Ronnybrook Farms Butter in the house

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.

Bye Bye Mendon, Hello Hillcrest (butter)

Lovers of the delightful Mendon Creamery butter will be saddened to hear that we are no longer able to get this product. Can't even get in touch with the folks who make it. The empty space in the butter case has instead been filled with 1-pound tubs of butter from Hillcrest Dairy. also local and made from rbST-free milk.

New Local Cheese line for September

Let's all give a warm Park Slope Food Coop welcome to Cooperstown Cheese Co. I've brought in four great cheeses from them:



Toma Celena - A recent American Cheese Society winner in the Best European Style Cheese category, this natural-rind, semi-hard cheese is very nutty and complex. It goes well with hearty red wines and flavorful beers like Ommegang's Rare Vos.


Here we are cutting open a wheel in the basement.









Toma Con Brio - A nod to the bloomy rind cheeses of France, Cooperstown adds a unique twist by making the wheels double thick. Single cream (less that 60% milk fat by weight), but with a wonderful consistency and earthy flavor. Pairs well with dry Chardonnay or thick, heavy porters.









Jersey Girl - We all have a certain New Jersey girl that we have a secret crush on, don't we . . .?

This one is made with the Colby procedure (similar to cheddar, but does not undergo the cheddaring process), but is much more flavorful because the milk is raw and from a single herd of grass-fed Jersey cows.








"Scape" From New York - No, this one does not star Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, it stars plenty of New York State garlic scapes all mixed into a raw milk cheese aged just 60 days. The Park Slope Food Coop is the only place you'll find this cheese in NYC.

I've never tasted anything like it. Addictive and flavorful, I don't think you'll be able to get enough.

Southern Tier Brewing embraces winter with it's strong seasonal line-up

New York state has been putting itself back on the brewing map for a couple decades now. One brewing company that has been building up a good head of steam recently is Southern Tier. Based in Lakewood, NY they've been brewing up a storm since 2004.

Southern Tier started out with a fairly conservative stable of solid beers and from there has built a creative, diverse, and, delicious portfolio. Here is a shortlist of some of the limited release, seasonal brews are worth exploring at the coop:

Gemini - Hoppe & Unearthly blended together & placed in this vessel, the mission of our Gemini is to travel high & take passengers on a journey far into the heavens. 10.5% abv
Krampus - Dark malts and aromatic hops create the diabolical spirit of this brew. It is finished with lager yeast and aged cold for no less than 30 days. This Imperial Helles Lager will warm even the darkest hearts. 9.0% abv • Imperial Helles Lager
Cuvee 1 - ALE IMPRESSIONS: Light copper color, slight malt flavor with mild bitterness, dry finish with subtle hop aroma. FRENCH OAK IMPRESSIONS: Qualities of toasted coconut, almond biscotti and toasted almonds with a taste of honeysuckle. 11.0% abv
Choklat - Moving through centuries, the circular journey of cacao has been realized in our brewing house, encompassing the complexity of the darkest, bitter-sweet candy together with the original frothy cold beverage of the ancient Maya to bring to you our Blackwater Series Choklat Stout. We have combined the finest ingredients to tempt your senses & renew the power & interrelation of history in every bottle. 11.0% abv • Imperial Chocolate Stout
Oat - Pour Oat into a snifter, allow its thick tan head to slowly rise, releasing unbridled aromas. The color of Oat is as dark as a moonless night. The first sip reveals Oat’s thick and nourishing taste. Like a haversack to a horse, a bottle of this stout is a meal in itself. Enjoy responsibly. 11.0% abv • Imperial Oatmeal Stout

*info courtesy Southern Tier Brewing

The Great Yogurty State of New York

The slow and steady march of change has come to the isle of cool serenity known as the yogurt case. We are trying bit by bit to bring in more local yogurt. New York is the third largest dairy-producing state (behind California and Wisconsin), and of course that means some things have to go.

Over the past few months we have added more flavors from the Evans Farmhouse organic line. It's often a mix of flavors based on production so look for a rotating cast of characters with plain, lemon, raspberry, and maple making up the bulk of our offerings. They recently discontinued the magnificent blackberry. Evans is both an organic dairy and organic creamery based in the Catskills. As a creamery they produce and package the Kortright Creek goat yogurts (also from the Catskills) that we offer in plain, maple, and raspberry flavors.

We've expanded the Liberte line, starting with the organic flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and vanilla. We then added Liberte's goat cheese-style yogurts of the honey, raspberry, strawberry, and plain varieties. Liberte is a local brand as it is within 500 miles—milk from a Vermont cooperative and produced in Quebec.

Recently, we've also added a couple of the Siggi's yogurts: plain, pomegranate passion, and orange mint. Siggi's makes an Icelandic-style of strained yogurt called Skyr—it's not unlike a strained Greek yogurt and it's made from New York state milk.

Fage Total yogurt, one of our top-selling products in the case, has switched its production over to a New York facility so that it no longer has to import its product.

Sky Top is a New York state product that has joined our yogurt-y crew recently and is hopefully coming out with a low-fat variety in the coming months.

Our other yogurts that are sourced and produced locally and have been stalwarts include Hawthorne Valley, Stonyfield, Butterworks, Coach Farms, Erivan, Old Chatam, and Seven Stars.

Some of the yogurts that have been discontinued recently are Cascade Fresh small cups—my reasoning is that they are at a similar price point to Stonyfield, a product that is both organic and local; Cascade Fresh is neither. Woodstock buffalo yogurts have also been absent because the company has ceased to exist. We are eagerly awaiting their next incarnation.

–Anngel