Seward Co-op will be open regular hours on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25th, from 8.a.m. to – 10 p.m. Check out our many store and owner specials for the big weekend, especially if you’re grilling, camping, or getting outdoors.

Jeni’s Ice Cream has issued a voluntary recall of all their flavors of ice cream because of possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes. To date, no illnesses have been associated with these products.

Listeria monocytogenes is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals infected by Listeria may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, infected pregnant women can suffer miscarriages or stillbirths.

Product Affected:

All flavors of Jeni’s Ice Cream sold at Seward Co-op between January 21, 2015 to present:

85316900200 ICE CRM, ASS’T FLAVORS
85316900201 ICE CREAM, DARK CHOCOLATE
85316900209 ICE CREAM, PISTACHIO HONEY
85316900216 ICE CRM, GOAT CHEESE CHERRIES
85316900240 ICE CRM, UGANDA VAN BEAN
85316900253 ICE CRM, ALMOND BRITTLE
85316900262 FROZEN YOGURT, MANGO LASSI
85316900265 ICE CREAM, BUCKEYE STATE
85316900290 ICE CREAM, BRAMBLEBERRY
85580200324 FROZEN YOGURT, GRAPEFRUIT
85580200352 ICE CREAM, BLACK CAT ESPRESSO

Price: $9.99 each. On sale for $7.99 each, from February 4-February 17.

More info at the Jeni’s Ice Cream website and at the FDA website.

Dominique Mazloom, our new Flow of Goods Manager

Friendship Store

At the moment, the Friendship store frame is up and insulation is being added this week. Over the course of the spring, we’ll continue to see exciting developments on the site. The roof will be finished next week, and the retaining wall around the east and south sides of the parking lot should be finished soon thereafter.

Next week the panel and metal siding installation will begin. In the coming weeks, much of the work will take place inside the structure. The second floor concrete was poured on April 10, and the concrete for the first floor will be poured the first week of May. If you pass the construction site on 38th St. and 3rd Avenue S. you’ll get a good view of how our store is progressing.

As for staffing, Friendship Store Manager Raynardo Williams says that the Assistant Store Manager and department manager jobs are posted now through Wednesday, April 22. Please spread the word and visit our careers page for job descriptions and details on applying. The opening date for the Friendship store is slated for early October.

Co-op Creamery

You may have noticed banners in the Co-op Creamery windows announcing the summer opening of the café! We’re hard at work on the interior of the café at this point, and additional exterior signage will go up in the coming weeks.

Last week we installed coolers, ceiling and lights in the production kitchen. Additional equipment has been arriving over the past two weeks, and will continue to do so over the next couple weeks. The painting and tile work in the café wrapped up last Friday.

Duct work on the east side of the building is almost complete. We are waiting on final details before the loading dock re-model begins. Once approved, that work will commence very quickly. This means excavation in the loading dock area and the parking lot will be repaved. We’re on track for a mid-July opening.

In staffing news, we’re pleased to welcome Dominique Mazloom our Flow of Goods Supervisor. Dominique has a wealth of logistics education and experience, coupled with enthusiasm for Seward Co-op and natural foods. Dominique’s first focus will be to work with co-op staff to develop and implement a distribution system for product being made at the Creamery and Franklin store. Please join us in welcoming Dominique to our co-op community!

Informational Open House on Employment

Seward Co-op will host an informational open house on employment: Attend the open house at the Sabathani Community Center (310 E. 38th St., Minneapolis) in room #103 on Tuesday, May 19, from 5–8 p.m. This is in advance of the Friendship store hiring fair we will host in August. The open house will provide an introduction to natural foods cooperatives and information about working at Seward Co-op. Representatives from human resources will be available to answer questions, and staff from various store departments will be on hand to talk about their work.

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” — Iris Murdoch, writer

Just a few days left before Mother’s Day, and our Floral Department is filling up. Here’s a list of what we’ll have on hand for the new mom, the grand-mom, or your own mom this Sunday. And remember: Free bouquet-wrapping 8 am to noon on Sunday, May 10.

P6 locally grown cut flowers from Len Busch Roses in Plymouth, MN:
Tulips
Asiatic lily
Stargazer lily
Freesia
Alstromeria
Gerbera daisy
Spray roses
Snapdragon
Calla lily
Roses

We’ll have amazing locally made and designed bouquets from Koehler and Dramm, an employee-owned wholesale company in North East Minneapolis:

Azalea trees
Calla lily
African violets

Locally grown plants from Len Busch:
Begonia
Hydrangea
Kalanchoe
Gerbera daisy

Locally grown and designed terrairium and succulent gardens from Green Valley (family owned and operated Ramsey MN)

Others
Daisy poms
Iris

Is your mom a hero of yours? This Mother’s Day is the perfect time to tell her that.

And right now, Seward has some beautiful gifts that will help you express that feeling to her, or someone who’s been just like a mom to you.

We have a wide array of great flowers on sale: potted plants, cuts, roses, and begonias. And on Mother’s Day itself, bouquet-wrapping is free on Sunday morning till noon.Check out the full list of flowers we’ll have on hand over here.

