Our staff works hard year-round to make great food for our owners and shoppers. Seward employees bring new ideas and recipes to the Seward Co-op Creamery Café production kitchen, so what’s in stores is always fresh and fits the season.

Look for these and other new Seward-made items this winter.

Sausage

Garlic Kielbasa
Seward-made Garlic Kielbasa is half beef, half pork and features local Community Foods producer Peterson Craftsman Meats in Osceola, Wisconsin. In Poland, the sausage is known as wiejska, which means rural. Paprika and marjoram give classic kielbasa flavor to ours. It’s smoked hot over cherry and hickory wood. Pair with scalloped potatoes, cabbage, stew, sauerkraut and onions.

Swedish Potato Sausage
Yukon Gold potatoes make this Scandinavian holiday sausage light and fluffy. In Sweden, it’s known as potatis korv and is cooked by poaching the links and then browning lightly in butter. The Swedish Potato Sausage is crafted using pork from local Community Foods producer Peterson Craftsman Meats in Osceola, Wisconsin. The sausage is seasoned mildly with white pepper, nutmeg and bay leaf—and pairs with casserole, stew, pickled herring and sauteed mushrooms.

Sweet Spanish Sausage
Launching Dec. 15, this traditional Catalan sausage—called Butifarra Dulce—is popular during the winter holiday season. The flavors are reminiscent of egg nog, only enhanced by the traditional cooking method of poaching in water or sweet wine with cinnamon and lemon zest. This sausage features pork and honey from Community Foods producers Peterson Craftsman Meats and The Beez Kneez, as well as sherry, heavy cream, salt, black peppercorn, grains of paradise, lemon zest and sweet cinnamon. Pair with caramelized apples, polenta, braised kale and chickpeas and Tortilla Española.

Haggis Sausage
Enjoy a taste of Robert Burns Day (Jan. 25) with haggis, the national dish of Scotland that inspired this limited-run sausage. Serve with turnips and potatoes—or roasted carrots from Featherstone Farm, a local Community Foods producer in Rushford, Minnesota.

Bakery

Caramel Shortbread
Our bakery staff whipped up this twist on a popular crunchy caramel candy bar. Seward-made Caramel Shortbread is sweet and rich, with buttery caramel and dark chocolate on a tender crust and garnished with toasted pecan and finishing salt. The dairy, flour and chocolate are sourced from Community Foods producers.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
This might as well be called the Community Foods biscotti, as the chocolate, flour and butter used to make it are from vendors who are part of the program. It’s rich, nutty and chocolatey (of course), with hints of toasted hazelnut, coffee and spice. Dip in a coffee or an Egg Nog Latte—both available at the Deli counter right by the baked goods.

Grab & Go

Mushroom Stroganoff
With 19th-century Russian origins, stroganoff has become a tradition in Minnesota. Ours is rich, creamy and well-seasoned and includes ingredients sourced primarily from Community Foods vendor Co-op Partners Warehouse and Albert’s Organics: shiitake mushrooms, vegetable stock, bow tie pasta, white wine, sour cream, all-purpose flour, butter, garlic, salt, yellow onion, thyme and black pepper.

Vegan Mac and “Cheese”
A comfort food favorite made without the ingredient that is its namesake. Ace Fox, production shift lead, perfected the recipe at home before introducing it to Grab & Go. “It’s made with a combination of soaked cashews, coconut milk, boiled vegetables and nutritional yeast, which gives it the creamy texture that people might miss about cheese,” Ace said. “It’s a great alternative for those of us who don’t consume dairy.” Local Community Foods producer Heartbeet Farm in Zumbro Falls, Minnesota, provides the carrots and potatoes for this recipe.

This Saturday, March 28, we’ll be showing you how to make natural dyes for eggs at Seward Co-op. Pop by the store any time from 1-4 p.m. and see how to make great dyes from onion skins, coffee, turmeric, and tea!

We’ll have a recipe for natural egg-dyes in the recipe rack by the Customer Service desk, too, so be sure to grab one, or take a look at the article on egg-dying below.

If you want something a little less DIY, pick-up a Natural Earth Paint’s Natural Egg Dye Kit located on the display island by the Deli Hot Bar. This kit isa set of food based powdered dyes that are incredibly easy to use. Because the dyes are free from the petroleum derivatives and carmine that are found in conventional dye kits, they can also be safely used as a food coloring for baking projects.

New this year, check out the Wooden Egg Craft Kit, a great vegan option for egg dying! These kits include 6 wooden eggs, which are handmade in the Pacific Northwest from sustainable FSC certified wood, and 6 colors of natural earth paints.

Planning on a lamb or ham feast this weekend? We have great specials in the Meat Department that you’ll want to take advantage of! Local heroes Pastures a Plenty, the Lambe Shoppe, and Blooming Prairie will have all your favorite roasts, ribs, and lamb cuts for the big family get together. Let’s hope for grilling weather!

An article on egg-dying from the April/Mary 2014 issue of Sprout! newsletter:

“Celebrate Spring”

It comforts me to imagine that hunting and gathering colored eggs might be one of humanity’s oldest traditions, a way to celebrate our survival of another winter.

