We had great success at the Fall Fair this year! Skookum made over $900 selling freshly pressed apple cider, and we gained new 5 memberships over the weekend, and we continued to promote our Co-op to many interested individuals.
A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to our dedicated volunteers who helped in many ways. We could do this event without you! Most of you were choppers, and we chopped and chopped and chopped until ALL of our apples were chopped at about 1:30 on Sunday! At that point, we had about 40 jars of cider just sitting, waiting to be sold for the rest of the afternoon. We were able to pass along of all the mash (what is left after all the juice is pressed out) to local farmers to feed their various livestock.
THIS is really what Skookum is all about. Taking excess food from the waste stream, and making good use of it!
As we approach 350 members, we are really starting to make an impact in the community. Please continue to tell your friends all about us, and encourage them to become members as well. Together, we really CAN make a difference!
THANK YOU once again to all of you who contributed to such a successful weekend!
September 19/20th is the weekend for the smaller version of the regular Fall Fair (renamed FALL afFAIR), up at the Farmer’s Market grounds. While the hours will be shorter, we will still be there in full form with our Cider Press. This event is a chance for us to press apples to cider, show people how to do it, and raise funds for your cooperative.
If you volunteered last year, fear not! We have your contact info and will be in touch soon. If you would like to volunteer, and did not do so last year, please reply to Jill at funktifyd(at)gmail(dot)com
Many thanks to our Treasurer, Jill Amatt, for taking on the rather large job of wrangling the gear & volunteers needed to press cider at the Fall afFair this year, which is happening from 12:00 noon to 3:00 PMSaturday September 19 & Sunday September 20.
We still need a volunteer or two for the following times:
If you’re not volunteering, come on by the press and get yourself a delicious cup or bottle of fresh apple cider.
We will also require the usual list of items that we have needed to borrow from members in the past. If we have borrowed anything from you for this event in the past, please let me know what the item is, and if you are willing to lend it to us again. We do have a list and contact info for this as well, so we may start hounding you down soon also!
We are looking forward to another successful weekend of Apple-y goodness!
Remember to refill your Townsite Growlers all Sept. long with $1 each going to Skookum!
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Members’ deadline for submitting their Rancho Vignola orders is Friday September 25bynoon. You have until that time to get your order to us with payment either by cheque, direct deposit, or e-transfer. You can drop off a cheque at Kingfisher Used Books (4486 Marine Ave., under the bowling alley).
If you want to learn about the products on offer, check out http://www.ranchovignola.com/products.html. As always, there are some new products this time around (organic pine nuts, reg. hemp seeds, organic apple rings, organic diced dried mangoes, organic sun-dried tomatoes, etc.)
We will be running our usual Fall Cider Press Event this fall. This event is a chance for us to press apples to cider, show people how to do it, and to also raise some funds for your cooperative.
We need apples!
The success of this fundraiser depends on getting a good supply of apples for free. So if you or someone you know has excess apples, we will gladly take them and press them to cider. They do not need to be the most lovely apples, since if there is one thing that cider is good for, it’s getting rid of large quantities of non-beautiful apples!
We need storage!
If anyone has extra space in their garage, basement or shed, please let us know. We are hoping to be able to stockpile at least 20 boxes of apples.
If you have extra apples to donate, or if you want to volunteer to help out, please contact Jill 604-344-0017 or apples@skookumfood.ca
Do you want to rent our cider press (members only), click here.
Click the logo to view their website
Townsite Brewing is donating $1 to Skookum all September long through their Growler Program, so drink responsibly and get your growlers filled to help fund the Skookum Gleaners project, all September long!
Find out more about the Gleaners Project here, and find out more about the Growler program here.
This is Part 2 in a short series on cooperatives, and specifically on Community Service Cooperatives, because that is the designation for Skookum.
As a cooperative, we adhere to all the rules as described here (there are 171 of them) based on the BC Cooperative Association’s Regulations. This includes the fact that cooperatives are owned by their members (that’s one member=one vote, as opposed to being based on amount invested/donated, making cooperatives very democratic entities), and that each member holds a stake in the cooperative, that can be redeemed at any time. At Skookum, this is represented by your share certificate that costs $20.
The gist of it: What’s A Community Service Cooperative?
The purpose of a Community Service Cooperative can be either charitable or to provide health, social, educational or other community services to members, with a responsibility to the wider community. While Skookum is a non-profit cooperative organization, we are eligible via this new Community Service Cooperative designation, to apply to the Canada Revenue Agency for charitable status, if we so wish.
Assets collected or donated may only directly support and grow the cooperative (providing members with services and access to information, events, tools, land, supplies etc.), Skookum cannot return profit shares to members (unlike Mountain Equipment Co-0p or First Credit Union), whether on a periodic basis nor upon dissolution of the cooperative.
If the cooperative were to dissolve, members would receive their initial share price, after satisfaction of its liabilities and the costs, charges and expenses properly incurred in the dissolution or winding up. Any further assets must be transferred to or distributed among one or more community service cooperative or a registered charitable organization.
Skookum is concerned with increasing the amount of food available locally, regardless of how it comes to people:
Grown: any kind of produce, grains, beans, etc.
Gathered: wild foods, gleaned fruits nuts, etc.
Raised: animals other domesticated food sources;
Caught: wild animals, fish, etc.
The Triple Bottom Line: Healthy Community: we intend to produce benefits for the social life of the community, through the strengthening of ties among people, by respecting and honouring the work that people do to feed themselves and others; Economic Vitality: we intend to produce economic opportunities for people, embedded in a vision of a fair and just economy which pays fair prices and fair wages; Natural Environment: we intend to minimize waste and destructive practices as we go about our work.
