We have a running joke in the office at the Corner: “Does it protein?” It would seem that corporate food America is intent on including protein in literally any potential food product they can. The irony is that Americans on average already consume ample quantities of protein, but around 90% do not consume enough fiber. The inclusion of protein in packaged goods drifts from the mission: we want to eat healthier. Purchasing a whole or majority quantity of an animal is, we feel, a step in the right direction to holistic protein intake. So, funnily enough, Thanksgiving is probably one of the few times in a seasonal cycle when a lot of families purchase a whole animal to eat together. As ever, we are one source for your holiday protein, and we have launched the Protein Pre-Order page on our website, which has a definitive download on all the FAQs for the process. Speaking of holidays, don’t be afraid when the “grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!” BOO!

A vendor booth at a farmers market is a true locus of egalitarian democracy. Everyone is allotted their 10 by 10 site, everyone starts selling at the same time, and everyone is “open” to all who elect to attend, regardless of type of product, level of experience, or sophistication of the build out of one’s booth. If you’ve never worked a booth at a farmers market, you might be surprised at how big of a lift it is. Not only that, it locks you into working on the opposite schedule of most other humans, leaving you gassed on the weekend when everyone else is open to socializing and making plans. So while we as both patrons and hosts are delighted on a weekly basis by the unfurling of the Chimacum Farmers Market, we are sure there must be a sentiment among vendors that they have ran their annual marathon and it is time to take one last glory lap around the Chimacum Corner barnyard. We salute all of the beloved farmers, artisans, makers, and musicians that infuse their talent into the Chimacum Farmers Market. We strongly encourage the Chimacum Corner community to turn out in droves for the last market of the season, and also to dress up in costume/character, and maybe even paint a pumpkin with the Farmers Market staff! It ought to be a spooky hoot!

We woke up to the first frost last Monday morning. First Frost should be a countywide holiday, at least for farmers. It is an incontrovertible scientific phenomenon, the freezing of water in plant tissue, cells bursting and disintegrating. It renders a lot of crops undeniably D-U-N done. For this fact, it marks the true change from summer to fall. With the arrival of fall, we are intuitively drawn to the cozier side of life. Long nights, cold mornings, and howling winds urge us to turn inward, and reach for sources of comfort. Chimacum Corner may as well be a Comfort Supply Depot. We offer comforting foods, comforting vibes, and comforting goods. Perhaps the chief comfort accessory at the store is the CCF beanie, which we perennially make available in every color of the rainbow. But cozy doesn’t stop there. Read on for all the ways you can luxuriate in the warmth of Chimacum Corner, even with frost nipping at your heels.  

Every apple on the market is actually a needle in a haystack. Genetically, apples are considered “extreme heterozygotes,” meaning that no two seeds are alike in any apple. Apple varieties remain consistent because all production trees are sculpted via grafting scionwood branches onto rootstock. But the scionwood has to come from somewhere. In the case of modern apples like Cosmic Crisp, the scionwood comes from state university laboratories. But for classics like Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, and Red Delicious, there are quaint tales of happy accidents, speculative investments, and observant farmers. And of course, as with Borat, it all started in some remote little village in Kazakhstan. Chimacum Corner goes hard for our state fruit, attempting to cram as many varieties as possible into our postage-stamp porch. We should have a glorious illuminated hand-painted sign that reads “Know Thy Apple” above the registers. It’s hard to keep them all straight! Celebrate the world’s favorite “pome” fruit all week long with us and the rest of Chimacum! For us, it ain’t turtles, it’s apples all the way down.  

 That familiar crisp of fall is back in the morning and evening mists. Fall is pretty much synonymous with apples and squash at Chimacum Corner, and this week we are singing the praises of those “cucurbit keepers,” the winter squashes! All over Washington state tractors are forklifting macrototes into their squash fields, and piling squash in, 700 pounds at a time. Some of the squash weigh 700 on their own! While not quite THAT large, the Corner Nursery has set their giant pumpkin on display once again for the fall season, and we are continuing in the delightful tradition of a “guess the weight” contest for the Big Boy. Whether you like to eat squash or decorate with it (or both!), we’ve got a little bit of everything in that department, from the teeniest Delicata to the most ginormous Hubbard. So cuddle up, perhaps with a Buttercup squash, get that oven roaring, and bust out your carving implements, it’s time to get out of your gourd about winter squash!

