pomegranates, potatoes, peppers plus +

Well the weather is cooling off but our fresh, organic & local produce section is still pretty hot. We just received a van load of a variety of certified organic squash from Larry at Sylvan Hills. Check out the recipe for butternut kuri curry squash soup we sampled at last Saturday's market, available in the store. We have some Wisconsin grown luscious pears in today, along with a box of pluots, more great avocadoes, 80# of fresh sweet potatoes, delicious small green grapes, some huge mangoes and two boxes of organic fair trade bananas.

Pomegranates are weird. Looking, that is. But they pack a nutritious punch. Full of antioxidants ready fight cell damage, their seeds and juice are known for their healing powers. Be like an ancient priestess and adorn yourself with the fruit. Or just eat one and live longer, as the Chinese have long known. Take one home today! Check out this awesome website for everything you need to know about pomegranates!

art in october

“My Little Garden Friends”
The Photography of Kathy Tank

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 16th from 6:30-8:00pm featuring David Tank, author of “River of Hope: My Journey with Kathy in Search of Healing from Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. David will share Kathy’s story and specifically address the dietary and lifestyle changes she had made after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Kathy was known to many in the area as The Garden Tender because of her garden maintenance business. But, as she put it, my love of gardening started when I was still in the womb and my mother chatted tenderly to her daisies and mums. Kathy was a Master Gardener, Master Composter and former co-president of the Otter Creek Garden Club.

In late 2004 she began noticing some muscle weakness and was later diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease). By June of 2006 she was no longer able to continue her gardening business and working in her own gardens had become a challenge. But she was unwilling to give up. She redirected her energies to photographing her gardens and writing feature articles about gardening for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegrams Home Front magazine.

This collection of photographs depicts Kathys gardens from her point of view; close and intimate. Because she used no pesticides, she had a number of little friends that enjoyed her flowers with her. She was delighted each time that she met someone new among her flowers and enjoyed sharing their pictures with friends and family. She had also begun to share her pictures
with a wider audience and had winning photographs in contests in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Kathy died in November 2007 after complications from a fall. Amazingly, she had been making progress in reversing her ALS, something the experts had told her was impossible. I am confident that she would have appreciated my sharing these portraits of her little garden friends with a larger audience. I hope that you enjoy seeing them as much as she enjoyed taking them.

-David Tank

Kielbasa, Chorizo, and Tiny Chickens

Here's what's new in the meat department:

Randy & Lynn Anderson from Anderson Farm brought in some of their best-selling products, made from 100% grass feed beef. Nitrate-free uncured beef kielbasa, sliced summer sausage (good for snacking or in sandwiches), and beef sticks. Their delicious uncured beef hot dogs are now back in stock, plus we still have a few of their wonderful corned beef brisket awaiting your taste buds.

We have a new product from Beaver Creek Ranch in our freezer, fresh chorizo in bulk 1# packages. It is seasoned with salt, spices, paprika, and garlic. How about making a big steamy pot of lentil and chorizo sausage soup? We’ve got the ingredients right here in the store!

Matt Buvala, who provides our wonderful organic free-range eggs, brought us some small stewing chickens at a great price. They’d be great in soup or stew or even Coq au Vin, if that’s your style. The chickens are $7.99 each, and are in the store for a trial basis. Come and get yours, and let us know if you’d like these to be a regular item.

Here is a link to all kinds of chicken soups and chowders.

Thanks to Dave for the above links and info…

moving update

Well I'm sure you've read the news about the country's financial situation this week. What a time to be getting a loan for a new building! We are working overtime to secure our financing to complete our move. Believe me, we're chomping at the bit to tell you when and where. We do have a sign-up sheet at the store if you'd like to help with our move in any way. Another way you might help is to consider purchasing Class C Preferred Shares in our business. They are available in $100 increments, accrue an optional 5% yearly dividend, and your money will stay and work hard right here in the Chippewa Valley.

Every little bit helps! And thanks to those who have already contributed to our equity fund now over $60,000 strong, and to all of our customers - old & new, that keep us going! See you soon...

calling all kids, walkers, bikers!

