https://www.slowfoodgreaterolympia.org/

Slow Food Greater Olympia, Olympia, WA (2026)

06/06/2026

Today, we’re sharing some important news about Slow Food Greater Olympia.

After thoughtful reflection, our board has decided to pause chapter activities following our annual meeting on July 26, 2026. The chapter itself will remain in place, but our programming, newsletter, and social media activity will be on hold for the time being. We plan to reconvene in early 2027 to see where things stand and consider what comes next.

Like many volunteer-led organizations, we’ve struggled to recruit and retain board members in recent years. As our board has become smaller, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain the work and plan for the future. Pausing now feels like the most responsible choice for our chapter and community.

While we feel sad about this decision, we also feel grateful.

Over the years, Slow Food Greater Olympia has brought people together around a shared belief that food should be good, clean, and fair for all. We’ve built relationships, supported farmers and food businesses, connected neighbors, and championed a stronger local food system.

None of that would have been possible without you.

Whether you’ve attended an event, volunteered, shared a meal with us, or simply followed along from afar, you have been—and are—a part of this community. Thank you.

We also want to reassure you that the Snail of Approval program will continue. The program operates through a broader regional network, and businesses will continue to be eligible to apply for and receive the award. Volunteers will still have opportunities to participate in the process.

While this chapter is pausing, the values of Slow Food remain as important as ever. We hope you’ll continue supporting local farmers, food producers, restaurants, and organizations that are building a more vibrant and resilient food community.

Please join us for our Annual Meeting and Potluck on Sunday, 7/26. It will be a chance to gather, celebrate this year’s Snail of Approval awardees, reflect on all we’ve accomplished together, and imagine what the future might hold.

With gratitude,
The Slow Food Greater Olympia Board

05/29/2026

Join us in congratulating the Olympia Food Co-op on earning a Snail of Approval!

The Co-op has been a pillar of the Olympia community for decades and stood out to us for their commitment to and nurturing of many local farms, fair labor practices and policies, close attention to food waste, and community engagement.

The produce department contracts with local farmers for an entire season, guaranteeing a market for a single product, such as carrots or garlic. They also use their presence to support farms, sometimes through their entire lifecycle.

Their deli team, which is a collective within the Co-op, also orders from local farmers, turning fresh produce into made-from-scratch soups, salads, desserts and meals. They prioritize and highlight seasonal and local ingredients on their robust soup and salad bar. To minimize food waste, deli cooks use excess produce and mispicks from other departments.

Their waste stream management goes beyond the deli. They encourage bulk food and produce purchases, use “first-in, first-out” principles, offer “eat today” produce at steeply reduced prices, give discounts to customers who bring in their own containers, and maintain food bank donation bins at both stores.

The Co-op has honed its labor practices over many years, using consensus-based collective decision-making processes in all areas of the business. A few highlights of their fair labor practices include defining full-time work as 30 hours per week, offering a wide range of time slots for work schedules, DEI in interviewing and hiring practices, and robust health coverage.

The Co-op also offers a suite of affordable classes to the community throughout the year. At the register, shoppers can round up their purchases for the Co-op’s Community Sustaining Fund and other community organizations and donate to their mutual aid Pay It Forward Program.

We’re delighted to have them as another member of our 2026 cohort!

05/25/2026

Meet Spotted Frog Farm, one of this year’s Snail of Approval awardees!

Spotted Frog Farm is a small, family-owned farm that produces organic, pasture-raised eggs and stewing hens in Olympia. Sarah often recruits her husband, who works as a wildlife biologist by profession, as a farmhand. Her seven-year-old son also helps keep the farm running by catching and wrangling loose chickens and moving chicks from their brooder to the houses on pasture. Together, the family brings a deep commitment to responsible land management practices.

