The Corner is thrilled to welcome back the Chimacum Farmers Market to our “North Lawn” for another chapter of fun and nourishment on Sunday May 3rd! The CFM is doing some serious “adulting,” as it is now in its 18th year! With 30 local vendors and six new vendors, it is sure to be quite the scene this season. The CFM is also going to be “kidding around,” as there will be an opportunity to meet baby goats from Kodama Farm! Be sure and arrive early (10am) to witness the twine-cutting ceremony and get first dibs on all the amazing local produce and products on hand. We at the Corner are especially fond of the CFM as it was basically the emergent reason for starting the enterprise of the Corner in the first place. In fact, JCFM launched the Chimacum Farmers Market at its current home in May of 2010, six months before the Corner had even opened! As it turned out, the farmers wanted to be able to sell in Chimacum on days other than Sunday, and the original idea was for the store to be community-managed by participating farmers as a kind of aggregate farmstand. Fast forward one Thanksgiving snowstorm and nearly 16 years, and we have become a rather unwieldy annex to the Chimacum Farmers Market! As you walk and shop the farmers market this weekend, we hope you can take in the beautiful symbiosis and rich lore that accompanies our shared space, here at the crossroads.

This spring will be remembered for the return of humans to the orbit of the moon. It is truly mindblowing that our species can leave our planet’s orbit, swing around another celestial body, and navigate back to the same general vicinity whence they came from on Earth. The amazing footage captured by the Artemis II crew and the degree to which they made themselves available for interviews from space was astounding. Upon return to Houston, the astronaut Christina Koch gave a speech in which she likened Earth to a “lifeboat hanging [undisturbed] in the universe.” Summoning all of the gravitas that comes with having just risked one’s life in the pursuit of exploring the cosmos, she seemed to implore the human race when she declared, “Planet Earth: you are a crew.”  Our modern awareness of just how small our planet, and even more so, our lives, are, can drive us in two directions: nihilism, or an incredibly deep appreciation of just how rare and lavish everything truly is on this planet. The chaotic abundance of vitality on Earth is as staggering as the crushing vastness of the universe. In other words, Happy Earth Day.

The trees we plant are sundials that record “long-form” time. We revisit them year after year, pruning to help with their sculpture, feeding to help with their growth. It is a long game that rewards patience, diligence, and creating the appropriate container for life in the soil. Spring is happening in fits and starts as it tends to in April. One day, a still, evening golden hour, the next, a half inch of hail. Things are slowly waking up in the Nursery, and as such we are launching an end of season Sale on all Bare Root Fruit Trees, 25% off. Cherries and Hazelnuts are the current stars of the show, with some assortment of Pears, Quince, Apples, and more. We have some excellent Produce and Grocery items to complement your quest for future fruits. Stay well and much love from the Corner!

Since the dawn of human times, tool usage has been a hallmark of our intellect. You can tell a lot about a person or a family just by the kinds of tools they keep. For most homes, the greatest concentration of tools lies in the kitchen. It’s remarkable how many kinds of tools have been developed for cooking! Shoutout to whoever made the first whisk, that was true genius. This newsletter is devoted to the tenders of the Corner Kitchen and all of its mighty output. When things are Made Fresh Daily using Real Food, you register the nourishment differently. So whether you are a Turkey Bacon Pesto Wrapper or a Veggie Spring Roller, let’s all come together to celebrate the epic abundance of the Chimacum Corner Kitchen!

You’ve heard of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but have you ever seen a chick in bunny’s clothing? Turnip has leaned into her “rabbit energy” moment, and has been seen hopping at serious heights all around the Farmstand grounds. T.S. Eliot claimed April to be the “cruellest month” in “The Waste Land,” but we aren’t so sure. He wasn’t around for Earth Day, obviously. Or the beginning of the Farmer’s Market season! We are at the time of spring traditions. Come on down to the Corner for “egg-cellent” provisions to bolster your celebrations!

One of the coolest tools on a large-scale farm has to be the Carousel Planter attachment for the tractor. Crew sitting behind the tractor on the attachment simply plops transplants into tubes that funnel down into a furrow in the ground, that is then pressed closed by discs on either side. With only one person on foot behind, ensuring proper planting, a crew can plant literal acres in one day. For most of us, we are stoked to get a few trays in the ground in one day by hand. The technical industry term for the multi-celled plastic receptacles we grow transplants in is a “plug flat,” hence the use of the term in the title. We are indeed packin’ loads of plugs in the Nursery Greenhouse at the moment, and the fun has barely started! Whether you are in the market for vegetable, flower, or herb seedlings, we’ve got you covered. We’ve also got herbs in bottles (Mountain Spirit), beans in bags (Pachamama), and roots in baskets (Red Dog)! Come on down to the Corner to ogle all the little green baby things. We have officially sprung forward y’all!

