Lovely little place with great produce. Very close to where I stay in Olympia great pizza next door!read more

Great little store to get last minute items, very clean, easy parking and great customer service!…read moreLots of cool local items like a take and bake Vic's pizza!! I am a pizza snob so when I say this I mean it!! It's the best pizza I have ever had!! And it was only take and bake!!

This was my first visit to the Olympia Farmers Market, and I was very impressed. It's conveniently…read morelocated next to Anthony's HomePort. While most of the parking directly in front of Anthony's is reserved for their customers, there is still plenty of parking available nearby, including visitor parking for the neighboring building on weekends. The market is clean, well organized, and even has clean public restrooms, which is always appreciated. One of the highlights of my visit was Perkins Family Farms. I had the pleasure of meeting Llewyn Merrill, the sales manager, who was incredibly friendly and welcoming. He freshly shucked oysters for us right on the spot for only $3 each, and there was no minimum order. The oysters were fresh, delicious, and definitely worth trying. We also picked up several baked goods, including the cheese bread and a plain croissant, both of which were very good. The cheese bread had great flavor, although it was a little chewy, likely because it had been baked earlier that morning. Overall, I had a fantastic experience at the Olympia Farmers Market. There was an impressive selection of fresh fruits, vegetables, berries, mushrooms, seafood, flowers, local crafts, and other unique products. The friendly vendors and welcoming atmosphere made this an enjoyable visit from start to finish. I highly recommend stopping by, especially to visit Perkins Family Farms for their outstanding fresh oysters and excellent customer service. I'll definitely be back the next time I'm in Olympia!

Came here on a Thursday noon, only about half of the booth were occupied, some veggies and fruits,…read morebaked goods and a couple of meat venders. The live music was kinda nice. Parking was easy and it's free.

Excellent option for CSA. The produce is very good, nice variety and plenty for the share I got…read more(mini share). I also liked and appreciated the good and prompt communication. All in all I highly recommend them. Over the years, I had other arrangements: CSA, Full Circle... But Helsing is the best experience for me.

We've been really pleased with our CSA share from Helsing this year and will sign up with them…read moreagain next year if we're still living in Olympia. We tried a different CSA last year (there are four local organic CSA options that deliver to my husband's workplace) and we much prefer Helsing. We like Helsing better because they have given us more variety, because we adore the fruit share, and because they have taken the time to provide good recipes. We signed up for the mini share and are hard pressed to keep up with what we receive every week! There are the two of us and we're vegetarians, yet we get so much from them every week that we can't eat it all before the next batch arrives. We freeze, can, or give away extra, it's that generous. The CSA we had last year from the different farm kept giving us the same things week after week--carrots, chard, potatoes--and we're really pleased that Helsing has so much changing variety. Sometimes we have only received something for a week or two and wish we could be getting it for longer! We LOVE the fruit share. Local organic fruit costs us high prices at the Oly farmer's market, but with the fruit share we are getting a great deal. The first few weeks are a little slow when only berries are ready, but after that we get a ton of stone fruit that is delicious and much more bang for our buck than at the farmer's market. For example, one week I was at the market and bought a container of cherries for about $15. A few days later my fruit share gave me the same amount of cherries plus several other pounds of fruit, all for $15 a week. Nice. We get peaches, nectarines, apples, berries, plums, pluots, etc etc We have tried a number of their recipes, and have been impressed. Someone has put a lot of effort into finding recipes that only use the seasonal ingredients that are actually tasty. Everything has been good, and a few have been excellent, such as the recipe for fennel with honey, goat cheese, etc --it's amazing. You can search their recipe database by ingredients. I appreciate that they never leave me hanging for ideas, since with every CSA you get exposed to both old and new ingredients and the recipe help is appreciated.

This is a nonprofit located in West Olympia. They've been fundraising through the pandemic to keep…read moresome of their programs going. Recently I've been seeing GRuB volunteers in my neighborhood building free victory gardens for low income neighbors. The victory gardens are raised beds that include soil and plants provided by GRuB and paid with community donations. I was talking to some of the volunteers in passing. It turns out that each garden is 'worth' $1,000 if you're including materials, labor, and gas to transport. I'm very impressed with how many neighbors they've been able to help.

Completely in agreement with the other reviews. Grub is an excellent asset to the community. I…read morehave now been there four times for classes, both cooking and educational. The kitchen is well equipped and well labeled. There is a five burner cooktop in the center island which is ample enough to handle most cooking tasks. It is a multi-use facility that provides space for classes for the local schools and outdoor programs dealing with gardening. It something can be grown in this climate someone at Grub can give you pointers on how to best grow it. They have programs for veterans, school kids and home gardeners, as well as programs where a home gardener can get a raised bed for a reduced price, and in some cases for free. There are programs dealing with local, native plants as well as other types of gardening, composting and most anything to deal with pest control and how to utilize your harvest. Grub is community focused and you know it after spending a very short period of time there. Grub is the kind of asset that any community would be proud to have.

