Wednesday, April 9, 2014 –Today, it is 70 degrees outside and sunny, and there is no snow in the ten-day forecast.

Surely, that means that it really is early Spring, which is one of the most challenging and interesting times of the year to work in a produce department like Seward’s. Transition and gap are key words. We’re transitioning from one growing region to another, which can mean gaps in availability.

For instance, the Braeburn apples from Washington that had been in storage since their harvest in the fall have run out, and we won’t have them in again until the South American harvests start to be shipped north, probably mid to late April. If you count back six months from April, you come to October, which is just about when the fresh crop of WA Braeburns was newly available. Makes sense-Chile and Argentina’s seasons are opposite of ours. So, if you’re a die hard Braeburn fan, you’ll be able to get them soon, and in the meantime, there are still lots of other apples available from Washington. Lady Alice has been particularly well loved by the produce stockers this year.

Pear season has been over in the northern hemisphere for six months or so, which means we’ve got the South American crop coming in now. The red Bartletts seem especially soft and luscious at the moment. They are mild, to be sure, but they go well with cheese or walnuts, and are sure to please little children.

Transition and gap isn’t just for fruit-if you’ve been in recently looking for red onions, you’ve likely been disappointed. The storage onion supply from the west coast is clearly dwindling, and they just don’t have enough reds to ship. Local red onions are long gone. But take heart-in the wet rack (top picture, above), you will often find red spring onions. Not to be confused with scallions or green onions, these are simply young, green harvested red onions. If they’d been left in the field they would eventually become the storage onions that you usually see in the root rack. I take the presence of such onions to mean that the onion fields of the west coast are yielding, and we’ll get some in due time. It’s likely that the first shipment of storage reds will come from Mexico, where it is already summer.

There was hardly a gap at all this year between the Wisconsin Growers parsnips that were harvested and stored in the fall and the overwintered ones from the same farms. Parsnips have the lovely quality of being unharmed, and in fact improved, by remaining unharvested in the ground for the winter. The cold makes them sweeter. They have been cleaned thoroughly by the growers, and are creamy white. In my opinion, they are best roasted, but they can also be shredded in potato pancakes or hashbrowns for an interesting variation.

There is a triad of items that will always mean Spring: Living waters English cucumbers, CA fava beans and really tasty berries. We’ve had Living Waters tomatoes for a while now, but the cucumbers come a little later. They are tender and sweet and need no peeling. In fact, to peel an English cucumber is to miss out on a part of the enjoyment of them.

Fava Beans are an unusual bean. Most beans like warm soils, but favas thrive in cool conditions, which is what brings them to market so soon in the year. To eat them, first remove the beans from the large, leathery pod, and then steam them for a few minutes. Heap them in a bowl and eat them with a pecorino or queso fresco, as a snack. The skin of the bean is usually best removed, making them a good finger food to leisurely enjoy with a friend on the picnic table. A glass of white wine would not be a bad idea either.

Berries start to come into season at this time of year, and while Strawberries are a steady occupant of the produce shelves, if you happen to be here on a day when Blackberries are in, you should treat yourself. They should be large and shiny and look as if they are about to burst that dark juice all over the package. If you manage not to eat them all out of hand, throw them in muffins or pancakes, or delicately add them to a fruit salad at the last minute.

Citrus is still good, although it will be transitioning out of season in the next couple of months. The Temple oranges are amazing-they remind me of orange popsicles in the best possible way. They have lots and lots of seeds, which can be a drawback, but they are good candidates for juicing, eliminating that nuisance.

We have had a promising start to the campaign. At the end of February Seward Co-op was awarded a New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation of $8 million by the Midwest Minnesota Capital Development Corporation. The NMTC will result in substantial debt forgiveness and along with owner capital makes this project more attractive for bank financing.

We have also begun to receive owner investments. Since March 30 Seward Co-op owners have invested $283,500 in a mix of owner loans and Class C stock. Class C stock can be purchased at customer service or by contacting me at 612-314-2012. You can also contact me to schedule an owner loan closing appointment.

We endeavor to reach our goal by the end of our fiscal year on June 30th in order to maintain the proposed construction schedule. Updates on our progress toward our goal will be available here and at the co-op.

