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March is Banana Month

March means Banana Month at Seward Co-op, so watch for specials and deals on Equal Exchange bananas throughout the month. According to the USDA, the average American eats 26 pounds of bananas per year. That’s a lot of bananas — and a big opportunity for impact. Most bananas are grown on giant plantations as a monoculture with bananas stretching as far as the eye can see. The banana industry is notorious for low wages and heavy chemical use, causing major health problems for humans across banana-producing regions. Together, Equal Exchange and their banana partners are creating a trade model that supports small farmers, builds communities, and supports the environment.

Equal Exchange’s mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound; to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers; and to demonstrate, through their success, the contribution of worker cooperatives and fair trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world. Next year is Equal Exchange’s 30th anniversary, and the 10th year of their banana program. Equal Exchange bananas are sourced from small-scale farmers located in Ecuador and Peru. They work with El Guabo cooperative, a farmer-run cooperative with 350 small-scale banana farmers in Ecuador, and The Central Association of Small Producers of Organic Banana (CEPIBO), a group of seven different farmer associations with a total of 800 families operating 900 hectares of land across northern Peru.

Seeing the Equal Exchange brand on a banana (or an avocado) guarantees a customer that their fruit is sourced from a small farmer who receives a fair price for their fruit. It’s not just a better wage, it’s a better way of life. Farmers own their land and are helping to rebuild their own communities through hard work and enterprise. It also guarantees that the grower cooperatives are working directly with the Equal Exchange produce team, rather than through a go-between like the majority of farmers and plantations in the produce industry.

Check out this interesting web documentary called Beyond the Seal that was created by Katherine Nagasawa and Leah Varjacques that talks a lot about Equal Exchange, small farmers, and the banana industry.

Banana Curry Stir Fry Sauce

Ingredients:
2 bananas, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tsp. curry powder
1 Tsp. agave nectar (or honey)
1 Tsp. onion powder
1 Tsp. coconut oil
3/4 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk

Method:
Combine all ingredients together in a blender and blend to a smooth texture.
Sauté any veggies you have on hand (peppers, onions, carrots, celery, leeks, etc.) until tender. Add the banana curry stir fry sauce and heat through evenly.

Adapted from therawproject.com

Welcome, Raynardo Williams

Friendship Store Manager: Seward Co-op has hired Raynardo Williams as the store manager of the new Friendship Store. As a former entrepreneur, Raynardo is accustomed to the work required to bring a vision like the Friendship Store to fruition.

“I’m used to being very hands on,” he says. “I like getting my hands dirty on projects.”

Raynardo has an undergraduate degree in business administration from National American University and a master’s degree in management from Hamline University. His financial service and retail management background means he’s used to a immersing himself into projects like the Friendship store, working long hours as he did when he was a retail manager for Aldo Shoe Stores.

“I think the goal with the Friendship store is to make it a staple in the community by upholding and representing our owners and constantly taking steps to create something that reflects the Seward Co-op Ends Statements,” Raynardo says.

“We need to bring good food to people at the Friendship store,” he adds. “Strengthen the community that way.”

After he left the corporate world, Raynardo was an entrepreneur, running his own business as a personal fashion consultant. He’s been recognized by both the “Star Tribune” and “Vita.mn” for his exceptional sense of style.

“I love fashion,” he says, “and I am an active site council member for Patrick Henry High School in North Minneapolis. I think it’s important for young men in the community to respect themselves and develop confidence, and I think part of that is dressing well to reflect who you are.”

Raynardo says his favorite thing about Seward Co-op since he started in December 2014 has been the staff’s passion.

“Everyone has been so warm,” he says. “People here exude so much passion about what they do.”

Project Update

Work on the Co-op Creamery at 2601 E. Franklin Ave. is in full swing. In late January, co-op administrative staff moved into the second floor offices. This move has helped to alleviate space constraints at the Franklin store offices. The staff at the Creamery will support all Seward locations.

On the first floor of the building, construction has begun on the central production kitchen and Co-op Creamery Neighborhood Café. We recently finalized the branding and aesthetics of the café, including a new logo, with the help of our architects at LHB and designers at Replace.

Throughout the next several months, the first floor will begin to take shape, as new windows are installed and the interior is finished. We plan to be ready to begin food production as early as July, with an eye towards opening the café in September.

As with the Friendship store, we’ll post several new positions for Creamery staff. Check our careers page for updates. Be sure to visit our project expansion page and watch for future emails with more updates.

Easy Valentine’s Recipe: Inamorata Pastry


Searching for a Valentine’s Day recipe? This one is a real keeper.

