Choose Your Own Member-Owner Appreciation Day, August 3-15

Time is running out to become a founding member-owner of the Old Creamery Co-op! Now's your chance to join as a member-owner of the Old Creamery Co-op and enjoy 10% off all your purchases on the day of your choice starting this Friday, August 3, through Wednesday, August 15.

Now that your Co-op's liquor license application has been approved by the town of Cummington, we're waiting to hear from the state for its approval before scheduling our closing with the bank and purchasing the Creamery! To recognize this, we are holding a thirteen-day member-owner appreciation event beginning Friday. All member-owners will receive a 10% discount on all items (excluding alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and newspapers) on the day of their choice.

Come to the Creamery, stock up on all your favorites, buy those splurge treats, choose sale items for even greater discounts, and receive a 10% discount. Tell the cashier you're a member-owner and would like to use your one-day-only discount. You can come in multiple times on that day, but the discount applies to that day only. The cashier will write the date and the amount of your purchases on a coupon card that we will keep; you'll sign the card. It's that simple.

To become a founding member-owner of the Old Creamery Co-op while there's still time, click here and then download the brochure. The Old Creamery Co-op will soon be a reality, thanks to you!

You Can Help Us Find a General Manager

Each day we are getting closer to beginning operations as a Co-op! The Creamery and the Co-op would not be where they are today without the foresight and devotion of Alice and Amy. We must now be committed to evolving that vision to include new ideas and ways of being that will serve the staff, the member-owners, and the wider community over time. So we're initiating our search for a General Manager.

This is an immediate opening. We're looking for someone with senior management experience in a retail food business and strong skills in financial management, marketing, problem solving, communication, and community building. We seek an inspired leader who embraces challenge and who has vision, compassion, and a sense of humor. More information about the job posting is here, as well as a link to a detailed job description.

Cheese of the Week

This week's sampling cheese is Pecorino Toscano Fresco, produced throughout Tuscany. Made exclusively from raw, summer ewe's milk, it is soft to semi-hard and can be served as a table cheese or a grating cheese. Produced in a small wheel, Pecorino Toscano has a rind that ranges from yellow to deep yellow. The consistency is firm and resistant to the knife, while the color ranges from white with a hint of yellow if soft, to pale yellow if semi-hard. The taste is fragrant, savory, and distinctive. When brought to room temperature, the cheese sometimes weeps; these butterfat tears (salty and milky) are treasured.  

Alice's Recipe: Tyropitas

I cooked at Rowe Conference Center for fourteen years before we began our Creamery lives, and I had the privilege of working with my friend Margaret Woodside for most of those years. I learned so many things from Margaret, but the two that stand out most in my mind are learning to make French bread (so basic, but so rewarding and versatile), and learning to work with phyllo dough. We made tyropitas (three-sided phyllo packets), and Margaret taught me the lost art of flag-folding, a very important and respected skill in her generation (coming of age in the World War II era). We prepared a delicious savory filling, and we rolled the small triangles together until the movements were rooted in my brain, in my eyes, in my hands. Margaret and I rolled thousands of tyropitas over twelve years. Since then I have rolled tyropitas for funerals, weddings and anniversary celebrations, births and birthday celebrations, post-surgery recuperations, and everyday nourishment. Now Noël, one of our Creamery cooks, prepares them for our deli. Vary the filling according to what is in your refrigerator or garden, but carry on the tradition!

'Big Food' Wages War on GMO Labeling

which would require labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Grist reports

Supplier Profile: Sangha Farm

In her recipe last week, Alice wrote of terroir: "I consider it to be all of the factors of the natural world that have influenced the breadth and depth of what a particular food becomes. I include the quality of the rainwater that falls on the crops, the minerals present in the soil, the sun that shines on the land, the types of weeds present . . . , and the thoughts and feelings of the hard-working people who are growing the food."

The latter may be thought of as "spirit," and the Creamery is fortunate to have many local farmers and suppliers who pursue not just profits and quality products, but a higher spiritual plane as well. Yes, this spirit, these "thoughts and feelings," manifest themselves in the bounty from these local farms.

Sangha Farm, just up the hill in Plainfield, is such an establishment, one where a

Derek planting

customer said she could "taste the love" in their carrots. "We want to grow food that will make those who eat it feel good, physically and spiritually," the Ritchies (Derek, Maribeth, Maia, and Jayden) state in their farm philosophy. "We farm using biodynamic principles, or what Derek refers to as 'cosmically correct food.'"

Help Wanted!

Three part-time job positions at the Creamery will open up at the end of the summer. It's your chance to be part of the stellar Creamery team and earn some money. If interested, call the Creamery at 413-634-5560.

Part-time Cashier: Must be able to work hard and have fun; must be good with people and numbers. Talk with Alice or Amy for more information.

Part-time Deli Staff: Must be able to work hard and have fun; must be good with people and food. Talk with Alice or Carly for more information.

Following is one of a series of weekly articles in recognition of the United Nations' International Year of Cooperatives. 

On the Global Milk Market, Cooperatives Dominate

Time to Check the Calendar 

The Old Creamery's Community Calendar is your place to post, and check for, happenings in the Hilltowns. The Community Calendar can be found on the Old Creamery's website under "News & Events." You can click on any event in the calendar to pop up an expanded information box. For instance, click here to see the expanded listing for a screening of Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives on August 9.   

We'd also love to hear from you with any suggestions, compliments, gripes, or other comments about the Old Creamery Co-op's weekly email and website. You can email them to info@oldcreamery.coop. Thank you for your help!

Help us spread the word! Consider encouraging your friends to sign on to receive the Creamery's weekly email newsletter. Better yet, encourage them to become member owners of the co-op. You can forward this email to your friends and relatives, and rest assured, we won't clog their inboxes and we will respect their privacy. We will not disclose your or their email addresses to anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time. Thank you for your interest, commitment, and support.  

Your continued patronage supports the Creamery's transition to a community-owned, values-based cooperative. Thank you for supporting the Old Creamery Co-op as a member-owner, as a shopper, as a friend. We value every contribution to the success of the Old Creamery Co-op.

Kimberly, Hattie, Michael, Susi, Sylvia, Patty, & Deborah,     

your Old Creamery Co-op Board of Directors;

and

Alice & Amy, proprietors   

Please pass this message on to your friends  

and encourage them to join our mailing list

Click here if you would like to become a Member-Owner 

    Quick Links

445 Berkshire Trail

Cummington, Massachusetts 01026

413.634.5560