April 2024 Natural Enquirer

A Plan to Feed Skagitonians

We all know COVID shook up our views on food access and food security. Is it safe to shop in person at the Co-op? Will the products we rely on be on the shelf? How will those who depend on foundational food supports, like WIC, SNAP, and food banks, access necessary nutrition? During the pandemic, Skagit County was in the midst of a Community Health Assessment (CHA) that revealed many Skagitonians experience some level of food insecurity. As a result, increasing access to nutritious foods became a priority area for the Population Health Trust (PHT).

Last year, the Trust convened a workgroup to explore the challenge of food insecurity in our community and charged the group with creating a strategic plan to address the issue. Board Member Kristen Ekstran and Operations Director Michael Marques participated in the workgroup, bringing the expertise of the Co-op along with our longstanding commitment to supporting local farming and to providing our area with nutrient-dense foods. After several sessions, the Trust created a Food Security Plan containing 7 goals, 14 strategies, and 37 action steps that were recently endorsed and released by the County. A Food Policy Council (FPC) was established to implement the plan and to continually advance initiatives designed to build a stronger, more resilient local food system.

The Co-op’s participation in the workgroup further cemented relationships with local organizations and opened the door for more opportunities to educate the public and engage in discussion about food surplus and waste. We’ve learned that food in Skagit County has a higher cost than food elsewhere in Washington, and we have several food deserts making hunger an issue in all reaches of the County.

The work has also resulted in closer ties with Community Action’s Skagit Food Distribution Center and other local food banks. The ability to share some of the Co-op’s food surpluses has not only been rewarding for the parties involved but also exemplifies the cooperative principles: concern for community through feeding the hungry and preventing good food from going bad.

A quick text to Community Action for day-of pickups has made it simple to share whole foods with Skagit County at large. We have also arranged for Skagit Gleaners to come to the Co-op for a hot food pick-up at the end of the business day. They take foods we were previously unable to cool and resell, which helps fill the need for hard-to-find vegetarian or specialty diet needs.

From an operations standpoint, Michael obtained greater awareness of ways grocery retailers, including your Co-op, can support a wider range of household incomes. The Co-op already participates in SNAP and United General’s Fruit & Veggie Prescription program, but there are other options we will explore to increase food access for everyone.

There are also obstacles that are easier for the Co-op to overcome than local hunger relief organizations, like bulk ordering and the sourcing of culturally relevant foods. We’re working with area food banks to help source some of these items now.

Moreover, the opportunity to put names and faces to a group of people in our community has brought recognition to the efforts of each organization, along with strengths and weaknesses, so we can uphold Skagit County as a great place to live and to bring food to those who need it most, through cooperation.

And of course, several local organizations involved are recipients of the Co-op’s 4% Friday Community Shopping Day, which sets the table for even more Co-op support. Yes, that’s you! 4% Friday is a simple way to help improve food security in Skagit Valley simply by checking off your weekly list.

See our upcoming 4% Friday groups on page 10, and mark your calendars to give back in a big way.

You can view the PHT Food Security Plan at: skagitcounty.net/Departments/ PHTAC/reportsmain.htm

No Patronage For 2023

The Co-op Board has declared no Patronage Dividend for 2023. Patronage is only returned to members when the Co-op has made sufficient net income for the year.

In 2023, the Co-op experienced negative net income, therefore there is no excess earnings from 2023 to return to members. In 2023, we saw continued increases in the cost of supplies, services, healthcare, and food products. Operating in post-pandemic times has proven to be very challenging. We are working hard to return to positive net earnings and expect to achieve this in 2024.

Thanks to you all, our sales remain strong, which makes regaining profitability in 2024 a realistic expectation. The good news is we are very stable and have adequate resources to allow us time to regain profitability. It is also important to point out that during 2023 we continued our efforts to reward staff with fair pay and benefits. Our wage and benefit package make us a leader in our industry.

We would like to express to you all our sincere appreciation for your commitment shown to our Co-op.

STARTING APRIL 15 Spring Hours

7am–9pm

skagitfoodcoop.com Shop online anytime!

The Co-op will be closing at 5pm

Tuesday, May 21 for our staff party!

Wednesday, May 8 | 6pm

Sakuma Auditorium • WSU’s Mt. Vernon NWREC

16650 WA-536, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 Annual

Join us for our annual meeting and celebration! This year, we are headed to the Sakuma Auditorium in WSU’s Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research & Extension Center. It will be an evening of fun, food, and important updates — refreshments, too! We’re featuring guest speaker Carolyn Moulton of Lautenbach Recycling, who will be discussing the state of waste management here in Skagit Valley: food, recycling, compostables, and more!

Co-op Board Elections

There are two positions open on the Board of Trustees. Two incumbent Board members are running for the two open board seats. The information about the candidates and a ballot are included in this issue and are also available online. Candidates were asked to express why they'd like to serve our Co-op on the Board of Trustees, and which skills and experience they'd bring to the position should they be elected.

CANDIDATES

Board Experience

Skills/Knowledge Financial

· Co-op

· Facilitation

General Management

· Architectural programming, design, management, & analysis

I have served on the Board of Skagit Valley Food Co-op for 23 years, and as Board President for over 10. This Board moved to Policy Governance in 2020. I also serve on the Board of Skagit Council Housing, a non-profit organization focusing on housing the very low-income elderly. This Board manages 106 low income apartments and is working on a project which would expand that by 40 units. I have served on this Board for over 20 years; currently as Vice President, with previous terms as Secretary. In the distant past I served as a “special projects administrator” on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Board, Spokane Chapter.

Existing Community Relationships

As an owner of a small local architectural firm I have worked with Planning and Building officials of every major town in Skagit County as well as Skagit County Governance. As noted above I currently serve on the Boards of Skagit Valley Food Co-op and Skagit Council Housing (SCH). The SCH Board’s mission is to provide housing for the very low-income elderly. I have also been actively involved over many years with various and numerous committees lobbying for more resources and brainstorming creative ways for housing the homeless. I have also worked with numerous local and regional school districts in identifying appropriate locations on school sites for edible garden programs.

Candidate Statement

I respectfully ask for your continued confidence in my abilities to serve the Skagit Valley Food Co-op with another term on the Board. I believe I bring to the table passion, history, commitment, and professional qualifications.

Arriving in Mount Vernon in 1989 I soon discovered the Co-op, and it immediately became my “third place”. If I wasn’t at home or my newly opened architectural firm, I was at the Co-op. I witnessed the move from Pine Square to the current building and numerous remodeling and expansions, contributing my architectural experience as needed.

I began serving on the Board in 2000. In those early years, I helped establish the 4% Friday program which has recently surpassed $500,000 in donations to non-profit organizations. I served on the Board when we decided it was time to buy the building and then proceeded to pay it off far before the “note was due.” In my tenure, we have gone from doing $7 million a year with 70 staff to nearly $25 million with nearly 200 staff. We have made staff compensation a priority, hired an incredibly competent General Manager, moved to Policy Governance, strengthened relationships with our agricultural community, and continue to keep the store a well-grounded and welcoming anchor in Downtown Mount Vernon. I have attended “continuing education” opportunities for Board members and National Co-op events.

For my wife and me, this is our grocery store and has been since our arrival. It is our go-to for reliably good and nutritious food. Whether grown locally or not, our food products are researched by caring and intelligent staff which are hard to find outside the Co-op world. That confidence helps alleviate the pressure to consistently do our own research for products we consume daily. Being a cog in the wheel of Co-op stewardship has been a privilege and an honor.

Board Experience

· Skagit Valley Food Co-op

Board Member –10 yrs

Treasurer– 6 yrs, Secretary– 2 yrs

Seattle Artist Trust Non-profit Board of Directors– 6+ yrs President– 2 years

Candidate Statement

Middle Way Acupuncture Institute

Advisory Board– 3+ yrs

Artech Inc.

Corporate Governance– 12 yrs

President– 12 yrs

· Various residential co-op & condo association boards

I have been honored to serve on the Skagit Valley Food Co-op board since 2014. My focus during this time has been mostly on finance, metrics, and policy. I served several terms as treasurer and continue to serve on the Finance Committee. I have also worked to define and refine the underlying policies that provide the Board with the means to clearly state our expectations for our Co-op and give us an efficient, comprehensive mechanism for maintaining visibility into management’s performance towards those ends. These policies are maintained by the Board Development Committee which, as Secretary, I have chaired for the last two years.

My background is well suited to this role. After a successful 20+ year career in technology, I decided to change my focus and left my position as a corporate senior manager. I was subsequently recruited to lead a 30-year-old art services company back to financial stability. I served as CEO and managed all accounting (but was still the “IT Guy”) of this 60-person corporation for 12 years.

I am a lifelong believer in the cooperative model, and I truly appreciate the people and the work of this Co-op. In addition to being a great place to shop(!), as members we can all be proud of Skagit Food Co-op’s impact on the entire community through direct support of local producers, regional non-profits, and educational programs. I have the skills, knowledge, experience, and desire to help the Co-op continue to thrive, grow, and positively impact our owner-members, our employees, and the broader community as we embark on our next 50 years!

You may have noticed we have two incumbent candidates running for two spots in this year’s board election. That might feel like you don’t need to vote, but your vote is important! There is a minimum number of votes needed in order for the election results to be confirmed. So, if you’re happy with how your Co-op has been running, please take the time to vote. Thank you!

Tom Theisen Incumbent Candidate

Brad Claypool Incumbent Candidate

Meet Our 2nd Quarter Tokens for Tomorrow Groups!