Made with phyllo dough and baked brie, this scrumptious delight will wow your loved ones and make you look like a kitchen rock star (even though it’s so simple to bake).

INGREDIENTS
¼ c. Lucille’s Kitchen Jam (any flavor, but Strawberry Verjus is lovely for Valentine’s Day)
½ lb. wheel brie or camembert cheese (leave rind on)
½ lb. frozen phyllo dough, 10–12 sheets, thawed
½ c. (or more!) butter, melted
Fresh rosemary, thyme or lavender; optional
Red and green grapes; optional
Apples, sliced; optional
Pears, sliced; optional

METHOD

Thaw phyllo dough thoroughly before using. Keep dough ready for use and moist by covering with a damp cloth.

Spread preserves heavily on top of the brie.

Lay out three sheets of thawed phyllo dough in an asterisk pattern — like an X with a third “line” of dough across the middle of the X. Spread melted butter on each individual sheet of dough.

Place the wheel of brie in the center of the “asterisk” and begin folding the dough around the wheel of brie, spreading more melted butter on the phyllo as you wrap.

When finished, make another asterisk of dough and wrap as before. Turn cheese over after applying each wrap of phyllo (for even distribution). No need to be too precious with the dough, though. Wrinkles, slight tears, and odd folds in the dough actually make the pastry look beautiful and unique after baking! Brush phyllo-wrapped brie with more butter. When in doubt spread more butter.

Place the completely wrapped cheese in a shallow, greased baking pan. Bake in a 425 oven 8–12 minutes or until golden. Let stand 10 minutes. Garnish with optional herbs and pears if desired.

Serve with crackers.

Serves 6–8

Photo via Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Everything’s Coming Up Len Busch Roses


On an icy visit to Len Busch Roses (LBR) in Plymouth recently, there was a fizz and spark in the greenhouses.

“Everything builds up to this,” said Jason Lenz, LBR’s director of business development. “It doesn’t get any bigger than Valentine’s Day.”

Here at Seward Co-op, you’ve see Len Busch Roses’s flowers all year long—though maybe not quite so many as you’ll see in the next two weeks. Indeed, you may smell roses from the parking lot before you ever enter the store, we’ll have so many.

Sadly a good-smelling rose is a rarity in many American stores these days.

“Smell these,” Lenz said offering a bouquet of a dozen scarlet roses. He smiled as members of his tour took in the flowers’ scent. “Raspberries, right?”

Comparing LBR roses’ outstanding fragrance to inexpensive commodity roses from the giant rose-industry “farms” in South America isn’t really fair. Have you ever purchased a rose bouquet from a big-box grocer or garden store recently? The price is attractive, of course, but those flowers often have no appealing smell (if they open at all).

“Those roses have to travel all the way from Ecuador,” Lenz explained. “So they’ve been bred for hardiness and longevity, while that classic rose fragrance has just gone away, year by year.”

Sadly for a company with “Roses” in its name, LBR has watched its rose production diminish from 50,000 stems per year to 10,000–15,000 per year (due to their concentrating more on growing alstroemeria, gerbera daisies, tulips, tropicals, and ferns). Because the South American rose industry is so enormous, streamlined, and inexpensive, it puts huge pressure on smaller American producers like LBR to lower their prices.

“And now it’s Africa undercutting South America,” Lenz said, referring to titanic industries in South Africa and Kenya, which are even cheaper and have massive global reach. A rose can be cut in the morning in Kenya and appear in a British grocery that same night.

So how does a flower producer in Plymouth compete? Mainly by telling a story of sustainability and local pride. That’s why LBR is a P6 producer after all.

In 1965, founder Len Busch began his company by growing pom poms and then expanding to roses four years later. Though his son Patrick is CEO now, Len is still around.

“He comes in once a month to give us our beatings,” Lenz joked.

Since 1965, the company has grown to include over 500,000 square feet of greenhouses and an intricate steam system run on salvaged brush from local communities, chipped for two boilers that provide the steam (on this particular day, a line of gray-barked, brittle Christmas trees was ready to provide steam for the Valentine’s Day rose buds). This system provides over 90 percent of the energy needed at LBR.

With increased regulation on the floral industry, LBR has had to institute a rather involved IPM (integrated pest management) system, using spiders, wasps, and other beneficial insects to control mites that enter the greenhouses. LBR spends $25,000 a month on this system.

“Oh, yes, we take [sustainability] very seriously here,” Lenz said.

