Linnaea Farm’s First Plant and Skill Share was on Saturday, April 18. It may be the first on Cortes Island.
Tamara McPhail, who has been at Linnaea farm the past quarter century explained, ”I don’t know if there’s ever been a plant share before on Cortes.”
Continue reading Possibly Cortes Island’s First Plant and Skill Share
Michael Manson started clearing the land for what is now Linnaea Farm in 1887. The Hansen family lived there during the early 1900s, and in 1997 the farm became a charitable land trust. In this morning’s interview, Adam Schick and his daughter, Nola McPhail, talk about their experiences and the next generation of Linnaea Farm.
Adam Schick: “One of the biggest challenges of the last few years is having people live here long term. Farming offers more of a lifestyle opportunity, but as our population ages, often the only thing left you have is to sell your property to ensure you can retire successfully. That’s a real problem. Because this farm is a trust, we don’t get to sell the property. We simply have the honour of looking after it. While I feel it is an honour, more and more, it seems that people see it as a burden; they want a job, or something that’s paying you money.”
Continue reading The next generation of Linnaea Farm
Lovefest 2025 was at Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 9th.
Cortes Currents arrived early and wandered through the crowd asking people about the festival and why they kept coming back. In the process, I also recorded a few short clips of music, asked one of the principal organizers about this year’s program and some people shared their recollections of the festival’s beginnings
Continue reading Gleanings from Lovefest 2025
The algae blooms that began appearing in Hague and Gunflint Lakes in 2014 signaled a looming ecological crisis on Cortes Island. Fueled by excessive nutrient runoff—particularly phosphorus from septic systems, runoff from gardens, farms, and soils and sediments from eroding ditches—these blooms posed a serious threat to water quality and lake life. Recognizing the urgency, the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) launched a lake-monitoring program and, through years of data collection and expert analysis, identified wetland restoration as a key solution. That’s where the Dillon Creek Wetland Restoration Project began.
Continue reading Restoring Life to Dillon CreekOriginally published January 22, 2024. This is the first audio recording of the article below, and may have sufficient additional details to be called the most recent version. The text was originally published in the booklet Squirrel Cove (Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society)
At the beginning of the 1900s, Squirrel Cove on the east side of Cortes Island was a hub of activity for homesteaders, loggers, fishermen, miners and trappers. They came from all the surrounding islands for supplies, groceries, mail, repairs, radios and dances in the hall. There were two stores, a post office, church, hall, two machine shops, a boatworks, a marine ways, and a big dock where the Union Steamships stopped regularly. Jim Spilsbury also stopped frequently to install or repair his radios in boats and homes.
Continue reading Schools of Squirrel Cove
