Tour of the Rear End-cap

Q:So what IS all this fancy stuff anyway?

A: The rear end-cap is where we put strange and mysterious items that don't have a regular spot or we're trying out or that are seasonal or temporary.

Q: No, you didn't hear me. What IS it?

A: Oh, I'm sorry I misunderstood. On the top shelf there are vinegars and oils, the next shelf is honeys and condiments and . . .

Q: Could you just go through each item please?

A: I thought you'd never ask.



On the top left of the case are some lovely vinegars ranging in price from cheap to very expensive.

From right to left are Delouis Bordeaux wine vinegar - a great mid-priced salad vinegar, Mutti tomato vinegar - unique and inexpensive, two wine vinegars from Unio in Spain: Cabernet and Moscatel, and the Benimosu Purple Potato vinegar from Japan - very expensive and hard to find.

At the end, on the right is Verjus Du Perigord - a great item to use in place of cooking wine or a pan de-glazer.

The Casa Forcello mostardas, compotes and confitures are cheese condiments that will expand your cheese plates and make a splash at you next dinner party.

The mostardas (whole fruit and pectin, flavored with mustard essence) are available in Plum, White Watermelon, Crab Apple and Green Tomato. These are great paired with roast meats and hard cheeses.

The Compotes (Pumpkin Ginger and Strawberry Balsamic) are excellent paired with fresh goat cheeses and chicken dishes.

The Blood Orange Confiture - captures the essence of the fruit, with just the right amount of zest - it is the perfect accompaniment to many, many foods.

On the next shelf down are an assortment of syrups and glazes.
On the left is a line of vinegars and savory toppings from Vincotto. We carry the Original, Orange and the Fig Vinegar.
The next in line is Terra de Espana Sherry Glazes - amazing on roasts, chicken or poured straight on ice cream!
Saba. What can I say? Its cooked grape must, similar to the vincotto, sweet and mellow - great drizzled on beets!
Crema Balsamico - a white balsamic reduction. If you know what it is, you know how expensive it is.
Pomegranate Molasses - a middle eastern syrup that makes a great tangy dressing when mixed with olive oil.

This shelf has a few items that you should know about.

The first is the various quince pastes (Membrillo) that we carry - original and Plum. Serve with hard Spanish cheeses - a classic with Manchego.

Date Almond Cakes. Another lovely addition to any cheese plate.

Dill and Fennel Pollen - Italian cooks swear by these products - they add them to everything. Tell me what you add them to.

Take the Cure!

Our determination to find the finest cured and smoked goodies for the Coop Protein Case has led us to La Quercia Artisan Cured Meats. La Quercia products have been praised by the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Bon Appetit, and slews of those terribly famous celebrity chefs you see on the teevee. Vogue food critic Jeffey Steingarten wrote that La Quercia makes "the best American -- or imported -- prosciutto I've ever tasted." The meats are produced through traditional dry-curing, using only sea salt -- no lactic acid, nitrates, or nitrites. Made from humanely raised, anitbiotic-free Berkshire pork.

We're carrying the following items, all presliced and in 3-oz. packaging.

Prosciutto Americano: dry-cured ham sliced thin, and usually served uncooked as an antipasto, or on sandwiches.

Pancetta Americano: pork belly that has been salt-cured and spiced (bay, pepper, juniper). Often used to flavor other dishes, especially pastas such as carbonara and all’amatriciana.

Speck Americano: juniper-flavored dry-cured and smoked ham originally from Tyrol, a region partially in Austria and partially in Italy. The light smoking (over applewood) differentiates it from the sweeter prosciutto. Use like prosciutto, or as a substitute for bacon.

Due to lack of space in the Red Meat Case, look for La Quercia in the 12-foot Poultry Case, down near the terrines, pates, and other charcuterie.

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.

Sprouted Sunflower Seeds

Our friends at Kaia Foods have come up with a new way to feed your raw snack cravings: flavored organic sprouted sunflower seeds. Yummy flavors include Cocoa Molé, Sweet Curry, Garlic & Sea Salt. Kaia says "All we do to our sunflower seeds is sprout, season and dehydrate them at low temperatures instead of roasting them. The nutrients (and great taste) stay intact and aren't processed away." Pick up a cute reseal-able pouch in Aisle 7A.

