Note: Sale prices on the items mentioned in this article ended Tuesday, April 15.

You know “shave and hair cut two bits,” right?

When you’re at the co-op today, hum the words Sale and a Coupon: No Way! to that tune and it’ll help you remember to save a boatload of money. It’s a little trick I taught myself as a dad who loves to shop at Seward.

How does sale-and-a-coupon save me money?

When Seward has Co+op Deals, we also have manufacturers coupons for the same products sometimes. When that happens, both the sale and the coupon apply to your purchase. Like this:

When some products are on special through the Co+op Deals program, manufacturers’ coupons for the same items are often available. When that happens, both the sale and the coupon can apply to a purchase. Like this: On Co+op Deals, Westbrae organic black beans are $1 off per 25 oz. can (reg. $3.19). Use the coupon from Westbrae, placed right on the shelf for you, and receive another $1 off for two cans.

Pretty sure you can do the math, but I always have to spell it out for myself to be sure. Without these two deals, I’d spend $6.38 for two cans, but:

$1 off per can + $1 off per two cans = $3.38 for two (about 1/2 price) or $3 off for every two I buy, and I buy a lot of black beans since my son declared himself a vegetarian. Deals like this made me start humming:

Sale and a coupon? No way!

Here’s another example:

Sale-and-a-coupon on Stonyfield organic 6 oz. yogurts. These are great for kids’ lunches so I buy them by the armful. On sale for $.79 (reg. $1.19), I’m already saving $.30 each. Plus the Stonyfield coupon, bless them, these yogurts are $1 off for three. Let’s double that for a week’s worth at six because that’s how I have to buy them for my daughter who loves Stonyfield:

($.30 off + $1 off per three) x 2 = $.55 per container.

If you’re a dad who likes to buy organic for his kids, prices like these at a store where I prefer to shop (call me the “Co-op Pop”) straighten my posture and make my eyes bug out.

One last example of sale-and-a-coupon-no-way:

I’m not wild about breakfast cereal for my kids, but I’m a smart dad who chooses his battles carefully. If it’s on sale, I can think Snackanimals as a treat, especially if I need them to clean their rooms later in the day.

Barbara’s Snackanimals normally go for $5.39 each, but with Co+op Deals they’re $2 off, and with the coupon from Barbara’s, they’re another $1 off for two boxe. That means, Smart Dad saves four bucks. Sale and a coupon? Kids get allowance this week!

There aren’t necessarily a lot of these sale-and-a-coupon-no-way combo deals, but when Seward has them, I’ll often save a ton on staple items or foods that will go fast in my household (one last equation: two voracious kids > six yogurts + two black beans + two boxes cereal boxes).

Just remember “sale-and-a-coupon,” and you’ll save money. Besides, as a guy I happen to know that no dad can resist that old tune…

* @NprMichael on Twitter read this post and adds, “my favorite is sale + coupon + quarterly member discount. I call it the co-op trifecta!”

On March 18, 2014 from 6–8 p.m., the Seward Co-op convened a community meeting to discuss the new Friendship Store. The meeting, held at Sabathani Community Center, was designed and facilitated by Yvonne Cheek of Millennium Consulting Group. The agenda for the meeting was shaped by interviews with community residents and by a planning committee of the Seward Co-op. Approximately 100 people attended the meeting.

This report includes information generated at the community meeting by the attendees.

Meeting Purpose:

Engage neighborhood residents in a discussion about the Friendship Store.

Meeting Goals:

• Share updates on the Friendship Store.
• Provide information about co-ops and ownership in the co-op.
• Discuss ideas for Friendship Store products and services.

Agenda Items for the Community Meeting included “Welcome & Meeting Purpose” by LaDonna Redmond, Education & Outreach Coordinator Seward Co-op; Role of Facilitator & Opening Question; “What Is a Co-op? How Does It Work?” by Sean Doyle, General Manager, Seward Co-op; “Friendship Project Progress, Store Design, Capitalization & Hiring” by Erik Hatting, Initiatives Manager, Seward Co-op and Barb Doyle, HIRED; “Questions and Answers; Anchor Questions for Discussion; Acknowledgement of Seward Co-op Managers” by LaDonna Redmond; “Store Tours / Running for the Board / Ownership in the Co-op / Participating in Future Community Events and Milestones” by Tom Vogel, Marketing Manager, Seward Co-op; “Next Steps and Closing Remarks” by LaDonna Redmond.

