Time to Summer

Folks, there is a lot going on around here. Get your calenders out, Mercer Island. It’s time to “summer.”

Unusual Garage Sales

Notice Earthcorps lurking to the left, plotting good works for the summer.

This first garage sale is out of the ordinary because it’s the whole Island. Theoretically, at least. It’s at the MICC the Saturday.

And this garage sale is not ordinary because it’s cryptic message seems to be targeted to reach some character in The DaVinci Code. I can only guess that this sign does advertise a garage sale, perhaps at 4123 94th Ave, but you’ll have to break the code to figure out when.

Get Your Fish On

Affordable Seattle writes of a fishing workshop on Mercer Island from 1 to 3 pm on June 20. Crosscut noted last week that Lake Washington around Mercer Island is actually underfished, so get out there and catch some.

Into the Woods

At Youth Theater Northwest, til Saturday.

More Delicious Things

CultureMob alerts us to a Cheese Tasting at Bennett’s on June 24th. It’s a Cheese 101 highlighting Beecher’s cheeses, which Bennett’s uses to great effect in several dishes including their killer tomato soup. $50 (the class, not the soup) at 6:30 pm.

And in only-tangentially-related food news, a fun note: Starbucks’ new CIO worked a day at the Mercer Island ‘Bucks in November (North Island). Anyone notice or recognize him?

And finally, it’s June: the month where the Mercer Island Farmers Market finally re-opens. For those of you who have been jealously gazing at various farmers’ markets from Capitol Hill to Bellevue, like I have, our late bloomer will be here next weekend.

Odds & Ends

“Where Cupcakes Meet Fashion”

Falling into the odd, a bit of cupcake news: remember the delicious cupcakes at the Mercer Island Farmers Market? They’ve gone big. Cleverly-named blog CakeSpy covers Carrie Middlemiss and her startup Bella Cupcake Couture, which makes cupcake wrappers, and if I remember correctly, delicious cupcakes too. Here’s hoping the Farmer’s Market gets cupcakes again this year.

Better Baby Tunes

Also an odd but cool business, right here on Mercer Island: Rob and Lisi Wolf of Mercer Island run That Baby DVD, which says it’s not be like all the sweet and boring baby DVDs out there. The video on their site is worth checking out if you’re in the market for baby gear.

Click to go to their site and play.

Coldwell Banker Bain HQ Moving from Mercer Island

The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Coldwell Banker Bain, the big Washington & Oregon real estate agency, is moving its corporate headquarters from Mercer Island to Bellevue. CBB has a lot of space in the North Island Commercial Center on 28th street, some of it a retail office, and it’s not clear if the move will affect this space.

Tent City Lawsuit Coda

Finally, an end: to the lawsuit over Tent City, dismissed by a King County court. The lawsuit was brought by citizens protesting Tent City against the city. “The claims were barred as not being timely.”

Mercer Island Farmers Market is Back, and Networked

For everyone who was as happy as I was to get a Farmers’ Market on Mercer Island, good news- it’s coming back. And it’s networked. A reader tipped me off that the Farmers’ Market now has a Facebook page. Once there, I found this Youtube video from MI-21:

Their webpage (I’m always a little confused about what you should find on an organization’s webpage and what you should find on Facebook) tells us it’ll be in the same location, Sundays 11 to 3, beginning June 21.

The Farmers’ Market sells food that’s more sustainable than Big Ag and it helps us keep farmland in Puget Sound. And it’s delicious.

First Mercer Island Farmers Market Sells Out

We were in town this weekend after all, and stopped by to see the long-awaited, first Mercer Island Farmers Market. The street was full,

and the cupcakes and clams were sold out when we got there:

Laureen Lapitan and her Pure Passion cupcakes, all sold out.

No more clams either.

In abundance, and not sold out, were flowers:

And there was music too.

Two musicians warming up; they sounded great.

And plenty of organic food:

Mmm- beef – pork- poultry- eggs.

but the only food available for immediate eating was some pizza, and it came with a long line. Likewise, the root beer stand had a long line. There could have been more stands altogether. This was a pretty modest market, and if the attendance at the first market is an indication, it could be two or three times as big.

Prices

What about the prices? Well, when you add the words “organic” and “Mercer Island” together, you’re in for some pretty steep prices. But they weren’t as bad as I had feared.

And it’s a producer/ grower-only farmers market- I hope that means the prices keep the small farms profitable. There’s something strange about having a few companies control our country’s entire food supply, no? And it’s nice to see that farms can still beat developers in parts of Puget Sound.

Thanks for the toil

Thanks to all whose hard work put this together- I’ll turn it over to Ken Glass, who commented on an earlier post with this:

Kudos to all the hard work by all the folks who envisioned and created the Farmers Market. I know a few of these folks and am so impressed with their vision, their hard work and their selfless commitment to making this a reality:

Maria Ackley
Nannette Bassett
Tanya Bednarski
Allison Campbell Schwartz
Cecilia Finnigan
Jason King
Tracy Landsman
Marcia Mellinger
Tamae Moriyasu
Lisa Odegard
Callie Ridolfi
Julie Sarkissian

Thanks for the info, Ken. I’ll start looking out for our own statue of Lenin.

You can read more and see the full list of vendors at the Mercer Island Farmers Market website.

Mercer Island Now Has a Farmers Market!

Just saw this sign at 40th and ICW:

Finally! We’ve been pining for one since we moved to the Island. If we weren’t going camping this weekend, I’d stop by on Sunday and take a few pictures and a few tasty, probably organic and locally-grown morsels.

