Now that I’ve been to the WSU organic farm and orchard a few times, I thought I’d share some pictures. There’s also a delicious recipe for cider spiced pancakes.

One of the pleasures of living in a rural agricultural area with a big-ass state college in the mix, is there’s an organic farm and an orchard. On campus. How cool is that?

“This orchard is here in Pullman for members of the local campus or others to do teaching, research, and/or extension work. Those are our top priorities. If we have surplus fruit or vegetables that will not be used for teaching, research, or extension projects we sell the surplus produce to the general public and apply that money to our operations funds.

On site we have 83 varieties of apples; 11 varieties of pears; 6 varieties of sweet cherries; a small stone fruit variety block with tart cherries, 11 peach varieties, 8 apricot varieties, 3 prune varieties and 2 nectarine varieties; 3 strawberry varieties; and 20+ varieties of cane berries. All these fruit plantings are on about 10 acres total. In addition, our site also houses the 3-acre Department of Crop and Soil Sciences Organic Farm.“

Upon entering the orchard’s warehouse barn—that’s outfitted with a floor to ceiling refrigeration room—you are immersed in the smell of extremely fresh apples. It is a wonderful wonderful scent. Absorb it into your being. That’s my recommendation anyway.

One of my favorite apples ever. Gala. Apple and pear prices are between $1 and $1.25/lb.

This last weekend they also had this, a bin of free peaches. Peaches that weren’t even in that bad of shape. Perfect for jam or pitting and freezing for smoothies. I grabbed a greedy bagful.

Onto the organic farm, which is just up the hill from the orchard’s barn.

It was great to see all the offerings. They had a huge asparagus patch (see middle photo above), lettuce, okra, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, raspberries, etc.

I picked a 1/2 pint of fall bearing raspberries and full pints of sun sugar tomatoes (I think that’s the right name). The raspberries had been pretty picked over but I managed to find some good ones. The ones that dried out on the vine looked like freeze-dried raspberries.

These guys had an amazing flavor – they have a very fitting name.

I feel like it was my first time seeing a pear tree.

A most interesting tree. The limbs grow straight up as if raising their ‘arms’ to the sky.

This is the haul from my first visit. Summer squash, okra, tomatoes, raspberries, pears, apples, peaches, and free flowers.

On my way out of the farm, the exit path follows the edge of the property and there are some great views of the palouse fields.

Now for the pancakes! I happened on this Joseph’s Grainery pancake mix at the Artisan Barn in Uniontown. They are out of Colfax and sell lentils, beans, wheat berries and flour. The mix is perfection.

The ingredients: soft white wheat flour, barley flour, soft white cracked wheat, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.

It happens to be vegan if you substitute accordingly almond milk and flax eggs or vegg eggs.

They cook perfectly in the pan, probably the best luck I’ve ever had cooking pancakes.

We ate these topped with a few apples, maple syrup, and chutney that I had made the day before. An apple chutney with a hint of savory flavor is fabulous on pancakes. I highly recommend.

Enjoy!

xoxo