July 2022 Natural Enquirer

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E S K A G I T VA L L E Y F O O D C O - O P

J U LY— S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2

Larry the pig living out his best life at Pig’s Peace Sanctuary– a current Tokens for Tomorrow group.

Use Food Well Washington “Wasting Food Wastes Everything.”

In 2021, the Co-op composted over 51,000 pounds of food waste. That’s equivalent to 33 of the Christianson’s Nursery 2021 giant pumpkin winner—an impressive amount of squashed squash! The Co-op diverts tons of food waste from the landfill every year (literally), and composting is only one way we do it. However, the number also highlights an important issue in our state, our nation, around the world, and right here at home: food waste.

IN THIS ISSUE:

The statistics are staggering. The United Nations food and agriculture organization estimates that if 25% of the food lost or wasted globally could be saved, it would be enough to feed 870 million people. Here in the United States, 40% of all food is wasted. In contrast, one out of every eight people is food insecure, one in six being children. And in Washington, the Department of Ecology indicates that 17% of all garbage sent to our disposal facilities is food waste, and 8% has been determined as edible at the time of disposal. (continued on page 12)

E PAG

Election Results

∙ 2

4% Friday Applications

∙ 3

Giving Big for Ukraine

∙ 4

Summer Among ‘Em

∙ 7

Skagit Barbeque

∙ 9

E PAG

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Summer, One Bite at a Time

by Nicole Vander Meulen

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A Good Place to Grow

E PAG

9

The Return of Connection

FRO M THE B OA R D

2022 Election Results

What’s All This About Parsley Covered Ants?

If you’ve been paying super close attention to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op Board meetings and statements (and, who hasn’t?), you would have heard a lot about Policy Governance—but maybe not enough explanation about what it is and why we’re adopting it. So here goes.

The Board’s role is to set the overall direction of the Co-op; to set expectations for how the Co-op is run; and to ensure that we are meeting those expectations and staying true to our mission and values. We have one employee, the General Manager (GM), and we are not involved in the day-to-day management and decision-making, but we are responsible for monitoring the context, intent, and effect of those decisions. We were lucky to have had a single GM for many years, and a lot of the details of the Board’s governance were assumed, but rarely explicitly stated or regularly reviewed.

When we found out we were going to have a new GM without this long history, we knew we needed to develop a more specific mechanism for communicating expectations and monitoring results. That mechanism is a widely used set of processes generally called Policy Governance.

Basically, we created a set of policies that define our expectations for how the Co-op is run—everything from our approach to debt (don’t want any!); how often our committees meet; how we want employees and owner-members treated; our expectations about environmental sustainability; and a whole lot more. (The policy document is a living document, managed by the Board Development Committee, and is constantly being adjusted as situations change. It currently runs 19 pages.) We actively monitor these policies through monitoring reports from the GM and from Board members on a schedule that ensures that every policy is monitored no less than once a year. Some, like financial metrics, are monitored quarterly.

For the GM reports, the GM defines their interpretation of the policy; presents supporting data, and makes a statement of Compliance or Non-Compliance.

The Board can accept the interpretation and data or can request changes. If the report is Non-Compliance, the Board can require a plan to bring about compliance, or change the policy.

For policies regarding the Board’s performance, we do a monthly poll of a scheduled subset of the policies to determine if we are in compliance or not.

We’ve been adopting this model over the last two years—refining policies as we go. This is a major, positive change in how the Board has operated for the last, almost 50 years. It has allowed us to clearly express our expectations for our organization and has provided us with an efficient and comprehensive mechanism for maintaining visibility into the management of the Co-op.

Skagit Valley Food Co-op continues to grow in size, complexity, and impact.

Policy Governance allows us to ensure our lasting success through clear, explicit, consistent but flexible means.

Co-op Hours 7am–9pm Daily or shop online anytime!

skagitfoodcoop.com

Skagit Valley Food Co-op Mission Statement The Skagit Valley Food Co-op is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to provide good food at a fair price. As stated in the Co-op Bylaws: The Co-op shall promote member welfare by utilizing their united funds and their united efforts for the purchase and distribution of commodities in accordance with the following criteria: A. Maintaining the not-for-profit status of the Co-op; B. Offering high quality products which contribute to good nutrition; C. Supporting a low impact, non-harmful approach to the environment; D. Supporting local suppliers and producers; E. A commitment to building a cooperative economy and supporting others who share that commitment; F. A commitment to educational programs relevant to members and non-members in the community.

EDITOR | Nicole Vander Meulen LAYOUT & DESIGN | Megan Feichtinger STAFF CONTRIBUTORS | nancylee bouscher, Ben Goe, Leigha Staffenhagen BOARD OF TRUSTEES | Brad Claypool,Kristen Ekstran, Britta Eschete, Genero Gomez, Casey Schoenberger, Rob Smith, & Tom Theisen Copyright 2022. Reprints with permission.

Printed in Canada.

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• the natural enquirer •

The Natural Enquirer is a quarterly publication of the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and may not reflect Co-op policy. No articles are meant to be used for diagnosis or treatment of illness.

The Co-op does not endorse the products or services of advertisers.

july–september

2022

Thanks to all our member-owners who voted in the 2022 Board Election and to those who attended our Annual Membership Meeting via Zoom on May 11. We are happy to welcome back incumbent candidates Rob Smith and Kristen Ekstran. The Board is also pleased to welcome the new-to-the-Board and longtime Co-op employee, Genaro Gomez as the Staff Board Member.

The three will all serve 3-year terms.

2022 Board of Trustees Tom Theisen

Britta Eschete

Kristen Ekstran

Board President

Member & Community Engagement Committee

Strategic Planning Commitee

Brad Claypool

Casey Schoenberger

Board Development Commitee

Finance Commitee

Kristen Ekstran

Member & Community Engagement Committee

Rob Smith

Genaro Gomez

Staff Board Member

Rob Smith

Donate or Use Your Patronage by July 29

Genaro Gomez

In case you missed it: the Co-op Board announced a Patronage Dividend Refund to Co-op member-owners based on their 2021 purchases. This is a friendly reminder to use or donate your refund if you received one.

In 2020, we made it easier to donate patronage refunds to the Skagit Food Distribution Center, and we were able to donate over $10,000 to support the Distribution Center’s ongoing work to feed the hungry in our community. And this year, it’s even easier!

If you’d like to donate your refund please visit our website: www.skagitfoodcoop.com/donate-refund If you intend to redeem your refund for in-store purchases, you must redeem your refund by July 29, 2022. Otherwise, your store credit becomes taxable for the Co-op, and you forfeit your refund. Using your refund is easy: simply let the cashier know you’d like to use your patronage refund toward your purchase while you’re checking out.

LE TTE R FRO M T H E E DITO R

Summer, One Bite at a Time

by Nicole Vander Meulen

This isn’t a letter from the editor per se, but it is an answer to a call— a promise I made myself in 2022—to say yes to more writing opportunities, especially for the Natural Enquirer. And to the call I put out to all the contributors for this issue: what’s the rush?

“Yes, wow, hi. It’s all really flying now. Time, that is. And the deadline is fast approaching.

So let’s get straight to it—summer dreams, summer themes. Make them last, won’t you?

Ways to Savor Summer: this, because it is all really flying now, and don’t you wish we could slow it down, especially during the summer? Are there lovely ways COVID taught you to move slower? How do you soak it all up? Me, I’m thinking of Charcuterie as Meditation, with local cheese and berries, of course.

Bounty of the County: this, because where else could you possibly want to be than here?

We have it alllllll. Fresh produce, cheese, flowers, mountains, rivers… you know the spiel.

We know it, but maybe sometimes we forget it. So, in a time when inflation is on the rise, gas prices are bananas, why pay more for anything not Skagit – food, fun, or otherwise?

Me, I’ll be biking to pick up my Dear Table CSA every Tuesday at Viva Farms in Burlington, with Huxley the Executive Office Dog in tow.

Anyway, we live in a magical place. Let’s rave about it —more, again, and always! Per usjz, take the prompt anywhichway you please.”

So, here I am, imploring you to reflect on the same, hopefully while enjoying meats, cheeses, and fine wine from the Co-op. Because that really is how I’m watching the world turn. Even the aforementioned CSA ended up running behind because of the mere five hours of 70°+ weather we saw in the month of May. I can wait.

And while I’m waiting, I will go everywhere and nowhere at once. Sounds dreamy, yes? Join me, if you please. All a’board!

I have a friend who builds the most extravagant charcuterie boards. Super Bowl, Halloween, girls’ night, whatever the occasion, there will be a board. And there will be wine. She is the queen of playful mispronunciation and calls charcuterie “choo-choocheries,” like the sound a train makes.

Chew, chew, like the sound your mouth makes when you’re savoring each and every bite. Choo-choo, chew, chew. Whenever I’m enjoying a board, I’m transported to her, and then, to anywhere else my imagination pleases—a little frontal lobe locomotion.

Meditation, they say, is about settling into your sitz bones, breathing deep, and watching thoughts come and go like ships or sheep or something. That works. But what they don’t say, is that sitting still is just one of many forms of meditation. Running, swimming, gardening, gerund-ing—just about any i-n-g that connects you to yourself, your mind, and your surroundings. That includes noticing; it is an art, after all. Annie Dillard would agree and suggest you make a pilgrimage to your local creek, or the Magic Skagit if you’d rather, just to see what you can see. I also agree, and would suggest heading to your kitchen table, just to taste what you can taste because I do believe eating can be meditative.

