SOUP SPECIALS Tuesday April 17th
Beef Barley with grass-fed local beef
Dairy free
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The Goat’s Beard Mountain Supplies will be officially opening on Saturday May 12th. It features a wide array of outdoor supplies from backpacking and camping gear, books, maps, climbing gear, shoes, the “goatique” clothing and bike rentals. It is located across the courtyard from the Mazama Store in the historic log cabin and is well worth checking out.
Micki and CB Thomas will be running the store and have been collecting “a little bit of everything good for the outdoors”! They hail from Dillon, Colorado where Micki managed a large outdoor store for over a decade. Both Micki and CB love to play in the outdoors and the mountains and have amassed an amazing amount of knowledge and expertise in all outdoor activities and equipment which they love to share. If you need any local information, they are the people to go to!! When they’re not in the store, they’re out playing and have the latest updates. If you’ve been in the Mazama Store during the winter months in the afternoon, you’ve probably met them behind the deli counter.
 
 So, what do you do: you are an avid recycler, you compost everything you can for your personal garden, you take larger scraps to your friends to feed their chickens and pigs, you use and reuse glass containers for almost everything in sight, the last plastic bag you laid eyes on was the one you stopped on the side of the road to pick up to “keep the valley clean” AND….. YOU FORGOT YOUR REUSEABLE CANVAS GROCERY BAG AT HOME…! What to do what to do??! (This happened to one of our employees just yesterday)
Well lucky for you, us AND the Valley the Tiffany Crew has and answer to your dilemma. This motivated and intelligent group of Methow Valley Community School 4th and 5th graders have been studying plastic since January for their most recent ”Expedition”. (An Expedition is an in depth study students participate in lasting 6 months to a year) They watched the movie “Bag It” which started as a documentary about plastic bags then evolved into a wholesale investigation into plastics and their effect on our waterways, oceans, and even our bodies. The kids were inspired to do something locally that would help reduce the amount of single use plastic bags found in the Methow Valley. Lead by Community School teachers Dierdre Cassidy and Jake Otto, the children researched the topic, made posters and shared their findings at the Twisp Farmer’s Market on Earth day.
The Tiffany Crew was eager to do more and took their project a step farther… (This is where the “forgotten bag” solution comes!) They liked the idea of bike sharing in Portland. They thought something similar could work with reusable grocery bags. the kids decorated simple canvas bags with artwork and built kiosks for the bags. You are welcome to grab a bag to fill and take home. Once you are done, run it through the wash and return it to any kiosk for reuse by another person who forgot their bag! These kiosks are currently placed here, Glover Street Market and Hanks Market. If you are feeling especially inspired, sign the petition left by the kiddos to ban plastic use in our town. We here at the Mazama Store are very proud to support these kids in their hard work to make a difference, learn about our environment and keep the Valley clean and pristine!
If you are interested in learning more about this program, come to the Community School fundraising dinner and movie screening of “Bag It” on May 16th at the Twisp River Pub. You can also visit www.mvcommunityschool.org.
We know that we live in an exceptional place; the Methow Valley is incredibly beautiful, it is one of the few places in the country that remains virtually untouched by industry and the pollution that inevitably comes with it.
 The Mazama Store is committed to keeping the Valley as pristene as possible. One way we work to do this is by partnering with Methow Recycling Roundup to ensure our recyclables don’t go to waste!
 Methow Recycling Roundup was started by Casey Bouchard and Joseph Weaver in 2009. They were interested in supporting local recycling initiatives started by Methow Recycles (celebrating 10 years now!) and found the best way to do so was by assisting businesses and individuals in getting their recyclable materials to the center, and thus, Methow Recycling Roundup was born! We here at the Mazama Store are thrilled to be customers of Casey and Joseph, because of them we can now say, “Yes, we recycle glass!”
Through Recycling Roundup Casey and Joseph have been able to offer creative ways for people, especially visitors, to easily recycle the items they normally would have carried back to their homes or thrown in the trash.  For example, they partnered with the town of Winthrop and Methow Recycles to create public recycling bins made by local craftsmen out of re-purposed wine barrels. Bins are sponsored by local businesses and are placed in public spaces throughout town. The goal is to reduce waste, increase awareness and demonstrate the community’s commitment to recycling. The bins are beautiful!
