Skamokawamania
Filed Under Craft, Wahkiakum | Leave a Comment
I’m feeling it again, the love for a little town called Skamokawa in Wahkiakum County that I wrote about for the last issue of North Bank.
Courtesy of Don and Kitty Speranza of the Inn at Crippen Creek Farm, I just came across a great blog that’s been around for quite a while, called Skamokacentric. The postings are few and far between but the community links feature local musicians, artisans, bakers, B&Bs, eateries and on and on — all the great stuff that drew me out that way to begin with. Can’t wait to go back.
The photo above, taken by Kathleen, the blogmaster of Skamokacentric, is from an art exhibit going on right now at Redmen Hall. Skamokawa glassblowers Kyle Gribskov and Treasure Collupy will exhibit their work during through next month. The exhibit is open Thursdays through Sundays, in the afternoons.
J.
Main Street bustles
Filed Under News, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
Vancouver’s Main Street continues its transformation with two new stores opening at the top of Uptown Village this spring. What appears to be an imports shop with an Asian influence is opening at 2315 Main, in the space of a former home and garden gift shop.
Meanwhile signs have been up in the empty storefront just north of Ice Cream Renaissance announcing a yarn and fabric boutique called StitchCraft, soon to opened by Nicholette Hoyer. The shop will carry a selection of organic yarns, fabric, lace and hand-dyed wool felt, among other natural fibers, as well as books, patterns and more.
I was getting quite concerned last fall when I noticed more and more empty storefronts along Main, but winter and spring have produced a flurry of activity and will likely spur more as the economy picks up.
J.
ReStore-ing Vancouver
Filed Under A Green Life, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
As some of you may have heard, Habitat for Humanity ReStore is gathering support for a retail shop in Vancouver. ReStores resell donated, salvaged and overstocked building materials and items such as doors, fixtures, sinks and so on to support Habitat for Humanity building projects.
It appears a community involvement “capital campaign” is getting underway, and the public will be involved soon.
As an added bonus, leaders of the Vancouver Food Cooperative — of which I am an owner/member — have been working with the ReStore team. Similar missions and a joint search for a home could lead to landing them both in downtown Vancouver, which would be fantastic for folks here who want to shop locally and sustainably. Nothing’s set in stone by any means, but supporting both these enterprises, to me, means supporting our community.
J.
A Dinner Together Around the Table
Filed Under Camas, Devour | Leave a Comment
They say food combining is key to a healthy diet, so combining two items about food must be key to a healthy blog post.
Small Plates, Big Difference
On Saturday, March 15, Camas small plates bistro Around the Table is hosting a fundraising dinner for the Camas Farmer’s Market, scheduled to open in just two months. A la carte tapas include crab and mango empanadas, flatbread with figs, carmelized onions and blue cheese, pork chops with peach bourbon chutney and Guinness ice cream with chocolate covered caramel corn (presumably for those celebrating St. Patrick’s Day). Reservations are recommended.
A Dinner Club
Personal chefs Anna Petruolo and Lisa Robbins are adding a new service to their cook-at-your-home enterprise, A Dinner Together. Called A Dinner Club, members can order meals a month at a time from a selection of pre-chosen menu items, picking them up in downtown Vancouver each Monday throughout the month. The club starts April 7 and the menu items include homemade mushroom ravioli, chicken enchiladas, vegetable stuffed portobello mushrooms with angel hair, chicken cordon bleu and mac n cheese with meatballs. BTW, Anna Petruolo is a member of the Vancouver Food Cooperative, and the meals are made with locally grown foods from regional farmers.
Who’s hungry now?
J.
Potty talk
Filed Under A Green Life, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
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I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about this great new store on Broadway in Vancouver’s Uptown Village. Elizabeth Hovde’s column in The Columbian today provides a great one. Her entertaining column talks about potty training her 2-year-old and how every time she changes a diaper, images of landfills flood her head.
