Top four reasons you’ll love this simple summer salad:
It will allow you to celebrate and enjoy many local ingredients – cucumbers, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil & oregano are all in season right now.
It’s budget-friendly – Many of the ingredients are featured in our weekly sale this week.
It’s a perfect meal for a hot summer day – Who wants to fire up the oven on a hot day? The garbanzo beans, olives, artichokes, and feta lend a satiating substance that won’t leave you feeling like you only had salad for dinner. Top it with leftover sliced chicken or steak to make it even more substantial.
It’s quick – 10 minutes is all you’ll need to throw together this beautiful meal.
There are certain fruits and vegetables that seem to announce the changing of the seasons, and for us here at the Co-op, the day we received our first delivery of local, organic tomatoes and strawberries from Wood’s Market Garden, we knew that summer was finally here! We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Wood’s Market Garden this week to highlight their magnificent 150-acre organic farm in Brandon, VT. Member-owners can enjoy 20% off all of their glorious local, organic fruits and veggies this week, including heirloom tomatoes, succulent strawberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers (the first of the season!), shell peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, and cauliflower! Oh, and don’t forget the offerings from the bulk department – dried organic black beans and pinto beans! Read on to learn more about the family that makes it possible for us to offer such a beautiful bounty:
Wood’s Market Garden is a fruit, vegetable & flower farm and seasonal market nestled in the quaint town of Brandon, Vermont. Our fields have been producing fresh food for the greater Brandon community for over 100 years. Jon Satz purchased the farm 16 years ago from Bob and Sally Wood. With his passion for growing and sustainable farming practices, the farm and market have blossomed into a destination for beautiful organic vegetables, quality bedding plants and some of the sweetest strawberries around! Jon, his wife Courtney, and their 2 young sons make their home on the farm and enjoy the continued legacy of farming the land that the Wood family started generations ago.
The farm consists of 150 acres of Vermont farmland and woods. Known far and wide for our delicious sweet corn and plump, sweet strawberries, we also grow over 50 kinds of vegetables and fruits on 60 acres of sandy loam soils. Our produce and vegetable plants are certified organic, and along with our field production, we also have 7 greenhouses for raising bedding plants, ornamentals, vegetable starts and the tastiest early tomatoes in the state! Our unique varieties of plants and our passion for quality crops keeps people coming back year after year.
We grow all of our produce organically here on the farm. It’s a labor of love for everyone involved from seeding to harvesting to washing and selling. We’re really proud to be able to provide such a bounty of farm fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to our community year after year. It’s what feeds our own families here on the farm and beyond and you should feel good knowing we grow it all with love, care and a commitment to good organic practices.
Aside from growing an abundant array of fruits and vegetables for retailers like the Middlebury Co-op, we also offer a CSA and have a seasonal farm stand open daily in the summer from 9 am – 6 pm. Outside, it’s a paradise of plants, hanging baskets, creeping vines, and gardens to wander. We’re on the banks of Jones Mill Pond on Route 7, which during the warm summer months is covered with those famous pink water lilies. Inside the market, the shelves and baskets are filled with gorgeous fresh produce from our farm and bouquets of fresh-cut flowers. Depending on what’s in season, you’ll find everything from fresh spinach to strawberries to squash. We grow over 50 different kinds of produce on our farm, just yards from the farm stand. In addition to produce, we have an unbelievable variety of artisanal cheese, organic milk, and other local dairy products, local meat and poultry, fresh baked goods, maple syrup, raw honey, homemade pickles, jam and more! If you’re looking to stock your own garden, you can browse our selection of farm-grown organic veggie and herb starts, and a stunning variety of annuals, and perennials! We hope you’ll stop in and see us on your next trip through Brandon.
As our celebration of Dairy Month churns on, we’re shining our Co-op Spotlight on a fantastic local, organic dairy farm hailing from Randolph Center, VT: Neighborly Farms! Member-owners can enjoy 20% off their award-winning organic cheeses this week! Read on to learn more about this 168-acre organic dairy farm that calls VT home:
Established as an operating dairy farm in the 1920’s, Rob and Linda Dimmick are continuing the tradition of family farming. Nestled in the rolling hills of Randolph Center, Vermont, Neighborly Farms decorates the countryside with its red barn and white post and beam farmhouse built in the 1800s. We operate on 168 acres with cropland and grazing fields to support the dairy and a sugarhouse for producing pure Vermont maple syrup. The clean and tidy barn is home to 70 Holsteins—the black and white cows that symbolize rural living at its very best.
