Thanks Alexis, your experience matches mine as well. I appreciate your mention of the cost of food - especially ethnic foods - and also poniting out that Rainbow has a different approach to stocking the shelves (and different products).
Great post. I would like to add that Rainbow seems to a better job at integrating organics into the store. You will find organic items in special sections of the *aisle*, well marked. And they have their Roundy's Organics label stuff throughout the store as well. I can only speak to the Lake St store, but they also have a very substantial bulk foods section, including many organic items.
One thing that I find to be better represented in the big stores than in the co-ops (and I do almost all my shopping at the Seward) is in specialty ethnic food items. They do especially well with stocking Mexican foods, which I really like. At Seward, they charge me 3 dollars for a tiny can of chipotles, and the same label is available at Rainbow much cheaper. I do believe in supporting the co-ops, but as economic hard times continue for a lot of us, shopping at cheaper stores is becoming more unavoidable (I even have a friend that works at the co-op who buys groceries at Trader Joes because she can't afford her store's food...with an employee discount.)
Good piece, Shari, and I'll back you up on Bushel Boy. It's an industrial operation, and while I haven't seen it myself, I've spoken with visitors who look pretty shell-shocked when they describe it. Imagine the movie Our Daily Bread. Or Brazil.
But I wish you'd applied your Bushel Boy logic to Kemp's milk (calling Kemp's Dairy Products "local" made me spit Cedar Summit out my nose).
Kemp's is owned by HP Hood, you see, one of the biggest dairy corporations in this part of the galaxy, and cha-chings $650 million per year in annual revenue.
Begs the question, "The hell does local mean, anyway?" Very little till you look at ownership.
Also, the "rBST-free" claim is attractive, but muy dicey, to use the word-of-the-thread. No third-party inspectors coming to verify the claim. No national standards. No yearly review of the claim. No fines in place for misuse of the label. I would trust "rBST-free" on a small, single-herd dairy's bottle, perhaps, but on milk from a giant like Kemp's? Not so much.
Thanks for weighing in, Alex, you're absolutely right - as usual.
Thanks also to the many folks you've helped us realize how different the selection can be at different stores. I end up at Rainbow and Target more often - mostly for convenience - and generally opt for the Organic Valley milk and dairy products. I'm very interested to know which stores carry which things, and I appreciate the tips and the education.
Thanks for the notes! Roasted our beets and turnips last night and ate them with braised kale and toasted breadcrumbs and a Thousand Hills burger. How about you?
Yes, there is Cub bread that can be considered (by some stretch of the imagination) as local, because it's baked in the store. But, another aspect of local is that local food shouldn't need preservatives (because it isn't shipped across the country or world). Looking at the label on most Cub breads, I see a plethora of things preservatives and various other things that shouldn't be in bread. If I'm not mistaken (I've been in Europe for a few months now), a lot of Cub breads have partially-hydrogenated oils, and that doesn't need to be embraced by anybody.
Oooh! Aaaaah! This week's share sounds magnificient, particularly the kabocha, kale, sunchokes and baby beets. Kale has become our favorite green but I've never used sunchokes before. Thanks for all the great tips on using and storing the various produce you received.
Thanks Alexis, your
Thanks Alexis, your experience matches mine as well. I appreciate your mention of the cost of food - especially ethnic foods - and also poniting out that Rainbow has a different approach to stocking the shelves (and different products).
Great post. I would like to
Great post. I would like to add that Rainbow seems to a better job at integrating organics into the store. You will find organic items in special sections of the *aisle*, well marked. And they have their Roundy's Organics label stuff throughout the store as well. I can only speak to the Lake St store, but they also have a very substantial bulk foods section, including many organic items.
One thing that I find to be better represented in the big stores than in the co-ops (and I do almost all my shopping at the Seward) is in specialty ethnic food items. They do especially well with stocking Mexican foods, which I really like. At Seward, they charge me 3 dollars for a tiny can of chipotles, and the same label is available at Rainbow much cheaper. I do believe in supporting the co-ops, but as economic hard times continue for a lot of us, shopping at cheaper stores is becoming more unavoidable (I even have a friend that works at the co-op who buys groceries at Trader Joes because she can't afford her store's food...with an employee discount.)
Good piece, Shari, and I'll
Good piece, Shari, and I'll back you up on Bushel Boy. It's an industrial operation, and while I haven't seen it myself, I've spoken with visitors who look pretty shell-shocked when they describe it. Imagine the movie Our Daily Bread. Or Brazil.
But I wish you'd applied your Bushel Boy logic to Kemp's milk (calling Kemp's Dairy Products "local" made me spit Cedar Summit out my nose).
Kemp's is owned by HP Hood, you see, one of the biggest dairy corporations in this part of the galaxy, and cha-chings $650 million per year in annual revenue.
http://www.dairyfoods.com/Archives/6a0047062e0a7010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____
Begs the question, "The hell does local mean, anyway?" Very little till you look at ownership.
Also, the "rBST-free" claim is attractive, but muy dicey, to use the word-of-the-thread. No third-party inspectors coming to verify the claim. No national standards. No yearly review of the claim. No fines in place for misuse of the label. I would trust "rBST-free" on a small, single-herd dairy's bottle, perhaps, but on milk from a giant like Kemp's? Not so much.
Thanks Amy. Kale and bacon
Thanks Amy. Kale and bacon with squash and apples? Do tell!
So funny. A friend just
So funny. A friend just emailed me a very similar recipe, except it also has kale and bacon.
Thanks for weighing in, Alex,
Thanks for weighing in, Alex, you're absolutely right - as usual.
Thanks also to the many folks you've helped us realize how different the selection can be at different stores. I end up at Rainbow and Target more often - mostly for convenience - and generally opt for the Organic Valley milk and dairy products. I'm very interested to know which stores carry which things, and I appreciate the tips and the education.
Thanks for the notes! Roasted
Thanks for the notes! Roasted our beets and turnips last night and ate them with braised kale and toasted breadcrumbs and a Thousand Hills burger. How about you?
That's a beautiful pile of
That's a beautiful pile of beautiful food. Lots of great ideas too for me to file for future reference.
Shari- Yes, there is Cub
Shari-
Yes, there is Cub bread that can be considered (by some stretch of the imagination) as local, because it's baked in the store. But, another aspect of local is that local food shouldn't need preservatives (because it isn't shipped across the country or world). Looking at the label on most Cub breads, I see a plethora of things preservatives and various other things that shouldn't be in bread. If I'm not mistaken (I've been in Europe for a few months now), a lot of Cub breads have partially-hydrogenated oils, and that doesn't need to be embraced by anybody.
Oooh! Aaaaah! This week's
Oooh! Aaaaah! This week's share sounds magnificient, particularly the kabocha, kale, sunchokes and baby beets. Kale has become our favorite green but I've never used sunchokes before. Thanks for all the great tips on using and storing the various produce you received.