news in natural SUMMER 2019 · FREE Visit GeerCrest Farm A Willamette Homestead Classroom Turf to Ecosystem · Summer Recipes · What’s in Season at LifeSource? Contact Us General Manager Alex Beamer [email protected] Store Manager Jeff Watson [email protected] Grocery & Perishables Marie Wallace [email protected] Bulk Joyce DeGaetano See Tiara’s recipe for Cool Lime Pie on page 21 [email protected] Produce Cicadas are buzzing in the trees outside my window, and the Jimmy Vaughn kids are grazing for berries in the garden. After months of [email protected] rain, chill, and bare branches, I’m always surprised to find myself here again, in the land of summer, beneath lush green Beer & Wine leaves and the blue dome of the sky, sweat trickling down the Liam Stary backs of my knees. [email protected] As anyone who has seen my yard knows, I aim for more Wellness Kathy Biskey of an untended woodland glade aesthetic than the more [email protected] typical manicured lawn, so I’m pleased to read Savanna’s encouragement to diversify our yards and bring in native and Deli wildlife-friendly plants. Also in this issue of News in Natural, Eric Chappell GeerCrest Farm introduces us to their unique educational [email protected] farm, steeped in history and environmental stewardship. Zira explores the risks posed by certain sunscreens and shows Mercantile · Health & Beauty us how to identify safe options. As always, the LifeSource Zira Michelle Brinton team fills us in on their favorites and some of the new items [email protected] throughout the store, and shares some of their favorite beat- the-heat recipes. Marketing & Outreach Director Tiara Good [email protected] Enjoy! Mailing List & Editor Ben Martin Horst [email protected] Ben Martin Horst · Editor @LifeSourceNaturalFoods 2649 Commercial St SE Salem, OR 97302 · 503-361-7973 www.LifeSourceNaturalFoods.com @LifeSourceFoods The material contained in this newsletter is for informational purposes only. Always see your healthcare provider before beginning a self-treatment program. @LifeSource_Foods Summer 2019 8 4 15 On the Cover 4 Turf to Ecosystem 18 Summertime Beer & Farming, education, Tired of constant mowing and Wine Pairings history, and environmental watering? Trade out lawn care Your guide to what to sip this stewardship converge for a surprising array of benefits. summer, and what foods to pair at GeerCrest Farm, just with your beverage of choice. All About Sunscreen minutes from Salem. 6 8 With growing concern over 20 Staff Favorites Cover photo by Cayla Catino chemicals in some sunscreens, Three of our team members how can you know what’s safe for share what they’ve been enjoying Recipes you and your family? on the LifeSource shelves. Blueberry Nectarine 15 What’s New? In the LifeSource Hot Seat Galette 11 23 Find out what’s fresh You’ve seen Nic arranging apples, 16 Raspberry Peach at LifeSource! grouping greens, and organizing Sangria oranges, but who is this stalwart What’s in Season? Vegan Tacos 14 of the LifeSource produce team? Summer’s bountiful local 17 Slow Cooker Pulled harvest is in! Here’s a glimpse Pork of what you can expect Grilled Steak with from our local farms. Smoky Blue Cheese Sauce 21 Cool Lime Pie 24 Basil Vinaigrette s the summer heats up, many people haul out their sprinklers and lawnmowers, Aready to spend the hot season in a Sisyphean struggle against browning and overgrown grass. The ideal of a perfectly manicured lawn has long TURF TO defined American suburbia and, to an extent, operates as a signal human control over the natural ECOSYSTEM world. The obsession with this (subjective) curb appeal comes with Words & Photos by Savanna Hanson Customer Service a high environmental price tag, as well as a literal one. Manicured turf grass lawns require near-constant watering, and many homeowners use pollution-spewing gas mowers, as well as pesticides for weed control. One might think that with all the effort put into their maintenance, lawns would offer tremendous benefits. Alas, they provide virtually no habitat for wildlife, no substance for pollinators, negligible carbon sequestration, and create runoff that harms the surrounding environment. With mounting concern about climate change, bee population decline, and water shortages, a growing number of ecologically-minded people are transforming at least parts of their lawn into a more sustainable landscape. WHERE TO START For those just starting out, focus on a few areas at a time. Create a curving, natural shape along borders/ fences as your area to transform. After all, no one is saying it’s not nice to have a small chunk of grass where you could sit at a table, or kids could play. It’s worth noting that you can certainly just let areas of your lawn grow and naturalize. While a wild lawn is preferable to one requiring high energy-inputs, the grasses typically found in lawns provide very little in terms of whole ecosystem vitality. Replacing