New! Wednesday Night Farmer's Markets

The Wednesday night farmer's markets have begun! Now we have two opportunities each week to buy fresh island-grown produce and island-crafted gifts at the Village Green!! Notice that I qualified that statement with "at the Village Green," since we can also get fresh produce and u-pick items at farms around the island throughout the week! If you are interested in learning more about where you can get fresh fruits and veggies on the island, stop by the VIGA (Vashon Island Growers Association) booth at the Farmer's Market for a list of island farm stands and more information. You can also sign up to be on their mailing list!

Food Thoughts

During the Strawberry Festival this year, we skipped our traditional Sunday pancake breakfast in favor of having brunch at the Back Bay Inn. We had family visiting from Chicago, and we had heard so many positive reports on the food that the Back Bay Inn was serving, so it seemed like high time to try it out.

The ambiance of the dining and public areas of the inn is charming, graced by beautiful Ray Pfortner photography. The brunch consisted of a buffet of two types of eggs (with and without veggies), sausage links, bacon, two types of potatoes (plain and fancy), french toast, carved ham, fresh fruit, fabulous yogurt, scones, biscuits and gravy, and more. And if that isn't enough, you can also order a custom omelet or smoked salmon eggs benedict. I really couldn't resist and had to order the eggs benedict, which was fantastic! All of the choices were delicious, really, from the good meats to the yummy french toast. We are now looking for any excuse to go out to brunch. Really.

Our family thoroughly enjoyed their first visit to the island and we really enjoyed our first of what will be many visits to the Back Bay Inn!

Check out the Back Bay Inn's website for additional information: http://www.backbayinn.net/

Recycle...Reuse...Repeat...

I have been thinking a lot about the many terrific resources we have on Vashon, and wanted to share them with you! There is abundance here. There are many resources for items that community sharing and cooperation make available to us for free! Some of these resources are unique to Vashon; others originated elsewhere and are at work on Vashon. Regardless, these are all very cool resources that everyone should be aware of, for finding and sharing these items. If I missed anything here, please let me know...I would LOVE to add to this list!

Vashon Freecycle
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vashonfreecycle/
An online "bulletin board" where people post free items they are offering as well as items they need.

Craigslist
http://seattle.craigslist.org/
As defined by itself, craigslist is "local classifieds and forums for 450 cities worldwide - community moderated, and largely free". Not just limited to Vashon (but you can use "Vashon" as a search term to narrow the area), this site is a fun and easy way to post and find items available for free (there is an entire "free" category under the "for sale" section). There is no charge to post items for free or for sale!

The Beachcomber Recycler
http://vashonbeachcomber.nw-ads.com/ (click on "Free Items - Recycler" in the "Stuff" category)
Or just look at the classifieds section in a copy of the Beachcomber. There is no charge to advertise free items in the paper.

Freed Book Project
Located near the Beall Greenhouses and Blue Heron Pottery
I think this is one of my very favorite ideas ever, though caution must be exercised if you are a bibliophile. This project is run by volunteers who accept book donations, stamp the books with the "freed book" stamp, and then make the books available to people for free. This keeps the books out of the landfill and is a fabulous way to encourage reading. They have books of all types (kids, fiction, non-fiction, etc.) plus magazines and more. And they do not limit how many books you can take, so you can read to your heart's content. Normally open Saturday (10 to 2) and Sunday (12 to 4).

The Vashon Library
http://www.kcls.org/
Next to Ober Park
I just want to be certain that we're not taking this resource for granted. We have an awesome library, plus an awesome system that makes SO many terrific books and materials available to us. Do you know how easy it is to get a book from ANY of King County's libraries?? You can check out books, music, DVDs. You can also access one of the best language learning software available, for FREE, just by being a King County library card holder. Email me at jackie@kwvashon.com if you want the details on that!

Why I Spent $37 on the 7th Harry Potter Book

Ok, so some of you may not know this, but you can pre-order the final Harry Potter book through Amazon.com for $17.99, with guaranteed release-date delivery, as well as a pre-order price guarantee (if the price drops before the release, Amazon passes the additional savings on to you). Considering the list price of the book is $34.99, why wouldn't I buy it from Amazon.com? I decided that I wanted to buy my book on island, from a local business.

This is an idea I have been struggling with ever since my Grandmother's rural town lost the only grocery store serving it. Too many people were driving 30 minutes away to a bigger town with discount grocery stores and a Wal-Mart. For some people, it was terrific to have so many buying options and the drive was not a big deal; however, there were many people in the community who did not have the ability to drive half an hour each way to go shopping. In the end, it was a tremendous blow to the community.

My desire as a consumer is to find the absolutely best price possible. I used to think that "best" was synonymous with "lowest." Now I am certain that is not always the case. The impact of our dollars is one of the strongest voices that we have in expressing ourselves. By spending or withholding our spending from specific businesses, we impact their ability to survive. When we go off island to purchase something, that is a sale lost by a local business, because there are not people coming to Vashon just to buy and balance this equation. I am not saying every purchase we make should be on Vashon, from a local business. I am saying that if we like having multiple grocery stores and gas stations to choose from, the majority of our purchases should be on island. While the loss of a business may not seem to impact us individually, it is a blow to the community…and our neighbor, who owned the business…and their family.

So here is the reason I spent $37 on the final Harry Potter book: When I looked at what was the best price for me...I saw a local book store that I could walk into (with a very cool selection of books to browse, where I can bump into my friends), that was doing its best to offset the impact of the higher book price (offering double points on their rewards card), and throwing a book release party (for the people who are just crazy-out-of-their-head excited about the Harry Potter books and want to hang out with others like me...I mean, "them!"). All of these are important factors to me. And when I learned that even people who bought their book elsewhere were welcome at the party, I really wanted to spend $37 at my local bookstore. It was the best value.