Questions to the community:

Question #1:

Where do you shop for groceries now, and what are your thoughts about that store?

Comments from some participants about what matters:

• cost
• proximity to my home
• organic items
• location
• fast check out
• easy to walk to
• quality of produce
• easy access

Question #2:

What types of products serve your family’s needs?

Question #3:

What deli foods would you like to see at the new store? Would you (often or sometimes) use the deli for your lunch or dinner needs?

Deli Use

Question #4:

What topics would you like to know more about? What classes would you like to take at the Friendship Store?

CLASSES

• Cultural/ethnic cooking
• Different cultural traditions
• Cooking healthy meals
• Healthy ingredient substitution
• Vegetarian cooking
• From garden to stove
• Diabetic cooking
• Soul food cooking
• Chemistry of cooking
• Shopping at the co-op on a budget
• Meal planning
• Healthy eating
• Food preservation
• Cooking dry goods
• Authentic Latino cooking
• Cooking gluten free
• Cooking from scratch
• Canning
• How to use different products to save money
• How to make vegetables taste better
• How to use spices
• Too busy to take classes, but love that they are available

WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT

• How to eliminate meet from my diet and eat healthy
• Information on products in front of me. Educate staff on how to educate me.
• Information on product origin
• Small, local companies
• Recipes
• Commercial kitchen
• Partnering with local organizations
• Partnering with Senior Center at Sabathani
• Partnering with high schools

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.

With the cold, the snow and the somewhat arbitrary marker of the start of a New Year, it’s a good time to try new things, and to make soup. Therefore, I have recently tried to recreate my favorite Thai soup, Tom Yum. It’s fortunate that Seward Co-op has nearly all the exotic ingredients for it right now: organic lemongrass, kaffir limes (an extravagantly fragrant and wrinkled, but juiceless, varietal), and occasionally galangal (if not fresh, you can find in dried in the Grocery department). Tom Yum is essentially a wildly flavorful broth with a few vegetables and shrimp — and it is great when you’re fighting a cold, which many of us are doing right now. I must admit, I don’t make it exactly as they would in Thailand (where I have never been) but this is still a good rendition.

Start by steeping a lemongrass stem, the rind of a quarter of kaffir lime, a small chunk of galangal or ginger, a little fish sauce and some chili paste, all together in a quart of chicken broth. In Thai restaurants, those ingredients will still be floating in the soup when it is served, but I like to strain it before adding brown beech mushrooms, cilantro, scallions, shrimp and thin strips of bell pepper. I also like to squeeze lime juice in at the end and a little turbinado sugar. Serve it hot!

Another tropical item we recently received is tamarind pods, which look like a prehistoric bean. The edible part is the pulp within the brittle pod, which you can break off easily. The pulp is tangy, sticky and clings to the few large, glossy seeds. A lot of people like to chew on tamarind plain, but there are a lot of uses for it, many of them Central American or Asian in origin. My favorite condiment is tamarind chutney, which is simple and fast to prepare. Steep tamarind pulp in a little water and then press it through a sieve to remove any membranes and seeds (the seeds are very pretty and could be used to make beads or gamepieces). Add toasted cumin, cayenne and sugar to taste. Drizzle it over rice, meat, vegetables, or use it as a dipping sauce for samosas or egg rolls.

One of my kitchen staples is garlic, one of the few crops that have not been significantly altered from its wild state by human agricultural selection. Most fruits and vegetables have been selected over millennia to be more tender, less bitter and sweeter than the wild originals. This results in them being more pleasing to the human palate, but generally no where near as nutritious. Garlic is widely known to be a medicinal food, good for preventing cancer and fighting bacteria, but there’s a trick to that. If you chop up garlic and then cook it right away, those properties are drastically reduced. However, by chopping and allowing it to sit for ten minutes before cooking it, you can preserve garlic’s nutritional bounty. Of course you can always eat it raw, too, and garner all the benefits — if you don’t mind the bite that raw garlic has.

