Top 5 Interests indicated by our members from our Skookum Members’ Skills Survey held in late 2012/early 2013
5. (TIE!) Seed-Saving and Cider/Wine-Making
4. (TIE!) Bulk Food Buying and Public Outreach + Facilitation
3. Food Preparation (cooking/baking)
2. Food Preserving (canning, smoking, dehydrating, pickling, lacto-fermentation, cheese-making, salting/ packing in sugar) 1. Gardening!
32 members responded to our recent survey (feel free to respond anytime as well), and we already have some positive action from several members, including:
A generous offer to fix and maintain our cider press, along with a backup option
An offer to host a summertime Skookum picnic on a member’s seaside property (more on this soon!)
And several members said they would keep an eye out for the materials we need to complete the Skookum Cider Press kit (see here for what we need; you can also donate money to the project via PayPal (accepting credit and debit card donations as well, and cheques too– click the PayPal link for more info).
Remember that a big ongoing Skookum project, The Abundant Pantry Bulk Food Buying Club (TAP), is taking orders until Sunday, May 12 at 11 pm. Make sure you get your orders in before this. The next order after this will be in July. For more information, contact the coordinator Wendy Pelton at bulkbuying@skokoumfood.ca.
Ah, the promise of spring is in the air as those earliest tree buds and flowers pop, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at what Skookum does and can do, with your help.
We are a network of regular folks sharing the knowledge, skills and supports to grow, gather, raise, catch, preserve, prepare and access local, healthful food.
We chose the non-profit, cooperative model because we feel that a network of ‘members helping members’ under our collectively-owned, democratic umbrella is the best way to make local food happen for our members and the larger community. Our actions include raising public awareness of topics related to personal food sovereignty via member-run workshops, events and gatherings, projects, presentations, work parties, film screenings, group buying clubs (like our own The Abundant Pantry bulk food buying club, our Tattler reusable canning lids, Eternal Seed and Rancho Vignola fruit/nut bulk purchases), that all aim at strengthening our network of engaged citizens, while increasing our individual and collective self-reliance when it comes to good, healthful food, as locally-sourced as possible.
One great way anyone can learn how to grow at least some of their own food is through attending Seedy Saturday this coming Saturday! Drop by and see us at Seedy Saturdayon March 9 at the Powell River Recreation Complex (10am-3pm) at 5001 Joyce Avenue, for a chat.
Click to find out more…
If you want to help out with public events like this above (the Newcomers’ Social is coming up April 23, for example), or come up with our own events like hosting a film screening or guest speaker… let us know, and we’ll help you make it happen.
Also, for you writers/bloggers out there, please feel free to send us your pithy prose on how Skookum works its way into your food-related solutions (how you learned to can, dehydrate, etc.) ; we’d all love to hear from you. Just send us your writing via email to skookum@skookumfood.ca, and we’ll handle the rest.
Have a more concrete project or workshop or event idea and want Skookum to help you run it? You can contact us to submit a short proposal via email to skookum@skookumfood.ca, and we’ll get back to you. For ideas on what a project can look like, visit our past projects page.
Let us know what your interests are and how you’d like to help make your cooperative even better, take our on-going Members’ Skills Survey.
A Few On-going Projects
We just completed a bulk order of more Tattler reusable BPA-free canning lids (on sale to members soon), as well as a Rancho Vignola clearance order for our members only, and as you can see below The Abundant Pantry is ready for the next order…
Keep the evening of Thursday May 2 free, as this is the date of our Annual General Meeting (more on this shortly).
Click above to get the acorn rolling…
For you lucky The Abundant Pantry (TAP) Members: Your March bulk food order cycle closes this Sunday, March 10th, at 11:00 pm, so now is the time to become a member of TAP and to shop for the best prices and food quality, while stocking up your pantry. Find out how to become a member here.
Thank you members, for taking the quick-n-easy Skookum Members’ Skills survey by the deadline of February 14th! The Survey has since been Re-opened, and we’d like the rest of the membership to also consider filling it out too (click here), as we feel it’s important to gauge our collective capacity.
More Than Honey plays at the Patricia Theatre on Saturday, February 10:30am. $8/$6 students/seniors.
The winners of 2 pairs of tickets each to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013), including tickets to More Than Honey and to the opening gala reception/film A Royal Affair….
<insert drum roll>
Skookum members Eva Van Loon and Karen Munro!
Thanks for playing and happy viewing!
The results (with no names attached) of the survey will be revealed shortly, so please take the survey as soon as you can (click here)!
Click the picture to take the 2-minute survey and you can win tickets for 2 to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013)
As a cooperative, we want to know more about you: what your concerns are, what your skills and interests are, and what you feel you can do to help strengthen our cooperative and the larger community. We encourage each member to commit to initiating or participating in projects, joining a committee, serving on the board of directors, and helping with events and tasks as they arise. No pressure, though. Just take the short ‘n snappy survey now (2 minutes of your time) click here BY THURSDAY FEBRUARY 14 (yes, Valentine’s Day) and we will return the love via a random draw of two pairs of tickets for two, to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013)!
If you’ve already taken this survey, thank you! You are automatically entered in our random draw!
As a cooperative, we encourage each member to commit to initiating or participating in projects, joining a committee, serving on the board of directors, and helping with events and tasks as they arise. Take the shortissimo survey now (2 minutes of your time) tap here.
Tap to visit their site
Our local Eternal Seed company has agreed to come to our event and sell packets of seeds to our members from their catalogue tax-free, plus they will donate 5% of sales to Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative. So, there is some more incentive for you.
This will be our seed project for this year, folks. There may be a large cover crop order later on, but this is your chance to get in on a members-only sale of veggies/herbs/flowers. Additionally Ellen from Eternal Seed says: “If people want seed we don’t have with us (should not be many varieties) then we will offer to deliver in town one day and phone them to do so.” How cool is that? Please come to our laid-back feast this Wed. Jan 23 @ 7PM.
Let’s Eat!
On the foodie side of things, our main courses will include…Chef Jacqueline Huddleston’s Vegan/Gluten-free NutLoaf and Vegetarian Creamy Leek Bread Pudding and Cranberry Chutney!), and YOU bring a dessert or salad or appetizer/side. Bring what you like, the more local the better. And if you’re rushed, just bring yourselves.Seriously. The event will take place at the United Church’s Trinity Hall (Michigan at Duncan, kitty-corner to City Hall) in Powell River starting at 7:00 PM sharp.
Top 5 Interests indicated by our members from our Skookum Members’ Skills Survey held in late 2012/early 2013
