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From River Gardens to Rooftop Plots: Growing Food in Rainier Valley
- Katie Mcclure
- 7 hours ago
- 7 min read
Long before grocery stores lined Rainier Avenue, the land beneath Seattle's most diverse neighborhood was already feeding people. Coast Salish peoples cultivated the rich soil along the Duwamish River for thousands of years, and by the 19th and early 20th centuries, waves of settlers and immigrants had transformed the valley into a hub of small-scale farming. German, Italian, Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese farmers tended nearly half of all farms in the region, even as discriminatory laws like Washington's Alien Land Act threatened their livelihoods.
This collection explores that layered history, from Indigenous village gardens and immigrant truck farms to World War II Victory Gardens and the community P-Patches that continue to grow food across the valley today.
Early Farming in the Valley
“Coast Salish people have lived along the Duwamish River for thousands of years. An estimated 300 Duwamish people lived in what is now the Tukwila area in the eighteenth century. In addition to hunting and fishing, gathering greens and berries, and digging edible roots, the Coast Salish inhabitants took advantage of the river valley's rich soil and raised food in village gardens”(Drosendahl).
While the Duwamish People were never granted treaty rights or a reservation, they were forced to adapt as the white settler community grew around them. Despite the constant risk of being pushed off their land as they were not allowed to own property until 1875, their village at the outlet of Lake Washington and the Cedar River continued. Evidence shows that they cultivated potatoes and other root crops there. By the beginning of the 20th century, with their food resources destroyed by the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, most Duwamish people had no choice but to assimilate.
Settlers in the 19th century also relied on the land. While the proximity to Seattle may have mitigated some, most had to cook creatively. Typically, settlers had to grind flour, preserve their meat by smoking or salting, while canning, drying or pickling their fruits and vegetables. Most settlers kept cows and chickens to have access to fresh milk and eggs. Once the streetcar arrived in 1891, it became easier to access store bought flour. Iceboxes became the main form of preservation until electricity arrived in the valley.
German, Italian, Filipino, Chinese and Japanese immigrants tended to nearly half of all farms by the early 20th century, competing for farmland and markets. Local truck farmers sold their produce to families, grocers and distributors who would sell the produce all over the city. Italian farmers grew crops on small farms and trucked the produce to the market themselves. In 1921, Seattle passed an Alien Land Law, stopping first-generation Japanese immigrants from owning land. In 1923, the law was revised to prevent U.S. born children of these immigrants from being able to hold property in trust for their parents, causing many Japanese immigrants to put their land in trust with a white lawyer or have their farmland taken. For the next three decades, Japanese and Filipino farmers would battle racist laws, land theft and discrimination.
Want to learn more about Japanese farmers and the Alien Land Laws?
Check out this article from the Seattle Civil Rights Labor History Project
Victory Gardens
During World War II, Victory Gardens were a patriotic duty to ensure the production of food for the country, while commercial farmers supplied troops overseas. With the introduction of food rationing in the spring of 1942, Americans had a greater incentive to grow their own fruits and vegetables wherever possible. Beets, beans, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, onions, spinach, and turnips were grown in vacant lots, city parks, flower boxes and rooftops. The Victory Garden became a common feature of the urban landscape during both World Wars, as families tried to become self-sufficient to help the war effort and to feed their families. The Victory Garden was, in many ways, the ancestor of today's P- Patches. In 1944, around 20 million gardens produced about eight million tons of food. By the war's end, half of all the fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S were grown in Victory Gardens.
Pictured is Theo Nassar with a wheelbarrow in 1942 in her father’s Victory Garden. Nassar recalls this in an oral history interview for RVHS’s Food Stories Project:
My dad had a Victory Garden and he grew everything from okra, tomatoes, peas, carrots, you name it… He’d grow these huge sunflowers. He’d harvest the seeds and dry them and we’d be eating sunflower seeds all winter. The neighbor kids thought we were crazy. They’d say “Bird food, that’s bird food, that’s canary food!” - Theo Nassar
P-Patches and Community Gardens
The P-Patch program first launched in 1970 as a part of the back to Earth Movement for the first official Earth Day event . University of Washington student, Darlyn Rundberg (later Del Boca) is responsible for creating the first P-Patch. The land for the P-Patch was donated by her neighbors the Picardos who owned a large farm in the Northeast Seattle neighborhood of Wedgewood. What started off as a small corner evolved into a 2.5 acre garden and green space.
