A—Store News

Like to can? Wish you could buy flats of premium tree-ripened organic cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, canning tomatoes at affordable prices?  Let us tell you about All-One-Family BULK FRUIT…

“All One Family Farm” was for many years, a successful organic fruit delivery service run by our general manager, Rob Story.  Thanks to Rob’s discriminating standards and deep connections with several Eastern Washington small organic farms, the fruit and his service attracted a loyal

It’s official. Clear the deck and get it on your calendar: July 6th, 5-9 pm, downtown Chimacum! Last year’s celebration was magical. This year we’re fine-tuning, but otherwise sticking with the tried and true formula: food and tunes 5-7, followed by a super special talent show 7-9.

This year’s theme: “Meat you at the Corner!”, as we are putting together an extra special dinner featuring our fabulous local meats.

by Erin Jakubek and Katy McCoy

Folks, it’s that time of year – time to get those greenhouse benches or windowsills cleared off and seeds planted.  In this post we’re going to talk about the reasons why you’d be crazy to not buy local organic seed from Oatsplanter Farm and/or Seed Dreams, our local seed producers each of which are offering their full lines at Chimacum Corner Farmstand.  We’ll also fill you in on the Rockwell Bean seeds from Willowood Farm on Whidbey (which you’d also be crazy to not buy).

by Erin Jakubek and Katy McCoy

Time to start your starts!  Last week, the earliest Midori plant starts arrived and in another 1-2 weeks, Red Dog starts will join them.  Both Midori and Red Dog starts are special in that the varieties have been chosen for their adaptability to our climate and unlike starts you see in most nurseries, the starts have been grown locally in unheated greenhouses, so the plants are hardy and ready to put in the ground the day you buy them.  The plant starts will arrive in waves and only be available when it’s time to plant.  Takes a lot of guesswork out of it for us novices!

by Phil Vogelzang and Katy McCoy

Enough about seeds and starts. All that counts for nothing if we don’t have the proper dirt. New this year the Corner is selling 25 lb bags of Roger Short’s Magical Soil for $9.99 – the perfect soil to jumpstart your plant starts. In this article we intend to get to the bottom of the magic in this Center Valley substrate and instruct you how to best use it. To get our answers, we’ve cornered the “dirtologist” himself, Roger Short, on his 400 acre Short’s Family Farm where he raises his famed 100% grass-fed beef that we so enjoy.

B—Farmer Profiles

By Phil Vogelzang

As you leave Chimacum and head south along Beaver Valley on Highway 19, past the sheep farms and pastures of Solstice Farm, Bishop Dairy and Spring Hill Farm, take a right on Embody road, just past the Beaver Valley store. Near the end of the road where a road sign tells you “end of maintained county road” you come across a vegetable row crop operation named Dharma Ridge Farm.  Beep the horn and out tumble Zach Wailand and Haley Olson’s kids, Farryn, age 10, Asa, age 8, and Shai, age 4. They may look typical, but

C—Product and Producer Profiles

By Phil Vogelzang

Jefferson County is known for a lot of things. And one of them is trees.  Lots of them.  The County has a long history in the business of forestry.  Some of the earliest European settlers here made their living harvesting the strong and reliable lumber from our towering douglas firs, hemlocks and cedars.

D—Seasonal Cooking

Now’s the time to put on a pair of protective gardening gloves and go foraging for tender wild nettles (currently about 6-8 inches tall/no flowers). Take some scissors and a colander and snip only the top 4 inches off each plant. Nettles are actually quite tasty and the sting completely disappears with cooking. You can use them anyway that you would spinach. In this recipe, Heidi has decided to add them to a delicious easy quiche.

E—Farming and Gardening

by Dan Hysko

It’s almost time (late Sept – late Nov) to get next year’s garlic crop bedded down and covered with sandy soil and mulch. Your reward: curvaceous green scapes next May and robust flavor-packed bulbs in June/July. From Willowood Farm on Whidbey Island we’re selling a selection of premier seeds selected to thrive in our dampish Quimper climate. Plus… we’ll tell you how to grow it.

Garlic is an amazing food, called a super food by some. It is likely antiviral, antifungal, anticancer and

F—"Ask Tassie" Farm & Food Advice

By Tassie Mardikes . . . write Tassie

Tassie,

September is upon us and it is during this time of year I find myself particularly aroused by the aroma and flavor of hops. It’s as if the hops’ brisk bitterness is carried in on the chap wind that now blows through Chimacum, and their tang filtered from the fading light that steeps through the multicolored decay of leaves. While I am usually content to saunter over to the Valley Tavern for a pint of Hop Diggity, or swill some FinnRiver dry hopped cider

G—Community Affairs and Opinions