The Co-op Blog

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!

An agricultural conservation easement ensures that the highest quality farmland continues to be farmed while staying in private hands.

Gardens should not be sterile. Leave some leaf litter, piles of sticks, some cobwebs. In doing so, you are contributing to building a habitat.

The Co-op’s participation in the PHT 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 food waste.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.