Barrel-churned, old-fashioned creamery butter

The butter case in the Coop just got a lot more interesting. It now contains butter from Mendon Creamery in Mendon, Mass, just 200 miles from Park Slope. Gabrielle Proia, owner of Mendon Creamery, has been churning butter for about three years in a "farmstead" operation. She rents space on a 150-herd dairy farm to produce and hand-pack six varieties of butter. She is frequently the one milking the cows as well. Proia churns about 1,000 lbs of butter a week. Using the barrel churn creates a butter with a distinctively fresh, sweet taste. "Butter is the perfume of dairy," says Proia. We say "Move over, Land O'Lakes."

Raw, Probiotic, Fermented... Salad Dressings?!?

Yes it's true, Zukay Live Foods has introduced a line of salad dressings made from raw, fermented vegetables. In addition to all that raw probiotic goodness, they are:

• Versatile: Not just for salad, they also work as marinades, over veggies, etc.
• Not just for Raw Foodists: Use them on cooked vegetables or meat.
• Low Calorie: Only 5 calories per serving -- not bad, considering the typical salad dressing has somewhere around 100 - 150 calories per serving.
• Low Carb: No added sugar

So try them already! They are in our Egg/Tofu case because they are refrigerated.

Berkshire Blue

Its here. Rich, creamy, delicious: Berkshire Blue

It's So Delicious

New in the Coop: So Delicious Coconut Milk. Half-gallons. Original and Vanilla. Refrigerated. Delicious.

Made by Turtle Mountain (the same company that brings us those amazing non-dairy frozen desserts), their website claims that this is "The world's first coconut milk beverage." Certainly an interesting newcomer to the non-dairy milk scene, only time will tell whether coconut becomes a regular in the line-up that currently includes soy, rice, hemp, and nut milks. Look for it in the Milk/Juice Case next to the Almond Breeze.

Biscotti di Vecchio

We haven't had a great (locally-made) Biscotti since Fanciulla went out of business a few years ago. Enter Biscotti di Vecchio.

Danielle came to us through a mutual friend who is a coop member. Jerri said that Danielle made amazing biscotti and, well, to make a long story short. We now have five flavors of her delicious biscotti on the end-cap facing the express checkout.

Cayenne Cherry Chocolate Chunk.
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut.
Cranberry Orange Zest
Toasted Almond.
Pistachio Chocolate Chunk.

Read all about these flavors on her website (and see how much cheaper they are being sold here: $6.03 for a bag of 8).

Soy-onara, Silk!

The Silk line of products is manufactured by Dean Foods, the "largest dairy agribusiness corporation in the country." As we've learned more about the practices of this company, especially relating to their soy products, we think it's in the Coop's interest to find alternatives.

Please see Gillian's fabulous post concerning the discontinuation of Silk soy products and the Cornucopia Institute for more information.

Here in Yogurtland, you'll discover some exciting new developments: We've got 24oz. sizes of Wholesoy Vanilla and Plain to replace the Silk quarts. In the 6oz. size, we have Wholesoy in Blueberry, Peach, Vanilla, Strawberry, Raspberry - the same flavors we had in Silk - along with Lemon and *new flavors* of Banana Strawberry and Apricot Mango. We also carry Wildwood soy yogurt in 24oz Plain along with Blueberry, Strawberry, and Raspberry.

All you Coop soy yogurt eaters had already started this trend away from Silk towards Wholesoy with your purchasing power. Every flavor of Wholesoy has been outselling it's Silk counterpart.

The price in cents for Wholesoy is a tad higher - but when considering the price of continuing to support Silk, it's worth it. And Wildwood is cheaper! Learn more about Wholesoy and Wildwood at the Cornucopia Institute's website.

Awesome Foods

New to the Coop this week are some raw and crispy snacks from a local company called Awesome Foods. Fans of the much-loved but hard-to-come-by Kale Chips will appreciate the variety which includes: Kale Tempuraw, Zuchinni Tempuraw, Vegetable Tempuraw, Root Veggie Crackers and Vegetable Almond Crackers. All dehydrated at less than 118 degrees, all vegan, and all gluten-free. Look for them in Aisle 7A, hanging across from the other small chips.

Sprout Creek Farm

The local cheese of the month (I know I'm a little off on the month, timing-wise - but anyhoo) is Sprout Creek Farm I picked up five great cheeses from them and they'll be on the shelf later today.


