Northwest

---

Driving through on the interstate, Spokane appears to be a sprawling mess of begrimed grain elevators. Anyone who has briefly visited will snidely say, "Well, it's certainly no Seattle." It’s true that much of Spokane isn’t pretty but there are some nice areas and it’s big enough that after four months I am still discovering hidden gems.

Spokane offers all the amenities of big city but retains a nice town-like feel. It’s easy to escape the city – for example, the rural farm where I live is only 15 minutes from downtown. On the hand, Spokane’s size ensures that there are always events and interesting things to do. Aside from the daily Spokesman-Review, there are a few alternative weekly newspapers that keep locals informed with restaurant reviews, upcoming events, and area activities. There are three community radio stations as well as a great library system. It’s also very easy to find live music any night of the week.

In preparation for the 1974 World’s Fair, Spokane created Riverfront Park around two islands in the Spokane River. The park is the heart of Spokane and a nice contrast to the built-up downtown that surrounds it. The tent for the US pavilion was slated to be torn down but the townspeople wanted to save it as a monument so the ribwork of the tent still stands. The Great Northern Railroad Clocktower and the Spokane Falls are the other notable landmarks. It's a pretty park and I started a painting of it last week.

There are a plethora of great restaurants in Spokane. One of the best is a national non-profit called One World at which customers pay whatever they feel like paying for the organic, gourmet meals. As is most often the case, the finest restaurants use the freshest, tastiest produce, which is why many in Spokane have their own organic garden or connection with a local farmer. They want organic produce because it is packed with the most nutrients and is the best tasting. The secret is in the soil. Conventional farms that employ herbicides and pesticides have sterile soil that produces low-nutrient, tasteless food. Rich, organic soil passes on that richness to the food. Nutrient content observed through Brix values shows the superiority of organic produce.

Unfortunately, locally produced, organic food is more expensive right now due to government subsidies given to the conventional mega-farms. This is where my organization tries to help. By using the labor of volunteers on our farm, we are able to cheaply bring our produce to low-income Spokane. Last year, the farm hosted thousands of volunteers who enabled us to offer the first discount farmers market in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Washington. This year we will greatly expand the production of the 32-acre farm and start actively recruiting volunteers.

We will also give four low-income 16-20 year olds part-time jobs on our farm as a pilot year for our Young Organic Urban Farmers (YOUF) program, which aims to give these youth skills that will translate to success in school and in the workplace as well as to teach them about healthy eating. As a means to connect the high unemployment rate of urban youth with the increasing need for farmers (the average age of a farmer is nearly sixty), interested YOUF will be able to apply to our 3-year apprentice program and graduate to run a farm from our Farmland Bank and Trust. This trust was established in order to receive land donations from retiring farmers who would rather have us keep the family farm in production than sell to developers. Check out our website at www.peachlocal.com

Over the winter I’ve mostly been fundraising because we are a small non-profit with very big ideas. I ran a few fundraising events and now I’m starting in on grant writing. It’s beginning to warm up here though so I’ll be switching over to coordinating volunteers in the spring.

Back to Spokane. The city is in love with Spo-puns: The Spokesman Review, Spokalendar, Spokanimal Shelter, or SpoCompton if there is a crime. There is a high poverty rate here, which is probably why there are so many of us AmeriCorps (a program started in Johnson's war on poverty) in Spokane. With the slow jobmarket, the applications to AmeriCorps have quadrupled. There are at least 40 of us, all working on different aspects of poverty alleviation. Many of us get together on the weekends to go skiing or hit up the bars. One lovely fellow AmeriCorps named Michelle caught my eye at orientation and we’ve been dating ever since. (I should credit Michelle for most of these photos)

A little stir crazy from staying in the Spokane Valley for so long, Michelle and I decided to head over to Seattle for the weekend. It was a beautiful drive. Just outside of Spokane, the trees just stopped and the rolling fields seemed endless. Though Idaho has the reputation for spuds, people here are quick to point out that Washington is actually the biggest potato producer in the US.

Driving into the sun at sunset we hit the cascades. Way off we could see the faint outline of the giant Mount Rainier towering over the other peaks. It also could've been a cloud. Crossing Snoqalmie pass and descending into Seattle you would have no idea that you were so close to the city. The dark foothills of the national forest conceal the lights of Seattle until you round a corner and suddenly you're in the city.

We walked around downtown looking for a cozy restaurant. After passing up dozens of night clubs and expensive eateries with one word names like "Taste" or "Sage" and finally settled on one of many nice Irish pubs - the frequency of these nearly rivaled coffeehouses surprisingly. It was also surprising how vacant the city felt, especially for a Friday night.

In the morining, we visited a place that I had heard about called Top Pot Doughnuts. As I recall, the owners found a great neon sign from the 50s called TopSpot, but in the transit from Wyoming the 'S' fell off.

We explored the 'artsy neighborhood of Seattle - a nice little hamlet of bakeries, pubs, and bookstores called Fremont. This is the only place I've ever seen a Cobbler. Nearby Gasworks Park felt like something out of a post-human disaster movie. I was impressed how Seattle took something that most would've considered an eyesore and make it a work of art.

For lunch I had it in my head that I wanted a fish from Pike Place Market - Seattle famous harborside public market. Navigating through the crowded aisles we passed fruit, jams, crafts, nuts, and of course seafood stands where they throw the raw fish from the back up to the customer. I felt like I was back at the Puerto Montt fish market in Chile.

Neither Michelle or I drink coffee but she had a Starbucks gift card so we walked across the street to the original Starbucks. After pushing through a mob of tourists and contestants of 'The Amazing Race' tv show which had a checkpoint just outside, we ordered an overpriced coffee. Despite working together, we failed to finish the coffee and Michelle gave the $25 card to a homeless woman.

We wandered around downtown a while longer, passing the stadiums of the Marriners and the Sea Hawks, and spending some time at a great map store and a Patagonia outdoor clothing store. Then feeling like we had sufficiently conquered Seattle we hopped in the car for home having spent only 19 hours in the city. A few inches of snow were in the forecast so I was happy to head home ahead of the storm. Unfortunately we found out that 1-2 inches means for blizzard conditions on Snoqualmie Pass. We barely made it over, fishtailing along Interstate 90 at 25mph.

After unsuccessfully looking for good tennis players at the local indoor tennis clubs I contacted the Eastern Washington University tennis coach to see if I could help out and maybe practice with the team. EWU is about 15 minutes from the farm and is still riding high off of their national football championship. Yesterday I saw them play MSU and heard quite a few different languages – I think there are only a couple of Americans on the team. Usually the most international the team the better it is, I heard of one school that had the best American junior playing fourth in the lineup.

I’m also excited about summer; apparently Spokane comes alive. Spokane is the lilac city and is supposedly blooms beautifully in May. There are music festivals, a huge city-wide basketball tournament, weekly running and biking races that start and end at pubs, and a nice lake near the farm. I can't wait for better weather so I can start exploring Glacier, Banff, Rainier, North Cascades, etc...

All in all, I’m very busy and enjoying Spokane. I do miss Maine though and I hope you all are doing well!

---