Other goings-on at the Mercer Island Bulletin Board:

Youth Theater Northwest is performing Charlotte’s Web through August 10th.

Keytime claims you’ll learn to type in one hour:

And there’s a Boys’ Lacrosse camp, but I’ve been slow on keeping up with the Bulletin Board, so it looks like it’s over.

And it’s that season of the year: political signs are all over.

Will A Farmers’ Market Make Mercer Island More Like Capitol Hill and Fremont?

Of course we want a farmers market on Mercer Island. Lots of places have them- there are 37 in King County, according to the citizen’s group organizing ours.

But I can’t help but wonder: if we get a market, like Capitol Hill, Fremont, and Ballard, will Mercer Island become more like those neighborhoods?

Will we erect a statue of a famous communist and host a naked Solstice parade like Fremont?

Lenin at home in Fremont, WA.

Will we begin loitering and looking for local singles scenes?

Will someone start an MI-ku blog in the spirit of Hillku?
Life on the M-I
Is not defined by the edge
But by the middle.

Will we drink better coffee?

Espresso vivace coffee, courtesy Flickr.

Will we get a radical street fest like Ballard?

Honk Fest West in Ballard, courtesy Flickr.

Who knows what the future will hold. Personally, I hope it holds fresh vegetables and delicious jams, come whatever else may.

Mercer Island Farmers Market Update

In this blog I’ve previously asked– well, begged without shame– for a Mercer Island Farmers’ Market. Thanks to a group of active neighbors, plans are moving along. Here are the details, or download this document for more:

Location: North End Mercerdale Park on SE 32nd Street between 77th and 78th Ave SE
Period of Operation: August 10 through September 28 (may be extended into October)
Hours and Day: Sundays from 11 am to 3 pm

Tasty cheese, pretty flowers: what we have to look forward to with a farmers’ market.

The Mercer Island Community Fund put in some “seed” money- heh, heh. Thanks to Callie Ridolfi, the leader of the citizens’ group, who provided this information. Apparently they’re still working on things like traffic and waste services.

We’ll pay more than we would at QFC, but it’ll be local and fresh.

Amazon Fresh, Don’t Leave Us to the Mercy of Mercer Island Grocery Stores

Discontinued.
Photo credit: Flickr.

A friend noted that the Amazon Fresh pickup station in Kirkland was shuttered one day a few weeks ago. In this letter The Fresh confirms that its pickup stations are discontinued:

“In order to meet the considerable demands of the expansion of the home-delivery portion of our business, we are shifting our team’s efforts to focus on this area. As a result, starting on 15 February 2008, we will no longer be offering the AmazonFresh Pick-up service.”

Amazon Fresh’s home page says:

“Pre-Dawn, Doorstep, and Attended delivery options are available for neighborhoods in the following zip codes: 98004, 98005*, 98006*, 98007, 98008, 98033, 98039, 98040, 98102, 98109, 98112*, 98116, 98118*, 98119, 98122*, 98126, 98136, 98144*. (*Limited coverage)”

Not discontinued. Photo credit: Flickr.

Don’t leave the 98040, Fresh! We’ll be stuck with the Mercer Island QFCs, doomed to the irony of standing in line longer to pay more for groceries.

Let me take a break from begging to note other news for addicts like us:

• The letter hints at more local and organic products, nice since there’s no farmers market on Mercer Island.
• Totes now nest, which is handy if like us you forget to put them out a couple of times and end up with seven of the suckers. In case the concept is difficult, Amazon Fresh includes a helpful diagram (credit: Amazon Fresh site):

Full disclosure: a friend works at Amazon Fresh, but that’s not the source of my devotion. I was skeptical until I tried the service.

Totes, we’ll leave you out for pickup, but come back soon.

Photo credit: Flickr.

Mercer Island Grocery Stores: You’ve Got To Be Kidding

When we moved to Mercer Island, I was a little disappointed with the grocery stores. Two QFCs, and a hidden Albertson’s. Albertson’s isn’t a great grocery store. Sometimes I even have trouble finding the food in there.

My disappointment has slowly turned into a permanent feeling of dismay, and yes, claustrophobia. Of course it’s a lovely place, but when you’re in the middle of an island, you’ll probably pay way to much for a lime ($0.79? really?) than drive 25 minutes to and from the store. Yes, you can choose QFC North or QFC South, but there’s no reasonable alternative to QFC- it owns Mercer Island.

Take, friends, the case of a delicious meal from Thai Kitchen. If you haven’t tried these yet, I highly recommend them. The product to the far left is coconut milk, and it cost $2.88 at QFC.

Richard Sprague has been reporting on a farmers’ market forming in Mercer Island. Bring on the locally grown, free-range and hormone free chickens! I’d shop there, even though I’ve been to enough to know that the prices will probably be higher, not lower, than the local grocery store.

Anyway, back to the present. Mercer Island does have a white knight:

Yes, Amazon, that Pac-Med-habitating, low-price-setting, picking and packing hometown wonder, which first got Fresh on Mercer Island. Amazon Fresh delivers, and they charge $1.66 for the same coconut milk.

Until we get the happy chickens and the expensive honey in our own Mercer Island farmers market, we’ll be shopping at Costco and Amazon Fresh.

BREAKING UPDATE: If you like a slice of lime with your Thai food (I highly recommend it), you’ll find a lime for $0.89 at QFC vs. $0.39 at Amazon Fresh. Somebody call the CNN Situation Room.