Rob and Linda are continuing the family farming tradition because they have a passion for the land and animals. We are a totally organic farm. This means the farm is run in complete harmony with the land and the animals; no antibiotics, no hormones, and no commercial fertilizers. Just pure and natural techniques that keep the cows healthy, happy, and the dairy products wholesome and chemical free. It means that the cheese produced at Neighborly Farms are pure and natural. And the best part? The organic cheeses taste great too.
Neighborly Farms of Vermont is not just another dairy farm. At our family farm we have a love for the land and animals. That’s why we’re an organic farm. It says we care about our surroundings and neighbors. Neighborly Farms produces eleven kinds of delicious organic cheeses; all made with wholesome milk from our well-cared for Holstein cows. At our family farm we make cheese the old-fashioned way, by caring for the land and surroundings it helps us produce the finest cheeses possible.
At the Co-op, you’ll find a rotating variety of our cheeses including our Jalapeno Jack, Monterey Jack, Colby, Feta, Green Onion Cheddar, and our staple Raw Milk Cheddar, many of which have been honored with awards from the prestigious American Cheese Society. We hope you enjoy them and thank you for supporting your local, organic dairy farms!
One of the beautiful, intangible things about supporting local products is the element of human connection. When you have questions about the products, you get to call and speak with an actual human who likely created the products, knows them intimately, and can skillfully answer all of your questions. The alternative often entails calling an 800 number, navigating your way through various electronic menus, listening to bad hold music, and, if you’re lucky, reaching a customer service rep who may or may not be able to answer your questions. We experienced a fine example of this sort of thing recently when we noticed that one of our favorite natural body care product lines was sporting a beautiful new makeover. This prompted us to reach out to founder and creator of Flourish Natural Body Care, Kirsten Connor. She chatted with us from her studio in Woodstock, Vermont, and we got the scoop on the fresh new look, plus lots of other great info about her natural body care products:
MNFC: What inspired your venture into the world of natural body care products?
Kirsten: I started out as a soap maker. I taught myself to make cold process soap and this whole world of scent and color just opened up for me. I was kind of fascinated by the fact that by using one of the most dangerous/caustic substances (lye) and combining it with the right ingredients it could be completely transformed into something wonderful for your skin. Once I had mastered soap, I added on scrubs and balms and then worked up to understanding lotions and cremes. Hair care was definitely the trickiest because being a “purist” I wanted to be able to make it from soap-but after literally hundreds of trials I had to accept that soap and my hair were not a happy combination. When I began to look more closely at cleansers in shampoos I began to understand that there are really good options that are very gentle and biodegradable. Similarly to the relationship between milled soap and cold process soap.
MNFC: Your products have some new ingredients added. Can you tell us about this?
Kirsten: As a formulator, I’ve always subscribed to the theory that “less is more”. I’ve always tried to limit the number of ingredients in a recipe so that they would really have a chance to shine. Like with our body cremes-the star is the cocoa butter so I really want you to be able to feel the silkiness of that when you are putting it on your skin. Since Vermont is such a agricultural state, people who were sampling our products would always ask me if I grow all the lavender, etc. that we use in our products, not realizing that lavender doesn’t grow reliably well here in Vermont. Our really fun scent combinations have always been what makes our products stand out. One day, while planting in my garden, I read a description of angelica-and was startled because the description was exactly how I always described our Rosewood Infusion blend. I began to think about other plants that would reflect the feeling that our different scents gave. I consulted with an herbalist and she and I worked together to choose the plants and find the best way to deliver them in the different products.
MNFC: Your products have a new look! What prompted this packaging change?
Kirsten: This was a big leap for us! After the flood in 2011, when we restarted Flourish, one of the things we were advised to do was to streamline our manufacturing/purchasing etc. and to use the same bottles for our shampoos, conditioners and lotions. Personally, I’m not a fan of plastic. I don’t use it at home for storing our food, etc. When I was reformulating our recipes, the issue came up for me again. Not only did I want to protect the herbal infusions and essential oils that we were including, but I really wanted to limit participating in so much plastic consumption. Of course, glass containers should never be used in the shower but in every other instance, glass is a better choice. You wouldn’t think of compromising your beer or kombucha by storing it in a plastic bottle would you? Not to mention that during the manufacturing process, lotions and cremes are poured into their packaging while hot-so even if the plastic bottle or tube is BPA free, just the heat alone will cause some leaching. And then you are applying that to your skin?