Dairy farming has always been held up as sort of the most “hardcore” of the farming disciplines. I think most people chalk it up to the razor thin margins and the relentless necessity of it’s schedule. Plus livestock farming of any kind is always a little more chaotic than say, salad mix. Whatever the reason, the farming community tends to hold a special reverence for the dairyfolk. It is in this reverence that we salute the beginning of a cheese sabbatical for Mystery Bay Farm, of Marrowstone Island. These indie cheese darlings have been a WSDA Certified Grade A Dairy since 2009. Helmed by Rachel Van Laanen, this micro-dairy has been a perennial fixture on the plates and in the hearts of Jefferson County for nearly two decades. Chimacum Corner has been extremely proud to be a purveyor of their fine fleet of cheeses all these years. Every year there is much anticipation around when the spring Ricotta will be ready, and it is always a kind of back alley deal to get your hands on it. Rachel and family, thank you so much for feeding our community such impeccable and high quality cheese, yogurt, cajeta, and more over all of these years. We sincerely hope you get to enjoy and recharge in the time away from operating the business. And for all the rabid Mystery Bay cheeseheads, time to stock up on chevre and fromage blanc to sustain you into the winter!

Wooden Boat Festival is a true gathering of skilled tradespeople from all around the world and is the marquee event of the Northwest Maritime Center, an anchor of ocean-based knowledge in our community. This year’s theme is “Sails, Rigging, and Spars.” Nothing puts the wind in our spinnaker quite like eating local food or supporting local makers. We will make you walk the plank if you don’t sidle on down to the Corner to check out what’s hot on the Produce Porch, in Grocery Land, and out in the Nursery! Don’t forget, September is officially decreed “Eat Local Month” in Washington state! And for good reason, as the farms really turn on the faucet this time of year with late season goodies! So come on out and shop local while enjoying the global convergence of all-star mariners in Jefferson County. As ever, the old adage goes, “one hand for you, sailor.”  

There’s an old saying from India: “Garlic is as good as ten mothers, for keeping the girls away.” It’s a phrase so memorable there’s a farm named after it (Shout out toTen Mothers Farmin Cedar Grove, NC! Gordon and Vera are absolute boss dawgs.) Seeing the bounty of garlic, cured well, stored in a beloved wicker basket (or hey, a cardboard box from the Corner Nursery, let’s be real), is closely associated with the abundance of fall and the harvest times. Garlic is probably one of the longest standing annual crops, in terms of soil time. Hence, its cherished position in our cuisine. Another method to summon the cozy abundance of autumn is to watchLes Blank’s 1980 celebratory documentaryof the same (partial) name as the aforementioned Indian saying. That is sure to get you all jazzed up about the old “Stinking Rose.” In scanning the aisles of CCF, it’s kind of hard not to notice that we are a bit garlic obsessed. Follow along to see all the allium tricks we’ve got up our sleeves.

One of my favorite poems is “A Supermarket In California” by Allen Ginsberg. In it, Allen imagines a theoretical encounter with Walt Whitman in a “neon fruit supermarket,” likely somewhere in Berkeley, 1955. In describing the wares within the store, he exclaims, “What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! And you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?” What strikes me at this moment is he could very well be observing the Corner right now. Babies are indeed in the tomatoes, sneaking sungolds and sakuras from the pints their parents hope can make it home at least half full. The aisles are definitely full of partners patiently waiting at the cart while their chosen household scout secures the goods. It is officially B.L.T. season: BEST LOCAL TOMATOES. With all shapes and sizes coming from nearly all the main players in the vegetable game, it is time to make your tomato water, your marinara, your salsa, however you get your lycopene on! Late summer means capturing the vitality of the nightshades. And, once again, we defy Guy Clark’s famous decree: you CAN buy homegrown tomatoes in Chimacum, thanks to all of the fabulous growers loading their hoophouses with abundant vines.

Late summer spurs an immediacy to getting out into the back country. Already we can sense the fading of the light, and our pull to harvest the fun and pleasure of summer goads us forward. For an outdoorsperson, the Peninsula is a pure playground. The Olympics are the representative facet of our place, the only part that captures the whole. The Chimacum Corner Farmstand tends to function like a sort of pack outfitter at this time of year. It’s a hub for traveling souls. So before you go deep into the woods and up to the tarns and crags, let us toss a little ballast into your backpack. Only the finest and most thoughtful of edible ballasts though, don’t you worry.

