Cheese of the Week 7/30

Bra Duro

Produced as a Italian farmhouse cheese from cow's milk, Bra Duro Cheese is a "sister" cheese to the Bra Tenero cheeses which differ only in the length of aging. A Bra Tenero cheese will be aged for slightly less than 2 months while a Bra Duro cheese ages for 3 months at a minimum and longer for some cheese producers enabling a sharper flavor to develop. The term Duro is the Italian word for rough or rugged, which is used to describe the coarse outer rind. Darker yellow in color and semi-firm to firm in texture, Bra Duro Cheese provides a cheddar-like flavor from a paste that is filled with numerous small eyes. Sharp and somewhat nutty tasting best describes the flavor from this cheese. It is a good cheese to use for snacking or for grating as a topping on pasta and casseroles. When paired with wine, this cheese goes well with a medium-bodied red wine or an amber beer.

Mahon, from the island of Menorca, is one of a few cow's milk cheeses from Spain. Mahón boasts a certain sharpness, and its lemony, salty flavors evince the rural Mediterranean seascape. Its rind contains a hard, crumbly cheddar-like texture and darkens as the wheels age. At peak, Mahón is tangy, intense and delicious. Pair this cheese with Madeira or Tempranillo.

Cheese of the week update

Castelrosso is made using the milk of the Pezzata Rossa and Bruno Alpina cows and is aged in underground cellars for at least three months during which time it develops its crusty rind that is mottled with grey, white and yellow molds. The rind contrasts beautifully with the interior which is pure white. The aroma is earthy and lactic, the texture is moist but slightly crumbly and the flavor is a balanced combination of lactic flavors and lemony brightness. As it ages, the interior will darken from the outside edges toward the interior and those sections will give bigger flavors of nuts and earth.

Autor Cheese is a raw goat's milk cheese from Quatratondo, 60 km outside of Valencia. Raw goat cheese is curdled with thistle rennet and aged 60 days in an underground cavern. Depending on the season the cheese can be creamy, flaky or runny. The flavor finishes grassy, herbal and citrus-y.

Malvarosa was first imported to the U.S. in August of 2004 to save the nearly extinct Guirra sheep. The paste is firm, but buttery, and incredibly rich and sweet. Aged for a minimum of three months; careful cheesemaking and gentle pasteurization preserve the delicate flavors.

Two New Italian Cheeses

Strachitunt - (strah-kee-TOONT) - A rustic raw cow's milk blue cheese from the Lombardy region of Italy.
The production of Strachitunt gourmet cheese follows an ancient 2-curd technique. The mixture of the warm morning curd with the cold evening curd promotes the formation of mould. The rind is wrinkled and thin with a light-brown color. The Strachitunt cheese paste is pale or straw-yellow. It has an aromatic, mouth-filling flavor and a attractive nose of 'autumn leaves' and hazelnuts. Pair this cheese with Sauternes, Sémillon, Sauvignon blanc, or Muscadelle.

VerdeCapra - A new (so new there are no pictures) Blue goat cheese. I tried this at the fancy food show last week and I thought we should have it here as soon as possible. It's a creamy and tangy Pasteurized cheese with a moisture level similar to Gorgonzola Dolce.

Cheese of the week explained

When I order the cheese from the distributors we buy from, I'm (A#1) sometimes able to get some great close-out deals on things, (B#2) or I'm providing special requests or finally (C#3) buying some favorites that are almost always in stock but aren't always available.

This week some of the things that I've bought for you are:

Mitiblue

Produced with milk from Castilla Leon and aged in El Escorial. Firm blue. Sheep's milk. Very salty. Has a hard to describe unique taste. Do not plan on kissing anyone for a while after trying this one.

Tronchetto
A soft-ripened pastuerized cow's milk cheese from the producer that makes the Tallegio. Has a smooth, full flavor and a powerful aroma.



Leonora
Made in the mountains of Leon, Spain, this tangy cheese is made from pure Alpine goat milk. Uniquely molded into a long brick shape, the cheese is covered with a natural mold and
develops a creamy consistency over the three month aging process.

BBQ Sauce Overload

Well, we've tried the D.L. Jardine sauces and we thought they weren't bad. Supposedly the Organic-ville (I didn't name it) sauces are quite good. There was an ordering snafu with Bone Sucking Sauce and we only have Hot & Spicy. And back by popular demand are the Bar-B-Bar sauces.