Thank you to those who have invested and to all of our owners for your continued support of Seward Co-op.

Jill Livingston,
Owner Capitalization Coordinator

Every week, there’s another news story about why honeybees are in danger and how to prevent their losses from happening.

“Healthy Bees, Healthy Lives” is the name of a campaign created by The Beez Kneez (we sell their fine honey at Seward Co-op) to protect pollinators from harmful pesticides and other chemicals. From The Beez Knees website:

In September of 2013, The Beez Kneez, LLC lost our Blake School [urban] hive in Minneapolis to a legal pesticide application. Our hive and the hives of two hobby beekeepers within a 1/4 mile of each other lost thousands of bees in a 24-hour period.

We underwent an investigation with the MN Department of Agriculture and the University of MN Bee Lab, and we able to determine that our hives were killed by a commonly used pesticide, sprayed on the foundations of buildings to kill unwanted insects.

As a result they started Healthy Bees, Healthy Lives to promote awareness about pesticide-use and how vulnerable it makes pollinators in our modern, chem-heavy world. For example, sign the pledge at the above link “to maintain a chemical free green space,” pay a minimum of $10, and you’ll receive your choice of very cool yard sign designs.

And Seward Co-op is joining the Healthy Bees, Healthy Lives campaign, too. All through April we’ll have store-specials, fun events, and we’ll be highlight special honey-based treats, too.

April 2-April 15: Beez Kneez Honey will be on special, and so will Honey Beez Cream Puffs from the Seward Co-op Bakery.

Thursday, April 3: What’s Going on with the Bees? Class at Seward Co-op from 6–8 p.m. Sign up at Customer Service.

Saturday, April 5: Healthy Bees, Healthy Lives Demo Event: Taste Beez Kneez Honey and Seward Co-op Honey Beez Cream Puffs. 3-6 p.m.

Thursday, April 10: Dandelion-Honey Pastry Chef Challenge at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, where local pastry chefs will compete against one another, building pastries that contain the key ingredient: dandelion honey. Our own pastry wizards Mary, Ann, and Amanda from the Seward Co-op Bakery will be entering the chef challenge with the Seward Bakery’s Honey Beez Cream Puffs.

More info below:

Your favorite probiotic drink is on tap at Seward, and we’re so excited to report that we’re the only grocery in town who offers it.

Verdant Tea’s tangy and refreshing kombucha tea is now available from the tapped kegs in Aisle Two. Bring your own bottle or buy one of ours, but go ahead and pour as much as you like.

Currently, we have two taps and two flavors: Pink Robot (guava) and Ginger Vesper (ginger, edelflower, and pepper), both made with Verdant Tea’s fermented oolong tea. (Kombucha is not made from mushrooms, but a pancake-like colony of yeasts and bacteria.)

Kombucha tea originated in Asia and came to Germany at the turn of the 19th Century. Since the then, kombucha has been promoted as an immunity-boosting tea that can strengthen the body against many ailments.

It became widely used in the U.S. partly because it can be made at home. It is especially popular among people with HIV and the elderly (according to the American Cancer Society website) because of claims it can boost immunity and slow aging. There are no available human test studies on the health benefits of kombucha, however.

We drink kombucha for refreshment since the boost of B vitamins, probiotics from fermentation, and a little caffeine from oolong tea is plenty enough reason to enjoy this drink.

It may not feel like spring yet, but that doesn’t matter to L.T.D Farm ducks and geese.

Our friends at L.T.D. reported a week ago that, in defiance of the Upper Midwest polar vortex, their ducks were laying. Last year, L.T.D.’s ducks laid much later, so we presumed here at the big green co-op that we wouldn’t see their duck or goose eggs till the Seward CSA Fair or so.

“We were so excited that they started laying early this year,” Khaiti French said told us when she made the delivery today.

Khaiti brought a quick, first shot of duck and goose eggs today, and, for now, the only place you can get them is Seward Co-op — as fresh as you can get, short of living on LTD Farm.

