This Week
Our 9th Anniversary Breakfast
announcement by
Anni Mackin, Marketing and Design Coordinator
Saturday, July 24th 9am -12pm
Alberta Co-op Parking Lot
 Join us as we celebrate our 9th year of serving our community and member-owners! This year, we are marking the occasion with a fun-filled breakfast.
To eat, we will have:
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a toast and bagel station
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fresh local fruit
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pastries
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granola
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yogurt
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juice and coffee
To do, we will have:
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kombucha workshop
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whipped cream workshop
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chatting with board directors
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appreciation gifts for working owners
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live music
Now Hiring: General Manager
The Alberta Cooperative Grocery is seeking a General Manager to lead the cooperative so that it achieves the goals and objectives developed by the board of directors. An initial review of applications will be completed August 9. Position open until filled.
Full job posting and information on how to apply can be found at www.albertagrocery.coop/jobs
Biking Tour of
Community Gardens
announcement by
Ari Rosner, Working Owner
The Alberta Coop's August Biking Tour of Community Gardens!
Sunday, August 1st
10 am to 1 pm
Meet in the back lot of the Co-op
 The Co-op's Community Engagement Committee invites all interested community members and garden enthusiasts to a biking tour of community gardens in NE Portland on Sunday, August 1! It's a great opportunity to see the variety of ways people are gardening cooperatively in the city. We'll meet at the Coop at 10 am, and depart for the first garden at 10:15. We'll also be taking a short break for a lunch picnic in Fernhill Park, so bring along a lunch or something to share! The tour should wrap up around 1 pm.
The gardens we'll be visiting are:
Woodlawn Community Garden, located in the Woodlawn Neighborhood in NE Portland. The site has about 15 rented Portland Parks & Rec plots and shares its site with Woodlawn elementary school. Portland P&R uses the children's space to operate a number of gardening programs for children. This garden is in the heart of Woodlawn Park and has enjoyed hosting a number of different projects, including a Thai water jar that holds about 200 gallons of rain water.
Oregon Food Bank's statewide headquarters are located in NE Portland between Columbia Blvd & Marine Dr. The Eastside Learning Garden is located on the south side of the property. Oregon Food Bank's Learning Gardens are vibrant gathering spaces, bringing the community together to grow vegetables, relationships and hope. The Learning Gardens offer programs to address the root causes of hunger through increased nutrition, community food security and self-reliance.
The Urban Farm Collective is a collective of gardeners in North and Northeast Portland, gardening in various unused places like empty lots and backyards, and also gardening in our own backyards. All the produce grown in these gardens comes together at a weekly barter market, held Sundays at 2pm at the corner of N Mississippi and N Fremont. Everyone who contributes, whether it's land, labor, or their own homegrown produce, is a member of the collective and is entitled to some of the harvest.
See you there!
Fair Grounds
by Jhan Hochman, Working Owner, jhanhoc@gmail.com
Just Coffee Cooperative, out of Madison, Wisconsin, is a worker-owned  coffee roaster dedicated to creating and expanding a model of fair trade based on “transparency, equality, and human dignity.” Their formation as a cooperative reflects a commitment to a “non-hierarchical and worker empowered shop. All major decisions are made by true democratic process —there are no bosses . . . .”
Just Coffee works in a total cooperative landscape, partnering with growers' co-ops to obtain green coffee; with Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund for financing; with Cooperative Coffees, Just Coffee’s importing co-op; and by selling to and bartering with housing co-ops, food co-ops, and other worker co-ops. Being a cooperative itself, Just Coffee cinches the circle on this comprehensive cooperative universe.
Just Coffee also touts itself as a 100% fair trade roaster. Unfortunately, many companies boasting fair trade practices practice few, reaping many unfair market advantages such as getting accounts like universities, churches, and food co-ops which they could not with their “conventional” coffee. A less committed company can also offer fair trade coffee at dirt cheap prices and subsidize the loss by offsetting it with profits made from coffee bought at cheaper prices.
In contrast, Just Coffee’s own fair trade code tries to achieve five comprehensive goals: a better price for growers, pre-financing for growers’ business development, long-term partnerships with growers, commitment to cooperative forms of business, and organic methods.
Organic certification, however, has a political side demanding more scrutiny. Certification normally takes up to three years and is costly for poorer farmers. Growers making the commitment generally do not get any return for their expenses until the end of the third year. Currently the USDA will not allow "Transitional Organic" on labels to let consumers know that they are buying coffee from a farmer attempting to change to organic methods. Contact the USDA National Organic Program and weigh in on the matter.
The last factor in the Just Coffee commitment to grower, land, and customer is transparency. Instead of depending on third party certifiers to tell you what Just Coffee does, they place their contracts and financials on their website for all to see.
