fbpx

Search Results

Searched for: 2
Show only:   News   Pages   Events   Recipes   Show All

Rising Moons Organics Ravioli Recall

Carmel Food Group today issued a voluntary recall of certain Rising Moon Organics frozen Ravioli items (Spinach & Cheese Ravioli) because of possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes. To date, no illnesses have been associated with these products.

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.

Product Affected:

Rising Moon Organics Spinach & Cheese Ravioli, 8 oz. for $4.79 each.

UPC Code: 7-85030-55561-3
Lots Codes: 122215, 123015, 123115, 010216, 011916, 012016
Sell By Dates: DEC222015, DEC302015, DEC312015,
JAN022016, JAN192016, JAN202016

Recalled product on Seward Co-op shelves has been removed and destroyed. If you purchased the above product, do not consume it. Recalled products will be fully refunded at our Customer Service desk.

More info at the FDA website.

SEED Money Match This Weekend!

Round-up and give at our registers this weekend and we’ll match you!

We’re serious about our goal of raising $20,000 for the Sabathani Community Center Food Shelf by the end of march. So serious that we’re going to match our customers dollar for dollar this weekend.

Right now, Seward Co-op shoppers have rounded-up to the tune of $16,356.19 in SEED money from 36,317 customers since March 1. That’s impressive and very generous!

But in our goal to get good food to as many people in need as possible via our friends and new neighbors at Sabathani Food Shelf, Seward Co-op will match ALL customer donations this weekend till Sunday night! We want to cut a great big check to Sabathani, a powerhouse non-profit that feeds 25,000 people a year in South Minneapolis.

So if you were going to visit the big green co-op anyway (maybe you’re coming to Seward for the egg-dying demo on Saturday or buying up before the upcoming holidays next weekend), we strongly urge you to round-up and give a little extra at the register for your neighbors in need.

Let’s send $20,000 to Sabathani Food Shelf!

* Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Amy’s Kitchen Recalls Various Frozen Foods

Amy’s Kitchen, Inc. is voluntarily recalling frozen food products containing spinach. This recall was issued after notice came from one of Amy’s organic spinach suppliers that Amy’s may have received organic spinach with the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes.

Seward Co-op has removed the following products from our shelves.

Vegetable Lasagna, 9.5 oz. (269g), $5.29
UPC code:0-42272-00032-6
Four possible affected lot codes/ship dates:
LOT CODE: 30-A215 Jan. 21 2015
LOT CODE: 30-A305 Jan-30-2015
LOT CODE: 30-B115 Feb-11-2015
LOT CODE: 30-C045 Mar-04-2015

Spinach Pizza, 14.0 oz. (397g),$6.99
UPC Code: 000102 0-42272-00102-6
Two possible affected lot codes/ship dates
30-A285 Jan-28-2015
30-B105 Feb-10-2015 $6.99

Brown Rice & Vegetables Bowl, 10.0 oz. (283g), $5.29
UPC Code: 000161 0-42272-00161-3
Lot code/Ship date: 30-A205 Jan-20-2015

Vegetable Lasagna, 9.5 oz. (269g), $5.29
UPC Code: 000933 0-42272-00032-6
Lot Code/Ship date 30-A305 Jan-30-2015

Tofu Vegetable Lasagna, 9.5 oz. (269g), $5.29
UPC Code: 000033 0-42272-00033-3
Lot Code/Ship Date: 30-B135 Feb-13-2015

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

For more information, see the FDA wesbite.

Natural Egg-dying Demo At Seward

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.

Co-op Creamery Updates

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.

Friendship Store Building Updates

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.

Deli-made Green Split Pea Soup Recall

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 Organic Garlic Powder Recall

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.

Produce at Its Peak: Grateful for Local

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.

Moms, Kids Love Pi(e)

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!