The “P” in P-Patch stands for Picardo in honor of the family who helped start the program. The Picardo family first arrived in Seattle from Salza Irpina, Italy in the 1890s and settled in South Park then later Wedgewood. The Picardo family farm once covered almost 30 acres and the vegetables they grew were sold at small grocery stores across the city and at the produce stands in Pike Place Market.
Seattle’s P-Patch Program was the largest gardening program in the nation by 1993. As of 2026, Seattle has 90 P-Patches, 25 of which are in Rainier Valley! Check out the list to see the closest one near you.
There are many other community gardens in Rainier Valley, including Wetmore Community Farm. In 2015, Kyla Rudnick began to transform the previously undeveloped Right of Way, owned by the Seattle Department of Transportation. After three years of work it was transformed into a productive gardening and cultural space and officially opened in the Fall of 2018. With the help of their partner Stone Soup Gardens, they cleared knotweed and litter and constructed the Spokane Street entrance and garden beds, finishing construction in 2018. Named after the Wetmore family who originally farmed the land, the farm produces over 10,000 square feet of food, including native fruits, berries and mushrooms, which they share with the neighbors in SEED housing and the Rainier Valley Food Bank.
During the growing season (March - October) the farm hosts weekly open hours, so you can meet your neighbors, pick some veggies and get dirty!
Visit Westmore Farms:
Wednesday 4:00-7:00 (Mar-Oct)
3025 S Estelle St, 98144
Want to learn more about the history of P-Patches and the Picardo family?
Check out this article from Northwest Prime Time
Columbia City Farmers Market
The Columbia City Farmers Market grew out of a single flyer posted at a local library. In 1997, a task force was forming to explore bringing a farmers market to Columbia City, and when Columbia City resident Karen Kinney spotted it, she knew immediately she had something to contribute. With a background in social work, an MBA, and years of community organizing experience, she joined the steering committee and was struck by the energy in the room. "The energy was YES, let's start a farmers market," she recalled in a 2024 interview with the Rainier Valley Historical Society.
The committee was made up entirely of local Rainier Valley residents who brought their professional skills to the table, from web development and graphic design to marketing and city planning. From the start, the group had a clear mission: bring fresh fruits and vegetables into Rainier Valley, create a strong sales venue for farmers, and draw people into the Columbia City business district, which was just beginning its revitalization. They modeled the market after the U District Farmers Market, founded in 1993, but tailored their approach to the specific needs of Southeast Seattle.
One of those needs was inclusion. Zip code 98118 is one of the most diverse in the nation, and the team used school enrollment data to identify the most commonly spoken languages in the neighborhood, then produced marketing materials accordingly. They mapped out target groups, from schools and churches to ethnic organizations and community centers, developing a specific outreach strategy for each.
Kinney was hired as the market's first manager, responsible for coordinating with farmers, the city, and the public. Choosing the right location was critical, and the team landed on the parking lot at the corner of Rainier and Edmunds, anchored by a grocery store owned by community-minded Chris Kim, who welcomed the market and accepted rent for the space. Getting farmers to commit was its own challenge. Many vendors from the U District market were initially hesitant about coming to the south side of Seattle. It was Jerry Pititone, a farmer from Beacon Hill who was already selling at the U District, whose active encouragement convinced other farmers to give it a try.
The market opened in 1998 and has been running ever since. Now part of the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets network, it runs Wednesdays from 3:00 to 7:00 PM on South Edmunds Street near PCC Market, from May through October. Over the years it has grown to host cooking demonstrations, live music, and community organizations, including the Rainier Valley Historical Society as we worked on our Rainier Valley Food Stories Cookbook. More than a place to shop, the market remains one of the most tangible connections between the valley's agricultural history and the vibrant, diverse community that lives here today.
Bibliography:
Drosendahl, Glenn . “Duwamish Gardens (Ray Carrossino Farmstead).” Historylink.org, The Free Encyclopedia of Washington State History, 12 Dec. 2017, www.historylink.org/File/20494. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
Grant, Nicole. “White Supremacy and the Alien Land Laws of Washington State - Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.” Depts.washington.edu, depts.washington.edu/civilr/alien_land_laws.htm.
Roedell, Michelle. “P-Patch Gardens Take Root in Seattle.” Northwest Prime Time, 2026, northwestprimetime.com/news/2026/01/01/p-patch-gardens-took-root-in-seattle/. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
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