At the Alberta Co-op, you can find Just Coffee for $10.99 - $11.99/12 oz. with the Bike Fuel and Revolution Roast being our most popular blends. And as a side note, our bulk buyer, Nick, likes to emphasize that Just Coffee is air roasted (not barrel roasted) allowing more of the beans' natural flavors to emerge.
Websites of interest:
Just Coffee Collective
Contact the USDA National Organic Program
More July Garden Tips:
Water Conservation
by Teryani Riggs, Working Owner
Well, summer finally has a somewhat firm hold on us—the average temperature is above 70ºF (finally), the berries are coming into full swing, and the baby birds are learning to fly. In the garden, this is still the time for planting, but it is also the time to WATCH WATERING!
Some tips on how to conserve water in the garden:
1. Catch as much rainwater as possible using rain barrels or other systems.
 2. Mulch, mulch, MULCH. Mulching not only helps to reduce moisture loss and suppress weeds, it also provides top-down nutrients to the soil. You can use grass clippings, leaves, straw, composted bark chippings, or clippings from plants. Apply when the soil is moist and has warmed up and the plants are established. Water if soil is dry before laying down the mulch.
3. Digging increases water loss from the soil - avoid it, particularly in dry hot weather.
4. Remove weeds; they will be in competition for water with the plants you want to grow. (Better yet, if you’re into companion planting or permaculture, replace weeds with plants that will support the plants you want to grow.)
5. Add organic material (i.e. compost or mulch) to your soil. Compost not only provides wonderful nutrients to your plants, the organic material in it will store water and reduce water run-off.
6. Water early in the morning or in the late afternoon (early morning is best). This will reduce loss of water through evaporation.
7. Apply water directly to the soil, not plants.
8. Soak plants well if you are watering. Watering thoroughly, yet infrequently is much better for your plants than frequent, shallow waterings. Check that the water has penetrated down into the soil, not just the surface layers.
Happy Watering!
Recipe of the Week:
Tofu Lettuce Wraps
from vegweb.com
Ingredients:
1 head lettuce or Napa cabbage
1 pkg extra firm tofu (drained)
2 1/2 cups chopped shittake mushrooms
3 tablespoons chopped garlic (fresh)
2 tablespoons chopped ginger (fresh)
red pepper flakes
tamari or soy sauce or Braggs
salt
pepper
Directions:
Dice the tofu into small bite size squares. Spread them out on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt , pepper, red pepper flakes, and soy sauce. Bake for 35-45 minutes at 350.
When that is almost done, heat up wok or frying pan and throw in the chopped up garlic and ginger. Fry for about 5-7 minutes until they are softer. Throw in the shittakes. At this time you can add more soy sauce, usually about 4 or 5 shakes. Also, if you’d like, some more salt and pepper and red pepper flakes.
Cook about another 10 -12 minutes, then add the tofu and finish up the cooking - about 2-5 minutes.
Wash and dry the lettuce/cabbage and pull off pieces about the size of your palm.
Spoon the mixture into the leafs and roll them up!!
Community News
Emerson Street Garden -
Groundbreaking Ceremony
Saturday, July 31st 4:00 - 7:00pm
822 NE Emerson St.
Come celebrate progress on turning a contaminated property into the Emerson Street Garden.
Free food, art activities for kids and teens, & meet your neighbors and electeds from your district!
Do you have something to contribute? To help or RSVP, contact Cassie at 503.662.2590 or via email at cassie@groundworkportland.org
Tour de Coops - July 24th
This is a fun and affordable community event for you, your whole family and all your friends! Chicken owners throughout Portland will open their yards so you can see their coops and meet their chickens.
The Tour de Coops is a self-guided tour; you'll have the opportunity to visit 25 backyard chicken coops all over East Portland - getting to know your neighbors while learning and sharing urban chicken keeping ideas.
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Produce
Specials
Red Leaf Lettuce
from Mustard Seed Farms,
St. Paul, OR
$1.49/each
Green Leaf Lettuce
from Mustard Seed Farms,
St. Paul, OR
$1.49/each
White Corn
$0.59/each
Burgundy Plums
$1.79/lb
Cantaloupe
$0.79/lb
Upcoming Events
9th Anniversary Breakfast
July 24th 9:00am - 12:00pm
in the Co-op Parking Lot
Biking Tour of Community Gardens
August 1st 10:00am
meet in the Co-op Parking Lot
Board Meeting
August 3rd 6:00pm
at Redeemer Lutheran Church 20th and Killingsworth
for more information on all Co-op events, please visit
albertagrocery.coop/news
Stay in Touch
503.284.2845
www.albertagrocery.coop
info@albertagrocery.coop
Find us on Facebook and Twitter
Open to Everyone
9am - 10pm Daily
Our mission is to serve as a community resource and gathering place, while providing fresh, high-quality, affordable food to the diverse members of North and Northeast Portland. We emphasize products from local, organic, and socially responsible sources, and work to build connections between our customers and their farmers.
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