All hail the Angiosperms! That’s right, we are concerning ourselves with flowering plants this time around. Perhaps we feel such an affinity for this group because our biome is largely made up of non-flowering plants: conifers, ferns, and mosses. The reawakening of the angiosperms triggers the cascade of spring and summer. We are feeling particularly bloomy around here, thanks to all the lovely colors on display in the Corner Nursery! Check out the Produce Porch for some local edible blooms too, as well as Early Tulip bunches from Lexi Mara. Plus, we have a bouquet of delicious grocery items for you to peruse. Welcome to March Madness: floral edition!

Here we are at the Ides of March. It always seems to be a bit stormy and volatile in the Salish Sea at this time, befitting of the date’s historical significance. It is also the true beginning of the local farming season. So begins the seven month sprint to October! Local heroes are already emerging with fresh wares, and still putting out beautiful storage crops. After a long winter, green is top of mind though. We count ourselves lucky to have a bowl of cooked local collards or spinach this time of year. We also have a horde of little green babies in the Nursery now, to greet you with glee! Contrary to Kermit the Frog, we do think green things are “flashy sparkles in the water” and “stars in the sky”! Read on for all things local and green!

Picking berries has to rank near the top of life’s greatest activities. It’s an addicting yet grounding practice, with a healthy dose of stretching and concentrating. And don’t forget the quality control tasting! Maybe you already have your own cherished berry patch, or maybe you are dreaming of one. Now is the time to stake your claim and plant your fruit, whether it lives on a tree or in a shrub. Around here, March means moving soil and digging holes. It’s going to be a fruit-tastic spring! Follow along to see all of the edible wonders on tap at CCF these days.

The local valley bottoms finally got the faintest whisper of snow last week, though it didn’t really stick around much after all. Two dustings has been the extent of it thus far this “winter.” If 2021 was the year of the “Heat Dome,” perhaps we can name 2025 the “Snowless Winter”. Not to count our meteorological chickens before they hatch, but it would seem we are due for a rather long spring. Perfect for establishing vegetable crops, both annual and perennial! Around the crossroads, we’ve got Asparagus, Potatoes, and Onions on the brain. Ask any home grower, a fistful of backyard asparagus is no small triumph. And who can deny the unbridled joy of unearthing potatoes? Or seeing your onions hanging on the line to cure? Read on for all the ways we love these staple crops that herald the dawn of spring.  

In 1961, a construction crew extending a runway at SEA-TAC unearthed a prehistoric Giant Sloth skeleton (Megalonyx). Nicknamed “Gordy”, after one of the enamoured construction crewmembers, it is the only known fossil record of its kind in Washington state to date. It makes you wonder what “native” looked like thousands of years ago, and all the iterations of “native” our biome has undergone since. Naming something “native” is not a fixed point, but a measure of ecological historicity. Heady stuff! For a snapshot of current native flora, look no further than our very own Chimacum Corner Nursery. Each year, our offerings of native plants get more robust and varied, thanks to all of the local nurseries and propagators keeping species thriving. We are fortunate to live in a place with so many beautiful, useful, and edible native plants. Is it too early to be dreaming of Thimbleberries? Never!  

Backyard fruit is a thing of beauty. Full-fledged orchards become abundance machines, generating gifts that are easy to exchange and then awaited patiently ‘til next season. Part of the core mission of the Chimacum Corner Nursery is making edible plants available to our community to promote nature connection, food abundance, and maintaining horticultural skills. We take a big leap of faith every spring and acquire hundreds of berry, fruit, and nut-bearing plants with the hope that they are whisked off in trailers, pickups, Subarus, and even a Prius or two, and then woven into the ecological fabric of our community. Having edible plants provides a beautiful meditation on staying in touch with the seasons. Our seasoned and highly cerebral Nursery Staff is on hand to help you get to chanting with your soil.  

Local chanteuse/shredder Micaela Kingslight released a single late last year titled “Roots Down Deep.” A mesmerizing, looping chant born from forest song circles, it gently reminds us to “keep [our] focus on the center.” Roots are the one thing that lasts. Leaves, branches, and even trunks can fall, but roots persist through it all and send reinforcements. Chimacum Corner has an intricate root system, each root a connection to food and farming. We try to know our roots by maintaining these connections and strengthening them. You could say we are the “mycorrhizal fungi” of the local food system (read on for more on mycorrhizal fungi)! Read on for all the ways we can exchange nutrients with you this week. :)  

Germination. That liminal state where life goes from a stored, inert state (seed) to a rapidly proliferating organism issuing from a wee set of cotyledons (plant). Truly magical and one of the more exciting phases of plant life. Who hasn’t freaked out with delight when a whole tray of seedlings emerges from one’s soil mix? It feels like many fun and exciting things are germinating at the Corner Store this late winter / early spring. From great sales to new products, we have direct-seeded many a shopping idea throughout the rows of our “garden of groceries.” As aging indie-rockers Bright Eyes once proclaimed in one of their album titles, “The Story is in the Soil, Keep your Ear to the Ground.” And so, we shall.

