For the past fifteen years, Billy Tate of Moondance Farms has been one of the iconic Anacortes Farmers Market farmers. He started farming in a urban farm in downtown Indianapolis, but brought his farming vision to the Skagit Valley in 2003. Billy’s daughter, Alala, now a teenager, has grown up with the farm and the Anacortes Farmers Market. The community has fond memories of her and her friends playing on the Market-grounds, pulling friends around in the market wagon and helping her dad at the Market booth from the time she was a toddler.
Moondance Farm has been a tremendous supporter of the Anacortes Farmers Market, local food banks, and the Anacortes Food Coop. As of the date of this post, Billy is one of the Directors at the Anacortes Food Coop, helping educate the members and staff about food access, produce preservation, and consistently providing the City of Anacortes the local, sustainable, and organic produce they need and want.
During his 2011 interview with Grow Northwest, Billy said, “We farm because we have an opportunity to nourish the land while also feeding our family and our community. It’s not the kind of job [where] at the end of the week you add up your hours and figure out how much you make. Trust me… that interferes with the motivation for this kind of work, which is driven more by social capital.”
Billy and Moondance Farms have a deep love of food as medicine. They have taken this love to the level of becoming a certified organic farm in 2007.
You can always find Moondance Farm fresh produce at the Anacortes Farmers Market and our Anacortes Food Coop. The most popular products from Moondance at the Coop are his Sunflower sprouts and beautiful bags of fresh greens. You can also often find his gorgeous heirloom carrots, eggplant, beets, squash, fresh onions, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, and other fresh-from-the-farm produce.
Thank you, Billy, for all your veggie-love and support!