Every month for the last year Lopez individuals and families have participated in the Bounty Food Experiment.   The challenge they accepted was to eat local and to write weekly about their personal experience on this website.  The entertaining stories and delicious photos tell of the seasonal bounty available to all of us here on this island in the Salish Sea.  Reading the Bounty Food Experiment is pure inspiration!
Today’s post on the Bounty Food Experiment is the last!  The Finley family were the August volunteers.  Ande ended with an optimistic aspiration for the future of food on Lopez Island:

“As a Transitioneer, I can imagine a time coming of regionally-based eating that makes the preparation of food into a daily adventure, much more ingredient- than recipe-driven. In this ideal future, everyone takes their carbon footprint seriously and strives to keep it as low as possible for the good of all. Scott’s idea of our Salish Sea partners has come to pass and we now have large sailboats traversing our local waters delivering goods and food from our neighbors on the Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver and the Gulf Islands, Whatcom County, Whidbey Island, as far south as Seattle and as far east as the Skagit Valley. Along with our common ecosystem, we have strong, shared values, such as a reliance on organic farming and a prohibition of GMO seeds. Most people on Lopez grow their own food, buy produce at the farmers markets (now one in the Southend as well as the Village) or visit the farmstands directly. There are agriculture festivals all year round and an active agro-tourism that encourages visitors to participate in what each season brings. We have identified the various crops that grow best in our Salish Sea region and restaurants and consumers have found creative and delicious ways to use all this abundance. Can’t you see this magnificent future unfurling before us?”

Yes, I can Ande!

THANK YOU to all the Bounty Food Experiment volunteers:

September – Henning Sehmsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson
October – Suzanne Berry & Table (Amy) Stuzienko
November – Marney Reynolds
December – Linda Hudson
January – Faith Van De Putte
February – Marney Reynolds (Lopez & Yucatan)
March – Suzanne Berry & Table (Amy) Stuzienko
April – Sandy Bishop
May – Teri Linneman & Liz Scranton
June – Jan & Bob Sundquist
July – Chuenchom (Chom) Sangarasri Greacen
August – Ande, Scott & Aliza Finley