Nostalgic. Transcendental, even.

I believe this because I once attended a weekend retreat on Whidbey Island, a little too woo-woo for me, the average bear, but in the end, it changed me.

It was a connection to people, place, and thing, or rather, food. One of the retreat sessions was lunch.

Nothing new, but something out of the ordinary.

Thirteen of us sat down to share a meal, no talking allowed—not out of militant rigidity, but out of reverence for the food: the land that produced it (behind me); the hands that grew it (sitting next to me); the hands that prepared it (sitting across from me). And then we shut our eyes, to dig in and take the time to actually taste the green soup in front of us.

I started to think about the pitch-black dining experiences people pay extra for, just so they can fumble around in the dark for a fork and then be amazed at their heightened sense of taste. Closing your eyes is free. It made me think of blindness and how its silver lining is the superhuman intensity of all the other senses. No meal would go unnoticed.

It made me think of the infamous and ultimate ultimatum: would you rather be blind or deaf? As if taste and touch are small potatoes. Which makes me think about Pirates of the Caribbean—ghosts haunting seaports to quench an unquenchable thirst and satiate an unending hunger: drinking without drunkenness, touching without feeling. An emptiness unrelenting.

So, to eat without tasting? That makes me think of how we eat: mindlessly and senselessly on our way out the door, behind the wheel, dropping crumbs in the cracks of the keyboard. It also reminds me of COVID. Early in 2020, I cooked myself a “fancy” meal: peppered black cod, coconut rice, and a wilted green, I think. I can’t quite remember, because none of it tasted like anything. A mouthful of ash.

At first, I thought it was an added layer of winter depression or my hit-or-miss cooking, but it persisted.

For the next ten days, I proceeded to eat anything and everything, extra salt, extra sugar, and throw in all the onions while you’re at it (I despise onions), because all I wanted was to taste my food. Nothing doing. Only after mentioning it to my father did he relay that sudden loss of taste was one of COVID’s

strange and unexpected symptoms. Ten days and ten pounds later, I can tell you that I’d almost certainly rather be blind. And deaf.

When we the thirteen opened our eyes, our expressions said it all: we had just communed over the best soup we’d ever eaten, not because it was the best soup (and not because it wasn’t), but because we had noticed every flavor, every temperature, every texture. Sip, sip. Chew, chew. We could taste its greenness.

We cleared our plates, the table and joined hands around the chef in a moment of gratitude. We bowed, we worshipped, the grower fell to his knees. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room because the appreciation for a single bowl of soup was so overwhelming.

Indeed, food deserves every ounce of happy tears.

And taste buds? Don’t forget about those guys.

They’re your best friends, and they can transport you anywhere, anytime, even if you’re going nowhere.

Chew, chew, choo-choo.

Choo-choocherie. Charcuterie, as meditation—a practice in mindfulness, forcing you to slow down and connect to your thoughts and your surroundings, simply by tasting every bite. There should be no more than 12 chews per minute. With that kind of max CPM, you’re in for a Bourdanian experience, no gas money required. Close your eyes, if you dare.

Creating your own charcuterie is as simple as asking yourself what you like, then building your board from there: meat, cheese, nuts, crackers, bread, something pickled, something fruity. And if you dabble, a bottle of wine. The Co-op has a world of choices.

Once you’ve arranged your picks (which can be zen-like too), it is time. Breathe in. Begin.

I start with a little game of matchmaker. I’ll make you a match. And then I’ll make you another. A crispy cracker or chewy bread, crunchy mustard, creamy cheese. Yes, creamy cheese. Should I pair aged gouda with speck or spicy coppa? Now wash it down with bubbles. Always bubbles, at least for me. Then nibble a gherkin like a rabbit to a carrot, a beaver to a tree—your two front teeth doing all the work.

Pop in a sweety drop! An explosion of tiny pepper flavor. Layer the flavors, make all the matches, then deconstruct to enjoy each piece as is. (continued on page 14)

Huxley, office pup, in his bike trailer.

Co-op Seeks 4% Friday Applicants for 2023 Immigrant Resources & Immediate Support (IRIS), pictured, is our 4% Friday Community Shopping Day recipient for July. IRIS’ mission is two-fold: to connect immigrants with existing resources in the community, and to provide immediate assistance to those experiencing a temporary period of crisis. IRIS will use funds from 4% Friday to provide immediate support to local families to alleviate suffering by meeting basic needs such as access to food, clothing, and shelter.

The Board of Trustees is currently accepting nonsectarian, non-partisan charitable applicants for the Co-op’s 4% Friday Community Shopping Day Program in 2023.

Groups chosen, one per month for the calendar year, receive 4% of the day’s gross receipts at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. These community groups are selected for their service to the community in the following areas: local community service, organic food, natural health, environmentally friendly and sustainable agricultural practices, human rights, environmental preservation, and other areas that reflect “like-minded” mission statements.

The Board also hopes to select at least one organization with a focus on youth. Applications are due September 30 and can be downloaded from our website: www.skagitfoodcoop.com. skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 3

Giving Big For Ukraine You may or may not know Amy Sible. Either way, there’s a very good chance you’ve seen her around; she’s the Co-op’s Mercantile Manager, and she just celebrated her 13th Co-op work anniversary in June.

Either way, it should be no surprise that her love language is gift-giving—there’s a reason Mercantile has been voted Best Gift Shop in Skagit. Amy carefully selects items in Mercantile with you, and your gift recipients in mind. She also doles out amazing freebies to fellow employees and contributes to online, in-store, and staff giveaways with great enthusiasm.

And so, this next sentence shouldn’t surprise you either: “Amy connected with friends, family, coworkers, and Co-op vendors to donate over $10,000 worth of supplies to Ukrainians in need.”

One person, one amazing collaborative effort, and a whole lot of heart(s). People like Amy are the reason we’re all here. She doesn’t wear a cape, but here’s the superheroine’s story in her own words:

When the recent war in Ukraine began, I, like many others, followed the horrific news closely. I’m not sure if it was the way that media let us into the story on a first-hand account, where watching the grotesque videos made me feel like I was actually experiencing it, or if it was because I knew that my family was from that general area, but I felt more connected than I had to any other war before.

I reached out to my brother and asked him to tell me all about our family’s history. I knew we were from Eastern Europe, but that was about it. I learned that my paternal Grandfather was born in a small village called Chaslivsti. Because it sits near the border, over the past 105 years, it has been a part of Hungary, Slovakia, and now Ukraine.

Then, I came across a news article, featuring Magdalena’s Bistro and Creperie, a Ukrainianowned, Polish restaurant in downtown Fairhaven, in Bellingham, where I live. The owner, Magdalena, had organized a weekly donation drive in an effort to send aid to Ukraine, and I felt the need to help, but I felt helpless that I personally couldn’t do a lot to make a big difference.

Realizing I had a community much larger than I thought, I decided to reach out and ask for help. Turns out, I have a lot of connections through my job as a buyer for the Co-op’s Mercantile Gift Shop and have made some great relationships with my reps over the past 13 years, so I began putting feelers out to see if they had interest in donating supplies. From there, I put a flyer by the Co-op time clock for co-workers and also contacted friends and family.

The most common reply was, “I’ve been wanting to help, but didn’t know how.” Donations poured in from many of the brands that the Co-op works with, including Smartwool, Darn Tough, Maggie’s, and Vim & Vigr socks, Norpro can openers, Aloha Bay and Goodlight candles, Peepers reading glasses, and Kikkerland rain ponchos, lights, and cutlery.

Amy and her living room full of donations.

One of the sock brands we carry in Mercantile, Socksmith, sent a heartfelt email about their intent to help, by donating 5,000 pairs of socks. In my reply to say thank you, I learned they were still looking for a way to get actual product to Ukraine and needed help with logistics.

So, I put our rep in contact with Liza Mahler, who is a volunteer for Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine Washington, and Socksmith sent 5,000 pairs of socks, to be shipped by a plane company called Meest, to Ukraine.

Co-workers, family, and friends all came together and donated tourniquets, survival kids, first aid supplies, tactical knee pads, tents, sleeping bags, personal hygiene, protein powder, baby food, headlamps, and lanterns on their own dime.

The great thing was, no amount was too little, and it was important to me to relay that message. While some had the ability to purchase larger items, others simply donated a box of band-aids or a tube of toothpaste – and it all added up, to an astonishing amount of just over $10,000 worth of supplies. And that was just for our first donation!

Since then, I have been able to gather donations on a much smaller scale, but the point is that our little bit, adds on to others’ donations, to keep giving big.

Organizing and transporting the donations to Magdalena’s was quite the task. Our living room was in a state of chaos for a few weeks, but my husband and two daughters helped me wrap my head around all that

for Ukraine

Looking for other ways to support Ukraine with your purchase? Head upstairs to Mercantile to help send aid where it’s needed most.

Sunbeam Candles

candle for peace aromatherapy pillar

Eucalyptus, lemongrass, and cedarwood combine for an uplifting and centering experience. Proceeds benefit the humanitarian efforts of two organizations: Voices of Children and Save the Children.

World Finds

kantha connection bracelet

Handmade by women artisans in India, 100% of the proceeds of this bracelet fund critical initiatives in Ukraine.

Citizen Ruth

power in peace sticker

100% of profits will go to Transitions Orphan Assistance Foundation in Odessa, Ukraine.