Their approach includes maintaining vegetated buffers around the sensitive wetland areas on their farm to protect local waterways and native wildlife, such as the endangered Oregon spotted frog, from which the farm takes its name. To promote soil health and the regeneration of their pastures, Spotted Frog Farm employs multispecies rotational grazing. And with solar-powered mobile coops, their hens are able to move freely to feast on the diverse array of plants and insects that their flourishing pastures provide.

Spotted Frog Farm has also found thoughtful ways to reduce waste. They market PeeWee eggs, petite eggs produced by healthy pullets just beginning their egg-laying journeys, sell cosmetically imperfect eggs to a local bakery, and give away surplus eggs to friends or donate them to a local food bank: all ways to ensure that these nutrients remain within the food system.

We loved learning that this egg farm offers stewing hens, mature laying hens at the end of their productive egg-laying life. While stewing hens were historically common in small-farm food systems, they are now rarely available in modern grocery stores. This whole-animal approach to farming ensures these hens will continue to provide nourishment and cultural value for customers preparing heritage recipes, cooking for extended families, and preserving food traditions.

Congratulations to Sarah and her family! We’re happy to count Spotted Frog Farm as part of the 2026 Snail of Approval cohort.

05/13/2026

Congratulations to sisters Belinda and Venise of Simple Goodness Sisters, for their Snail of Approval Award!

For the past decade, they’ve captured the flavors of the Pacific Northwest in their bottled syrups, such as Blueberry Lavender, Herb Garden, and the perennial seasonal favorite, Huckleberry Spruce Tip. They’re committed to sourcing ingredients locally wherever possible, starting with the herbs and edible flowers that they grow on their “cocktail farm” and buying overripe or unsellable produce from local farmers.

If they must source ingredients from outside of Washington, they make deliberate choices: they might have personal relationships with a California grower or rely on fair trade/non-GMO certifications for ingredients like spices. Cane sugar is a major ingredient for their syrups, and they’re one of the few syrup producers that use organic cane syrup (we learned that even though beet-derived sugar is local to the PNW, it’s not organic or non-GMO).

At every stage of their impressive business growth—cookbook, brick-and-mortar soda shop, mail subscription service—they’ve stayed true to their values, especially their commitment to their rural mountain community of Wilkeson. Even when faced with a setback like the long-term closure of the Fairfax Bridge over Carbon River, which has decreased tourists and foot traffic, they’ve adapted by transforming their tasting room and soda shop into a full-time event venue.

Co-owner, Belinda, shared that much of their value-driven work happens behind the scenes—the relationships they form with vendors, how they support their staff, even the lack of tape or plastic in their shipping boxes—and that a Snail of Approval daylights and recognizes “how” they do business, just as much as the quality of their syrups.

Thank you both for everything you do to make our local foodways stronger and more delicious! We’re delighted to have you as part of the 2026 Snail of Approval cohort.

04/27/2026

Meet Shona’s Cafe, another member of this year’s Snail of Approval cohort!

Shona’s is a British pastry shop, inspired by the owner’s background as the daughter of cafe owners in Northern Ireland. Shona grew up eating hand pies and other British pastries and was determined to bring them to our region with an as-local-as-possible twist.

We’re impressed with Shona’s sourcing and deep relationships with a wide variety of local producers, close attention to waste management, made-from-scratch menu (including delicacies like duck egg custard ice cream and fried quail egg crumpets), and close connection to and influence on her community.

Our interview panel was especially impressed with the fact that many of the elements of her meals are crafted from scratch, including pastries, sausage, filings, and sourdough bread. Asked about local sourcing, she listed a dozen Independence Valley farms, creameries, and other small vendors she works with. During the high season, she sources 80% of her ingredients locally. Shona personally visits every farm and focuses not only on delighting her customers but on caring for producers.

“My farmers walk in the front door with their produce or product and I get to make them a drink, check in with them, talk about our challenges…Being able to feed and nourish the people who help me do what I do at the cafe is so satisfying. They’re able to enjoy what they produce in a meaningful way.”

