| Co-ops Working Together to End Hunger –Join us on Saturday October 13 when members of Skagit’s 1095 Club,who are working with Share Our Strength to end hunger in Skagit County, join us in-store! The Skagit County 1095 Club is a group of engaged parents,citizens and representatives from state and local government agencies,educational institutions and other food- and youth-related organizations. They support programs aimed at eliminating childhood hunger in Skagit County by organizing,coordinating and sharing volunteers,resources and information. 
Happy early Autumn! Just like the last two years;we’re getting a slow, beautiful, panchromatic ease into the cold season. This allows us a lot of time to tackle the chores of Fall in pleasant weather. Garden Nancy is pulling out weeds and overgrown areas in her yard so that the first precious rain falls on favorite plants rather than undesirables. It is also the BEST time of the year to divide many perennials, plant new ones and amend the soil. The best thing to amend your soil would be your own garden compost or worm castings. Next best is any of a variety of humus adding,soil building amendments available for use in organic agriculture. Bagged Worm castings from Wonder Worm - $17.99 for a 12.5 lb bag - is a great humus amendment. Another highly recommended soil conditioner is Humagic soil builder from Hendrikus. This is a highly rich source of humates,available as a liquid concentrate or bagged in two sizes. A little goes a long way. This Weekend is our Plastic Recycle! Bring your empty garden pots and flats Oct. 6 and 7 –we’ll have a trailer parked in the Co-op parking lot to receive them for proper recycling. Thanks to Nick from Sunseed Farm for this great service. Also,the best time to sow wildflower seeds is, well, when they do. Saved seeds from non-invasives can start to go in the garden over the next couple of months. The Co-op’s Garden Center offers two commercial mixes: a Wildflower seed mix and a Butterfly garden seed mix 14 grams of seed for $4.49. This nice weather looks to continue through the week. Garden Nancy is ready to get back out, enjoy the sunshine and get some work done. Yours verdantly, the Garden Center crew.  CALENDAR TIME!!!
We have outdone ourselves again –with an amazing array of spectacular calendars! (So hard to chooooose!) Our members love this time of year and come flocking in to find their favorites. It’s not too early to be thinking about Holiday Gifts, stocking stuffers, or just fun wall adornments.   Thanks to everyone who stopped by to try some of the delicious recipes last weekend. We created samples from what our farmers are harvesting fresh right now for our Eat Local celebration!
 Our Garden Center folks: Nancy, Dan,and Johnna put some good work into the idea, and all of our departments joined in the fun, with plenty of samples in store too.
 Blue Heron farmer Anne Schwartz tried a corn cabbage carrot slaw made with her vegetables
 we had local coffee from Fidalgo Bay brewed up,and local Harmony Chai tea too.
Read more Local Garden Cafe Sampler Success! … Hope everyone is enjoying our last few days of actual Summer. It sure has been nice to have such a long stretch of fruit ripening weather! Not to mention being able to see the stars every night!  Seed Garlic is here! Two gorgeous varieties Siberian and Rich’s Red –organically grown from Uprising Organics. At $19.99 per lb,this is certified DISEASE FREE seed. The garlic in the Produce Dept. gorgeous though it is,is NOT. This could mean that planting it might result in introducing disease into your garden,a big problem for Maritime gardeners.
Here are some tips from Uprising:Read more Fresh from the Garden Center:September 19,2012 …  Join us this Sat. for our Eat Local Event from 2-4pm. We will have samples from MANY local producers and vendors from Departments all across the store. Find out what’s great about locally sourced foods in our little corner of Cascadia.
Also,another reminder that our Plastic Recycling weekend is OCT. 6-7. Please bring your pots and flats that you’ve been collecting,so we can take them to Skagit Steel for proper disposal. This great service is being facilitated by our friends at Sunseed Farm. Thanks! Thanks everybody for the best year yet for the Co-op’s Garden Center,and in particular,all your kind comments. We LOVE to bring together all the LOCAL growers beautiful offerings for our customers.
P.S. Keep an eye out for Bulbs and Certified Organic Seed Garlic here soon! Yours verdantly,the Garden Center Crew. Frequently Asked Questions From Co-op Shoppers! Q. Would it be possible to have a compost bin for organic waste? A. Great Question!! And the answer is we already do!! Are we able to have a customer bin? The answer is no. We are at capacity for our bins and the placing the onus on the customers doesn’t work for us. The back of the house has a compost bin that is utilized and the Produce Department has a compost bin that is distributed to local farmers. We make every effort to reduce waste as much a possible,but spacially we need to do it in the back of house. Read more Co-op FAQ’s …  Sushi time at the Co-op! It’s here! Fresh sushi from the Co-op’s Deli. Each piece of hand-rolled sushi is edible art. Our sushi is made from whole foods and gluten free ingredients and is sold by the piece. Try some for lunch or dinner,or take it home as a late night snack! We currently offer two flavors: - Vegetarian Tofu Nori Roll –delicately balanced with marinated tofu,creamy avocado,crunchy cucumber and carrot with a pinch of spicy wasabi powder,wrapped in a nori seaweed sheet with short grain rice and rice vinegar.
