Our Friends at the Market

For the last three years, Darrell Westover of Westover Farms (seen every week at the Farmer's Market) has hosted a student from the MESA program. This is Maria, who hails from Ecuador, who has come on a mission to Renton to learn more about organic, sustainable farming (and English) and has a budding passion for hydroponics.

MESA - or Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture, handpicks from a group of applicants every year to work on their college degree in Agronomy abroad, approximately an 8 month stay. Maria had already completed 5 years of studying abroad in Cuba when she came to Maple Valley, so doesn't complain of homesickness but does complain about the cold climate. The last two weeks have been the first time she has felt warm since she arrived in late March.

What does Maria love about her stay in the our lovely burg? In a word - hamburgers.