Today, the company employs 180 full-time workers who enjoy full benefits, and this stands as a stark contrast to South American and African flower companies, too. The global flower industry in third-world countries has frequently faced serious charges of abuse aimed at them, including: child labor violations, low pay, exposure to toxic pesticides and fungicides that have been banned in the U.S., firing injured or pregnant workers, etc. Meanwhile, longevity at Len Busch Roses in considerable.

“I started working here 27 years ago,” Lenz said, a little sheepishly. “Started when I was 15, went to college, then came back to get a job [here] in Plymouth. What can I say? It’s a great place to work.”

Paying a little extra for LBR roses than the commodity roses you’ll find at other stores makes a ton of sense. It’s not just an investment in your sweetheart, but also in the Earth, and for the greater good as well.

Seward Co-op’s Flowers and Plants from Len Busch Roses (Plymouth, MN)

Starting Thursday, February 12th, Seward Co-op will carry these flowers for Valentine’s Day.

Cuts
Gerbera Daisy – 3 stem bunches for $6.99
Alstroemeria – 10 stems for $12.99
Stargazer Lily – 2 stems for $7.99
Asiatic Lily – 3 stems for $7.99
Tulips – $9.99
Roses- 12 stems for $29.99
Snapdragons- $14.99

(We’ll also have Mixed Bouquets at various price points – but these are not totally local grown)

Potted Plants (locally grown; many of these aae in the store now!)
Cyclamen – 6-inch for $12.99
Kalonchoe- 6-inch for $12.99
Bulb gardens – 4-inch for $5.99/ large $12.99
Orchids – 4-inch for $23.99; 2-inch for $14.99
Azaleas – 6-inch for $21.99

Also from LBR (but not locally grown)

Jasmine wreaths (beautiful scent!)
Azalea trees
Many mixed bouquets
Single roses sleeved with greens
Half dozen rose bunches
Cut orchid bouquets

Read about this Saturday’s event Seward Co-op’s Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Sampler

Welcome to Valentine’s Island

This is Valentine’s Island. It’s a beautiful place located just offshore the Seward Deli Hot Bar and due north of the Frozen Section.

Sure, about a month ago it was Christmas Island and a month forward in time, it will be Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s Day Island.

But right now it’s the place to find sweets for the sweet.

For example, you’ll find a great deal on Yum Earth Organic Lollipops over on Valentine’s Island, $8 per bag of thirty. It might sound odd but these really are the yummiest lollipops ever, and that’s without taking into account the 100% daily recommended allowance of Vitamin C. You’ll also find 30 Valentines Day cards included in each bag which sets up your kid is for Valentine’s Day at school. (Plus? Don’t panic, they’re organic…)

There are two great recipes over on Valentine’s Island, too. The Avocado Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe might sound strange but because avocados are so fatty, they make surprisingly delicious treats (avocado ice cream is absolutely wonderful). Also, check out the Browned Butter Cookie Bars using Cordillera chocolate (chunks of Cordillera chocolate are located right there by the recipes).

Boxes of chocolates from Seattle’s Chocolates (below left) are on sale from $4.99 to $19.99 per heart-shaped box, and pretty Fair Trade earrings from World Finds are on sale too, ranging from $9.99 to $14.99.

The Legacy of African Americans in Co-ops

February is recognized as Black History Month in the United States. Traditionally, its focus has been to celebrate the contributions of African Americans in the U.S.

Carter G. Woodson pioneered the celebration that started as out as a week in February in 1926, to its current month-long celebration. As we approach the opening of the Friendship store in Bryant neighborhood, it is important that we honor the legacy of African Americans in the co-op community.

The book Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon Nembhard documents the importance of cooperative economics in the African American community. In that book, Dr. Nembhard covers decades of experiences that African Americans have had with cooperative economics.

Customers at Minnesota�s Credjafawn Co-op in the predominantly African-American Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, circa 1950.
Customers at Minnesota’s Credjafawn Co-op in the predominantly African-American Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, circa 1950.

Dr. Nembhard’s book is a continuation of the 1907 survey of African American cooperative efforts written by W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois discussed how African Americans used racial solidarity and economic cooperation in the face of discrimination and marginalization.

According to Dr. Nembhard, Du Bois differentiated cooperative economics from Black capitalism or buying Black. Du Bois focused on a “Black group economy” to insulate Blacks from continued segregation and marginalization.

To achieve that goal, Du Bois organized the Negro Cooperative Guild in 1918 with the idea of advancing cooperation among Black people. In attendance at the two-day conference were 12 men from seven states.

Du Bois is most widely known for his statement regarding race relations in the U.S. In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, he famously noted that “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.”