I don’t have much evidence for this. Egg painting can be connected to many cultures via folklore and mythology, but there’s no slam-dunk proof that any spring egg-hunt cults are terribly old. One custom, pysanky egg decorating of Ukraine, is more than likely ancient in origin. In excavations of Neolithic and Bronze-Age Ukrainian graves, cultic eggs have been found whose etched patterns are strikingly similar to pysanky “Easter egg” designs (pictured above).

Maybe. Or maybe I’m just feeling sympathy for my cold-climate ancestors after this harsh winter of 2014.

Watching my kids paint and gather eggs, I imagine that I see ancient, first-farming parents, emerging from another brutal Northern Hemisphere winter, keeping their parents’ hunter-gatherer ways alive by teaching kids how to gather wild multicolored eggs in the surrounding grasslands and woods. You know, just in case this new-fangled farming thing doesn’t work out.

How to Make Natural Egg-Dyes

Ingredients: Any number of hard-boiled white eggs
One pot per color of dye
1 Tbsp. white vinegar per cup of strained dye liquid (optional)
Bowls or egg cartons for drying dyed eggs
Paper towels

Don’t be too precious about this process. It’s meant to be fun for you and your kids, so proportions aren’t exact and don’t need to be.

1. Shop …for the veggies and other items that you’ll use for creating your dyes.

Some of these items can be gathered over the days running up to your egg-dying extravaganza. Red cabbage (blue, almost-indigo dye) Red onion skins (lavender or red) Yellow onion skins (orange or gold) Ground or cut turmeric (yellow) Red Zinger tea bags (lavender) Beets (pink; more of a brownish red the longer you leave eggs in this dye) Err on the side of more veggie matter rather than less when creating your dyes.

You can use juices and beverages for dying, too. Grape juice Old red wine Leftover coffee Juice from pickled beets Rule of thumb: If you’d freak out upon spilling a certain liquid on a white shirt, then it’s going to make a decent dye. We mixed some of these veggies to great effect, too. Eggs dyed in turmeric + yellow onion skins were bright gold. I want to try Red Zinger tea + red cabbage next year.

2. Chop …your veggies and prepare your dyes. We found that chopping fine, but not too fine, worked best. We used roughly 4 cups veggie matter for 4–6 cups water. Drop the veggies into the water and bring to a boil, turn heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 15–30 minutes. The dye is ready when it reaches a hue a few shades darker than you want for your egg. Add white vinegar now.

3. Pop …your eggs in the dye. There are two approaches here and both work well. A) Strain the veggie matter out and set your hard boiled eggs in the dye for several hours (or even over night); or B) Set your fresh eggs in the boiling water with the veggie matter and hard-boil them in the dye as it’s being created. The first way will give you clean, solid colors.

The second way is a little more haphazard, but it makes for fun and interesting patterns. After removing eggs from the pots, try draping wet onion skins over the eggs for an hour or two to take advantage of the onion skins’ cool patterns. Ditto red cabbage.

You can experiment also with different amounts of vinegar, too. More vinegar will leave a thick film on the eggs that you can leave on and let dry, making them look gnarly and wonderful (my kids called them “dinosaur eggs”). Or you can rub the film away with a paper towel to find interesting patterns beneath, as the veggies and vinegar will soak into different parts of the egg. Caution: Leaving eggs in too much vinegar overnight will make them rubbery. (Which also might be fun, but not if you plan to eat the eggs.) Dry your eggs in bowls or eggs cartons over night.

* Top photo by Elizabeth Brooks Barnwell

* Pysanky egg photo courtesy Wikipedia.

It has not been truly hot so far this year, and for that I am grateful.

Where I grew up in central Kansas, you could count on the mercury hitting 100 by the first week of July and staying that way for two months. We adapted our cooking to fit the season — that is, we ate a lot of salads, grilled things, and we used a toaster oven installed on the screened in porch for any baking projects. Even though it’s been so pleasant there are a couple of low-fuss, low-heat dishes that I’ve been eating night after night simply because they are delicious.

Salad Nicoise

Salad Nicoise is a composed salad – -that is, vegetables and proteins arranged prettily on a nice dish and dressed with a vinaigrette. Traditionally, the proteins are quartered hard-boiled eggs and tuna. In Nice, I have read, it is always canned tuna, not fresh (note coupon pictured on this page, available now! — Editor, 7/15/14). The usual vegetables are all things that we carry from local farms at this moment. From Wisconsin Growers, new red potatoes with skins so thin they can almost be rubbed off. Tomato King cherry tomatoes, so full of flavor and sweetness. Wisconsin Growers green (or purple, or yellow) beans, Featherstone butter lettuce or HeartBeet salanova and pearly Keewaydin green top onions (sliced thin). And then a few capers and olives top off the whole arrangement.

What I have described is traditional. But we Americans are an independent and innovative lot, and there are lots of options. Substitute arugula or romaine for butter lettuce. Bela Sardines, available in cute little tins in the grocery aisle, are great in this salad. Vegetarians could use cubed cheese or marinated chickpeas instead of fish. And as far as vegetables-almost anything goes. Red pepper strips, sliced radishes, tender white turnips, cucumbers, small roasted beets — you name it.

