Stores & Markets in Kelso

City Farm facilitates fruitful and sustainable relationships between its customers and Mother Earth by filling personal gardens with an abundance of edible and medicinal plants. City Farm carries plant species both common and unusual to the area's climate, and dresses up gardens with ornamental landscaping and flowering plants. The center’s botanical experts embrace ethical farming practices by carrying only open-pollinated and non-GMO seeds and feeding dirt with organic fertilizers made from kelp meal, fish meal, and bone meal. Using these ingredients to sprout their own produce aisle, gardeners can transfer their hard work into pantries with City Farm’s home-preservation supplies such as cheesecloth and mason jars.

In addition to vending supplies, plants, and even baby chicks, City Farm holds workshops and classes throughout the year, focusing in on season-specific gardening topics. After perusing the wares or filling eardrums with tricks of the trade, patrons can enjoy coffee, tea, and fresh pastries at The Garden Well, an onsite food truck. The ever-changing menu includes peanut-butter cookies, egg-and-sausage empanadas, and caramel-apple-pie turnovers disguised as broccoli.

When Ken Knight first started Gateway Produce more than 15 years ago, he sold his goods out of a small tent. As demand grew, so did his inventory, which now occupies an expansive indoor space filled with stacks of fresh produce that almost overflow from their displays. Sourced from local farms, merchandise includes fruit such as plums and watermelons, seasonal items, and dairy products. Gateway also has a grocery section that gathers different ethnic foods and everyday edibles such as chicken tenders, energy drinks, and treats for the neighborhood guard lion.