Every time you bring in a reusable shopping bag, we honor your commitment to reducing waste with a token worth 8¢ that you can give back to one of four local organizations:

Rodale Institute PNW Organic Center Sound Water Stewards of Island County

Rodale Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to growing the regenerative organic agriculture movement through rigorous research, farmer training, and education.

At the Pacific Northwest Organic Center in eastern Skagit Valley, the Rodale Institute conducts regionally focused organic farming research, provides training and consulting to farmers, and act as a demonstration hub for people interested in regenerative organic farming.

Upper Skagit Valley’s Freedge Program

Hosted by the Upper Skagit Library, the Freedge is giving Concrete restaurants, grocers, schools, and more a new way to put their food waste to good use. Instead of composting or trashing leftover product and close-dated food items, they can go to feed neighbors in need of food assistance. Donated items rarely last more than two days in the Freedge, highlighting the pressing need in the Upper Skagit community.

Together in 2023, we...

Sound Water Stewards are trained volunteers working in and around Island County (Whidbey and Camano Islands) for a healthy, sustainable marine environment through education, science, and stewardship. SWS members collect data for research through community science projects, educate all ages of the public about the marine environment, and inspire sustainability through stewardship actions.

Fidalgo Island + Guemes Gleaners

Founded in 2015, FIGG realized there were many fruit trees on Fidalgo and Guemes Islands that were producing more than the owners needed or wanted. The rest would fall to the ground, wasted.

FIGG picks the fruit, dividing it up between the tree owners, local food banks, and the Gleaners. FIGG also cleans up fallen fruit and gives it away as chicken, cow, or pig feed.

One free tree per customer while supplies last.

Skagit County Protects 425 Acres of Farmland from Development in 2023

Skagit County’s Farmland Legacy Program finalized five farmland preservation projects in 2023, permanently protecting another 425 acres of prime agricultural soil. Protected farmland in Skagit County now totals 14,750 acres.

An agricultural conservation easement ensures that the highest quality farmland continues to be farmed while staying in private hands. Landowners are financially compensated for voluntarily limiting development rights on their farmland.

Five families protected their farmland in 2023 through the county’s preservation program:

Fisher Family— 40 Acres, Fir Island

Colleen Fisher’s newly protected 40 acres of farmland on Fir Island has been in her family for several decades. The land is currently leased to S&B Farms, which produced potatoes last season. “Protecting it as farmland is just the right thing to do,” said Fisher. Fisher’s property sits north of farmland owned by S&B Farms that was protected in 2010. “A big thank you to Colleen Fisher,” said Board of County Commissioners Chairperson Peter Browning, who represents the County's southwest district.

“Her decision to put her land under the Farmland Legacy program reflects her family’s longstanding commitment to agriculture in Skagit County.”

Ball Family 300 Acres, La Conner

Alex Ball’s 300 acres of La Conner farmland reaches back five generations to the late 1800s when Richard H. Ball pioneered the land after serving in the Civil War. The land is actively farmed by Jerry Nelson of Double N Potatoes. The decision to sell specific property rights so the land remains farmland no matter who owns it came about from Alex and his wife Karee’s recent estate planning. “It felt easy to do. It was the right decision for our family,” said Karee Ball. “Keeping this prime La Conner soil as farmland is important to the Ball family’s legacy and to the community at large,” said Commissioner Ron Wesen. “We are indebted to farmland owners like the Balls who protect their land for producers today and future generations of farmers tomorrow.”

The additional Ball acreage creates a 1,500-acre block of protected farmland in northeast La Conner along the Swinomish Channel.

Ring & Lillquist Farms— 60 Acres, La Conner

The 60 acres of La Conner farmland is managed by two families—the Rings and the Lillquists. They are descendants of Isaac Dunlap who served as Skagit County’s first County Commissioner in 1889. The land has been in a rotation of potatoes, grains, and vegetable crops over the last decade. “Our families’ first goal is to protect the land as farmland,” says John Ring, who owns the east parcel with his wife Berdean. “We want the land to stay the same for new generations who come to grow here.”

“Agricultural conservation easements ensure prime farmland is not developed, help to keep it affordable for the next generation of farmers, and provide a capital boost to local farm businesses,” said County Commissioner Lisa Janicki. The additional 60 acres create a 700-acre block of protected farmland between Chillberg and McLean roads in La Conner.

Edison Fields— 25 Acres, Bow

Edison Fields’ newly protected 25 acres sit adjacent to 156 acres of farmland, also owned by Edison Fields, which were preserved in 2020. These protected 181 acres are part of Edison Fields LLC farming operation, on land owned and leased across Skagit County. The 25 acres add to a nearly 500-acre block of protected farmland along Farm to Market Road in Bow.

“The smaller size of Edison Fields’ 25-acre parcel makes it especially appealing to a residential development,” said Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen. “The rural neighborhood and views contribute to the residential appeal of this land. Thanks to their collective decision, Edison Fields’ farmland remains protected for our food producers.”

About the Skagit County Farmland Legacy Program

The Farmland Legacy Program is a county-funded initiative that compensates landowners for placing a perpetual conservation easement on their land. Landowners retain ownership of their land and continue their farming operations as usual. The program’s primary goal is to protect Skagit County’s vital agricultural productivity and character.

The Skagit County Conservation Futures tax levy funded the conservation easement purchases. In total, landowners received $745,000 for the permanent protection of these five pieces of prime Skagit County farmland. A total of eight residential development rights were extinguished on the newly protected properties.

Despite strong land-use planning, Washington continues to lose farmland to development—nearly 100,000 acres between 2001 and 2016. Over 50% of the land lost was considered the state’s best quality farmland, according to the American Farmland Trust’s recent report.

The Skagit County Farmland Legacy Program is one of the most active and successful farmland preservation programs across Washington State due to the number of protected acres and the ongoing community and county government support.

2,000

Ring & Lilliquist Farms’ properti es add to a 700-acre block of protected farmland in La Conner.

Historical photo of the Ball family farm.

An aerial mapping of the Fisher family farmland.

Edison Fields, looking east along Sunset Road.

If Humans Were Plants

My commute from the Co-op to home is super short. It’s over the river and through some fields, and it goes by too fast some days. As I drive home from work, like you, I review my day. I think of those sweet divine twins who made shy eyes at me and their chubby cheeks, the kind grandmother who loves the new eye serum I recommended, and the sound of my co-workers joyfully laughing aisles away as they stock boxes and bottles. Some days, I drive home thinking of the very unhappy people I’ve encountered— their sadness of a new health hurdle, the frustration at a higher price or an out-of-stock sign, and yup, sometimes even seething anger for reasons they themselves might not realize.

As I was running errands one day, I kept reviewing a couple of recent icky interactions, thinking of how I could have responded differently because I am NOT a “they go low, you go high” kind of gal. I’m all sunshine and giggles until there’s a bully in the room who wants to steal someone’s joy, and then part of me thinks “game on.” It’s not pleasant for anyone. As I walked through a very crowded store to pick up this and that, I couldn’t stop chewing on these two interactions, annoyed with the energy they were still sucking out of me. I did the things and paid the money, and when I came back to my van and threw my tired body into the driver’s seat, I looked up to find a pale pink long stemmed rose on my dirty windshield.

Now, if you listen to true crime podcasts, you might see this differently, however, I don’t, so I was elated by this rose left by a stranger. I immediately hopped out of my van to smell it, and no rose has ever smelled more sweetly. No strings (or thorns) attached, someone just decided to choose kindness over contempt. Just as the bees, birds, bats feed on the pollen of blooms, humans desperately need to see and exude more genuine joy in all aspects of our lives, and most importantly to me, while they shop for groceries. As spring unfolds in Skagit Valley— undoubtedly one of the most magical moments to experience— let’s buzz through some of the ways flowers can uplift you, even as you might feel your petals drooping a bit.

When I think of flowers in Wellness, three powerful flowers pop into mind: lavender, calendula, and St. John’s Wort. Each with their unique shapes, scents, colors— they all grow effortlessly around us, and each offers different ways to ease our troubled mind, bodies, and spirit.

Lavender is by far the most popular scent of Wellness products, and for many, the smell is uplifting. Island Thyme, owned and operated by Eliza and Chris over on Orcas, offers some of our most popular lavender products: lotions, body scrubs, and even a Lavender Vanilla lip balm. Their best-selling product for us (and we have literally sold thousands of these) is their Lavender Peppermint Headache Stick. Keep one in your car for long drives and a spare at work for those days when you wish you were on a road trip. Pro tip! In a pinch it can help with bug bites too— just don’t get it too close to your eyes!

Calendula and lavender together, as they live in Arbordoun’s Calendula Cream, is a dynamic duo that soothes and moisturizes like nothing else on our shelves. No doubt I have written about this miraculous and luscious cream, and yet, do you know

by nancylee bouscher

where your jar is? It’s my go-to for any and all skin issues. Too dry, too itchy, too sensitive, too old. Yes, yes, YES! Another great woman-owned local company providing a really powerful herbal remedy to her community.

Calendula petals also make their ways into teas used for soothing digestion like Bloom Apothecary’s Well Belly, and their Permission to Pause tea blend includes lavender for those moments when we need to rest and restore. Drinking flowers feels so decadent and yet, it’s such an inexpensive remedy. Kelly Ann, the herbalist behind Bloom Apothecary, is one of the kindness mamas I know. You can almost feel the warm hug in every cup.