We also have a wide selection of some of your mom’s favorite brands on sale through Mother’s Day, too. We rarely see a line-drive on the clean and luscious Evan Healy brand, so take advantage of this great special while you can. That’s right — all Evan Healy products on sale.

Also Zuzu cosmetics, P6 Seward Soaps, and True Melange candles. Check out the beautiful True Melange candle tins located on “Mother’s Day Island” by the Deli Hot bar (pic below). They smell fantastic and the tins are very pretty in an old-fashioned way.

On the Mother’s Day Island, you’ll find Sunleaf products (below), another line-drive sale, and their diffusers which can spruce up a whole room make very special gifts. You’ll also find earrings, candles, plants, and more nifty gifts for your mother on this Island, too.

And if you and your family are in the neighborhood, please stop by for brunch on Sunday, too. You know we’d love to have you and Mom over.

Our friends at Beez Kneez sure have us thinking about pollinators lately, with their great bee-health advocacy and upcoming Pastry Chef Challenge.

Maybe you have been thinking about pollinators, too? If you’re concerned about the health of bees and butterflies now is the perfect time to start taking action.

And one of the best things individuals can do to support pollinators is plant a pollinator garden .

Think of a healthy eco-system for pollinators as a series of stepping stones. By using huge amounts of pesticides in agriculture and gardening, and clear-cutting plants that we think of “weeds” but which bees and butterflies call “food,” we’ve stretched the distance between safe stepping stones for those pollinators.

Your garden will be a safe step for butterflies and bees if you make it a healthy landing spot them. You can do that by:

• planting a wide variety of flowers
• letting weeds grow in certain parts of your yard or property
• growing organic — don’t use pesticides for pollinators please!

When planting your pollinator garden, double check to see if you’re planting varieties native to Minnesota (or wherever you happen to be). Per Beez Kneez, these .pdfs from Xerces and the U of M Beelabhave great plant lists showing what’s best for which pollinators in Minnesota.

If you don’t have space for a garden, there are others way you can help save the pollinators. With their Second Annual Dandelion Honey Pastry Chef Challenge on Tuesday, Beez Kneez has created one of the sweetest traditions in Minneapolis. Seward Co-op is sponsoring the tasty event, and our own Bakery Supervisor Mary Vorndran is taking part in the competition so buy your tickets now and cheer her on!

Seward Co-op is a veritable hive of bee-activity this month, all in the name of saving our pollinators. Want to get in on the action with us? You can take part in lots of ways.

First off, this Saturday is our CSA Fair and our pals the Beez Kneez will be in the co-op that day offering taste-tests of honey and answering your questions about how to help bees, how to start beekeeping, advocacy for pollinators, and all things apicultural.

Then, next Wednesday, April 22, Seward is sponsoring the Beez Kneez Second Annual Dandelion Honey Pastry Chef Challenge. It’s a local foods pastry chef competition, yes (our own Bakery Supervisor Mary Vorndran will be competing), but it’s also a celebration to raise awareness of bees’ plight. Amazing food, music, celebrity judges, words from Dr. Marla Spivak and a new call to action for Healthy Bees, Healthy Lives. Please join the swarm and buy tickets SOON.

Want to help bees and butterflies in your own home? The best way of all might be if we all planted a pollinator garden. Details here.

The last thing we want to mention is that Seward Co-op will be installing two beehives on the roof of the Franklin Avenue store sometime in April (we hope — depends on the weather). Well. To be clear, Beez Kneez will do the actually installing and management of the hives. The hives will be installed when Beez Kneez tells us they’re ready to bring the buzz to our roof. Keep an eye on the Seward website and social media for coming details.

Seward Co-op is partnering with Minneapolis-based The Beez Kneez, to launch an urban beekeeping site on the rooftop of its Franklin store. The project, set to launch some time this month, will provide a safe habitat where bees will produce honey that, hopefully, will in turn be sold to Seward Co-op shoppers.

“The idea for an urban beekeeping hive site at Seward came after our team did a bee keeping class with The Beez Kneez,” says Tom Vogel, Marketing Manager at Seward Co-op. “Kristy Allen, owner of The Beez Kneez has been a great partner to Seward, and we look forward to working with her on this unique project.”

In late April, two beehives will be installed on the rooftop of Seward Co-op. The bees are gentle breeds that are not aggressive. The hope is that these hives will produce at least 100 lbs. of honey over the season, which will then be harvested at the Beez Kneez Honey House and, potentially, sold at Seward Co-op. When the bees arrive from a warmer climate, there will be a few thousand that go into each hive. By the end of the season in August, there could be as many as 50,000 bees a hive. If the program is successful, more hives may be added in the future.

“Our goal with zip code projects such as this one with Seward, is to produce honey in a community in which it will later be sold,” says Allen. “We’re excited to get this project underway in the Franklin neighborhood.”

To kick-off the partnership, on April 22 Seward Co-op will be a lead sponsor for the second year in a row in an event put together by The Beez Kneez called The Dandelion Honey Pastry Chef Challenge. The event will take place at The Lab Theater at 700 North 1st Street from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door.