Eco-parade "float"

Update: It was a fun time, we handed out hundreds of local apples to smiling adults and kids! Apples instead of candy in a parade? Right on!

Calling all JLF supporters! Just Local Food has been invited to participate in the International Fall Festival parade this Saturday 9/20. We will be riding bikes/trailers, walking & pushing strollers, wearing Just Local Food carrot shirts and Eat Local Challenge shirts and passing out stickers and apples. We're inviting any and all of you to join us if you'd like. We'll have extra t-shirts on hand for you to wear. We'll be parading between a hydrogen powered car and the cute little electric van we hosted at the store a few weeks ago.

Meet us in Wilson Park, the south side on Earl Street between Farwell and Barstow streets sometime between 2 and 3 to join in the fun. Email Aaron for more info.

Carr Valley Cheese & other refrigerated updates

I'm excited to share that we have started working with Carr Valley Cheese. This Cheesemaking operation spans 4 generations dating back 100 years. To say the least, they know how to make darnn good cheese. We're starting with the eight varieties listed below, but look forward to many more making their way through the store in the months to come.

Mammoth Cheddar

Mammoth Cheddar is a very old traditional style of cheese. It is a 74 lb. wheel that is cellar cured. We grow native molds on the surface of the cheese and cure it for 10 months. The flavor is very fresh and delicious with some fruity afternotes. This cheese won 2nd place at the 2006 American Cheese Society Competition.

Black Sheep Truffle

Inspired by the truffled cheese of Italy, Sid has created this award winning sheep milk cheese which is washed in truffle oil and aged over 6 months. Has a sweet unique earthy flavor from the black truffle pieces throughout the cheese. It was awarded 1st Place at the 2006 American Cheese Society Competiton.

Mobay

Sid's whimsically delicious take on the famous French cheese, Morbier. Our version features a layer of sheep milk cheese and a layer of goat milk cheese separated by a layer of grape vine ash and pressed together. The flavor is both delicate and rustic. Taste each layer separately and then together for three different flavor profiles in one great cheese. Mobay took 2nd Place in its class at the 2004 and 2005 American Cheese Society Competition.

Chevre au Lait

Made with 100% goat milk, this gouda style cheese is aged for extra flavor. Excellent table and snacking cheese.

Cocoa Cardona

Chocolate and cheese unite beautifully in this award-winning American Original. Made in 8-lb. wheels, from goat milk, it features our delicious Cardona aged and rubbed with cocoa powder. The cocoa flavor is subtle, the rind a lovely brown, and the end result like nothing you've ever tasted. It took 1st Place at the 2004 and 2nd in 2006 American Cheese Society Competition and Best of Class & Overall Second Runner-Up out of 1,000 entries in the 2005 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest.

Creama Kasa

An incredibly rich and flavorful triple-cream cheese that's like pure heaven. Creama Kasa is made from cow milk. Its flavor is buttery and piquant, and it melts in your mouth. Perfect for spreading on warm, crusty bread.

Wildflower Cheddar

Wildflower Cheddar is a cheese made from the milk of cows that graze on lush spring and summer wildflower pastures.

Also new in refrigerated...

Coon Creek Organic Eggs

Bubbies Pure Kosher Dill Pickles

Organic Valley Neufchatel Cheese Spread

Rosewood Organic Tofu

Elderberry Kitchen Raspberry Poppyseed Dressing

Elderberry Kitchen Raspberry Agave Dressing

Elderberry Kitchen Pasta Salad Dressing

Vote in the Volume One reader Poll!

Head here for the skinny, or vote straight from the lists below by clicking "yay" for your favorites...

UWEC's Fresh Start Farmers Market

Come stop by our booth at UWEC's farmers market Thursday mornings throughout September and October!

Just Local Food and several other local vendors will be on campus (between Zorn Arena and Hibbard Hall) from 7:30-11:30 selling fruits and vegetables, flowers, coffee, breads and cookies, cheeses and yogurts, and many more great ways to start off any Thursday morning!

