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This is the last week of National Co-op Month. This year’s theme is “The Future is Cooperative.” Of course, the future for all of us is cooperative. Either we get along together and join hands in brotherhood and sisterhood or we will die. We can choose to make our future cooperative, or not. Without a doubt, the future is relentlessly pressing itself on us all. While many of the 1,650 agricultural co-ops with almost $300 billion in annual revenue are some of the largest of the over 30,000 co-ops nationally, even they offer the oppor...
I am writing as a Skagit County farmer who is eager to see new energy and fresh ideas in our local government. The upcoming election has given us an exciting opportunity, particularly with Rylee Fleury running for county commissioner. It’s not just about electing a younger candidate – it’s about bringing a much-needed change to the way our county addresses key issues like farming and housing. For 16 years, we’ve seen the same face making the same decisions and frankly, the status quo isn’t working for many of us. Our farms, which are the backb...
Why are you seeking office? To provide innovative solutions and restore common sense governance while upholding the rule of law. My main three points are to 1. lower taxes. 2. promote affordable housing. 3. protect farmers and their farms. I believe it is my duty as a resident of Skagit County to serve this county's people and answer the call to help them with their issues while providing them with better opportunities to thrive. Because frankly, government was designed to help people with...
Why are you seeking office? I'm running for office because I think most Skagitonians believe we can and must do a better job in tackling our biggest challenges to make our lives better and our children's futures brighter. We should be driven by science and listening to one another again. I enjoy helping other people solve their problems and succeed in their own efforts. I have the energy, time and humility to focus solely on working for you if honored with election. What will be the solution to...
MOUNT VERNON - The four candidates for two county commissioner seats were tested with a lightning round question-and-answer format during a one-hour Skagit League of Women Voters public forum Monday night. Final grades on their candidacies will be issued by voters after mail-in ballots are returned. A large crowd of close to 100 squeezed into the Skagit PUD's Aqua Room for the briskly paced event, in which opening and closing statements by challengers Richard Brocksmith and Rylee Fleury and...
A Louisiana-style dinner served in La Conner last Thursday boasted a distinctly Skagit Valley flavor. The second annual Genuine Skagit Valley Tidewater Boil at the Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina featured many of the area's favorite farm and sea-based foods and beverages in a setting akin to a Gulf Coast shindig. Held under a large tent on a damp and chilly late September night, the event served as a celebration of Skagit cuisine and formally honored the valley's food producers. The Tidewater...
"No one who cooks, cooks alone," the novelist and food writer Laurie Colwin once wrote. "A cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past ... [and] the wisdom of cookbook writers." A cloud of wise "cooks past" certainly surrounds the talented new cooks and farmers showcased in the new cookbook "Genuine Skagit Cooking." Published in April, "Genuine Skagit Cooking" was written and compiled by Blake Van Roekel of Genuine Skagit Valley and writer Stefanie LeJeunesse, with photos by...
At Saturday’s Meet the Mayor session at the La Conner Swinomish Library, Mayor Marna Hanneman ended the hour upbeat, telling the seven assembled they were awesome and that she was encouraged. “I keep saying it takes a village,” she said, suggesting, “let’s take it on the road,” to Shelter Bay and other communities, in a collaborative effort to tackle greater La Conner’s problems. And while she noted, “It’s all of us, farmers, merchants, the Tribe, Shelter Bay,” everyone at the table had faithfully attended most of these near monthly meetin...
Skagit County’s Farmland Legacy Program finalized a conservation easement on an 80-acre farmland property to permanently protect the land for agricultural use in July. The property sits along the state’s only designated Agricultural Scenic Corridor at the Chuckanut Drive and I-5 interchange. Landowner Mark Houser, part of the Houser family co-ownership of siblings and their children, expressed his family’s commitment to safeguarding agriculture in Skagit County. Houser notes he received calls weekly about developing the 80-acre property. “I wan...
The 125th Skagit County Fair opens Thursday and runs through Sunday at the county fairgrounds in Mount Vernon. The place will be chock full of activities, starting with the agricultural exhibits and programs in the arena and barn that include 4-H youth and Future Farmers of America. There is entertainment all around, literally on the grounds while you are walking around. There are daily themed events and main stage family entertainment that aims to amaze and delight you. Check out the community...
La Conner’s town government – elected officials and staff – created a long task list for the second year of implementing the five-year strategic plan they adopted last September. Credit them for being ambitious: 31 tasks came out of their June retreat, with over half of them placed on Mayor Marna Hanneman and Administrator Scott Thomas’ shoulders. The fire department, with five tasks, has made progress, getting a $150,000 commitment from the town council to buy a fire boat. Public works and finance staff are assigned these tasks: improving inte...
A small Notice of Development Application sign in a field on Calhoun Road could signal big changes. Cloudbreak Energy Washington LLC, the Washington state arm of a privately held, national developer of distributed and utility-scale solar and storage projects, enquired with Skagit County about the potential for developing a 15.75-acre solar energy generation facility on land owned by Water & Wastewater Services, LLC owner Kelly Wynn. This is not a use permitted on lands designated...
Preservation is close to the heart of Jeanne Youngquist – preserving agriculture, open space, secure elections and county history. The greater La Conner resident, of Mike and Jean's Berry Farm, was honored at last week's Our Valley Our Future awards breakfast hosted by Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland. She received the Community Legacy in Agriculture award. Daniel Waltner earned the Achievement in Agriculture Award, which comes with a $5,000 scholarship. The Mount Vernon resident graduated f...