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• the natural enquirer •

july–september

2022

we were doing and shared in the workload. Our friends helped us load everything into their truck, and we all had the wonderful opportunity to meet Magdalena Theisen and her husband Greg (who, in a crazy turn of events happens to be the brother of Tom Theisen, Skagit Valley Food Co-op’s Board President), Liza from Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine Washington, and many of their friends from Ukraine. Like I said, a community much larger than I thought.

Long after this war is over, there will be refugees without homes to return to, ones that have since moved to another country and are starting over, and those dealing with debilitating injuries and the grief that comes with horrific loss. The sad thing is, this isn’t concentrated to just those experiencing this particular war.

There are wars all over the world. And as we have seen, atrocious events in our own country, state, and town.

It is common to give a lot of yourself in the beginning of tragic events, but then it eventually dies down and fades away until the next one inevitably happens. Standing up for what is important to you, and giving when you can, makes all the difference – and can make a bigger impact than you think.

Life, Light, and Hope for Ukraine With the resurgence of tulip time tourists, the Mount Vernon Downtown Association invited downtown businesses to participate in a spring window contest—a colorful, creative way to welcome spring and visitors back to the Valley in the month of April. The Co-op used the opportunity to showcase local art and support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

Co-op Graphic Designer Megan Feichtinger and Jessica Salazar of Vida + Luz collaborated to create a display of Life, Light, & Hope for Ukraine. It was a very Skagit scene: April showers, paper flowers, ice cream clouds, and sun catchers from Vida + Luz. Vida + Luz sun catchers are made by local women artisans using hand cut and hand textured brass and vintage faceted crystals. They scatter

light to cast a dazzling dance of tiny rainbows on every surface they touch—glimmers of hope.

By refracting and spreading light, the idea was that people could purchase sun catchers as a meaningful way to send life, light, and hope to Ukrainians in their quest for freedom and peace.

The Co-op and Vida + Luz donated $10 for every sun catcher sold to COOP Ukraine. In the end, we sold 28 sun catchers for a donation total of $280. And while $280 is not a huge number, it does make a difference and is just one more example of how shopping at the Co-op supports local art and makers while also making a drop in the bucket contribution to important causes in our community and beyond.

NCG & Food Co-ops Raise More Than $100,000 for Ukraine Saint Paul, MN – National Co+op Grocers and its member co-ops have helped raise more than $107,361 for Ukraine’s cooperative businesses and its members.

In an act of cooperation with and concern for Ukrainian co-ops, National Co+op Grocers (NCG) partnered with the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) and NCBA CLUSA to launch a fundraising drive to support the Ukrainian cooperative community’s immediate and ongoing needs.

As part of the drive and to speed action, NCG pledged a 100% match for donations made by the retail food co-op system by March 10.

Through that date, the cooperative community donated $53,680, which NCG matched to reach the $107,361 total. Skagit Valley Food Co-op donated $1,000.

COOP Ukraine, which includes 15,000 enterprises, 3,000 restaurants, seven hotels, 300 manufacturing businesses and shops, and 300 markets throughout Ukraine, is working to maintain operations so member-owners can continue to rely on co-op goods and services.

“Ukraine’s consumer cooperatives are suffering enormous losses,” said Illia Gorokhovskyi, chair of COOP Ukraine’s Board of Directors. “But we are determined to overcome everything and build a peaceful, happy Ukraine.”

“Our sixth co-op principle is ‘cooperation among cooperatives,’ and we hope this drive can help some of the Ukrainian community’s coops maintain essential services to the people of Ukraine,” said C.E. Pugh, CEO of NCG.

“We greatly appreciate members of the U.S. cooperative community coming together so quickly to make these contributions, and we are honored and humbled to match them.”

About CDF’s Disaster Recovery Fund The Disaster Recovery Fund helps cooperatives and cooperators get back on their feet after disasters or other emergency hardship situations.

100% of money donated to the Disaster Recovery Fund will go to support cooperatives.

CDF does not charge an administrative fee for management of the Fund. In the last four years, the Disaster Recovery Fund has provided nearly $500,000 in grants to cooperatives, families and communities affected by disasters in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Uganda.

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• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 5

F RO M WE LL N E SS

A Good Place to Grow

The month of May may say that Mother’s Day is within its domain, but for me, my birthing days are the true Mother’s Days. This July 21st will mark the 20th anniversary of that transformation and the first birthday where my oldest will not be with me to celebrate his life. Because, as heart-breaking as it can be, the whole point of this wild ride is to do our absolute best with our kids so that they can live independent of us. That is exactly what he is doing.

Twelve hundred miles from my body, part of my heart beats somewhere in the desert south of Albuquerque.

Bittersweet, indeed.

As I prepare for a very emotional day, I am becoming more nostalgic for my first baby, seeking out photos of his sneaky grin and wild hair. Many of those memories are surrounded by the Co-op: the family that works with me, the shoppers who come and chat with me, and the actual building where both of my boys grew up. When I started here, my oldest was not quite three years old, and this store was a wonderland to him. I asked him recently what he missed most about the Co-op, now that he’s been away from home for a couple months, and he said, “the community and growing up with everyone.”

The comfort of having the same cashier looking back at you as you grow. From when you can barely peer over the lip of the counter, to counting change into their hand as you nervously buy your first snack all by yourself (because your mom is chatting AGAIN with someone who didn’t quite pick up on the signs that she isn’t actually working right now), until one day you are working there, helping to bag up groceries for busy holiday shoppers—this experience has shaped parts of my kid’s heart in the best ways.

He trusts that people are mostly kind and that being kind to most people unlocks a secret sweetness that many folks miss out on. That’s a small piece of some Norman Rockwell painting I just didn’t expect my life to include.

The teenagers of co-workers who watched my kids while I worked still wander through the Co-op, as staff and shoppers. I see them and am flooded with memories. How Ryan, who works in produce, was the first cool guy that showed my ecstatic 9-year-old how to play a video game. He came home in a digital daze, worried that I would find out and my crunchy earth mama heart would be crushed that he had enjoyed blowing up a tank. Truthfully, I kinda was. I tried my best to shield my kids from parts of our world that felt too violent or too commercial—yeah, I didn’t land at the Co-op by chance, folks.

Working with other crunchy earth mamas gave me mentors with great advice as I navigated trying to raise my kids with values that weren’t always popular.

Bev, the gal who hired me at the Co-op, was a source

by nancylee bouscher

of much of this wisdom. I envied her commune ways and how she raised her kids on snacks made from carob and honey. Once I was conflicted about a very simple thing: my kid wanted nothing more than a Spiderman sweatshirt he had seen at Goodwill.

Nancylee’s crunchy kiddos.

I’m tempted to alter the details of this because I know it sounds ridiculous, but I was that crunchy— not to mention the school he attended didn’t allow any “character” shirts. Bev encouraged me to say yes as often as I could, because giving your child what their heart desires is a fleeting gift. I bought it and the Strawberry Shortcake sweatshirt he also wanted. She was right: that was an easy ask and an easy yes with a big reception of smiles and hugs.

It wasn’t just the people of the Co-op who helped to nurture my family—it’s the products, too. The produce section, with its new and unique fruits from around the world, often became a centerpiece of the dinner table. Between conversations with the staff and YouTube videos, we’d try to figure out the when and how of eating a Cherimoya or a Buddha’s Hand.

We’d wait for the arrival of the Taylor’s Gold Pears and try to describe their unique flavor—was that a hint of pineapple? Or try to recreate a dish with fried plantains our oldest once had when he was in Ecuador, a trip he funded by working here.

Living on the West Side, we’d watch the people working in the field, and they’d wonder if those strawberries would be sold at the Co-op and then go find the farms that did sell to us. We’d talk about what organic means and how of the many benefits to the people and the planet, being able to support our neighbors so they can work in a field without being exposed to chemicals is the best reason to pay a little more for food.

The deli sandwiches have been consumed on the picnic table in our backyard countless times and that satisfaction of having your child snarf down a big, healthy meal is priceless. On hot summer days, I’d bring home a jar of Jeff’s Gardens Greek Pepperoncinis, some jugs of Santa Cruz’ Raspberry Lemonade, and whatever new flavor of Kettle Chips there was. In the moment, I was too tired to fully take in the preciousness of those moments, but now I do get a little misty-eyed in the condiment aisle.

When I was pregnant with my second son, I worked in Human Resources until a few weeks before my due date. My coworkers donated money for me to buy the birthing tub, and when he was born in midAugust at home with the help of a midwife (who still shops at the Co-op with her family), I’m told that folks were laughing and hooting in the aisles in his honor. He recently bought a hammock in mercantile for a school camping trip, he gave the cashier my Co-op number and followed it up with “I’m Nancylee’s son,” to clarify that he got the discount because his mom worked here. He didn’t work here...yet.

Standing behind him was his kindergarten teacher who didn’t recognize him because life’s changes are never so shocking as they are between the age of 10 and 14. She was shocked by his height and his voice and his short hair, but he recognized her. Even if he didn’t remember how she used to sing songs with him about Springtime flowers, he was at the Co-op, and that comes with the familiar comfort. He grew up knowing that this old brick building with his mom’s office on the third floor and an elevator he used to have to stretch up on his tip toes to hit the UP button is full of kind people who want a kinder world.

BRIGHT, BUZZY, WARM, & SUNNY! A few of our faves to help take on the day, soak up the sun, and create a safe space for the 6-legged friends that help grow our food.

1 Om

mushroom superfood blends

Fatigue-fighting, mood-boosting, energizing blends of powerful superfood powders to fuel your day: Morning Energy or Hot Chocolate. Simply stir in hot water or your favorite milk and enjoy!