Look for all of these brands (and Olde Cape Cod which I'll put out next week) scattered around the store.

Beers of Summer: Part Wheat

With all the pent-up excitement of a new season starting line-up, breweries are releasing their summer beers. Refreshing and quaffable, these beers are made with the leisurely pursuits of summer in mind. Here’s a very loose guide to style and sometimes looser guide to what the coop is carrying.

Summer suds are celebrated heartily by the Germans and their Weissbiers (aka Hefeweizen) comprise a huge portion of summer seasonal brews.

The south German weissbier is made by adding wheat to the mix and yields a characteristic banana, clove, or sometimes bubblegummy flavor due to the particular yeasts used in the fermentation processes.

Look for these fine examples at the Coop: Schneider Organic Edel-Weisse, Ayinger Brau Weisse, Brooklyner Weisse, Pinkus Organic Hefeweizen, Long Trail Hefeweizen, Ebel’s Weiss Beer, Stoudt’s Weizen,

While Belgian brewers are usually known for rich, fortifying beers that keep you warm in winter, they maintain a good balance with light and refreshing Wit, Blanche, or White beers for summer. Belgian whites are usually spiced with coriander and orange flavors.

Beers of this variety at the Coop are: Allagash White, Ommegang Witte, Avery White Rascal, Leelanau Whaleback White, Victory Whirlwind Witbier, Weyerbacher Blanche, Wolaver Wit, Otter Creek White Sail, Long Trail Belgian White, to name a few.

American brewers have always been quick studies and have taken off and riffed very successfully on traditional styles. Some breweries hew closely to their German or Belgian roots while others jump off with their own blends of summer beers.

Though American brewers are known for pushing beer to the limits of flavor, creativity, and experience using juiced up amounts hops, malt, yeast, or sugars, in the summer many brewmasters lighten their touch to match the season and produce more delicate offerings. Some are truly good and others seem like hapless attempts at lager or wheat beers. Let me know what you think at anngel_delaney@psfc.coop

If you’re having a barbeque or kicking a ball around the park check out some of these light hitters.

-Anngel

Klean Kanteen update

We have sold-out of the 450 Klean Kanteens that we received on Friday, June 13. In anticipation of this we have a second order that was placed weeks ago but, according to Klean Kanteen, they can't make the things fast enough and we may not receive our next order until mid-July or August.

We are looking into other products that might be similar in function, form, and safety.

We will post on the blog as soon as they are in so please check back here for info rather than calling the office.

-Anngel

(Local) Cheese Update

So, I'm going to try and give an update of the cheeses every week. Please don't hold me to it.

This week we've got some great new(ish) local cheeses from NY state and Vermont.

First up are three great cheeses from West River Creamery in Londonderry, Vermont. The first, named after the town it's made in, is the Londonderry English-style Farmhouse Cheddar. Raw Milk, aged in cloth - good stuff. 2nd is an old favorite, Three Mountain - also raw milk, but washed-rind and creamy delicious. Also available is a Pre-cubed marinated Feta in oil (which I double-bagged for your protection!) and herbs. We tried some today and the verdict was unanimous. . .amazing!

From upstate (well, Poughkeepsie) New York are two cheeses that we've known and loved from Sprout Creek Farm. Ouray is an earthy buttery cheese with sweet floral flavor and edible rind. And Batch 35: smooth, with an open texture - pungent, and earthy. A crisp coppery rind sheaths a straw colored interior of this smear-ripened cheese. Also try the Sophie - a goat milk cheese that will blow your mind.

In the Pre-packaged section of the case look for Green Hill from Sweet Grass Dairy, a pasteurized cow's milk cheese, soft-ripened with a white bloomy rind.

Siggi's Skyr yogurts

Good news: We recently added the Siggi's Skyr Icelandic-style yogurts to the yogurt case. Bad news: Siggi's had a production problem and we have been unable to get any of the flavors for the past week and we have sold through our inventory of those products. According to Siggi's we should be receiving regular shipments by week's end but, bear in mind that suppliers are sometimes overly optimistic about things like this.

Rest assured that we are ordering all of the flavors everyday and as soon as they are available we will have Siggi's back on the shelf.

