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The flavor purple

2012-01-13T14:39:00.010-05:00

The flavor of purple- When I saw purple sweet potatoes on an offering from North Carolina, I got pretty excited. It's hard to find something exciting in the middle of winter, so I jumped at the opportunity. When they arrived, it was clear that they were purple, but they did look a bit weird. The skin, for the most part, was dirty (they do grow underground, after all), and they looked like they had ridges or veins. Some people had the impression that they were old or dried out. I tried cooking them, and fearing that they may have been as dry as they looked, I boiled them. It turns out that the "ugly" appearance was, once again, only in the eye of the beholder. They were moist and sweet, almost pudding-like, and the flavor was incredibly purple.

The flavor of blue-We've had many different blue or purple potatoes over the years, but this one, The Adirondack Blue, came as a surprise to us, coming as it did, so near to the end of the local storage season.

It is not unusual to find red or yukon gold offerings from local famers in January, but finding a blue is quite a treat. The Adirondack is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Wait a minute, that's the tardis! It is deeper blue on the inside than it is on the outside. It's great for baking, boiling, steaming, mashing. Let these moist, yet firm potatoes inspire you to make a gorgeous potato salad.

The flavor of stripe-Chioggia beets take their name from the Italian city of Chioggia, an ancient fishing village near Venice.

Historically Chioggia was famous for it's salt. Now it has lent its name to this striped variety of beet. If you look at any beet, even the red or gold, you will see that the flesh has concentric rings. It is not so easy to see these rings since their color of each ring is identical, but look carefully they are there. The chioggia is gorgeous; it will dazzle your kids, dazzle your friends, even dazzle yourself.

Green squash, blue squash, old squash, new squash. If you have been looking at the winter squashes lately, you have seen some old, dull looking squashes giving way to bright shiny cosmetically perfect squashes. What happened? Just as we've eaten (almost) the last of this fall's harvest, we are offered the newest harvests from Southern California, Mexico, and occasionally Florida. The older crop was harvested at the peak of ripeness, sweetness, and flavorfulness. The newer prettier stuff is flavorful and sweet, but not usually as good as the storage crop. This week, enjoy the last of the harvest of buttercup and the blue hokkaido.

Allen Zimmerman
General Coordinator
Produce Buyer

Produce notes from Allen.....61 local items & fading fast!

2012-01-02T12:44:00.002-05:00

We've had a rough couple of weeks with Broccoli and Cauliflower. When the local ended 2 weeks ago, there was only mediocre Cauliflower available from California. They would have cost $5.15 each! We waited for better quality, and as it turned out much less expensive product, and we are back in the Cauliflower business. Broccoli was a different story. Several deliveries of Broccoli came in with white stems (really and truly white). We rejected almost all of them, but several boxes slipped past our scrutiny. I'm a big supporter of biodiversity, and I like some white vegetables, but I drew a line right there. We were faced with a choice of white Broccoli or none. I went with none, until we got lucky. Small amounts of organic Bunched Broccoli became available from Maryland and the Carolinas, and some Loose Broccoli Crowns became available from California. I bought every box of each of these from all three sources and now it seems that the weeks of white Broccoli are behind us....Cauliflower anyone?

The number of offerings from local farms is rapidly diminishing. Most of our produce will be arriving from Florida or California, and when their growing regions become too wet or cold, we hope to find what we need in Mexico. When even Mexico fails to produce, we have serious problems. We could of course eat only local produce but it won't be long until even the storage commodities disappear. Soon enough, supplies of local Potatoes, Onions, and Root Vegetables will have been exhausted, and all that will remain are Sprouts, Mushrooms and (we hope) Hothouse Greens. But this is not a time for California dreaming, not a time of sadness or loss. This is the time to plan!

There is still a good deal of work to do on the local farms. In warehouses, barns and coolers there is still a lot of food to move, there are fields to clear, machines to repair. When the food is about gone, and farms are too cold or snowbound to work on, then I experience one of my winter joys. I talk to Finger Lakes Organic Growers Cooperative, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, Amy Hepworth and a couple of other farmers, and plan with them what new crops they will try to grow for us next year.

Here are some items from my wish list for next year:

- REAL Baby Bok Choy, the kind we see in Asian markets, not the Mei Qing Choy that most organic farmers grow.

- more Mints- we never have enough

- Purple Brussels Sprouts, last seen here 13 years ago.

- Chinese Broccoli (aka Gai Lan). A few years ago all of our farmers planted a lot of this, from a seed identified as "green lance". Marketed as "green lance", most buyers didn't know what it was. It was over planted, and undersold and all of the farmers we know gave up on trying it again. If I can only get just one farm to plant it...

- more Red, Yellow, White, and Purple Carrots

- more Orange, Green, Purple, and Romanesco Cauliflower

- more Sorrel, which we see only one or 2 weeks a year (and Frissee and Purslane as well)

- more hothouse Ginger (young, uncured roots).

Do YOU have something you would like to see one of our local farmers grow?

Send us an email (click me) and we will see what can be done.

(Please note, we will do our best to consider and pass along suggestions, but we do not plan to reply to emails sent to this address.)

61 local items and fading fast

Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator

Produce notes from Allen........87 Local Items!

2011-12-23T14:51:00.001-05:00

Q. Mark H asks, "Why do we sell the Green Beans with the fruit?" (& Burdock, Radicchio, Endive, etc.)
A. The 28 foot "fruit" display is set at 2 different temperatures, the first 16 feet at about 46º and the last 12 about 38º. Green Beans, Cucumbers, Basil, etc., must never get too cold (they will rot) and the entire 56 foot run of "vegetables" is set at about 38º. Some of the vegetables at the other end of the "fruit" run from Green Beans need to be dry and cold, and could be stocked near the Mushrooms, but we just don't have enough room.

Q. "I get it", says Mark, "but why is the Basil sold from that box?"

A. It is very difficult to store and display Basil. Its ideal temperature is between 50 and 55; it won't withstand temperatures below 48. It also doesn't like to get wet or blown upon. We built the "house of Basil" to protect it. At home, wrap Basil and protect from too much chill, using the drawer or door of refrigerator. If Basil has roots, try keeping it unrefrigerated, with just the roots covered in water. Best bet? Eat it or make pesto right away.

Q. Lisa M asks, "Carrots are orange. Where did all of those other colors come from?"
A. Orange Carrots seem normal to us, but they are a relatively new development. Purple, red and yellow Carrots have been known for over a thousand years possibly originating in the Afghanistan region. The orange Carrot did not appear until the 16th century in the Netherlands. Many believe that the Dutch developed the orange Carrot to honor King William I, William of Orange, but there is no evidence to support this. So all you traditionalists, you hybrid avoiders, this gives you something to think about!

This is a great week for eating rainbows. We have Rainbow Bunch Carrots, Rainbow Chard, Rainbow Cherry Tomatoes, Rainbow Fingerlings. Even the Turnips are a blend of gold, scarlet, white and purple top. Many members choose to eat rainbows because the colors are produced by various phytochemicals that naturally occur in fruits and vegetables. Some of the more familiar ones are anthocyanins, the blue in Blueberries. Lycopene causes the red in Tomatoes, carotene the orange in (orange) Carrots, pycnogenols the reds and purples in Grape skins. Many members appreciate the antioxidant qualities, among other health benefits that these phytochemicals provide. I'm happy to eat phytochemicals, and fiber, vitamins, and minerals, but that's not why I like to eat rainbows.

We eat (and shop) with our eyes. We cook with our noses. We serve and we share with our hearts. Eating rainbows makes us happy. That's good enough for me.

Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator

Produce notes from Allen.......85 Local Items!

2011-12-09T16:30:00.001-05:00

"Beauty is only skin deep". Not true!

True beauty is under the skin, in humans and also Red Bananas.

Red Bananas when delivered.

Red Bananas when ripe.

They are really "beautiful" when they are delivered, but oh so "ugly" when they ripen. It is only when they ripen to the stage where they soften and the skin darkens and even blemishes, that they really taste great. Taste is ultimately in the mouth of the beholder, but I believe that the Red Banana is sweeter, moister and creamier than the yellow "Cavendish" variety. If the skin turns you off, I recommend that you peel it off and discard it. This is a "politically correct" choice that you can make. When you eat a Red Banana you are helping to preserve a species. By creating demand for them, more of them may be planted. The sustainability of the ubiquitous Cavendish is uncertain at best and many banana experts (some from the largest growers, i.e. Dole, Chiquita, etc.) believe that it is in fact doomed to extinction. All it takes for you to do to support biodiversity is to eat something delicious.

I've written about the Subarashii Kudamono Asian pear, locally grown in Coopersburg, PA. We now have exclusive access to their LilySan variety, the last harvest of the season. This gigantic fruit has a delicate crispness and is bursting with juice. Kris, who works on this blog with me, describes the flavor as "perfect, slightly floral, with a clean sweetness that leaves you wanting for another taste. Your very own Cynthia Pennycooke is shown here, displaying the size and beauty of this rare fruit. Trust me, wear a bib.

Did you ever wonder why so many produce markets build geometric displays of fruit, often using a pyramid? I love pyramid displays, not just because they are beautiful. I have been accused of having OCD, but that is not true. I am afflicted with Obsessive Compulsive Order, and a perfect display makes me so happy. I know that we sell our produce too rapidly to always pay attention to the beauty of display or to gentleness of handling, but Nicole and David were as proud of their effort as I am. Here they are displaying a perfect Tomato display:

I hope that you too are inspired to make our beautiful produce even more beautiful every time you handle it.

85 locally grown items

Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator

Be sure to eat your *fractals!

2011-12-07T09:50:00.001-05:00

A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole." There is no better example in our produce aisle right now than this baby Organic Romanesco Cauliflower from Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop in Pennsylvania.

*NOTE*
Coop member Marc points out that it more closely resembles a Calabi-Yau manifold. For those of you unfamiliar, extra dimensions of spacetime are sometimes conjectured to take the form of a 6-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold.

Produce notes from Allen.......88 Local Items!

2011-12-02T15:52:00.001-05:00

Our members love to cook, and they sure love to eat.

For the two week period ending the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the coop sold:

5760 lbs. Honeycrisp Apples

8900 Valencia Oranges

2900 bags Cranberries

5500 lbs. Organic Red Seedless Grapes

3000 lbs. Mangoes

2400 lbs. Organic Green Beans

2000 lbs. Organic Loose Beets

2460 lbs. Organic Loose Broccoli

1700 bunches Organic Broccoli

5900 lbs. Brussels Sprouts

8600 lbs. Carrots

1080 bunches Organic Collards

4800 bunches Organic Kale

3300 lbs. Mushrooms

9200 lbs. Onions

2700 bunches of Parsley

11300 lbs. Organic Potatoes

10600 lbs. Organic Sweet Potatoes

1300 lbs. Organic Pumpkins

7500 lbs. Organic Winter Squash (3100 lbs. Butternut alone)

2000 lbs. Shallots

3100 cups Cherry Tomatoes

2000 boxes of Clementines

300,000 lbs of produce!

!HEY RECEIVING WORKERS!
We lift a case an average of 7 times. Together we lifted over 2 millions pounds of produce alone!

and....

1055 Turkeys!

Pete, who worked in the produce aisle Friday morning, shared some ideas on how to use a few items. I asked him to offer a few words about the Jerusalem Artichoke.

From Pete:

"Jerusalem Artichoke, that knobby brown tuber near the Radish and Turnips, is a vegetable that is high in potassium, iron and fiber. Neither from Jerusalem (it was first cultivated by Native Americans but became popular in the Middle East) nor an Artichoke (its flavor is reminiscent of Artichokes) it is great raw, peeled, shredded or julienned in salads (soak in cold water and drain first). You can also slice it and use in stir fries as you would Water Chestnuts, or roast it like you would a Potato. When roasted it takes on a nutty flavor and creamy texture."

Actually, the Jerusalem Artichoke is related to the Artichoke; they are both members of the daisy family. "Jerusalem" is a corruption of the Italian name for sunflower, "girasole", which means "turns toward the sun". Most vendors have reduced the name to Sunchoke, but I prefer preserving the romantic linguistic history contained in the name.

But, you ask, "Why did you take the word "Swiss" from our Chard listings?"

Ursula, coop member and former receiving coordinator, who is Swiss, says,

"I'm sorry but this vegetable does not grow in Switzerland."

If you can offer evidence to the contrary. I will reconsider.

