial herbs from them, as well as specialty flowers like pansies, daisies, and Dianthus each spring and Scented Geraniums in the summer.
This year we are also expecting to see a variety of mint, thyme, lavender, rosemary, and even Stevia from Cascade Cuts at both sales. They have been growing beautiful things since 1980, starting out as a cut flower grower. Cascade Cuts is now owned and operated by Bizu Getachew, an Ethiopian immigrant who came to Washington State as a refugee and began her businesses providing home health care with adult homes.
Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center
We source our native pollinator plants from Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center, located in Carnation, WA. In addition to being a working farm, Oxbow is a research and teaching space focused on sustainable, regenerative agriculture in the Northwest.
Plants from Oxbow are always hugely popular and sell out quickly! This year we will offer specialties like native strawberry, violet, checkermallow, and shooting star in the spring. For summer we will have even more choices including yarrow, goatsbeard, wild ginger, monkeyflower, and stinging nettle, encouraging regional gardeners to re-establish flowering perennials that are familiar and beloved of our native pollinators.
This year we are also bringing back annual offerings from Oxbow like sea blush, Clarkia, elegant tarweed, and Gilia. We love supporting a fellow educational organization!
Dirty Knees Nursery
We are thrilled to welcome back Cheri Nunamaker from Dirty Knees Nursery, located in Bellingham, WA! Cheri has been growing her vibrant herbs since 1996 for the wholesale market and we are lucky to have her product on our tables.
We expect to see many of the standard perennial culinary herbs like chamomile, mint, marjoram, thyme, lavender, and rosemary, and her most luscious dill for the sale. Along with these we are also expecting some of the other harder to find specialties like Shiso, Horehound, African Blue Basil, Lemon Verbena and Patchouli.