If you’ve never cooked with duck or goose eggs before, you should give it a whirl. These eggs are thicker, heavier in consistency and are much richer. You’ll have to adjust your recipe or proportions if you want to switch out hen eggs for duck/goose eggs because their bigger, too ( a goose egg is roughly the size of your fist). Also, be prepared to use some muscle cracking these eggs, as the shells are much thicker.

Recipe: Hole-in-the-Wall Breakfast

This one’s great for kids who might need a little wooing when it comes to trying ducks eggs, which are richer and heavier than the hen eggs they’re used to.

Ingredients:

1 duck egg

1 slice of bread

2 strips bacon or 2 Seward Maple Sausages

Butter for the pan

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

– Fry the sausages/bacon as usual

– With a drinking glass, cut out a hole in the slice of bread

– Place a pan on medium-low heat. Put in the butter (or butter the bread, both sides). Let your kid eat the bread circle. Place the bread-slice in the pan when the butter is melted and crack the duck egg into the hole you made with the glass. When the duck looks almost done, and before the bread is too brown, flip it and fry till finished.

Serve with bacon or sausages criss-crossed over the duck egg.

The co-op’s launch party for the 2014 capital campaign was a lively and successful event. Around 200 co-op owners and community members visited the Franklin Cooperative Creamery building at 2601 E. Franklin Ave. to tour the space and learn about investment opportunities in the co-op. Direct investments from owners will help make possible a new store at 38th Street and 3rd Avenue, and a new administration and food production facility in the Creamery.

Historical photos and information about the Creamery as it operated in the 1920s and ’30s were on display, along with preliminary site plans for the Friendship store and the Creamery’s second floor offices. From the appetizers provided by the co-op’s Deli to the live music, drinks, and camaraderie, the capital campaign launch was a festive evening. See frequently asked questions regarding investment at right, and please visit Customer Service to obtain a loan packet.

We invite you to join us for a community meeting on Tuesday, March 18, from 6–8 p.m. in the gymnasium (2nd floor) of the Sabathani Community Center.

At this meeting, we will continue to discuss ways in which we can work together to build a grocery store that best serves our community. We would like to hear your ideas on such topics as how we can use the community classroom, what products you’d like to see on the shelves, and ways in which we can incorporate the history of the neighborhood into the design of the store.

The event will be facilitated by Yvonne Cheek, president of the Millennium Consulting Group. The co-op will provide light snacks and beverages. Material en español está disponible, y habrá un intérprete de lengua española durante la reunión. Childcare will also be provided.

We hope you will join us and share your ideas for the future of Seward Co-op!

We invite you to join us for a community meeting on Tuesday, March 18, from 6–8 p.m. in the gymnasium (2nd floor) of the Sabathani Community Center.

At this meeting, we will continue to discuss ways in which we can work together to build a grocery store that best serves our community. We would like to hear your ideas on such topics as how we can use the community classroom, what products you’d like to see on the shelves, and ways in which we can incorporate the history of the neighborhood into the design of the store.

The event will be facilitated by Yvonne Cheek, president of the Millennium Consulting Group. The co-op will provide light snacks and beverages. Material en español está disponible, y habrá un intérprete de lengua española durante la reunión. Childcare will also be provided.

We hope you will join us and share your ideas for the future of Seward Co-op!

“If you build it, will they come?”

That’s the essential question of NPR’s article It Takes More Than A Produce Aisle To Refresh A Food Desert that’s been making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds this week.

As it happens, the article is a nice bit of synchronicity for Seward. As we contemplate the how’s, when’s, and why’s of opening the Friendship Store in South Minneapolis, our co-op community is thinking lots about “food desert” issues of late.

The NPR article, above, asks hard questions about food access by covering a new study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine which examined the impact of a new store on a Philadelphia food desert. Researchers “surveyed residents of one low-income community in Philadelphia before and after the opening of a glistening new supermarket brimming with fresh produce. What they’re finding, [Penn State Prof. Stephen] Matthews says, is a bit surprising: ‘We don’t find any difference at all. … We see no effect of the store on fruit and vegetable consumption.'”

Surprising to Prof. Matthews and NPR, maybe.

