We plan to be ready to begin food production at the Creamery in late June: Deliveries to the Franklin store will start in July (then to the Friendship store in October). The café will open in July.

New windows recently went in on the Franklin and 26th Avenue walls, which is probably the most visible update that owners may have noticed. Meanwhile, construction continues on the central production kitchen and Co-op Creamery Neighborhood Café. Throughout May and June, site work and landscaping will continue, equipment will be purchased, and finishing touches will be added.

We’re still planning for completion of the store in early October. The building’s exterior will be finished by early summer, and landscaping and paving will take place throughout the summer. Work on the interior will begin in the spring and continue into the summer, when the store’s fixtures will be installed in the months leading up the opening of the store.

If you drive past East 38th Street and 3rd Avenue South, you’ll notice that the Friendship construction site is really beginning to take shape. About the time the roofing is finished, the underground rough-ins for plumbing and electrical will begin. Once complete, in early May, the concrete floor will be poured.

The exterior of the building will be finished by early summer, and the landscaping and paving will be completed throughout the summer. On the inside, the rough-ins will occur in the spring; the interiors, mechanicals, and finishes will go up in the summer; and the store’s equipment and merchandising fixtures will be installed in the two months leading up the opening of the store.

At this point, we are tentatively planning the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 7.

The Seward Co-op Deli is voluntarily recalling its Green Split Pea Soup sold from the Deli Grab and Go dated 3/18/15 and 3/19/15 due to small metallic bits found in soup by a customer.

If you purchased Deli-made Green Split Pea Soup from our Grab and Go on these dates, check for the following PLUs and prices:

20382800 PLU 595 (12 oz.) for $2.59 each.
20091405 PLU 994 (32 oz.) for $5.99 each.

Recalled products will be fully refunded at our Customer Service desk.

Frontier Co-op is voluntarily recalling 10 products manufactured with organic garlic powder that were sold under its Frontier and Simply Organic brands due to potential Salmonella contamination.

To date, no illnesses have been associated with these products.

The product in question was raw material received by Frontier. This product tested positive for Salmonella during a test by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Given that Salmonella may be present, Frontier is immediately initiating this recall.

Frontier Co-op is immediately initiating added precautions to the safety of the supply chain and instituting additional product testing, beyond FDA guidelines, to mitigate any future occurrence.

Consumption of products containing Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections, endocarditic and arthritis.

Recalled products were sold in all 50 states and in some parts of Canada to distributors, retailers and consumers. Below the release is a list of products containing the organic garlic powder. Images of the affected products can be viewed at the following link: http://www.frontiercoop.com/recall.

WHAT’S BEEN RECALLED?:

Frontier Powdered Garlic, Certified Organic 16 oz. (453 g)
Frontier Low Sodium Broth Powder Vegetable Flavored, Certified Organic 16 oz. (453 g)
Frontier Vegetarian Broth Powder No-Chicken, Certified Organic 16 oz. (453 g)
Frontier Organic Garlic Powder 2.33 oz. (66g)
Simply Organic Fajita Seasoning 1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simply Organic Alfredo Sauce Mix 1.48 oz. (41 g)
Simply Organic Ranch Dip Mix 1.5 oz. (42 g)
Simply Organic French Onion Dip Mix 1.10 oz. (31 g)
Simply Organic Guacamole Dip Mix 0.80 oz. (22 g)
Simply Organic Vegetarian Brown Gravy Mix 1.0 oz. (28 g)

Recalled product on Seward Co-op shelves has been removed as of 9:30 a.m. 3/17/15 and destroyed. We will return the items to the shelf as soon as non-recalled product is available.

If you purchased the above products, do not consume. Recalled products will be fully refunded at our Customer Service desk.

For more information on this recall, please visit the Frontier website.

Local mushrooms: king oyster, lion’s mane and oyster

A few weeks ago, I attended the organic farming conference hosted annually in LaCrosse, Wisconsin by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services. In workshops, keynote addresses, and casual conversation there was much talk of the increasing instability of the region’s weather. There were countless references to all of the extreme conditions farmers have faced in recent years. The long, bitterly cold winter of 2013-2014, the late, wet spring that followed, and the early frost this past October resulted in a truncated and tempestuous growing season. Conference attendees also recalled a few years ago when we enjoyed an early thaw – what seemed the promise of an extended growing season – only to suffer an April frost which delayed planting and had disastrous effects on orchard fruits across the region.

These past few days we have been enjoying balmy temperatures for March in the middle North. While the extra sunlight and warmer weather have many of us feeling giddy, for our region’s farms we’ve had a worrying winter of low precipitation and there is little trust that this apparently early spring will translate into a longer or more reliable growing season.