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Haven 2 Take lotion bars Plastic-free and positively delightful, Take Haven lotion bars are all-natural, hydrating, and simply sublime, designed to nourish body and mind.

Scents and sensations include Ground & Center, Calm & Nourish, and Refresh. the Change 3 Bee items in the mercantile

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We all know the plight of the bumble bee and other pollinators – be bee friendly with our selection of goods that help save the bees!

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skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer •

july–september

2022

Summer Among ‘Em

by Beverly Faxon

record-breaking heat that led our family to fill a water trough with water and ice cubes, call it the Little Methow, and put it under a leafy tree, so that we could sit quietly in the still afternoon, legs immersed to the knees. By the time you read this, we could be anywhere from 46 degrees to 106.

Here is my secret reason for wanting to be somewhere in between — some temperature where we all open our doors and sail out, free and looping as warm bees.

After a frozen winter, a chilled spring of gray skies and sudden hailstorms, and two-plus years of the pandemic, I am yearning to be out among ‘em, as a good friend used to say. I am longing to see other lives being lived.

Once, while swimming in a warm ocean, I watched a father take two little ones out into frothing surf over the children’s heads—a girl maybe five or six, a boy of three or four. The children had floaties on, and for a long afternoon, he held onto them both as waves pushed, pulled and surged around them. It looked both nerve-wracking and exhausting.

The next day, I was sitting on the beach when they rattled up, pulling a full wagon through the sand. He set up an umbrella, spread blankets, unloaded a boogie board, then took the girl and boy back into the surf for another round of immersion.

Watching, I began to see deliberation rather than chaos—he was getting them used to waves breaking around Photo by Beverly Faxon them, to water in their faces.

The father started working with the little girl 46 degrees on a damp mid-May morning goes to the bones in a way that it wouldn’t in January. The on the boogie board, while the boy played in the lilacs have held their blooms close, way past their shallows. He started her in the low surf, positioning usual April blossoming. When they do tentatively her on the board, pointing her to shore, letting go. open, they still withhold their sweet scent—that deep She had an immediate feel for moving her body to purple smell that plunges so many of us into memory. extend her glide, to turn and ride. Again and again, The rosy peonies, too, are still tightly budded, waiting she stood up in ankle-deep water, grabbed the for the party to start. Like me, the flowers are hesitant boogie board rope, and splashed back to him to to commit to spring, to being fully in the open, until a be launched anew. As in the waves the day before, her father stayed constant and patient. Once she warm sun coaxes them to let go.

The holly tree, on the other hand, let loose its flipped the board, and he was there in an instant, honey call last evening, as I went out to put the getting her on her feet, bending to check on her. chickens in their coop. This morning, standing And then, right back onto the board and into the beneath it, I can hear a hum that signals the bees are water she went. She ventured further out, into the back, and I’m grateful for this meshing of timelines— wilder, deeper waves, with no apparent fear.

Eventually, it was the tiny boy’s turn. When a bees and blossoms—once taken for granted, now a matter of held breath. In Eastern Washington, the wave tumbled him, his dad was by his side, righting, bees are “cold and cranky,” the Seattle Times reports. reassuring, finally picking him up to hug him and Cold damage and lack of pollination could reduce pat his back. There was a sense of deep safety in all this, of a design that went farther than the day’s the cherry crop by 35%.

This is the swing time between seasons that have entertainment.

Eventually, they all returned to the umbrella. The grown less predictable in the Northwest. In a few weeks, we will mark the one-year anniversary of a dad put on a hat, he had a sip of water, but he never

looked at a phone or asked the kids to give him a break. As if choreographed, he and the little girl ran down to the water, and she lay down and he rinsed her all over. Then, to her delight, he picked her up in a sort of firemen’s carry over his shoulder and ran up the beach with her to keep sand from getting on her wet feet. He put her in the wagon, rubbed her down with a towel and spent long minutes reapplying sunscreen. Then he repeated it all with the boy. Nobody was irritable or tearful about the interlude out of the water, the necessity of bathing, of putting on more sunscreen.

Watching from behind my sunglasses, close enough to observe, but far enough away not to be creepy, I saw the parental tightrope being walked between comfort and risk. I saw how it led to joy.

Undistracted, he was fully present. And in my own way, so was I, thinking “Ahh. That is one way to be in the world.”

Later that afternoon, still on the beach, another, even younger boy ran up to me, smiling, his hand outstretched. I reached my hand out to his, and he dropped a tiny car into it.

“And now,” said his father, “you have a car.”

“I guess I do,” I said, looking down at the red car, an unexpected gift so suddenly in my palm.

Moments later the boy came back, again reaching out. I dropped the car back into his hand. He waved and ran off.

The give and the take.

Now I think of those beach-glowed moments—a story unfolding, a car changing hands—and I anticipate one of the joys of summer, especially in a world still often circumscribed by Covid. In the Northwest, we spend our long chill and rainy months largely inside. In the before times, we took winter refuge in steamy-windowed cafes, in theaters, in the homes of friends, bodies crowded at tables and on couches. But the last two years have been different for many.

Our opportunities to find ourselves alive in the world through our interactions with others—close friends, casual friends, strangers—have diminished.

We have had fewer chances to see our own lives reflected in the eyes of others, and fewer chances to be a kind witness to the lives of those we meet.

Many of us have honed our observational skills these last two years. We’ve been watching our gardens, our furred friends, the green world of humming insects and the fresh tips of emerging peas. And now summer! — a chance to turn with wide eyes toward the light—the sunlight, the light of those we love, the light of those we’ve never met but might walk among, outside, in the warmth.

C L A SSI F IEDS

You deserve a Reiki Vacation! 1 hour of deep relaxation brings clarity & peace, awakening your inner healing presence. Experience Reiki blessings in person at the Vera Wellness Center in Mt. Vernon, by phone, or online.

Learn more: yourgoldenrosehealing.com or 360-840-1723 Reiki Blessings to all, from Valerie Rose.

Gift Cards Always the right choice! skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 7

Meet the 3rd 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 8¢ that you can give back to one of these local organizations.

Foundation for Academic Endeavors

Collectively breaking down barriers to educational achievement for diverse students, educators, and families. Juntos, venciendo las barreras para el desarrollo educativo a la diversidad de educadores, alumnos y familias.

The Foundation for Academic Endeavors’ mission is to provide academic experiences through broad community support for children and their families who are limited by factors, such as income, education, and minority status. They have committed to working together with the disadvantaged communities in Skagit Valley and have set the foundation’s vision “to create opportunities for academic growth for low-income families from all language groups, all ages, all religions who would benefit from academic companionship, including but not limited to the following: Enrichment Opportunities, Academic Programs for Children, Adult Education, and Community Partnerships."

Pigs Peace Sanctuary

Pigs Peace Sanctuary is a place of tranquility and happiness dedicated to providing a safe home for unwanted, abused, or neglected animals in need, and it’s committed to spreading the message of compassion and respect for all animals. The Sanctuary celebrates the lives of pigs in a world where they are misunderstood and harshly treated, and inspires compassion through its shelter care, education center, and vegan advocacy.

Reuse.

Rinse.

Repeat.

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skagit valley food co-op

Guemes Island Library

For the past 25 years, the Guemes Island Library has been a community library, supported by an all-volunteer staff and board, dedicated to providing materials and services to the Guemes Island community. The library offers, free of charge, public Wi-Fi, computer, printer/scanner, books, DVDs, and digital access to eBooks, audio books, magazines, as well as space for small meetings. Funding comes exclusively through donation and small grants.

Guemes Island is in unincorporated Skagit County, which has no county-wide public library system. Thus, residents of Guemes Island have no free access to a public library. The island’s population includes many low-income seniors and families who rely on, and benefit from, the small community library.

YMCA OASIS

YMCA Oasis provides support services for at-risk youth ages 13-17 through its teen shelter and wrap around street outreach support. Oasis is the only emergency shelter for teens in Skagit County and can help set youth on a positive path forward through immediate shelter, intensive case management, and referral to support systems.

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!

• the natural enquirer •

july–september

2022

Skagit Barbecue: Part Deux

by Ben Goe

I grill at least once or twice a week this time of year. Fewer dishes to wash, more time spent outside, and so much Maillard reaction! That’s a ten-cent word for caramelization, if you didn’t know. Last year I wrote an article for the Enquirer about barbecue basics, and I thought that this summer I’d follow up with some more advanced techniques. Let’s get grilling!

Papaya makes an incredible meat tenderizer. Remove the seeds and skin from papaya and blend to liquify. You can add salt and pepper, soy sauce, hot sauce, or anything else you might like in a marinade, or you can leave it plain and rinse it off before cooking. Use a tough cut of meat, one that you might normally cook very slowly. Brisket, eye of round, or short ribs are all good choices. Leave the meat in the marinade for 6 hours, then rinse and dry. You can now season and cook it as though it weren’t a tough cut. Cook on a hot grill to your preferred doneness and char level, and your tough cut will transform into a forktender masterpiece. Great for beef, but I don’t recommend using this technique for poultry or pork, as the papaya enzymes will break them down too much and too quickly.

Local Summer Produce JULY

Benton, Chelan, & Rainier cherries, assorted apricots, yellow peaches, white peaches, nectarines, donut peaches from Brownfield Orchards

Strawberries

from Silva Family Farm

AUGUST

Peaches, Gala, Gingergold, & Zestar apples, Bartlett & Star Crimson pears from Brownfield Orchards

Blueberries

Next up: there’s a foolproof formula for grilling salmon fillets that I follow.