It is officially fire season in the northwest. Our thoughts and prayers are scattered all throughout the Northwest as family and friends become displaced and endangered. As the smoke progressively settled in to Chimacum this week, so too has a wildfire of amazing produce ripped through the Farmstand, leaving delighted bellies in its wake. Early August, it’s a real doozy. The Produce department has been consistently breaking its own records, and is truly “on fire” like Bruce Springsteen. The Crown Jewel of this week’s fruit bonanza is the Tonnemaker Hill yellow peach. Luscious, beautifully hued, and freestone, it is definitely “peak peach” around these parts. The Produce Porch is thus a castle fit for a Princess (Peach). For any and all affected by the current fires, our hearts go out to you. We hope the wonderful wares at the Corner can offer some balm to these troubling times. Perhaps a “pandowdy” is in your future! A “pandowdy” is an old American “spoon pie” type fruit dessert, with spiced fruit on the bottom and a rolled crust on top that is cracked open to allow the fruit juices to soak in. Though it is typical to use apples, a peach pandowdy has a real nice ring! Life’s a real peach these days.

We are having a banner year for Chimacum-grown blueberries. The intricate succession of critical weather-calendar moments have all aligned into bounteous boughs of fruit that taste like the color purple. The blueberry fields of Stellar J Farm are one of the “Seven Wonders of Chimacum.” With the initial plantings going in via Lige Christian in the 90s, pre-Finnriver/Grainery, all the way up to the newest plantings of Janet and Jeff, this hallowed patch of Chimacum Valley bottom has poured out generations worth of the little blue orbs. This newsletter is an homage to these petite packets of antioxidants and fiber. There are endless ways to work these local legends into your diet, but we’ve settled on a few of our favorites. Come get the blues with us in the happiest of ways.

The heat wave of this past week has made it clear that the “dog days” of summer have officially arrived. Cooling systems all over Jefferson County are wheezing and hoping to keep pace. With all that heat, our palates lean towards cool foods. There is literally nothing more evocative of summer than slicing a chilled vine-ripened cantaloupe from Walchli Farms in half and giving one half (plus a spoon) to a friend. We love using the scooped out melon half as a chalice to slurp the accumulated juices. So regal. Down at Chimacum Corner, there are endless yummy ways to beat the heat. From the sweet treats of the Corner Kitchen to the cured meats of the Grocery Department, not to mention all that Produce lusciously hanging about out front, the abundance time is right here, right now. Read on for all the ways to get to “local heaven.”

It is a cruel trick of farming that just as you get one season’s crop well established (i.e. summer), it’s already time to be planting out the next season’s crop. While it may seem counterintuitive to be planting cool-loving crops in the blistering heat of July and August, they need that planting time to get up to size in order to survive well into winter (and for some, spring!) and provide much needed late-season sustenance. Fortunately for all of us local gardeners, we have the amazing Midori Farm to keep our transplant timings on point for an abundant fall garden. The season hurtles at blistering speed to first frost, and many successions of local greens have already come, been harvested, and have gone, with many more still on the horizon. From the Produce Porch to our lovely Kitchen team across the street, we find all the ways we can muster at Chimacum Corner to champion the quality, integrity, and excellence of Local Greens. That’s to say nothing of the fact that we have hit peak Stone Fruit, Local Berries, and the arrival of the vaunted Hermiston Cantaloupes all at once! It’s a Party on the Produce Porch y’all! Get after it!

Early summer brings expectation. “When are the Hermistons coming in? When are the Stellar J blueberries landing? Any local tomatoes? You guys got pickling cukes yet??” Farmers are gassed with no end in sight and the crops can’t grow as fast as the demand. The Chimacum Corner Produce Buying Team had the pleasure of touring Spring Rain Farm with Farmer John during the midweek raspberry pic. Talk about a veritable wonderland of perennial goodies! The farm looks so amazing this time of year, and everywhere you turn, plants, trees, vines, and bushes are loaded with some kind of fruit or another. It was affirming of the work we do at the Corner to see these blue-chip farmers in their element, John twirling heirloom tomatoes while holding forth on irrigation and Roxanne, earbuds in, deftly and indefatigably bringing in the proverbial raspberry bacon as the crew picked alongside. Speaking of fruit, the Corner is putting on a gosh darn clinic about it, both in the Nursery and in Produce. We are setting off fruit fireworks all across your grocery list! BOOM!

It’s summer in Chimacum, and there’s no more iconic of a tradition than buckin’ hay. Unlikely cadres of friends, neighbors, highschoolers, and dads come together to get them bales out of the fields. This hot, dry run came at a perfect time for the hay guys. Between the mowin’ and the hayin’, the hay fever is running high. Plants and crops are harnessing the mighty power of northwest solstice daylight hours and seemingly growing by the minute. New crops appear at the farmer’s market every week. And it’s just the beginning of stone fruit season. In honor of high summer, the Corner Nursery is pulling out all the stops and offering a sweet sale on farm starts and seed packets. Time to fill in those holes in the garden where spring crops have come and gone, and plant new rounds of things that will be ready for beautiful autumnal harvests. So saunter on in one of these siesta-times and check out what’s on offer!