Meet Emmy Lou Stein, FBG Treasurer

Emmy Lou didn't start out in the glitzy world of high finance and Quick Books, she was a nurse for most of her life and learned how to manage organizational money when their neighborhood community garden formed. She and her husband Phil Andrus  share 42 acres south of Chimacum which they co-own with five other households (10 people) called "Trillium A Land Trust". Emmy Lou is the treasurer and also the treasurer for another neighborhood group, the Four Creeks Community Association.

Anyone can learn QuickBooks, but Emmy Lou knows what it takes to keep communal operations humming along and that's invaluable to the Food Bank Growers. She brings a reality check to every decision. In a way she's doing what she's always done, but instead of keeping patients healthy, she's keeping our finances healthy.

In the photo above, Emmy Lou is seen in front of their cherished Gravenstein apple tree. They also have pears, grapes, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries as well as a huge plot of garlic and raised beds waiting for this year's plants as soon as it warms up. She revealed that they received the raspberries from a friend over 40 years ago and that person may have had the plants for 20 years earlier. Like a botanical relative, raspberries never go away, just transfer locations. Lucky them -- even on a gray day the acreage is a sublime place to call home.

(left) When we saw that Territorial Seed Company offered   "Emmy Lou" tomatoes -- well -- we had to make sure some of them made their way to her homestead. Below are her results as of Oct. 15.  Just. So. Perfect.  And dense! No air pockets in these babies, they are all solid tomato.  Looks like it's Emmy Lous for the win.