Our History
Eating is an agricultural act.
-Wendell Berry
On August 27, 1977, more than 70 people gathered at Pragtree Farm near Arlington, Washington, to develop strategies for the sustainable agriculture movement in the Pacific Northwest. Known as the Regional Planning Meeting, the gathering established the framework for the Tilth Association.
The meeting at Pragtree Farm laid the foundation for organizing local Tilth chapters. The next spring the first chapters were formed in Seattle and in Southwest Washington, followed by Willamette Valley Tilth and Rogue Tilth in Oregon. By the summer of 1982 there were 15 Tilth chapters in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, with an estimated combined membership of 2,000.
Our local chapter, South Whidbey Tilth, was founded in 1982 on the mostly rural south end of Whidbey Island, by a community of gardeners and farmers committed to building a healthy, equitable and environmentally sound local food system. The community shared and developed measures for successful crops in the cool, wet weather of the maritime Northwest, and established a farmers’ market.
On April 21, 2000, South Whidbey Tilth purchased our current home: 11 acres of land at Thompson Road and State Route 525.
Over the past three decades the Tilth movement has ebbed and flowed, with the central organization dissolving into statewide organizations in Oregon and Washington, and local chapters forming and fading away. Because of its decentralized, ecological strategy, however, Tilth has continued to adapt, survive, and thrive. Today Tilth is experiencing a resurgence parallel to the growth of the organic food and farming nationwide.
Learn about other Tilth chapters at:
Oregon Tilth www.tilth.org
Tilth Alliance (formerly Seattle Tilth) www.tilthalliance.org
Sno-Valley Tilth www.snovalleytilth.org
Vashon Island Growers Association www.vigavashon.org
Top: The South Whidbey Tilth Market was originally located at Bayview.
Bottom: Michael Seraphinoff begins the creation of the Tilth Campus on Thompson Road.