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This year, raising a glass to the artists featured in the annual Art's Alive! festival will be a cinch. Instead of sipping your wine or beer outdoors in a tent – a measure taken in 2021 to keep the unseen but ever-present COVID-19 virus from crashing the party – you can offer your toast face to face with the artists during the Friday night opening gala Nov. 11. Add in some scrumptious appetizers and the 38th Art's Alive! weekend will start with "a more traditional gathering of townspeople to...
A long dry season has been a mixed blessing for local farmers. Back in June, when the Skagit Valley was so cold and drenched some fields could not even be planted, Dean Swanson thought we would never hit 80 degrees. “Farmers asked for a warm dry fall to recover from the late start,” he said, “but we forgot to ask for a couple of timely rains.” Fortunately, copious spring rains gave plants a good start. A deep snowpack kept river levels high all summer, making more water available for irrigating corn, pasture and potatoes. Heat helped. While Swa...
Some of the 37 guest poets and artists participating in this year’s Skagit River Poetry Festival are crossing oceans to reach La Conner. Others just have to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Canadian poet Karen Solie, flying in from St. Andrews, Scotland, is coming the farthest. Katherine Paul of the band Black Belt Eagle Scout can just stroll down the street. Her dad Kevin Paul can commute from Swinomish Village. Father and daughter will open the festival’s Thursday, October 6 program, “Welcome to Indian Country: A Reading to Celebrate our First Natio...
A million details make the Skagit River Poetry Festival happen – and they are all coming together. Before the Festival takes place in La Conner Oct. 6-9, there are 34 poets to match to housing, pick up at the airport shuttle and feed. There are half a dozen school buses to arrange so Skagit and Whatcom County high school students can attend for free on Friday, October 7. Not to mention 220 chairs to distribute to Festival venues for a four-day whirlwind of setting up, taking down, setting up a...
When Bill Hayton and Laurence McCulloch moved to Pleasant Ridge, they wanted to explore hiking trails in the region. Joan Melcher made that happen. Melcher, 85, is the point person of the Skagit Audubon hiking group. For almost 30 years, she has planned 52 hikes a year and accompanied hikers of all skill levels to the trailhead and beyond. Whether it's a walk around Mt. Erie or a 2,000-foot climb to Maple Pass, Melcher makes sure everyone returns safe and sound. Almost every week, Melcher can...
“When you are poeting, you are making the world, creating the universe out of nothing,” Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest said last Saturday at the Lincoln Theatre. That’s because the word poet comes from the Greek word poesis or “maker,” she explained. During the 90-minute reading and workshop, Priest introduced herself and her work to an audience of about 50. Several La Conner-area residents were among those listening as she shared stories from her own life, wisdom from other poets and her own work. Dr. Seuss’s “Red Fish Blue Fish” w...
Books clubs and bridge groups come and go, but the Harmony Birthday Club has been around for about 130 years. Honored with a Pioneer Spirit award at the Aug. 4 Pioneer Picnic, the club has been building connections and community since the 1890s. While the Harmony district lies east of La Conner, a number of its residents support La Conner schools and the library with their property taxes. You're in Harmony when you drive east on Calhoun Road from Best and Chilberg roads. While the heart of...
After a vigorous week at the Skagit County fair, two leaders with La Conner roots are taking it easy. As 4H dairy supervisor for the whole fair, Chelsy Mesman of Mesman Farms helped 18 young people between the ages of nine and 18 prepare and show their cows. "It's a lot of responsibility and a lot of kids," she said. Valley Green Acres 4H Horse Club supervisor Lauren Hedlin of Hedlin Family Farms worked with 10 young riders who performed in the horse arena. All county 4H clubs arrived two days...
On July 18, the Skagit County commissioners approved a six-month moratorium on offsite compensatory mitigation of salmon habitat. “Offsite compensatory mitigation” means habitat restoration projects that mitigate for environmental impacts that are a considerable distance away. The moratorium expresses the commissioners’ concern that Seattle City Light (SCL) may go on a spending spree purchasing land in the lower estuary of the Skagit River. SCL is halfway through the five-year process of renewing its license for its three hydroelectric dams...
Could there be a more beautiful spot for poets and poetry than the sylvan glade of Pioneer Park? Georgia Johnson doesn’t think so. “For 37 years I’ve driven across the bridge and past the park thinking, ‘we’ve got to get poetry happening here,’” she told listeners from the bandstand at the free “Make Me Wanna Holler” celebration sponsored by the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. “And now it’s happening!” About 100 people of all ages enjoyed live music, live poetry and lunch in the park on Su...
In the ongoing discussion around whether and how to permit agritourism activities, Skagit County residents believe preserving the county’s rural character should be a top priority. In a spring 2022 public survey on options for agritourism, 80% of respondents called this policy goal “very important” or “important.” Other goals identified as important: that agritourism relate to onsite agriculture; that agritourism uses have adequate water, septic and parking infrastructure; and that traffic and p...
Genuine Skagit Valley’s Farmstand Fresh campaign is winning applause from La Conner-area participants. The summer promotion seeks to bring visitors to Skagit farmstands between the tulip and fall harvest seasons. When visitors purchase from 16 participating farmstands, they scan the QR code on display and enter a drawing for gift certificates for GSV member restaurants and private classes with local chefs. All Genuine Skagit Valley programs sustain local farming by promoting awareness of the distinct flavors and crops of valley growers and p...
A good farming year is easy to recognize, says John Thulen of Pioneer Potatoes. “My ancestors bought a pickup, built a barn or added on to the house,” he said. It’s all in the county register. With record rainfall, late freezes, a cool spring and rising prices for diesel and fertilizer, 2022 looks like a no-pickup, no-addition year. Many fields have been too wet to plant, like four of Jason Vander Kooy’s under the east side of Pleasant Ridge on Bradshaw Road. Water from the Ridge “comes off faster now that the east side of Ridge is getting m...
