The Upriver Trading Collective is an informal group of people in the Upper Skagit Valley who are interested in doing more trading of goods amongst themselves, and who are also joining as a group for imported goods, like bulk foods.
While many of our members are also interested in the Upriver Coop project that is currently afoot, this trading group is currently a separate entity.
December Get-Together Information
Another bulk order date is coming up for all who are interested. You can download the order form from the "bulk ordering" page on this site and it has instructions with it. A zipped Excel version of the current bulk catalog is also available. If it won't open for you, there are also quite a few paper copies floating around by now, too. Orders will be due anytime Tuesday Dec. 2nd, and then the order pickup time will be Friday Dec. 5th at 2 pm, at the Marblemount Community Hall (they have an outdoor pavillion that is a perfect unloading/sorting spot in case that day turns out to be rainy - we used it for the previous order and it was great). A new request from me: if you order via email, please follow up with a phone call so that I won't worry that I've missed anyone's email. 873-4248. Until you talk to me on the phone, assume I don't know you ordered!
Most importantly, we've talked to lots of people who are really interested in starting to do some local trading/bartering/buying, and all agree that the get-together on the pick-up date (Friday the 5th, 2:00) would be a good forum for making some trades among ourselves. We thought a lot about how to facilitate the linking of buyers with sellers so that we can all know what's available, and here's what we came up with. Everyone who is interested in offering items for trade or sale see the "listing of local goods" page and email me the requested info about your goods, and I will add items to the list as I receive them. I was resisting the organize-by-internet concept for a while because it does exclude our community members who can't get or choose not to get access to the internet, but we could also offer to periodically print the list and give it to people who request that. I recommend that, at least for getting started, each of us with a tradeable or sellable good bring some of it to the Friday get-together (rather than only waiting for preorders). For example, I plan to bring about 5 lbs of the organic tempeh that I make to see if I can trade it away. So, everybody brainstorm what you could bring as a tradable good, send me your list, and then I'll compile it so we'll know what to expect on Friday, and don't forget to bring your stuff on Friday!!
Also, everyone is encouraged to go to the get-together on Friday for the local trading/selling part, regardless of whether you want to do a bulk order. The local stuff is the good part! Joel and I want to try to get ourselves organized enough to take some firewood to make a fire in that big firepit under the pavillion, and maybe make some tea and some popcorn or other snacks. Anyone who wants to chip in to that effort is very welcome to!
Contact: cindypalacios@peoplepc.com
Another addition to this website: a classifieds page, so we can sell or give to each other those types of items you wouldn't really take to a trading get-together.