My favorite St. John’s Wort product comes in two forms, and both are from Herb Pharm’s organic fields. There’s the topical Trauma Oil that’s used as a massage oil and the internal Trauma Drops. Both also contain calendula and arnica, and both are great for any time trauma causes you pain. In my personal path of pain, I found that these two products really helped to relieve nerve pain, including my tension headaches. I loved to create my own roll-on, getting an empty glass roll-on in our Mercantile and blending the oil and the tincture with essential oils, so I had an easy way to apply the mix to sore body parts during my day. Another great option for internal St. John’s Wort is Vitanica’s Uplift formulation which also includes B vitamins, rhodiola, ginkgo, and lemon balm.

St. John’s Wort is somewhat of a controversial plant. She pops up along freeways and roads, so many folks see her as a weed. She’s also not great for livestock, so some feel she shouldn’t be cultivated in your backyard. Some even go so far as to call her noxious! She does have a ton of studies and clinical trials behind her, but she can interact with prescriptions, so do some homework before you dive in (I appreciate the pubmed.gov website when researching). One of her many tricks is that even though her delicate flower is yellow, if you pick that yellow bloom and squish it in your fingers, you will see the deepest plum purple color. Such a good reminder to seek out pleasant surprises because we know we’ll get some unhappy ones along the way, too.

Almost two years ago, my mother-in-law, Mary, had a bad fall and has been in a care facility in Albuquerque since. It’s unlikely that she will be able to return to her small two-bedroom home on the reservation, so packed full of relics of her life that I’m no longer surprised when I find a beautiful turquoise and spiny oyster shell earring nestled in a jar on the bathroom counter, and then spy its partner in a kitchen drawer with tea bags and old forgotten packets of hot chocolate. Reuniting them, even with their chips and imperfections, gives me this small flicker of joy that I could make this one thing complete, as so much else seems to fall apart.

Just like flowers, we do not bloom forever. So, while we are here blooming and smelling pretty, let’s share that energy as much as we can with each other. I know it’s hard some days, and when that happens, I hope you have friends, people, and plants you can look to for support to get your back to being your best self. Smell the roses, be the roses, leave them in your wake for others to find as a spontaneous reminder of how beautiful joy can feel to share.

F he om

They say every day should be Mother’s Day, and we can’t disagree!

Here are a few of our faves to show the moms in your life you love them this Mother’s Day, or any other day.

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One Daily Women’s Multivitamin 40+ | TRUE GRACE

A daily designed for immune support, energy, daily balance and healthy bone support, this multi contains fruiting body mushrooms and regenerative adaptogens along with fermented and chelated minerals because they’re more bioavailable.

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fat suds! soap + fat lips! lip balm | VELLUM STREET SOAP CO

It’s the soap you wish your mouth got washed out with! Biocompati ble grass fed tallow is the secret ingredient in these skin soothing soaps and balms. “Lips, hands, face, and ass. Tallow’s great for skin when it’s been fed grass!”

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Limited Edition Thermal Bottle | KLEAN KANTEEN

The quality you’ve come to love from Klean Kanteen in a limited release flower pattern. Keep mom hydrated with this beautiful bottle – includes a recycled stainless steel straw!

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Beautiful Mom Milky Aquamarine

Necklace | SOULKU

Handcrafted by moms in the U.S., this milky aquamarine is a supportive stone that reduces stress, and nurtures the heart.

Lined Layflat Notebook | DENIK

A spot to jot her thoughts, the pages inside are the perfect place for reminders and random thoughts for moms-on-therun or a palette for poetry for the moms bumbling about like a pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

The Little Book of Mom | WELBECK PUBLISHING

Brimming with messages of love, laughter, and wisdom, this tiny treasure is packed full of heartfelt reflections, fascinating insights, and funny anecdotes for moms everywhere.

Calendula, Lavender, and a rose of random kindness.

Remind Me Who I Am

by Beverly Faxon

Not long ago, on a gray day with a steady, percussive rain, I suddenly yearned to bake bread. I wanted that toasty bread baking smell, and I wanted bread’s buttered, yeasty warmth to be my reward at dusk.

And I only half knew it, but I also wanted to feel the dough smooth out and take shape beneath my hands. It has been years since I’ve baked bread. What is the need, when life is busy, and bread baking requires hours at home, and our valley has so many good bakeries?

The need, it turns out, is in the kneading. The rhythm of turning, and rocking, and pressing the dough returned to me without effort, and with great pleasure. My brain wasn’t required, only my hands. Indeed, my brain drifted away, and the bread dough and I, unhurried, made our way.

I was once told that, when I find myself distracted, I might just look at my hands. This simple advice has worked well. I am brought back into the present by leaving my mind, with its stories and hindrances, out of it and instead watching what my hands are doing.

A friend who tutors preteen boys tells me the boys have a difficult time writing—their fine motor skills seem underdeveloped. The jury may still be out on the relationship between our devices and fine motor skills—surely all that texting requires much of our hands—but it seems possible that the way we mostly use our hands is, at the least, both repetitive and limited, the difference between the pressing of keys and the stretching, curling, and pinching required to thread, or knit, or knead, or glue, or dig, or stack.

“Touch me, remind me who I am,” wrote the poet Stanley Kunitz to his wife when he was 85. If being touched can bring us back to ourselves, the same is true of touching. I recently read that our palms’ relatively small surfaces contain about 15% of our tactile nerve fibers, capable of feeling something as spare as a spider web. From infancy, I was reminded, we find our way in the world by exploring with our hands.

My gray day of bread baking is yielding to the sun of spring—an easy time to leave the head behind and see the world with our hands. The fur-tipped ears of pussy willows beckon, as do the satin petals of tulips. We part floppy, veined rhubarb leaves to grab the stalks and pull for pie, and we run our thumbs over the nubs of new asparagus. We brush against nettle and are brought to ourselves as surely as Kunitz was—we know who we are, fools who carelessly jostled against a stinging plant.

The earth calls, and nothing is more grounding than hands in the earth. Some studies have suggested that working in soil is good for our physical and mental health on a gut level—by increasing the amount and types of microbes in our intestines.

If hands touching earth is grounding, then gardening is especially so: cold April soil warming up in the sun; the grit and grain of dirt sifted over seeds; the seeds themselves, from tiny self-sufficient orbs to bits of hope feathered, spiked, or kerneled. The grasp and satisfying tug on a weed. All leading to the summertime palming of a fresh tomato, the stripping of corn off the stalk, the freeing of peas from pods, the gathering of dahlias.

I first saw dahlias in abundance at Seattle’s Pike Place Market in the early 80s—big bunches wrapped in white paper in early fall. I loved then the red poms—an armful of cheer the color of Taylor Swift’s lipstick. But there are dahlias spiked and frilled; dahlias with gentle, modest curls; show-off dahlias called dinner plate, because that is their size. Dahlias bronze and dahlias purple, yellows soft and yellows brassy, creamy whites and sunrise orange-pinks not seen elsewhere in my garden. I don’t know if this is common to all dahlias, but the colors of mine change not only over a single bloom’s lifespan, but over the course of the season. I’ve seen a July clump the red of a kid’s crayon give way to the September orange of a 60s back-to-school miniskirt.

When it comes to keeping my hands busy and my mind quiet, I’ve become a believer in the small cutting garden—rows that become unruly with spilled blooms as summer goes on; no need to honor landscaping; lots of blossoms to cut and share. I stick to what grows easily in my soil and share of sunlight—sweet peas, cosmos, larkspur, borage both for the bees and so I can pop those tiny blue flowers out of their fuzzy caps and sprinkle them on salad. And dahlias, of course.

This makes sense to me, but then, I have always found myself soothed by the feel of dirt, of sand, of clay. I like to sift, I like to dig, I like to tunnel. Put me on a beach, or in a garden, and I am happy for hours. In my grandparent stage, even a sandbox will do—I like to get right in there among ‘em for the soothing repetition of packing and burrowing.

Last August, a crew installed solar panels on our roof. They clambered around up there, looking down at the mosaic of our yard and gardens, the corn fields beyond. At the end of the first day, a crew member asked for a favor—could he take some flowers home for his sweetie? I turned him toward the dahlias, and it made me happy to watch him carefully choosing, and then cradling, flowers as he walked to his car. From the touch of hot shingles to the green grasp of dahlia stems at day’s end, it seemed a cheery progression.

The fruits and flowers of our work in the spring soil will eventually end up on the kitchen table, maybe right next to a cooling loaf of bread. All we can touch—the world alive in our hands.

by Leigha Staffenhagen

Last summer, I spent time researching and digging into (pun intended) what could become the future of farming: Regenerative Organic Agriculture.

As a refresher, regenerative organic is an overarching term to describe a number of agricultural practices that focus on regenerating soil health and a farm’s entire ecosystem. In practice, regenerative organic can include cover cropping, no-till farming, composting, and zero use of pesticides and fertilizers.

The practice has drawn the attention of farmers, along with questions and concerns. In an effort to move the conversation forward, PCC Markets hosted a Convening on Regenerative & Organic Food Systems in February, which I attended alongside several food system partners throughout the PNW.

While taking in the beauty of Shilshole Bay from the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, the energy in the room was palpable; to the attendees, regenerative ag is so much more than another certification. It represents a path toward, or more accurately, back to the ways our ancestors farmed for millennia: a practice rooted in restoring soil, building biodiversity, and respecting the planet, animals, and workers.

To me, it sounds idealistic, the path we should be following for the environment, livestock, and all individuals within the food system— growers, farmers, workers, retailers, eaters. It also begs the question: who should be forging the path?

