New shop promotes organic goods

The Dungeness River Lamb Farm

272 W. Bell st.

681-5108

Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Wednesday-Saturday

Colleen Lamb tried retiring from her career in family and consumer science in the Seattle area when she and her husband moved to Sequim in 2004.

“Retirement lasted maybe a day,” she smiled.

Still at heart a farm girl from the Palouse in Eastern Washington, she longed to turn 45 acres southwest of Sequim on the Dungeness River into a working USDA-certified organic farm growing fruits, vegetables and grains. The Dungeness River Lamb Farm, named in honor of her late father, became USDA certified organic in 2007 and added a commercial kitchen in 2010.

“It’s good farmland and it needed to be used,” she said. A large apple orchard, fruit trees and berries were a bonus.

Over the next decade, the farm began wholesaling to local stores such as Sunny Farms and Nash’s Farm Store in Sequim; Country Aire in Port Angeles; Discovery Bay Village Store and the Port Townsend Food Co-op plus several Tacoma-area stores and one in Oregon.

Not only did Lamb want to put locally sourced food on customers’ tables, she wanted to give them the opportunity to accessorize their homes with items made in the United States, too.

“My passion always has been the home and making things better in it,” she said. “It’s been a lifelong journey.”

About three years ago, she focused on the time-worn expression “There is no place like home” and began to seek out home decor suppliers who shared her philosophy. One was HF Coors, an American manufacturer since 1925 of commercial quality, restaurant-grade dinnerware produced at its factory in Arizona. While working with HF Coors on dinnerware designs, on a visit to Sequim its president told Lamb she needed to open a retail store — the Lamb Farm Kitchen held its grand opening on Nov. 17 at 272 W. Bell St., Sequim, in a craftsman-style home just east of The Oak Table’s parking lot.

The cozy house features three small rooms brimming with all matter of home decor that reflects the “principles of quality, durability, function and beauty.”

The food and dishware room showcases HF Coors hefty dinnerware in three patterns, one with farm animals drawn by a Port Townsend artist, another plain and the third emblazoned with “There is no place like home.” Lamb also had HF Coors make chubby teapots and stocks organic linens from cotton grown in Texas and manufactured in Redmond.

In the front room are neatly arranged piles of organic bedding items, including wool-stuffed pillows, comforters and mattress toppers, from Northwest sources. Silky soft sheets and pillow cases are from Green Living Organics, with U.S. offices in Kentucky. Lamb pointed out that there’s no plastic packaging on her suppliers’ goods. No plastic means no petroleum.

“The products are good to the Earth from beginning to end,” Lamb said.

In a tiny third room, several shelves hold hand-knitted fingerless gloves, coffee cup warmers and tea cozies made locally from the wool of Lamb’s own sheep, certified organic cotton T-shirts and a line of hair products, facial creams and cleansers, all organic and American-made.

But perhaps the best goodies are jars of Lamb Farm Kitchen’s fruit butters, spreads and chutneys, all with much less sugar than jams so their intense flavors shine through. Among the spreads are apricot rose, apricot vanilla, strawberry and strawberry peppercorn. The butters available include raspberry and spice apple, plus cranberry and tomato apple chutneys. The store also stocks its homemade biscotti, granola and shortbreads.

“I’d like to be successful in this location so that I can keep the things I do have, pay decent wages and serve the community with organic products, including packaging,” Lamb said.