I only met Lavone Newell-Reim once, but after immersing myself in the new show at the Skagit County Historical Museum, she feels like an old friend. “Lavone Newell-Reim: A Life Well Lived” traces Newell-Reim’s journey from Kansas to Sauk Mountain and then, over the course of her 90 years, down the Skagit River to its mouth near Fir Island. Along the way, her talents and interests, passion for life, art and cooking and knack for building community are celebrated. Tougher moments are also included. Riding across the country sitting atop a 1939...
SeaTac airport is about half an hour closer to La Conner now that Sound Transit’s Link light rail service extends to Northgate. As a frequent commuter between SeaTac and Skagit Station in Mount Vernon, I’m thrilled. The public transit journey still has three legs and takes more than three hours, but the tedious traffic jams between Northgate and downtown Seattle are history. The whole trip costs about $8, compared to $40+ for the two-hour trip on the Airporter shuttle and keeps critical carbon emissions out of the atmosphere. Northbound or sou...
Driving to work, Rachael Sobczak passes acre after acre of her ingredients. The 12-year La Conner resident is owner of Water Tank Bakery, which opened last June at the Port of Skagit. She crafts sourdough bread, cakes and cookies from 100% locally milled flour made from Northwest grain. A baker for nearly 20 years, 10 of them with the Breadfarm in Edison, Sobczak was selling bread from her home when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Demand snowballed for product, then known as Rachael and Bread....
Fully Contained Communities (FCCs) may have Skagit County residents on edge, but they are not the most significant threat to local farmland. The real villain? Low-density residential land use. According to the American Farmland Trust, 11 million acres of U.S. farmland and ranchland – 2,000 acres a day – were converted to urban and highly developed or low-density residential (LDR) land use between 2001 and 2016. Seven million of those 11 million acres were turned into 5-, 10- and 20-acre farmettes and other low density,...
Don’t talk about the Rexville Grange in the past tense. Membership may be small and the calendar light, but this Grange is alive and well. Built in 1927, the Rexville Grange has hosted potlucks, weddings and receptions, rummage sales, art shows, dances, memorial services, service projects, polling sites and parties in its 95 years. As an official Red Cross shelter, it housed 300 people displaced by the 1990 Fir Island flood and offers its grounds to all farmers who need to keep farm machinery o...
Drive the roads surrounding La Conner, and you’ll see, depending on the season, everything from brussels sprouts and fava beans to berries, wheat and barley. You’ll also find half a dozen farm stands and farm stores, at least two wedding venues, and four of the county’s largest “seasonal events:” Tulip Town and Roozengaarde in the spring, the Gordon Skagit and Schuh Farm Stands, U-Pick and traditional autumn activities in the fall. Whether and how to define and develop rules for these “agritour...
Seasonal workers for the Washington Bulb Company are back at work after a three-day strike that made headlines throughout the state. The strike was sparked by an error the company made when calculating worker bonuses for daffodil bunches picked on Saturday, March 19. While pay for the harvest crew averages $17.50 an hour, it can fluctuate on any given day, explained Brent Roozen of Washington Bulb on March 24, when he talked to reporters in front of company headquarters. “Last Saturday, we b...
Looking out at the Rainbow Bridge from Nell Thorn last fall made a favorable impression on new Skagit Tourism Bureau CEO Jake Buganski. “Seeing La Conner’s vibrant downtown while I was interviewing for this position was one of the big reasons I was excited about Skagit County,” he said. Buganski visited again last Tuesday to meet the La Conner Chamber of Commerce board and talk about the town’s tourism priorities with local leaders. Following the early morning meeting, he had coffee at the Calico Cupboard with Mayor Ramon Hayes and Chamber...
“I’m seeing a lot of faces I haven’t seen in a long time,” said La Conner Chamber of Commerce board member Tami Mason of Washington Federal as she scooped ice cream last Thursday. From the banter and bonhomie in Maple Hall, it was clear that everyone else attending the chamber’s ice cream social shared her sentiment. About 150 familiar—and maskless!—faces greeted one another over ice cream and toppings, browsed displays and silent auction baskets, and enjoyed toe-tapping Irish mus...
The new Island Grown Farmers Cooperative (IGFC) meat processing facility at the Port of Skagit in Burlington is a dream come true for its 80 regional members, including the Mesman Dairy. Still primarily an organic dairy, the Mesman family began raising and selling beef, lamb and pork in 2019. Besides selling meat and eggs at their farm store at Chilberg and Dodge Valley Roads, they also supply meat for several local restaurants and the La Conner School District. IGFC has been their partner all...
When Jens Peder Nielsen came to La Conner from Iowa with the Hulburt family early in the 20th century, land was on his mind. Soon J. P. Nelson, as he began calling himself, was using earnings from his job with the Hulburts to buy small parcels as they became available. Many small parcels became substantial holdings for the Danish farmer. Through the Skagit County Farmland Legacy program, J.P.’s niece Nancy Dunton recently protected 170 acres of his prime farmland from development. “Nobody is...
For the La Conner Daffodil Festival and the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the last two years have been all about no. In 2020 there were no visitors to Roozengaarde and Tulip Town and almost no sales when havoc in the food supply chain canceled wholesale and retail cut-flower sales. No Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue, no street fairs, nothing, nothing, nothing. “Don’t come” was the Valley’s message to flower lovers. Then 2021 was all about maybe, as the festivals adopted social distancing and advance...