Throughout the convening, the consensus was clear: the responsibility (and cost) should not fall to farmers. Small (and large) farmers already take on so much outside the scope of farming. They’re scientists, marketers, employers, land owners. As the people committed to feeding us, they need outside support to go above and beyond the organic certification. But who?

So, while the why is more than justified, the how needs significant work. The conversation is to be continued…

That said, if you have opinions on the future of regenerative organic certification, the State of California wants to hear from you. Yes, California. They’re in the process clearly defining what regenerative organic is and need input from all sectors of the food industry— eaters included.

Written public comments on the defining of “Regenerative Agriculture” for state policies and programs can be submitted to: RegenerativeAg@cdfa.ca.gov

The easy-going Dahlia. Find Bev’s dahlia growing tips on page 16!

Use Food Well Washington: The Challenge at Hand

by Sarah Stoner

When you throw something away… where is away?

Frankly, I love the challenge of using up the food I have on hand. It makes me more creative and saves me trips to the grocery store. And, I try to remember: it’s also an act of love for the environment. When we waste food, we waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it. That includes all the people’s energy who have worked hard in the process. And if food waste ends up in the landfill, when rotted, it produces methane—a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. About 95% of the food we throw away ends up in landfills. Here are a few ways that help me use food well:

Believe in Your Bread.

Your artisan bread loaves can come back to life! Don’t despair that your baguette is now hard as a bat. This bread-revival trick brings it back to soft as the day you bought it! Simply run your dried out loaf under the faucet for 10 seconds to wet it. Bake in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes. To think of all the bread I’ve thrown out over my lifetime (or fed to the neighbor’s chickens)! Although, my lack of awareness of this bread-resurrection trick has generated many a delicious French toast breakfasts.

Make Friends with Your Freezer.

We all have our favorite foods to freeze. I freeze the invariably leftover hamburger or hot dog buns to have on hand for next time… or produce like the strawberries my daughter so desperately wanted and now the remaining pint is languishing. I always freeze my pesto to have on hand. Other foods that freeze well and would spoil otherwise: ginger, homegrown hot peppers, the sticks of butter I find on sale… and those softening bananas before they get too oozy: peel first, then cut in coins, freeze on a cookie tray then toss in a bag for smoothies later, or even that banana bread I don’t now have time to make. I’ve even frozen leftover hard cider into empty ice cube trays rather than empty the can down the drain. One cube in my seltzer water makes a light spring spritzer.

Expiration Dates are for the Weak.

Just kidding, I’m only quoting a magnet… that happens to be on my fridge. And in all seriousness, it’s good to know what your Best Buy dates mean. Confusion over date labeling makes for about 20 percent of our food waste, the FDA estimates. There’s no standard for food product dating. Manufacturers apply date labels at their own discretion and for various reasons. The most common is to inform consumers they can expect the food to retain its desired quality. The FDA page on “Tips to Reduce Food Waste” advises consumers to visually examine food for changes in

Let’s Save the Food

Food is being wasted at an alarming rate, and everyday eaters are the largest source— more than grocers and restaurants combined! Good news is: we can do something about it. Visit SaveTheFood.com for recipes, meal planning, and storage ideas. In the meantime, cut this tag out and put it on things in your fridge that need to be used up right away.

Keep a tray with this sign in your fridge for things that need to be used up right away. For more tips, visit Save eFood.com.

EAT ME FIRST

color, consistency or texture if they are past their “Best if Used By” date rather than tossing food based on an unregulated, inconsistently applied system of product dates.

Know Where to Look.

I organize the fridge so my leftovers are always in one place, and a visible place towards the front. My top shelf is tall, so I always stack leftovers to the left and keep them up front where I can see and access them. I work well with visual cues, so I’ve even taken to turning my glass containers bottom up. That means when I open my fridge, instead of seeing the opaque tops of containers, I see the remaining red onion, the purple cabbage salad waiting to be eaten… and I’m more likely to eat it or remember to dream up some way to use it. My milks—cow, oat, almond—always on the lower right. Any and all breads are on the lower left. This means that even if an item gets shoved to the back of the fridge, it’s less likely to be forgotten due to being in a reliable, findable “section.” Items that don’t spoil quickly— I store in the back half of the top shelf: pickles, olives, jams, sauerkraut.

Generate Joy from the Creative Challenge.

I use fresh ingredients as impetus for inspiration. I love the creativity that comes from constraint. Plus, I’m ridiculously pragmatic and love to use what I have on hand. I suppose it’s my own version of “Chopped”.

Sometimes, my drive to use up food gives me that extra boost I might need after a long day. I’d rather keep dinner simple but… I can test out the new Brussels sprouts recipe AND make sure that giant package doesn’t go to waste. It might be a small victory, but finding a way to use up my food— in a delicious way—feels like a win.

Build a Worm Bin.

Despite my drive to use up ingredients in my fridge and cupboards, I do fail. This week I had to face the beautiful head of broccoli in my fridge that by the time I went to use… had too many yellow speckles dotting its green florets. It didn’t feel great that I’d let it expire, but I laid its body as an offering in my worm bin. Those pet worms nibble the rot right off all foods but dairy and citrus, and leave you the most precious compost for your garden. My cores, peels, kale ribs, and skins all end up in my wooden worm bin. Composting is an easy choice that at least keeps food waste in the loop of feeding the soil that feeds us…

Sarah Stoner grew up in Uganda, Morocco, Belgium, & Thailand and lived in the U.S for the first time at age 18. Sarah now lives in the Skagit Valley along with her family and trusty worm bin. sarahjstoner@hotmail.com

Better in My Belly Than in the Trash

by Leigha Staffenhagen

Avgolemono | Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Avgolemono is a silky and fragrant soup made of eggs, lots of lemon, rice, chicken, and warm broth. It’s a handy solution when I have leftover cooked rice or rotisserie chicken to use up. And, yum... the bright lemony flavor of this soup is reason in itself. In keeping with the theme, you’ll find this creamy cream-free soup freezes well.

· 1 tbsp olive oil

· 1/2–1 cup finely chopped carrots

1/2–1 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup finely chopped green onion

· 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

· 8 cups chicken broth

· 2 bay leaves

1 cup rice —or whatever cooked rice you have leftover 2 cooked boneless chicken breasts, shredded (about 6-8 oz of leftover rotisserie chicken will work)

· 1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice

· 2 large eggs

fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium-high. Add the carrots, celery and green onion, toss together to sauté briefly, then stir in the garlic.

2. Add the chicken broth and bay leaves, then raise the heat to high. Once the liquid has come to a rolling boil, add the rice, salt, and pepper. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender (or just add your leftover cooked rice). Now stir in the cooked chicken.

3. To prepare the egg-lemon sauce (avgolemono), in a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and eggs. While whisking, gradually add two ladles full of the broth from the cooking pot (this helps temper the eggs). Once fully combined, add the sauce to the soup and stir. Remove from heat immediately.

4. Garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro, if you like. Serve hot with your favorite bread or warm kale side salad. Enjoy!

Write Down Your Lunch Expenditure

For the longest time, I was on an anti-leftover crusade. As a kid, “leftovers for dinner” was my least favorite night. In college, my section of the fridge was regularly inundated with Tupperware containers my roommates could always count on as a late-night snack, because they knew I wasn’t eating it.

Now, I’m proud to say, after far too many years of chucking old food in the trash, I’ve finally started to embrace leftovers, especially as an easy fix for tomorrow’s lunch. Don’t get me wrong, I love eating lunch at the Co-op! But for the sake of reducing personal food waste and saving money, I’ve taken a serious liking to leftovers for lunch. Plus, if I’m going to talk the talk of food waste prevention, I need to walk the walk, too.

A mindset change and a few new habits later, I’ve been able to save hundreds (!!!) on groceries and reduce my overall food waste. Simple but effective, here’s my list of quick tips and tricks for kicking food waste to the curb, while also fattening your wallet. After all, food is always better in your belly than it is in the trash.

No Excuses— Eat Those Dang Leftovers!

Pack them for lunch the night before. Set an alarm on your phone, so you don’t leave home without them. If you live with someone, hold each other accountable: no more “I’ll pretend to forget them, so the other person eats it” nonsense. Save the planet, save your wallet.

If lunch on-the-go is your go-to, try setting a goal to write down how much you spend every day. Prior to doing so, I was easily spending $7 a day, without giving it much thought. In February, I was able to spend less than $50 on lunches because I saw exactly where my budget was trending and could reel it back before I exceeded it. You can start by just tracking your spending without making any changes yet – the amount will probably shock you.

Order Curbside Groceries

Yes, we still offer curbside pick-up! We love having you in the store, but if you’re trying to save on groceries, having a list and only ordering exactly what’s on it, prevents impulse purchases and over-shopping on food that won’t get eaten before it goes bad.

Shop Co+op Deals & Fresh Deals

For some it’s a no-brainer, but here’s a reminder that our weekly sales flyers are always worth a look. There’s even an app you can download that shows sale items you can add to a shopping list (Search Co+op Deals in the App Store). Stocking up and saving a couple bucks on your everyday essentials can be surprisingly impactful in the long run.

Be Patient

Your grocery bill won’t magically shrink overnight, especially if you’ve got a lot of mouths to feed, but making small changes over time can make a major difference in a matter of months. Set realistic goals and try to work on improving one thing every month.

In the end, your food will end up where it should be— in your belly, not the trash —and you just might have some extra cash.