Help support our local economy! meet some Foodlums! enjoy a cup o' java! Witness the University's moving towards greater sustainability and community connections! see you there...

honey

straight from the farm:

The subject of raw honey could be and has been debated forever. However, we at Honey Hill Apiary would like to make the following statement for you, our customers, about our views on this issue.

We feel that the only true raw honey comes directly from the hive in the form of comb honey. USDA, which is responsible for classifying honey, does not acknowledge the term “raw honey” nor do they put it into any classification. Any honey you see in a jar has been processed in some way. Honey does not have to have bits of wax and various particles floating in it to be healthy for you. All of our honey is produced in Wisconsin. Our honey is warmed to a low temperature, strained (not pressure filtered), and packed into containers. That’s it! We add nothing to our honey, nor do we take anything away from it. All the nutrients are still in every jar of Honey Hill’s honey. Again we feel the only raw honey is comb honey, and we will not attempt to mislead our customers into thinking that they are getting anything other than what the label represents. Thank you for trying our honey and if you ever have any questions, we will always be here. Just give us a call or email.

• All pure honey will granulate in time. Most of the types of honey that are produced in this area will granulate shortly after extraction. One week to one month.
• To turn granulated honey back into liquid honey it must be heated to about 130 degree F. No way around it as that is about the melting point of honey.
• Raw: In its natural condition; not changes by art, manufacture, etc. Not processed, edited. All liquid honey has been removed from its wax comb, which is a change or process.
• Our honey is gravity strained through a cloth, not pressure filtered.
  

now taking resumes

Just Local Food is opening our door to new workers (see the open door there?). We’re looking for enthusiastic individuals with interest and experience in the following ways:

~in store and market customer service shifts
~weekend and evening help
~various departmental and committee work

Part-time positions may grow into a full-time opportunity. After a 90 day training period, workers are invited to become worker/owners or stay on as employees at the co-op.

If interested, please submit a resume ASAP!

To be included on resume:
~Work Experience
~Interests in departments
~Collective/Cooperative / Group involvement
~General availability including number of hours per week and times available (i.e. week days, weekends, day or evening)

Please email , drop off, or mail your resume to:

Just Local Food Cooperative
772 First Avenue
Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54703
715.577.5564

fresh produce

Boy howdy, it's harvest season! We've got cars, trucks and vans pulling up everyday with fresh new items for the store. And with a bunch of students back in town, and folks easing up on vacations, store sales are up and we're turning over the produce more - which means more variety and better quality for you!

In addition to our longtime local partners like Wheatfield Hill (tomatoes, melons...), Sunbow (tomatoes...), Sylvan Hills (garlic, summer squash...), Dragsmith (greens & more...) and Harmony Valley (cucumbers...) we have recently befriended Altruistic Farms, from south of here, near Gilman. Now here's a sweet old fella who has been growing great food for ages, and knows how to do it right, the old fashioned way, what we might call "clean" growing. We're consigning their sweet corn for $2 a dozen right now, and have a few other products from their farm you'll enjoy.

Also on the hotlist for produce this week are Helen's Melons - Wheatfield Hill certified organic watermelons in a variety of sizes and colors - all good. How about some excellent local russett potatoes, pairing quite well with any variety of Larry's (Sylvan Hills) garlic that is now in abundance. Have you had walla walla onions? Not the ones from Texas, but the ones from Chippewa? Expert local grower Jon Behling brought us these whoppers, eat 'em like an apple.

