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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...
The 320-passenger jet ferry MV Dorado rolled out of Mavrik Marine last week for a brief excursion to Anacortes. The La Conner boat builder is contracted by California’s Water Emergency Transportation Authority to build four, and possibly five, aluminum ferries for its 15-vessel San Francisco Bay fleet. The MV Dorado is the first. On Wednesday evening, Feb. 16, the 130-foot long, 36-foot wide and 30-foot tall vessel was lifted onto a custom-fabricated, 18-wheel, remote-controlled hydraulic d...
Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen got the first word and Congressman Rick Larsen the last at the 6th annual Ag Summit hosted by Washington State University Skagit County Extension Feb. 11. The hybrid event, with lunch for those attending in-person, offered updates on everything from the county-sponsored farmland legacy and voluntary stewardship programs to new state rules for agricultural overtime pay. Water was a key topic. Skagit River water use is regulated by the Department of Ecology’s instream flow rule, protecting aquatic species a...
For farmers evaluating Governor Inslee’s Salmon Recovery bill, the devil is in the details. Details like what exactly constitutes a Riparian Management Zone and whether the riparian buffers proposed in the now withdrawn HB 1838 will not just target salmon-bearing streams and side channels but encompass delta farmland behind Skagit River dikes. The million-dollar question: Inside those buffers, is farming permitted? The bill is clear about the need to maintain and enhance natural resource industries like agriculture and to encourage the conserva...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, part of the 300-member Skagit Headwaters Coalition, is grateful for a new agreement between the government of British Columbia, Imperial Metals Corporation and the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission. Imperial Metals has agreed to surrender all its mining and related rights within the so-called Skagit River Donut Hole. The is a 22.4-square mile gap of unprotected lands surrounded by the parks in British Columbia. The headwaters of the Skagit River are inside this area, which is also a centerpiece of...
Changing county planning rules to permit fully contained communities (FCCs) “opens the door for making this county suburban,” said Margery Hite last Tuesday, Jan. 11, during an online Community Conversation sponsored by the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. “Growth in Skagit Valley: Our Future, Farming & FCCs” drew about 90 Zoom participants, La Conner residents among them. Hite is on the grassroots campaign ‘Right Growth, Right Place’ advisory group, which opposes permitting FCCs. She described FCCs and their likely impact on Skagit County in g...
Maybe you saw, as you drove down Maple Avenue last month, an Alexander Calder-like array of giant ornaments spinning on arms held in place by a giant magnet on a giant metal ball in a small front yard two houses south of the old Hedlin ballfield. That was the holiday version of Chris McCarthy’s garden buoy, which she decorates about 10 times a year. McCarthy got the ball-shaped buoy at an estate sale 15 years ago. “I knew I was going to roll it into the front yard and paint ‘Go Braves’ on it,...
Curt Buher was a big guy. The hole he leaves behind is big, too. Buher, who died Dec. 20, came to town with his wife Lori in 1979 to housesit for Maxine Wyman and never left. “They knew that La Conner was where they wanted to be,” said Cathie Wyman, Maxine’s daughter-in-law and Buher’s sister. As a clerk and driver for Nelson Lumber and as a freelance laborer, Buher grew to love construction. He started Atlas Construction in 1983 with Jim Robertson, his partner for about ten years. Over the next 30 years, Buher and a crew of locals that in...
When Felicia Value sits down at her desk on Monday, Jan. 3, she’ll no longer be a solo practitioner. She’ll be an employee of Barron Smith Daugert PLLC of Bellingham, which recently purchased her law practice. “I feel like I’ve been invited to sit at the cool kids’ table,” said Value. “I’m also glad for our community, because they are such a good firm, with a deep bench in probate and estate planning.” Three lawyers will join her Morris Street office. Jessica Carr will be the primary partner. Aaron Rasmussen, who has practiced in Anac...
Local art lovers turned out in force for Art’s Alive 2021. Almost 1,100 people attended the four-day event in Maple Hall Nov. 5-8. This was the 36th annual show since Black Swan Café owner Martin Hahn, Art Hupy and a group of artists that included Ed Kamuda and Michael Clough held the first Art’s Alive in the Gaches Mansion in 1985. Since then, the show has been organized by town merchants, the La Conner Chamber of Commerce and the La Conner Arts Commission. “The town literally rescued th...