Wait, Wait, Don’t Throw It

Waste Not, Want Not

Out Yet!

by Laura Bady

Did you know that according to Washington State University the average Skagit County household throws out about three pounds of food every week? That’s over 150 pounds a year! We as consumers have so much more control over our food waste than other environmental waste. This output is one we can actually tackle. One of the biggest problems with food waste prevention is that we are misinterpreting what the expiration dates on food mean and are too quickly chucking perfectly good food into the garbage; a family of four could save an average of $1,200 (or more!) a year by not tossing out food that is perfectly safe to eat! We’ve been trained to rely on food expiration dates for food safety reasons, but those dates can be so confusing and don’t necessarily mean food is no longer edible.

So, let’s take some of the mystery out of these expiration dates and put some power in your environmentally conscious hands, and money back in your pocket.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), product dating is not required, except on infant formula. Beyond that, there is no universally accepted system used for food dating in the United States, which is how we’ve come to encounter so many different versions of an “expiration” date. Mostly, dates are used to alert the retailer how long foods can be kept on the shelf for best quality, which is dictated by the product manufacturer along with various state regulations.

With the exception of infant formula, if the date passes during home storage, a product can still be healthy and safe to eat if handled properly. Canned foods can last years past their expiration dates. If a food is spoiled it will develop an off odor and may have a slimy texture. Other signs of spoilage are even more obvious, like mold and rot. This is the time when the food should not be eaten and tossed out. Where you toss it is another matter entirely.

Expiration Dates Decoded:

Best if Used By/Before or BB Date

BB?! No wonder we’re confused. These indicate when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. Typically, a product will last much longer than this if not opened.

Sell-By Date

Tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. Also not a safety date.

Use-By Date

The last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula.

Freeze-By Date

Specifies when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.

FOOD

Canned Goods juices, fruit, pickles, sauerkraut, tomato soup, foods in vinegar-based sauce

Canned Fish (tuna)

Dried beans & legumes

Vegetables (canned)

Vegetables (frozen)

Raw Eggs (in shell)

Fish

Frozen

Prepared Meals

Honey

Meat (ground)

Meat (steaks, roasts, etc)

Meat (poultry)

Milk

Milk (ultra-pasteurized)

Dry Pasta

(from date of purchase)

3 years in pantry

Safe to eat well past the ‘use-by’ or ‘best by’ date as long as the can shows no dents, rust, or swelling

1 year–18 months in pantry

Safe to eat well past the ‘use-by’ or ‘best by’ date as long as the can shows no dents, rust, or swelling

1–2 years for best quality

2–5 years stored in pantry

Safe to eat well past the ‘use-by’ or ‘best by’ date as long as the can shows no dents, rust, or swelling

10–18 months for best quality

3-5 weeks in fridge

If off odor, do not eat.

Fresh: 1–2 days in fridge

Frozen: 6–8 months for best quality

12 months in freezer for best quality

2 years in pantry for best quality

Fresh: 1-2 days in fridge for best quality

Frozen: at least 4 months in freezer

If off odor or slimy texture, not safe to eat

Fresh: 3-5 days in fridge for best quality

Frozen: at least 4-12 months in freezer

If off odor or slimy texture, not safe to eat

Fresh: 1-2 days in fridge

Frozen: 9 months for best quality

Package best buy date

If strong off odor, do not drink.

1-3 months unopened in fridge

7-10 days in fridge after opening

If strong off odor or curdling, do not drink.

2 years unopened in pantry

High-5 recipes are always quick and easy, but when you make a meal that also cleans out the fridge so good food doesn’t go bad? That deserves an extra high five! Here are two recipes to help save your food, and money, too.

Zero Waste Veggie Dip | Serves 2–4 | adapted from @plantyou on Instagram

If you have some wrinkly bell peppers and eggplant in the back of the fridge, don’t toss them in the compost yet – they’re just right for this zero-waste dip! Vegan and packed with umami flavor thanks to the miso paste, pair this dip with pita chips or your favorite multi-grain crackers.

1 eggplant or zucchini, sliced in half and scored

1 head of garlic, top sliced off

· 2 bell peppers, red or orange, top & seeds removed

· 2 tbsp miso paste mixed with 3/4 cup water

· 1 cup Greek yogurt or vegan yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the veggies in a cast iron skilet or oven-safe casserole dish, and drizzle the miso paste/water mixture over everything.

2. Bake for 40 minutes, until the veggies are softened.

3. Scoop the eggplant from the peel, discard the garlic peels, and add them to a blender or food processor along with the bell peppers. Add the yogurt and blend/process until smooth.

4. Serve with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar glaze— we love Nonna Pias!

Weekend No-Trash-Hash | Serves 1–2

Your Saturday morning just got greener, and tastier, too! Now, this recipe doesn’t technically feature Co-op made ingredients, but it could! In this case, the point is to clean out the fridge of leftovers and other ingredients on hand for a fresh start to planning and shopping for the coming week!

So, what goes in No Trash Hash? What doesn’t?! That’s the beauty. Start with frozen hash browns for the base, and build from there. Other potatoes or riced veggies would work, too. Cauliflower you bought on sale starting to get sad? Grate it and plate it!

Field Day Organic frozen shredded hashbrowns

· Pick a protein: Co-op sausage, bacon, leftover chicken, or any other morsels of meat from meals made earlier in the week. Anything goes! Don’t eat meat? Then that goes too!

· Cheese? Yes please! Your choice.

· Veggies: Whatever’s in the fridge! Brussels, broccoli, zucchini... load it up!

2 eggs

Additional pantry ingredients: salt & pepper, your favorite seasoning, herbs, or hot sauce.

Directions

1. Cook it all up according to the hash brown instructions, then top with two runny yolk eggs. The eggs really tie the hodgepodge of ingredients together.

2. If you’re feeling spicy, add salsa or hot sauce, an avocado, and herbs.

3. Enjoy this easy squeezy meal thats saving the planet (buh-bye moldy veg) and your hard earned dollars, too!

You Shop, We Give 4%

One of our most exciting ways to support the community is through 4% Friday! You shop and together we give 4% of Co-op sales one Friday a month to a non-profit, charitable community organization.

And just think–each of these organizations is, itself, supporting the community! What a great circle of giving.

Skagit Gleaners

Skagit Gleaners' purpose is to provide food, household merchandise and clothing to frugal, waste conscious and working families. Skagit Gleaners does this by rescuing surplus food and products from local businesses, keeping such items out of overflowing landfills.

Skagit Gleaners will use the funds to support their newly implemented community-led garden project.

Sedro-Woolley Farm to School

The mission of Sedro Woolley Farm to School is to grow healthier, more informed, and empowered eaters by integrating hands-on, food-based learning at all grade levels.

Funds received through 4% Friday will be used to further Farm to School education efforts in the Sedro Woolley School District (SWSD). Specifically, funds will be used to integrate garden-based composting systems into garden education programs at all four participating SWSD elementary schools.

Vamos Outdoors Project

Vamos serves Latine, Migrant, Multilingual and Newcomer youth and families in Whatcom and Skagit counties by providing meaningful experiences to youth through outdoor, recreational, and educational activities.

Funds from 4% Friday will be utilized to maintain student enrollment across all of Vamos’ programs, including mountain biking, snowboarding, indoor and outdoor rock climbing, swimming, Fiesta de Libros, backpacking, boating, nature-based park activities and community celebrations.

4% Friday Meet & Greets, 2025 Applications

Come say hello! When you choose to shop on 4% Friday, you’re playing a big part in making our community a better place. We encourage you to keep marking your calendars and showing up to support local nonprofits and stop by to chat with their staff and volunteers. Many of our 4% Friday recipients are in the Co-op day-of and would love to share their stories with you. Don’t be shy to just say hi!

2025 Applications

Applications for next year’s 4% Friday groups will be available this July. If you know of a local nonprofit that could benefit from the program, please spread the word. We love supporting new groups!

New Employee Lunch Discount

In another step to increase food access, the Co-op recently made a significant internal change: a new employee lunch discount. The Co-op’s 50% off lunch discount has always been one of the most generous discounts offered in all of Co-oplandia (and certainly within the grocery industry). In 2023, we covered $35,000 worth of staff lunches!

That said, the lunch discount was only applicable on certain foods in the Deli and Bakery. Now, instead of receiving 50% off select eligible items, staff receive their 25% off employee discount plus a daily stipend for any ready-to-eat food in the Co-op! Employees get to eat what they want to eat! As long as they’re buying a food item that’s consumed during the work day, they can eat what they want, and maybe more importantly, what they’re able to eat. The discount is meant to better serve all employees, including those with dietary preferences and restrictions that can be tougher to accommodate. Ultimately, the goal is to provide greater food access to all of our staff, regardless of diet, budget, or otherwise.

Skagit Food Distribution Update

As the Co-op continues its work on food security in Skagit Valley, our partnership with Skagit Food Distribution Center has also grown. We’re happy to share that we donated nearly $16,000 to the Distribution Center in 2023, including over 2,250 pounds of food! It’s great to help provide food for our friends and neighbors in Skagit while also supporting the ongoing, impactful work of the Food Distribution Center.

Funding for Local Purchasing

In the fall of 2023, Community Action’s Skagit Food Distribution Center (SFDC) received a We Feed Washington Grant through the WSDA to fund local purchasing for two years. In addition to the We Feed Washington grant, SFDC was also awarded a two-year Farm to Food Pantry grant and allocated funds by WSDA through their Local Food Purchasing agreement as the lead agency for state food assistance programming in Skagit County.

