Whatcom County Tour de FARMS

Today was the first annual Whatcom County Tour de FARMS. There were eight local farms participating spread out from Lummi Island to Everson. We made it to four of them. We wanted to go to a couple more but time ran out. We didn't make it to the one on Lummi Island (Common Threads Farm) although I hope to soon as I've been wanting to go there. We also didn't make it to the wine tasting in Everson but we didn't plan on going there. The only other two we missed were Boxx Berry Farm and the Ferndale Farmers Market but we go to those very regularly anyway. We had a really fun day! I can't believe all the fun things there are to do so close to where we live, we feel really blessed to be surrounded by such a wonderful community.
Our first stop was Lone Boot Buffalo Ranch. It was really neat to learn about buffalo. I knew it was supposed to be lower in fat and cholesterol than beef but didn't realize it was lower in both of those than skinless chicken breast as well. Bison has 2.42 grams of fat, 143 calories, 82 mg of cholesterol, 3.42 mg of iron and 2.86 mcg of vitamin B-12 per a 100 gram serving. For the same serving size in skinless chicken breast it has 7.41 grams of fat, 190 calories, 89 mg of cholesterol, 1.21 mg of iron and 0.33 mcg of vitamin B-12. Very interesting. We bought some ground buffalo and some hot dogs for Madison.
After that we headed to Grace Harbor Farms. They have GREAT skin care products there. They have an amazing MSM cream that is a completely natural pain relieving cream. I learned about it when I got my amazing massage a couple of weeks ago, she used it on me. I didn't buy any as it's very expensive but I did buy some soaps for us and the girls. They also have fresh goats milk which we sampled and it was very good. We also sampled some of their fresh yogurt but it was a little too tangy for me. It's European style and in a pourable bottle, it's very thin.
Our next stop was McPhail's Berry Farm. I have heard of it for a long time but never had the chance to make it there. It was lots of fun and we enjoyed a piece of pie and ice cream as well as some blueberries that we bought.
Lunch was our next stop and we took the girls to The Nuthouse Grill in Lynden. Madison thought she was in heaven being able to throw peanut shells on the ground.
Our last stop was BelleWood Acres. This was probably my favorite place of the day. They had four different varieties of early apples to sample as well as their peanut butter, fruit spreads, cookies, etc. We bought some of our favorite apples, no sugar added fruit spread and a couple of small pumpkins for the girls. They have the neatest farm store and the best part was you get to do self guided tours on a golf cart. Madison thought it was so cool to ride on the golf cart without getting buckled in to a car seat. That was lots of fun. BelleWood has so many different things that I can't list them all here but we will definitely be going back there. Go to http://www.bellewoodapples.com/ to see what all they have to offer. They do not do U-Pick apples but it's a fun place to go with your family. Every stop today had loads of animals that the girls loved visiting. We saw bison and goats (of course), doves, chickens, pheasants, turkeys, roosters, horses, sheep, cows and more. Kennedy can't get enough animals so she had a great time.
A really fun day! I hope some of you that live locally will enjoy checking out some of what our great community has to offer if you haven't already!


Peanut shells in Madison's hair. I was being silly and put them in there and she kept wanting more and more.