Considering all that our local farmers are experiencing and adapting to, it is a wonder that we have such a bountiful supply of locally grown food even in our more temperate months. It is all the more wondrous that Seward Co-op is able to offer locally produced food year round. As our lead buyer noted recently, “Local season never really ends, it just changes.” Just as we worked through the last cases of Wisconsin Growers (Mondovi, Wis.) sweet potatoes, we began to receive deliveries of Living Water Gardens (Wells, Minn.) hydroponic basil and English cucumbers.

Along with hydroponically grown produce, we’ve begun to receive more regular deliveries of oyster and king oyster (with an occasional treat of lion’s mane) from the Northeast Minneapolis-based Mississippi Mushrooms. Local turnips, winter radishes, onions, beets, and potatoes also help bridge the growing years. Soon enough, Living Water Gardens will be regularly delivering vine-on tomatoes – and after a winter of imported tomatoes, this is a milestone that for us will signal the official start of the 2015 growing season.

Each winter, when our shelves reflect a lull in local produce, we are working with local farmers to plan for the next year’s planting. Each year, we work hard to develop new relationships with farms, grow sales with farms that we only support minimally, and maintain the relationships we have with our current core farms. In 2015 we will be working directly with 33 local farms. We hope that the opening of the Friendship store will enable us to work with even more farms in 2016.

Saturday is March 14th, or 3/14, or Pi Day

Or Pi Day.

Here at Seward Community Co-op, we celebrate the mathematical constant of pi because it’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159, which of course, reminds us of delicious, baked treats. Being an irrational number, pi cannot be expressed exactly as a common fraction, and that’s where Seward Co-op comes to the aid of pi with Pi Day! Although fractions such as 22/7 and other rational numbers are commonly used to approximate pi, its decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanent, repeating pattern.

Like this digital representation, our extensive delight in pie never ends either!

We can all celebrate this important circular circumference by purchasing any of Seward Co-op’s famous pies for $3.14 OFF Saturday, March 14. All of our pie is baked fresh in the store by our expert team of bakers who adhere to the taste sensations, great recipes, and mathematically constant principles that you expect from your pie.

Pop in Saturday morning, take a pie to work that day, or bring one home to the kids. Everyone knows, kids love pi!

Seward Co-op staff presented a SEED check today for $15,708.88 to Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA), representing 35,108 individual donations.

Funds will be used to support the Apetito por el Liderazgo/Appetite for Leadership program, envisioned by PPNA’s Latino Advisory Council. The program combines community building, leadership skills development and cooking.

“Yes, it’s a cooking class,” Community Organizer Sara Lopez explained, “but what we’re really doing is building leadership and strengthening our community.” Participants learn about healthy Mexican cooking for families while also sharing resources on topics as varied as financial planning, public health and self-defense. Planning is already underway for a similar model that will meet the needs of other cultural communities in Powderhorn.

Funding will support the expansion of the program in addition to equipment and fixtures for the kitchen. Congratulations, PPNA and thank you, Seward Co-op shoppers!

Picture: Seward Co-op staff with members of the PPNA during a small SEED celebration this morning. Picture by William H.

Spring is coming and there’s such a sweet balm in the air already.

But along with the lovely temperatures, allergy sufferers (and bees!) know there’s pollen in the air already, too.

If you’re prone to spring-time allergies, now is the perfect time to start taking preventative measures against allergy symptoms for the coming year. Some of Seward Co-op Wellness’s favorite items include:

• Nettles
• Quercetin
• Essential oils like the Baraka Sinus Oil

Ask at the Wellness Desk which one is right for you!

Try our latest Nourish recipe for Mushroom Polenta Bowls. It’s one of our “Feed 4 For Under $10” recipes (find more in our recipe rack by the Customer Service Desk) and it’s a great one for using up leftover vegetables – a budget-friendly recipe in every regard.

Mushroom Polenta Bowls

Ingredients:
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 cup cornmeal / polenta
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz white mushrooms, sliced (Nourish Hint– substitute or add any leftover vegetables you might have)
¼ tsp dried thyme
8 oz. frozen chopped spinach
1 cup marinara sauce
2 oz. feta cheese (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:
Bring 3 cups of vegetable broth to a boil in a sauce pot. Stir together the cornmeal and one cup of water, then pour into the boiling broth. Stir the mixture and allow it to come back up to a simmer. Turn the heat down to low, place a lid on top, and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until very thick. Stir occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add the olive oil, mushrooms (and/or vegetables), garlic, and thyme to a large skillet and sauté over medium heat until the mushrooms are limp. Season the mushrooms lightly with salt and pepper.

Remove the mushrooms from the skillet (leaving any liquids behind in the skillet) and add the frozen spinach. Sauté the spinach until heated through. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Spoon one cup of polenta into each bowl, then top with ¼ cup of marinara sauce (warm the marinara sauce in the microwave or a small pot if desired). Divide the mushrooms and spinach between the four bowls, then crumble ½ oz. of feta over each bowl. Serve warm.

Serves 4

Recipe adapted from budgetbytes.com

More about Seward Co-op’s Nourish .