Monday, November 23, 2009

Baileys Local Food Buying Club - Weekly Pickup Reminder

If you put in an order this week it will be ready for you to pick up on Monday, November 23rd from 3:30 until 7:00PM in Hilliard Hall at the First United Church at 16 William Street West in Waterloo. You can check your order by logging in at http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering.

It's already been a month since the last pickup! How time flies.

Tomorrow there are a lot of orders and there will be a lot of food! I guess that I'm not the only one stocking up for the next month.

This our first winter pickup ever and we may be a bit rusty from a month 'off' so please be patient with us tomorrow. You can always ask if you have a question.
 
Josh and Caroline from Meals That Heal asked if they could come tomorrow to feed you samples. Of course we said YES! I don't know if you can plan to sample instead of making dinner, but if you ever wanted to see how spicy the Green Thai Pumpkin and Cashew Curry is, here is your chance. You might want some yogurt as a chaser.

Here is an update on changes that may affect your order this week:

Substitutions: 
  • We are short on baby garlic dills from Erma. We have regular garlic dills or sweet dills from Country Flavour to substitute
  •  Bulk Carrot Firsts from Miriam will be substituted by two 5 lb bags from Pfennings. You ordered so many that Miriam was 360 lb short!
  •  9 lb dark kidney beans were not available - substituted with light red
  • We are short on Persian Walnuts. There will be Heartnuts to substitute
  • Traditional foods was out of stock on bone in ham roasts and steaks. They will send boneless to substitute
  • Summer sausage is not only available in 1.75 lb chubs. If you ordered a smaller chub we have extra chubs available if you choose to buy one
 Not available: 
  • Red October Squash
  • Gold beets from Lena
  • In shell peanuts!
  • Antony does not have chard anymore. Darn that cold weather
  • Black Walnuts not available this month . Next month we will have them pre-shelled if you would like.
  • Traditional Foods is out of Chicken liver and pork schnitzel too
Self Checkout Reminder
We continue to offer a SELF CHECK-OUT option to those of you who are paying by cheque! We hope that this will help speed up the check out process for some of you who want to work out your total yourself. We did all self check-out last year and now we are returning to our roots.
We choose to trust our members. You know that if we lose money due to missing items or math mistakes, we won't survive. We will still have the regular check-out option for those of you who prefer it. If you notice an error (ours or yours), please let us know.

Pre-Packed Orders
If you indicated that you would like your items pre-packed when you ordered they will be ready after 5pm. Please ask a volunteer to get your order. Items requiring refrigeration will be added when you arrive.

Please enter through the white kitchen door off Caroline Street.
You will find a pickup slip with your name on it listing the items that you ordered this week. Pick up all your items (including those in the fridges and freezer), check out our Spontaneous Table then head to our checkout area.

We will have extra items for you to purchase on our Spontaneous Table in front of the blue cupboards just in case you forgot anything. Anyone can purchase items from the Spontaneous Table. You don't even have to be a Member!

There will be room to socialize and mingle. Expect your pick-up to take awhile. If you need help collecting your order, please ask!

In out checkout area, please help us and our volunteers by having items available to view for the checkout process. Please be patient as this area will likely be quite busy.

We accept payment in cash or cheque (made out to Bailey's Local Foods). The total from your shopping cart is always approximate. We will try to ensure that you only pay for the items available this week as local food can sometimes be unpredictable and items that are priced by the pound are approximate on the order form.

When writing cheques, please ensure that the date is correct (it's 2009!) and that the numbers you write (digits and words) match. Also, if you make your cheque out to anything other than "Bailey's Local Foods" the bank won't cash it. We need you to sign it too! Please help us to avoid these costly errors.

You need to bring your own bags to carry your items home. We have boxes, but do not have plastic bags. A limited number of cloth bags will be available for sale.

If possible, consider walking, biking or bringing a wagon to pick up your order. If you are driving, please Park in the Waterloo Town Square Public Parking Lot. You can access the Waterloo Town Square Parking Lot by Caroline Street, Alexandra Avenue, Willis Way or King Street by the LCBO. We have been asked not to park in the church parking lot.

**Please don't forget to pick up your order! At approximately 6:30PM, if you have not picked up your order, we will call the number you provided (when you registered) with a friendly reminder. At 7:00PM we will pack up your order and add the $15 packing fee to your order total.If you have not picked up your order by 7:30PM (or when we finish cleaning up) your order will be donated - and you still get the pleasure of paying for it. We need to receive payment for this week's order before you can order for the following week.

If you are not happy with what you receive, all claims for missing/damaged items must be made at the pick-up site before 7:00PM that same day. After 7:00PM all sales are final.

Thank you,
Rachael and Nina
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca
 

P.S. We can use your fruit baskets and boxes as well as jars from preserves again if you return them.

