pot-luck – Skookum Food Provisioners' Cooperative

Skookum Summer Sunday Social: BBQ Potluck on June 30 starting at 12 noon

800px-Thomas_Cole's_-The_Picnic-,_Brooklyn_Museum_IMG_3787 — Thomas Cole’s “The Picnic”, 1846.

It’s official! The next Skookum social is an outdoor picnic at member Lyn Adamson’s “Salty Dog” property just north of town (on the way to Lund) on Sunday June 30 starting at 12 noon!

Lyn suggests a BBQ potluck on the beach, a swim or a kayak paddle if anybody wants to.

This is a members-only event (but members’ families are more than welcome) and we ask you to kindly RSVP to event organizer Jacqueline Huddleston via email at jaxhuddleston@icloud.com as it will make planning a bit easier. Bring something to nibble on/BBQ and to share if you can, plus a lawn chair and a beach chair, a towel and bathing suit if you want to take a dip or kayak out.

Plus you can shop for cover crop seeds and Tattler Canning Lids.

It is all set to be a beach BBQ, here is some inspiration: Jacqueline is planning on making grilled local lamb with chimichurri or perhaps maple glazed salmon (if she can’t find local meat) or both!

Due to the public nature of this blog, the full address and directions to the north of town location will be sent via email to members, plus we will add our own markers to make this more obvious.

Hope to see you there (and remember to RSVP Jacqueline, please). This could be a great time to connect with fellow cooperative members and to enjoy a picnic in a waterfront park setting, and this will run rain or shine! It’s going to be a “zero waste event” .
So besides the towel and beach chair please bring your own dishes, cutlery and glassware (there’s a sink to wash up so you won’t have to take them home dirty).
Hope to see you there, it’s going to be fun and delicious!

Let us know (email giovanni@rabideye.com) if you would like to purchase any cover crop seeds or Tattler lids, as these can be made available to you at this event or by special appointment.
Find out what we have on offer for pick-up at the event
547 Peas 4010 and Oats 50/50 Mix Organic ($3 for a half-pound bag; very few available)

Best green manure for spring seeding. Very effective Nitrogen and biomass builder. 4010 peas are the best leafy forage peas for plowdown, producing over 40″ of green mass in 10 weeks. Oats will utilize available nitrogen, building soil structure, suppress weeds and provide quick growth while the peas fix nitrogen for following crop. Well suited for late summer/ fall seedlings as well. It is best practice to allow three weeks before seeding following crops. Mow down and work into soil at flowering. Seeding Rate: 2-3lb per 1000 sq. ft, 80-100lbs/acre drilled, 100-120lbs/acre broadcast.

Aside from adding organic matter to the soil, cover crops have many other purposes:

They reduce soil loss from water erosion.
They maintain soil surface infiltration, so it does not compact.
Cover crops improve soil tilth (structure).
They scavenge nutrients that might otherwise leach from the field.
They feed and provide shelter for birds, wildlife, and beneficial insects.
They fix nitrogen in the soil.

We also are selling Tattler lids at even lower prices! They’re about half the price you’d pay via Amazon.ca (and 15% of the cost goes to support Skookum). We ask members to limit purchases to 100 lids ea. at this point, to allow more members to take advantage. We offer the lids on a per-order basis, until they run out; there is no planned bulk purchase in 2013/14.

We have:

24-packs of regular lids + rubber rings .60 ea ($14.50); 50-packs ($30);
24-pack wide mouth lids + rubber rings .70 ea ($17.00); 50-packs ($35);
Individual extra rubber rings (wide and regular) .22 each in packs of 5 ($1.10 per pack).

Short Survey & New Addition to Wednesday Jan 23 Event

Members’ Skills Survey

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.

Eternal_Seed_140 — 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.

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.

Mark your calendars! It’s a members’ social!

skooXmas — Skooky Greetings to all our members!

Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative is in the beginning stages of planning a members’ social at the United Church in Powell River at 6:00 PM on Tuesday January 31, 2012.

The idea is to bring our members together to enjoy a meal, share ideas, and generate some plans for the new year. The Board will take care of the main course, while we ask members to bring a salad or dessert. Members will be asked to jot down the ingredients and if you’d like, the recipe for your dish.

So, this is a call out to you – our members – for a theme or activity for the evening. We could host a talk, a show–tell, a video, a digital slideshow, a discussion, music, puppet show, etc.; as long as it will increase access to or knowledge about food, cooperatives, or some other aspect of our vision and mission.

Once we get a clearer picture of what’s in store for the evening, sometime in early January, we will reach out to members to help with organizing and running the event.

Also, you may recall our Skookum Members’ Survey? (Click here to take it now if you haven’t done so already; it expires on December 21, 2011.) Well, this will be an opportunity to hear the results and to develop a better understanding of Skookum’s skills, assets, interests, goals,concerns. We have some exciting new and recurring projects in 2012*,we want you to take ownership of these.

2012 is the International United Nations Year of the Cooperative — let’s ring it in, in style.

* Hint: that little squirrel in the greeting will likely be involved!