MNFC: What are your considerations when choosing ingredients for your products and how do you go about sourcing them?
Kirsten: All of the herbal elements that we have added are either wildcrafted from our fields or we grow them in our gardens. Since we grow, harvest, preserve, etc. all of these plants we know that they are up to our standards. For everything else, we always choose organic oils and butters for our lotions and for our cleansers and preservatives we follow Ecocert guidelines when choosing ingredients. If you are not familiar, Ecocert is a European organization and the very first organization to develop standards for cosmetic manufacturing. With Ecocert there must be an absence of GMO’s, parabens, I phenoxyethanol, nano particles, silicon, PEG, synthetic perfumes and dyes, and animal derived ingredients. These standards close the loopholes that happen here in the US where a product can be certified organic but still contain a percentage of undesirable ingredients like phenoxyethanol.
MNFC: What is your favorite product that you make? What scent?
Kirsten: This truly does change with the seasons but overall I would say it is the GingerElixir+Arnica Body Oil. We have always been huge users of arnica for our entire family, but it is usually scented with menthol or peppermint-which I do not love. Having rheumatoid arthritis, I use arnica frequently and don’t always want a heavy medicinal smell. So I created this oil, infused with arnica flowers for pain and inflammation relief but with a warm, spicybeautiful ginger scent. So it’s more like a special treat.
MNFC: What is your favorite thing about your job as a creator of natural body care products?
Kirsten: Definitely when people who have tried our products tell me how much they love them!
King Arthur Flour is America’s oldest flour company, founded in Boston in 1790 to provide pure, high-quality flour for residents of the newly formed United States. More than 220 years later, they’re still going strong, thanks to the passion and commitment of their dedicated employee-owners. In 1984, then-owners Frank and Brinna Sands moved the company from Massachusetts, where it had been based for 194 years, to Norwich, Vermont, where the company is headquartered today.
We’re casting our spotlight on King Arthur Flour this week as part of our Member Deals program, which means that member-owners can enjoy 20% their full line of baking products! Choose from their time-tested Patent Flour, available in 50# bags, to gluten-free baking mixes available in both our bulk department and in the grocery baking aisle. Then tie on the apron, break out the rolling pin, and have a bake-a-thon!
Want to know more about King Arthur Flour? Here are some historical highlights from their webpage: 1790 Henry Wood began importing European flour to Long Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. His goal was to provide high-quality flour for bakers in the fledgling United States
1896 More than 100 years later, the company Wood founded gave its product a new brand name: King Arthur Flour. Their new, exceptional, U.S.-grown flour was introduced at the Boston Food Fair.
1984 Then-owners Frank and Brinna Sands moved the company from Massachusetts, where it had been based for 194 years, to Norwich, Vermont, where the company is headquartered today
1992The Baker’s Store was opened in Norwich at the urging of local catalogue customers. The same year, our Life Skills Bread Baking Program began visiting schools to share the joys of baking and giving. 1995 King Arthur Flour built new headquarters in Norwich, a 12-sided post-and-beam building appropriately named Camelot. Camelot now houses The Baker’s Store and Vermont Public Radio.
1996 With thoughts of retiring, Frank and Brinna Sands decided to sell the company to their employees and began an Employee Stock Ownership Plan; the company also launched its first website.
1998 King Arthur Flour established a second location, Avalon, in nearby Hartford, Vermont, for its customer service, fulfillment, and product development functions. Avalon underwent expansion in 2004 to accommodate the company’s growing workforce
2004The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companionwon the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook of the Year Award; King Arthur Flour also completed its ownership transfer and became 100% employee-owned. 2006 Received the Outstanding Vermont Business Award and the Better Business Bureau Local Torch Award for Excellence.
2007 King Arthur Flour became a founding B (Beneficial) Corporation, changing its bylaws to reflect its commitment to all stakeholders— including shareholders, business partners, the community, and the environment
2010 King Arthur Flour launched its award-winning line of gluten-free baking mixes; its Life Skills Bread Baking Program taught its 120,000th student; and Baking Education Center classes reached more than 4,600 bakers.