It has been my custom to prepare a salad dressing for the week on one of my days off, and, lately, it’s been a lemony vinaigrette with shallots and tarragon or basil, which goes great on Salad Nicoise. It’s also helpful to steam the green beans, boil potatoes and eggs for use throughout the week, and to wash whatever greens you choose ahead of time. It is a gift to your future self to do this rather pleasant task when time allows, so that later, when you’re hungry and busy, you can have something delicious without a lot of work.

Baked Apricots

The other dish I have been working on perfecting is baked apricots.

In the last week we have finally received the first shipment of Robada apricots, a large variety with a deep red blush and juicy flesh. Many customers and staff members have been eagerly awaiting their arrival. The other day I had three not-quite ripe apricots at home. I cut them in half, removed the pits and nestled them together in a small baking dish. The seed cavities I filled with honey and then the dish went into the toaster oven for 15 minutes at 320 degrees, which is one of five options my particular oven allows. They became soft and mellow, and the honey became one with the apricot. After they had cooled, I sprinkled a few drops of rose water on them, and served them with a little sweetened ricotta and chopped pistachio nuts. The same dish made a nice breakfast the next morning.

One thing that I like about apricots and plums is the slight bitterness that the peel contributes. The contrast with the sweetness of the juice enlivens the palette. In that vein, it is bittersweet to say that this will be my last Produce at Its Peak. I have so enjoyed writing this column over the last year, and serving the Seward Co-op community over the last six. I’m leaving to go to graduate school, but I will always be grateful for the opportunities to learn and to teach that this store and its owners have given me. Thank you!

When we began discussing a fair trade avocado program with Equal Exchange, we were told that not only were the avocados organically grown by PRAGOR, a small, farmer-owned cooperative–therefore P6– they were supposedly more delicious than other organic avocados on the market from both California and Mexico. Satisfying our values and our palettes is something for which we strive–but having eaten our fair share of avocados, we were a bit skeptical.

In preparation for Seward’s avocado month this February, we began to bring in cases of Equal Exchange avocados. We were blown away. These were the creamiest, nuttiest, most flavorful avocados many of us had ever tasted. They also steadily ripened and were nearly blemish free with small seeds. Pretty much the perfect avocado.

Taking full advantage of the superlative quality and the sale price ($2.99/pound), I have eaten at least an avocado a day for the past three weeks. Some days for breakfast sliced over rice and a poached egg bathed in lamb broth and topped with kimchi. Other times as a snack with just a little salt and a squeeze of lime or mashed onto a piece of toast with some arugula lightly dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and thinly sliced shallots. I’ve also been mixing a few avocados (2) in with hard boiled eggs (8), lemon juice and salt to create an incredibly creamy, mayo-free egg salad. Surprisingly, I haven’t made guacamole once in the past few weeks –although these avocados would make a delicious guacamole as well.

Avocado season in Michoacan, Mexico where the PRAGOR farms are located, is long – from September to March – but it is nearly over for this year. With citrus season waning as well, now is the time to make the following salad!

Roasted Citrus and Avocado Salad

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

1 blood or Valencia orange, sliced ” thick, seeds removed

1 Meyer or regular lemon, sliced ” thick, seeds removed

4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ small red onion, thinly sliced

2 Tbp. fresh Meyer or regular lemon juice

1 bunch watercress or arugula, thick stems trimmed

½ cup fresh mint leaves

1 avocado, cut into wedges

Method

Preheat oven to 425°. Toss orange and lemon slices with 1 Tbsp. oil on a rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Roast citrus, tossing occasionally, until lightly charred in spots and starting to caramelize, 10–15 minutes. This makes the citrus flavor more complex. Let cool.

Meanwhile, combine onion and lemon juice in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper and let sit 5 minutes (onion will soften a bit and get slightly sweeter and less harsh).

Add roasted citrus to bowl with onion along with arugula and mint. Drizzle remaining 3 Tbsp. oil over; season with salt and pepper and toss everything to combine and coat. Add avocado and very gently toss until lightly dressed (avoid crushing the avocado). Serves 4

Get creative this spring holiday season with natural egg-dyeing using bulk herbs and spices. Read below for more, and check out this natural egg-dyeing guide from Frontier Co-op.

Ingredients (per each color)
4 cups of water
2–4 Tbsp. ground herbs and spices (see below for suggestions)
1 Tbsp. white vinegar
4–6 hard-boiled eggs

Method
Bring water, vinegar and herbal-dye ingredients to a boil. Add eggs and reduce water to a simmer. Cook about 15 minutes, then cover and let sit another 15 minutes or until the color is as deep as you’d like. Remove eggs, gently rinse and let air dry.

Color Suggestions
Turmeric — gold
Hibiscus flowers — lavender
Coffee — brown
Tea leaves — sepia
Chili powder — reddish brown
Paprika — orange
Dill seed — soft brown
Curry powder — pale orange

Have fun mixing and matching colors, or experiment with other bulk herbs and spices to create your own unique hues.