88 local produce items

Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator

Produce notes from Allen.....103 Local Items!

2011-11-25T15:28:00.001-05:00

I'll start with a couple of members' questions:

Q- KB asked, " I haven't noticed any local, organic Brussel Sprouts at the coop the last few weeks, just the "USA" variety and some smaller ones from Holland. It seems a bit early for the season to have ended. Will we be getting more? "

A- " It is not so much that it ended, but that it may not exist at all. Last year we had so many local Brussels Sprouts Stalks offered, by so many farmers, that we were unable to make any of them happy, (but we were!) This year, only one of our farmers had any, but the stalks were so poor, that they sent us only the few sprouts that they were able to salvage. Even those few sprouts were so poor, that we had to reject them, because they turned yellow so quickly. We see none at all coming. The crop failed because....rain, floods, hurricane, you name it. "

For Thanksgiving week, we were able to package some very expensive Organic Brussels Sprouts; I hope everyone got what they needed.

Q- " We haven't had any kind of Melon in the past few weeks. The supermarkets + produce stores in the area all have Cantaloupes + Honeydews. What's happening? "

A- " The seasons for USA Cantaloupes and Honeydew ended and that is when we stopped carrying them. We are willing to carry imported Melons, but there is a reason why we are not carrying them now. The headline of "The Packer", the national produce newspaper for 11/10 was 'Market Uneasy after Cantaloupe Outbreak'. We have not gotten a favorable report for Honeydew flavor yet, not even from the suppliers who want us to buy them. If you find a good one in a store, let me know, but unless I have assurance of safety and good flavor, you don't want me to buy them. We received a favorable flavor report, and had not heard of any recalls of Organic Cantaloupes, so we added Organic Mexican Cantaloupes this week. "

We were able to find 60 pounds of Organic Turmeric from Hawaii. Turmeric with 2 r's, not tumeric with 1 r. We do not carry tumeric, because there is no such thing. *

Now that the local Tomato season is over, I calculated the total pounds of tomatoes we bought from Hepworth Farms this year:

39,960 pounds of Mixed Color Cherry Tomatoes

30,075 pounds of Red Tomatoes

27,100 pounds of Heirloom Tomatoes

17,875 pounds of Plum Tomatoes

6,225 pounds of Yellow or Orange Tomatoes

121,235 pounds in total, or 1,082 pounds a day!

We have had our first arrival of Organic Florida Grapefruits. Sorry California, this demonstrates the difference between good and great.

We may have received our last Organic Grapes of the year. The quality is going down and the price is going up. We reached the same decision last year, also on the day after Thanksgiving. Of course, if we learn of a great late season grape, we will try them.

Q- "I love Grapes; what am I going to eat?!"

A- Something else. Be positive about it; try something new when the season of your favorite fruit

ends.

Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator

* Except in the Yogurt Case

(Information Courtesy of Kris)

Fair Trade Indeed

2011-11-23T12:41:00.001-05:00

Have you ever wondered how Fair Trade actually works? How much money actually goes where and to whom? Check out this breakdown from Interrupcion (their Blueberries are currently in stock in our produce aisle.)

*Click on the image to view larger

Produce notes from Allen.....130 local items

2011-11-18T16:54:00.001-05:00

We have a good supply of Black Futsu winter squash and Mutsu Apples. I never intended for this blog to provide recipes but it's hard to resist just thinking about "Futsu a la Mutsu". This is more of a how-to than a recipe. Cut the top off of a Futsu Squash and fill it with chopped Mutsu Apple and bake at about 350º for about an hour. Some people would add brown sugar and raisins, season with nutmeg, cinnamon, maybe ginger. You can do whatever you want, for example, add walnuts, chopped pineapple, or ruin it with cranberries. You could add a bit of butter, or some booze. Keep it simple or go crazy. You can do this with any Squash and any filling, but you know you want to serve "Futsu a la Mutsu".

Many members ask how you eat Red Bananas. They eat just like Bananas. As they ripen, the skin gets darker and the Banana softens. They can be moister, sweeter, creamier than the yellow "cavendish" variety, but not as completely predictable. If you do accidentally peel it before it ripens, you can slice it and fry it.

We could not get as much Tatsoi as we wanted, but the farmer did have some Red Tatsoi. It looks a bit different. with a flatter leaf. It's probably the prettiest green (I mean red) this week.

The local Orange, Purple and Green Romanesco Cauliflower seasons are off to a slow and late start. We have all three today, and they are beautiful. Marketed to us as baby vegetables, they are pricier than we wish, but since they are so tiny, they may be more accessible to households that can't eat their way through a normal sized Cauliflower. The florets of the Romanesco are perfect fractals, and much admired by Kris (Fibonacci) Marx.

Having avoided Enoki Mushrooms because we couldn't find them domestically grown, I did some research, and learned at the New York Produce Show, that all Enoki Mushrooms are indeed grown in Korea. We focus on local, but love all of the world's produce, and well, I really missed eating them. We got some in yesterday, and I ate some last night. Those tiny little things are packed with flavor and very fresh. I hope you enjoy them.

Pretty - Purple - Peruvian - Fingerling - Potatoes. Say that three times fast.

It's staring to get cold outside, but we still have 130 local items.

The Nog Blog, Part 2

2011-11-15T15:31:00.005-05:00

The nog made with real eggs is here. You'll find Organic Valley Eggnog on the shelf with the quarts of organic milk. Enjoy!

Produce notes from Allen.....121 Local Items!

2011-11-14T11:25:00.001-05:00

Where are the Mangos? When the organic Mexican harvest ended, we tried the conventional ones from Brazil. They were not very good, and just as we decided to drop the Brazilian Mango, a small harvest of California Mangos began. This very expensive California Mango was one of the best Mangos I have ever eaten and many members have made the same comment. Unfortunately that brief season has ended as well. Organic Mangos should start up again from Ecuador soon and this Monday we will try a conventionally grown Mexican Ataulfo Mango, the tiny kidney shaped yellow Mango and hope that we all like it. Supply has been choppy for the last couple of months and occasionally you were disappointed. Sometimes seasons for various produce items overlap seamlessly and sometimes it seems like nothing is working right. The last couple of months with hurricanes and floods (and miserable weather affecting regions we are all less aware of), have led to some disappointing periods when some of our favorite foods have temporarily disappeared. Instead of having an "OMG, no Mangos!" reaction, take this as an opportunity to try something else...

...like a Rambutan, which is a relative of the Lychee and the Longan. It looks like a Lychee on LSD. It is relatively available from southeast Asia year round, but most of that harvest is irradiated. We carry it only when available from Honduras or Guatemala, where the fruit is not irradiated. Incidentally, members have asked about Mangosteens, which we do not carry. All Mangosteen imports into the USA are irradiated, so we will not carry them until the post harvest treatment changes.

Clementines are here! We waited for the Spanish harvest and the first Clementine is very good. It will improve over the next few weeks and the price will likely get lower by the week. This first one is a bit tart, which many of you like, but kids love them because they are sweet. We will get deliveries almost daily; look for increasing sweetness with each delivery.

Speaking of sweetness, some members love Japanese Sweet Potatoes because they are sweeter that the Garnets and Jewels, but others love them because they are less sweet!

Every year, we hope that the Pumpkin supply and quality will last nearly till the end of the year. This year, despite the mountain you will see today at the front of the produce display, we fear that there will not even be enough to get to Thanksgiving. If you are counting on a Traditional Pie Pumpkin, do not wait! By next week we may have only the "weirder" Pumpkins, weird only on the outside, but they are Pumpkins on the inside. If it comes to this, try the Cheese or Blue Queensland Pumpkins, or Jarrahdale, Musque de Provence, or Seminole Squashes (which really are Pumpkins) or take a walk on the wild side and try any Winter Squash instead.

There are times that produce items that we take for granted disappear, like Green Grapes, Mangos, or Heirloom Tomatoes. It is difficult to hang up signs explaining the absence of something that isn't there, at the location where something isn't. If you are wondering about an item when you are shopping look at the produce menus that we provide at the front and rear of the produce aisle, which is posted daily, Monday through Friday. If you request something that we are not carrying, it is frustrating and fruitless for the folks who try to find these items in the basement. The daily menu of items that we have in stock is posted on our website here - Daily Produce Pricelist

- Allen Zimmerman -
Produce Buyer - General Coordinator - Lover of Cabbage

Hubbards! Get Your Hubbards HERE!!!

2011-11-07T11:28:00.001-05:00

Stuff them full of rice, sauteed vegetables, or roasted meats! They go great with any meal.

Only two out of these three can fit in your cart. Choose wisely.

Produce notes from Allen.....146 Local Items!

2011-11-04T16:57:00.001-04:00

New additions to our local Apple menu are Cortland, Cameo, Ida Red, Jonagold and Stayman Winesap, bringing total number of local apples to 14.

Members who are craving Clementines are seeing them in many stores. I have had many requests for them, but have never bought them before the end of November. At the urging of a supplier who said that they had good ones from Chile, we tried a box. Here is what I wrote to the supplier who asked if we liked them. "First, they didn't taste very good. Second, they were extremely gas-ripened, to the point that some of the skin was gas burned. Third, they were a variety of early Murcott Tangerine, and not Clementines. They are a 'clementine' for stores that don't care about how good their food tastes. I do thank you for offering them, because I have been getting curious anyway. I think I will be waiting for the first good one from Spain, and that probably is 2 or 3 weeks away."

So eat the Fallglo Tangerine instead. They are sweet and flavorful enough to enjoy and very juicy. Good now, they will be improve with each picking over the next couple of weeks.

Blueberry prices have plunged. They are now $1.75 per cup. Organic is still over $6 for a small cup, so we are waiting for them to become more reasonable.

A couple of weeks ago, I explained our Papaya plan and then, of course, Hawaiian organic Papayas disappeared completely. They have now returned and supply for the near future looks strong.

Not so with the Rainbow Bunched Carrots. Apparently we can eat them faster than our suppliers can bring them. We are trying to encourage stronger supplies.

We used to call it "Indian" Corn, then started calling it Ornamental Corn. Now we call it Popcorn, because although you may use Popping Corn as an ornament, you can eat it. It pops very nicely. Put an ear in a paper bag and microwave for about a minute and 20 seconds (times vary, depending on the microwave). You may remove the kernels and prepare as you would any other Popping Corn.

Coop member James asks, "Where are the Enoki Mushrooms?" We stopped carrying them when domestic growers stopped growing them. Now most of the US supply is flown in from Korea, and we didn't think that made much sense. What do you think?

(Over)abundant supplies at the end of the local Organic Green Pepper season will bring the price down to $.89 per pound beginning next Tuesday!

It now looks like we may not see enough Pie Pumpkin to last through November, possibly even not through next week!

Now that we have made a mountain of one million tons of Butternut Squash up front near the Bananas nobody can find them any more.

We have probably received the last of the Local Cherry and Heirloom Tomatoes from Hepworth Farms. A few odd cases may trickle in next week, but it is very unlikely. The next Tomato we will try will be the New England grown Hothouse Tomato grown by Deep Root. They will be kind of pricey, but they are likely to taste better than most of what we will be able to source until next summer.

It's getting cold outside, but we still have 146 locally grown items!

- Allen Zimmerman . Produce Buyer . General Coordinator

Pine Kitty Litter is back!

2011-11-04T10:18:00.004-04:00

The Feline Pine is gone for good, so we now have Guardian Angel pine litter in aisle 4. It's on the bottom shelf between the One Earth cat litter and the World's Best Multi Cat litter.

Come out and help these farmers in need!

2011-11-03T10:59:00.001-04:00

BlueMoon Bash to Benefit Farmer Friends

BlueMoon Bash

AtSouthpaw

125 Fifth Avenue Brooklyn, NY11217

Sunday,November 6th 2011

3-8pm |Admission $20 Donation

All day event featuringlive performances and food. Enjoy Blue Moon clam chowder and tastings from localrestaurants including Amy's Bread, Palo Santo,
Aliseo Osteria Del Borgo andmore!

100% of the proceeds will be donated to Ray Bradley ofBradley Farm and Kira Kinney of Evolutionary Organics for flood relief from tropicalstorm Irene and subsequent storms. The two neighboring farms were under as muchas 6 feet of water, drowning 90-100% of crops intended to be harvested and soldduring the most profitable months of the market year. Alex & Stephanie Villani of Blue Moon, who have sold alongside Ray and Kira’sstands at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket for over a decade, areorganizing this fundraising effort, along with dedicated customers, to helptheir dear friends recover from these extreme losses. Read more about the flooding of thesefarms.