Look for Ron Schaeffer's certified organic local apples later this week - we'll have honeycrisp and soon some connell reds. Now, I've read and heard about some local orchards "going green" but don't confuse less toxic spraying with what Ron does on his certified organic orchard. Of course, spraying fewer chemicals is a good move (most do it to save money, not because they are convinced organic food is important), but it is far from the commitment and shift in orchard care that is required by organic standards. I'm sorry to say, but if you really get down to it with the conventional orchards around here, they are nice, wonderful people but they are spraying some nasty stuff on the fruit and into the environment. Ron proves, every season, that you can grow a great tasting apple without the crap, and he deserves our support. Believe me, it's not easy being the organic orchard in a sea of "conventional" out there on County K. (and how did it get to be that spraying chemicals is conventional?) Yeah, pumpkin cannons are cool, slingshots and mazes are fun, donuts taste great, but when it comes to having an apple you can enjoy, feel good about and feed to your kids, stop by Schaeffers Orchard run or buy some at our store. It makes a difference, and the other orchards are catching on. Keep up the good work, folks!

We're moving soon!

Hey there. I'm sure you've heard that we are moving our store soon. Our landlord (as of April this year), Eau Claire County, gave us until mid-October to vacate our current location along the river here. After scouring downtown Eau Claire for the perfect location, we now have an accepted real estate offer on a building that will close (that's close as in real estate close, not close the store!!!) on September 15. We will be moving in mid-October. Now the question you (and everybody else) have is WHERE IS IT!?!? Well, we're buying a building - ours to keep, adore, improve and expand as we see fit. Considering the bad luck we've had on locations so far (fire, wrecking balls) we really need to keep the location private and secret until we close (real estate close, you know, September 15th!). Believe me, we will be holding a press conference and letting you know where we're moving as soon as we possibly can. Until then, we have a request. You have probably heard rumors about where we're moving - everybody likes to guess and/or make assumptions. It's fun. However, we'd really appreciate it if you kept these rumors and assumptions quiet until we can announce publicly. We say this for a few reasons, the main one is that our real estate offer is contingent upon it being kept quiet until closing. The other is, well, we'd like to be the ones announcing it at the right time. It's gonna be awesome, and we can't wait to share the great news, and our slick new business plan with you, when the time comes!

transitions

Just Local Food is like no other business out there. There's a lot of reasons for that. One is you, our customers. We have the best dang customers around. Supportive, understanding, caring, dedicated... you rule. We wouldn't be here without you. And of course there are the farmers, and Just Local Food just wouldn't exist, quite obviously, without them and the fruits (and meats, and vegetables, and dairy-aires) of their labor. They are great too, but you know that, because you eat their food. The other piece of the JLF puzzle is the "middleperson" - in our case it's workers, and for the most part worker/owners.

We don't spend a lot of time tooting our own worker horns. We're busy, forging new ground, building on successes, making blundering mistakes, picking up the pieces and running again - you know, operating a store, delivery service, a few farmers market stands, educating the public about local food, cooperatives, farm practices... it's hard work. Nobody else is doing it like this. The pay is low, benefits as most workplaces call them are essentially nonexistent (so far). And working in a democratic, cooperative atmosphere is exhausting, if not impossible at some times. (It's pretty cool too, don't get me wrong!)

Over the past few years, we've had the pleasure of working with some awesome, inspirational, hard working folks. And they don't get much better than Joe Ziehr and Ash Clough. Dedicated community folks who put their all into this place, through some pretty rough times to be sure. It is with a lot of sadness that we say good bye to Joe and Ash. But with sadness also comes great wishes toward their futures, as we know they will carry on with their dedication to community, family, and the greater good. Thank you, Joe and Ash, from the bottom of our hearts. You have helped build something great here. We still have a lot to learn from you...

Art in September

Well folks, this is our last art show in our store here on First Avenue.

Just Local Food presents an art exhibit in September featuring:

Lois Images: whimsical photo manipulations by Lois Bravo

“I create my art images by taking a photograph, using Photoshop CS2 to liquefy the colors, and then re-forming the colors into a unique and different ‘Lois Image’ that has no resemblance what-so-ever to the original photo except for the colors, which are usually vivid, intense, and stimulating. My images are surrealistic and primitive in style. They seem to exhibit a startling, dreamlike supernatural quality, an altered awareness that is sometimes subtle, sometime obvious.”

Artist's Opening Reception: Saturday, Sept 6 4:00-5:30pm

Show length: * from Sept 1 – Sept 30