Several summers ago, I spent Friday mornings on Vashon Island’s Plum Forest Farm harvesting produce. In return for my labor, I received my week’s worth of fruits and vegetables from the farm gratis, and bonus: got to learn how everything grew. I was already a farmer’s market loyal, but cooking with foods I gathered myself…

Unpopular opinion alert: I’m not the biggest fan of banh mi sandwiches. The Vietnamese sandwich that rose from French colonialism consists of a baguette (understandably) that’s filled with some parts of a pig, cucumber, cilantro and pickled carrots. I usually find there isn’t enough protein or veggies to offset the too-crunchy bread. Still, I’m willing…

OsoA simple wooden sign on a towering evergreen—one of only a few still standing along this barren stretch of Highway 530 in Snohomish County—marks the instant the world turned upside down for the tiny town of Oso. In March, a devastating mudslide claimed the lives of 43 people in a matter of minutes. A heroic…

he aim of making cities more bike friendly has traditionally focused on the streets—striping, signals and barriers, that sort of thing. But this year The Bike Design Project (oregonmanifest.com), a nonprofit innovation platform in Portland, took aim at the velocipedes themselves with a national competition to inspire bike designs that strive to do no less…

Improvements in the human condition often begin with a single person endowed with an extra dose of courage, determined to do the right thing in the face of obstacles and naysayers for the benefit of the many. Seattle magazine is proud to partner with Crosscut to present the second annual Crosscut Courage Awards. Meet the…

LegalHave your cake and eat it, too (yum, cake!) with cannabis-infused cold-brew coffee. Perfect for: viewing Peter Jackson’s 11-hour extended-edition Lord of the Rings trilogy. Also available in full-chill form, as a non-caffeinated, spliff-enhanced sparkling soda. Warning: If you hear something go bump in your pantry, it might not be because you’re baked. Overly yeasted…

This article originally appeared on Avvo.com. We’ve all been there, standing face to face with the oh-so-friendly sales associate desperately pitching the brand’s latest deal for “buy one, get one free” or “spend this, get these reward points” that will, according to the salesperson, “save you tons of money in the long run!” Yeah, right….

This cocktail, sent to us by our lovely friends behind Valley & Co., is the perfect libation for fancy holiday festivities or low-key celebrations with your nearest and dearest. It’s elegant enough to stand alone and light enough to keep the party going. From Valley & Co.: Friends, we’re really getting down there. 2014 is winding down…

Quick quiz: What’s the most expensive housing market in North America? If you answered Beverly Hills, San Francisco or Manhattan, thank you for playing. It’s actually Vancouver, British Columbia, a city where the median income is a relatively modest $71,000 and plain Jane single-family houses in good neighborhoods sell for more than $1 million. In…