Put the salmon skin-side down on a piece of foil, and top with a fat, something acidic, a spice or herb (or two or three), a sweet ingredient, and a salty ingredient.

A combination I often use is salt, pepper, thin slices of butter, thin slices of whole lemon, onions or garlic, tarragon, brown sugar, and capers. Try sesame oil, soy sauce, other fruits, ginger, hoisin sauce…get creative! I’ve used blueberries on salmon to excellent effect. Close the foil when you have your perfect combo and put it skin-side down on a very hot grill. The fish will cook in 14-18 minutes.

A real winner: grilled chicken can be a gourmet affair! Make a marinade with plenty of fat, acid, and flavor. I love to use a recipe I adapted from the nowclosed Mediterranean Kitchen restaurant near Seattle Center. Their recipe used wings, but I don’t follow the recipe to the letter, and I’m a thigh guy anyway.

The Med Kitchen recipe calls for quite a lot of lemon juice, a gratuitous amount of pureed garlic, olive oil, salt, and curry powder. Marinate the chicken, overnight if possible. Turn your oven to 350 degrees and transfer the chicken to a casserole dish. Cover with marinade. Bake for 20 or 30 minutes, until the chicken is nearly or just cooked through. Blend up some more garlic with a little lemon juice, salt, and a glug of vegetable oil to baste the chicken with. Drain the liquid from the partly cooked chicken. Grill at medium-high heat, turning and basting often, until crisped. You can use this method with any sort of marinade. If you try the Med Kitchen style, pair it with tzatziki, pita, saffron rice, hummus, and a Greek salad for a memorable meal.

Go meatless: try a grilled salad! Grilled Caesar is a delicious and impressive-looking dish, and fairly easy to make. Slice romaine hearts in half vertically and dress lightly with oil and lemon juice. Cut some crusty bread into fairly thin slices, then crush a couple cloves of garlic into some olive oil and brush it onto both sides of the bread slices. Grill the lettuce briefly on the hottest part of the grill- you mostly want to give it some char marks. On the cooler side, grill the bread until toasty. Serve half of a romaine heart drizzled with Caesar salad dressing and a couple of toasts on the side. You can apply this technique to various chicories or maybe iceberg lettuce, but you won’t want to subject more delicate greens to this sort of treatment. You could also serve it with grilled lemon slices. No reason to stick with Caesar, either! Try other dressings, grilled vegetables, and grilled fruits in salads.

Stick with hardwood charcoal, disdain the lighter fluid, and enjoy a lovely and delicious Skagit summer.

The Return of Connection When I was hired at the Co-op in March of 2020, I was excited to help with the planning and logistics of Co-op events. But about 3 days later, the world shut down and my task of scheduling events quickly shifted to cancelling all of them. It started with events scheduled in March, and then April. Before we knew it, our workshop space was filled with piles of backstocked toilet paper and a conference table adorned with a mosaic of colorful fabric face masks.

Fast forward: It’s April 2022 and with nervous butterflies and a dash of giddiness, I packed up my car with fresh fruit and drove over to the YMCA for Healthy Kids Day. We were finally diving into our first outreach event in over two years. Not only had I never had the opportunity to represent the Co-op in person, I hadn’t had the chance to connect with our Skagit Valley community. Seeing tiny hands reach for a giant fair-trade banana was a delight! Hearing folks speak such positive things about our Co-op filled me with pride. And getting the opportunity to be the person who represents a place so many adore was a treat. While the social engagement inevitably led to a long nap, I walked away from that event with more appreciation for something so simple, but that I missed so deeply: community.

In early May, a few of us from marketing and produce had the opportunity to visit Ralph’s Greenhouse, Living Rain Farm, and Hedlin Family Farms. Aside from being a fun field trip filled with petting baby goats and eating fresh spinach straight from the field, I felt immense gratitude to be bouncing around in a retired school bus filled with seven of my co-workers. Hearing our produce team chat with farmers about crop rotation and soil quality and all the ways to enjoy leek scapes brought me back to why I love the Co-op: community.

In late May, Co-op employees gathered to celebrate our achievements and hard work at Christianson’s Nursery Vinery Building for our first staff party since I started. Over pizza and tacos, we shared stories we’d gathered throughout the many seasons of change we’d experienced since 2020. We brought family members and friends into the Co-op fold through a game of cornhole. And many of us simply reflected, thinking

from Bow Hill Blueberries

SEPTEMBER

Honeycrisp, Fuji & Cosmic Crisp apples from Brownfield Orchards

Table grapes

from Sauk Farm

Heirloom melons, Japanese & Italian eggplant from Edible Acres

Blueberries

from Silva Family Farm

IN SEASON ALL SUMMER Herbs, lettuce, corn, cabbage, kale, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, radicchio, broccoli, edible flowers, & so much more

from our local farms including: Moondance Farm, Boldly Grown Farm, Waxwing Farm, Well Fed Farm, Skagit Flats, Ralph’s Greenhouse, Highwater Farm, Blue Heron Farm, Napping Lion Farm, The Crow’s Farm, and Hedlin Family Farm

by Leigha Staffenhagen

about how nice it was to be able to connect with one another outside of the world of stocking shelves, serving hot food, and bagging groceries. If you’ve ever worked at the Co-op, you know just how memorable these parties are. There’s something special about seeing your coworkers in person, outside of the context of our big brick Co-op building, dancing, laughing, and frolicking through the grass with big grins on their faces.

And after working at the Co-op for two years, a number of us finally got to experience what we’d been missing throughout the course of the pandemic: community.

By now, you’ve surely sensed a trend in this article: throughout the tumultuous course of the last two years, I’ve deeply missed feeling a sense of community.

Don’t get me wrong, we all worked with what we had to keep our Co-op community connected. We hosted Community Conversations on Zoom. We engaged with our members and community through social media, email, and the Natural Enquirer. We hosted staff lunches and ice cream parties. And above all, we did our best to smile with our eyes while the rest of our face was covered with a mask.

Community is a simple word, but it has a cornucopia of meanings, especially when you haven’t had an in-person connection in what feels like a lifetime. Community is a farmer sharing a story about his rhubarb crop that he’s been dutifully caring for since 2005. It’s the joy of handing a Washington-grown Fuji apple to a future Co-op member. It’s chatting with your coworkers about life in the Valley over a slice of pizza in a retired barn.

Community is whatever YOU make it. So, as we move into the summer I hope you get the chance to feel that return of connection.

Plan a picnic in the park. Meet up with friends for a lunch of Co-op sandwiches and ice cream. Attend that concert that’s been rescheduled three times. Enjoy a weekend unplugged reconnecting with family members you haven’t seen in a couple of years. Or, take a trip to the beach with that one special someone. No matter how big or small your community is, having the opportunity to connect with one another again is something I don’t think any of us will ever take for granted again.

Skagit YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day. Photo by Ting-Li Wang.

The Co-op’s Marketing and Produce teams on a local farm tour.

Co-op Staff Party at Christianson’s Vinery skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 9

You Shop, We Give 4% Every time you shop at the Co-op you help support our local economy and community. 4% Friday is another easy way to do your weekly shopping and contribute to organizations you care about. You shop, and together we give 4% of the Co-op's sales on the 4th Friday of each month to a non-profit community organization.

jul 22

Immigrant resources & immediate support (iris)

Immigrant Resources & Immediate Support’s (IRIS) mission is twofold: to connect immigrants with existing resources in the community, and to provide immediate assistance to those experiencing a temporary period of crisis. The direct support provided by IRIS includes rent subsidies, emergency housing, groceries, beds, clothing, and financial assistance with medical and utility bills.

IRIS will use funds from 4% Friday to provide immediate support to local families to alleviate suffering by meeting basic needs such as access to food, clothing, and shelter. 100% of funds will be used for rental subsidies, food costs, and warm clothing costs. IRIS’ typical rent subsidies are about $350 per family and the food stipends range from $100-200. IRIS purchases warm clothing at affordable rates and most warm jackets are about $25 each. Many of the recipient’s families are residing in overcrowded living conditions, and IRIS’ rental subsidy can offer support for 5-10 people.

aug 26

communities in schools

The mission of Communities in Schools (CIS) is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Since 2008, CIS’ Site Coordinators (full-time mentoring and resource navigational staff) have provided whole-school supports to improve educational equity and 1:1 case management services & comprehensive interventions for in-risk or at-risk youth.

When students face immediate and systematic barriers like homelessness, poverty and food scarcity, it becomes a significant challenge for them to focus on school, due to unmet basic needs like food, snacks, clothing, school supplies and hygiene products. Funds from 4% Friday will be utilized to support CIS’ Basic Needs Resource Closets at 5 schools in the Mount Vernon School District, so kids can get their needs met at school, and therefore have the ability to focus on their education.

sep 23

mvpd homeless outreach

MVPD’s Outreach Coordinator, Erin VonFempe, is a master’s level social worker who works directly with homeless individuals in the community. This program provides services and funding for such necessities as meals, housing, healthcare, treatment for substance abuse, transportation, clothing, and ID replacement. Erin works mostly in Mount Vernon, but also works with the Skagit First Step Center, a temporary housing site, in Burlington.

The Mount Vernon Police Department will utilize funds from 4% Friday for transportation, temporary housing, emergency necessities such as food and clothing, and to procure identity paperwork. The Outreach position is grant-funded in a joint agreement between the City and Skagit County, with most of the grant funds allocated to salary.

Thus, funds for daily needs such as those listed above are scarce.

