March 18

Preorders:
Naomi S: whole chickens 5, fage 2
Karen: while chickens 1
Ashley: whole chickens 3, cream 1
Kathy: whole chickens 1, fage 1, cream 1
Laura C: turkey drumsticks 1
Talia: chicken backs 1
Naomi W: milk, cream 2
Beth: turkey drumsticks 6, cream 1
Laura-Lan: milk
Brenda: fage 1, cream 1
Camille: cream 2

4 Extra cream Email if you want those.

Last week 3 people told me they're having to watch their finances and therefore their grocery spending. I mean, I know we all always have to, but even more so, and it seemed unusual to hear that from 3 different people in the same week. And then today I saw this article, titled "High food prices are about to get worse". I think my belief that a family's well-being is closely tied to their nutrition and food traditions is what made this buying club a hobby for me. And of course it all makes me a little worried -for my own family, but also other families who are already having to compromise nutrition because of financial concerns. Most of it had to do with freezes hitting areas that don't normally get them. Anyway, it was interesting enough I wanted to mention it, partially as a warning that we may see higher prices for our produce.

You know, I bet all that won't affect local farmer's market prices.

Kefir
This week, as an experiment, I did not add juice to the second ferment. The original ferment was heavily flavored with lots of (organic) strawberries and bananas, and I left the grape juice out of the bottling step. It's very slightly pink, and very slightly flavored compared to the juice ones. Solomon, my kefir-a-day kid, gave it a thumbs up. I only have 12 available (limited by the number of bottles I have) Bring bottles if you have them!

Produce
Specials are asparagus, chiogga beets, raspberries, lettuce, zucchini, pears.

Asparagus. Conventional is currently $4lb at Publix, but organic has been $8-$11. At publix last week the organic asparagus was about $14/lb! This is the first time I've seen the asparagus go on special here.

Someone requested romaine, but it was crazy expensive (I'm guessing it had something to do with California and Mexico freezes), and the greenleaf is on special, so I had to go with the greenleaf. Greenleaf is sort of shaped like romaine, but the leaves are loose and ruffly.

Sugar snap peas. These are edible-pod peas. Of the peas (english, snow, etc) these were the cheapest this week. You can cook them, but we like them raw.

Strawberries. I bought Wishnatzki farms organic strawberries at publix last week for 3.00, so our price of 3.50 ain't super great, but I put them on anyway (not sure if that's still the price for them at publix this week...)

The raspberries are a great price, though. And blueberries, still probably coming from Chile, are still a pretty good price. They should start coming from the U.S. in May, and go back down to under $3.

We've been getting d'anjou pears. This week it's bartlett.

MEAT
The whole chickens are coming in this week. The 9.50 I have as the price could change depending on the weight.

Garrett county brown-n-serve links. This is the same company that did our Thanksgiving hams, and the bacon that I think is so divine. These are preorders and come frozen. Not organic, but "100% free of nitrates, nitrites, antibiotics, hormones, preservatives and artificial ingredients." And "Using small, family-owned farms to raise their animals, they require these farms to subscribe to a land stewardship program that protects the purity of the farmland from pollution and water run-off. In addition, the family farms providing pork raise their pigs with strict protocols for the well-being of the animals."

Murray's chicken tenders: Okay, even though Murray's isn't organic, it is far better than supermarket chicken, and not much more expensive, and has clearly become one of our favorites of this buying club. I'm getting the impression I should add the tenders as a permanent part of our "preorder" section along with the fage and cream. What say you? I did just that for this week, so look for this down there with the preorders instead of up in the meats section. Also, it's 4.95/lb, and as you may have noticed, the packages range from about 1 pound even to just over two pounds. So you order by the package, and there's really no way of knowing if you'll be paying for one pound, or two, or somewhere in between. I have to weigh each package when they arrive and then enter the actual price on the form. Just remember that when you order.

Ground beef: In the interest of serving everyone, I put both the grateful harvest organic grassfed ground beef and the heartland meadow conventional on the form. If it splits the vote so much that neither makes it up to a case, I may ask some of you if you want to switch over to the other.

Bell & Evans chicken nuggets. More about them HERE. $6.99 at Fresh market.

Finally, Norm has two turkeys ready. He's selling them for 3.00/lb, and the estimated weight will be around 15-18 pounds. They aren't on the form, email me if you want one.

OTHER
Someone asked for raisins. These are 15 oz cans for $4. I don't know how much these usually are at the store, so I have no idea if it's really a good price. Anyone know?

Don't forget the farmer's markets on Saturday and also the Where The Sidewalk Ends family art fest!


(Video by a certain super-sexy dude)

GO ORDER now, because you won't have time on Saturday!