St. Patrick’s Day is coming: Corned Beef

Do something different this St. Patrick’s Day: Make your own corned beef from scratch!

It's easier than you think, and absolutely delicious. But you need to get your beef this week, if you want to have it ready for your St. Patty's Day feast.

1. Buy a beef brisket or roast from Just Local Food.
2. Get the recipe at the store.
3. Laura will show you how to do it on Tuesday, 2/23, 6pm at the store, and answer any questions.
4. Start your corned beef by February 28 to have it ready by St. Patrick’s Day (March 17).

We'll have all the other ingredients for a great corned beef dinner (cabbage, potatoes, carrots), rye bread, and beer, of course.

Impress your friends and family, take pride in creating something delicious and different, and know that Julia Child (whose recipe we're using) would never steer you wrong. Cheers!

Check Out This Lineup!

SAMPLINGS GALORE!

Stop in the next few days to try some new products and get the down low on some of your old favorites.

Friday February 19th 3-5PM: Mark from Sand Creek Brewing will be dropping in to sample the Sand Creek gamit. Start on the lighter side, Hard Lemonade, Golden Ale, & Groovy Brew. Then shift over to the stronger side with stalwarts like Wild Ride IPA, Badger Porter, and Oscar's Chocolate Stout. This is surely a sampling that will please anyone's beer drinking preferences. Be prepared for some limited and new releases.

Saturday February 20th 12-3PM: Ken from Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil will be doling out some tasty concoctions made with their certified organic Pumpkin Seed Oil, the only domestically produced one no less. Stop down for a sample of this extremely flavorful oil and learn how to use it to spruce up your next dish!

Phoenix Garden and Just Local Food

Ask us where to find garden applications and a variety of seeds, potting soil, compost and other gardening needs for this spring! get a jump on the season with garlic planting! any other ideas?!

Lissa is Leaving

After countless hours of hard work and dedicated service to the Just Local Food Collective, customers, suppliers and vendors, Lissa Ziehr is moving downtown! Lissa is leaving Just Local Food to take the position of Office Manager for the Eau Claire Children’s Museum. Over the past 6 years she has established an efficient accounting system and worked tirelessly with the other worker/owners to grow the business from milk and eggs to a full scale corner grocery that sells “the best food”.

We will miss her being with us every day but know that she will be putting her many talents to work for the benefit of our community. We are sad to see her leave but wish her the best in her new position.

Quote from Lissa "It was very hard descion to leave and I'll miss you all very much! I will still be a big supporter and very dedicated to Just Local Food, it is such a great place."

Brew News FeBREWary 2010

1. New/Seasonal Beers - feat. Matacabras and Thermo Refur
2. Northwoods/Walter's Sampling Feb. 18th & Sand Creek Sampling Feb. 19th
3. Meet Your Brewer
4. Discount Beers & Pre-mixed IPA 6packs

1. New/Seasonal Beers - feat. Matacabras and Thermo Refur We are starting to hit BOCK and DOPPELBOCK season. Look forward to many great selections slipping into the store through the rest of winter and on into spring. Also there are a few new selections coming out of Dave's BrewFarm and Furthermore that deserve a special nod. a snippet of what is new at JLF (with descriptions from the Brewers' themselves)

New Glarus Cabin Fever Honey Bock

Cool days draw us close to the warmth of home fires. This is the season to sip away the chill and embrace quiet evenings with friends and family. You hold a Wisconsin Style Honey Bock, easy going and more approachable than its traditional dark German cousin. Bock beers have existed in Wisconsin for over 150 years. This pale bock is brewed with an exclusive blend of Wisconsin two row barley that balances seamlessly with our special European hops. Naturally sweet Clover Honey was added in the kettle accenting warm flavor notes on your tongue.

Whether you reminisce the passing summer sun or thrill to squeaky steps through drifting snow one thing is certain about winter in Wisconsin, this too shall pass.

Dave's BrewFarm Matacabras (coming soon)

In Spain, MATACABRAS is “the wind that kills goats.” In Wisconsin, it's the first in a series of wind-themed specialty beers from the BrewFarm.

In our part of the Upper Midwest there’s nothing like a brisk north wind to get your attention. So when we stumbled upon the name of this wicked Spanish breeze, we decided to brew up something that would likewise stop folks in their tracks.

We brew for flavor and for the overall “beer experience,” and our results are often curious and always distinctive. This strange new ale is no exception. Like its name, it is dark, mysterious, and difficult to translate into a familiar category. The deep hue and creamy body might suggest one style, but the floral aroma and Trappist-inspired flavors say another.

It is dark, yet not heavy; complex, yet balanced; strong, yet very smooth ... and unusually satisfying.

Furthermore Thermo Refur (coming soon)

With all its complexities, this ale is at its core a play between two basic characteristics of beer: good and evil. On one side, there are the smart,clean flavors of bright hops (40 IBU's) and stimulating black pepper, and on the other side, there are the dark, dusty flavors of our unique yeast blend. It's like this: We took an elegant, classic wheat yeast from a good neighborhood and sullied it with questionable characters from the other side of the tracks: two brettanomyces yeasts - one known for odd fruity flavors, the other for carrying subtle barnyard notes - and a lactic acid bacteria which produces sour but exciting qualities. We added this dysfunctional family to a heavy grain base (yielding 8.1% ABV), which leans on malted wheat with just enough black malt to give a color backdrop for the late addition of organic red beets. The deep red of the beet pushes the dirty-brown base color toward a funky purple hue, while the simple sugars reinvigorate fermentation.

At its freshest, the influences of the once-wild-but-produced-in-a-lab-to-avoid-a-poaching-fine organisms ride beneath the hops and pepper. As the beer ages, look for the spices to mellow and the bad influence of the microscopic thugs to continue to corrupt the flavor profile.

2. Northwoods/Walter's Sampling Feb. 18th & Sand Creek Sampling Feb. 19th
Patrick from Northwoods will be stopping by Thursday, February 18th from 4-6PM to sample out Walter's and Floppin' Crappie. Please stop on down and sample a bit of Eau Claire history in a can.

Mark from Sand Creek Brewery will be dropping in for a sampling on Friday, February 19th from 3-5PM. Stop on in for a sampling of Oscar's Chocolate Stout, Wild Ride IPA, English-Style Ale, or any of the other numerous beers being crafted at this amazing brewery.

3. Meet Your Brewer
We are starting a new segment in our monthly newsletter called Meet Your Brewer. This section will allow us to interview the folks that bring us that refreshing beverage called beer. We will be chatting with Brewers, Owners, Sales Reps, Distributors, you name it, in order to better connect you the customer to the people that make the product happen. Below is a small piece of a future video post featuring David, owner/brewer/sales rep, of Dave's BrewFarm. Look forward to a full interview in our March edition of Brew News.



4. Discount Beers & Pre-mixed IPA 6packs
Just a reminder to y'all, we have a discounted single beer section in the bottom right-hand corner of the beer case. Here you will find various overstocks, seasonals done and past, and beers that got the ax in favor of something new and fresh. Either way, you, the customer, gets a great price on great beer. Thanks for helping us keep our case as fresh as possible!

Also, we have hand picked some pre-mixed IPA 6packs for your pleasure. These bad boys pack a serious punch of hops. Starting next month we will be featuring bocks and doppelbocks in the pre-mix 6 section.

As always, CHEERS!
Jordan

'Beer. Now there's a temporary solution.' ~Dan Castellaneta