— Hannah B., Assistant Produce Manager

SUNDAY, NOV. 3
Huevos Rancheros
Breakfast Quesadillas
Cuban Black Beans
Maple Tofu Hash
Biscuits & Gravy With Sausage

MONDAY, NOV. 4
Mango Chicken
Sour Cream Mole Chicken Enchilada
Sour Cream Mole Vegetarian Enchilada
Catalan Roasted Vegetables
Greens With Quinoa And Radish

TUESDAY, NOV. 5
Maple Glazed Chicken
Herbed Honey Roast Squash
Tuscan Sofrito With Yams And Sage
Sauteed Greens
Buckwheat Wild Rice Pilaf

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 6
Kung Pao Chicken
Red Curry BBQ Chicken
Asian-Style Sofrito
Squash With Coconut Milk, Lime & Cilantro
Sweet And Sour Greens

THURSDAY, NOV. 7
Carolina Pork
Bbq Chicken
Baked Beans
Carolina Greens
Dirty Rice

FRIDAY, NOV. 8
Doro We’t
Ethiopian Beets And Potatoes
Ater Allecha
Misr Kawat
Addis Ababa (Ethiopian Vegetable Rice)

SATURDAY, NOV. 9
Maple Tofu Hash
Butternut Squash – Caramelized Onion Frittata
Strata Milano With Bacon
Biscuits & Sausage Gravy
Breakfast Quesadillas

Since announcing the project in June, we have spoken with area neighbors, organizations, and businesses to learn more about the community and begin developing partnerships for the future. These conversations have informed the design process. In the past weeks we have been working with our design team and city planning staff to prepare the preliminary “site use” plan. This is the project’s first design milestone.

The site use plan is a balance between store operational needs, city code requirements, and what we believe will allow the co-op to be a good neighbor for many years to come. At a high level, the site plan proposes:

• A building at the corner of 38th Street and Clinton Avenue. We will propose a small second floor for offices along the 38th Street side of the building.
• Fifty-nine parking spaces in the adjacent parking lot at 38th Street and 3rd Avenue. This is a similar ratio of parking-to-building at our Franklin store.
• Vacating the alley at 38th Street which will include a new “hammerhead” turnaround.

Download a PDF version of the preliminary site plan. The site plan is also available under Resources on the left.

Upcoming Events

We are planning a number of events for those who would like to learn more about the proposed project and Seward Co-op.

Open houses in October:
If you would like to speak to co-op staff about the project, please join us at one of the scheduled open houses to be held at 3821 3rd Avenue South. This is a property the co-op purchased in August in anticipation of acquiring additional properties in March of 2014. The open houses are scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays, and from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays throughout October. More information can be found here.

Tours of the Franklin store:
We invite you visit and see what the co-op is all about. Starting on October 26 at 11 a.m., LaDonna Redmond will lead Saturday tours of the Franklin store for anyone who is interested. Transportation from and back to the Friendship site (3821 3rd Avenue) will be provided. Please RSVP with LaDonna if you would like to attend the tour and/or need a ride (612-314-2016, lsandersredmond@seward.coop). Tour dates will be posted on our website as they become available.

Public Task Force meeting on the site design:
In anticipation of the new store, the Bryant and Central neighborhood groups have created a task force made up of representatives from area neighborhood organizations and residents. A public task force meeting to review the project plans is planned for Wednesday, Nov. 6. Location and time will be posted on the project page when available.

Employment Opportunities

This proposed new store is exciting for a number of reasons. A very important aspect is the potential for the creation of new jobs. Over the past four and a half years, the co-op has grown substantially. Prior to expanding into the current Franklin store the co-op employed 110 people. Today the co-op has a staff of over 220 people, 70 percent of whom are full time (30+hrs/week).

One of the compelling reasons for proposing a second store at the Friendship site is the potential of expanding access to living-wage jobs, co-op ownership, and healthful food. More than 20 percent of current staff, and 15 percent of the co-op’s owners, live within 1.5 miles of the proposed site. Employees who have worked at least 2,000 hours are eligible to earn, at a minimum, the City of Minneapolis’ living wage, which is currently $12.45 per hour.

The proposed second store at the Friendship site has the potential to create many new jobs and many new opportunities, both within the organization and in the community. One of the many new partnerships we are building is with Hired, a workforce development organization. Hired will assist us in supporting local residents who apply for current openings at the Franklin store and prepare for future job openings at the Friendship site.

