Our Annual General Meeting will be Tues. May 13 at 6PM

skookumAGM

Our members are urged to attend our Annual General Meeting.

Potluck supper will start at 6PM. Skookum is providing two hearty main dishes, and members are encouraged to bring a side dish, salad, or dessert. If you can’t manage to bring a dish, bring an appetite; there will be plenty of food.

The AGM will start at 7PM.

Five (5) board positions are up for grabs including three 2-year terms and two 1-year terms.  The event will take place at The United Church Trinity Hall (at 6932 Crofton at Duncan — kitty corner to City Hall)

We will have Powell River Dollars for sale as well as Tattler Canning Lids (see prices here).

We hope to see you all there!

 

 

See you at Seedy Saturday on March 8!

seed_savers_logo_largeHey there Skookies-

Powell River’s ninth annual Seedy Saturday is coming up this Saturday (March 8, 2014). Please note the new earlier hours: doors open at 9:30 AM and the event goes until 2:30 PM.  Admission is $2 and the Farmers’ Institute is happy to accept Powell River Dollars. Kids 12 and under get in for free, so bring the whole family! This is the annual event that kicks off the growing season in the region, and anyone who’s been there in the past knows that it’s both fun and educational. Inside, approximately six seed vendors and 20 community groups are participating.

Skookum will be there with an info table and Tattler BPA-free, indefinitely reusable home canning lids for sale:

Price List ( remember that your purchase also supports Skookum… for more info on the lids visit http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/ )

Our prices cannot be beaten– do some research and see for yourself.

  • 50 wide lids and rings ….. $40 each
  • 50 regular lids and rings ….. $35 each
  • 24 regular lids and rings …. $17 each
  • 24 wide mouth lids and rings.. $20 each
  • Regular lid+ring sampler pack.. (6 lids+rings) $4 each
  • Wide mouth lid+ring sampler.. pack (6 lids+rings) $5 each
  • Regular rings (8 per pack) ….. $2 each
  • Wide mouth rings (8 per pack). $2 each

More on the Seedy Saturday event this weekend… there will be lots to do for kids as well!

Workshop schedule:

10:00 AM to 10:45 AM

  • Kevin Wilson:Three ways to start seeds
  • Margaret Cooper & Jo-Ann Canning: Surviving the invasion of the Spotted-Wing Drosophila (you will recall we had a blog post on this here)

11:00 AM to 11:45 PM

  • Julia Adam & Rob Hughes: Soil Health: The foundation for thriving plants
  • Leonie Croy: Saving seeds that sustain us

12:00 PM to 12:45 PM

  • Rosie Fleury: Gardening with poultry
  • Doug Brown: Should or shouldn’t I keep bees?

1:00 PM to 2:30 PM (BIG EVENT!!)

  • Carolyn Herriot (Evergreen Theatre): At 1 p.m. best-selling author Carolyn Herriot will be presenting on “How to Save Seeds to Grow Local Food” in the Evergreen Theatre at the Recreation Complex. Her talk is to help energize everyone into growing more food, saving seed and getting involved in the Farmers’ Institute Seed Bank . For more information about the event, please contact Wendy Devlin at (604) 483-9268 or visit http://prfarmers.ca/pr-seedysat/.

 

 

 

Message from Skookum

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(originally sent as an email to our members Dec 21, 2013) I slept in a little this morning although I did not realize this until after I found my watch (no easy feat) to find the time.  Almost 7 o’clock and yet it is fully dark outside, the forest is quiet except for the calls of owls.

This  solstice for me is the beginning of the new year.  The planet has tilted as far as it will on its journey around the sun and we’re on the doorstep of winter.  A time for reflection and a time for celebration with thoughts of renewal uppermost in my mind.

With that in mind I would like to offer my best wishes to you and thanks for your contributions and involvement with Skookum Food and Provisioners co-op.  I am very much looking forward to working with you all towards an engaged and sustainable future.

For the board, I offer our best wishes to you today, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Regards,
Pete Tebbutt

A tad squirrely

Thinking Ahead: Don’t forget that The Abundant Pantry Bulk Buying Club has a new Facebook page . The next order date deadline is Sunday, January 12 (with delivery on January 16). You can use our facebook page to coordinate orders as well as the splits page (available once you log in) or even our membership-wide email: members@skookumfood.ca

You must be a Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative member to participate, though. $20 for a lifetime membership. Find out more here.