Is this your first email from us? Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

You are receiving this notification because you are a member of Bailey's Local Food Buying Club.
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Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Ordering for November 23 ends Tuesday at 8:00 PM

This is your reminder that you should place your order before Tuesday at 8:00PM.
Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Items that you have placed in your shopping cart will be ordered on your behalf on Tuesday at 8:00PM. There is no checkout button. If you do not intend to order, please ensure that your shopping cart is empty.

It feels like have another big email for you with details for the pickup on Monday.

Items to look for
  • You'll find the cases of Pear-Apple Sauce on the order form now. When you buy by the case it's like getting one jar free!
  • Sundried Tomato and Garlic Curds are available from Millbank at long last. If you tried them last year you know what we've all been missing!
  • Roasted In Shell Peanuts are also available from Kernal Peanuts.
  • Peaches from Palatine are also on the order form. Naamon and Selema of Orchard Hill Produce canned them in a light syrup for us. They are divine on cereal, ice cream or straight! 
  • Nina has been working on Gift Baskets and you can see an example online athttp://baileyslocalfoods.ca/GiftBaskets.php. The items that you receive will be in a peck basket and wrapped in cellophane.
  • More varieties of apples from Martin's. If you want to know more about the varieties, go to http://www.martinsapples.com/apple_types.cfm.
  • Chocloate from Anna Tolazzi. The Chocolate isn't local but these works of art are made locally by hand with local ingredients where possible.
 Items not available
  • Not enough Stewing Lamb to fill all the orders. Marg called the butcher and was not able to book her lambs in. She has enough to cover all the other items, but not quite enough to fill the orders those for lamb stew.
  • Lena's Golden Beets are sold out until next fall
  • Barley from Oak Manor is out of stock. All the flour prices are now updated and you can check where the grains are from at http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ingredients.php
  • Flemish Beauty Pears from Martin's are not available but you can order small Bosc pears if you want pears.  

I've never had a Christmas Goose, but we have two farmers who have asked us if we would be interested on offering theirs. Paul's were in charge of weeding his strawberries. What a great job to have!

With the cold weather coming soon what is better than soup? Tim Barrie has locally made soups ready to go with his crackers. Have you tried the Butternut Squash or the Sweet Potato & Red Pepper yet?

Are you able to volunteer?
We are looking for volunteers to help us keep Bailey's running well. If you are interested, we are now accepting applications for more volunteer help. Please email us and Josie, one of our volunteer coordinators will be in touch with you.
Are you able to help us to set up all the amazing food, check customers out, and I'm especially looking for a volunteer that would help us donate the extra food to a good cause at the end of the pickup. I'm usually too tired!

About 80% of every dollar you spend at Bailey's Local Foods goes to the farmers and producers who grow and make the amazing food. We thank you for your support.

Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Is this your first email from us?
Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

You are receiving this notification because you are a member of Bailey's Local Food Buying Club.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Bailey's Updates

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Items that you have placed in your shopping cart will be ordered on your behalf on Tuesday at 8:00PM. There is no checkout button. If you do not intend to order, please ensure that your shopping cart is empty.

My son is a squirrel. He loves to hide walnuts in our house. I find them in his sister's bedside table drawer as well as in various bags and containers. Chestnuts too. I continue to be amazed at how sweet the nuts from Niagara are. The heartnuts are fun to crack (we keep a box with a brick and hammer handy in the kitchen) and they always taste better toasted a little in a dry frying pan (the same way I toast pine nuts). I could eat a pound of chestnuts a day and have learned that they store best at -3 to 0 C. I have dedicated a fridge to chestnuts to keep them at their best. If you don't have a fridge to turn down to a lower temperature and you find your chestnuts with some mold, you can wash off the mold before you roast them. Did you get the Black Walnuts? I did not taste them and would like to know what you think.

I made a list of all the things I wanted to tell you in my email today. Getting the order form ready always seems like so much to do (and I haven't even finished!)

Andrew made cashew curry lamb tonight with some of the stewing lamb from Traditional Foods and was it ever good! I hadn't tried the lamb yet and Marg has been asking what we think. I'll be sending some feedback on how tasty it was to her tomorrow so if you want to pass on any information on what you thought of your lamb please let me know! Marg also needs to book the butcher by the morning of the 13th, so please put in your lamb orders by the end of Thursday! I'll put maximums up after that if you don't get your order in you might get lucky if someone changes their mind.

Did you see all the extra organic beef available from Vibrant Farms this month? In addition to the roasts, steaks, ground beef and ribs that I hope you will enjoy we asked for suet, bones and 'throwaways' if you want to feed the birds or your pets. I'm guessing at the sizes of the packages, so I hope that my guesses are close. At the prices ($0.50-$2 per lb) for these 'extras' I hope you don't mind a little uncertainty. You can read more about their the mineralization that sets Vibrant Farms' beef apart at http://www.vibrantfarms.com/customer-page/science.

