Deb Rock is hoping that people will come out to support two of her favorite things: Blues and p-patches.
The co-coordinator of the Food Bank’s p-patch beds at the Interbay P-Patch facility has volunteered her time at the p-patch for the past 12 years, helping to keep the place moving forward and growing food for the area’s food banks.
She is also one of the organizers of the fifth annual Blues For Food Fest, an all-day musical event at the Magnuson Park Amphitheatre (7400 Sand Point Way, N.E.) being held this Saturday, Sept. 3. The event features food, harvesting and plenty of blues. It is scheduled to last from noon to about 9 p.m. The nonprofit event costs $20 for adults and $10 for kids under 12. All proceeds for the event will go to support the P-Patch Trust and the Washington Blues Society, an organization that helps Blues musicians in need.
Rock said not only is the festival a chance to listen to some of the finest blues bands in the Pacific Northwest, but it is also a chance to raise awareness about hunger and the p-patch gardens in Seattle that donate more than 28,000 pounds of organic produce to people in need every year.
There will also be plenty of activity for the kids, including learning about p-patches, harvesting vegetables from the Magnuson Park P-Patch, exploring worm bins, attending bug hunts, and much more.
Rock, an avid blues fan, said the idea for the festival came to her when she realized that Bumbershoot had done away with its blues stage.
“Out of angst over the loss of the blues venue, I started the Blues For Food Fest,” Rock said. “I just wondered why wasn’t there a blues festival in Seattle. So, I decided to marry my two loves of blues and p-patches.”
The first Blues for Food Fest was a modest event held in 2006. But each year it has continued to grow. Rock is hoping to bring in new audiences that would view the event and an alternative to the more expensive and crowded Bumbershoot festival.
This year, the blues fest is growing up just a little, with the addition of a beer garden sponsored by Sierra Nevada and the Georgetown Brewery.
The festival will feature the Alice Stuart Duo, Wired!, The Rectifiers, The Avey Brothers, James King and the Southsiders and the Linda Myer’s Portland All Stars.
Rock also hopes that the event will spur more interest in the city’s 78 p-patches that can be found in virtually every neighborhood.
One of those neighborhoods is Interbay, where the current p-patch stretches over one acre of land at the south end of the Interbay Golf Course.
One of the city oldest p-patches, Interbay began in 1974 and moved to its current location in 1996. Currently, 150 different gardeners cultivate the beds at the p-patch. There is also a waiting list that is estimated to be three years long.
For those that do get a bed to cultivate, the p-patch supplies just about every tool a gardener could need. All they have to bring is the time and a pair of gloves. The p-patch is also always looking for volunteers.
“You don’t have to have a p-patch bed,” Rock said. “We have lots of volunteers who want to give back, build community, connect with others or just get dirty. The garden can supply all those things.”
The results of working in the p-patch can be impressive. This year, Rock is hoping to grow 5,000 pounds of vegetables in the 48 beds designated for the area’s food banks.
Rock said that about 95 percent of the food grown in the Interbay food bank beds will go to the Ballard Food Bank. The remainder will go to smaller soup kitchens in the area. She said others cultivating beds in the Interbay P-Patch also donate some of their harvests to area food banks and soup kitchens.
Rock wants to encourage families to visit and anyone who is interested to come down and see what the p-patch is like. After all, it is parkland and belongs to every citizen. The Interbay P-Patch also offers a charming area to sit and relax, read a book or have a picnic.
For more information, call Deb Rock at 206-234-2861 or visit http://bluesforfoodfest.org/
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