For some reason, the unabashed marketing to the American youth culture on “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper tickles me to no end. Video footage of live concerts featuring Alice brandishing a cane and chanting “No more pencils, no more books” in rhythm with the hair-metal adoring crowds is something only the 80s could pull off. It’s Juneuary in Chimacum, and all I want is to hear Alice Cooper blaring from the cabs of highschooler pick-up trucks as they wait in line to head south at the four-way stop. Soon, local 18 year olds will spread out to all parts of the region, continent, globe. Horace Greeley said “Go west, young man,” but if you grew up on the Peninsula, you started out as (north)west as you could go. It is a striking time to enter young adulthood, but our hope is that wherever they go, our Chimacum and Port Townsend kids remember that they come from an amazing farming community that is positioned to stand as an example of a resilient and abundant network of radical folks. This issue is all about celebrating people in your life that are stepping across significant thresholds in their own lives. So toss those caps and live it up this summer! We’ve got the grub to get you started.

The opening piano chords of “Come Out Signing” by Lavender Country are infectious, emphatic, and set the tone for what is widely regarded as the first openly gay country music album. The eponymous 1973 debut album would go on to inspire countless “country queer” acts like Orville Peck, Trixie Mattel, and even some tracks from Magnetic Fields, just to name a few contemporaries. June is Pride Month, and this weekend is our own local iteration of Pride Festival, which traces its roots all the way back to one year after Stonewall - June of 1970. Lavender Country emerged from the tense, brittle, early years of mainstream American acknowledgement of “gay public life,” which makes it all the more fascinating. The album has a wry, hip humor that’s couched in the flavors of americana. At Chimacum Corner, we are enthusiastic supporters of all flavors of life. So cut a rug this weekend, and we hope that echoes of Lavender Country, a true Northwest gem, jangle about your noggin’ as you do!

May 31st will feature a Blue Moon, and May’s moon is traditionally referred to as the Flower Moon (they made a movie about a book about it). June’s full moon is referred to as the Strawberry Moon by many indigenous communities. How fitting, then, to feature flowers and strawberries in the transitional week between May and June. We have a great variety of blooms in the Nursery, but the focus of the day is the Hanging Fuchsia Baskets from Egg & I Gardens. The fuchsia flowers are like little lanterns, lighting the way to beauty. Likewise, we have had a great run on several kinds of berries of late, but the girl of the hour is the strawberry. Being a notorious prize of all kinds of pests, to find a pure, undamaged, totally ripened strawberry in your patch is to graze the ceiling of divinity. Open pint strawberries from the Northwest are here and eating well, so now is the time to enjoy them! Read on for all the “berry” special things going down at the Corner.

Smoke will rise from Jefferson County this weekend - from a veritable flotilla of grills charbroiling up a smorgasbord! Summer is on the plate, and while it may not be the season of total local abundance yet, there is much to get excited about at the Corner. Fortunately, local ground beef is always in season, and nourishing, mindfully raised burgers are the quintessential way to kick off summer (see below for all the ways you can “burger from here”). Farmers are fully laid out at this point, deep in the trenches of planting and reaping the first harvests of spring crops in earnest. Give your favorite farmer a hug (and maybe a burger) the next time you see them, we know they could benefit from that. And in honor of the longer days, we are slotting in for some longer nights here at the Corner. Read on to see what our new expanded Summer Hours will be!

The heart wants what the heart wants, and in frigid coastal Washington, we love to covet the hot crops. There is perhaps no more obsessed-over crop for the small organic farm than the tomato. There are myriad systems, technology, and studies dedicated to the advancement of this universally adored nightshade. For CCF, one of the most frequent early spring inquiries is “When are ya gettin’ the tomato starts in?” Well, we can definitively say that Elvis is IN the building, and in full regalia. Alongside the tomato set is a whole host of other heat adoring crops, like squash, cucumbers, basil, eggplant, and peppers. It’s time to prepare those south-facing and sunlit pockets of your area, and get the hot crops a-rollin’! Hot crop mania is not limited to the Nursery either. Whether in Produce, Grocery, or the Kitchen, there is a whole host of hot crop products to get jazzed about. It’s enough to make even Nick Gilder’s head spin!

Why is Mother’s Day the second Sunday in May? I always chalked it up to just a generally optimistic end of springtime vibe. Turns out it is actually a memorial for a mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, an Appalachian community organizer active during the Civil War and its aftermath. She sought to build bridges between women in a region that was deeply divided because of its position in that geopolitical struggle (i.e., on the border of Union and Confederacy). Her daughter Anna led the charge in advocating for a national holiday centered around “honoring one’s own mother,” which was first honored and declared official by Woodrow Wilson in 1914, right before another large war: World War One to be exact. I find it poignant that Anna, the daughter, never married or had children. Mother’s Day rose up, through war, oppression, and patriarchy, championed by a childless, partner-less daughter. Moms have been at the forefront of community connection, resistance, and health since time immemorial. It’s an important piece of motherhood to honor this Mother’s Day. As is the pure joy of hanging out and celebrating Mom, from whom all life issues! Love you, Ma! We got some nifty stuff in store for ya, check it out.  

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.