These funds have allowed the Center to purchase 238,643 pounds of food from 36 local producers and food businesses since July 2023. In addition to those purchases, SFDC received 79,601 pounds of donated products from 18 local producers, 12 of whom the center also purchases from. Products include meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, and fruit from producers of varying sizes throughout Skagit County. SFDC is purchasing products on a weekly basis to ensure a reliable supply of food to the food banks it serves.

The food purchased with these funds is distributed to 11 food banks and 1 meal program throughout Skagit and San Juan counties. In addition to the food banks and meal programs, the Center is also partnering with the Puget Sound Food Hub to purchase produce boxes featuring local fruit and vegetables that are distributed each month to 230 home-bound seniors in Skagit County who are enrolled in the Center’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), a program of WSDA. SFDC is proud to provide these seniors with fresh produce in addition to the box of shelf stable commodities each month. In 2024 and 2025, SFDC intends to keep working with local producers they purchased from in 2023 and continue to expand its network of farmers in the Skagit Valley.

Food Waste Prevention- Viva Farms

The Skagit Food Distribution Center is extremely diligent with its food orders, but also has a solid food waste prevention plan in place on the rare occasion they have a surplus of food, thanks to a partnership with Viva Farms.

First and foremost, the purchasing SFDC does each week with grant funding is intentional, so they only buy what the food banks can distribute in a week to avoid creating waste. And because they work with multiple food banks, they can easily reallocate products if one food bank can’t use something but another one can.

They prioritize purchasing products that are fresh and have long shelf lives if they need to be stored longer. This ensures that by the time products reach the food bank customer, they are still in good shape.

However, if SFDC receives products that are close to spoiling and they’re unable to distribute them in a timely manner, they work with Viva Farms to compost it for their new incubator farmers along with a few other local farmers for pig food. These outlets avoid any food going to the landfill for a closed-loop food system right here in Skagit Valley.

Community Giving in 2023

One of the 7 Cooperative Principles, Concern for Community is a pillar of our Co-op.

Beyond providing a vital service as a community-owned grocery store working with other local businesses and farmers, we’re also committed to giving back through a number of community giving programs. Together with your help, we donated thousands of dollars to over 74 non-profit organizations whose missions align with ours by making Skagit a better place to live, eat, and be.

$210

Community to Community Development receiving their check. Underground Ministries tabling in October 2023.

5b’s Bakery: Dedicated Gluten-Free from the Heart of the Cascades

The Co-op has always been Skagit’s one-stop-shop for unique treats, no matter your dietary preferences. From tofu and tempeh to keto-friendly snacks and plant-based cheese and ice cream, if you can find a traditional version of a product at the Co-op, you’re bound to find its vegan, lactose-free, paleo, or vegetarian-friendly counterpart, too. And for glutenfree foods, there are more options now than ever.

However, back when the Co-op opened in 1973, the concept of a gluten-free diet was only 30-some odd years old. And despite the fact that gluten intolerance had been discovered, less than 1% of the population were aware of their intolerance, with an even smaller amount of the general population aware that gluten could even cause an issue in the first place.

For folks living with Celiac Disease, there were little to no gluten-free alternatives other than foods that were naturally gluten-free like corn, oats, beans, and nuts. This meant foods like bread, pasta, crackers, and pastries were unfortunately out of the question.

Now, thanks to geneticists and doctors who dedicated research time to the autoimmune disorder that we now know as Celiac, awareness and development of glutenfree foods has been exponential.

Gluten-free foods have come a long way from the small selection that were available just 13 years ago when popular culture first made gluten-free a trendy diet. Fast forward to today, and you may very well find yourself snacking on a cracker or bakery treat from the Co-op without even realizing it’s made without gluten. Donut muffin, anyone?

While we offer a variety of gluten-free goodies for you to choose from, we’re excited to bring in the specialty gluten-free bread from a local brand that you’ve been asking for: 5b’s Bakery in Concrete!

A dedicated gluten-free bakery nestled in the foothills of the Cascades, 5b’s Bakery specializes in everything from breads and buns and bagels to something for your sweet tooth. And if you know a gluten-free bride-to-be or kiddo, they have you covered with custom wedding and birthday cakes, too!

5b’s prides itself on making wholesome foods based on a simple business model from the 40s: neighborhood, family-owned bakeries where everything is made from scratch, in house. And when they say from scratch they mean it. 5b’s uses over 15 different flours to create a variety of flour blends that are developed specifically for each individual product in order to get the right texture, chew, and flavor, all without the need for gluten-based ingredients. 5b’s believes that the best products are made when you start with real, quality, local ingredients. That’s a sentiment we can get behind, and one that is at the core of everything we make here at the Co-op, too.

So, who are the 5b’s you might ask? The B stands for Beals, the founding family’s name. Through her own experience with Celiac Disease, owner Em Beals has mastered the science of glutenfree food while offering a high-quality product that meets the needs of many in the Valley and beyond. Having a bakery entirely dedicated to gluten-free products is quite unique, and gives both gluten-free and non-gluten-free eaters alike the chance to enjoy a meal together without the concern of cross-contamination.

Next time you take a trip through the North Cascades, make sure to stop in at 5b’s bee-utiful café and bakery, where you can find an even larger selection of gluten-free baked goods, confections, full lunch meals, and handcrafted espresso at their cozy spot in Historic Downtown Concrete.

And, of course, next time you’re at the Co-op, pick up a loaf of bread from 5b’s Bakery. Choose from their 5-Seed, Brioche, Honey Oat, Vegan, Pumpernickel, and Sourdough breads, available in the bread aisle.

New + Notable

Forget Valentine’s Day, April is all about love!

Love for our locals during Tulip Time, love for our planet during Earth month (and beyond), and love for our fellow co-ops. Show your love with these new finds!

Love For Local

We love local and we mean it: we carry over 500 local brands at the Co-op! Here’s a few new favorite local brands blooming throughout the store this spring.

Pakistani Chutney & Masala Seasonings

KARACHI KITCHEN

Based in Seattle, family-owned Karachi Kitchen makes small-batch traditional chutneys and spice blends with high quality, locally-sourced ingredients. Owners, chefs, and mother-daughter duo Kausar and Sadaf Ahmed founded Karachi Kitchen with the mission to teach people about the cuisine and culture of Pakistan through food. Choose from spicy mango, tamarind & date, and tomato chutneys, and Biryani, Chaat, and Garam Masala

Locally-Roasted Coffee ISLAND TIME COFFEE COMPANY

Sourced directly from farmers in Latin America and Indonesia and fresh-roasted in small batches on Whidbey Island, Island Time Coffee Company is dedicated to providing a local, sustainable cup of joe. Choose from 4 of their island-inspired blends: Deception Dark, Salish Orca, Ferry Line Blues, and Island Sunset French

Pierogis & Pelmeni

WEST COAST DUMPLING COMPANY

Yulia Wilson grew up eating and loving pelmeni (Russian dumplings), and now she’s brought her family recipes to the Co-op!

Hand rolled and made fresh every week with authentic, fresh ingredients, find West Coast Dumpling Company’s beef pelmeni, 4 cheese sweet potato pierogis, gouda bacon potato pierogis, and shiitake mushroom potato pierogis in the freezer section. Enjoy with sour cream and Borscht, or our lively beet salad!

Hello, sunshine! Spring has sprung and so have the buds on our tongue. Pop into the Co-op for some bloomin’ good food, including our new A.M. offerings, pretty pink rhubarb, and cups full of PRIDE. You can look forward to longer days and these handmade goods from our Deli & Bakery for sensational snacking all season long:

April

Breakfast Sandwiches

Rhubarb

Custard Bars

Spring Pasta Primavera Salad

TulipSmoothieSunrise

June

Pride Smoothie

Breakfast Island Fried Rice

Grab & Go

Kale Salad

Pineapple

Coconut Sherbet

May

Quiche

Biscuits & Gravy

5-Layer Bean Dip

Chocolate PB

Caramel Ice Cream

During June, we're donating $1 from every Pride Smoothie sold to PFLAG Skagit. Last June we donated $1,000 together!

Love For Co-ops

A quick brush up on your cooperative principles: Co-operative Principle #6 is Cooperation Among Cooperatives. Nothing epitomizes that principle more than our work with Equal Exchange. Whether you’re grabbing a hot cup of coffee from the Deli, or treating yourself to a bar of chocolate, you can find Equal Exchange’s products throughout the Co-op.

Palestinian Olive Oil EQUAL EXCHANGE

Made from olives sourced from small farmers throughout the West Bank, Equal Exchange’s Palestinian olive oil is cold pressed and features a rich, peppery flavor that’s great for cooking, baking, and dipping with a piece of toasted Co-op bread. Find it near the oil and vinegar.

New Patch Hats!

SKAGIT VALLEY FOOD CO-OP

Look cool, stay cool.

Sunshine is on the way, and so are new Co-op hats! Available in a variety of styles and colors, they’re the perfect new accessory to rock this spring and summer.

Love For Mother Earth

It’s true: every day is Earth Day at the Co-op! If you’re on a mission to make small changes that make a big difference, keep reading.

Castile Soap Refill Cartons

DR. BRONNER’S

Everyone’s favorite magic soap, packaged with 82% less plastic than the traditional 32-oz recycled bottles!

Dr. Bronner’s new refill cartons are made from FSC-certified paper with minimal plastic and aluminum lining for shelf stability and available in all your favorite scents. Find them in the cleaning aisle near the other Dr. Bronner’s soaps.