Toussaint

A Robustly flavored cheese with a distinctive Alpine flavor.
Toussaint becomes more complex and peppery with age, and rounds out with a smooth, tight texture. Natural edible rind.






Ouray

An earthy buttery cheese with a sweet floral flavor, Ouray has a firm creamy paste with a crisp edible natural rind.




Batch 35

A crisp coppery rind sheaths a straw colored interior of this smear-ripened cheese. Smooth, with an open texture and a scattering of eyes, this cheese is meaty, pungent, and earthy.


Eden

Smear-ripened with an elastic texture and a golden interior, Eden has a pungent nose but a sweet apple butterscotch finish.

Sophie

Beneath the rind of this soft-ripened goats’ milk cheese is a white pearly paste with a balanced herbaceous flavor.

(Sorry that there's no pictures for all the cheeses - trust me, they're great!)

Bela is back! (Sardines not Lugosi)

Please welcome back Bela Sardines after the long absence and reported rumors of bankruptcy and insolvency. We're currently stocking all the flavors pictured: Olive Oil, Tomato, Lemon, Cayenne, and Boneless/Skinless. Enjoy!

Another bulk update plus, plus

TVP, or Texturized Vegetable Protein, is being discontinued in the bulk bins. TVP was a very slow seller. We are adding packaged Bob Red Mills organic TVP in Aisle 2A. Bob's TVP is a different texture but it is organic. Vegetarians may rely on TVP as a meat substitute, but it is hard to equate a highly processed product made with non-organic soybeans as health food. I had to resort to Wikipedia to jog my memory as to exactly what TVP is, but I read no further than "fibrous lamination of thermoplastic soy flour.."

The good news is that organic red quinoa is once again available in bulk. And if that isn't enough quinoa diversity, there is now Alter Eco black quinoa in Aisle 6A.

Alter Eco is a company specializing in Fair Trade products from cooperatives around the world.
We have just added two olive oils, "Planted, picked, and processed by fair trade cooperatives in Palestine, Jenin, West Bank," re Alter Eco's website.

Field Day for beans...

Our major health food distributor, UNFI, is developing a line of foods that is "private label," under the name Field Day. This is similar to Whole Foods 365 label. The goal is to develop high quality and less expensive items. They are starting with canned beans. The Field Day beans are guaranteed to be grown in the U.S. Westbrae does not reveal where their beans are grown, probably China. Eden beans are grown in the U.S. Field Day beans are less expensive than both Westbrae & Eden organic beans. We are replacing the Westbrae black, garbanzo, pinto and kidney in the small cans with Field Day beans. Replacing Bearito baked beans is also being considered. (Bearito is part of the Hain-Westbrae, etc. corporation.)

Bulk going local...

As changes keep happening around us, the world of bulk is no exception. Recently we switched three of our dry beans (black, navy and pinto) to locally grown. They are now coming from Cayuga Pure Organics in the Ithaca area upstate N.Y., as opposed to China for the blacks beans and Canada for the navy and pintos. You may have noticed a price increase for these local beans. We feel that it is in keeping with the Coop mission and important to support local growers whenever we can. Cayuga also has other locally grown products that we carry-Spelt Berries-and look forward to their Farro, Vinton Soy Beans, small Red Beans, Barley, Oats, steel cut and groats.

Most of our flours are now local too. Whole Wheat Bread flour is grown and milled in Ithaca at Farmer Ground, near Cayuga Pure. The Whole Wheat Pastry is milled at Daisy in Lancaster, Pa. The Spelt is also from Lancaster grown there and milled at Small Valley Milling. The exciting thing about these new flours is that not only are they local, but they are very fresh. They are usually milled a week or two before being delivered to us.

In a world where availability of products is uncertain, I will continue to bring in more local bulk when I can. Just a footnote: the price of Red Lentils will be coming down soon due to the fact our supplier International Harvest has them available again. They also will be selling us organic Chia (Mexico) and Black Sesame (India) Seeds at a lower price. These products are not grown locally.

Cheers till next time I see you in the bulk aisle

Ron

In the News.....

Who is controlling Organic Standards? Washington Post published a rather dismaying account of how the federal government is--or maybe, isn't--regulating the Organic Standards.

The Brooklyn Paper queried Whole Foods about the status of their proposed new home on 3rd St and 3rd Ave. Last week the Paper concluded that Whole Foods was abandoning the site, this week there is a slightly different story.

