art in April

No foolin! Even though our store walls are filled mostly with coolers, freezers, bulk bins and more, (aka the colorful products of the many food artisans we work with), we've still made room for art. And let us rejoice for the beauty art brings to our world. In the month of April we've got our annual tribute to the bicycle, known as the common wheel. This year we'll have works from Mark Aumann, Lori Chilefone, Nick Dewar, Joe Maurer and Amy Zagar. Grab a cup of coffee and admire the view. And you still have a week or so to enjoy the beautiful international photographs of Mark Aumann.

pictured: sister katy's advice to huella

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

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

this Saturday: Farmers Market and Art Fair!

Just Local Food workers will be abuzz in Phoenix Park this Saturday. Laura, Aaron, Ash and Zac will be split between the Farmers Market stand with Laura's great food samples, cheese and beverages; and the OAFA food court with our new Fruit Stand - fresh delicious organic fruits like grapes, cherries, pluots and more! Please stop down, say hi, and take part in these great events in our community.

Art Reception this Saturday evening

“Longing Exists within the Night Sky”

Interpretive paintings of Tsunami survivors by Johanna Sinz

Artist's Opening Reception: Saturday, June 7 5:00-6:30pm

Show length: from June 1 – June 31

From Johanna:
Spring 2005 I began to research the Tsunami crisis particularly the disaster in Bande Ache. Thousands of women were left widows, more than one million left homeless and one in three had lost a job. Women had to share tents with strange men, they had no privacy to wash or to breastfeed. 150,000 women were pregnant when this tragedy struck. They struggled to find adequate health care. Many girls were unable to go back to school because nearly all of their teachers died and their college was destroyed in Bande Ache. Over 1,100 children were left orphaned and over 3,600 homes were destroyed. Women had to be strong and resourceful. They developed amazing bonds and friendships courageously surviving together in this male dominated society. I felt a connection with these particular women in Bande Ache the more I learned about them. Relating my pain with theirs allowed me to release emotions through painting.

I deal with situations and feelings that I am going through by painting; it has been an outlet for my emotions. Painting helps me to heal from past experiences that have happened in my life. I can let myself go through painting, putting what's in my heart and head out onto the canvas. It is essentially my escape from reality. It is a form of release, physically getting images out of my head onto the canvas releases me from being tied to the emotions.

When I started to research and study the Tsunami crisis this past spring, I began to incorporate natural disaster into my work. The water, layers, wind that I create is a grounding spot and metaphor of the events in my life. Texture is very important in the paintings, it represents how deep the emotions run. The layers that I create symbolize not only landscape but time elapsing over the landscape. Healing and washing over the destruction that has happened. By using layers and textures I form a personal language to convey my message.

artist reception this saturday!

"Monday Night Drawings" by Mark Kasiewicz

Stunning Vistas, abysmal precipices, sexual islands, illusionary portraits, marauding shadow dancing totems, intentional misrepresentations and revisionist self-perceptions in ink, pencil and pastel, manipulated beyond traditional application and sips of Monday night wine and blocks of time.

Where: Just Local Food Co-op, 772 First Avenue (JLF phone 577.5564)

Artist's Opening Reception: Saturday, January 12th 5:30 - 7:00

Cost: free

Show length: from Jan 4 – January 31

just local news early december

just local news early december

inside:
wreaths
eggs
spices
this saturday: winter market, anderson tasting & art opening
share your thoughts?

Wreaths

We have only 8 sustainably harvested wreaths remaining. No trees were cut down, and in fact they come from a co-op of responsible landowners working to preserve our forests for generations to come! Please stop in and pick one up for your home or tie it to the front of your SUV or bike. These wreaths come to us form longtime customers and friends Linda and Jack Corey, who are part of the co-op that produces the wreaths. Thanks, folks!

Eggs!

It happens every year. A few times even. The local egg "market" gets sketchy and noody has eggs for awhile. Why? Well, let's start with why you buy eggs from Just Local Food and local farmers in the first place. You want to know where they come from – a local farm, and you want them to run free when they want. And we try to bring you this consistently. You want the chickens to live a "natural" life, which means when the weather changes – it gets really hot or cold, for instance – the chickens don't "naturally" lay eggs. So, the weather changed to cold recently and the chickens that reliably lay for you most months of the year are holding out. What do we do as a store dedicated to local food? Do we buy sub-par, inferior factory eggs to make up? No. We work with other farmers that meet (y)our standards (we've called over 12 local egg suppliers in the last two weeks – NONE have eggs, well, Matt brought in 15 dozen but they disappeared in as many minutes), and if we can't find anything, we patiently wait for Mary's chickens to start laying again (they will), and try to explain why we don't have eggs to our customers, and HOPE they don't get angry (and when they do, we try not to take it personally!)... so thanks, really, to the chickens, who will soon get used to the cold...

Spices

We've stocked up on spices this month to meet the needs of your holiday culinary demands, and we've added some new flavor to the existing flare on the shelves. Bay leaves for your traditional, chili powder for your pot of warmth, lemon pepper per request and some cayenne to answer that winter chill. We've also got some new seasoning blends: Mama Garlic and Pepperman. Stop in and stock up!

This Saturday, December 8:

Lynn from Anderson Farms is coming with corned beef, kielbasa, and ground beef to sample and sell starting at 10am. In the evening, Just Local Food presents an art exhibit: A Taste of Place ~ works by Paula Gorski, Tere Hering, Dana Johnson, Christine Dickman Loew, Noriko Slowinski and Barry Weiss Opening reception, 5-6:30 pm.

We'll also be tabling at the Winter Farmer's Market at St. Raymond of Penafort Catholic Church, S10444 Hwy 53 (1 ½ miles south of Brackett, WI on Mallard Road) between 9:00 am-1:00 pm. There should be 12-15 farmers there bringing a variety of excellent meats, cheeses, dairy, honey, pork, maple syrup and more.

Give us your thoughts?

Hey, here it is that time of year, the giving season. We would very much like to show our appreciation and listen to you tell us how we can do our job better. We are open to suggestion, criticism and even detailed accounts of how your shopping experience at Just Local Food can improve. We would like nothing more than to give you, our valued customer, the gift of knowing that we are listening, interested and willing to make Just Local Food Co-op your favorite grocery.

As always, thanks for reading!

~aaron, jen t and the many merry jlf elves