Articles

From thirteen farmers in a parking lot to one of Southeast Seattle’s most beloved weekly traditions. Discover the story behind the Columbia City Farmers Market and the community that built it.

In Seattle's old "Garlic Gulch" neighborhood, Italian immigrant Phyllis Macay grew plum trees, tended her garden, and baked a bread so good her friends never let her forget it. Learn the story and make her Famous Plum Bread from the Rainier Valley Food Stories Cookbook.

From the Duwamish people's river gardens to the Victory Gardens of World War II, Rainier Valley has a long and layered history of growing food. This collection traces how Indigenous peoples, immigrants, and everyday neighbors have cultivated the land beneath Seattle's most diverse neighborhood, and how that tradition continues in P-Patches and farmers markets today.

The history of Rainier Valley Dairy and dairyman Smith M. Wilson in Columbia City.

Discover the legacy of Bob’s Quality Meats in Columbia City—family-owned for generations, famous for Texas Hot sausage, and rooted in Rainier Valley history.

Garlic Gulch Legacy by Mikala Woodward, Excerpted from Rainier Valley Food Stories Cookbook Many Italian families – like many other...

When our Food Stories cookbook was being written we compiled not just recipes but recorded oral histories from people and these oral...

by Mikala Woodward, Excerpted from Rainier Valley Food Stories Cookbook Butchering seems to run in families. Jim Ackley, owner of Bob’s...

Excerpts from Rainier Valley Food Stories Cookbook Seattle is known as the coffee capital of the U.S., with espresso stands at every gas...

Juneteenth celebrates the ending of slavery in the United States. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,...

“He kept saying, ‘I want a sweet potato pie like my mother made.’” by Mikala Woodward, Excerpted from Rainier Valley Food Stories...

Whenever young Bernice Boley had a little money, she’d head over to Vincent’s grocery for some penny candy: this was the 1930s, and a...

A culinary history of the Rainier Valley going back 100 years with recipes and stories from our multicultural community. This project...