-Anngel

NEW FREEZER ITEMS

Bahama rice burgers. Rice-based veggie burgers.
Blue Horizon Thai-style shrimp spring rolls and pesto shrimp farfalle entrees.
Evergreen organic wheatgrass juice.
Amy's margherita pizza. Amy's veggie pot pie pocket. Amy's mac and cheese kids meal with broccoli.
Seeds of Change mushroom risotto.
Pika's carrot ginger soup.
Buenatural cheese enchilada.
Morrison's clam chowder and seafood chowder are back.

New products in the ice cream freezer:
Ciao Bella gelato sandwich with chocolate gelato and chocolate chip cookies.
Lemon gelato with lemon poppy cookies.
Adirondack Creamery almond English toffee ice cream. Chocolate walnut ice cream.
Ronnybrook ginger creme brulee. Butter pecan.

—Caleb

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

Popping Pickles and Puffy Tangelos

Recently, a member returned a jar of Batampte pickles because it was not vacuum sealed. Allen Zimmerman called Batampte and was told that none of the jarred pickles are vacuum sealed since they are sold from the refrigerated section. We were also told that Batampte never ever used vacuum-sealed jars.
Pickles sold in aisle 6 are in vacuum-sealed jars since they are not refrigerated.

In produce news…
What is it about mineola tangelos that make them appear puffy? The easily compressed malleable skin is characteristic of tangelos and are not a reason to give them to the soup kitchen. It is an indication of maturity. So enjoy!

—Julie

It's not love but it's cheap
The mind-blowing beer sale continues...

This sale has been going on for about a week but will end when what we have on hand sells out. One of our distributors is doing some spring cleaning/rearranging (no joke) and they are having a beer warehouse version of a stoop sale. PSFC is the early bird cleaning up on seasonals and bits and pieces at 50-70% off regular prices.

Here's what we have at $0.71 a bottle: Weyerbacher Double Simcoe, Great Divide Denver Pale Ale, Great Divide Hibernation, and Great Divide St. Bridget's Porter, and a couple cases of Otter Creek Spring Kolsch.

At $0.61 a bottle we've got two cases of Thomas Hooker Irish Red left as of this posting.

At $0.50 a bottle we have Sprecher Winter Lager (this is a 16 oz. bottle people!) and one case of Southern Tier Old Man Winter.

cheers, Anngel

Seeds and the end of times . . .

Grow 'em while you can folks. The last of the coop's seeds are on the shelf in the produce aisle. Mostly lettuces and spinach.

Local Beer Stuff

So, you all may have noticed that the Northwest is busting at the seams with good beer. New York alone is producing a prodigious amount of quality beers – Blue Point, Brooklyn beers, Butternuts, Schmaltz, Ommegang, Southern Tier, Original Sin, and the rare and delicious Captain Lawrence. And Pennsylvania is no slouch either with Stoudt's (a serious trailblazer), Weyerbacher, Troeg's, and Victory. Delaware has Dogfish, NH and MA are getting in on the action with Smuttynose and Southampton respectively. And of course Vermont is kickin' it with the organics – Wolaver and Orlio – not to mention Long Trail, Magic Hat, Otter Creek, and Woodchuck.

Cali and Colorado may be the #1 and #2 biggest producers of craft beer in the country but as a region the Northeast is giving them a run for the money. (Somebody do the square miles to barrels of beer conversion please!)

At any rate, the coop hasn't been promoting local beers per se but, I just wanted to draw attention to the wealth of local products that are on the shelf. There will always be Stone (CA), Oskar Blues (CO), Samuel Smith (UK), the Belgians, and the growing cadre of fine Midwestern brewers and I will continue to make these beers available but, as Northeasterners we certainly have cause for pride of place and beer.

- Anngel

More on Produce

It's been a month since I have written and a lot has happened. We continue to experience scattered high prices. As you would expect, high prices are driven by higher fuel costs, poor growing conditions and product scarcity.
You might be surprised to learn that much of the higher prices that you experience right now in produce is entirely normal and what you should expect in April and May, and follow a pattern that happens every year. (But certainly worse than ever this year.) The world food shortages and highest fuel costs ever have coincided with the predictable, seasonally normal high prices to produce a "perfect storm."

At the General Meeting on April 29 I reported that organic broccoli had gone to over $4.00 a bunch. I predicted that the price would soon fall as the current growing regions begin to warm up. Today the price is $2.52. There is every reason to be concerned about the future of our food, its cost and even its availability, but don't forget that late spring is when produce stops growing where it has all winter and is just starting up where our warm weather supplies come from, including of course, our local farms.