For those interested in working at Seward Co-op, please visit our careers page. It lists all current openings at the Franklin store, outlines employee benefits, and has an online application submission form. Job openings and applications are also available at the Franklin store at 2823 E. Franklin Avenue.

Project Timeline

A project of this scale and complexity can take many months to complete and requires its phases be completed in a carefully coordinated sequence. The proposed timeline for the new store is below.

Wisconsin Growers Co-op was founded in 2006 to help 20 families maintain ownership of their farms. Its members are dedicated to the idea that if farmers take “good care of the soil, the soil will pay back with high-quality produce.” This mindset has proven effective; Wisconsin Growers often brings us produce all year long, from greenhouse radishes at the first sight of spring clear around the calendar to over-wintered parsnips. The key to the longevity of their growing season are labor-intensive, fossil fuel-free farming methods. On nearly 40 acres of the co-op’s land, these farmers plant, tend, and harvest crops exclusively using horses, horse machinery, and hand tools. In addition to more popular produce items such as potatoes, onions, and radishes, the Wisconsin Growers Co-op offers unique heirloom squash varieties, such as Queensland blue and Long Island cheese. WI Growers was the featured Know Our Grower Oct. 2 – 15. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Oct. 5.

Sales & delivery staff: Al Weinrich

How do you describe the Wisconsin Growers Cooperative?
Wisconsin Growers is a group of 30 small family farms that came together to help each other market their produce. Some farmers have only a small garden plot and others have several acres of produce. All of the farmers are Amish at this time. Farms are located in west/central Wisconsin near the towns of Black River Falls, Mondovi and Taylor. Labor is traded on the farms if someone needs help with just about anything such as weeding, planting and harvesting. Farmers/growers take turns on the growers board (a 3-person board of directors) helping to manage everything from planning what type of produce each grower will grow, to making sure the produce truck gets loaded on time as well as assisting the sales manager, as needed.

Wisconsin Growers products are either labeled organic or “sustainably grown.” When they are labeled “sustainably grown” can you describe the approach to farming?
When our produce is labeled as “sustainably grown” our growers are to follow the same requirements as the certified organic growers. The only difference being they don’t pay a certifier, which may be a financial hardship if they are a small grower. Soil building practices and amendment applications on both organic and sustainably farmed fields of Wisconsin Grower farms all follow the same National Organic Program standards.

What distinguishes your products from other local produce?
Our produce is checked both at the farm and as it is aggregated at the loading dock which ensures consistent good quality. Also, horses are used to cultivate the produce.

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
I most enjoy tasting the fresh raw produce while picking it up from the farms or as it is delivered. Especially green beans, tomatoes, and of course watermelon and muskmelon.

It’s definitely apple season in Minnesota. A coworker and I were reflecting on how lucky we are to have Hoch Orchard with its nearly infinite number of organic apple varieties. They change by the week, and sometimes we only have the more unusual kinds, like Akane and Golden Russet, for a few days. So if you’re an apple fan, it makes sense to pay close attention to that part of the department. Apples aren’t the only good thing around right now. Lately, the Produce department resembles Aladdin’s magic cave — it’s never more colorful around here than right now. Here’re a few notable jewels:

Blue potatoes from Wisconsin Growers: Hurrah! I can make my favorite potato dish. Potatoes, sliced thin on a mandoline, coated in a slurry of olive oil, shallots, thyme and a pinch of saffron, roasted with chopped pistachios. The combination of blue and green makes this dish especially appealing.

Ripe hot peppers, such as pimento, Jimmy Nardello, and cherry bomb. I’m not much of a chili connoisseur. However, I do like just a little rising heat combined with ripe sweet pepper, and in varying degrees, these peppers deliver. I’ll probably cut one into rounds and toss it with the sliced potatoes mentioned above. Ripe, hot peppers, as opposed to the green Jalapeños and serranos we always carry, are only seen at this time of year.

Last of the local corn. It’s not so tender as it is in the summer, and it may have lost some sweetness, but try it chopped in hunks, rolled in olive oil and a little cayenne, and roasted at the same time as the potatoes. It browns a little and gets quite chewy and savory. It’s just fine as is, but you could dress it up with grated cheese and crema for an approximation of Mexican style elote.