We hope you can join Ray, Kira and the folks fromBlue Moon at this fundraiser, complete with delicious food and drink, awesomeraffle prizes and great bands—for a great cause.

Purchasetickets or make a donation on-line: www.bluemoonbash.org

Bandsinclude:

Spark(edit)Arts

Kamara Thomas & Ghost Gamblers

The Great Republic of Rough and Ready

The Newton Gang

Raya Brass Band

Rude Mechanical Orchestra

Sunset Victim

Sarah Curtin

Show Me The Body

Cold Water Laundry Detergents for 90% energy savings

2011-11-02T14:32:00.005-04:00

90% of the energy your washing machine uses is for heating the water. Washing in hot or warm water has become increasingly unnecessary as advances in clothes washers and laundry detergents have made it possible to get white and colored clothes perfectly clean in cold water. Except when washing out particularly tough stains or allergens such as dust mites every load of laundry done in hot water wastes energy. If you use cold water, you will not only save money, but also make your clothes last longer and prevent color bleeding.

We recently decided to sell Tide Coldwater because Consumer Reports rates it as the 3rd most effective out the dozens of detergents of all types that it tested. Our other cold water detergent is Biokleen, a powdered detergent on the top shelf in the purple box.

The Nog Blog

2011-11-01T15:35:00.005-04:00

Yes, it's Nog season again. For the soy nog fans, this years brings a new, organic choice: Earth Balance Organic Soy Nog. Bring on the nog...

Produce notes from Allen....139 Local Items

2011-10-28T15:48:00.002-04:00

Subarashii Kudamono (meaning wonderful fruit) brings us two Asian Pears this week, from Pennsylvania. One commonly found variety, the Hosui (mild, sweet, crispy, very juicy fruit) is joined by the Asaju (sweet, slightly tart, very crisp, and very juicy.) I like to peel Asian Pears, particularly the Hosui, but the skin is edible. Keep refrigerated as they are already ripe.

We have such sexy Potatoes including six kinds of fingerlings, 3 golds, red, blue and russets. Don't overlook the fantastic deal on White Potatoes, $2.55 for 5 pound bag. They are good for mashing, frying, baking and....... eating.

We've just about squeaked past Halloween, having endured a year with very few Pumpkins surviving the rain and floods. Jack-O-Lanterns were not often available in sizes we sought, and the price was somewhat higher. Now it appears that there may not be a strong enough supply of Pie Pumpkins through Thanksgiving; but we are still hoping to squeak past Thanksgiving too.

Before the season ends, try the Sweet Mini Peppers. Just pop off the stem and eat the whole thing, seeds included, as they are small and tender. For the record, the real name is "mini sweet"; we'll try to rectify this next season.

The Fingerling Potato varieties currently available are the: Austrian crescent, French, Ruby Crescent, Russian Banana, Rose Finn, and Ozettes. I prefer the French ones because they are more oh la la!

The frost is on the Pumpkins. Upstate farm temperatures dropped into the high 20's Thursday night, and that will have some impact on availability of some crops. (Hint: don't wait too long to buy local Tomatoes.) If crops manage to survive the next couple of nights, a warming trend may keep our local numbers up.

Look forward to four new Apples from Hepworth Farms next week. On Tuesday we will be adding Cortland, Cameo, Stayman Winesap, and Ida Red.

139 local items

Produce notes from Allen.....151 Local Items!!

2011-10-21T16:12:00.001-04:00

Local Quince has arrived. It's high pectin content makes it an ideal addition to jams. It is not suitable for eating fresh, as it is sour, dry and hard. On the other hand, it is very fragrant and pectiny.

The Mexican (non-organic) Papaya has been very limited of late. There have been concerns about salmonella, and the extensive testing and scrutiny has slowed the imports. We will try the Hawaiian Organic Papaya, which hasn't always ripened properly. We hope that they will ripen properly this time, even though I've heard that doing something over and over again, and hoping for a different outcome is a definition of insanity. We do not carry the non-organic Hawaiian papaya, which is both irradiated and genetically modified.

Ribier Grapes (black with seeds) were very popular, but hard to find. We have ordered 45 cases to arrive next Tuesday.

Persimmons are here. We have the hachiya, which is ovoid and a bit pointy. When unripe, the high tannin content is harshly astringent. There are very sweet and juicy when ripe, which is when they are softer than a baby's cheek, any cheek will do. The fuyu, which is flattish, does not contain tannin and can be eaten even when it is still hard, but juiciness and sweetness will increase with ripening.

Members often ask if they can eat Gourds. The answer is no. I am then asked, "why not?" I don't eat gourds, I don't eat trees, I don't eat shoes...... I don't know why.

Fresh Chanterelles are under $10 per pound, the lowest price we've seen!

Cheeses Pumpkins, suitable for vegan diets, are so named because their shape resembles a "loaf" of cheese that has been tied in a cheesecloth bundle. Sweet, meaty flesh, perfect for pumpkin pie.

151 local items

Taylor Farms salad recall does NOT affect us.

2011-10-20T12:04:00.002-04:00

FYI: We have NOT been affected by the Taylor Farms recall.

Check out this event with Allen (Our Produce Buyer)

2011-10-20T10:47:00.000-04:00

Produce notes from Allen.....144 local items

2011-10-14T16:42:00.004-04:00

Two words.....LOCAL! GINGER!

There is a gap in supply of the Hawaiian and Peruvian ginger. We are probably selling out right at the moment you are reading this. We do not know when these imports will return (we avoid the ginger from China.) Well, lucky us! This Monday we will receive 200 pounds of freshly dug young local (!) ginger from Old Friends Farm in Massachusetts.

Organic cranberries are now available. On Monday we will receive the first local ones from New England.

Good selection of Seeded Grapes include Concords, Niagaras, and the very limited Ribier.

Organic Cantaloupe season is ending in the middle of next week.

We received our first delivery of a very limited item, the minimally treated Chestnut from Hepworth Farms. We only got in 150 pounds, so they may already be gone. We hope to receive more next Tuesday.

We have had some quality issues with Andy Boy (conventional) Broccoli Rabe. It has been turning yellow too quickly. At the same time, we have had some local growers offer Organic Broccoli Rabe. This very fresh, high quality Broccoli Rabe is different in appearance. Organic Broccoli Rabe is usually harvested at an earlier stage in growth, with slenderer stems and no florets.

George Carlin once did a routine about blue foods.

"Why is there no blue food? I can't find blue food - I can't find the flavor of blue! I mean, green is lime; yellow is lemon; orange is orange; red is cherry; what's blue? There's no blue! Oh, they say, "Blueberries!" Uh-uh; blue on the vine, purple on the plate. There's no blue food! Where is the blue food? We want the blue food!"

We have the blue food. I will concede that none of them taste blue, but this week we have all-blue potatoes, (with bluish interiors; the Adirondack blues are white inside). We have Blue Hokkaido Squash and Blue Queensland Pumpkins, which kind of, sort of, look blue.

The Local Tomato season is nearly over.

We may continue to receive Cherry Tomatoes and Heirlooms, but all of the rest of the Tomatoes will sell out this weekend and may not return.

What will we have in place of the gigantic Tomato displays?

Jack-o-lanterns coming Tuesday!

Allen Zimmerman - Produce Buyer - General Coordinator

Produce notes from Allen...143 Local Items!! Another Record...the bear of winter looms

2011-10-07T17:01:00.000-04:00

New Apples coming Tuesday, Empire and Mutsu

Red bananas are back! They came in less ripe than we wished. You can speed up the ripening process by putting the bananas in a paper bag with an apple. Apples naturally emit ethylene gas, which is perfect for ripening bananas.

Enjoy the short local season of the local (grown in Pennsylvania) Kiwi Berry aka "passion poppers". They are a cousin of the larger kiwi, with a tender edible non-fuzzy skin.

Organic Cantaloupes heading into their probably last week.

Sycamore Honeydews, the best honeydews of the year, also likely to end next week.

Monstera deliciosa - taste somewhere between a pineapple and a banana with a hint of strawberry. Sure, you can just buy a pineapple, some bananas & a strawberry. But where's the fun in that!? Each one comes wrapped in a sheet of instructions (read them!) They're one of the most interesting and unique fruits we order!

Have you tried the Local Salad Mixes? With the first northern frosts on the horizon, your time to enjoy these tasty greens is ticking away. The Spicy Greens mix is especially tasty and gorgeous.

Pears! Pears! Pears! We have received raves about the Bartlett Pears from Hepworth Farms. They really are not very pretty, but they taste brilliant, and take almost no time to ripen. Did you know that you can test a pear for ripeness by gently squeezing its neck (the narrow part closest to the stem)? When it gives, slightly, to gentle pressure it is ripe. Asian Pears, however, do not need ripening; they are harvested when ripe. Cactus Pears-what do you do with them? Cut about 1/4 inch off each end, and make a cut about 1/4 inch deep connecting these cuts. Peel the skin off and eat what's left. There are small seeds that are too hard to chew and too many too discard. Just eat them, along with the sweet, very juicy fruit, with taste somewhere between strawberry and watermelon and a slightly floral scent.

Attention all crossword puzzle fans! The word aril, usually defined as a seed covering is a fleshy seed cover which arises from the funiculus (the stalk of the ovule). But you already knew that. The membrane surrounding each juicy little "pod" of the Pomegranate is an aril. Mace, by the way, is the aril of Nutmeg. A recurring question this week has been, "how do I know when a Pomegranate is ripe?" Pomegranates are harvested ripe and ready to eat.

Another new record - 143 local produce items

- Allen Zimmerman

General Coordinator - Produce Buyer

Local Farm Update: Flooding Effects

2011-10-07T12:56:00.000-04:00

Flying Rabbit Farm:

"We're not totally dry yet, on one side is the Susquehanna River and the other a creek which has rerouted itself into our fields. We're trying to see if the railroad or DEC can help us correct this, but our crops are sitting in it, mostly the kale. I'm not sure if there is much we can do right now. The mature lettuce we had we cannot harvest so we're waiting to see if our last planting will do anything. This is the second time in eight years we've lost our crops due to flood and it's frustrating; the creeks aren't cleared and no one wants us to touch them*, so we're trying to figure this out. In the meantime, our season could be over. I'll keep you posted." - Mary

*Farm Services will now help them clear the creek.

Lucky Dog Farm:

"We are no longer receiving anything from Lucky Dog. The flood shut them down."
- Angello's Distributing

Produce notes from Allen......140! All Time Record!

2011-09-30T16:52:00.002-04:00

Here comes the next great apple- the Snow Sweet, developed at the University of Minnesota, the same Pomologists who gave us the Honeycrisp. It's a sweet apple, with just a bit of tartness. Its snow white flesh is very slow to turn brown after cutting. This makes it an ideal apple to cut into slices for snacking and for salads. Great for cooking, baking, canning, freezing, for cider, sauce. It's also really great for eating.

The Macoun apples have started a bit early this year. It's a great eating apple, also good for apple sauce. Pronounce it "macown", not macoon. Most people will think you are weird, but farmers will be impressed.

Many members have expressed a desire for Grapes with seed. We now have Concord and Niagara Grapes with seeds. On Monday 10/10 we expect our first Ribier Grapes, a huge long black grape with seeds. The season for the seeded varieties begins later than the seedless. The only grape with seeds that we have not been carrying is the Red Globe. We have been unsuccessful in the past (horribly unsuccessful), keeping the red seedless and the red seeded varieties from being inadvertently mixed. We have gotten many complaints from people who then inadvertently bought the wrong kind, so we will not be able to carry the Red Globe until everybody promises to be good.

The Lychee season has probably ended for the year. I'm trying to trick the Lychees into making me wrong.

It looks like the Corn season is over. Now that conventionally grown sweet table Corn could include some product that may be genetically modified, we will not be carrying sweet corn this winter. If we can find a grower who will guarantee non-GMO product we will carry it, but it may be difficult to find one.

Oyster mushrooms herald the beginning of the fall variety of mushrooms. Look for other varieties soon, including chanterelles and lobsters.

Amy Hepworth has dropped our cost of Heirloom Tomatoes to $1.50 per pound (from $2.00). Next week she is cutting our cost per cup of Cherry Tomatoes to $1.50 per cup (from $2.00). She wants us to eat more Tomatoes and she wants us to eat them faster.