Boomba Toomba, a shop that specializes in local mama-made clothing and used kids wear, also sells handmade diaper covers and cloth diapers from a wholesaler right here in Vancouver. In addition, owner and mama Mishalla DeGagne hosts “meet-ups” for folks interested in cloth diapers and provides instructions on how to use them. The second one was held on March 2. There’s even a Vancouver diapers Yahoo group for parents.
Sounds like Boomba Toomba has you covered, Elizabeth!
J.
Ilwaco, I miss you already
Filed Under Long Beach, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Spent the day in beautiful Ilwaco Saturday. We’ll be featuring this emerging coastal city in the May 30 edition of North Bank, but I just had to give a shout out to Time Enough Books owner Karla Nelson, who is super-involved in the city’s renaissance and dished us all the great places to check out and sent us to the right people to get the scoop on Ilwaco’s push for sustainable tourism.
She also sent us home with an uncorrected proof of the new Kurt Vonnegut book, Armageddon in Retrospect, to be posthumously published next month on the anniversary of his death. Wow, what a gift. Thanks, Karla.
Putting together the story now, so if you have tips or ideas for stories about Ilwaco or the Long Beach Peninsula, send them my way. Remember North Bank Magazine’s mission – to support arts, culture, independent business and sustainable living in downtown cores.
J
Foodie altert: Farmers market in downtown Camas
Filed Under A Green Life, Camas, Devour | Leave a Comment
I know this blog is somewhat Camas heavy so far, but hey, there’s a lot going on downtown.
The Camas Downtown Vision Coalition is launching a farmer’s market on May 17 that will run every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. between Birch and Cedar streets on Fifth Avenue until October. I don’t know much other that, except they expect to offer organic produce, plants, fresh flowers and prepared foods — standard farmer’s market fare.
I hope they do make good on the promise to use organic growers — that is one thing the otherwise lovely Vancouver Farmers Market is sorely lacking.
Farmers and foodmakers, check out Camas Farmer’s Market online to get a vendor application.
Kudos to the CDVC for this great step in the right direction.
J.
It’s almost First Friday!
Filed Under Craft, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
Vancouver powerhouse gallery Art on the Boulevard will open Eric Jacobsen’s new exhibit “Quiet Places” this Friday, March 7. A decorated plein air oil painter, the Glenwood resident paints on site from images in the natural world and has received a number of national awards for his work. I just love this one, titled Lone Oak.
BTW, 10 percent of AOTB’s sales this month will go to the Confluence Project, a reimagination of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, honoring their visits to Native American sites.
So, you know, buy art.
J.
Fair trade olive oil in Camas
Filed Under A Green Life, Camas, Devour | Leave a Comment
Fair trade and olive oil. What two things make dinner taste — and feel — better? A few months ago, Mint Tea was taste-testing Canaan Fair Trade Nabali Tree Olive Oil. It was amazing (and packaged in these very cool tall skinny bottles) so I bought some and later featured it North Bank Magazine. During that process I found out the North American Sales office is right here in Camas.
If you are interested in Fair Trade or think a store in your neighborhood might want to support olive farmers in Palestine, you should definitely hook up with Diane Adkin, who coordinates U.S. sales. They have tons of products other than olive oil that also come from Palestine and they work with major natural products companies like Dr. Bronner’s, which uses Canaan Olive Oil in their soap.
Yum, yum…
J.
P.S. Canaan Fair Trade is going to be on Marketplace on Oregon Public Radio Thursday. Click on Local Air Times and then Marketplace.
Red meat on the menu at Viento
Filed Under Devour, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Formerly Viento Kitchen, the much acclaimed restaurant on Steuben Avenue in historic downtown Bingen, was bought earlier this year and is now The Viento Burger and Steak Bar.
New owner Mandy Ross says this on their funky orange retro website: While continuing to focus on the bounty of fresh, local and seasonal ingredients of the Gorge and Pacific Northwest, the menu is now focused on down-home American food – burgers, steaks, fries, soups and salads.
So there you have it — dig in.
J.