I haven't yet updated the prices (I will!), but this month we have 15% off Oak Manor flours (not flakes, kernels, etc). The prices will be 15% off our regular price and once they are updated will say "SALE" .) Are you planning on baking as an inexpensive holiday gift or for a cookie exchange? What a great incentive to use local organic flour!

Nina asked me to include a bio for Lindsay the baker. It turns out that HE is running the bakery with his sister!

This past winter was spent building a bakery kitchen in his home in Sebringville and testing recipes. This spring he has launched Lindsay's Bakery â€" supplying local cafés and retail shops with fresh artisinal baked goods â€" as well as custom orders for individual clients. He is starting small, but is looking forward to the journey on which this new venture will take him.

In his spare time, Lindsay is an avid gardener and home cook. He is an enthusiastic cross country runner and cyclist and is always seeking balance and harmony in life.

I haven't added it yet, but I have 11 bottles of local sunflower oil to add. I asked for more 1L bottles before November 23, but Hans and Pia at FlorAlp Farms make it fresh all the time and don't have time to make more for us with their existing orders before the end of November. It is also available in a 20 L size. If anyone is interested in bulk oil let me know!

Thanks to one of our amazing customers we now have raw, unfiltered honey to offer in addition to the liquid and creamed honey from Bauman Apiaries. Another new item is horseradish from Louisa at Triple H Farms thanks to a tip from Erma Martin.

OK. The reminders are mostly out of the way. Now a cooking bite. Paul is still offering endive (aka escarole) and I don't think I shared the awesome recipe that I found after we bought a whole lot and it turned out to be leafy instead of 'Belgian' endive (I was looking forward to dipping). The memory of the soup Andrew made when I showed him this recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_4728700_prepare-italian-escarole-bean-soup.html still lingers. If you are using dried beans instead of canned beans you'll have to soak and cook them starting the night before. The escarole really cooks down. You can use almost twice as much as you think (fill the pot and then some!) to have enough in this soup. Asiago cheese grated on top is the best!

The 'Yams' are now properly listed as Sweet Potatoes and the 'Big Turnips' are now listed as Rutabaga. Artichokes are now listed as Jerusalem Artichokes (aka Sunchokes). One of my wishes is to be able to read the farmer's minds or get them to send me their seed packets after they are empty. =)

I'll also be adding some mini carrots from the Webers and more items from Pfennings. You can keep checking back or I'll send a list of added items in my reminder email on Monday.

Sorry for the long email but I wanted to let you know that Katherina of Anna Tolazzi will be supplying about 300 pieces of chocolate for the November pickup. I'm still trying to get those on the order form! Boxes of varying sizes will be available. A box of chocolates or a Bailey's gift basket (http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/GiftBaskets.php) would make an amazing gift for those hard to buy for people who don't like to dust their presents... like me!

Keep your feet warm!
Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

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Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for November 23, 2009

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Please be sure to read the wavier on our website when you log in. It reminds you that items placed your shopping cart are automatically saved (there is no 'checkout' button).


Hi Folks,

How is the cooking and eating going out there?  If you're like me, you have good intentions that don't always come to fruition. Friday I was going to make Vegetarian Groundnut Stew from the Simply in Season. It is full of winter vegetables with a peanut sauce.  Late naps combined with working on gift baskets for the buying club and then my seven year old son nearly passing out in my arms after a hard fall, all led to the frozen lasagna going into the oven with a word of thanks to Anna and her mom Mary at The Nutty Bakers. I was so shaken up by it that I couldn't think straight to parent and cook and discuss gift baskets at the same time.  The good news is that Foster is FINE and the lasagna was DELICIOUS.  Mona (my four year old) did not like the mushrooms in it - and those were my favourite part. 

I'm really happy with the quality of the prepared foods from Anna and Mary.  We have more options from them this month such as tortière. I did not know what this was before (I grew up in Indiana so please forgive my ignorance about Québécois culture and am delighted to have tasted it.  Mona loved it and begged for more.  I like the herbs or spices that are in there that I can't place. I just looked up a recipe for tortiere on-line.  Get this!  It has cinnamon, cloves, parsley and summer savory in it! What a combination.  The website said it is a favourite for Christmas Eve dinners. Okay, now I know.

I hope you are getting outside in this amazingly balmy late-Fall weather.  My plan for Saturday was to cage the blueberries so that the rabbits don't eat the plants in the Winter and the squirrels don't eat the berries in the summer, let the hens out to roam and scratch, and roast hot dogs over a backyard fire.  If I can tear myself away from the outdoors, I'll make the ground nut stew. I have a butternut squash with a spot of mold that is begging to be used in the stew.  If you don't have the Simply In Season cookbook, it is at the 10,000 Villages store on King Street in uptown Waterloo.  It is a very helpful book for when I'm feeling uninspired about cooking with root vegetables again.  I just turn to the Winter section and choose a recipe to try.  If I can't tear myself away from the outdoors, I'll pull a container of borscht out of the freezer.  It seems to taste even better after freezing.