We have 10 kinds of Winter Squash this week, and will have at least 13 next week.

We have a new PSFC all-time record for local items - 140!

- Allen Zimmerman
General Coordinator - Produce Buyer

Support Your Local Farmers: A call to action from our members.

2011-09-30T16:01:00.000-04:00

Few New Yorkers are unfamiliar with the plight of our local farmers upstate. Hurricanes Irene and Lee, reaped an enormous amount of damage upon them. The timing could not have been worse. The flooding of fields just weeks before the fall harvest is catastrophic to the finances of our beloved local growers.

Most of these farms rely upon credit to get themselves through the spring, summer and into the fall. Fall's harvest is how most farmers pay down their debt, buy new equipment, order seed for the spring, and (hopefully) provide themselves a small cushion to get through the winter. This is an over simplified description of how roughly 36,000 New York State farmers go through season after season, year after year. The margins are nearly as thin as it gets. In spite of it all, they accounted for $4.7 BILLION in sales in 2010 (per New York Farm Bureau). That is an average of $130,000 per farm. So when Richard Ball of Schoharie Valley Farms "estimates that losses in gross revenue will be in the $100,000 plus range", one can better put their difficulties into perspective.

These farmers need whatever help they can get. Agriculture does not fall under FEMA. Much of their assistance will call upon renegotiating loans from the USDA or FSA (Farm Service Agency). In light of this, there are many other supportive groups and efforts emerging. Please take the time to look at the links (any words highlighted in blue) below*. Times are tough for many people right now. Not everyone can contribute; but please consider passing some of this information along.

Evolutionary Organics:

Check out this novel, and very transparent, approach Kira is taking. Click Here

Ray Bradley Farm:

Benefit organized by Blue Moon Fish (Grand Army Plaza Fish Monger)

November 6th 2pm-8pm at Southpaw on 5th Avenue

Cooperative Recovery Fund:

Three cooperative development organizations have come together to organize a relief fund.

Click Here

*This is a list in progress. Any suggested additions are welcome, please email me at kris_marx@psfc.coop

Produce Notes From Allen.....128 local items

2011-09-26T14:18:00.002-04:00

Despite the problems farmers are having with the heavy, unrelenting rains, we have 128 local produce items.

More than 70 of these items are coming (entirely or in part), from Hepworth Farms. Amy Hepworth reports that it feels like she's functioning in a swamp. There are some items like Cucumbers and Zucchini, that are still out there, but they can't be harvested, and it is feared that the rest of those crops will be lost. Amy is not complaining when she reports this and says that most of the farmers around them are already shut down for the season. It does look like a great deal of the local harvest will end early, and Amy as well as other local farmers are hoping for a strong supply of storage crops to help pay the bills. There is some fear however, that some of the late crops, like Pumpkins, will not fare well at all.

We have heard from our major supplier of California Avocados, Sundance Natural Foods Company, that the avocados that we will receive on 9/29 will be their last of this year's harvest. The next harvest out of that region will begin in December. In the interim, we will have to make do with Avocados from Mexico, and if that crop in turn becomes exhausted, we will begin buying Avocados from Chile. Since we have been buying Avocados directly from Sundance, we have been able to keep the Avocado prices down, relative to what they will be in a couple of weeks. Prices are at a record high; our members have been slightly shielded from them by our relationship with Sundance. Prices will go from bad to horrible in October.

The external quality of the Thai Coconuts is not that great, and no improvement is in sight. What we have is as good as it is going to be for the near future. Please try to get past the cosmetics. After all, you don't eat the hull anyway.

In addition to the minimally treated Asian Pear, we are now carrying a Pennsylvania pear from Subarashii Kudamono. Their first offering is the AsaJu Pear, a thin skinned juicy variety.

Organic Pineapples are scarce; we expect to sell out this weekend

The harvest of local Baby Arugula that we have been carrying in cups, as well as loose, has failed due to the rain storms. We are lucky that a new local harvest of bunching Arugula has begun.

We were lucky to learn of a farm in Pennsylvania that has managed to produce some Green Beans. (There were none in the entire Hunts Point Wholesale Produce Market of any quality.) We have been offered a small amount of local Organic Beans for Monday.

Local Broccoli has returned and we expect Local Organic Broccoli Rabe to return this Monday.

Oyster Mushrooms this Monday will herald the return of an expanded selection of Mushrooms for the fall.

Enjoy the Local Corn while it lasts (not much longer!)

We have a new, very cute product from Amy Hepworth, cups of Mini Sweet Peppers. The harvest of Local Sweet Peppers will end very soon. Don't wait to try these!

Look for gorgeous new Blue Potatoes under the Avocados, opposite the display of the other Potatoes.

Many members are aware that there has been a recall of Cantaloupes in the past 2 weeks. The Cantaloupe in the news is causing listeria infections and calls have come to the coop from members who fear that we may have this melon. The offending fruit was grown in Colorado, ( we have never ever had a Colorado Cantaloupe in the coop. Really never ever). The recalled Cantaloupes are conventionally grown. All of our Cantaloupes were organically grown in California. They are delicious, SAFE, and are helping me get over the end of the Watermelon season. Enjoy them without fear!

Gerry of Hepworth Farms

2011-09-26T14:12:00.003-04:00

Small but MIGHTY!

Gerry of Hepworth Farms in front of $23,365 of local produce ready to be received last Friday.

Produce Notes From Allen....125 Local Items

2011-09-09T17:12:00.003-04:00

Excepting the organic Red Delicious (in their last week of storage season), All Apples Are New Crop. New crop organic apples are scarce or unavailable. Local Macintosh and Jonamac begin next week.

Pixie Tangerines, unexpected at this time of year, are delicious. Try them now or wait until November for clementines.My advice-don't wait!

Cherries will end this weekend. Champagne Grapes ended today. Concord Grapes were delayed until next Tuesday by rain.

The Hepworth Peaches and Nectarines are fantastic. They won't be here forever...

Watermelon season winding down, but not done yet. Yellow Seedless arriving Saturday Sugar Baby with seeds arriving Monday.

A great deal of Arugula was destroyed by flooding and we won't see bunched Arugula for a while. Organic Green Basil, Organic Thai Basil, Organic Purple Basil, may have been entirely lost to flooding, but perhaps may have a brief return before the fall.

Local Broccoli is back, but ltd. this week. Lots more starting Tuesday. Local Scallions, loose Salad Mix, and Cilantro ruined by excessive rainfall.

Look for a brief return of many varieties of Summer Squash this Monday for a day or two.

Local Baby Tatsoi is tender and a great addition to your salads. Try something new; buy just a tiny bit and find out if you like Tatsoi. By the way... you DO.

There were huge losses of Cherry Tomatoes in the Hepworth fields this past week. Price has gone up a bit as a result, but Amy Hepworth is working hard to keep up our supply through the end of the season. We are discussing a tryout of Mini-Heirlooms Tomatoes; look for them soon!

Welcome back Local Organic Watercress, hot and spicy. Think wasabi in a green leaf. Your sinuses will thank you.

Allen Zimmerman
General Coordinator
Produce Buyer

Flood Updates

2011-09-09T17:00:00.009-04:00

LANCASTER FARM FRESH COOPERATIVE
(A Non Profit Organic Farmers Co-op in Lancaster, PA)
"Thanks to everyone for having patience with us in dealing with the weather. Bridges have been washed out and fields have been flooded. Eli from Elm Tree Organics called me Wednesday evening around 1am and said the water in his basement is above his shoulders. A small portion of his field had winter squash bobbing in the water are splitting by the second."

Angello's Produce
"I was re-routed twice just on my way to work (of course I live an hour north of the office)....the streams are wild and wicked up this way too. Westminster (Farm) is all but done except for some roots they were able to salvage, and Markristo (Farm) is out too. Miller's Crossing (Farm) is reassessing currently, and won't have anything available for a while. Soggy.... We've had more massive flooding here in the Hudson Valley this week, so Saturday availability is, well, perhaps a bit lackluster. Taliaferro (Farm) in New Paltz lost 16 of 33 acres. Stoneledge Farm is completely flooded and finished for the year. Lucky Dog (Farm) completely flooded and shut down."

Finger Lakes Organic Growers' Cooperative
"Mary Dolan just informed me that their fields are under water. They
cannot harvest anything for Monday. That means we have no more kale available,and of course, no mesclun. There must be a lot of farmers out there hurting worse than we are
here on the high lake plain."

Hepworth Farms could not deliver on Thursday because the highway outside of their farm (NY route 9W) was closed due to massive flooding.

Frozen Delicious Dog Food!

2011-09-06T14:25:00.004-04:00

Zoe's Premium Dog Food is now available in the freezer. you can learn more about them here-

h ttp://www.zoespremium.com/

You can find them in the lower section of the freezer a few doors to the left of the waffles.

Zoe's Premium is full of nutritious minimally processed ingredients.

oh and they're local! from Brooklyn.

Produce Notes From Allen.......136 Local Items

2011-09-02T16:04:00.005-04:00

Local Apples are starting to increase in variety. Ginger Gold, Golden Supreme, and Tydeman apples will be joined by Gala next week. Apples from the southern hemisphere are disappearing or already gone, so this weekend's apple supply at the coop will be tight.

Local Pear varieties added this week are the Devoe and Seckel. The Devoe, with it's classic European look, now fairly well known in the northeast, was actually developed at Hepworth Farms, first bred by Amy Hepworth's father. He appreciated its classic look, and gave it it's French sounding name.

Champagne grapes should end this weekend, and local Concord Grapes begin next Tuesday.

Although Lychees will gap this weekend, we expect more on Tuesday.

North American Mango season now nearly over. The last arrival of the last decent variety out of Mexico, the Kent, does not change color from almost entirely green as it ripens. You can test for ripeness by feel and smell, but color will not help you know.

Donut Peaches have returned. They are a yellow flesh variety, bigger than other donuts. (Bagel peach?)

Planning your Labor Day menu? 3 tons of personal size and small Sugar Baby Watermelons arriving on Monday.

Pea Tendrils have returned with cooler weather, and are very limited.

This same cooler weather has slowed growth of Summer Squashes. The local season has not at all ended, but varieties and quantities are becoming limited.

136 local items, despite the ravages of the hurricane!

Beans!!!

2011-09-01T11:07:00.005-04:00

We have a BEVY of beautiful and delicious local beans today.
From left to right: Sequoia, Yellow, Red Swan, Edamame, Dragon Tongue, Green.

Something Wicked This Way Went...

2011-08-30T11:53:00.016-04:00

Below you will find some notes on Irene's effects on a few of our local growers.
The map shows their locations.

Chesapeake Organic Farm Marion Station, MD
Underwater with no rain forecast. Things will dry out, but some crops may be lost. Late season watermelon and cantaloupe are gone. Hard squashes probably gone too. Fall greens (collards / kale) are ok.

One Straw Organic Farm White Hall, MD
Stripping plants...may be back in biz this weekend.

Spiral Path Organic Farm Loysville, PA
Spiral Path only had inch of rain, and some gusts. They are pretty far out there and protected by a high ridgeline.

Lancaster Family Farms Cooperative Upper Leacock, PA
Pretty good so far. Our farms seem to be fine.

Grindstone Farm Pulaski, NY
Thanks for checking in. We were very lucky and only experienced rain. It was actually great for our fields. There was no damage, though the turkeys got a bit sick of it.

Blue Heron Farm Lodi, NY
We were lucky this time; high wind and moderate rain but no damage to crops, trees, or buildings.

Finger Lakes Organic Growers Cooperative Rose, NY
We had winds that knocked down some trees, but not much rain. The Finger Lakes region did not see any really severe weather. It was just like any typical blustery, rainy October day.

Lucky Dog Farm Hamden NY
Irene did manage to flood the fields at Lucky Dog Farm, so their produce won't be available until they dry out a bit.

Happy Valley Organic Farm South Deerfield, MA
Came through pretty unscathed. Couple of unavailable items are Baby Bok (Choy), Mustards & Lettuces.

View Local Farms in a larger map

Hepworth and the Hurricane

2011-08-29T14:29:00.004-04:00

Things are remarkably well....AMY and a crew were out before the storm reinforcing tomatoes with additional stakes and cross wires. We farm on hills so most of our fields are doing fine...Some of the green fields are too wet to go on...but I think things are draining there.