The Grist Urban Stone Mill is a very cool spot, right in the heart of downtown Centralia. Walking…read morearound Tower Ave. the other day, I decided to stop in after seeing it several times. I'm really glad that I did! They specialize in unique and/or hard to find types of flour and baking materials. While I am not a baker much at all, I do know and appreciate the difference in types of flour - where and how it's ground - and how it tastes compared to what you would usually find at the grocery store. In addition to the flours that are for sale (either packaged or in bulk), they also have spices, starters, and beans/lentils. There even is a shelf of Chehalis grown wheat flour! So nice to have a locally owned shop selling locally grown products. The owner has his own grinding equipment behind the counter (that is easy to see when he's at it) and was very friendly and eager to answer any questions that I had. I will definitely spread the word about the Grist Urban Stone Mill to all of my baking friends!

Centralia is a lovely place for a walkabout and while exploring the area on foot my friend and I…read morecame upon this great place, Grist Urban Stone Mill, very casual where the owner was fun and helpful, with so many options for bakers! Exploring all the different wheat options I spotted the rye/pumpernickel; something I've been craving since taking up bread making again this year. Of course I bought a bag and baked a loaf. Looking forward to another trip and picking up more local flours.

Sadly, this little pumpkin patch has declined over the years. It used to be our favorite little…read morelocal place to go without the insane business like Rutledge. They used to have it set up so you could go out into their big fields and pick out all different varieties of pumpkins and they were reasonably priced. Now, the pumpkins are lined up in a row in a lawn area and there is nothing in their fields I wondered out loud if they even grew them there and the lady said they did but then why not leave them on the vine or in the field for the experience? It was a Saturday and not busy at all so I'm guessing others are bummed by the change as well. Pumpkin prices are not marked. We paid 40.00 for 3 medium sized pumpkins and 4 tiny decorative pumpkins. Afterwards we went to Walmart for some groceries and saw similar sized pumpkins for 3.97 a piece for large and 1.00 for tiny ones. We like to support local but I think we will pass next year. Cute little set up for a photo but otherwise just meh.

Closed for the season! No pumpkins even though the website says they are open. Very disappointing.read more

Boistfort Valley Farm operates both summer and winter CSA drop-offs in the Puget Sound region…read moreChehalis to Seattle). So far, I have only used the winter program, but it the pricing is competitive, the produce excellent and the quantities more than generous. With Mosby's changing their business model, I plan to move my summer CSA to Boistfort, as well. What triggered me to post a review today was an issue that I had moving my CSA drop-off. After some technical difficulties and confusing confirmations on the website, I discovered that my drop-off had not been moved at all. Flustered, I spent a Tuesday trying to get a hold of a human being to confirm the change in my schedule. This morning, well after the 11th hour and after I had resigned to forfeiting my box, I received a call from Rachel at the farm, confirming that she would have the driver add a box to my preferred drop site (replete with cheese), and confirming some additional information with me for my future service and any issues that might arise. It has been a long time since I've had a truly reassuring experience with customer service; the digital age seems to have dehumanized everything, and having more options has somehow made everything more difficult. I really am pleased to know that there are decent people growing the food that feeds my family, and hope to make the drive out to see the farm myself next summer.

My wife and I resolved to try a community supported agriculture provider so that we would end up…read moreeating more vegetables. We were not disappointed with Boistfort. One thing I like is the whole operation is very straightforward and transparent. The produce is incredible and includes some heirloom varieties that just can't be had at a store

I went to the 2013 Taste of the Market on Tuesday. It was wonderul! This event is organized by The…read moreFriends of Olympia Farmers Market. Taste of the Market features food from a variety of market vendors, wineries, breweries, restaurants and casinos. The event utilizes the market's outdoor and covered spaces. Round tables with formal linens and table settings grace the covered area of the market. Vendors and restaurants set up shop in the empty vendor spaces offering a 'bite' of what each has to offer. Live music, wineries, and breweries set up shop in the outdoor spaces. Alcoholic drinks are purchased with drink tickets. The gorgeous floral arrangements this year were provided by Dan's Dahlias and could be purchased at the end of the night. I was excited to try everything. Guests at Taste take their plates to each vendor to sample each vendor or restaurant's offerings. I went around twice and still could not try everything. Even though the portions are small, there is a lot of food to sample. My husband and I got full before we had a chance to taste every item offered. I had a chocolate and beet cake that was excellent and clam chowder that was to die for. Good times were had! I will definitely go again next year.