9 minute read
Tokens for Tomorrow
Sausage and Potato Soup Servings: 6 • Prep time: 30 minutes; 20 minutes active. 1⁄2 pound sweet or hot Italian bulk sausage 1 small onion, diced 2 large potatoes, cubed to make 3 cups 1 large carrot, chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 14.5-ounce can chicken broth
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice 1⁄2 bunch kale, sliced 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed 1⁄2 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed 1⁄2 teaspoon salt 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, to taste • Place a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat and crumble the sausage into the pan. Stir as the sausage starts to sizzle, then add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes, until sausage is browned and cooked through.
Add the potatoes, carrot, garlic, chicken broth, tomatoes, kale, oregano, marjoram and salt. If desired, add red pepper flakes. • Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. When the potatoes are tender, serve. Italian sausage infuses this simple soup with flavor. Choose hot or sweet sausage, depending on your taste for heat.
Reprinted by permission from welcometothetable.coop. Find recipes, plus information about your food and where it comes from at welcometothetable.coop.
NAMI Skagit
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.
NAMI Skagit is one of nineteen affiliates in Washington. NAMI’s mission is to provide support, education and advocacy for persons living with mental illness, their families, and the community.
Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland
Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland exists to ensure the economic viability of Skagit County agriculture and its required infrastructure through farmland protection, advocacy, research, education, and public awareness. SPF believes that sustainable farming practices support wildlife, fish, water and land conservation efforts. SPF also believes that farming has been responsible for Skagit Valley being the greatest watershed left in Puget Sound, and that maintaining the agricultural land base will continue to maintain wildlife, fish, water, and open space better than any other land use.
Meet the 4th Quarter Tokens for Tomorrow groups!
With Tokens for Tomorrow, every time you bring in a reusable shopping bag, we honor your commitment to reducing waste with a token worth 5¢ that you can give back to one of these local organizations.
Community Action of Skagit County (Community Action) was established locally in 1979 and has since grown and evolved responsively to Skagit County’s needs and social services landscape. The mission of Community Action is to foster and advocate for self-sufficiency among under-resourced people in Skagit County. Community Action helps people improve their lives through education, support, and direct assistance while advocating for just and equitable communities.
Community Action’s Skagit Food Distribution Center (SFDC) addresses food insecurity among marginalized communities by serving as the centralized food distribution center in Skagit County and by providing critical food support to food banks and hot meal programs in the region.
Friendship House
Friendship House believes that by treating all people with respect and kindness, they can help transform their lives into ones of self-sufficiency and abundance.
Friendship House provides two emergency shelters, one transitional house, one permanent low income shared living house, a daily meal service, an innovative employment training program, and many other services to neighbors in need, including showers, laundry, and a giving room for clothing selection to those who may not choose to participate in the shelter program.
Friendship House also manages the newly opened low-barrier Skagit First Step Center in partnership with the City of Burlington and Skagit County.
Reuse. Rinse. Repeat.
Every time you reuse your bag, you’re giving back. How many times have you given back? How many times have you reused your bag? Probably too many to count, and we are so grateful for your efforts. Now, how many times have you reused your bag since you washed it last? Chances are, probably too many times to count. So, please remember to wash your bags to help keep everyone’s food safe and clean. And thanks again for reusing your bag!
On any occasion that warrants a gift—birthday, Mother’s Day, Christmas—my kids give me beeswax candles from the Co-op. Usually, they get the very pretty ones in special shapes like flowers or bees, that I would never buy myself. I thought I might feel bad about melting them, but they smell so cozy, I gave in. This is a pattern of gifting that I wholeheartedly encourage because candles are magic, my Co-op is the best place to shop, and I like the consistency of getting the same useful, beautiful gifts from people that love me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t love a good surprise, but in truth, I like my surprises to be completely anonymous.
When someone you know does something good for you, it reflects well on them and strengthens your relationship with them. That’s a great thing: you get that fuzzy feeling and you want to do something nice for them, so you do, and then it’s just like a cuddle fest of good vibes. Yes, of course we need that. Do that. Buy candles for your mom.