WE just picked your Eggplant, Peppers, Zucchini and Cukes...they look great.

Tomatoes are doing just fine...

There are a few down apple trees but amazingly the apples held on and we are poised for a good apple crop (this was our biggest concern)

The wind was not a brutal as we expected and the rain was more...Amy was on the excavator repairing streams and flooded ponds yesterday... It's been intense but we fared well. There are disaster stories, but they are not ours, and our heart aches for many of our farmer friends.

Just wanted to send you a quick note..

All the best,

Gail

Hepworth Farms

Produce Notes From Allen .....138 Local Items!

2011-08-26T17:14:00.001-04:00

Thai Coconuts will return Monday.

We declare this to be The Week Of The Bean! In addition to Green Beans, we have Cranberry (for shelling), Dragon Tongue , Red Swan, and Yellow. I have heard that beans, beans are good for the heart, and the more you eat...

Blueberries are ending soon. A 1 0r 2 day supply coming Monday.
We may not sell out of Cherries this weekend, but we may not get any more this year.

Non-organic Honeydew are grown by Turlock in California. They are the growers of the "Sycamore" label, which many aficionados consider to be the finest honeydews of the year. The "Sycamore" is actually their Number 2 label. Their premium label, the one that we have now, is "Best of the West", a Honeydew that is so limited that it almost never makes it to the East Coast. Enjoy this rare treat now!

Welcome back the first Asian pears of the season from Hepworth Farm, NY.
If you only try one Pluot this year, try the Dapple Dandy now.
Organic Lemons are so scarce (normal for this time of year) that price will keep rising every week, until strong harvest starts well into the fall. That's why Zeigler is no longer producing organic lemonade; they have no lemons!

An Arugula story that that unfolded in less than 10 minutes last Friday:
Five minutes after I produced last week's notes, which included the following "We tried local bunched organic arugula, but it is still too hot in NY, and the attempt failed", our farmer, Amy Hepworth called to apologize for not sending bunch Arugula earlier that morning. I told her that I was glad, that I thought it was not good enough anyway. She called back 5 minutes later to say that she checked a different planting and we should try again. I said OK. She called back to say that she had been hit by a massive, brief storm, and the arugula was flattened, completely destroyed in less than 5 minutes. Just a little insight into the experience of a farmer.

Good strong supply of Organic Mints, the return of Tatsoi.

Vidalia Onions may have ended. We'll know more next week.

Hot Pepper Mix keeps coming in prettier and "mixier". Try the little purple one (if you dare).

New Produce Items of Interest

2011-08-23T12:21:00.007-04:00

White Sapote

Creamy white inside.
Let it ripen like an
Avocado and enjoy!

Carambola (Star Fruit)

Lightly sweet with a touch of sour.
When the green edges are a touch
brown they are considered ripe.

Produce Notes From Allen.....130 Local Items!

2011-08-19T17:11:00.002-04:00

Last week for Blood Oranges!

Why is the Red Grapefruit not exactly red....well, barely red or practically yellow?
When the nights get cooler in their growing region (these are from Southern California) the color will turn pink to red. Try eating them with the lights out!

Steadier supply of Ginger Gold Apples coming 8/23
Prune Plums begin 8/23
Florida Avocados here today gone tomorrow!
Harrow's Delight organic heirloom Pear from Rose Valley Farm of Finger Lakes Organic Growers Cooperative coming 8/22
Comings and going in Plums and Pluots-
Sweet Jewel Pluot ending and Flavor Queen beginning 8/22.
Simka Plums start 8/22, and Local Prunes start 8/23

All Berries are having troubles!
There is too much rain in their growing regions. We gave up on Blackberries and Raspberries this week, and will give it another go on raspberries 8/22. Strawberry prices are steadily rising, so we are trying smaller containers to make it easier to buy strawberries. Quality is still pretty good, but our own humidity isn't helping them very much

Local Arugula has a fair amount of insect damage. We are trying to support the local grower and provide good product at same time. We don't expect much better overall quality out of California, where we would experience yellowing and wilting. Not much of a trade off, but fresher and from small local family farms swings the vote in favor of the arugula that is so favored by New York State bugs. We tried local bunched organic arugula, but it is still too hot in NY, and the attempt failed.

Nappa Cabbage is returning, hopefully with a steady supply.
Look for the next cooking workshop at the coop featuring Kimchee!

We will probably manage to convert to all Local Celery next week.

It's easy to buy Organic Corn, if you think that small ears or dried kernels, or lack of sweetness is OK. We don't, and have held out for great quality organic corn only. Big juicy sweet organic corn out of Massachusetts coming 8/23!

The attempt to carry Organic Sugar Snap and Snow Peas has failed. With high prices, fair quality and only sporadic availability, we give up. Conventionally grown peas from Guatemala and Peru return 8/23

Gorgeous Red and Yellow Organic Peppers this week!

To encourage greater sales of Frying Peppers (see post below), I am including my favorite recipe: Fry them and eat them!

Tortillas with a Purpose

2011-08-18T12:25:00.008-04:00

The Coop has been selling Hot Bread Kitchen corn tortillas (white and yellow) for over a year, but we think they deserve a new shout-out for the purpose behind the product.

HBK is a social purpose bakery that preserves bread baking traditions from around the world while creating professional opportunities for foreign born and minority women. Their bakers receive paid, on-the-job training in commercial baking and kitchen management as well as English as a Second Language so they can become managers and business owners in the culinary industry.

While many commercial tortillas are made from a

processed, dehydrated corn flour, HBK tortillas are made in the traditional way by soaking and grinding whole-kernel corn, adding nothing but a little lime. Each tortilla is then pressed and cooked by hand. They use only 100% organic, non-GMO corn and add no preservatives. Also they recently improved the recipe, making the tortillas slightly thinner, softer, and more taco-friendly.

The Coop also carries HBK's My Mom’s Nutty Granola. It is a crunchy, not-too-sweet blend of rolled oats, lots of almonds and peanuts, unsulfured raisins, wheat germ, seeds, and pepitas, all mixed together and baked with organic honey. We think it is subtle and honest, a good choice for those who don't want huge chunks of chocolate or exotic ingredients in their morning...

Remember that great kielbasa? It's back.

2011-08-17T08:24:00.003-04:00

Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop smoked kielbasa returns to the shelves this week. This is the kielbasa we loved so much we used to commit to an entire hog to obtain -- now we can get it for its own sake, and at a better price: $7.70/lb.

Fresh pork from Sweet Stem Farm, seasoned only with sea salt, black pepper, and garlic. No antibiotics, no added nitrates, no hormones, no junk. Though I hesitate to admit to prejudice, the Amish certainly know their sausage.

First Fall Fruit!

2011-08-16T12:23:00.004-04:00

This year's crop of apples and pears has begun to arrive!

Ginger Gold Apples, Red Clapp Pears, and Green Clapp Pears.

Have you given Frying Peppers a shot?

2011-08-16T12:10:00.003-04:00

Hepworth Farms has been providing us with these beautiful peppers. They hold up very well to.....wait for it.....FRYING! Carmelized onions and peppers make a tasty addition to eggs, sausage, tofu, etc. One member loves to simply fry them in Olive Oil (on both sides), salt to taste, and put them on crunchy Italian bread.

Produce notes from Allen... 127 local items!

2011-08-13T06:21:00.011-04:00

Watermelon: What a watermelon week! Orange seedless, orange with seeds, yellow seedless, sweet beauty (personal size), sugar baby, red with seeds (including sangria, red crimson, moon and stars), red seedless. That's 14, 00 pounds or about 19 bins for the week! 34 cases of personal size watermelons, about 3 pounds each, a one day supply, coming Monday.

After the heat, welcome back local organic bunches of arugula.

Price plunges on many local organic items, mostly thanks to Amy Hepworth. Look for new low prices on all summer squash, suyo and Jade cucumbers, eggplants, cherry tomatoes, organic red peppers, okra, and more

Red peppers contain many varieties, almost none of which are bell. Try some. If it helps, cut them first. Frying peppers now include a good deal of red ones in the mix. We call one of the peppers "yellowish". They didn't quite make it to yellow, but they are still a sweeter variety than the green

New items to try: "Wild Caribbean lemon grass" organic and a different variety; Red celery--limited item--add some color to your chicken salad.
Champagne grapes in on Monday. Rainier cherries out.

Surprise appearance: Blood oranges in August! Next thing you'll try to imagine is tangerines in August. (Coming Thursday 8/18)

127 local items, a new record!

Looking for hot peppers...

2011-08-11T14:38:00.003-04:00

The Park Slope Food Coop has them--come get them. Gorgeous and hot, hot, hot.

In the news....

2011-08-08T19:16:00.006-04:00

WSJ headline: Government Knew about Bacteria in Turkey--more on Cargill, Inc and salmonella in turkey processing plants. Bottom line: who is the USDA protecting?

Coconut water: ConsumerLab.com tests electrolyte content of three coconut waters: Zico, O.N.E. and VitaCoco. Zico comes out the winner as reported by Huffington Post.

In the news... salmonella +++

2011-08-02T21:21:00.012-04:00

Salmonella has been detected in ground turkey but this turkey is not being sold at the Coop. Although Shady Brook is one of the brand names that Cargill uses, our meat buyer has been assured that the pre-formed Shady Brook turkey patties we sell were packed in Virginia, and that the contaminated ones were processed in Alabama. However, upon discovering Cargill's and Shady Brook's ties, we have decided to no longer carry Shady Brook turkey products.

Our meat buyer notes that Shady Brook was the last of the "supermarket" brands in our meat and poultry section; the sort which met our standards back in 1987 when the GM voted to carry poultry. We've kept it around as a low-price alternative to Plainville and D'Artagnan turkey products, bearing in mind that turkey growers -- unlike chicken farmers -- are modest enough in their profit-making that they do not resort to drugging, hormone shots, and other factory-farm evils.

Mark Bittman has written several posts at the NYT on this issue. He links to a thorough post on salmonella contamination written by Mary McKenna on Superbug.

On a happier note, the Wall Street had several interesting articles this week:

appealing chilled summer soups (almond grape; cucumber honeydew sake..);
Who gets drunk and why? how alcohol is metabolized
linen- fascinating look at how plant is processed
nut oils- great to perk up salads or other dishes. We sell the La Tourangelle brand at the Coop. The lightly roasted hazel nut is a personal favorite.

You asked for it...from the Product Suggestion book

2011-07-31T08:42:00.012-04:00

New products that we have added from the Product Suggestion book, which is kept at the front desk at the entrance.

Les Contes preserved lemons on an end cap. Apparently an essential ingredient for Moroccan cooking, often paired with meat. The Sprouted Kitchen blog has interesting vegan recipes using preserved lemons plus a recipe to make your own. Probably best to do that when Meyer lemons are in season.

Red Star fresh yeast is now in the cottage cheese and butter case, at the end of the produce aisle. I'm not sure if August is the best time to fire up your oven, but if you have air conditioning....

Vintage seltzer is back on the shelf. If you find yourself lugging lots of seltzer home in the heat and see the plastic bottles pile up, consider purchasing a Soda Stream seltzer maker. I love mine, you can tailor the amount of bubbles in the water and over time it saves money, plastic and your back.
Herrell hot fudge sauce. We can't bring you their ice cream, but we have the fixings.
Goya pigeon peas
10 pack Bic pens
Casa Fiesta sliced nacho jalapenos
Pop Corners chip
Gringo Jack tortilla chips
Klean Kanteen ring tops

Red quinoa is back in the bulk bins

2011-07-31T08:11:00.002-04:00

Look for organic red quinoa back in the bulk bins. Quinoa cooks up so quickly, it is great rice substitute, and, I think, works better in salads than rice. Cook up extra, and it keeps for a week in the refrigerator. Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day cookbook has an intriguing quinoa burger recipe that I plan to try.

New products, changes.....

2011-07-30T14:41:00.015-04:00

Hail Merry tarts are new in the Deli case, next to Steve's Key Lime Pies--flavors are chocolate and key lime. Raw, vegan, gluten-free--what are the ingredients? In the chocolate tart, just dark cocoa, organic cold pressed coconut oil, organic maple syrup, almond flour, sea salt. They are not organic. But they are flying out of the Coop. Quite tasty, small, but substantial enough to share. Other Hail Merry products including granola and lightly sweetened nuts are on the endcap across from the eggs.