The small pome fruits. Very cute. At the time of this writing, we have tiny Seckel pears, which are sweet and hazelnut flavored in an astringent jacket — I’d recommend peeling them. Hopefully, they’ll be around for a while. They’re perfect for a rustic fruit and cheese plate. But if we don’t have them, there’s always the reliable chestnut apple. It’s like a full-sized apple condensed by half. They’re the perfect size for a child’s lunch.

Pomegranates. To open, slice just below the part that sticks up like a little crown. Then score the sides and pull apart. This technique is much more fun and less messy than just chopping the fruit in half. I’ve used chunks of pomegranate like this on a fruit plate, and the whole thing resembled those Dutch still-life paintings.

Local Raspberries. There’s really no way to avoid eating a whole container of these things — and why would you? The season is so short. Carpe diem! They are excellent with a little Crème fraîche.

Heartbeet Farm, outside of Lake City, Minn., is a relatively new producer for Seward Co-op. Owned by Joe and Rebecca Schwen, Heartbeet uses a combination of draft horses, small tractors and other technologies to grow a wide variety of vegetables. In coordination with Earthen Path, a farm long owned and managed by Steven Schwen (Joe’s father), they bring us green-top onions, Hakurei turnips, shiso, salad mix, beets, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant and many other items throughout the growing season. Heartbeet Farm was the featured Know Our Grower Sept. 4 – 17. Meet the Grower: Sunday, Sept. 8.

Growers: Joe & Rebecca Schwen

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to pursue farming as a profession?
For Joe, he grew up doing it. It came as a natural progression in his life, and he always really enjoyed it. He says he liked watching things grow (still true!). For me, Rebecca, it came out of my love for food, and my desire to live a handmade life. The irony now is that I have no time to cook, despite being surrounded by spectacular veggies and other farm fare. My passion for food led me to work on a farm, which I found immensely fulfilling in a direct, hands on way. I pursued it as a “career” as I pursued it as one of my life’s passions.

Can you describe your approach to farming?
Our approach focuses on a few things. The appropriate scale is important, which for us is a human scale. What can we do and how can we do it in a way that allows us direct interaction with our plants, soil, animals, and farm ecosystem, while still being productive and efficient, and sustainable on many levels. We don’t pursue organic certification partly due to this practicality of scale issue and also because our goal is to do not only what is required for certification, but to go beyond that and focus on building soil and curbing erosion.

What distinguishes your products from other local growers?
Our farm and its health and vitality are very important to us. Farming is not only how we support ourselves financially, it’s what we do, as a lifestyle! We try to approach farming with craft and make our farm sustainable on many different levels. We involve our kids on the farm and raising them in this environment is important to us as we are a completely family owned and operated business.
On the more technical side, we decided last year to dedicate the time and finances toward long term soil balancing. We are working field by field to return the trace minerals to our soil so that our plants are healthier and our produce is sweeter, tastier, and more nutritious. In this way, we focus big time on the quality of our product, and the quantity will always take second place. Another practice that sets our farm apart is our use of draft horses. We have a team of Percherons that do many of the field work tasks on our farm.

What is your favorite way to enjoy your own produce?
We wait all year for heirloom tomato season and enjoy them in great quantity every day when they are around. Tomato, egg and cheese sandwich (raw sharp cheddar from Organic Valley); tomato on top of a bagel & cream cheese; with slices of fresh sweet onion and mayonnaise in a sandwich; and especially the classic Italian caprese salad – tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, whole fresh basil leaves, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, all soaked up with some crusty bread. We fry thick slices of eggplant in plenty of olive oil, salt and eat them as is or added to some kind of tomato sandwich! Many of our favorite ways to eat cole crops (vegetables in the mustard family, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale and kohlrabi) and root veggies is in fermented form – cortido, kimchi, ginger carrots, fermented turnips & radishes too!

August means the last stretch of summer and peak season for fresh fruit. How best to bring that to breakfast? Try a Swiss-soak breakfast made using Seven Sundays Bircher muesli and fresh peach puree.

Seward Co-op’s version uses creamy Cedar Summit milk, a dollop of tangy Rochdale Farms yogurt, and fresh peach puree made from Barnard Orchards peaches. Simply combine equal parts muesli and milk, mix, and refrigerate for an hour or up to overnight. Add a scoop of yogurt and a drizzle of blended peach puree when you’re ready to eat, and enjoy!