Learn how to transform your backyard into an edible landscape, featuring native plants.  Join us Thursday March 13th for our monthly food and wellness lecture we call “Beers to Your Health”.  Why do we call it that?  It’s located in a space generously offered up by our neighbor, Fort George brewery.  For this month’s lecture, we’re collaborating with North Coast Food Web to bring Farmers Scott and Dixie Edwards from Watershed Garden Works here from Longview, Washington.  They will share their expertise, and even have some plants available for you to check out and purchase if you wish.

Here’s our poster:

More information:

Dixie and Scott’s main business at Watershed is growing and selling northwest native plants for stream and wetland restoration, but the farmers also grow plants and produce for farmers markets. You can find their edible and ornamental plants, fruits, vegetables, jams, jellies, and pickles in Astoria at the River People Farmers Market. The farmers will share their expertise with a focus on edible landscaping.

“Edible landscaping can mean a lot of different things such as aesthetically pleasing vegetables in your flower beds… all the different types of common edible plants that would fit in with the existing landscape and how to create zones in your landscape where you’re trying to produce food year round in our unique climate,” Scott said.

Farmer Dixie Edwards also plans to touch on local ethnobotany, the scientific study of the traditional relationship between people and plants.

“Wapatos were a staple food for a large population of people here before Lewis and Clark. Wapato, Camas, berries and how they were used also fits into the landscaping because those plants are adapted to our climate,” Dixie said. A Wapato is a small potato that grows in marshes. Camas was another root vegetable food source for native people.

Our co-collaborator for this event is North Coast Food Web, a local non-profit aimed at connecting local people with local food. The lecture is free and open to all ages.

The details:

When: Thursday March 13, doors open at 6 p.m. for food and drinks.
Lecture is 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Fort George Lovell Showroom, 1483 Duane St. Astoria

We are teaming up with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to host a lecture called “Food Culture of Clatsop County” in February.  This is part of the Co-op’s monthly food and wellness lecture series called “Beers to Your Health” at Fort George Brewery, and it is one in a series of monthly programs sponsored by the Astoria branch of AAUW.  Founded in 1881, AAUW is a national organization whose mission it is to empower women through advocacy and education.

From farming to fishing, those attending will get to hear from some of the most prominent women shaping our local food scene.  A panel of speakers includes Alana Kujala of Skipanon Brand Seafood, Kristin Frost Albrecht of OSU Extension and North Coast Food Web, Teresa  Retzlaff of 46 North Farm and North Coast Food Web, plus Kelly Huckestein, a farmer and produce manager at the Astoria Co-op. 

AAUW will lead the discussion in a question and answer format that the group traditionally uses at its candidate forums.  AAUW President, Meredith Payton, came up with the concept of featuring local food culture in an educational way and asked if the Co-op, a community-owned grocer, would like to be involved. 

“The Co-op jumped at partnering with AAUW on this lecture, because the topic of local food is in line with the work we do, for example, sourcing from several farms within a 40-mile radius,” Astoria Co-op Marketing Director Zetty Nemlowill said.

The Astoria branch of AAUW was founded in 1927.  As the organization evolves it is innovating with new types of events and collaborations such as this food culture lecture with the Co-op.

 “This is us getting out into a different realm of the community to get new membership, to branch out to younger generations,” Payton said.  AAUW membership information will be available at the event.

The lecture is free and open to all ages.  Those wishing to attend are encouraged to show up early as seating is limited to 60.

When: Thursday February 13, Doors open at 6 p.m. (food and drinks available for purchase) Presentation 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Fort George Lovell Showroom, 1483 Duane St. Astoria

Have you seen the new front-end of our store?  We’re pretty excited because on Tuesday November 12th, 2013 our new POS system and check-stands made their debut and staff are getting up to speed on the new equipment.

We think these changes are very positive for the Co-op and will make your grocery shopping experience more convenient.  The new checkout stands include a third lane for busy times.

Tim Kennedy of Blind Moses Woodworking in Astoria built them for us.

He’s done some of the other finish work in the produce and deli areas, so we knew he’d do a great job.  He says the new checks-stands have a “nice personality”.  He constructed them with fir and walnut.  And he helped come up with a new configuration for the layout of the checkout lanes that has resulted in less congestion for you at the front-end of the store.

What’s even bigger than the new checkout lanes is the new POS (point of sale) system.  It was needed given our level of growth in recent years, and this new system will be able to grow with us, possibly even into a larger future store.  What improvements can you see?  Quicker checkouts due to better scanners and credit card processors.  And, you now get to swipe your own credit and debit cards.

The new checkout stands are specifically designed to hold the new hardware required with the POS system.  They are also ergonomic for cashiers and customers.  And,  it’s nice to no longer have our cash drawers resting on milk crates!

Please be patient as we train all our staff on the new system.  We have had lots of extra help as this new system goes live.  While there will be a short period of transition with our new POS system and checkout lanes, we fully believe these changes will benefit you long into the future.  We thank our member-owners and shoppers for continued support!

Over the past two decades, GMOs have been entering U.S. grocery stores at a dizzying rate. While certified organic foods are prohibited from containing GMOs, the Congressional Research Service estimates that 60 to 70 percent of processed conventional foods contain GMO ingredients, none of which have been tested for safety by the FDA.  Genetically modified organisms are plants or animals that have been genetically engineered with DNA from different species in order to create benefits such as disease resistance.  But are they safe?  The answer is debatable, and growing number of consumers are wary of the potential risks. 

In the second of a two-part series by the Astoria Co-op, General Manager Matt Stanley will give a presentation focused on the consumer perspective surrounding GMO’s.  In October, the Co-op brought OSU Professor, Robert Zemetra, a wheat breeder and geneticist to Astoria to speak from a pro-GMO perspective.  In order to present a balanced view of this controversial issue to the public, Stanley will share information he has learned about GMO concerns.

“It’s always been important to me since I learned about the lengths the industrial food system has gone to create food that isn’t keeping our health in mind.  This is one of many ways that large companies are manipulating our food in ways that aren’t good for us.  All you have to do is look at health trends in our country, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, in large part all come back to our food system,” Stanley said.

Stanley will share a presentation created by Gary Hirshberg, the chairman of the Just Label It campaign.  JLI is a national coalition dedicated to bringing about mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods in the U.S.  More than one million people have signed JLI’s petition to the Food and Drug Administration, more than any other food petition in the country.  The Astoria Co-op has joined other food co-ops around the country to support the labeling campaign, and increase awareness about GMOs.

Stanley says his main concern about GMOs is exposure to chemicals.  Genetically engineered plants can be designed to withstand more pesticides, created by corporations that design the GMO seeds, and cancer drugs, which some of these chemicals may cause.  GMOs are also linked to digestive issues, allergies, and other dietary struggles Americans are going through, according to Stanley. 

When and Where:

“Beers to Your Health” the Co-op’s monthly lecture series happens Thursday November 14 at the Fort George Lovell Showroom at 14^th & Duane St. in Astoria.  Doors open at 6 p.m., food and drinks are available from the Taproom, the talk starts at 7 p.m. and lasts about an hour.