This Saturday at the Farmer's Market

This weekend at the Just Local Food tasting booth we'll be hosting Richard from Rolling Meadows. He's bringing his enthusiastic personality and his shaker cup of sorghum caramel corn. Wheatfield Hill will have their first major picking of Asparagus available, and other vendors will surely bring a variety of greens, meats, cheese and baked goods. Stop down! A little about the the sorghum fella visiting us:

Rolling Meadows Sorghum Mill

established 1985

Richard became interested in sorghum syrup in 1984, when he could not find a jar of sorghum syrup to purchase. In 1985, he decided that he could produce his own syrup. It wasn't until 1986 that he successfully raised and processed his first crop, 6 gallons total production. Over the years, through research and testing, his operation has grown. In the early 1990's, he made the decision to be serious about syrup production, rather than just a hobby, and built his certified food-processing operation. In 1996, he started to build mechanical harvesting equipment, and today, his harvest is fully mechanical. In 1998, he installed a high-pressure steam boiler which allows him to do preheating and to cook by steam. Today, he produces over 1300 gallons annually. His assistant, Marcia, in charge of sales and marketing, sells to retail markets throughout the state of Wisconsin and does mail order throughout the United States. Marcia also spends considerable time at farm markets and special-event shows. Rich also owns Percheron draft horses and operates Queen Anne Carriage Rides, giving carriage and hay rides in his local resort town of Elkhart Lake.

bikes

Our store is currently located along a beautiful river parkway. We see lots of bikes every day.A lot of Just Local workers ride bikes to work, and overall Eau Claire is a great place to bike. And we have a thriving bike culture, too. Witness a nice summer Saturday Farmers Market with bikes, baskets and trailers with flowers and food. You could even say those bikes are powered by local food.

If you're curious to take a glimpse at just one aspect of Eau Claire's bike scene, take a few minutes to view this video documenting a fun bike race that took place all over town last weekend. Just Local Food is proud to have been a stop in past Alley Cat races, and workers have been known to ride along too...

In other local bike news, rumour is a certain downtown bakery has commandeered a wheeled machine that will forego the combustion engine for a human biped capable of relocating massive amounts of pastries. What's this all mean? You're going to see more and more cool bikes around town. I'm hoping to have our own market cruiser ready for next weekend...

Produce 5/15/2008

This week we have been getting more and more local produce they include: spinach, chard, mix lettuce greens and from Sunbow Farm(Eau Claire). We also have arugula from Romar Greenhouse also parsley and mizuna(mild salad green) from Coon Creek organic farm. We also have several new stone fruits from California like nectarines, peaches and apricots. Don't worry we continue to keep many other usual items in produce as well. So come down to the store and get your weekly supply of local early season greens. Or pick up your regular supply of zucchini, beets, bananas, potatoes or what ever else might tickle your fancy.

Fresh Local Arugula

Romar Greenhouse is now supplying us with fresh arugula. Most of the produce we will be receiving from them is cut that day and on our shelves that evening. We will also get some heirloom tomatoes, spinach and more. These pictures are the starts that they will sell at the farmers market and of Jordan(JLF) and Martha (Romar) cutting fresh arugula to bring to the store that day. Romar specializes in heirloom tomatoes and they have 30 plus varieties of tomatoes several peppers and many other starts to be able to sell at the farmers market.

Wild in Wisconsin

It is not only local season but also wild season. We have already received wild ramps(leeks) and we are expecting morel mushrooms soon also. The ramps, if you have never tried one, is like a spicy spring onion with delicious greens. They could be used in anything that you would like onions or leeks in and the greens taste great fresh in salads. We are selling them for $1.99/bunch and that gets you about 10-14 individual ramps. I am also hoping to get an assortment of wild foods all summer long, if you have any requests let us know.

try delivery

Have you been to our store? It can all be delivered.

We can deliver anything we have in stock to you on Friday, and we'd be glad to. Our co-op started as a delivery service and we're still running strong, reaching out to every side of town and beyond. Save a trip, we're in your neighborhood anyway, and we'll bring it all right to your door. We can even call you on Friday morning to confirm your order and add as much as you'd like.