Here's what's locally available so far (not much):

Minimally treated apples continue to be available from Hepworth Farms: empire, fuji, golden delicious, honeycrisp, jonagold, mutsu, stayman winesap.

New York State organic asparagus started May 14, and the New Jersey conventional started on the 15th.

Other conventional local items are dill, arugula, mint and parsleys.

Sporadically available local organics include dandelions, mustards, arugula, spinach, lettuces, shallot greens, watercress, radishes, rhubarb, kale, pea tendrils and collards.

Fiddlehead fern supplies remain strong, but the local ramps are already winding down.

Remember that you can learn which produce is local by checking elsewhere in our website, or on the individual shelf signs, or by looking for the green highlights on the produce banners at either end of the produce aisle. Seek out the local items, learn how to eat something new; in exchange for a fair price, you will get the freshest, finest foods and do a little bit to keep local family farms alive.
—Allen Zimmerman

First Local Produce Has Arrived!

Our first local organic produce items have arrived in small amounts:
Paradise Farm PA- tarragon
Elm Tree Farm PA- wild watercress
Chesapeake growers- green mustards, radishes, kale and spinach
All are limited quantities and only sporadically available.
We are hoping for some daylily shoots and nettles from Amy Hepworth and will keep you posted.
**Caution: Daylilies, especially the raw shoots, may cause digestive distress in some people. Eat only 5 or 6 shoots to gauge whether you are sensitive to them.
Use the shoots raw in salads, or sauté, steam, stir-fry, deep-fry, bake,
simmer in soups, or pickle.

Do you remember that the Park Slope Food Coop made the news when a member found a frog in her spinach? We all would like to think that that was a unique event but see this link.
—Allen Zimmerman

Help Fair Trade Banana Farmers Affected by Floods in Equador!

The following is a message from Jonathan Rosenthal,
Managing Director, Oké USA:
Dear banana eaters, sellers and concerned persons,
As many of you know, our organic Oké USA fair trade bananas come from El Guabo, a cooperative of 500 family farmers in coastal Ecuador. Since late January, the region has experienced devastating flooding. One co-op member's son was killed, roads and houses were damaged and several farmers have lost all of their plantings.
The Oké USA staff and I are asking you to join us in supporting the farmers of El Guabo by raising $20,000 to buy a Bobcat Excavator that the co-op will use to drain the flooded farms and do preventative maintenance to mitigate the impact of future floods.
All contributions are tax deductible, courtesy of Oké co-owner Red Tomato, a tax-exempt non-profit, and will go directly to fund the purchase of the Bobcat. The Bobcat fund has been seeded by another Oké co-owner, Equal Exchange. We are already more than 10% funded!
Finally, please remember that fair trade is a powerful part of sustainable development, the key to minimizing the impact of natural disasters.
Thank you for your concern, your contributions and your solidarity with the farmers of El Guabo.
-Click here for more info and to make a donation.-

Produce Prices and Shortages

Sometimes produce items become scarce or even completely unavailable. In the last 2 weeks, I am seeing a 100% increase in the cost of organic broccoli and nearly 50% increases in the cost of organic kale and lacinato kale.
Chard and collard and lettuce prices are likely to climb. On any given day, any of these items may become temporarily unavailable. Random fluctuations of supply or price, even when they feel extreme, are entirely normal, but often unpredictable.
We all have to remember that we live in a part of the world where if we were to run out of broccoli for a day or 2, we would still have dozens of alternative green choices. While in other parts of the world people are dying for lack of bread in countries that have little previous experience with daily hunger.
I'm going to continue to scramble to get what we need but I am realistic that our part of the world is changing too and I fear that random commodity shortages may become a more common occurrence for us.

—Allen Zimmerman

Rice Prices Increase 30% on Global Market

Heard on NPR this am: on commodity markets rice prices increased 30% yesterday.

Bulk rice prices at the Food Coop haven't increased since last December but be prepared for an increase.

The Christian Science Monitor has a very interesting article on the horrific effect of grain shortages around the world. Rapidly increasing oil prices which cause increases in price of fertilizers and cost of transportation coupled with severe droughts in Australia and the Ukraine.

According to the CSM, Vietnam, India and Pakistan have banned grain exports in an attempt to protect the supply of these basic foods for their poorest citizens.


-Click here to read this alarming article-