Editor’s Picks

by Nicole Vander Muelen

My favorite thing about spring is the day — the moment — everything pops! Dismal gray, suddenly replaced by bursts of color: buds, blooms, and blossoms everywhere. The air freshens, and life feels lighter. Hello, sunshine, my old friend. Here, a few other favorite friends and finds to try next time you swing by.

Be Well Coconut, Lemon & Turmeric Organic Chicken Bone Broth (In a Cup!)

BONAFIDE PROVISIONS

I’m sipping one now.

Most days, I don’t have the stomach for breakfast, but I know I need a good dose of protein to maintain energy throughout the day: this sippable bone broth with MCT oil provides 10 grams while still being light, comforting, and flavorful. I’m addicted.

Vanilla Rose Lip Balm

SOOTHING TOUCH

Like heaven for your lips! I can’t live without mine, and there’s a balm at my desk, in my purse, on my nightstand, and floating around in my car somewhere.

Truly soothing, vegan, and certified organic. Available in other yummy flavors like lavender coconut and coconut lime.

Organic Rosemary Strong Roots Oil

SKY ORGANICS

When we think about skin care, the scalp often gets overlooked. This stuff, though, is a magic potion that helps nourish the scalp and those luscious locks right at the root. It’s a great excuse to give yourself a head massage, and you can recycle the cap/dropper on skyorganics.com via their Pact Partnership.

Rhubarb Custard Bars

SKAGIT VALLEY FOOD CO-OP

As I come up on 8 years at the Co-op, there are certain seasonal foods I look forward to, but none more than our rhubarb custard bars. They’re the perfect cool, sweet treat to pair with a pocket full of sunshine, and I can’t wait to eat mine!

Canvas Tote Bags

SKAGIT VALLEY FOOD CO-OP

Calling all bag ladies!

There’s no such thing as too many totes, right? Made with organic cotton canvas, we introduced a brand-new color, a punchy purpley pink for all things spring!

Notice the start dates! The Co-op is proud to have a workplace with several longstanding, committed employees and friends. In this issue, we’re featuring two of our own who have been with the Co-op for 22 years— each!

Jess Knowlton

Meat Department Team Member Co-op Employee since March 2002

Favorite Customer Moment:

All the different stories I’ve heard and people I have met have made working at the Co-op a very unique experience that I’m sure you wouldn’t get working at your average grocery store. Also, seeing people who were children when I started working here now being grown up with children of their own is pretty amazing. People I have met here and have been in my life have become some of my best friends and I can’t imagine never having gotten to know them. Including my amazing wife, who I met working at the Co-op.

Favorite Items in the Co-op:

The Old Silvana raw milk is one of the best things I have ever had – I drink it all day long. The smoked shredded chicken we make in the Meat Department is delicious and the tangerine olives are also very good.

We do a lot of cooking at home. The selection in produce is unmatched anywhere. Stir fry is always popular as well as soups and salads. It is really hard to beat a good Co-op pizza though!

Favorite Way to Spend Time

Outside of Work:

When I’m not at work I play guitar in a band as well as try to attend concerts whenever possible. I love to travel and go explore places I’ve never been. This coming May my wife and I are taking a trip to Finland and I couldn’t be more excited. And like all Skagitonians, I love the spring and summer for all the outdoor activities.

Jeremiah Hunter

Bakery Team Member

Co-op Employee since March 2002

For the past 22 years, I've journeyed through the aisles of the grocery store, wearing many hats along the way. From scrubbing dishes to crafting delectable pastries, my time here has been a whirlwind of experiences, laughter, and unexpected friendships.

As a dishwasher, I learned the rhythm of the kitchen, the clatter of plates, and the camaraderie that comes from shared tasks. I transitioned to prep cook, then to butcher, where the art of precision and the wisdom of my grandfather's knife sharpening techniques became my tools of the trade.

But it was when I stepped into the world of baking that my heart truly found its home. Baking became a blend of science and passion, a realm where every ingredient told a story, and every creation was an expression of love. Ensuring that each treat was safe for those with dietary restrictions became not just a duty but a joy—a way to nourish both body and soul.

Favorite Customer Moment:

Judie, if you’re reading this, remember the “Fudge Walnut Brownie, Center Piece, Extra gooey”? It’s a masterpiece crafted with you in mind. There’s a simple joy in the connections we make with others. One of my favorite customer interactions occurred when a curious soul asked about gluten-free baked goods. As I launched into my spiel, she playfully quipped, “I’m allergic to muffins,” just to see the reaction on my face. We shared a belly laugh, and she walked away with a gluten-free donut muffin, the sweet taste of community and cinnamon lingering in the air.

Favorite Meal to Make

With Co-op Ingredients:

I enjoy using ingredients across the store for pot-roast night—the culmination of a week’s worth of anticipation. A cozy affair that pairs perfectly with movie night. As the crockpot bubbles away, filling the air with savory aromas, I find myself grateful for the simple pleasures of home-cooked meals and cherished traditions.

Favorite Way to Spend Time

Outside of Work:

Outside of work, I’m an avid computer enthusiast, having once ranked 9th in the world for overclocking. On weekends, you’ll find me at Silver Arrow Bowmen, navigating the TAC-style archery course nestled amidst the beauty of Little Mountain. The journey through the course is a scenic hike, filled with switchbacks, ravines, and the gentle babble of a creek. As I crest the ridge-line and navigate through dense tree coverage, the world fades away, leaving only the thrill of the hunt and the rhythm of my heartbeat.

An Update From Viva Farms

We welcome all visitors to Viva Farms with the same go-to question: “How many of you have considered starting a farm?” Right away, at least 80% of hands shoot up. The follow-up typically expands to, “How many of you have considered growing your own food?” By then, it’s rare when all of the hands aren’t in the air. But, what happens next is telling; we ask visitors where and how they would start. “If you decided to start your farm business tomorrow, where would you begin?” The hands relax to fall by people’s sides, and it’s clear that answer isn’t as straightforward.

For food conscious individuals who didn’t grow up on the back of a tractor, plopped down between rows of veggies before they could walk, or strapped to the backs of their parents as they picked food ready for harvest, it’s almost impossible to know what the first step would be to build a viable farm business. You can only get so far watching hours and hours of homesteading YouTube and hobby food preservers’ TikToks; there are so many other barriers in the way –land, infrastructure, funding, know-how, customers, community to name a few.

One way forward might be to start right here at Viva Farms by joining our 8-month, land-based Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture course that we offer annually in both Skagit and King County to aspiring farmers and food-systems professionals.

Beginning this week, 2024’s Practicum students will begin to gather in the longer evenings on our student farms to learn— seed propagation, irrigation, soil health, organic certification, and more!

The course welcomes both students without farming experience and those who may be experts at a particular aspect of farming (such as picking berries) but may be less familiar with the rest of what it takes to make a farm financially viable (such as crop planning or knowing the ins and outs of a P&L, also known as a profit and loss statement). For the next few months, the course content will focus on the fundamentals of sustainable farming techniques— both environmentally and economically.

Later in the summer, student farmers will begin to harvest the plants they started for sale: cultivating a communal ¼ acre, learning further foundational knowledge like food safety practices and just exactly how many carrots fit into a “bunch” for the local market. All the while, student farmers are fulfilling course hours on their own time, brightening the farm with their drive and curiosity whenever it fits into their schedule.

Following a typical northwest farming season, classes will continue through the chilly and shorter evenings of October, when the focus shifts from the field to the office, or as established farmers might call it, “spreadsheet land”. With the goal for students to truly understand viability, Viva Farms Practicum instructors teach business planning, grant writing, tax filing, and all the other pieces a small business owner in a very unique sector will need to understand in order to be successful.

A recent graduate shared, “Starting a farm business feels tangibly possible now; I can visualize the scale and scope and steps necessary – and pitfalls to avoid. It was a fuzzy blur of a dream before the course.” If farming is in your dreams, we hope you’ll consider the Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture in the future.

Scholarships are available, and Viva Farms is committed to never turning an applicant away due to cost. In Skagit, the Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture is offered bilingually, with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish. This week, we will welcome the students to the farms in Skagit and King County, and we can’t wait to support them as they become the farmers who will grow food that will nourish us all. Viva Farms educates the next generation of organic farmers, because we envision a just and resilient food system, one that has the essentials needed to feed our community.

Learn more at vivafarms.org/donate or scan the QR Code!

Weather Patterns

by Ben Goe FROM PRODUCE

Summers were mild when I was a kid. We’d have a few hot days in Blanchard, on the northwestern edge of the Skagit Valley, but it seldom got into the 80s. No one – and I mean no one – had air conditioning. Our climate has changed a lot since then, more than I could have anticipated.

These changes are affecting how we live generally, and whether or not we realize it, it’s also affecting how we eat. Climate change is having a massive impact on agriculture. Once again, those of us in Skagit have it lucky (for now), but we depend on California for much of our out-of-season produce, and Eastern Washington for much of our fruit. Things aren’t going so smoothly for them. Rising temperatures in the summer, colder and harsher winters, and uncontrolled wildfires are devastating our fruit orchards in Eastern Washington. The same issues plague California, along with quickly dwindling water resources and unpredictable weather patterns.

Many of California’s most important crops are highly temperature sensitive. According to the USDA, strawberries, table and wine grapes, almonds, pistachios, tomatoes, walnuts, stone fruit, lettuce, avocados, and assorted vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage, are all considered “crops to watch”, meaning they are sensitive to warming temperatures, of high value, and planted in significant acreage.

We’ve certainly seen some effects here in the Co-op. Most recently, there was a massive upset to the U.S. strawberry market due to torrential rains in southern California just before Valentine’s Day that had the nation’s produce wholesalers scrambling for fruit. We were able to order enough berries for the Co-op when they were available, but we can’t say that will always be the case.