Newman's Own has joined the steady stream of manufacturers who have downsized their products, citing the price increase in flour, sugar, oil, chocolate and freight. In addition, you might not recognize them as they have changed both the packaging and the recipes for some of their cookies. So far, it has been thumbs down on Newman's reformulated alphabet cookies. However, staff has given a thumbs up to two new cookies from Newman's Own: crispy, spicy gingersnap with a lot of snap and oatmeal chocolate chip. In unattractive brown bags, 7A

Theo has two new chocolates: a salted almond milk chocolate and a dark chocolate coconut. Theo chocolates have never done well at the Coop. They are organic, Fair Trade, and reasonably priced. Maybe it is an East Coast vs West Coast thing--if you are ever in Seattle, you can visit their factory.

In the news....

2011-07-30T13:48:00.012-04:00

Improving the food label design continues to make news. Color coding appears to be leading the pack--you can see the many designs submitted.

Fish: Time magazine did a rundown on aquaculture early July. Interesting comments in later issues.

Which fish are ok to eat?--color coded chart from info gathered from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Marine Conservation Society, FishWatch, and the Greenpeace Red List.

The Food Coop received a nice shout out in the WSJ on Saturday from dedicated coop members John Turturro and Kathy Borowitz. FYI: the WSJ didn't get their membership status quite right--they are both members but Kathy does both workslots.

Wall Street Journal reviews sweeteners replacing high fructose corn syrups, focusing on restaurants.

Watts vs lumens--replacing incandescent lightbulbs soon

Wysong dog and cat food is back!

2011-07-27T15:05:00.005-04:00

Wysong dry dog and cat food has finally returned. I'm not sure why it were not available for so long, but here it is Aisle 4A.

Gringo Jacks Flour Tortilla Chips

2011-07-27T13:13:00.003-04:00

As dubious as it sounds, Gringo Jacks flour tortilla chips are the chips of my dreams! They taste a bit like crunchy fry bread and are handmade in Vermont. They come in 3 flavors: flour, whole wheat, and spicy. They will be stocked above the veggies in the produce aisle but for now they are in a tall stack next to the egg case. Enjoy!

In the news....

2011-07-02T14:36:00.006-04:00

Think there are no nitrates in your hotdogs? Not true. Applegate tries to come clean but the USDA seems determined to prevent clear labeling.

New York State is considering lifting the ban on hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, a process that has raised many environmental concerns.

50% off Sale on Aisle 3 Frozen Meat: Cherchez la Green Dot

2011-06-29T09:08:00.008-04:00

The Coop needs to reduce inventory on frozen meat, so here's your opportunity to savor (economically) such high-ticket items as Pollo Rosso heritage chickens and grass-finished short ribs of beef. Also a variety of sausages and pork roasts, ready for your 4th of July grilling pleasure.

Check the Aisle 3 meat freezer -- across from the soy milk -- look for the "Special Sale" Coop price sticker, and the green dot. The green-dotted items will scan at their newly-marked prices, which are 50% off the original price.

Bon appetit, snowball.

In the news

2011-06-28T00:50:00.004-04:00

More on sunscreens and how to protect yourself from the sun from Jane Brody.

Do you need to take multivitiamins? Wall Street Journal does a review.

Mushrooms, shallots, garlic and lemon ricotta anyone? Interesting vegetarian recipes by an Isreali-born chef working in London are featured weekly in the Guardian, with archive access.

Eat like a Prince; Pay like a Pauper

2011-06-21T12:22:00.007-04:00

You DO know that everything in the Aisle 3 frozen-meat case is 20% off the original fresh-meat price, don’t you? Of course you do.

So this is a great opportunity to make beef broth out of discounted short ribs and shank bones. They make the richest, silkiest, most flavorful broth you’ve ever tasted. Let the beef cool in the pot, chill and remove the fat the next day.

The French serve the broth as the first course and the meat as the second: pot au feu.

But you can use the broth for onion soup gratinee, or mushroom-barley soup, or minestrone, or beef borscht, or a hearty risotto.

The meat can be torn up and used any number of ways. It makes a great ropa vieja, with yellow rice and black beans.
Or a simple, delicious hash: sauté it with chopped onion and potato and add a bit of the broth.

In the news...

2011-06-15T14:36:00.005-04:00

Bearded brothers of Williamsburg bring in 20 tons of cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic by sail and unload in Red Hook--avoiding using that expensive fuel. So retro but apparently so expensive--the Mast Brothers predict that their "Black Seal" line of chocolate bars made from these beans will cost 25% more.

FDA issues new rules for labeling of sunscreens. Look for these changes next year.

You might want to get out your Microplane grater and forgo shredded cheese: it is likely to contain wood pulp. The plant fiber prevents the shredded cheese from clumping. Ditto for low fat ice cream--the powdered cellulose yields a creamy mouth feel. You may be comforted to know that "Only powdered cellulose in its least manipulated form can be used in foods labeled "organic" or "made with organic" ingredients by the U.S. Department of Agriculture," as reported by the Wall Street Journal. And the FDA only allows 1% to 4% wood pulp in meat. But hey, it is fiber and it is not synthetic.

Your DVR uses more energy than your refrigerator, according to a study published by the National Defense Research Council. DVRs continue to drain almost as much energy when they are programmed to record as when they are actually being viewed. The Gothamist has a nice graphic.

Wheat-free Gluten-free cookies

2011-06-15T09:32:00.006-04:00

There are a number of wheat free cookies available through our distributors. Some are also gluten-free and dairy free. We are trying out some on the front endcap across from the eggs.

Nairn's chocolate chip oat biscuit has already proven to be very popular and has a permanent home in Aisle 7A. All of the Nairn oat biscuits are wheat-free, tasty and relatively inexpensive. Each compact box has four individually wrapped packets of 5 cookies each, which is handy for lunch boxes and keeps the cookies fresh.

Newman's O's are wheat-free and dairy-free.

Aleia's cookies are gluten-free. Standard flavors like chocolate chip and peanut but the Almond Horn made with almond paste and egg whites is the most popular. $$$

Smooze is back or DIY pops

2011-06-15T09:13:00.005-04:00

The very popular Smooze ice pops are back--shelf stable (just put in freezer), dairy-free and gluten-free. And not just for kids--a sales rep recently suggested that they make a quick and easy pina colada.

However, if you want to go the very adult DIY route, here is a recipe for paletas--some cherries, some sour cream, some tequila......

We sell the molds for making the pops at the end of Aisle 4A

Vote for your favorite cheesemonger (me)

2011-05-20T06:46:00.003-04:00

This summer will be the 2nd annual Cheesemonger invitational. And while I might not win, I know I have the most loyal following of members who want to support this crazy good-natured event.

Vote now and often!

http://www.cheesemongerinvitational.com/competitors/

Hey there, vegetarians - an old favorite is back!

2011-05-18T15:52:00.004-04:00

Several months ago a popular product left the Coop shelves. Healthy Korner provided us with "vegetarian chicken" & "vegetarian turkey" (in both sandwich and salad form) until the company liquidated itself so that the owners could part ways. Now one of the former Healthy Korner partners has founded a new company, Nature Boy Foods, and he has developed new and improved versions of the beloved veg chicken, veg turkey, and spicy tofu. Best of all, he is custom making packs of vegetarian turkey slices just for the Coop.

Look for the logo of a smiling Nature Boy face in the Prepared Food Case and the Dairy Cooler...

Easter Lamb is In.

2011-04-19T09:07:00.003-04:00

For the Sunday joint. Bone-in legs. Boneless legs. French racks. We also have the spiral-sliced hams, for those so inclined.

Got a minute?

2011-04-14T08:51:00.005-04:00

With warmer weather nearly here, we've had our livestock farmers switch over from winter cuts -- stews, roasts -- to less robust fare. Some of the round primal of beef is now being shaved into minute steak, economical and easy to prepare. What to do with it?
Korean bulgogi, for one thing! Separate the tissue-thin slices, and toss with soy sauce, mirin, a little sesame oil, plus minced scallion, garlic, black pepper, and toasted sesame seeds. Let it marinate for a hour. Grill on a hot grill or broil under a hot broiler for 1-2 minutes, until slightly charred and cooked through, and serve with rice and kimchi.
Philadelphia cheesesteak. Saute sliced onion in olive oil. Take a couple of Rustic Hero rolls (aisle 3, near bagels), split them, cover one side with sliced or grated cheese, and set in a slow oven to melt. Cheez Whiz is tradition in Philly, but, hey. Don't do that to yourself. The Coop's NY cheddar is an improvement. Or go further upscale with fantal, Muenster, or fresh mozz. Separate the steak slices and season with salt, pepper, garlic, and oregano. Set the browned onions on the roll, saute the steak in the same pan until cooked through (1-2 minutes, again!), and assemble the sandwiches.

Holiday Brisket - Buy Early or Settle for Matzoh Balls

2011-04-04T10:15:00.007-04:00

We're getting lots of brisket for Passover!

A word to the wise....the Coop carries locally pasture-raised, grass fed- and finished beef. 80% of our beef comes from whole animals, purchased weekly from Slope Farms and McDonald Farm. It's difficult for us to receive enough brisket within one week to satisfy the holiday wants of our membership. We supplement with Hardwick and Natural Acres, and they've started to give us as much as they can.

Brisket is coming in briskly, beginning this week. It's the only way we can get enough. Don't wait until the last minute to get yours -- it really is not going to be here at that point. And no wails of remorse, please.

Vegetable, Herb and Flower Seeds are Here!

2011-03-24T12:33:00.005-04:00

Spring is here! We have seeds from three companies. Small packets of vegetable and herb seeds from Vermont-based Artistic Gardens are all $.25! The larger white packages of vegetable and herb seeds are from the Maine-based worker coop FEDCO; they are priced as marked. The colorful packages are from Seed Savers Exchange (mostly flowers), most packages are $1.80.

All seeds are either stored above the bagged potatoes in racks or above the onions and potatoes in trays. There are green planting guides hanging by the trays of herbs and for more plant care info try the Cornell Cooperative Extension website at http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/

Also there is an interesting article in the NYtimes about seeds http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/garden/24seeds.html?emc=eta1

Coop raffle--Win a bike and protect NY's Watershed!

2011-03-23T09:36:00.007-04:00

If this is your dream ride, hustle on over to the coop and buy a raffle ticket now. The coop is raffling off a slightly updated version: Schwinn Coffee Cruiser. You can check it out--the bike is parked above the entrance.

That's the first prize. Second prize is $100 Visa gift card; Third prize is a $25 gift card and there are four Fourth prizes--a Park Slope Food Coop t-shirt. Tickets are $5.

All proceeds from the raffle will be donated to Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas Drilling Opposition Group. This group is working to prevent hydrofracking in New York and to protect our watershed.

The bike was donated by Cliff bars. Gift cards donated by Small Planet Foods (makers of Cascadian Foods, Larabar, and Muir Glen). T-shirts donated by the Park Slope Food Coop.

Try a fresh "hand"! Organic Red Bananas!

2011-03-01T08:52:00.010-05:00

The most popular fruit in the world is the Banana. But, the most popular variety is undoubtedly the Cavendish. You see their familiar yellow bunches at neighborhood stores the world over.

What is much harder to come by is Organic Red Bananas! Great for eating or baking. They are generally considered to be sweeter and softer than Cavendish when eaten ripe.

*Produce Fun Fact*
Red bananas are often the variety used for dried bananas because of their higher sugar content.

Golden Pig

2011-02-25T09:48:00.004-05:00

Milano's Suino d'Oro is new to the meat shelves this week. Handmade traditional fresh sausage, containing no preservatives, antibiotics, or other gunk, made from small-farm Duroc pigs and free-ranging chicken. Made in NYC by Charles Ventre, a genuine Brooklyn boy whose family has been crafting magnificent sausages for over a hundred years.

We're currently stocking a sweet Italian with fennel; a cheese & parsley; Irish bangers; and a chicken sausage with broccoli rabe and provolone. Spicy lamb merguez arrives next week.

Perfect quick dinner on the grill, in a saute pan, or just pop in a 375 oven for 20 minutes, turn once for even browning. Mashed spuds and onion gravy are the best accompaniment for bangers, sauteed peppers and onions for the others.

Best of all, these sausages are TOTALLY DELICIOUS. No fooling.

As Seen at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this week....

2011-01-21T09:53:00.004-05:00

The Black Trumpet Mushroom.

