Where Does Your Dinner Come From?

Check out Community Supported Agriculture in Gig Harbor

I have become very intrigued lately with Community Supported Agriculture.  It’s no secret that I love food.  Lovingly prepared, fresh as possible,  food and wine make my heart sing!  Maybe in my next life I can eat for a living!  But I digress.  Community Supported Agriculture is a great way to have the freshest ingredients at our fingertips in every season.  And, we luckily have several local farms providing CSA to the community.

So what is it?  Community Supported Agriculture is a form of food networking.  Community members supporting a local farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production.  Some CSA’s like Peace of the Earth Farm in Rosedale offer a system of seasonal weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and flowers.  Some CSA’s provide year ‘round options, such as Creviston Valley Farm and Gentle Giant which are both on the Key Peninsula and have fresh eggs, meat and produce. 

Working Together to Feed People in Need

Something new and really unique is coming to Gig Harbor, and I am really excited to be a part of it.  Get ready for the Empty Bowls Project!!

At this coming Saturday’s outdoor movie at Skansie Brothers Park (Featuring Despicable Me), Gig Harbor will be introduced to The Empty Bowls Project.  If the wonderful CinemaGig Outdoor movies (sponsored by MultiCare and the City of Gig Harbor) and free popcorn (presented by Kitsap Bank and the Gig Harbor Kiwanis) were not enough, the Peninsula Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and the Gig Harbor Potters Guild will be on hand demonstrating pottery throwing AND serving Strawberry Shortcake in beautiful hand-made pottery bowls for a $10 donation.  Here’s the deal;

Empty Bowls is an international grassroots effort to fight hunger and was created by The Imagine Render Group.  The basic premise is simple: Potters and other craftspeople, educators and others work with the community to create handcrafted bowls which are then presented for sale with soup or in our case, Strawberry Shortcake!  In exchange for a cash donation, guests are asked to keep the bowl as a reminder of all the empty blows in the world.  The money raised is donated and here in Gig Harbor will be donated to F.I.S.H Food Bank.

A Day of Opportunity and Optimism

New Gig Harbor Goodwill Store on Record-Setting Pace

By Guest Blogger Matthew Erlich, Tacoma Goodwill Industries

A new Gig Harbor Goodwill store opening today represented “optimism and opportunity” for the community and great prices for shoppers who have come to the store at a record-setting pace for the agency.

“What Goodwill is really about is providing opportunity,” said State Sen. Derek Kilmer, who spoke at the opening. “It’s something we here in our community really embrace.” State Rep. Larry Seaquist commented on Goodwill having a “secret sauce” of success “…to help people from hopelessness to being highly productive.” “Having this kind of presence is completely invaluable,” Seaquist said in his remarks.

New Archery Program Available in Gig Harbor

Looking for something different to do with the Kids this summer?  How about learning Archery at the Gig Harbor Sportsman’s Club?  Yesterday I had a chance to visit the club and learn about this fun and inexpensive program….I had no idea this was available to the public.  I was there with a half dozen kids learning archery…and it’s only $5!  How can you beat that?

Sure it’s not for everyone….some people might be uncomfortable letting their children learn this sport.  But I would have to say that the one thing that struck me more than anything was the emphasis on safety.  Thom Halligan of the Gig Harbor Sportsman’s Club heads up the program and he puts safety first, fun second.  And it was both safe and fun.

On Kindness and Flat Tires

Would you pay it forward Gig Harbor?

On Kindness and Flat Tires

Those of you who know me personally know that I have been training to participate in the Courage Classic three day bike ride this coming August.  So every extra hour that I have I spend on my bike, particularly on Fridays when I ride all day long.

I had an experience related to cycling recently that I can’t get out of my mind and I’ve decided to blog about it.

I was in a neighboring small community to Gig Harbor.  I’m not going to tell you the name of this neighboring community because I really am not interested in giving them negative publicity, so I will just call it THE TOWN.  What I really am wondering is, if this situation was reversed and Gig Harbor was THE TOWN, would the experience have been the same?

Sudden Oak Death

What is it?

Since we posted several stories yesterday regarding crews battline Sudden Oad Death along Wollochet Drive in Gig Harbor near the former Peninsula Gardens, I decided to check with our City of Gig Harbor Arborist Dan Lilley to get the scoop on this yucky sounding stuff.

Dan says he has not seen it in the City of Gig Harbor yet, but is now doing extensive research to learn as much as he can about it.  He claims his training always pointed that it was only on the East Coast, so likely it came in on an imported plant.

Symptoms vary from plant to plant and include leaf spot, needle and tip blight, shoot tip dieback, and canker formations.  Sounds disgusting!  Also laboratory testing is the only way to confirm the disease since other issues have the same symptoms.  It's not a fungus but a unique organism called Oomycetes.  Google it.

If Dan provides me any more useful info I will pass it on to all you garden and tree lovers!! 

Wings & Wheels Comes to Gig Harbor

July 3rd AirShow Plus Car Show at Tacoma Narrows Airport

People often ask me why Gig Harbor does not have a 4th of July Festival?  My answer is usually because we are a small town with a lot going on - no volunteer are left to plan a 4th of July Festival!  Many locals celebrate at family picnics, on the water and at the Tacoma event.

But this year something new is coming 4th of July weekend - something fun to extend your holiday!

Wings & Wheels will take place on the Gig Harbor side of the Narrows Bridge, at the Tacoma Narrows Airport on SUNDAY JULY 3RD. It’s an aviation event with a car and motorcycle show - featuring live entertainment, amusements for kids, race cars, WWII B-17 and B-25 aircraft rides and tours, helicopter rides, and the Smoke 'N' Thunder Jet Dragster making a 300 mph run down the runway!

Aircraft, both military and civilian, will FLY-IN and be on static display. You’ll thrill to the roar of the engines, and the opportunity to see these beautiful aircraft up close. Vendors, military displays, and entertainment will be going on throughout the day.

Sunday, July 3, 2011 : 11AM - 5PM
Admission is $12, Kids 7 to 17: $5, Kids 6 and Under: FREE

TIME TO HIT THE BEACH

HarborWildWatch Can Make it Happen

My life is like a stroll on the beach... as near to the edge as I can go. – Thoreau

Growing up and living in the Puget Sound region my entire life, I cannot fathom what life would be like not being near the water.  I totally took it for granted as a child…never fully comprehending that our way of life was unique.  Swimming, waterskiing, floating for hours on an inner tube, walking and collecting and exploring on the beach. 

My kids have also been raised this way; wakeboarding, sailing, kayaking, crabbing.  I know when they were small they took it for granted, as I did.  But today I see in them a respect and appreciation for the fragility of the beach, and the sound, and that means I must of done something right.