these grasses with native plants will result ◄ Left: A patch of naturalized lawn Center: Lewis’s Mock-Orange, or Philadelphus lewisii Right: Native Oceanspray, or Holodiscus discolor in a far superior environment, both and tall shrubs such as incense cedar, Native to the Willamette Valley, the living and nonliving. You can remove cascara, blue elderberry, manzanita, butterfly depends on Kincaid’s lupine grass with a shovel and muscle power, red-flowering currant, mock orange, for its habitat. Introduced Himalayan rent a sod cutter, or use the sheet- and oceanspray, as well as smaller blackberry and Scotch broom, among mulching method, if you aren’t on a shrubs and understory plants like salal, others, have overwhelmed what is left compressed time frame. This latter sword fern, checkermallow, camas, and of the lupine in the valley’s few remnant method involves layering cardboard red columbine. natural prairies. Through efforts to and organic matter over existing lawn restore certain natural areas to their and weeds, eventually smothering them WHAT YOU GAIN precolonial state—replete with plenty and creating rich soil in the process. The benefits to gardening with plants of Kincaid’s lupine—conservationists When your chosen area is clear—or native to the Pacific Northwest, and hope to save the Fender’s blue butterfly you already have a more natural garden more specifically the Willamette Valley from extinction. landscape—you have several options. region, are numerous. These plants One is to take your yard into edible are intrinsically suited to our climate RESOURCES territory. Perennial herbs (rosemary, and soils; after they’re established, they Many resources exist to help people thyme, sage, etc.) and fruit (try natives: require little to no watering in addition move away from monoculture lawns to trailing blackberry, black raspberry, to natural rainfall. They’re resistant gardening with native plants. Visit your or one of our three wild strawberry to many pests and diseases, and don’t county’s Soil and Water Conservation varieties) are permaculture favorites, require supplemental fertilization. District website for extensive and other annual vegetables can be Root systems develop into deep, vast information on natives, how to identify integrated to create an abundant and networks that anchor soil, prevent noxious weeds and invasive species, minimal-upkeep garden. Alternately erosion, and filter stormwater. These and help with water conservation. The or additionally, many pre-mixed roots systems also act as fantastic Native Plant Society of Oregon is also seed blends of fescues and native carbon sinks: when plants take carbon an abundant source of knowledge from wildflowers are available for a from the atmosphere, and decay into very helpful gardeners. low-fuss, meadow-like area. More the soil, the soil sequesters the carbon. While one yard might not seem like intentional landscaping with native In fact, some prairies can store more it makes a difference, American lawns trees, shrubs, and flowers can create carbon below ground than forests do cover a combined area approximately lush, low-maintenance, well-adapted, above ground. Planting natives in your the size of Texas, and are the most and beautiful garden beds. Try native yard also repairs links in the ecosystem, grown crop in the country. Lawns are grasses like Roemer’s fescue (in sunny, and butterflies, birds, bees, and other an opportunity to effect great positive dry areas) and tufted hairgrass (in pollinators regain much needed habitat. change towards a more resilient and more moist or even wetland areas). Perhaps the best example is that of the ecologically sound landscape. Other personal favorites include trees endangered Fender’s blue butterfly. LifeSourceNaturalFoods.com · 5 GEERCREST FARM A WILLAMETTE HOMESTEAD CLASSROOM By Adam McKinley · Director of the GeerCrest Farm & Historical Society | Photos by GeerCrest t’s hard to imagine how many through caring for farm animals, anthropogenic fires prior to white unknown gems there must be around gardens, and forest; hearing stories of settlers, Ralph and Mary and their the Willamette Valley: we all know the past; and trying traditional crafts. children planted thousands of apple Ithe breathtaking and varied beauty of Quiet GeerCrest Farm sits on 20 acres and pear rootstock from seeds they Oregon. With a stately old farmhouse in the Waldo Hills east of Salem, in brought with them across the Oregon overlooking a gentle valley still cut by the southeast corner of the remaining Trail from Illinois. Trading for fruiting a precolonial trail, spring fed creeks, piece of Ralph and Mary Geer’s 1847 buds and scions from the Luellings and oak savanna, GeerCrest Farm is donation land claim of 640 acres. Their and Ladds, two other pioneer families definitely one of those little-known 1851 farmhouse and 1878 stone fruit near Portland, the Geers would become treasures.