To those of us in the business of selling natural foods (since 1972, in Seward Co-op’s case), we know you can’t just open a store anywhere and expect hordes to come a-shopping, particularly if the product mix is unusual for the locals. The study found that only 26% of the local “low income” population was shopping at the store. I wouldn’t call that a failure to eliminate a food desert, I’d call that another day in the grocery business. Unless the store in question is driving an aggressive marketing campaign and/or taking a loss on prices (the article does not say what steps the supermarket took to attract local customers), no, people aren’t going to change where they shop.

And why should they? People shop where they find good value and where they feel comfortable and welcome. And that’s true, ahem, regardless of a neighborhood’s relative income level. Drop an awesome store lush with local produce in a wealthy neighborhood or middle-class suburb, and it won’t automatically change buying habits because of the virtue of its veggies, either.

But that begs the question: What’s the real measure of success here? As of 2006, over 50% of Minneapolis lived in a food desert, with South Minneapolis being one of the most vast. Is the goal to simply reduce that desert acreage by opening groceries strategically (the London study says no)? To change dietary habits of the local low-income population? To reverse epidemiological data showing that diabetes is rampant in a given low-income area? To drive down the city’s mean BMI? To put Popeye’s out of business? To make a lot of money? Is it fair to expect that a run-of-the-mill grocery store would undo a food desert in the first place?

No, of course not. There’s no money in hunger advocacy. Expecting a profit-driven business to prioritize and market to low-income shoppers is like hoping liquor stores will offer affordable poodle-grooming.

The rest of the NPR article is more on-point, by discussing the politics and particulars of hunger with public health researcher Alex Ortega who works to create effective healthy food hubs and educating low-income city dwellers about eating well. The article ends by deciding that the jury is still out as to whether outreach and education work.

The evidence may yet to be gathered on Ortega’s excellent work, but there is an available model that researchers should be looking at, one that specifically targets getting food to the people who want it in areas where the food they want isn’t attainable, and doing it in a way that doesn’t ask farmers to take the hit so that the food can be sold as cheaply as possible.

Food co-ops.

Consider: Seward Co-op has its roots in the People’s Pantry which was started around 1970. From Growing with Purpose about the history of Seward Co-op, the pantry was started because, “People wanted an alternative to heavily processed food” and “a place where one could get natural bulk foods at low cost.” By 1971, the People’s Pantry on the West Bank of Minneapolis had morphed into North Country Co-op which in turn gave birth to Seward Co-op further south on Franklin Avenue in 1972. Numerous co-ops were springing up all over the Twin Cities in the early seventies because the supermarket boom of the early 1960s was no longer serving everyone’s needs — and started creating food deserts. So began the hard work of creating a more socially just food system, where people who wanted healthy food would have access to it.

Changing a food desert is more than just opening a store and effectively marketing it for a few months, though — it’s hard “yeoman’s work ” for many, many years. For Seward, doing our small part to undo the damage that over-centralizing the food system has inflicted on Minneapolis has meant decades of saving pennies, paying good local farmers good prices season after season, offering classes on cooking to co-ops owner-members, and eventually putting together a business that has the financial muscle to open a second store — forty years after Seward Co-op first opened its doors! A business that values only one bottom line — the financial one — might be able to expand sooner, but they’re not really the answer to food access, as the NPR article pointed out. Big, glistening supermarket stores are what created food deserts to begin with. To water food deserts, seed them, and bring them back to sustaining communities again, it’s going to take businesses that value multiple bottom lines.

Specifically, they need to embrace their entire community, not just the shoppers who can afford the fresh veggies and have the time to cook. To change a food desert, grocery stores will have to help their shoppers get creative the way Alex Ortega’s UCLA project did. They’ll also have to take part in WIC and SNAP programs and actually reach out to shoppers who use federal assistance. These stores must have it in their mission statements to embrace low income shoppers, saying, “We see you as part of our community, and therefore, our reason for doing business.” If they don’t, they’re just a grocery store in a food desert.

Seward Co-op is one example of a store that honors multiple bottom lines, that is, we value economic equality, inclusiveness, and sustainability, not just making a profit. Shoppers who receive federal assistance can join our co-op at a reduced rate and receive a 5% discount on all purchases. We’ll maintain this policy when we open the new Friendship Store and we’ll do it without shorting farmers on the hard work they do.