Together we gave: 10

skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer •

March 2022

$2,589

Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group

july–september

2022

April 2022

$3,410

Salish Sea Deaf School

May 2022

$2,689 Boys & Girls Club of Skagit Valley

V END OR S P OT L IGH T

Seacharrones: Seriously Habitat Forming

by Leigha Staffenhagen

When you first walk past the registers in the Co-op, you’re greeted by an aisle filled with what our wellness manager Nancylee calls the “salty-crunchies.”

Chips, grain-free crackers, cheese puffs, peanut butter-filled pretzels, superseed crackers… the list goes on. And if you’re looking for a new snack that’s a departure from the traditional, reach for a bag of one of our newest salty-crunchy treats: Seacharrones!

While this new snack is really its own thing altogether, the best comparison is traditional chicharrones with a seaweed twist. Seacharrones are plant-based and made from sustainably sourced kelp from the Salish Sea. In fact, Blue Dot Kitchen, the company that makes Seacharrones is on a mission to farm the sea for the greater good.

Located in the cold, clear waters of the Salish Sea, Blue Dot Sea Farm grows kelp on a suspension aquaculture farm. Here, they grow shellfish and seaweed together, where they benefit one another symbiotically. The seaweed enhances water quality and creates a habitat for the shellfish, where in turn, the seaweed is able to flourish and become a sustainable and costeffective food source, and a future bag of Seacharrones.

Beyond being a sustainable snack you can feel good about grubbin’ on, Seacharrones are just plain tasty. You can find their whole line of crunchy kelp snacks in our chip aisle: Salt & Pepper, Spicy, and Umami. Salt and Pepper is pretty simple and really lets the seaweedy flavor shine through.

The Spicy flavor isn’t hot-spicy, but rather has a nice smoky spiced flavor that’s reminiscent of BBQ seasonings. And Umami is well, umami. It has a nice meaty flavor that will remind you the most of a traditional chicharron.

Wondering what makes kelp such a sustainable food source? Let’s dive in:

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Kelp creates an important habitat for underwater ecosystems.

With natural kelp forests disappearing throughout the U.S., by building their own underwater kelp farm, Blue Dot Sea Farm is recreating those lost habitats, and welcoming sea life back to the area.

If you’ve ever been to a Washington State beach, you know that kelp seemingly appears on the beach out of nowhere. That’s because it doesn’t take much to grow: kelp can grow up to two feet per day on saltwater and sunshine alone.

Less labor-intensive with a higher yield = a renewable resource that’s cost-effective to harvest and transform into crunchy Co-op snacks!

But don’t just take my word for it. I brought a bag of Seacharrones around to our employees “for science,” and to get their reaction to this unique snack.

Needless to say, they didn’t hold back.

Here are some of the comments, straight from the seahorse’s mouth: “It’s like a milder version of a chicharron.”

“If you like sushi rolls with seaweed, you’ll love these. *Cues Under the Sea Disney song*” “I feel like a mermaid.”

“I love them. They’d be great with our garlic bacon dip, or sprinkled on top of tacos!”

“It’s kelpy!”

“Kind of like a BBQ funyun.”

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Kelp and other seaweeds have the power to sequester greenhouse gases: absorbing carbon dioxide and in turn producing oxygen. This essential process results in a less acidic ocean, reducing the effects of climate change.

The Power of Herbs & Spices Herbs are the best of both worlds: food and medicine. Adding just a little spice to your life goes a long way toward improving your health.

Herbs such as black and red pepper, rosemary, oregano, thyme, turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon all have one thing in common: they support healthy microbes and hinder unhealthy ones.

Double Duty.

Herbs that improve digestion and absorption also improve heart health and circulation. In fact, the mechanism for both is the same. The vasodilation (blood vessel dilating) properties of piperine found in black pepper are also responsible for enhancing the absorption of curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, making black pepper and turmeric the perfect pair.

The same polyphenolic antioxidant compounds responsible for many of the medicinal health properties of herbs and spices are also the flavor components that protect cooking oils from overheating and rancidity. For this reason, you’ll gain both enhanced flavor and fatty acid integrity by adding spices to your cooking oil. The aromatherapy is an added bonus!

Dietary & Herbal Diversity.

You may know the important health benefits of eating an ever-expanding variety of colorful plant foods—at least 30 different plants per week is a good goal. It’s not as hard as it might sound, especially when you consider that each herb and spice count toward this target goal. Cultures around the world that consume the greatest plant diversity have some of the healthiest gut biomes and overall health. Personally, I find it easy and enjoyable to consume about 20 different plants per day!

“Delightfully crunchy.”

“Kind of has a miso soup flavor.”

“Can I have the rest of the bag?”

“Yum! Reminiscent of kale chips and they’re deceptively delicious” “Very crunchy and flavorful, I love them!”

“I get it, but they’re not for me.”

“Are we carrying these?

If not, we should.”

“Really good. Perfect amount of a taste of the sea.”

“So good. Very savory and flavorful.”

So next time you’re staring at the snack aisle looking for a new “saltycrunchy” that supports habitat restoration and has a unique taste of the sea, snag a bag of Seacharrones!

by Karl Mincin

Dietary diversity is for all of us, and there are at least eight solid science reasons to expand our eating horizons: · · · ·

Increase micro- and phyto-nutrient density Fatty acid fermentation Reduced inflammation Minimize the development of allergic hypersensitivity by avoiding overexposure to the same food antigens · Improve memory and cognition · Bioactivate vitamin D · Immune resilience · A healthier diversified microbiome The biome of each plant feeds different colonies of beneficial gut bacteria. The wider plant variety we eat the greater diversity & health of our biome. And there’s more to the saying “eat the rainbow” than meets the eye. It’s rather simple, color leads to more color. Color changes mood, mood changes behavior and metabolic performance. Both the food nutrient and the therapeutic medicinal properties of herbs and spices are a smart and tasteful way to greater dietary diversity.

I could ask you what your favorite herbs and spices are, but “favorite” can get you in a rut. A more meaningful question is what new herbs and different spices are you planning to try?

Karl Mincin is a Functional Medicine Nutritionist in practice for 36 years.

360.336.2616 | Nutrition-Testing.com Instagram @MincinNutritionist | Facebook @NutritionTesting1

skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 11

(continued from page 1)

Use Food Well Washington

With numbers like that, it’s clear to see why food waste reduction is such a critical issue. Beyond the potential to feed more people, wasting food wastes resources and contributes to climate change. Think about what it takes to grow a single strawberry, especially if it’s not from Skagit Valley: the water, fertilizer, packaging, labor, fuel, and any number of other inputs. If that strawberry ends up in the trash, energy and resources are needed to dispose of it, too. When that moldy berry is thrown away, methane—which is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas—is released into landfills. Wasting food wastes all of our resources.

That word: resources. They’re not infinite.

We know that. Neither is food, which is a friendly reminder that food is a natural resource, and we should treat it as such. It’s also the reason that in 2015, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a national goal of reducing food waste by fifty percent by 2030. Then in 2019, Washington State passed legislation establishing food waste reduction goals, tasking the Department of Ecology with adopting a plan to measure and reduce food waste. In an interagency effort, Ecology worked with the Washington departments of Agriculture, Health, Commerce, and the Office of Superintendent, along with over 100 subject matter experts to research, perform literature review, and compile best practices to complete the planning for Use Food Well in Washington (UFWW) in December 2021. The plan is a roadmap to a more resilient food system through food waste reduction with two statewide goals: GOAL 1: Reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.

GOAL 2: Reduce at least half of the edible food waste by 2030.

Use Food Well Washington Success Story:

Pigging Out on Pumpkin

Speaking of giant pumpkins, our Produce Department often gives away free composting materials, like that of the giant pumpkin, to Pigs Peace Sanctuary and other local farmers. Pigs Peace Sanctuary is one of our 3rd Quarter Tokens for Tomorrow groups. Pigs Peace is a place of tranquility and happiness for unwanted or abused pigs. Happiness is a big pig pigging out on a giant pumpkin.

Otherwise, when the produce department needs to get rid of organic matter, it places compost outside the produce back door in giant plastic bags up for grabs on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s not a poundage we track, but it’s another way the Co-op helps recover food.

Similar to the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), UFWW goals are to be met through three strategies in order of priority: prevention, rescue, and recovery. The plan includes thirty actionable recommendations across all sectors of the food system, top to bottom, to reduce food waste and wasted food.

It focuses on federal and state policy, funding, public education, and infrastructure development.

All thirty recommendations can be found on the Washington State Department of Ecology’s website (ecology.wa.gov).

UFWW Definitions

Food Waste: waste from fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products, fish, shellfish, nuts, seeds, grains, and similar materials that results from the storage, preparation, cooking, handling, selling, or serving of food for human consumption. It includes, but is not limited to, excess, spoiled, or unusable food and includes inedible parts commonly associated with food preparation such as pits, shells, bones, and peels. “Food waste” does not include dead animals not intended for human consumption or animal excrement.

Wasted Food: the edible portion of food waste.

Prevention: refers to avoiding the wasting of food in the first place and represents the greatest potential for cost savings and environmental benefits for businesses, governments, and consumers.

Recovery: refers to processing inedible food waste to extract value from it, through composting, anaerobic digestion, or for use as animal feedstock.

Rescue: refers to the redistribution of surplus edible food to other users.

Prevention is the priority, and now is the time to move from planning toward action - what the Co-op and our shoppers can do. Let’s start with our own UFWW success story.