A great french favorite, the "poor man's truffle is widely considered to be more flavorful than a chanterelles. It is commonly used in risottos and cream based sauces, but was served at this week's state dinner with glazed carrots.

The link below has some information & a couple recipes from the NY Times for some tasty ideas.

http://www.wildpurveyors.com/Black_Trumpet_Mushroom_Recipes.html

Quinoa

2011-01-19T20:11:00.005-05:00

NPR recently reported on the increasing demand for quinoa--Bolivian farmers cannot plant enough. Prices are rising. Red quinoa has become scarce and is no longer available in bulk. We were able to find Eden packaged red quinoa, currently at a price similar to the bulk price. It is being sold on the endcap across from the cheese.

The Yogurt from Upstate, the Culture of Bulgaria

2011-01-18T14:37:00.004-05:00

When I was approached about bringing in Bulgarian Yogurt, I didn't undertand. I wondered, "was this like skyr? Does every country have it's own yogurt?" Well, I can't answer that question. But Bulgaria certainly does have a style of yogurt - and it's in the culture.

Atanas Valev of Trimona Foods brings Bulgarian Yogurt to us here at the Park Slope Food Coop. He went to Bulgaria to fetch the live active cultures that now flourish in the containers of yogurt on the shelves of our very own yogurt cooler. And let me tell you, Bulgaria's got some good culture.

This yogurt is tangy. It's the word I keep saying when I describe it even though I hate saying it. I'm not sure how else to talk about the flavor. It's a bit sour, but more, it has tang. The ph is different from most yogurts, giving it a longer shelf life (naturally) and the distinct flavor that it has. I now eat it for breakfast everyday and I'm the yogurt buyer (for my family and the Coop).

But you needn't stop there. This yogurt would be fantastic for your savory recipes, too. Tomorrow, I'm using it in Melissa Clark's recipe "Turkish Dumplings, Deconstructed." It'd be great for riata, too.

The yogurt is made upstate at the same creamery where many of our local yogurts are produced with the milk of grass fed, local cows. I like it a lot.

Lula's vegan ice cream is here...

2011-01-16T13:28:00.005-05:00

New in the ice cream freezer, Lula's direct from Manhattan. We started out with four flavors: pistachio, strawberry, birthday cake and maple walnut waffle. Even if you eat dairy, give them a try. The cashew-based flavors are a big step above most soy based ice creams.

The main complaint about Lula's shop on E 6th Street is that it is too small and crowded--so now you can grab a pint and enjoy wherever you find the space.

Almond milk in the news..l

2011-01-16T13:18:00.005-05:00

Wall Street Journal does a comparison of non-dairy "milks."

Coop carries both refrigerated and shelf-stable almond milks along with soy, hemp, hazelnut and rice milks in Aisle 3A. We currently sell much less soy milk than we did years ago when the coop membership was much smaller. Then soy milk was the only non-dairy alternative.

Tomme Delay not convicted

2011-01-13T09:12:00.002-05:00

Please enjoy Tomme Delay (not Tom Delay) from Lazy Lady Farm - laundered money not included.

The Coop never closes..

2010-12-27T17:13:00.006-05:00

With a flurry of activity, Coop staffers and early morning receivers cleared the driveway and sidewalk in front of the Coop this blustery morning. However, we only received two small deliveries. But the store is well-stocked because so many members went away for the weekend. Several tractor trailers were turned back within blocks of the Coop because the streets were blocked by all those Brooklynites who felt compelled to drive themselves into a snowbank and then left their vehicles blocking the streets.

We're ready for deliveries tomorrow. Don't miss your shift. Park in our cleared driveway at your peril!

Tasting notes for some delightful and unusual seasonal beers

2010-12-20T15:24:00.005-05:00

Dieu de Ciel Solstice D’Hiver (Montreal, Quebec) An American style barleywine that is dark in color with a reddish tint. It has a sharp bitterness that is offset by notes of cherry, malt, and caramel. You can taste the high abv in this one. Try pairing with something nutty and sweet, like a fruity cookie.

Kerkon Bink Grand Cru (Belgium) This Belgium Strong Ale is strong by today’s standards, ranking at a 13% abv. It pours almost as dark as a stout thanks to its holiday assortment of winter-dried fruits. Think figs, raisins, and Ebenezer Scrooge on Xmas morn.

Oppigards Winter (Sweden) A very drinkable winter ale with that pours a warm copper color with a creamy head. Notes of hop, citrus, and black tea make for a full-bodied flavor, but without that I’m-too-full-to-eat-now feeling. Pair with funky cheeses, apricots, and your favorite dark, seedy bread.

Stella di Natale Troll (Italy) A dark, Belgium-style strong ale with a warm combination of cocoa, spice, and toasted malt to unwind with by your real (or imaginary) fireplace. Serve in a trappist glass and enjoy slowly so none of the subtle notes go unnoticed. Then, go to bed.

‘T Smisje Kerst (Belgium) This Dark Strong Christmas Ale definitely wins the award for cutest label, but what’s inside the package is just as good. A dark amber pour with a creamy head that delivers a yeasty, hard-candy taste. It finishes with a hint of smokiness.

Baird Jubilation (Japan) The first Christmas Ale to hit stateside from Baird. Pours an almost-transparent amber, has a nice fizz, and is chock full of honey, cinnamon and spice.

Baird Dark Sky (Japan) A very rich, dark imperial stout, chock full of a toasty hoppiness thanks to being brewed with a variety of 5 different hops and 8 types of malt. A chemistry experiment gone right! Pour into a round glass, lament over the darkness of the beer sky, and enjoy.

De Struise Tsjeese (Belgium) Fast drinkers be warned. This light, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg Christmas ale, with it’s earthy-yet-crisp base, goes down as easy as that first glass of eggnog. But with its 10% abv, it demands to be savored!

Haandbryggeriet Nissefar, “Father Christmas” (Norway) This is a thick glass of Norwegian night, packed tightly into a bitter hops explosion. After adjusting to the hops, take the next sip to notice notes of pine. Low on carbonation, it is a bit like drinking a pint off the cask.

St. Feuillien/Green Flash Biere L’Amitie (California) A collaboration of impressive brewers, this Belgian style Pale Ale is seasonal for the southern states. Rich with citrus, coriander, and dry hops. A perfect medium-bodied pour.

Amaryllis

2010-12-17T20:13:00.002-05:00

I just took a photo of my amaryllis purchased at the coop--it appears very robust in my west window. Hope any you may have purchased are also blooming.

"Garlic Schmarlic! It's all the same!"

2010-12-08T12:18:00.005-05:00

Not true!
Contrary to some beliefs, all garlic is NOT equal.
Have you tried our local Organic Elephant Garlic from upstate? A relative of the leek, many people mistakenly believe to be a giant variety of regular garlic. The contrast in flavor is often likened to the difference between leeks and onions; sweeter and generally less intense. From raw to roasted, it can be enjoyed in nearly any savory dish.

Kettle Tia Chips in Ranch, Chili con Carne, Salsa Picante and Nacho flavors

2010-12-07T15:30:00.009-05:00

The coop is now selling Kettle Tia chips, a delicious Dorito-esque chips. We will carry four flavors - Zesty Ranch, Chili con Carne, Salsa Picante, and Nacho Cheese. We also have a new sweet flavor of Stacy's Pita Chip - Cinnamon Sugar. Happy winter party and football season!

-Delia

2010-12-03T16:13:00.002-05:00

!!! TAKE ME HOME !!!

Weighing in at OVER 40lbs! Hailing from the local land of Lancaster Pennsylvania!
The DELICIOUS Musque De Provence!

*Modeled by your beloved Coordinator Carlos*

Thanksgiving Produce By The Numbers

2010-12-02T12:42:00.008-05:00

69 Deliveries 13,000 cases 115 Tons 230,000 lbs. 118 Local Items

200lbs of Kohlrabi
400lbs (768 cups) Organic Cranberry
800lbs of Shallots
1500lbs of Leeks

2,000 Bunches of Parsley
1750lbs (2,100 bags) of Non-Organic Cranberries
3,200 pounds of Mushrooms
3600lbs of Brussell Sprouts, 310 Brussell Stalks & 450lbs Baby Brussell Sprouts
4,400 Bunches of Kale
4,439 (bags and cups) of Herbs (1019 Organic , 3420 Non-Organic)
3/4 tons of Pumpkin
1 ton of Beets
3,300 stalks of Celery
1 1/2 tons of Cauliflower
4 tons of Winter Squash (1 3/4 tons of Butternut)
5 tons of Carrots
5 tons of Onions
5 tons of Clementines (1981 boxes = 64,000 clementines)
5.75 tons of Sweet Potato (287 cases)
6 tons of Potato (235 cases)
9+tons of Local Apples 481 cases

9 tons of Bananas (432 cases = 50,000 bananas)...may seem like a high number, BUT it's actually a seasonal low.

The Blog Post He Didn't Want to Make

2010-11-30T10:58:00.004-05:00

We have fifty-some unsold Thanksgiving turkeys, now FROZEN HARD and DISCOUNTED (price is as marked). Take this opportunity to buy an American Bronze heritage turkey -- $2.95 lb. CHEAP -- for the winter holidays. Defrost in the refrigerator for at least four days before roasting.

We will not be bringing in any fresh turkeys until these sell out...in any case, we won't be getting any more fancy heritage birds, which were raised just for the Coop by McDonald Farm, in NY's Finger Lakes region. Consider these facts well, my friends.

There are also a few Countryboy Farm turkeys (also raised just for us, in Lancaster, Pa., by Amish guys) and Eberly Organics left. Also frozen and discounted. But they're mostly heritage. You've always wanted a heritage, haven't you?

A busy cook’s arsenal

2010-11-30T07:38:00.011-05:00

The next time you reach into the meat/fish freezer in aisle 3 for that bin of Alaska gold salmon, take a look around for other piscivorous treats lurking within. Freezer Gal is always on the hunt for fish and seafood that are sustainable and safe to eat. Here are some of her recent amazing discoveries:

Cooked Salad Shrimp, wild-caught from Oregon, low contaminant levels. You'll be pleased to know that bycatch of sea turtles and other endangered species is rare in the cold waters of Oregon, and the shrimp population assessment and management involve limiting the number of fishing vessels to avoid overfishing. Just in time for holiday entertaining, these peeled, steamed tiny shrimp are perfectly cooked and just the right size for canapés and shrimp salad. They are succulent and briny-sweet. (They're great stand-ins for lobster in lobster roll "sliders!") If using in soups, fried rice, gumbo, etc., add the shrimp at the last minute so as not to overcook.

Clams on the Half-Shell from Ben Tre, Vietnam. Hand-harvested using rakes to minimize environmental damage and bycatch. The Ben Tre province clam fishery is operated and managed by a cooperative formed by local fisherpeople. It is the first small-scale, community-based fishery in Southeast Asia to get MSC certification. The frozen clams on the half-shell have been scrubbed, de-sanded and pre-cooked. Great for clams casino or paella. Or shuck for pasta, soups and chowders.

Alaska sole, trawled from the Pacific where sole population is healthy and has considerably less exposure to mercury and PCBs. It has a silky texture and buttery flavor, making it an excellent candidate for the simplest of preparations, like pan frying or broiling. Much like tilapia or trout, the fillets are thin and much leaner than salmon or tuna, so it's best to use them frozen to preserve moisture, or thawed just so you can cut them into portions. You don’t have to remember to defrost; just fire up the stove. And yes, Joe, they bake beautifully. Salt, pepper and brush with olive oil while still frozen, place fillets on well-seasoned pan (or a cookie sheet lined with Silpat), in a very hot oven, 15-20 minutes, add capers and lemon segments.

Enjoy!

1,200 turkeys. Don't mention it.

2010-11-17T11:20:00.004-05:00

Yes. Well. People seem to want to eat turkeys at Thanksgiving, so I suppose we'd better lay in a few.

Today we have on hand 37 Wise Kosher Organic, ranging from 12-18 pounds, priced at $4.92 a pound. We also have 200 Plainvilles, same size range, at $2.79.

Tomorrow we get the Bell & Evans and Murray's turkeys. 8-24 lbs. $2.44.

Friday the excitement rises as we see the arrival of the Eberly Organic (perennial Coop fave, 8-24 lbs @ $4.31), and something new for us: 250 birds specially raised for us by the Amish poultrypersons at Countryboy Farm of Lancaster, Pa...part of the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop ($2.72). No idea about the size range, since we bought their entire rafter.