One more thing, NPR and Dr. Matthews. The assumption that those living in a food desert are totally ignorant of food issues, eat unhealthily, are unwilling to pay for fruits and vegetables, and only know how to order drive-through food is a huge slice of Twenty First Century prejudice and very sloppy thinking. Here’s what a Facebook reader had to say about Seward’s involvement with WIC and our policy of subsidizing certain foods in order to comply with that program:

“As a SNAP [a.k.a., “food stamps”] recipient who tries her best to feed her family nutritious, local and sustainable food, but faces the reality that most of these products are out of my reach, I commend you. If more companies cared more about the people in their community, agriculture around the world and the Earth itself more than their bottom line, the world would be a much better place.”

I’d argue that Seward Co-op’s strategy of reaching out to everyone in our community — low-income eaters, local farmers, and every link in between on that “food chain” — is already working if we’re making low-income folks feel like they belong in our Franklin Avenue store.

Like it says on the front of the current building: “Everyone Welcome.”

~

NOTE: Seward opened its doors in 1972, not 1974. The post has been edited to make that correction.

The new Farm Bill, or, the Agricultural Act of 2014, is being signed into law today, and as usual, every sector of the country and economy is finding something to despise in it.

The sustainable foods movement can take heart and celebrate several small victories though. Farm Bill 2014 makes it easier for low income Americans to shop at farmers markets; it reinstates the National Organic Certification Cost Share program which reimburses the cost of organic certification to farmers; and it generally promotes sustainable agricultural practices and funding at higher levels.

But Seward has been watching the Farm Bill proceedings closely, and we did see some reasons to worry and finally lament – especially the inclusion of an $8.6 billion cut to “food stamps” (better known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Cutting SNAP even by the relatively small amount of $8.6 billion of an almost trillion dollar Farm Bill has caused hunger activists nationwide to hit the panic button.

With good reason. The “cut” in question shuts a loophole that only fifteen states have been taking advantage of but will leave tens of thousands of American children without access to food in the very near future. The Philadelphia Tribune predicted that the SNAP cut would mean $90 less per month per household in Pennsylvania (imagine if your household suddenly lost $90 per month for food). Neither Pennsylvania nor its food pantries are ready to deal with the fallout caused by this cut.

Minnesota was not one of the fifteen states that took advantage of the soon-to-be-closed loophole, so Minnesotans who receive SNAP benefits won’t be directly impacted. But because Seward Co-op has a sizable number of owners and shoppers who use federal assistance like WIC (funded by SNAP), we were watching the Farm Bill proceedings carefully.

The co-op’s Ends Statement (think “mission statement”) says the co-op values “equitable economic relationships” and “inclusive, socially responsible practices.” WIC fulfills both of these Ends by making food available to more shoppers who might not be able to afford it otherwise. As a result, the co-op takes its involvement with the Minnesota state WIC program very seriously.

A great way of seeing just how important WIC is to the co-op is to look at how we handle three specific items. Eggs, baby formula, and bananas all need to be made available to WIC shoppers, but because we value selling local, organic, and Fair Trade versions of these products, we had a decision to make: Either switch out suppliers and sell conventional (cheaper) eggs, bananas, and baby formula, or sell those premium-priced products at cost or a loss.

We choose the latter. Why? Because our Ends statement direct us to include shoppers who might not be able to afford these foods otherwise. Only about %.05 of store sales come from shoppers and owners who use WIC, so we figured it was better to remain part of the WIC program and continue to sell Equal Exchange Fair Trade bananas to all our shoppers than choosing to turn our backs on either WIC shoppers or our banana farmers.

Furthermore, Seward shoppers who are enrolled in one or more state or federal assistance programs can join the co-op on a Needs-Based Owner-Membership. Owners who qualify for the needs-based option also qualify for a needs-based 5% discount on all purchases.

In an era when the Farm Bill and its social programs are open to slashing cuts, when access to clean, healthy food is more difficult thanks to the weaker buying power of many Americans, co-ops like Seward strive to make it as fair as we can for all our member-owners to eat well and stay healthy. This is a true neighborhood co-op: We want all our neighbors to shop here.