But when something good happens, and you can’t pin it on any specific person, then it feels like the storm clouds have parted and a glorious beam of sunlight is shining on your path for no other reason than You. Are. Fabulous. Stop and think about the last time you got an anonymous surprise. Hmmm. Crickets? The problem with humans is that we often get anonymous bad surprises from each other. Someone dents your car in a parking lot, they throw their beer cans in your yard, they steal what is not theirs, and it can feel like “the universe is out to get me.” I know you can all think about an anonymous bad surprise. But don’t. Just keep reading.
Years ago, I lived along the bosque, the forest that grows along the Rio Grande, of South Albuquerque on a street named Entrada Bonita. We lived in a very small casita with a wood stove and a lot of ants. When it came time to leave this place that had housed the best and the worst moments of my thirty years of life, I began to go through the many things I had been schlepping around to see what I could let go of. In one box were many pieces of bisque pottery, figures I had made from clay but had not been fully finished in a kiln.
They were whimsical and comforting when I made them, but as a new mom they felt more like another chore I might never get to. I didn’t want to carry them back to Washington State, but I didn’t want to throw them out either. So, I anonymously gifted them. On an early morning walk through the bosque trail with that salty smell of desert dew, I placed them in the crook of cottonwood trees like curious birds watching the dog walkers. I sat them on sandy rock piles like meditating crones. I hid them in the sand with small parts poking through to the air. As I did this I was giddy with delight imagining the person who would find my little present and wondering what explanation they would come up with. I hoped they knew I left these trinkets just to make them happy.
Another time, years before that, while living in a ramshackle rental in Bellingham, my housemate, Katie, came home from the Skagit fields with cases of daffodils that could not be sold. They were stacked on our porch over our heads, and each box contained dozens of bouquets of daffies already blooming. We filled baskets with the yellow stems and headed out through the neighborhood. We put them in the shoes people left on the porches, in mailboxes and on windshields. Katie flagged down a garbage man and he stopped in the middle of Electric Avenue, his big hand reaching down from the cab as she stretched up to hand him a bunch of flowers, but he was the only person who took the flowers from us. Everyone else in Whatcom Falls Park didn’t want any free flowers from two crunchy gals cackling to themselves. We went back to hiding them in hedges.
Yes, I have found anonymous gifts, too. Painted rocks hidden behind the chips on the Co-op shelves, small candies and stickers left on my desk, random plants left on my porch, and cards mailed with cash to my house during sparse times without a return address. Those unexpected gifts that have no face I can attach to them, except the face of humanity. Your face.
From the geese that fly over the fields as I sip coffee on the couch to the owl that hoots in the cedar tree outside the bedroom window, Nature gives me these spontaneous gifts of beauty every day, every minute. She never lets me down, but I don’t always feel that way about humans. You probably don’t either. We have been sorely disappointed by each other over the last year. We have drawn lines and picked sides and behaved in ways that would have earned us all some serious time-outs in preschool. No recess and certainly no jump rope.
As we enter into the dark season when the sun leaves us by four o’clock, more than ever before we have to intentionally be the light. Sure, do good things to create more bonds with the people who know and love your sweet face. But do MORE for the people who will never know it was you who shined a light onto their path. Leave gift cards in thrift store coats, buy a coffee for the car behind you, leave marbles in weed patches, drop a lip balm in your co-worker’s desk and put up small notes of encouragement on the mirrors in public restrooms. And then do more. Pick up garbage that isn’t yours, bake cupcakes for the people who deliver your packages, leave tennis balls at the dog park and send thank you cards, unsigned, to your past teachers. Just do one thing, and see how good it feels to be kind without kudos. It’s next level. And I know we all can agree it’s time we level up... (But still buy candles for your mom, too.)
MOODY MOONLIT NIGHTS
Must-haves for a sensationally spooky fall.
Euphoria Spirit Elixir
anima mundi apothecary
A botanical elixir made to boost your mood and bring joy and ecstasy. A spoonful should do the trick.
Beeswax Candles
big dipper wax works
100% beeswax. 100% magical. Surround your tub with them for a pure and natural candlelit soak.
Full Moon Bath Bomb
magic fairy candles
Organic shea butter and lavender and sage essential oils encase a crystal charged under the full moon, so you can go forth brightly.
Books & Stickers
Local stickers worth sticking, alongside rhythms and rituals worth sticking to: journals, books, and oracle cards, all on the 2nd floor.
