Our coop has grown well over that past year, but not as much as we expect to grow over the next year! We have recently hired two incredibly qualified people to join us in the coop, Jody and Christopher. They come to us with an immense amount of experience in worker-owned and managed cooperatives, coop groceries, strategic planning and cooperative development.

Jody is currently a farmer near Boyd and education director for the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). She will be working part time with us, focused on getting our internal bylaws in order and keeping an eye on our website. She has formerly worked with the UW Center for Cooperatives and the Mifflin Street Coop in Madison. She also helped organize a home delivery service of organic produce out west for a few years.

Christopher comes to us from the Twin Cities, most recently a worker at North Country Cooperative Grocery on the West Bank. Christopher will be moving to Eau Claire soon to work with us on deliveries, strategic planning, and looking towards a future storefront for our coop.

We’ve picked up a few more Sno-Pac items to add to our list. Broccoli cuts (10oz, $1.55), green beans (10oz, $1.35) and sweet beans (10oz, $2.10). You may be wondering, what are sweet beans? Well, they are the same as the edamame we sell, but they have been taken out of the shell. What’s edamame? Here’s the answer from edamame.com!

"Edamame is a green vegetable soybean, harvested at the peak of ripening just before it reaches the hardened stage. The word edamame means "Beans on Branches." To retain the freshness and natural flavor, they are parboiled and quick frozen. In east asia the soybean has been used over two thousand years as a major protein food. Edamame is consumed as a snack, as a vegetable, an addition to soups or processed into sweets. As a snack, the pods are lightly boiled in salted water then the seeds are pushed directly from the pods into the mouth with the fingers."

My daughter Olive absolutely loves edamame - I prepare them by first bringing about a cup of water in a pan to a boil. Then I add the pods, return to a boil for a minute or two, drain, then add some tamari/soy sauce and mix. They are a bit messy with the tamari on the outside but it adds a bit of a salty flavor that complements the sweet beans inside!

Coming soon: we’re working with Menomonie Market to bring you a variety of cheeses from Cedar Grove - colby, jack, muenster, mozzarella among others. We’ve got even more items in store - as always, let us know what you would like to see, we’ll do our best!

More people, more food, less cost

We’ve now had over 50 people sign up for our monthly buying club through Natural Farms. About half are picking up their orders at our warehouse, while the other half takes delivery of their orders on Thursday night or Friday. With all of the new customers, I hope those involved and interested in the buying club will find it easy to find the foods they like at great prices. (I don’t have any price comparisons this month because, well, I haven’t been in a grocery store in the last month!)

Great River Organic Milling

Located less than an hour south of us, Great River Organic Milling provides over fifty products available to us through the buying club. I have been using Great River products for several years, and have not been disappointed. They have everything from 2# packs of pancake mix to 50# bags of bread flour, all produced locally.

Most Great River flour is stone-ground. The natural granite millstones contribute to the quality, taste and nutritional integrity of whole grain flour. Grain flowing into the stones becomes very thin, flat flakes which integrates all parts of the wheat immediately into the flour, allowing the flour to have more flavor. The cooler milling occurring with stones allows important enzyme activity to continue. Protein levels are also maintained. Their stone-ground flours are milled to order, to retain the nutritional value of the flour.

I’ve posted below a few examples from the catalog for you to see here. We may add Great River Organic Milling as a direct supplier to Just Local Food if there is enough interest.

Multi-Grain Hot Cereal Ingredients: Organic corn, rice, wheat, rye, millet, oats, & barley. 2.25#, $3.81 each

Whole Wheat Bread Flour Ingredients: Certified organic stoneground high protein hard spring wheat. 10#, $8.11 / 50#, $29.15

Unbleached Wheat Bread Machine Flour Ingredients: Milled from hard red spring wheat. A good quality white bread flour developed for bread machines or for any yeast breads made by hand. Add to whole grain flours for a lighter texture. 5#, $4.62

Corn & Oat Pancake Mix Ingredients: Corn flour, oat flour, baking powder and salt. 2#, $3.77 / 5# $6.58

Letter from Guatemala

Dear Farmer to Farmer members:

The Committee of Weavers has received with open arms many visitors of Farmer to Farmer this past year and we thank-you for the blessing of those visits.We are deeply grateful for the scholarship support for our students and for your support in our corn and bean crops. Our corn and bean harvest in 2004 was very good! In Atitlan there has been an increase in thievery and drug addiction. Our plan is to work towards the completion of our Weaving Workshop but we do not have funds for this construction.We hope to work at cultivating coffee plants with some new ideas but we need funds.We have some young avocado trees started and we plan to plant them on the Farmer to Farmer land in June.We continue forward little by little. Merry Christmas. Until soon, Francisco Esquina

The Organic Center's second State of Science Review concludes that organic farming methods have the potential to elevate average antioxidant levels, especially in fresh produce. Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., compiled and analyzed existing scientific information for his report, Elevating Antioxidant Levels Through Organic Farming and Food Processing. The report reveals that on average, antioxidant levels were about 30 percent higher in organic food compared to conventional food grown under the same conditions. An executive summary and the entire report can be found at:

www.organic-center.org

We messed up (?)

We occasionally make mistakes. If you find something wrong in your order please let us know and we’ll do our best to fix the problem. Some of you are such nice and understanding people that you accept our mistakes and just move on. While that warms our hearts (seriously!) it doesn’t allow us to learn from our mistakes and improve our service. So please, if we’ve messed up let us know, no matter how small the problem.

Expanded delivery area, pickup option available

We are now delivering to all areas of Eau Claire and Altoona, the town of Seymour, and even up around the airport. We also go several miles south of Eau Claire between Hwy 93 and Lowes Creek Road, and west out past Fanny Hill a mile or two. We’re also offering limited pickup hours on both Friday and Saturday for people outside the delivery areas.

Seed orders due soon!

I mentioned in the last newsletter the coop seed packer FEDCO (www.fedcoseeds.com). I have received a few orders and will be placing our first group order on Monday 2/21 . If you would like to get in on the group order you can still get your orders to me. I may do a second order in March if there is interest, and of course you can order yourself directly through FEDCO if you wish.

Just like any action, the most critical thing is that you do something. Today. At least this week. Otherwise, you will have been given knowledge that requires action, and refused to act. That is worse than ignorance. A whole world, a wonder world, exists outside of Wal-Mart. And although it's not a sin to go there, it may be a sin to go there frequently.