We round things off on Monday, Nov. 22, with the extremely popular birds of Vermont's Stonewood Farm (12-20 lbs, $3.32), and -- for the third year -- the American Bronze heritage turkeys ($4.32) that Peter McDonald and his family grow for us up in the Finger Lakes, at McDonald Farm. Peter's solved the fox-in-the-henhouse problem this year, so we expect to receive the full 180 he started with last spring. Enough for all the heritage-fancying foodies in the Coop, we hope.

All these birds have been delivered FRESH, except for the kosher ones. And, needless to say, all are free-ranging, locally raised, hormone and antibiotic free.

Coombs maple syrup sale

2010-11-15T13:14:00.003-05:00

This morning 240 quarts of Coombs maple syrup were delivered at a great price: right now we are selling Grade B quarts for $16.00!

Price limited to stock on hand--stock up now! Look for the maple syrup house in the produce aisle.

Long overdue cheese update.

2010-11-12T08:58:00.002-05:00

Hi. Long time no talk. I know, I know . . . you don't have to tell me. Let's just cut straight to the chase and let me tell you about some of the exciting new local cheeses we're carrying.

Plymouth Artisan Cheese Co - we're carrying the Original Plymouth, which is sharp with notes of butter, fruit and nuts. And also the East Meadow with a mellower flavor and subtler texture. Look for these in the new cheese case.

5 Spoke Creamery - we're carrying all three of the kosher certified pre-wrapped cheeses that they have to offer: Herbal Jack, Redmond Cheddar and Welsh Cheddar. Also in the new cheese case.

Dancing Cow - check out Bouree, a washed-rind wonder and Lindy Hop, a light creamy blue.

Lazy Lady Farm - new in from Laini is Mixed Emotions. You can't miss this. Get it while you can. A natural rind mixed milk cheese reminiscent of Tomme de Savoie, only lovingly crafted by leftist-leaning Vermont homesteading goat farmers. Unbelievable.

Vermont Mystic apple pie

2010-11-11T20:02:00.013-05:00

It is hard to miss the snappy Vermont Mystic apple pie box in the ice cream freezer. As the staff No. 1 Picky Eater (and a pretty good baker), I recommend this pie. The ingredients include Cabot butter, King Arthur flour and a flavorful mixture of Empire, Northern Spy and Cortland apples. Unlike most frozen pies, this pie is frozen immediately after it is assembled but it is not baked. When you pull this pie freshly baked out of your oven, you will not be disappointed and your kitchen will smell wonderful. The price makes this pie a steal for your holiday table. You could pass the pie off as your very own homemade, but then don't forget to hide the box.

Advent calendars , Gingerbread houses and Hannukah gelt

2010-11-11T15:33:00.007-05:00

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming

Divine Advent calendars are here. Each window yields a small piece of milk chocolate. The cover of the calendar illustrates the story of the harvest of chocolate in Ghana, leading to the Nativity scene. Window opening starts December 1st!

Dancing Deer gingerbread house kits have also arrived. A good deal of assembly is required--including baking the dough. But that gives you an edible house that is actually tasty. The kit has the template, the dough mix, ginger people cutters and royal icing mix. You provide the gumdrops and other decoration. A percentage of the price is donated to organizations that aid the homeless.

The coop is awash in gold coins--the milk chocolate kind. Hannukah begins December 2. Our gold coins are made of Fair Trade Chocolate by Divine.

Amaryllis and paperwhite bulbs are here

2010-11-11T09:06:00.004-05:00

Now is the fleeting moment at the Coop when amaryllis and paperwhite bulbs are available. After next week, we will not receive anymore closer to Christmas because Van Engelen will not ship in colder weather.

Purchase now and plant or take the bulb out of the box and store the bulb in a cool place. Everything you need is in the gift box. Don't wait too long to plant the bulb--it is programmed to sprout soon and will start growing out of the box, even if left in the dark

Food waste in your home

2010-11-03T02:40:00.004-04:00

Food waste--how much food do you throw out of your refrigerator each week? NYT covers an interesting book by Jonathan Bloom American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food." In addition to crops left in the field, spoilage during shipping and supermarket waste, one study found that up to 40% of food waste happens in the home. It appears we are less ambitious when it comes to cooking the food that we enthusiastically purchase. Increasingly people are concerned about food safety and are unwilling to eat less than pristine food. Food in the landfill creates methane, and that green stuff you are throwing away is actually money. Not to be a total scrouge, but we all might want to reevaluate just how festive the groaning holiday spread is.

Because of our picky food coop shoppers, our produce is frequently culled. We have at least one or two large soup kitchen pickups six days a week. And we compost tons and tons of spoiled produce each year in the local community gardens. No dumpster diving here!

October is Fair Trade month

2010-10-28T13:10:00.001-04:00

But actually every month is Fair Trade month. New products: Natural Nectar's biscuits, slathered with Fair Trade chocolate. They did not stint with the chocolate, and this classic French "biscuit" is very good, indeed.

We sell lots of Fair Trade chocolate.

Equal Exchange chocolate comes in lots of flavors--the Panama dark is the Coop's favorite. But don't hesitate to try the new chocolate caramel crunch. Of course, we sell hundreds of pounds of Equal Exchange coffee purchased from farmer-owned cooperatives around the world. Soon they will be introducing a new line of teas.

Madecasse chocolate was developed by a former Peace Corps volunteer who worked in Madagascar. The chocolate beans are grown and made into chocolate in Madagascar. Almost all other chocolate is made from beans shipped to Europe. This provides jobs in the country of origin and allows them to reap the added value. Raw cocoa beans are relatively cheap--the finished chocolate is not. Madecasse has a salt and chocolate nibs bar.

Divine chocolate is very popular at the Coop. And now that we are approaching the holidays, their boxed mints, gelt coins and their Advent calendar with some bits of chocolate behind the windows are all available. They have some new holiday bars in sparkling packaging: dark chocolate with orange and ginger and milk chocolate with spiced cookies. Divine products are very tasty as well, and the chocolate is from a farmer-owned cooperative in Ghana.

We sell lots of Wholesome Foods Fair Trade sweeteners: light and dark brown sugar, raw sugar, agave, and honey. Please consider using these sugars for all of your holiday baking.

2010-10-15T12:30:00.003-04:00

Flashy Troutsback Romaine
Lettuce

A dark green leaved romaine splashed with wine-red speckles. Imagine dipping a paintbrush in red paint and giving it a hard shake onto your romaine lettuce. You've got the picture. Your taste buds will like it too, for its rich buttery flavor.
These are organic and come from Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop in Pennsylvania.

2010-10-13T15:43:00.003-04:00

Pumpkins are here! Small and medium pie pumpkins, and an assortment of large and even larger decorative pumpkins and gourds arrived today. They are organic from Hepworth farms in Milton NY. Larger jack-o-lanterns will be delivered on Friday.

Brooklyn Salsa company

2010-10-02T12:28:00.004-04:00

New salsas, locally made, riffing off the five boroughs theme. Brooklyn of course is hot, Manhattan is mild and pure, Staten Island mild and green, Queens medium and tropical and the Bronx burnt and hot. Make of that what you will. Their interpretation of salsa is sauce--and Queen's tropical is a curry sauce, not the standard corn chip dipping salsa.

The Brooklyn Salsa Co guys told us they were sourcing their tomatoes from Amy Hepworth this summer. Their website has recipes on how to use up that jar of salsa quickly--ranging from Buffalo burgers to Manhattan Michelada (1/2 jar salsa, can of Pabst Blue Ribbon + lime). Save the better beer to drink with the Buffalo burgers.

The salsa is made at Glen Industries. Their website says they provide opportunities for individuals with varying abilities. Brooklyn Salsa is currently sold on the back endcap, across from the poultry case.

The great hummus switchero

2010-10-01T16:12:00.006-04:00

Where has all the Sabra gone?

To Virginia. That's right folks, the Sabra manufacturing plant has been moved from Queens to Virginia. That's one of the reasons we decided to try out a new local brand called Sonny & Joe's.

Here's a little more history:
The original Sabra Blue & White Foods was started in Queens, NY in 1986. In 2005 the international food company, Strauss Group, bought a majority share share in Sabra Blue & White Foods. Then in March 2008 PepsiCo and Strauss Group formed a joint-venture partnership (PepsiCo has a 50% share) and renamed Sabra Blue & White Foods to Sabra Dipping Company. This year Sabra Dipping Company also built a new manufacturing facility in Richmond, Virginia and moved the production south (the headquarters remain in Queens.)

So what makes Sonny & Joe's worth trying? It's local for one--made in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in small batches so we get the freshest they have to offer. Try it, we think you'll like the fresh taste, creamy texture. You may even like it better than Sabra!

Lisa Hidem

Larger burritos and new flavors of Aldens

2010-09-30T17:58:00.014-04:00

Red's 11 oz burritos are now in the freezer case. Red's burritos got a thumbs up from the hardworking (and hungry) staff. Nutritional info suggests each burrito is two servings--so go find a friend or eat the 600 calories by yourself. Sour cream is the killer ingredient. Four flavors: rice & bean, turkey mole, chicken and steak.

Root beer float and peaches n'cream are Alden's ice cream newest flavors. Their vanilla is our top selling ice cream. It's organic and the price is right. The nutritional profile suggests you go out and get twelve friends to share a 48 oz tub--then there are only 160 calories per half cup. The tag "All Natural" is coming under increasing scrutiny. Organic tapioca syrup is natural--but is it natural that it is in Alden's ice cream?

Ben & Jerry's went further down the slippery additives slope--the Center for Science in the Public Interest didn't think that it was fair that they call their ice cream "All Natural" while containing un-natural ingredients like maltodextrin. The company, which sold out to Unilever long ago, recently agreed to drop the "All Natural" from the front of their containers.

Ronnybrook Farms Butter in the house

2010-09-29T11:05:00.004-04:00

New in the butter case today... Ronnybrook Farms Salted Butter! (unsalted is pictured here, but the salted looks pretty much the same.) It's local, it's a family farm, it's affordable, it's yummy.

Here's a sweet story about Ronnybrook, if you want to know more about them.

New small potato chips and large tortilla chips!

2010-09-21T10:34:00.008-04:00

There have been some quality issues with the small kettle chips so I discontinued them for the time being. We are now carrying 4 flavors of Dirty Chips: Sea Salt, Jalepeño, Sour Cream & Onion and Salt & Pepper. We also have Boulder Chips in 3 flavors: Totally Natural, Malt Vinegar and BBQ. Also, we carry locally made North Fork potato chips in BBQ and Salt. All the small chips are aisle 7.

Also there are 2 new large-sized tortilla chips in the produce aisle. There are "Fiesta Sized" 22 oz Garden of Eatin' White Restaurant-Style Corn chips and 16oz RedHot Blues.

-Delia

Some like it hot

2010-09-20T22:10:00.005-04:00

Ever feel disappointed that the fresh jalapenos lack bite? I'm not a fan of garlic, but instead use hot peppers as my most basic seasoning, regardless if I'm cooking Indian, Italian or Chinese. So rather than take a chance, I always buy habanero, or Scotch bonnet, peppers whenever they are available. They never disappoint. I sometimes find myself coughing when the pepper hits the hot oil and volatile fumes are released--but it is an easy way to clear the sinuses. It is a good idea to wear gloves when chopping hot peppers. The oils can stay on your hands for some time, and it is very painful if you happen to rub your eyes.

A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in the Pain of Chilies is an amusing article in the New York Times. Apparently we humans are the only mammals foolish enough to seek out hot chilies to eat. Habanero peppers can be found in the mixed hot peppers sold at the Coop.

Plum tomato sale this week

2010-09-20T21:11:00.008-04:00

Amy Hepworth says it is time to bring out the canning jars--she is discounting her plum tomatoes this week. We'll be selling them for $21.78 for a 25 lb case. Which is less than one dollar a pound--a great price for organic, local tomatoes.

We've got the Ball jars--sold above the potatoes in Aisle 1A.

The internet is full of canning How To's and lots of recipes--here's one site. Pasta sauce, salsa, tomato jam. If you are too timid to jump right in, you can get prepared for next year by attending the Brooklyn Skills Share home canning class being offered on October 9. (Along with ice cream making, bike repair, crochet, claw hammer banjo intro ....)