NYTimes reported fungal attack on Northeastern tomatoes. Allen & Julie say that so far Amy Hepworth, our major supplier of local tomatoes, has not been hit by this fungus.

Make your own granola

The Coop offers a lot of granola choices, but it is easy to make your own custom granola. You are able to control the amount and type of oil and sugars, plus easily add favorite nuts, seeds , dried fruit and spices. Actually, a good reason to make your own granola this time of the year is to not add dried fruit when there are so many fresh fruits and berries available. You can increase variety by using one or more of the organic Eden flakes now sold in Aisle 7B instead of just using rolled oats. Eden offers barley, spelt, kamut, rye and rice flakes.

Basic Granola (low fat, low sugar)

5 cups of organic rolled oats or a combination of other flakes, including spelt, rye, etc.

1/4 cup of oil. (My current favorite is Rapunzel sesame oil, Aisle 3B)
1/4 maple syrup (or agave syrup, honey, barley malt, molasses, rice syrup--your choice)
1/2 cup boiling water.
optional: 1 tsp of a spice such as cinnamon, or a tsp of vanilla.

4 cups of nuts, seeds, coconut flakes.

Preheat oven to 325.
Put the oil and sweetener in a large mixing bowl, pour in the boiling water and mix. Add the oats/flakes and stir until all are coated. Spread the flakes on a large baking sheet with sides. It takes about 30 min to toast the flakes, but check and stir the flakes to make sure that the edges don't burn.

I reduce the oven heat to 300 to lightly toast the nuts separately from the flakes to prevent burnng. I like a crisp granola, but you can skip this step if you prefer your nuts raw or if you purchased roasted nuts. Spread each type of nut, seed, etc on its own baking pan. Watch the oven like a hawk while roasting nuts. Coconut toasts in a flash. If using seeds, sesame and pepitas are ok to roast, but do not roast flax or chia seeds. Chop the nuts as coarsely or finely as your prefer. For almonds, it is easy to buy the sliced ones, which crumble easily when toasted.

Mix nuts with flake mixture, add dried fruit if you want, and store in a sealed jar in the refrigerator once it has cooled.

Last week Melissa Clark had a granola recipe in the NYT's Magazine using olive oil and salt. It looks delicious but it has 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar and 3/4 c maple syrup per 3 cups oats. So you can see there are lots of variation in granola recipes. At the Coop, the nutritional content of the granola is on the bulk containers. But if you make it yourself, you know exactly how much sugar you are getting.

The Right Stuff: KBBK

Meet the NKOTB: KBBK - KOMBUCHA BROOKLYN! Coming to your belly "Straight Up" from BK!

We all love local stuff. And most of us love kombucha (I think unless everyone is just pouring it down the drain (which would be an expensive habit considering the thousands of bottles we sell every week)). I figured members of the Coop would LOVE local kombucha. But it's been impossible to bring it to you...until now!

Welcome our newest resident to Kombuchaland: Kombucha Brooklyn. The Brewmaster is Kombuchman. He's been brewing the 'buch for years and now is excited to help you to "drink the revolution" on a large scale starting right here in the Coop. To launch, the flavor is called "Straight Up" - cool like Paula Abdul, tasty like "Original" from the other companies on the block. "Note the taste of the whole stone fruit family," says Kombuchman. The blend of 3 teas is delicate and delicious.

Give it a try. There's more to come where that came from. Look for it in the weeks ahead...

One Crazy Summer (in the freezer)

First of all I want to talk about ice cream sandwiches. I think they're great. You can probably imagine how happy I was when some nice lady from Norwich N.Y. sent us some that she made. We have a vanilla ice cream and chocolate cookie sandwich made with milk from Evans Creamery (way to be local) and a vegan sandwich made with bananas and coconut milk.

So, remember the first time you heard about sweet potato fries and you thought "OMG! The people that came up with this awesome thing must be from the future or something!" And remember the first time you tried chipotle whatever and were like "chipotles are kinda like bacon in that you can put it in or on almost anything and make it taste way better!" Well, I found something that combines these two things and the first time you try them you're gonna scream "The future's gonna be awesome!" and your gonna hi-five the closest hand you can find. Buy the way, the new product is chipotle sweet potato fries from Alexia.

I want to apologize to those of you who thought this post would have something to do with that movie from the eighties with John Cusack and Demi Moore called "One Crazy Summer."