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Earth Day Continues This Saturday at the Creamery Co-op
The official Earth Day was Monday, yes, but we think it should be celebrated every day. Special  Earth Day events will continue this Saturday at the Old Creamery Co-op.
Worms visit Old Creamery Coop! Kathy Harrison will bring her worm bin to the Creamery from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Bring the kids and check out how it works. Learn how worms love food scraps and help make compost.
Plant a seed in a biodegradable pot!
Did you know you can make your own seedling pots from newspaper? When left in the sun, plastic pots create more plastic pollution by breaking down into brittle pieces that contaminate our soil. We'll be introducing a new product: paper pot makers. Starting at noon, you can try one out on Saturday: plant a seed, take it home, watch it grow, and feed your newspaper pot to the worms after you plant it! This, too, is a great activity for the young ones. We hope to see you at the Co-op! (And to learn more about this view of our planet from Mars, click on the photograph.)
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Big Changes Just Keep on Coming
This past Sunday afternoon, we had the wonderful assistance of ten volunteers. We were able to form a human conveyor line and empty the contents of the old storage and receiving shed in relatively short order. We were also able to relocate two palette loads of new shelving so the dumpsters could be removed and replaced. Showing great community consciousness on Earth Day, all of the plywood shelving in the shed was removed for reuse by three different community members. Demolition of the shed was able to start first thing Monday morning as you can see in the photo below (note the beer delivery person in the photo as he navigates around the renovations). The new shed is already under construction and should be completed by the end of next week.
Meanwhile, back inside the store, we could use a small crew next Wednesday evening (May 1, believe it or not) starting at 6:00 p.m. We will be relocating the herbs and spices over to the new bulk section, moving a few existing shelves, removing three others, and installing our second set of new shelving oriented front to back. Please email volunteer@oldcreamery.coop if you want to join this next-in-a-series of Co-op parties, and provide a direct contribution to these exciting changes in our store. Thanks, all, for being there to help your Co-op.
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 Our Compost Buckets Have Gone Missing
As you can see above, The Creamery is in a state of significant disruption. When we emptied the shed for demolition, we took our stack of clean five-gallon buckets used for compostable waste and placed them up behind the bottle shed at the end of the old receiving building. We use several of these daily for materials picked up and then recycled by local farms. Someone must have assumed these were being tossed out, and on Monday they all went missing. We know this is an honest mistake, but it would be very helpful to our recycling effort if they were returned. Thank you.
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Cheese of the Week!
This weekend's sampling cheese is Sweet Emotions from Lazy Lady Farm in Westfield, Vermont. It's a rich, soft, and runny bloomy rind cheese with a beautiful balance of goat piquancy and the  smoothness of cow's milk cream. It is available only in the months from April to August.
This delicious delicacy is produced by cheese-maker Laini Fondiller from the goats and cows that live on her small farm in the northeast kingdom of Vermont. They milk 40 registered Alpine goats on a seasonal basis. They make the cheese in small 50-gallon batches five days a week. The cheese is ripened in two small geothermal caves located near the cheese plant. The farm is totally off the grid. They make their power with 14 solar panels and a small windmill. Along with the goats, they raise grass-fed beef, whey-fed pork, and pasture-raised chickens. Laini and her farm were featured in the New York Times Magazine in 2009; click here for the article.
You will love this cheese! So come in this Saturday and have taste. Remember, we'll take 10% off the regular price all day! Hope to see you this weekend!
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Hilltown Spring Festival Set for June 1
It's time to mark your calendars for this year's Hilltown Spring Festival on Saturday, June 1, from  10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Cummington Fairgrounds. It's the time to celebrate spring, the hilltown community, music, art, food, sustainability, kids, families, and more. This year the festival will feature ten musical performances on two stages, great food from local vendors, children's activities all day long, a midday dance around the May pole, and exhibits of products and services from many local vendors, including a "Focus on Sustainability."
Admission is $8 per person; children 12 and under are admitted free of charge. All proceeds go to benefit the programs and services of Hilltown CDC, including business development and support programs for low-income local elders.
For a complete festival schedule; for forms to register children who want to display and sell their own crafts and artwork; to sign up to volunteer; to be a sponsor; or to reserve a booth, click here for information.
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How Clean Are Your Fruits and Vegetables?
Apples top the Environmental Working Group's annual Dirty Dozen list of most pesticide-contaminated produce, followed by strawberries, grapes, and celery. Other fresh fruits and vegetables on the new Dirty Dozen list, a part of EWG's 2013 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, are peaches, spinach, sweet bell peppers, imported nectarines, cucumbers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and hot peppers. EWG's Clean Fifteen list, those fruits and vegetables with the least pesticide load, consists of corn, onions, pineapples, avocados, cabbage, frozen sweet peas, papayas, mangoes, asparagus, eggplant, kiwi, grapefruit, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms.
EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, now in its ninth year, ranks pesticide contamination on 48 popular fruits and vegetables, based on an analysis of more than 28,000 samples tested by the US Department of Agriculture and federal Food and Drug Administration. Since government scientists wash or peel samples before testing them, pesticide measurements reflect the likely pesticide loads of produce when people eat it. For the second year, EWG has expanded the Dirty Dozen with a Plus category to highlight two crops: domestically grown summer squash and leafy greens, specifically kale and collards. These crops did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen criteria but were commonly contaminated with pesticides exceptionally toxic to the nervous system, such as organophosphate pesticides, potent neurotoxins that can affect children's IQ and brain development, even at low doses.
Pesticides are toxic by design and created expressly to kill living organisms: insects, plants, and fungi that are considered "pests." Many pesticides pose health dangers to people and have been linked to brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone disruption, and skin, eye, and lung irritation. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents more than 60,000 pediatricians, for the first time adopted an official position warning doctors and parents that pesticide exposures from food are potentially dangerous to children's health.
To learn more about EWG and its work to inform us all, click here.
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Spirit of the Hills
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 listing for the Spirit of the Hills Spring Concert this Sunday.
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Stay in Touch! We Love to Hear from You! For questions about Co-op membership, product requests, or suggestions or other feedback, please send a note to info@oldcreamery.coop. We'll make sure your note is sent to the appropriate person and that you get a prompt response. If you'd like to contact the Co-op's Board of Directors, simply send your email to board@oldcreamery.coop. Emails sent to this address are received only by the board. To reach Karen Doherty, the Co-op's general manager, send an email to gm@oldcreamery.coop. Emails sent to this address are received only by Karen. If you're thinking of becoming a valued volunteer of the Co-op, you can reach Shirley Todd, volunteer coordinator, at volunteer@oldcreamery.coop. There are many opportunities for volunteers. Emails sent to this address go directly to Shirley. |
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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 (for best results, use the "Forward email" link in the white space at the bottom of this page). 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.
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Many items are on sale every week at the Creamery. Look for the brightly colored shelf tags. These items are 15%-45% off regular prices. We work hard to find bargains on many different items, including staple groceries, treats like chocolate, juices, refrigerated items, personal care products, and supplements. The shelf tags indicate when the sale price expires. Some sale items are one-time opportunities that remain on sale until sold out. Many are purchasing opportunities that can be replenished over several weeks at great prices. Enjoy the savings!
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Your continued patronage supports the ongoing success of our 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.
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