Protecting Against Spotted Wing Drosophila

drosophilahighres
Spotted Wing Drosophila

Well, you may have heard that the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) fruit fly has arrived in Powell River. It can cause a lot of damage to all soft ripe fruit and there are a few things we can do to protect our crops from it.  Below are details that we found online, with links to good quality images and information that can help identify the bug and help to deal with these unfortunately very hearty and prolific fruit flies.

(from: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/pest-alert-swd.htm — click on that link for many images and lots of information, albeit from an Ontario perspective; local bulletins appear at the end of this post)

Why worry?

Growers are accustomed to the vinegar flies that are commonly associated with overripe, damaged and dropped fruit. What makes the SWD different is that the female has a heavily serrated ovipositor that allows her to saw through intact fruit and lay her eggs under the skin. Larvae hatch and feed on the fruit, rendering it unmarketable. Disease pathogens and other insect pests can also enter through the egg-laying holes, causing further deterioration of the fruit.

Which crops are at risk?

According to the BC Ministry of Agriculture: In British Columbia, spotted wing drosophila has been confirmed infesting:
– strawberry (Fragaria)
– crabapple (Mallus)
– plum (Prunus) – including Italian prune plum
– cherry (Prunus)
– Raspberry (Rubus) — the first choice, and most susceptible to attack
– Himalayan blackberry (Rubus)
– loganberry, tayberry, boysenberry
– blueberry (Vaccinium)
– peach, nectarine, apricot (Prunus) — though not a first choice
SWD is suspected in:
– hardy kiwifruit (Actinidia)
– grapes (Vitis) — especially soft-skinned varieties or if skin is broken
– fig (Ficus) — can be infested when conditions are right, or like grapes, if the skin is broken.
Berries in the Ribes genus are also susceptible:
– currant
– gooseberry
– jostaberry

Please refer to these two locally produced documents by Margaret Cooper and Jo-Ann Canning, on how to deal with this! We will add new bulletins to this list as they occur.

  • Bulletin 1 
  • Bulletin 2

There is also this brochure by the BC Ministry of Agriculture, that is very useful.

Welcome to Splitsville, at the Abundant Pantry project

A tad squirrely
Winter’s Coming… Going a tad squirrely?

It really is worth remembering that one of Skookum’s recurring benefits to members comes through our The Abundant Pantry (TAP) Bulk Food Buying Club that runs every two months. The next deadline is Sunday, November 10 at 11:00 PM sharp. If you haven’t used it yet, you’re missing out on the benefits of gaining access to the best quality organic and conventional foods, at the lowest possible prices.

It’s easy.

  1. If you are already signed up as a TAP member… move to step 2 (if not, click here)
  2. You shop online anytime you want (up to 11:00 PM on Sunday November 10 for this next cycle)
  3. Check out the existing splits offered or enter your own invitations to split an order
  4. Show up on Delivery Day (Thursday November 14) at the set time and location  in Wildwood and pay there. Want to help at the distribution location? Ask Wendy, the program coordinator at bulkbuying@skookumfood.ca

Buying in bulk has many advantages, especially with the colder weather on its way…

  • You save money when you buy in bulk (we have food and non-food items, plus pet food, with some local products too)
  • You store more and better quality staples for the best price (which means you can often buy Organic food via The Abundant Pantry (TAP), for the cost of non-Organic at the supermarket, or less!
  • You will tend to eat better, less-processed and Organic food if you have better food in storage!
  • You generally reduce the need to rush off to the store (saving money, gas, time, effort, annoyance, especially in the winter when it can be an extra chore)
  • You generally reduce the amount of packaging when you buy in bulk (it depends on what you’re buying, but generally the larger the quantity, the less packaging and the more recyclable the packaging is)
  • You get to contribute a little bit to Skookum (a very small fraction of your bill is to help pay for the coordination and rental of space)
  • More importantly, get to know your fellow members; it’s all part of building a resilient community that will benefit us all
  • …and if you’re worried about having too much of a good thing (i.e. overbuying some products) do we have splits for you! It’s our program’s Splits Page, and it doesn’t end there, you can also use our Skookum members email list (just email members(at)skookumfood(dot)ca) or our Facebook page  and let them know you have food to share, either before you buy or afterwards. You can set up arrangements between yourselves.
  • It happens every two months, with the next order being November 10, so start browsing and check out the 1,500+  products available to you.

All the details are at The Abundant Pantry site. Any questions at all? Contact the development team at bulkbuying@skookumfood.ca.