- Smoked Salmon Nori Roll –a smoky spicy roll with short grain sushi rice,alder smoked salmon,cucumber,carrot,rice vinegar and a zippy house-made Sriracha (Thai hot sauce) mayonnaise to add creaminess and a bit of heat.
Hmmmn,what’s this? New ice cream flavor? 
We thought these pooch ponds might double as frisbees… 
Last vintage of Syrah from Renwood,on sale! Their Syrah grapes will still show up in blends,but they’re moving away from straight Syrah. Read more New goodies to catch yer eyes…… Two Upcoming Dates to note! Our Eat Local Week Event Saturday Sept 15 from 2-4 pm. We are very excited to show just what the local farmers and producers have to offer. Tastes from all Co-op Depts! Stop by the Co-op’s Garden Center –We’ll be surrounded by seasonal color and Dona Flora’s beautiful flowers as well as the sights and smells of LOCAL EATS! The other important dates are October 6th and 7th –when Nick from Sunseed Farm will have the Horticultural Read more Fresh and Local in the Garden Center … 
Step Right Up for Some Great Local Flavors! Saturday September 15th from 2-4pm in our parking lot Enjoy: Galen grilling Local in the Meat Dept. Platters of Local fruit and cheese pairings The Raw Deal and Summer Squash Salad from our Deli Produce Samples,including a ginormous bowl of Local Salsa Local Rhubarb Custard Bars Samples of Produce Grown from our Local Seed Suppliers Local Flowers and Local Chocolate Samples from Raw-Cha-Cha This Co-op celebration of the many available local harvests and the joys of Eating Local coincides with Washington Organic Week brought to us by Tilth Producers of Washington Mark your calendars,gardeners,for the weekend of October 6-7,when Nick from Sunseed Farm will pull the Recycle Trailer into the Co-op’s parking lot to accept horticultural plastic for recycling. This is a great opportunity to properly dispose of all those plastic pots and flats sitting around. Thanks to Sunseed for implementing this great service! Yes,the garden season is winding down,but it’s not OVER by any means! Just check out all the fabulous HARDY Read more Fresh from the Garden Center … Dona Flora’s Dahlia Bunches are in! Our own Beth Hailey’s very popular mixed dahlias are $5.99 a bunch and make a cheerful hostess gift for summer parties and barbecues. Check out all the other fresh local flowers from Dona Flora,delivered fresh 3 times a week. Garden Nancy spends a lot of time fussing with the flowers in the Garden Center,dead-heading and generally loving them up,and it occurred to her that picking spent flowers is a good subject. It is necessary to keep flowering plants looking good,but most importantly to keep them blooming. If one thinks like a plant,its obvious that all they care about is setting seeds for the next generation of plants. We want them to flower as long as possible,so slowing that process is in our interest as gardeners. Picking fresh blooms for bouquets is also a way of stimulating the plant to produce more flowers.
Along these same lines,harvesting annual herbs –cilantro,dill and basil –helps keep them from flowering and going to seed. Again that’s all they are programmed for. So,take a cool drink in one hand and a pair of snips in the other,and give those bloomers a trim! Veggie start deliveries are winding down,Sunseed may make their last deliveries this week or next,so if you still want to get some greens in for fall,NOW is the time. While this signifies our season slowing down as well,we are still getting great ornamentals each week from other local growers. Stop by to check out what’s new as well as our markdown racks at either end of the Garden Center where Garden Dan has been sale pricing plants with a lot of life still in them. Happy County Fair Week and good luck to all participants! Yours verdantly,the Garden Center Crew.  Healthy Foods Healthy Communities:Measuring the Social and Economic Impact of Food Co-ops
More information on the findings of this Food Impact Study is available on this Co+op Stronger Together website page. Fast Facts! Supporting Local Food Systems and Sustainable Foods - Food co-ops work with an average of 157 local farmers and local producers. Conventional grocery stores work with 65.
- The average food co-op sources 20 percent of products locally compared to 6 percent at conventional grocers.
- Of produce sold at food co-ops,82 percent is organic,compared to 12 percent for conventional grocers.
- Organics make up 48 percent of grocery sales in food co-ops,compared to just 2 percent in conventional supermarkets.
Local Economic Impact Read more New Study,Just Released,Compares Food Coops and Conventional Grocery Stores …  Garden Center manager Nancy is keen to remind us all it’s not too late to get your fall garden going! Now is the time to sow some seeds and plant those broccoli and beet starts. This season build your backyard harvest with healthy pesticide-free plants from the Co-op! Read more Garden Center:Not Too Late for Lettuce …
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Need help finding Gluten-free options? Look for this label in the Store  |