Du Bois is noted for accurately describing the problems of race in America. Yet, his work to solve the problem of the color line is often ignored. Du Bois promoted economic cooperation as the solution to the issues of the “color line.”

Du Bois said that “we unwittingly stand at the crossroads—should we go the way of capitalism and try to become individually rich as capitalists, or should we go the way of cooperatives and economic cooperation where we and our whole community could be rich together?”

In this instance, Du Bois believed that economic cooperation could provide more than providers of goods or services, but also a philosophy or blueprint by which communities could be built or rebuilt.

The guild’s mission was to encourage the study of consumer cooperatives and their methods, support the development of cooperative stores, and form a technical assistance committee.

As a result of the meeting of the guild, in 1919, the Memphis group incorporated as the Citizens’ Co-operative Stores to operate cooperative meat markets. The venture was very popular. The cooperative sold double the amount of the original shares they offered, and members could buy shares in installments.

Within a few months, five stores were in operation in Memphis, serving about 75,000 people. The members of the local guilds associated with each store met monthly to study cooperatives and discuss issues. The cooperative planned to own its own buildings and a cooperative warehouse.

The use of cooperative economics to address racial discrimination in the market place and provide a pathway to rebuild communities is an important lesson that has relevance today.

Since the 1800s, Minnesota food co-operatives have been at the center of issues that juxtapose the pursuit of justice issues against fair market opportunity. This started with the Finnish who arrived in Northern Minnesota, Scandinavian farmers who were taking bottom-barrel prices from railroad barons, extended into the 1950s when Black Minnesotans organized the Credjafawn Co-op to benefit their community in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. The co-ops were at the center of these issues in the 1970s, too, wherein the “Co-op Wars” erupted over social justice issues versus profitability.

We know that these are false dichotomies. A single choice among fairness, equity, or justice is not an option. Justice in the marketplace is not an option. Economic exploitation is not a part of the model of sustainability, and neither is economic isolation. The opportunity to share the co-operative model is at hand.

During the Co-op Wars of the ’70s, the clash between the Maoist “Co-op Organization” and the Bryant/Central Food Co-op was not just about food. The clash was about the false dichotomies: Serving poor people OR serving great food. Dismantling the notion that “cheap” food is sustainable is hard.

However, we now know that cheap food is built on cheap labor. When people are not paid fairly, we perpetuate the same system of inequality that we are trying to end. Today’s food co-ops must accomplish both: Make a commitment to end poverty by supporting economic models that are fair, just, and healthy and deliver healthful food to its owners.

The Seward Co-op’s Friendship store in a Bryant neighborhood will be an opportunity to become a part of the fabric of the community that honors this legacy by bridging the gap between the promise of cooperatives of the past and an economically just future.

Would you like to discuss these ideas further? Join LaDonna for the Seward Co-op Book Club this month —Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice

Co-op Creamery Logo Unveiled: Seward Project Updates

Seward Co-op Project Updates


Friendship Store

Progress on constructing the new Friendship store was delayed in November and December due to rerouting and reconnecting existing power and communication cables, but the remaining demo of the old church building and the removal of the north-south section of the vacated alley was completed in late December.

In January, the construction crew excavated and framed, then poured, cured and back-filled the new concrete foundation for the building — all in the coldest month of the year. A round of applause for our construction team, please.

The erection of the steel framing has recently started (see picture by reporter Ben Garvin on Facebook page), and the building of the new store is beginning to take shape. When this is completed, the exterior framing and sheathing will go up, along with the roof. We’re still on track for the new store to be LEED-certified.

We remain hopeful the Seward Co-op Friendship store will be ready to open in October, 2015.

Creamery Building

We’ve seen a lot of activity in the Creamery Building. The new elevator addition was completed in late December, and the second-floor offices were finished in January. Administrative staff have all moved into the second floor, which has already begun to alleviate space issues in the Franklin store.

As of Feb. 1, our focus will be entirely on the first floor, which will feature a café called the Co-op Creamery Neighborhood Café and a central food-production facility. The facility will supply the Franklin and Friendship stores with meat, bakery, and deli products, freeing up space and workloads on the two retail sites.

The new logos for the Co-op Creamery Neighborhood Café have been finalized (above). The logo was designed to capture, embody, and carry forward the spirit of solidarity and cooperation that brought about the founding of the original Franklin Cooperative Creamery back in 1912. The café menu will be developed on a farm-to-table theme, featuring seasonal and P6 ingredients.

More exciting details to come in the April issue of Sprout!

Seward Co-op Creamery Building on Franklin & 26th Avenue