Shona’s is a powerful presence in the community and is involved with local organizations, downtown Chehalis events, and is designated as a safe space for LGBTQ+ people.

Congratulations on your Snail of Approval, Shona! And thank you for doing so much to make the food system in Lewis County stronger.

04/20/2026

We’re delighted to announce a Snail of Approval award for Grist Urban Stone Mill Flour Shoppe & Grainery!

Owner Jay Ryan is a former restaurateur who established Grist in 2024 to provide community members with flours that are milled from Washington-grown wheat, mindfully sourced products, and opportunities to learn about grains and sourdough. Jay travels the state himself to pick up grains for the mill. If you’re looking for freshly milled flours made from einkorn, spelt, sonora, red fife, rye, and other regional and organic grains, this is the place to visit.

Jay uses a specialty mill from Vermont to grind flour daily, a deliciously slow process that yields about a pound of flour per minute. We’re impressed with Jay’s dedication to curbing waste: he sources grains in bulk or uses reusable totes and encourages his customers to bring in their own containers. He also rejects milling all-purpose flour because the byproducts it generates—bran and germ—are difficult to sell or re-home and often end up on the compost heap or heading to a landfill. The small amount of these byproducts that Grist generates go to a local chicken farm.

The business also centers customer education. He includes stories about the grains he uses near products in the shop to educate the public and the space includes a demonstration kitchen where he teaches community classes, which are designed to encourage home baking and to educate people about the benefits of local, whole grains as well as sourdough baking. Jay also provides people with free starter to get them started on home sourdough baking.

Jay is also active in his community, building strong bonds with partners who are similarly dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion and by teaching classes in collaboration with other small businesses and local nonprofits.

Congratulations, Jay, and thank you for all you do!

04/14/2026

Join us this weekend! Got a green thumb with nothing to do? Join us for our annual “Potting Up” party! Hosted by one of our former board members, we take seedlings of specifically chosen varieties and transplant them in preparation for the growing season ahead. If you join, you can take home starts! Details in the image.

03/26/2026

🐌 Snail of Approval is in full swing! - https://mailchi.mp/79151fe809ea/snail-of-approval-is-in-full-swing Read about what's happening with the Snail of Approval, the Plant A Seed program, and local events by Community Farm Land Trust & GRuB!

02/03/2026

Friends and South Sound food & beverage businesses: Snail of Approval applications are open through next TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10!

We extended the deadline because we needed time to organize behind the scenes and because we wanted to make sure folks have time to apply.

The Snail of Approval award is for businesses that are dedicated to good, clean, and fair food for all and that are working to make their businesses align with these principles.

If you’re a farmer, restaurant owner, cider maker or brewer, value-added food or drink producer (etc) and your business values and practices align with ours, we’d love for you to apply and hear what you’re up to!

To apply, you can fill out an application online. It takes about an hour. If you qualify for an interview, we’ll invite you to sit for an interview with board members and volunteers from the Slow Food network in Western Washington.

We’re really excited to meet candidates for our 2026 cohort! ✨

Apply today by visiting our website. Link in comments. 🐌♥️

01/30/2026

We’re looking for volunteers to help interview candidates!

We’re reviewing applications for our 2026 Snail of Approval cohort in Western Washington and will soon be inviting candidates who qualify for an interview to sit down with a panel of interviewers. That’s where you come in.

Volunteers will attend a training on February 11 and sign up for virtual interviews. You can just do one interview or sign up for several, according to your availability.

Interview panels are one of the most fun things we do—it’s a great opportunity to do a deep dive with candidates about ingredient sourcing, waste streams, community involvement, and more.

Email or DM us to get on the list!

Slow Food Greater Olympia

06/06/2026

05/29/2026

05/25/2026

05/13/2026

04/27/2026

04/20/2026

04/14/2026

03/26/2026

02/03/2026

01/30/2026

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