In practical terms, the cooperative’s members are encouraged to reflect Skookum’s commitment to the three pillars of the Triple Bottom Line (social, environmental, economic) by creating and supporting projects that help members to grow, gather, catch, raise, preserve, prepare and share healthful food as locally as possible.
As a cooperative, Skookum is a ‘bottom-up’ organization that relies on the energy and ideas of its membership to address this Triple Bottom Line through engagement at the levels of governance, project management, and participation in the projects or events we develop/participate in.
Skookum has no paid staff, but projects are expected to provide for coordinator remuneration, while addressing our core values and purposes, and providing a percentage toward Skookum operating costs. Recent projects include a member-run bulk purchase of fruit trees, ongoing Tattler lid sales, Cover Crop sales, and The Abundant Pantry Bulk Buying Club (now offering Cafe Justicia fairer-than-fair trade coffee, and always more local products), but also the recent get-together and plans for more informational/fun events like seasonal potlucks, film screenings and guest presentations in the fall/winter to come. We are also planning another round of our yearly ‘Apple Cider Press-a-Thon’ at the 2013 Powell River Fall Fair on the weekend of September 21-22.
We are seeking helpers for this as well as materials to make it work even better, so contact us with how you want to help out or click here and come up with your own Skookum project; check this page out for inspiration.
Hey there members, it’s time to freshen up the Skookum cider press with some maintenance and repairs (anyone willing and able to help with this, please contact skookum@skookumfood.ca) AND we really need to set up a proper kit of materials that can accompany the cider press as it is loaned out to members, or used for public demonstrations/ pressings such as at the Fall Fair. So far, we have borrowed materials each time we need to do a group pressing, which is great. Problem is, it takes an immense amount of time and coordination to reconstruct the kit from scratch every time. So, if you have any of this equipment to donate to Skookum, then please consider it sooner rather than later. Used is fine, if functional.
Email us at skookum@skookumfood.ca to find out where and when you can drop off the materials. We will post what we have received (and what is left on the shopping list below), and send out reminders periodically.
If you cannot donate the materials or equipment, then please consider a monetary donation to the “Creating a Skookum Cider Press Kit” via PayPal, Debit or Credit card or by cheque (c/o SFPC and mail or drop off at Kingfisher Books 4486 Marine Ave. Powell River, BC V8A 2K2 CANADA). We’ll go on a shopping spree in late summer and try to complete the list.
We accept PR$
Of course, we accept Powell River Dollars (PR$) too; just drop off your donation at Kingfisher Books. And thanks! Please remember that your membership dollars ($20 for a lifetime membership and redeemable at any time) represent individual shares in Skookum; you own the cooperative as much as any other member. The funds raised through memberships are kept for the most part in reserve, and are not used to cover expenses.
Equipment needed (prices approx.)
(Click on the big “Grow Our Co-op” button at right to make a donation toward any piece of equipment)
Basic set up:
2 awnings (aka event tents or canopies or gazebos) c. $450
2 tarps: 1 to put underneath the cider press and 1 to cover it up overnight (as for Fall fair) c. $50
3 smaller tables (hand washing station; prep table; pasteurization/double boiler set up table) c. $175
1 large table (usually supplied by the Fall Fair) for front service counter. c. $100
2 water hoses (to bring the water closer to you b/c pressing requires a lot of water) c. $65
2 hose splitters (so you won’t be accused of hogging the communal hose and you won’t have to keep running to the tap to turn the hose on) c. $50
2 garbage cans per day for apple crud (or more if you’ll be doing lots of apples) ; with wheels! c. $65
Metal Ramp (to allow the press to be rolled or pushed up into a flatbed truck or vehicle) c. $250
Sanitation:
Large hands-free water container with “tap” for hand washing station c. $23
Plastic buckets for waste water (1or 2) c. $18
Bleach, pump soap, paper towels (1 each) c. $12
Stout spray bottle for bleach sanitizing solution c. $10
Cloth rags $5
Processing apples:
2 Large food grade, clean plastic tubs (like primary fermenters) for washing apples pre-pressing. 10 gallons ea. c. $80
Some large buckets or Rubbermaid to hold the washed apples (4) $40
2 buckets to catch the cider as it flows from the press $20
2 large cutting boards (wood or hard plastic) $20
Various knives including a few paring knives (minimum 4) $60
3 or 4 large stainless bowls to put the prepared apples into $40
Funnel and strainer $20
Keeping cider cold:
Ice packs (several) c.$35
(8-12 large bags of ice– one-time purchase on days of event)
2 very large coolers c.$70
Biodegradable paper cups (about 250) available from Aaron Vending: some small for “tasters” and large for selling cold cider. Napkins. c.$35
Keeping cider hot:
Matches or lighter $2
Propane gas burners (2) $150
Hot plate $25
Extension cords (3) $30
Large canner for boiling water bath $35
Large pot to fit inside canner to keep cider hot w/lid $30
Ladles (2)
Pot holders (6) $40
Stem thermometer $25
Cider spice sachets (6) $12
Mugs for selling cups of hot cider (must be washed and reused, not possible at all locations) $20
Other:
Some attractive one-colour tablecloths to enhance booth “eye appeal” 4X: $60
Blackboard for noting wares and prices $30
tracking sheet
Tally sheets on clipboards to keep track of sales
Pens
Bug spray and sting relief (for bees/wasps; antihistamine) $20
Paper bags and ties as wasp deterrents (in a bad wasp year, use lots!) $3
Optional (if for Fall Fair or other demo)
Info sheets on upcoming or happening projects
Waterproof Displays of whatever relevant kind to enhance booth eye appeal and advertise the coop and its mission, pens, sign up sheets for Skookum and press info.