With all these high-pressure, sunny days we’ve been having, you can almost squint your eyes and look southward all the way to Califor-nye-aye! This sunshine streak has its mirror on the Produce Porch here, where we have been rockin’ on the citrus scene for quite some time now. As we don’t have much abundance in the citrus department locally, it always comes as a winter treat (when local is scarce anyhow) to sample the many wares of southern climes. From the cutest Kumquat to the most bodacious Pummelo, we have a little bit of everything in Vitamin-C-land out here. There’s no healthier way to chase off the winter doldrums than nourishing fruits! We are excited to be back at the Newsletter after a small hiatus, and look forward to what bounty 2026 might bring. Thanks for tuning in!

As the sun sets on another solar cycle, it seems appropriate to pause. Some refer to the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day as “the void,” a time when it feels weird to work, or travel, or really do much of anything. A perfect time to sit with oneself and take stock. “Now our lives are changing fast / hope that something pure can last,” wrote Winn Butler and the Arcade Fire crew on their track “We Used To Wait.” Purity seems to grow ever scarcer. What of something pure remains that you will carry into 2026? For many of us here, there’s a purity to the cycle of our local food system, that we hope to carry on into the future. From Red Dog Tulips to Midori Tetsukabuto Squash, and everything in between, our local food is something to really be bold and proud about, and to participate in with fervor. So, to the barbeque of life, we shout, “put another shrimp on the barby, baby!”

“YOU’RE NOT SANTA! You smell like beef and cheese.” So decried Will Ferrell, during a shopping mall Santa session, in his turn as Buddy the Elf in the Christmas now-classic film “Elf.” However, we’d like to hope that the Chief Executive Officer of the largest gift distribution network on Earth nourishes himself with local, regeneratively-raised meat and dairy. In our world, Santa ideally does smell like beef and cheese. Turnip has been busy as an elf, decorating eggs for her fellow flocksters. And us elves at the Corner have been hard at work, procuring the best the holiday season has to offer. Whether you just need to dash in for a last minute gift, or are loading up a cart for an epic holiday spread, the Corner is awash in nourishing joy, the perfect antidote for long cold Solstice nights. As Ferrell elucidates, “We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup.”

While it has been an exceedingly mild fall thus far, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t feeling festive around town. Holiday lighting has unfurled from all corners of the county, including upon at least one farm’s hoophouse! Nothing says “holidays in the Evergreen State” quite like some lush arrangements of coniferous greenery. Whether you work with cedar, holly, salal, fir, or magnolia, there is an abundant supply of flora to bedeck your halls. There is also a whole host of living evergreen trees available right here at the Corner, so that you might take home a small piece of the forest with you. Now is the season of decorating, whether on your home or on the plate. Read on to see how we might kit you out at the Corner.

Well, friends, another lap has transpired around the Indy 500 of life. And boy do the laps go by! We are awfully proud to have run our 15th lap as a business. Fitting metaphor, as we were once a local car parts shop. One of the rusty signs of the former proprietor was unearthed from the soil last summer, and is planted at the foot of a lilac in the back of the property. The muck holds many mysteries… 

One thing is for certain, that we love our community - of farmers, builders, herbalists, fisherfolk, artists, bakers, musicians, the list is limitless. We love seeing all the intricate connections - the farmer whose partner is a builder who is constructing a recording studio for the musician. That connection fostered because you both happened to get coffee at the same time that one day last spring. The core, intangible function of being a community hub is the cherished, special piece of the Corner that makes it a valuable space. It is always happening in simultaneity to the obvious, mercantile function, often at the junction between spices and oils.

We are so insanely grateful for our intrepid staff, die-hard customers, gifted producers, and gracious community partners that, taken all together, make a brilliant kaleidoscope of intentional rural life. It’s enough to make any chick cluck from the top of her beak, let alone Turnip, that tireless tiny cheerleader, now 15 years of age as well! Because of her persistent requests, Katy and Phil finally caved, and got her a smartphone. Her favorite use for it is taking group photos! See below. 

Who knows what 2026 will bring. One thing that we do know is that we will be here, at the corner, cheering the farmers on as each crop makes their elegant return.

Semiahmoonally yours,

The Chimacum Corner Farmstand

Thanksgiving is the time where our humble little natural grocery store becomes a veritable supply depot, loaded down with XL quantities of produce and product. The abundance is evident everywhere, in each cranny and crevice of the shop. Our cup truly runneth over. So come fill yours up! We have stunning produce, ample grocery, local goods, and beautiful nursery stock. Whether you celebrate with friends or family, any great party has to start with quality ingredients. So make your list, check it twice, and if you need help, Turnip is ever eager to lend a wing as your Holiday List Auditer!