Of course, it still helps us and our suppliers if we get orders in by Monday at noon, but we understand that not everyone's life works on a schedule like that all the time.

Email an order.

Or phone: (715)577-5564

gingerbread jersey cheese

If you haven't had time to focus in on our gingerbread jersey cheese selection, I wanted to make note of two, and perhaps next time you are in you'll take a moment to admire the variety of cheese the Schunk family is producing for us.

Manchego Curado - Curado translates to aged. Try some alone, in a potato sunchoke gratin, or with bread and ham... "True" manchego curado comes from the Spanish Castilla-La Mancha region, but I'll trust Virgil on this one and try the original next time I'm in Spain (please note I may never make it to Spain).


Smoked Mozzarella has a strong, deep earth and smoky flavor that can add flavor spunk to nachos or pizza or guide a whole dish along its smoky course, like this risotto with yam puree and kale!

next best

If you really can't wait for fresh local strawberries, we have the next best for you. Fresh, non-local certified organic strawberries from family operated farms in California. California will never, ever be able to send us a strawberry like you can get at Charlotte's or Sylvan Hills. They've been diesel refrigerator trucked from 2,206 miles away – about 1 day 7 hours straight, and were grown picked & packed for that purpose. That said...

We can get you some strawberries that are pretty dang good, and were produced without pesticides or fumigants. We'll be getting a variety of strawberries from along the Pacific Coast as they ripen northward through the spring, culminating in our local berries being ready around June. By all means, hold out until then for fresh berries. But if you can't wait, here's a detailed link to information on the supplier that we're getting our fresh organic strawberries from this week, Martinez Farms. They are a family owned farm business, and as the article details, they are Certified Organic for reasons I'm sure you'll appreciate.

And how does this help local farms? Here's just one way: By continuing to shop at our store and purchasing products like these, you are giving us information that we can share with local farmers. In this instance, if a local farmer knew folks were willing to spend $5 a box for strawberries in May, and we can sell 10 cases a week, they might be willing to invest in greenhouses or raised beds to coax an early crop to help meet our early season strawberry needs in the future... who knows?

wild and native

Back in stock, from the White Earth reservation near Minnesota, are genuine wild rice (manoomin), hominy (mandaamin), and the rich and delightful refrigerated maple butter. Wild Rice is a native plant to our bioregion, and an excellent source of food for humans. We chose Wild Rice from Native Harvest because of their unique business model and their work on preserving wild rice. Unfortunately, truly native wild rice is being threatened by, among other things, genetically modified "wild" rice being imported to Wisconsin for processing and sale from paddies in California. Your purchase of Wild Rice from our store works in many good ways.

Your purchase directly supports:
1. native wild rice production on the White Earth Reservation.
2. your local cooperative that works to preserve farmland and native food sources.
3. organizations that are working to prevent GMO rice from contaminating native manoomin plots

And manoomin comes in the same shipment as Maple Butter, the pinnacle of simple local food pairings!

As far as hominy, dried corn kernels which have been hulled and degermed, try some in a soup with fresh veggies, a coon creek chicken back and some RP's egg linguini tossed in at the end. Skip the chicken and the hominy shines too!

a possibility...

As we announced at our open house last night, we are exploring a few options for our new location, which we will finalize soon. One of the main contenders is across from the YMCA downtown, on the corner of Graham Avenue and Seaver Street. We have the opportunity to take long-term care of this site, rejuvenate a blighted spot in downtown and remain within blocks of our current location. It also has clear and realistic options for expanding on site, to meet our future growth.
This is a conceptual drawing by our friend Lori of the front of the possible new store. (this picture isn't a good representation of the drawing - sorry, the real one is at the store) There will be bike and handicap access, several vehicle parking spots and ample on-street parking nearby. As with any space we will occupy, it will undergo a thorough environmental analysis and all steps will be taken to ensure the safety and quality of the food , workplace and social environment for us all.

Another friend, Ken, drew a quick layout sketch for us. This shows how we would fit now, then expand over time to occupy a larger footprint. Getting excited? So are we!

Thoughts on building sites?

Want to help make it happen?