We’ve also seen some drastic price fluctuation on crops that were previously pretty stable. So far, it’s been mostly hiccups in the supply chain, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

So. What do we do? The U.N. Climate Coalition and other world governing bodies haven’t reached any real resolutions. Clean energy and technological advances only get us so far, and new technologies require huge amounts of energy – already A.I. technologies are requiring massive resource sinks as they become more ingrained in daily life. Where do we, as individual consumers, and as an agricultural community, fit into the solutions?

On an individual level, reduce food waste, reduce emissions, reduce your carbon footprint. One great way to do all of these is to buy food from local, sustainable sources. Conscientious farmers who are mindful of resources and pollution produce food that travels a shorter distance, which means there is less spoilage between field and consumer. Already, just by buying local food you’ve reduced food waste.

On a higher level, the sustainable agriculture movement is going down some interesting and vital paths. Farmers are planting mangoes and other tropical crops in California anticipating further warming, and likewise, other farmers are examining what new crops to plant for the changing environment. Lowtill and no-till methods are becoming more common among large organic farms; these are methods that have been used in traditional farming, and by smaller, environmentally minded farms, but larger operations have been slower to adopt them. Now, as more consumers demand traceability and transparency in farming practices, more money is being put into developing large-scale, low-impact farming and carbon sequestration methods.

There’s also the exciting new field of mycoremediation. You may have heard about some of the experiments done using oyster mushrooms to break down hydrocarbons. Oyster mushroom mycelium is particularly good at breaking down petroleum products – an exciting development in the reduction of discarded plastics. Other mycelium are adept at breaking down other toxins and bacteria. Some of the areas now being researched include methods of filtering agricultural runoff through sacks of grain inoculated with mycelium, and using

mushrooms to pull heavy metals from soil and through a process called chelation. Chelation not only isolates, but largely neutralizes the metals. The final breakdown is this: we aren’t in any danger of running out of high-quality organic produce any time soon, but be prepared to make more substitutions in the coming months and years. Just lately arugula has been hard to get, so we’ve stocked a mizuna mustard blend as a peppery alternative. There could even be days or weeks coming that we can’t get broccoli. The best advice I can give, though, is to buy local and seasonal produce. Vote with your dollars; opt for the foods grown close to home by the people you know. The seasons are changing, and we should, too.

Asparagus RALPH’S GREENHOUSE & CANALES PRODUCE

Shiitake, Oyster + Lion’s Mane mushroom growing kits. Bulk dried Shiitake, Oyster + Reishi mushrooms

CASCADIA MUSHROOMS

Collard + red cabbage raab, leeks, bunched spinach, leek scapes, rhubarb

RALPH’S GREENHOUSE

Assorted microgreens

DAHLIA DEPOT

Wild harvested Morel mushrooms

ORGANIC ANTICS

Bunched mustard greens, escarole, frisée

BOLDLY GROWN FARM

Basil + assorted herbs, edible flowers

THE CROWS FARM

Sunflower greens + salad mix

MOONDANCE FARM

Spicy mixed greens, baby arugula + spinach

LONG HEARING FARM

June Bearing Strawberries: Rainier + Shuksan varieties

HEDLIN FAMILY FARM

Red leaf, green leaf + Romaine lettuce SKAGIT FLATS FARM

Bamboo Shoots BLUE HERON FARM

Salad mix, radishes, red, green + Lacinato kale

Viva Farm Practicum students at

Habitat for Humanity and Beyond

On a warm late spring morning, I was taking advantage of the sun and drinking tea on my deck. To my left, the Skagit River rolling towards the bay, to my right, views of farmland and Mount Baker glowing in the distance. With all that beauty on either side, what had my attention was right in front of me. A hummingbird was slowly flitting between the slats of deck railing. My first thought was that the wee creature was stealing some webbing for its tiny nest. To my astonishment, the bird was plucking insects that were suspended in the spider’s silk. So much of my time and energy spent trying to grow flowers that attract the little pollinator, only to be shocked at it scavenging amongst cobwebs. Gardens should not be sterile. Leave some leaf litter, piles of sticks, some cobwebs. In doing so, you are contributing to building a habitat, which is as vital as providing pollen and nectar sources for our garden allies. Almost anything with a tubular shaped flower will bring hummingbirds into your space. For shady spots, plant perennials such as hardy fuchsias, columbine, and heucheras. Put foxglove, salvias, and penstemons in full sun.

Everyone loves ladybugs, right? There seems to be nothing about them that could be misconstrued as gross or dangerous. But for almost half my life, I would react to the sight of a ladybug like many do to a snake or spider. As a child, I stayed in a south facing room. In this home, we had wood heat, so the temperature would fluctuate throughout the day and night. During warmer times, and sunny days, the ladybugs that were hibernating in the walls would be tricked into thinking it was spring and begin to move about. Often this would be on me or in my bed. It took numerous years for me to overcome my aversion to those distinctive orange and black spotted beings.

Now, as a gardener and lover of nature, I am in awe of them and their status as a beneficial insect. Aphids are their favorite food, but they will also eat other common pests such as white flies, thrips, and spider mites. Ladybugs are omnivores, so provide them plants from which they can also collect pollen during their crusade against pests. For use in the garden and kitchen, try cilantro, dill, and parsley to give those little buggers (and yourself) a well-rounded diet. To add color, grow cosmos,

coreopsis, and alyssum. Please do not buy ladybugs in a container. They are likely to leave your garden before doing anything helpful. Instead, build areas that are welcoming and safe for insects and pollinators.

Leave clumps of dead wood. When decomposing they help to build soil and return nutrients to the earth. It provides shelter for insects, which are a main food source for numerous birds. A stone garden sounds more romantic than a pile of rocks. Call it what you want, but incorporate it into your space as another refuge for a variety of small creatures.

Plant a mini (or huge if you have the space!) meadow filled with native wildflowers, many of which will bloom throughout the season, providing food sources for many months. Wildflowers are easy to grow and will also often self-seed, giving you years of blooms.

Add an herb garden with your favorite perennials such as rosemary, sage, thyme, and lavender. All of those will be covered in bees when they show their purple flowers. Grow annual self-seeding varieties such as German chamomile, cilantro, dill, and nasturtiums. Pollinators love when mints and lemon balm are in bloom (keep those contained in pots!).

The Easy-Going Dahlia

As a cutting flower, dahlias are pretty easy-going, a perfect way to give the brain a rest and rely instead on the hands.

A pollinator friendly flower bed has an endless range of options for planting. Make yourself happy by incorporating your favorite colors. Make the pollinators happy by growing plants that have open flowers with easily assessable nectar and pollen. Sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, rudbeckia, asters, calendula, and flowering grasses will give you a decent start and a combination of annuals and perennials.

Flowering shrubs add height variety and more areas of shelter for our bird friends. Red flowering currants and snowberries are native deciduous shrubs that play a dual role of food sources, with nectar and pollen early in the season and berries later on. Mt. Aso pussywillow also does double duty, with its blooms being one of the first sources of food for bees in late winter, and its cut branches with attractive buds as a centerpiece in your home.

Incorporating trees into your landscape adds shelter and shade for us and our garden friends. A combination of evergreen and deciduous trees will give you visual interest in all seasons. Midwinter Fire Dogwood gives blooms in spring, purple foliage in the fall and brightens up our grey months with twigs that range from yellow to red.

I still find joy in turning over a log to see what hides beneath it, how much of it falls apart, slowly turning into soil. A meadow filled with wildflowers will bring visual interest even as flowers go to seed and create pods of all shapes and sizes. I am known to collect and arrange affectionally called “dead things” to put in a vase (or an old honey jar, or wine bottle) on my kitchen table. Being able to add fresh herbs to dishes in the kitchen takes meals to a gourmet level. What doesn’t immediately get used will go into a lid-less jar to dry, for use another time. The flora you planted to attract pollinators often make excellent cut flowers to bring into your home or share with others. A couple of carefully placed trees create a spot to hang a hammock and have a nap, or throw down a blanket and read a book. But leave some leaf litter, piles of sticks, some cobwebs. By creating habitats for our garden allies, we improve our own environments, too.

They seem to require just three things. They need close attention paid when they are wee sprouts because slugs munch them like the tender greens they are. I have tried making metal cages for them to start out in, like little green gerbils, but they seem to do best with doses of Sluggo. A stake when they are planted (or cut back in the late fall) marks the spot where I start putting Sluggo mid-spring. Then I keep an eye on the spot, and when the tiny shoots come up, I sprinkle on more Sluggo as needed.

Once they reach a lush eight inches or so, slugs seem to pass them by. As they grow, I corral them gently with some twine around that stake and perhaps another. Otherwise, they will eventually topple over. This year, the largest dahlias towered above my head.

As they flower, the one thing they ask for is an appreciative audience to cut them regularly for vases, or at least to deadhead them as them bloom. I used to think of dahlias as a late summer, early autumn flower. But the last few years, they have come on much earlier, filling the garden and house with mid-summer blooms and not quitting until close to the first frost.

You can plant the tubers, like little wizened yams, mid-April to mid-May, as long as there is no more frost coming. Nestled in a little basket, the tubers make a nice Mother’s Day gift, and even nicer if they include an offer to stop by and help with the planting. I’ve never bothered to dig them up and store them as is sometimes suggested, and they have come back from some pretty deep freezes.

by Beverly Faxon

Magnolia's home garden