Using Food Well at the Co-op There are urban legends of major grocers dumping edible food into dumpsters, only to lock them, so not even the divers have access. Not infrequently, we receive requests from local groups for our “extras”: items beyond their “best by” or “sell by” date. Truth is, we don’t have enough to give away.

Extra berries? Frozen for ice cream. Extra bread?

Say yum-yum to our hand-cut croutons and Tuscan bread pudding. More extra bread? We give it to 12

skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer •

july–september

2022

employees or donate it to Neighbors in Need.

We also have employee free bins for produce, deli, and bakery items. It’s usually a mad dash to snag the cookies and cake; those goodies definitely aren’t going to waste.

Here are just some of the other ways the Co-op supports using food well: The Deli. As mentioned above, surplus foods are designed to end up in the Deli. Yes, we use fresh and organic ingredients, but our recipes are also tailored to take those “best by”/”sell-by” items or ugly produce and turn them into the delicious dishes you’ve come to know and love. That was always the plan.

Bulk Foods. The Co-op is one of the few remaining stores that has a Bulk Foods Department, and we’re committed to keeping it because shopping in bulk gives you the freedom to buy as little or as much as you need, so you can cut down on cost, food waste, and packaging all at once. We even replaced the bins in 2020 for a cleaner, easier experience, when most stores were removing bulk bins altogether.

Reduced Oxygen Packaging (ROP or vacuumsealed packaging). We introduced Reduced Oxygen Packaging in our Meat Department in 2021.

Vacuum sealing meats extends the shelf life and reduces at-home food waste. The packages are clearly marked with use or freeze-by dates, so there’s no confusion on whether or not it’s still edible.

Food Preservation Products. Proper storage of food is another way to reduce waste. The Co-op carries several products that help you store, pack, and preserve food for future consumption, many of which are reusable. Reduce, reuse!

Support of Local Food Organizations & Systems.

From food donations and 4% Friday funding to partnering with local farms and school garden-tokitchen programs, the Co-op has several mechanisms to help educate the community about food resiliency and to help get food to those who need it most, instead of sending it to the landfill.

What You Can Do Set Your Own Food Waste Goals. Reducing food waste by 50% at the State and National level is a lofty goal and will be a collaborative effort from top to bottom. Government agencies, retailers, and restaurants will all need to do their part. And so will we: consumers are the largest source of food waste–more than grocery stores and restaurants combined. So, picking a few things you can do to enact your own “Use Food Well” policy is a crucial part of reaching the 2030 goal. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Meal Plan + Shopping List. Kudos to all the folks who already meal plan and shop with a list based on the plan. That’s a feat. For everyone else, it’s a worthwhile investment to sit down and make a list.

You know exactly how much you need so you don’t waste food or your hard-earned dollars. Pro Tip: visit skagitfoodcoop.com/sales-flyer and click on the Co+op Deals flyer. You can build a shopping list of current sale items.

Shop in Bulk: The Co-op has a Bulk Department!

We encourage you to shop it. It’s another touchpoint in the food system where food waste and materials waste overlap – you can bring your own container and get as little or as much food as you need. Plus, it often costs less than pre-packaged food. Savings for your pocketbook and the planet.

Store Food Properly. When food is stored correctly, it lasts longer. Simple as that.

Eat Your Leftovers. Another obvious, yet overlooked, way to make sure food gets eaten, especially if it’s hiding in the back of the fridge. If you’ve got a hodgepodge of veggies hanging around at the end of the week, throw them in a weekend breakfast hash or omelet.

Eat Local. Supporting local is always encouraged, but the point here is that if for some reason the food does go to waste, fewer resources will have been wasted along with it (fuel, mostly).

Become a Label Expert. We agree. Labels can be confusing. “Best by” is often a qualifier of quality.

Your food might be the freshest if eaten by the “best by” date, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the food isn’t good. One of the UFWW federal policy recommendations is standardization of food labeling to reduce confusion around Best By and Use and/or Freeze By dates.

Split Restaurant Meals: I can think of very few instances where I’ve wished I ordered more when eating in a restaurant. More often than not, my dinner date and I lament over our fullness and promise to split something next time. Sharing is caring.

Connect to Local Food Organizations. There are several food rescue and hunger relief organizations in Skagit County with opportunities to help if you’re able. You can volunteer, donate food or funds, or if you have an excess of fruit or veggies in your own backyard, contact the gleaners (Skagit or Fidalgo). They may be able to help rescue and distribute what would otherwise go to waste.

Backyard Composting. Food scraps. We’ve all got ‘em. Backyard composting is a great way to recover that waste if you’ve got the space. There are a few viable methods, and you can find a vermicomposting guide on our website (that is, composting with worms).

Donate Your Patronage. If you received a patronage dividend this year, there’s still time to donate it to the Skagit Food Distribution Center. SFDC is the centralized distribution center for all of the food banks in Skagit County.

Each year, SFDC works tirelessly to provide 1.5 million pounds of food to fifteen local food banks and four hot meal programs that serve over 45,000 residents.

Our Continued Commitment to You The goal is to reduce food waste, and we will continue to do our part by examining our systems and cutting back even more where it’s possible. The Co-op is also committed to providing our shoppers with more opportunities to reduce food waste. You can expect to see additional kitchen hacks, including Using Food Well stories. You can also expect to see more food waste recipes for food items that are past their prime, but still safe to eat. Overripe avocado?

Brown bananas? There’s a recipe for that. Because it’s July, we’re starting with the strawberry recipe below!

In the meantime, savethefood.com and NRDC.org/food-waste are great resources for more tips, like custom meal plans and perfectly-portioned shopping lists for your family or a get-together with friends. If you’re a person who’s invited Alexa into your home, put her to work with your food waste questions. How to store melons? She knows. Can you freeze mayo? Best not to. Bendy carrot? Toss it in an ice bath for 5 to 10 minutes, and it’ll come back to life!

Savethefood.com even has a calculator to see how much money you could save on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis if you commit to your food waste goals. Did you know? A 4-person family can lose at least $1,500 a year on wasted food.

Saving food saves you money, and it saves our precious natural resources.

In fact, saving food saves everything.

Save the Strawberries

by Nicole Vander Meulen

Plucked at their peak, a pint of local strawberries might just be the perfect summertime snack in Skagit Valley. But what happens when they’re past their prime? Don’t let a little smoosh or a little mush scare you, these best-ever berries have a lot left to give before you throw them away! As long as they’re not showing signs of mold or rot (some of which you can pare around), give these simple solutions a shot: mash, blend, freeze, or chill!

Mash: trim then mash your berries and add a spoonful of sugar (more if you want a sweeter sauce), and let the berries macerate. Sugar pulls the juice out of the berries for a sweet summer topping on yogurt, ice cream, and more.

Strawberry shortcake, anyone?

Blend: hull your berries and plop them in a blender with sugar, vanilla, a splash of your favorite milk, and the Co-op’s vanilla ice cream for a homemade strawberry shake! You can sub in our Strawberry Balsamic ice cream if you’re feeling fancy, or opt for our Strawberry sorbet for a slushier, dairy-free take.

Freeze: throw your berries in a blender or food processor for a simple strawberry puree. You can freeze in a jar as is, or! Pour into an ice cube tray and drop them into lemonade on a hot day.

Chill: Cold soup? We say sí! This cool summer soup is fresh, flavorful, and berry beautiful. Oh, and it’s vegan, too.

Have a story about how you’re using food well? Or a food-saving moment?

We’d love to hear it! Submit yours to community@skagitfoodcoop.com.

Information and statistics provided by the United Nations, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Washington State Department of Ecology.

Strawberry Moon From Soft Science, Alice James Books 2019

The house was filled with the smell of it, the last misshapen, sweet-heavy berries of the season losing their shapes on the stove. The house was filled with the smell of fruit unbecoming, fruit pulled to its knees at fire’s feet. All summer long, the bushes had whispered, Take me, shown us all the places we could kiss if we wanted. And so, as the light died, we put our mouths on the least lovable, the too-full, the easy-bruised, we shouted I choose you, and you, and you, and you, and canned that hunger, and spooned it into our mouths on the coldest days.

Franny Choi

Strawberry Tomato Gazpacho

Gazpacho is a cold soup with Spanish origins.

Typically, tomatoes and green peppers are the main ingredients, and here, strawberries give it a fruity twist.

• 1 pound strawberries, washed, hulled, and coarsely chopped • 1 pound tomatoes, coarsly chopped • 1 cup chopped green bell pepper • 1 cup chopped cucumber, peeled and seeded • 1/2 cup chopped onion • 1 clove fresh garlic • 1 fresh jalapeno, seeds and stem removed • Zest of 1 lime • 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice • 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar • 1/2 teaspoon salt Blend all of the ingredients together in a blender, in small batches if necessary. Stir well and taste for salt. This soup is at its refreshing best when served just under room temperature. Refrigerate the fruit and vegetables shortly before blending if you plan to serve it immediately.

Serving Suggestion: Perfect for a light lunch with salad and crackers, this gazpacho looks lovely served in a wide-mouthed tumbler or martini glass.

Garnish with freshly-snipped chives or a pinch of cracked black pepper.

Recipe compliments of grocery.coop skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 13

S TAFF PROFILE

(continued from page 3)

Summer, One Bite at a Time

It doesn’t take but a few combinations of cracker stacks to appreciate the complexity of a single green grape: its thin skin and squeaky flesh. Chew the seeds. Maybe swallow them, too – you’ll grow a vineyard out your ears. How I wish that parental warning came true. More bubbles, and another bite, please… to the next flavor destination.

