Another live auction experience to bid on at Harvest Fest in 10 days..."A Night In" catered dinner for 4-6 people by Chef Emily! Emily Seebonruang will work with the winner to create a custom Thai dinner for you and your family/friends. She'll cook for you then deliver to your home! Enjoy a fancy night in with a delicious meal, without leaving your home! Bid on this experience during Harvest Fest, September 18th from 5:30-9pm at the Sacajawea Center!

No need to cook dinner on Wednesday, come to the Competitive Potluck - Theme: Wild and Alive at the The HUB of Salmon starting at 6 pm! Bring a wild and alive dish to share with a crowd, and sample the other dishes for $10; vote on your favorite dish. Winners get a prize and of course bragging rights! It's also a Pint Night, so your purchase of a beverage from the Hub also supports SVS. We had too much fun at this event last September, so don't miss out on this tasty event!

One of our longtime Harvest Fest sponsors, @gemairflights has donated a scenic flight for 4 for our live auction! Enjoy a scenic one-hour flight around the Salmon Valley with family and friends. Bid on this experience and others during the live auction at Harvest Fest, happening Friday September 18th from 5:30-9 pm at the Sacajawea Center! In addition to the live auction, we'll have a delicious locally sourced BBQ dinner and drinks available for purchase, curated raffle baskets, a t-shirt printing station, and live music! It's sure to be a fun night for the whole family.

If you want to enjoy salads and fresh vegetables in the middle of snowy winter, attend this Winter Vegetable Growing Workshop @ Winter Kissed Farm next Friday, September 11th! SVS is taking a field trip to Stevensville to visit Winter Kissed Farm - formerly MGVC, the leader in winter growing across the region. We will provide transportation to and from Salmon if you'd like to attend, as well as free lunch. Please RSVP here: https://forms.gle/P9cS4vQXKKmcz67z5 Thank you to the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) for helping us provide this FREE opportunity!

Have you ever floated the Salmon River on a sweep boat? Here's your chance! One of our live auction items is two spots on a KingFisher River Company trip! Choose from sweep boat specials like an Early Bird morning float or the Nighthawk riverside dinner or a whitewater or Wild & Scenic rafting day trip. Credit may also be applied to a multi-day trip. KingFisher River Company (formerly North Fork Guides) has been running the Salmon River since 1976, offering expert-led fishing and whitewater rafting trips. Based in Salmon, Idaho, we specialize in multi-day expeditions from McKim Creek Boat Ramp to Corn Creek Boat Ramp showcasing the breathtaking beauty of the Salmon River. Bid on this experience and more at Harvest Fest on September 18th from 5:30-9 pm at the Sacajawea Center!

More on the theme for our upcoming Competitive Potluck. Start planning your dishes for this fun event next week! What does "Wild and Alive" mean? Well, it's open to interpretation. This could be food that’s wild or alive in some way, like fermented food, probiotic and good for your gut, or something with an ingredient harvested from the wild. Or maybe it’s just wildly tasty! Perhaps you're simply wild about the dish you make. If you want to stick close to the theme for this fun event, here's some examples of what you could make: 1. Falafel cakes with Tzatziki made with yogurt (there's live bacteria cultures in yogurt) 2. Sourdough raspberry sweet rolls (sourdough is certainly wild and alive, and raspberries tend to grow wild in people's gardens, you can never get rid of them!) 3. Miso soup with dried wild morels and green onions (miso is fermented bean paste, and morels are wild-harvested)

SVS Natural Resource Specialist and resident bagpiper, Joe Stewart, recently took a break from Salmon to travel to Glasgow, Scotland for the World Pipe Band Championships. Joe has played the bagpipes for 24 years and has competed at the World Championships seven times, including six years in Grade 1, the highest level of competition. He wasn't playing this year, but instead spent the week helping Cascadia Pipe Band from Seattle, Washington with tuning. It was Cascadia’s second time competing at the Worlds, and they put together a strong performance, finishing third in their qualifying heat and ninth overall in the final in a highly competitive Grade 2 field. It was a wonderful trip filled with great music, good friends, and plenty of time immersed in the bagpiping world. If you want to watch one of Cascadia’s performances from the finals, check out the YouTube link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKEieY1M9Bk

Not all the seed that SVS's Native Plants Program needs to restore local landscapes can come from wild collections alone. Last summer, SVS contracted two small local farms to produce seed in their fields over the course of two years. This month, both contractors are raking in seed harvests after months of making sure these wild plants have just the right conditions to thrive. This can be tricky for scrappy plants that are not used to farm fields or extra water and nutrients. Though they have odd-sounding names, Douglas's Dustymaiden and Hoary Tansyaster are both common forbs (wildflowers) that are valuable "rockstar" species increasingly desired for native plant restoration projects and pollinator conservation. Both have done well in this first attempt in sub-acre plots, and we are excited to get this seed out on the land this fall where it can support wildlife and fend off invasive plants. We will almost certainly look for more growers and set up additional contracts in the future, so reach out to Native Plants Program Manager Owen Baughman if you are interested in being in the loop.

Our next TOPP workshop is a field trip to Winter Kissed Farm - formerly MGVC in Stevensville, MT! Winter Kissed Farm is the largest wintertime grower of fresh greens in the Intermountain West with over an acre of passive-solar greenhouses. This is the time of year when successional plantings of spinach, kale and baby bok choy need to be planted in order to maximize sunlight energy. This workshop is scheduled to provide participants with the information and cultural practices you'll need to combat winters in our challenging climate and provide food for both your household and your community. Includes FREE lunch. Free round-trip transportation provided by SVS. Reserve your seat when you register. Register here: https://forms.gle/P9cS4vQXKKmcz67z5

This past weekend Kate joined Sierra with the CDTC and volunteers from across the region - and country! - for a CDT trail maintenance weekend at Lemhi Pass. The group camped at the brand new Tarpons Roost Cabin, constructed and managed by the Salmon Field Office Bureau of Land Management. Volunteers helped install new drains, removed encroaching trees and sagebrush, and improved trail tread along the Continental Divide Trail. A huge thank you to the dedicated volunteers who traveled from Challis, Rigby, Clark Canyon, Bannack, Polson, Helena, and even western Washington and Wisconsin! We love partnering with the Continental Divide Trail Coalition to support trails projects and this weekend's project along the CDT at Lemhi Pass provided improved trail conditions for thru-hikers and day hikers, lots of laughs, incredible skies after gnarly storms, and tasty food in the mountains. For more info about the BLM rental cabin: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/10355855