Washington State University alumni will tell you that their classmates have fascinating careers and are doing wonderful things in every part of the state. As if to prove how varied these callings and careers are, in 2023 WSU Press published the "Evergreen Collection," essays detailing accomplishments of graduates and faculty first printed in Washington State Magazine over the last 20 years. The Skagit Valley is represented by the Roozen family and their Washington Bulb Co. The succeeding generation of ownership, after founder William, are all W...
Don McMoran’s recent promotion to full professor with Washington State University is built on a lifetime love for Skagit County and its farmers. Born on the driveway of his parents’ home on the dividing line between the Mount Vernon and La Conner school districts, he joined the WSU Skagit County Extension in 2006 as Agriculture & Natural Resources extension educator. He earned tenure a few years later and became the county Extension director in 2012. His two-year quest to become full professor was backed by community members who wrote let...
Almost 50 years ago I extracted myself from a life and livelihood in our nearest metropolis to follow a dream, a soul mandate, to live in Skagit Valley. A decade earlier, when I was 16 years old, I’d seen it for the first time and its beauty kept calling: those flat vistas, miles of mist and farmland. As the greening of this place happens once again and we celebrate this season, let me, please, rain a bit on your parade by mentioning something your sense of beauty, indeed none of your senses, will be good at detecting: Glyphosate. While Mons...
A bumper crop of Northwest potatoes in 2023 is driving the price of potatoes down, but John Thulen of Pioneer Potatoes is not worried – yet. Many of the challenges cited in a March 31 Market Snapshot from AgWest Farm Credit (the new name of the former Northwest Farm Credit in Burlington) concern russet potatoes grown in Eastern Washington. Thulen agrees that overproduction in 2023 has “plugged up” processors like McCain Food USA, whose enormous processing plant in Othello produces 15% of all the frozen French fries, hash browns and tater tots p...
When you’re facing issues with your garden, from troubled roses to fungus on your fruit trees or even perplexing plant identification, you need not rely on uncertain advice from neighbors or online forums. Visit a WSU Extension Master Gardener Plant Clinic in Anacortes or Burlington for reliable answers and assistance. The free Master Gardner Clinics offer extensive on-site resources, including a comprehensive library, print materials, access to online resources and microscopes for plant identification and disease diagnosis. The plant clinic v...
Celebrate the farm-raised flavor of the Skagit Valley from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, with the release party of “Genuine Skagit Cooking.” Break bread in tribute to the farmers, food producers, and residents who have opened their recipe boxes saluting Skagit’s agricultural way of life. While enjoying bites of small plates featured in the cookbook, guests will also be first in line to take the cookbook home. “Genuine Skagit Cooking,” from the organization Genuine Skagit Valley, features over 45 recipes from food producers, small business owners an...
After almost a century of hosting potlucks, weddings and receptions, rummage sales, art shows, dances, memorial services, service projects, polling sites and parties, the Rexville Grange #815 on Summers Drive is showing its age. Water seeps into the below-grade kitchen whenever it rains on Strawberry Hill. "That has caused a lot of rot in the lower cabinets, and damaged the water heater," says Cathy Savage, Grange president. With a kitchen unsuitable for cooking or catering, hosting indoor...
With the snowpack at 69% of normal and spring precipitation uncertain, local farmers have one piece of good news: if a drought develops, they can count on water from the Skagit Public Utility District. On April 9 the PUD approved a one-year interlocal, seasonal transfer for surplus water rights from the PUD to Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Improvement Districts 15, which supplies water for 8,500 acres on the flats east of Best Road and Consolidated Diking Improvement District 22, which...
La Conner School District Director of Finance David Cram offered a realistic assessment last summer when presenting student enrollment numbers and the year’s budget to the school board and Superintendent Will Nelson. The head count in the elementary, middle and high schools had dropped below 500, to 490 full-time students. He projected a student population of 448 in 2026-2027. Cram’s forecast is turning into reality. His mid-March estimate for September, the 2024-2025 school year, is for 30 fewer students. His larger concern is that the new...
Daffodils have bloomed and tulips aren't far behind. Soon, thousands of people will descend upon the La Conner flats to enjoy vividly colored fields here. It's hard to imagine, any among the throngs of visitors appreciating the striking spring landscape more than Joyce Johnson, long a bright and engaging fixture with the La Conner Civic Garden Club and related organizations at the local, district and state levels. Johnson recently died at age 105. "Joyce was most certainly a treasure to all who...
Harvest time on the La Conner flats is months away, but the time is ripe now to cultivate goodwill. That was the prevailing theme at the annual La Conner Rotary Club Farmers and Merchants Night dinner and program Monday at Maple Hall. The event, which underscores the club's ongoing mission of public service and education support, was attended by more than 100 people representing the local agricultural and commercial sectors plus government leadership. "We're a hands-on service club," La Conner...
Last summer's drought lingered all the way to January before Skagit County officially finally emerged out of it. But that does not mean this year's water situation is secure. Snowpack in the Cascade Mountains remained well below normal based on Feb. 4 data. The most recent data of snow water equivalent from the Natural Resource Conservation Service shows the North Puget Sound Basin at 50% of the average, based on the period 1991-2020. By contrast, a year ago, the snowpack registered 78%. Nick Bo...