Perhaps to Italy with Olli Salumeria Toscano Fennel Pollen Salami. Although, instead of the Italian countryside, it brings me back to Godfather’s Pizza on Riverside Drive, where I used to dare my dad to eat an entire slice of sausage pizza—a regrettable, but hilarious move. Giggly fun.

Something fruity? It can be dried and chewy, preserved and sweet, or fresh and succulent. I recently discovered the Matiz Raw Apricot Demi-luna. That means half-moon, and it’s most certainly waning. It’s a 100% natural raw fruit bar from the hilly terrain of La Vera in the Spanish region of Extremadura made with Spanish apricots and rich Marcona almonds, a sweet-tooth satisfier that pairs oh-so-well with cheese.

When it comes to preserves, Girl Meets Dirt can’t be beat. Her name is Audra and you can find her in the San Juan Islands talking about “how the salty island breezes create their own kind of fruit alchemy,” handcrafting tiny batches of jam, shrubs, and cutting preserves. Her Vanilla Plum Medley Spoon Preserves, as the name suggests, blends exotic vanilla bean and heirloom plums from oldworld orchards on Orcas “for a bit of a nuanced pucker.”

Oh to be a sugar plum fairy in the Salish Sea! And like there’s never a girls’ night without a choochoocherie, I never build a board without fresh fruit, especially this time of year. My buds know no better taste than a perfectly ripe Skagit Valley strawberry. A succulent slice reveals a star shape with a crystal-like interior, a ruby red geode. Local gems named after local mountains, and just like that, I’ve summited Shuksan, the only variety of strawberry I planted this year. I can’t wait for June when the blooms turn to berries—ultimate fruition.

Now, off to Cheese Island, the official and endearing term for the Co-op’s cheese cases. If you’ve spent any time there, you’ll know it’s full of treasure, and it’s not even buried. A few trips around the island leads to miles of smiles. Cheesy, I know.

Speaking of trips, Cypress Grove PsycheDillic is another favorite. It’s a pickley, dill-icious fresh goat cheese I like to pair with Raincoast Crisps Cranberry and Hazelnut Crackers for a dill-ightful bite full of all the textures at once.

What else? A big ol’ blob o’ burrata – black truffle, because it’s fancy and my memory always floats back to a glorious evening of truffle hunting in the heart of Italy with a dog named Napo. In Italy, they train dogs instead of pigs, because well, pigs eat the truffles. It’s also fun to imagine hurdling over the Atlantic in a cheesy orb – a UFO on its way to Umbria.

Leyden, or komijnekaas in Dutch, is cumin cheese and another childhood favorite, but the caraway seeds and cumin conjure strong flavors of masala dishes and visions of packed spice markets. Swiss cheese might as well be a slice of Mexico; it’s how the Yucatan Peninsula is described with its thousands of cenotes, water-filled caves just below the Earth’s crust where I learned to scuba dive.

A creamy cheese with a red wine rind—Drunken Goat.

Am I that? I did just scale Shuksan.

Where am I? Even the geography of the human tongue makes a difference. Picture it as a map, each region with its own specialty: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami. The best part is, the borders are close, a lot like the Four Corners; you can experience each one at a time or all at once. I tend to chew on the right side of my mouth, so simply switching sides or turning it into a whole mouth experience, changes the flavor profile. The Spanish Marcona almond is salty then sweet, a Bow Hill Blueberry is sweet then tart, then sweet again.

Anytime I hear a cork pop, I exclaim, “Such sweet music to my ears!” A drum cymbal, a rocket to the moon!

Whatever your beverage, noticing the sound it makes when it opens, is a trip in itself. Click-pop! Fresh hop, Diet Coke, a cheers to my favorite IPA—from Buoy Beer Company in Astoria, Oregon. Best believe I’m imagining a solid eight seconds on that beacon of the sea.

After that wild ride, and nearing the end of the choochoocherie, it’s nice to take it home with something familiar: a slice of Co-op petite kalamata sourdough and a chunk of Beecher’s Flagship. I’ll always save the best bite for last.

So no, it’s not a traditional form of meditation, being here while dreaming of elsewhere, but it is a way to slow down, savor summer, and connect to self and place. What a beautiful thing, to enjoy a charcuterie on my porch and have each element take me away, and I guess that’s my point: we have it all. At the Co-op. In Skagit. And eating in this way is not a yearning for, but an appreciation of what’s right in front of us.

Favorite way to spend time outside of work: I love spending time with my family even though it has been limited over the past couple of years which makes it hard because they are my best friends. We are looking forward to getting together outside this summer! I like to cook, read, and be at home enjoying beautiful Padilla Bay, its birds and wildlife.

New Yearlong Transformation Journey: 2 days/month in the field +2 hours/week onsite or online

www.fieldsofrecovery.com/love-your-body fieldsofrecovery@gmail.com For more information call

Danielle 360-661-8458 CONNECT TO NATURE • CONNECT TO YOUR FOOD • CONNECT TO YOUR BODY • the natural enquirer •

july–september

Favorite customer moment: I could never choose one favorite interaction. While Cashier Coordinator I loved face-to-face interaction, learning from all types of customers. In helping expand the Mercantile Department, it was quite similar meeting all types and ages of folks and also hearing about their likes and experiences. Now in Membership, I really enjoy helping our members with all types of needs that change daily!

Favorite meal to make at home with Co-op ingredients: That would have to be soup! I love experimenting with different herbs, spices broths, veggies, and meats, etc., coming up with a warm cozy meal in a bowl!

Personal Training & Health Coaching at Highwater Farm

skagit valley food co-op

Membership Coordinator Co-op Employee since July 1999

Favorite item in the Co-op: I would have to say our fabulous variety of chicken wings! Why? Because they are fantastic and something to look forward to!

NATURE. BODY. MIND. BUILD STAMINA. MOVE WITH NATURE. PRACTICE MINDFULNESS. FARMFIT

14

Cheryl Markey

2022

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We offer discounts for prepayment. All first-time ads MUST be paid in advance.

The ad deadline for the next issue (October 2022) is Friday, August 19.

Co-op Curbside Skip the trip and be on your way.

Shop online anytime, Pick up Tuesday–Friday skagitfoodcoop.com/ coop-curbside

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• the natural enquirer • july–september 2022 15

NE W + NOTA B L E

Summer Camp Snacks

by Leigha Staffenhagen

Sweet, sweet summer. It’s finally here! No more hunkering down in the moody spring weather, instead, the sun slaps on a smile and sends its greetings at 5am and urges us to get outside! And what better way to enjoy the outdoors than camping? With summer camping comes camp snacking! Lucky for you and your camp crew, our Grocery team has been putting in work to bring you brand new snacks, drinks, and on-the-go treats meant for long car rides and even longer nights. Buckle up!

Element Chocolate Dipped Rice Cakes Rice cakes, but make them decadent with a coat of milk chocolate and peanut butter! When I was talking about the best way to eat these, our Graphic Designer Megan said it best, “I mean, I’ll just eat a chocolate-covered rice cake by itself.” But! If you do want to level up with these chocolatey little bites, they’d be a great addition to trail mix, scattered over ice cream, or paired with a miniature marshmallow for the cutest s’more ever. Find them in our cookie aisle.

Bare Life Coconut Hot Cocoa What goes well with a sundown campfire when the temperature starts to drop? A giant cup of hot cocoa, of course! Ditch the less-than-delicious bland powdery stuff and reach for Bare Life’s Coconut Hot Cocoa! Plantbased, organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, and soy-free, this sustainably-sourced cocoa is made out of 5 simple allergen-friendly ingredients.

And don’t forget to toss in a Co-op made marshmallow for extra goodness. Find Bare Life Cocoa near the coffee and tea!

Hummingbird Granola Whether you’re hitting the trail, packing up snacks for camping, or hopping in the car for a scenic drive, granola is a quick and easy snack great for enjoying on-the-go. New to the Co-op is Eugene, Oregonbased Hummingbird granolas! With ingredients like blackberry honey, Goji berries, turmeric, sprouted chia seeds, and buckwheat groats, their granolas are a tasty departure from standard granola. Available in Bulk!

Tia Lupita Cactus Chips A grain-free chip made from cassava flour and Nopales cactus, Tia Lupita chips boast 4g of fiber per serving and have a unique savory flavor that sets them apart from other tortilla chips.

Nopales cactus might be new to you, but it isn’t a new food source. It’s been used for centuries as a delicious superfood as it is one of the most sustainable plants on the planet. Pair Tia Lupita Cactus Chips with salsa, douse them in queso, or pile them high with your favorite nacho toppings.

Find them alongside all the other “salty-crunchies.”

Does it get any better than springtime in Skagit Valley? We think not.

Pops of color and bursts of flavor in the form of flowers, local produce, and of course, the sweetest strawberries on Earth.

Dig into some of our Deli's most popular handcrafted items as we say hello to fresh farm greens, blue skies, and long days spent soaking up the warm, yellow sun.

August

September

• Lavender Rose Lemonade • • Lemon Crisp Cookie • • Black Bean & Mushroom Burger • • Cantaloupe Sorbet •

• PB&J Magic Smoothie • • Espresso Torte • • Ham & Cheese Croissant • • Blueberry Mascarpone Ice Cream •

July

• Red White and Blueberry Smoothie • • Petite Sourdough Loaves • • Summer Rice Salad • • Strawberry Balsamic Basil Ice Cream • 16

skagit valley food co-op

• the natural enquirer •

july–september

2022