FREE! The BeetThe Putney Food Co-op PO Box 730 Putney, VT 05346 802-387-5866 Spring 2015

In This Issue:News from the Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Staff News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Membership Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Cheese Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Cave-to-Co-op . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Product Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Sun Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Local Food Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Harvest of the Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9NFCA Annual Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Slow Living Summit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JACKIE FABRIZI CARTOONS BY GILDAS CHATAL

These Kids Can Cook!

Teamwork, professionalism, safe food handling and grace under pressure-- these are just a few of the skills that students learn by participating in the Jr Iron Chef VT program.

Each spring, students from across the state of Vermont gather in Essex Junction to compete for one of three awards. The Crowd-Pleaser award goes to the team that best incorporates color, texture, and

The Mein Event, from left: Angelika Toomey, Jane Fenstermaker, Jenna Murrow, Ashley

Dierkes and Damian Dierkes (front)

taste for a true crowd-pleaser. The Lively Local award goes to the team that best highlights Vermont foods. And the Mise en Place award goes to the team that shows exemplary teamwork, order, and professionalism.

A panel of sixteen judges, chosen for their commitment to Vermonts local food sec-tor, is charged with selecting the winning dishes based on the following guidelines:

Execution: Clean & presentable uniforms including hard-soled shoes, hats & aprons and safe food handling practices

Teamwork: Evenly distributed work-load; team cohesiveness & communi-cation

Taste: A subjective category based on judges expertise

Creativity: Ingenuity of the ingredients used; creative use of ingredients

Local: Recipe highlights local, sea-sonal products (only for the Lively Local Award)

Compliance: Meets all Jr Iron Chef VT Guidelines and Rules

In order to prepare for the March competi-tion, students meet an average of seven times beforehand to formulate their dishes, and learn the skills and techniques in order to execute that particular recipe.

For the fifth year in a row, the Putney Co-op sponsored teams from Putney Central School with staff support from Kristina Israel, who coordinates Education and Outreach at the co-op. According to Israel, who has coached teams since 2010, the

students, love the competition experience for sure, but the real impact of the program happens when we meet for practice. She continues, Plenty of the kids who cook

with us also play basketball or participate in other after school programs. But many of them do not, and its my greatest joy to hear from their parents, not only that they enjoy practice, but that they are gaining confidence in the kitchen at home. For me, thats what its all about-- kids cooking food, for themselves and their families.

The two teams chose recipes that are both kid-friendly and easy to prepare. The Mein Events Vegetarian Lo Mein, and The Awk-ward Onions Mexican Lasagna recipes can both be found on our website, www.putneyfood.coop/blog.

The co-op would like to thank Meredith Wade, Amy Nelson, and The Gleanery for their support of this years Jr Iron Chef program.

The Awkward Onions, from left: Olivia Nelson, Conor Bailey, Naomi Hed and Kai

Hammond

2 The Beet

As board members serving the co-op we are always looking for ways to improve our knowledge of the marketplace and under-stand the possibilities for our co-op and our community. Over the past several years we have had great opportunities for learning and sharing with other co-ops through many training and idea generating confer-ences that we have attended.

The latest of these conferences was held in Keene, New Hampshire on March 7th and was attended by board members Michael Wells and Wendy Wilson, along with our board facilitator Ruby McAdoo.

This day-long conference, titled: Co-operative Cafe - Thriving in the New Competitive Landscape was organized by CDS Consulting Co-op and sponsored by National Co-op Grocers (NCG), both co-operative organizations running on the co-operative principles who work to support co-ops in all of their services and business practices.

To find out more about these Co-ops please head to their web sites: www.cdsconsulting.coop and www.ncg.coop.

The Co-op Caf is an idea-generating-and-sharing conference, providing a forum where board members, general managers, staff and members from co-ops all over the country join together for strategic thinking.

It works like this: in the morning there are a series of speakers, both there in person and via video, who speak on various topics related to the main theme: Food Co-ops!Presentations this year included the follow-ing topics:

The History of Co-ops Statistics on natural/organic food sales, growth and market shares of large corporations (Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Sprouts, etc.) vs. co-ops How co-ops are losing market share to these giants and what we have to do to compete Boise Co-op slogan: Large enough to meet your needs, small enough to meet your neighbors. Why a Co-op? - A Portland Maine

Co-op opened recently with Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Hannaford all within the same small area.

After the presentations the participants are then spread out over the room 4 or 5 people to a table and they are provided with a series of questions for discussion. After a designated time period these groups rotate to other tables to discuss topics with differ-ent people in three progressive rounds. The results of each round are communicated via one spokesperson per group in short state-ments to the entire conference.

Questions discussed during this Co-op Caf were:

What does it mean to successfully compete in the marketplace?

Imagine that were heading off on a journey into the future that includes cooperatives thriving in a competitive marketplace. What should we take on our journey? What should we leave behind?

News from the Board

Overall it is clear we need to really com-municate the co-op advantage to stay competitive in this new world that has taken natural foods into main stream cor-porations. The advantages that food co-ops have over the big chain stores are multidi-mensional:

We run our store to make a profit to pay our employees and benefit the com-munity. Our money stays here-- no large corporation gets our profits or tells us what to do.

We are committed to buying local as much as we can, always looking for more local sources to stock our shelves. Yet another way we put money back into our local economy.

Money is made here and money stays here, thus creating a stronger com-munity for us all via outreach initiatives and support of many local programs.

So next time you are thinking about driving to Brattleboro for groceries, check out the co-op, we might just have all you need.And if we do not, please ask! We are always looking to serve our members and our community more fully. Remember you get to choose where you want your money to go. Keep it local! As always we appreci-ate your support.

--Kirsten JeppesenBoard Co-Secretary

Putney Co-op board member Wendy Wilson at the Co-op Cafe on March 7th in

Keene, NH.

Board President Michael Wells, seated at right, at the Co-op Cafe in Keene.

Spring 2015 3

Another successful Co-op Fundraiser!

Wow, wow, wow, Putney! You did it again!I knew that the extremely generous mem-bers, customers and, this time around, tour-ists, would come through and help Gillian meet her birth family in Peru.

In case you havent been into the store to see the total, $4,306 was donated to Gil-lian for her trip to Lima, Peru. I get goose bumps every time I think of how generous you all are! Without your help, this family would have to wait much longer for their much-anticipated reunion.

Gillian and Diane leave for Lima on Satur-day, April 18th. Diane will stay for just one week, but Gillian wont be back in Vermont until July 24th. Maybe shell have some new and exciting family recipes to share with us in the deli on her return! I, for one, cant wait to hear about her trip and all of her family members.

Again, my heartfelt thanks to all who contributed and to those who shared warm wishes from the heart. Hugs across the counter,Terrie

Co-workers at a farewell gathering for Gillian (front row, second from left), March 10th.

Staff Anniversaries

What would the co-op be without its amazing staff? Congratulations to these employees on your upcoming anniversaries.

Thanks for all you do!

Kim Lefebvre - 7 years on April 28th Ed Powers - 15 years on May 15th

Kristina Israel - 9 years on May 15thRaven Averill - 2 years on May 22nd

Sylvia Rhomberg - 4 years on May 27thAmber Morelli - 2 years on May 29thJohn Krisher - 3 years on June 11th

Kelty Swing Wilton - 3 years on June 14thChris Renouf - 1 year on June 14th

Nicole Newell - 6 years on June 27th

Putney Co-op Gift CardsOur gift cards never go out of

style! They are available in any denomination, and they never

expire.

Check your gift card balances online, anytime, by visiting

www.mercury-gift.com/NCGA/.

Staff PicksLots of folks on staff lov