Another program they started is called “Blue Bag Recycling”. Blue Bags can be purchased at participating stores (including us!!), filled with any type of unsorted recyclables and dropped in a special “Blue Bag Recycling” bin which currently can be found here at our store, The Mazama Country Inn, Methow Recycles, Methow Cycle and Sport, Hanks Market and Blue Star Coffee Roasters. These highly visible bins make recycling even easier for travelers, spreads the word about Valley recycling and continues to support Methow Recycles; without which there would be no recycling in the Valley at all. Thank you Methow Recycles!
Casey and Joseph are continually finding creative ways to reuse and recycle. In the past they had noticed that much of the roadside trash was actually valuable recyclable materieals. That realization partnered with the fact that they wanted to be sure that their “single use” Blue Bags were never used only once was the impetus for their newest recycling initiative: you can pick up a free gently used Blue Bag from them and use it to collect recyclable refuse from the highway and other community areas which they gladly will sort through. Casey and Joseph were even able to find a way to recycle their Blue Bags once they are no longer useable.
What a wonderful community we have! By working together we all are able to make a big difference; and that, my friends, will keep the Valley clean and pristene!
With the recent celebration of Earth Day (April 12) there has been a lot of buzz in the Valley about reducing, reusing and recycling. We here at the Mazama Store are excited to be playing a part in uplifting the environment, local economy and culture by by offering green products and supporting local green businesses and initiatives. This post is the first in a three part series about our efforts to be as ecological as possible.
Sometimes it seems like modern America is one colossal plastic palace. The versatile material is in our cars, toys, packaging, clothing, home goods, food utensils, medical devices and so much more. It is also littering our streets, clogging our waterways and choking marine life. Many companies are taking a close look at how they can be a part of the solution rather than the problem. One of these companies is “Preserve”. They make all of their stylish and intuitive products out of recycled #5 plastic that can in turn be recycled. Preserve products are powered by you and your recycling efforts. Through Preserve’s Gimme 5 program, you can recycle your #5 plastics – a kind of plastic that Winthrop currently cannot recycle. Preserve transforms yogurt cups into toothbrushes and take-out containers into cutting boards – and a lot of other great looking, high performance products for your bathroom, table, and kitchen.
Currently we carry their toothbrushes, colorful and fun addition to any bathroom. Dentist designed for ease of us and maximum cleaning, customers have already begun to rave about them:
I have found Preserve toothbrushes to be as effective - if not more so – than any toothbrush in the dental section of of the pharmacy. I love the simplicity of its design and appreciate the fact that it doesn’t have unnecessary bells and whistles. My teeth feel clean and my breath is fresh!
The brush handle is made in the USA from 100% recycled #5 plastic, including yogurt cups. Just think about that the next time you dig into your favorite fruit on the bottom treat – you could be brushing your teeth with the left over container soon! Preserve really practices what they preach; each brush comes in a postage paid return envelope so you can easily pop your old brush in the mail for recycling (handle only, of course!). Check out preserveproducts.com/ourprocess to learn more about how this company works to save the environment!
So things are starting to heat up here in Mazama! The weather reached an unseasonably warm temperature earlier this week – at least in the mid 70s! That means that shorts and even a few swimsuits came out of the closet. Sure, we are all a bit pasty here, but that will soon change as we have all been out and about soaking up the sun.
One sure sign of spring is when local fashion takes a turn to lycra. Many customers show up clad in bike shorts and jerseys needing to fuel up after a tough ride. For those of you who love long hard climbs on your bike, now is the perfect time to saddle up and head for the hills! Washington Pass is still closed to motorized vehicles and that means the bike is king! There is something invigorating about barreling down the road after a 3300 foot climb – not a care in the world, knowing you have the highway to yourself and the only potential hazards are wildlife and other bikers.
If climbing isn’t your cup of tea, then take a trek down Lost River Road or up Goat Creek. As cars are still at a minimum, safety and visibility are both good. Remember, if the wind is strong one way, it will be strong the other and you can count on a nice tailwind to help you on your way. Regardless of your passion – hills or flats – start here at the Mazama Store with a cup of coffee and a scone.
 Grab a bag of Methow Valley Energy Balls, some goo and a few bars, fill up your bottle with some local Methow Spring mountain water and a Nuun or two and hop to it!
Take advantage of our warm weather and get a good start to your summertime fitness, heck, even if you aren’t a hill climber give Highway 20 a try, just to say you did it – a true Mazama Spring right of “Pass”age!
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Hours: 7:00 am - 6:00 pm
7 Days A Week
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