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!
Happy Holidays and thank you for helping to make local food happen.
It’s been a very busy Fall for Skookum so far this year; and as we head into 2013 it’s ‘whiplash time’ as we look back to see what we accomplished, and forward on how we can do more and better. 2012 was the UN-designated Year of the Cooperative and we are working on airing a 5-program series on cooperatives on CJMP 90.1 FM Community Radio before year end. Keep your ears (and eyes, as we will be promoting it) peeled.
You may remember seeing some pictures on our Facebook page from our last event of 2012, as several of us helped press apple cider for James Thomson Elementary School’s Farm to School program. We had another successful Abundant Pantry order (next order will be mid-January 2013, check the site in January to order), and we’re just about ready to distribute over 500 lbs of dried fruit/nuts/confectionery from our second Rancho Vignola order that just came in.
Skookum is more than bulk buying, though, and we’d like to increase our workshops and other hands-on projects in 2013. That said, one great reason to have a cooperative is to be able to generate some buying power as a group, and in doing so, also help the community and the cooperative grow and increase self-sufficiency.
Buying seed together.
Last year just after Christmas, I started thinking about and then planning a bulk seed order. A dozen or so members got together and I coordinated an order from our local Eternal Seeds company, who gave us a 20% discount overall if we collectively bought 10 packets of any of their seeds (about 5% was allocated to Skookum and the coordinator). This year, the feedback indicates that we need to order earlier than the February 14th deadline we had last year, by at least a month.
If anyone out there would like to manage the seed order (and the project can be as different as you like), please drop us a line or fill out a short proposal here. Deadline for a proposal or indication of interest in managing this project is EXTENDED to Dec. 30, 2012. The deadline to order should be by Jan 14, 2013.
Below we have a list of our completed projects for 2012, and in addition to these, we have an on-going Abundant Pantry bulk food order every two months. All our past projects are listed on our past projects webpage.
January 2012:
Skookum held a potluck members’ social event to celebrate 2012, the UN International Year of the Co-op. Read the story here.
March 2012:
Bulk seed order from Eternal Seeds
June/July 2012:
Skookum held 2 home tanning workshops
August 2012:
Bulk purchase of fruit/vegetables and dehydrating work party at the Community Resource Centre
September 2012
Skookum’s second Tattler lid bulk order
Bulk purchase of Sausagemaker dehydrators
Skookum was at the Fall Fair, pressing cider and raising funds
October 2012
Second Rancho Vignola Fruit and Nut Bulk Order
November 2012
Skookum helps the local Farm to School project press apples for James Thomson Elementary School for a second year.
Pete and ‘the son of Spiderman’, with requisite admirers
Whew! Some 20+ Skookum members and friends were on hand this past weekend for year 2 of our Fall Fair cider-pressing/processing/vending presence, and we provided a very good show indeed! Not to mention delicious fresh, lightly spiced hot and cool cider, sold by the mug ($1) and by the 32-oz bottle ($5).
This Skookum fundraiser raised somewhere in the neighbourhood of $500 after expenses. We would like to thank all the apple donors as well as those folks and organizations (CJMP springs to mind) who let us use their materials and equipment. Very special thanks to Board member/taskmaster David (who organized the whole shebang this year, taking cues/tips from Jax), our president and chief im/presser Pete, Jacqueline herself, Jan (and husband Gary, both working behind the scenes to make sure we had the press, bottles and materials we needed), and former director Sharon!
Members Stacy, Annabelle, Connie, Patricia (and her husband John), Melissa (and her daughter Chelsea), Emma, Lyn, Dan, and many others I met for the first time worked so hard (many on both days of the fair!) and were so generous with their apples and materials/equipment to make the event a success. You can spot some of them on our Facebook page photo gallery (plus videos).
Remember that the press belongs to Skookum members, and as a member you can rent it for just $20/day (see details here).
Skookum's Farm to School cider-pressing task force: Coco Hess, Martin Mitchinson, and David Parkinson
On Monday November 28, Coco Hess, Martin Mitchinson, and I got an early start. We picked up Skookum’s cider press from Jan & Gary’s workshop in Westview, and drove up to Wildwood to press apple cider for the James Thomson Elementary School’s second Farm to School lunch. We spent the morning cutting and grinding apples,— with the help of many enthusiastic kids — pressing those apples into beautiful cider.
This all came about because I had been talking with some of the amazing young moms who have been working hard to create a monthly healthy and local school lunch for the schoolchildren at James Thomson. They put together a fantastic salmon lunch for their kickoff event in October and wanted to feature apples for the November lunch. Once they knew that Skookum had a cider press,once the Skookum board of directors had OK’d the donation of the cider press to this good cause, the plan was in motion. Coco and Marty were the lucky volunteers chosen from among quite a group of Skookum members willing to help out,with some extra assistance and equipment from Jacqueline Huddleston we were off and running.
It was a pretty chilly morning, but we warmed up soon enough, what with all the activity and the kids yelling and running around. Just about everyone got a chance to turn the crank to grind the apples to pulp, to throw chopped apples into the hopper, and to help turn the wheel to press the pulp into cider. We had a gas stove and double-boiler so that we could pasteurize the cider for safe consumption. One after another, classes came outside, did their turn at the press and then headed inside for a short video and discussion about healthy juice and sugar content.
The next day I was lucky enough to be able to go to the meal where the kids were served rainbow pasta with local vegetables, yummy coleslaw, bread baked with hand-milled flour by Nancy’s Bakery in Lund, and of course a little bit of apple cider for everyone. It was so lovely to see all the schoolchildren enjoying a delicious and healthy meal with local ingredients. I talked to a few of them and they all raved about the apple cider.
Thanks to Leta, Francine, and all the other parents who worked so hard to make this meal happen. And thanks for inviting Skookum to be a part of it. Special thanks to Coco and Marty for taking half a day out of their busy lives. And of course, thank you to all of the schoolkids of James Thomson who helped make cider.
For more information on the James Thomson Farm to School program, you can check them out on Facebook.
It was a beautiful, sunny October morning, crisp as the apples we were pressing into delicious cider during Skookum’s Co-op week celebratory Community “Press-Off”, outside the Community Resource Centre, as part of the weekly Saturday Winter Market. The concept was that both members and non-members could drop by, wash and press their apples into incredibly delicious cider, and pay by donation. Many people brought their own bottles and jars, but we had some sterlized bottles on hand if needed. The Skookum Cider Press is normally only available to members, and for a daily fee for use.
Skookum board members and other volunteers helped to make this event a fun time, and it even raised some $70 toward the Cider Press fund. But most importantly, we helped community members produce a great, locally processed food, from local produce. Of course, the event also showed off our cider press and increased our visibility in the community. Six quarts of juice also returned to the CRC, from apples picked through Skookum Gleaners!
It’s hard to say how many apples we collectively pressed, but I figure that at least 40 quarts of juice and a whole lot of pomace resulted from the 3-hour pressing. We plan to turn most of our own apple juice to apple cider vinegar, but some people were planning on freezing their bottled juice (making sure they were 25% empty and with a loosened lid), and others planned on adding champagne yeast to make hard cider. Apple juice will keep about a week in the refrigerator, but those who attended enjoyed immediately sipping the free samples as they watched cider being pressed on this gorgeous day.
The first pressing’s the sweetest!
We even got some help with the cider press clean-up from some energetic nearby youth engaged in a car wash fundraising event for the new Youth Resource Centre; it is set to open in a month or so, right next door to the CRC.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped out in various ways!