So far so good on the food from last buying club holding out for a month.  I shouldn't get too cocky, though, because I just realized that I have 17 days to go!  That's over half of a month!  I think that the carrots, apples, cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions will hold out.  I've been harvesting a late planting of spinach from my garden for lovely spinach salads.  I find with my two and four year old salads don't go over as well as a bowl of spinach that we then model how to eat it "like a rabbit."  Those of you who are fans of proper etiquette will not appreciate this.  Basically we stuff handfuls of spinach leaves into our mouths with great gusto and much "Mmmming" and gushing over how delicious it is.  Foster joins us in this and it must be convincing because at supper today the younger two joined in.  Sometimes I "market" the spinach as a "leaf roll" that I roll into little tight at the table and then hand to a toddler.

How is your local food holding out?  Have you found places to buy more when you've run out?  If you're ever in a pickle, the Gerbers will deliver an order to KW if you place an order of $100 or more.  Here is their website: http://www.oakridgeacres.ca

Parsnips and Eva
Eva, the farmer who grew us those amazing sweet little carrots this summer, now has parsnips for us. She would've had them for us in October but she broke her foot and that has slowed her down.  Her daughters and her are harvesting them for us in November and then they take them to their neighours, Paul and Selema Bowman, to wash them in their big vegetable washer that they just bought this year. If you've ever washed vegetables for hours in bins of cold water, you'll know how SIGNIFICANT it is to have a machine that does most of it for you.  It saves a lot of hours of painfully cold hands.  I'm working on talking Eva into planting twice the carrots for us that she did and storing them so we can buy them through the Winter.  Her neighbours have said that her carrots are the best-tasting around.

New Baker from Stratford
I'm excited to announce a new baker from Stratford, Lindsay of Lindsay's Bakery.  She comes highly recommended from Antony John (as did the Rundles Chef, Neil. Antony knows his food!) who will deliver her food to us along with his food.  Check out her website at http://www.lindsaysbakery.com. We will not be offering ALL of her goodies this month but many.  Look for her whole wheat crackers, butter tarts, granola bars, biscotti, lemon squares, and cookies. She uses some local ingredients including frozen local fruit!  She is going to contact Oak Manor about using their flours and grains. I have not tasted her baked goods yet but am looking forward to it. I'm intrigued with the granola bars.  Let's support Lindsay as she works to use more local ingredients.  Let me know what you think of her foods.

Gift Baskets for Christmas or Illness - or Just Because
By the time you pick-up your order, Christmas will be in 32 days.  Have you thought about giving a gift basket of local food? You can assemble your own or save yourself the extra effort and buy one of the gift baskets that we've created.  Emily and I have been scheming for weeks about what to put into these baskets. We have five baskets varieties for you to choose from. We will offer these again for the December 21 pick-up. Check out all the details at: http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/GiftBaskets.php

Buy in Bulk and Save Money
We will be offering full cases (12) of preserves from Country Flavour and Erma so that you can stock your pantry and save money.  We can sell cases for a deal because we do not have to put hours of work into inventorying it - we just move it directly from Country Flavour to you. So, if you know you like a certain pickle or jam or you know you'll use 12 jars of stewed tomatoes by August (or you want to give them away as gifts), then buy the case and save yourself money over the next 8 months.  Imagine having a box or two of apple pearsauce (now available!) in your basement to pull out for a healthy dessert (with cinnamon on top) or to put on top of granola or on yogourt.  We eat 2-3 jars of apple pearsauce a week.  The extra exciting thing about the apple pearsauce is that the pears were not sprayed at all and the apples were sprayed about 1/4 the normal sprays at the very beginning of the growing season.

Plan C - The Power of Community
Do you want to join others in KW who are raising awareness and excitement about the joys of sustainable living?  Some of us realize that we won't have cheap fuel for much longer and rather than panic when that happens, we want to change how we live now so that we are resilient and ready for the changes coming.  If you want to find out more about the people working on this and how we can do this together, join me in attending a movie and conversation at the Princess Twin on Thursday.  The film shows the very inspiring example of how Cuba ramped up sustainable agriculture when they no longer had access to cheap fuels.  Here is more info:

Plan C and The Power of Community
An Evening with the Author, the Film, and the Director.

Lecture, Film, Q&A - with Pat Murphy and Faith Morgan
 
Thursday November 12th

Princess Twin Cinema, 46 King Street North, Waterloo    

Doors Open at 6:45 Talk at 7:15, Film at 7:45 followed by Q&A session.
Addmission $2

Foods to Look For This Month
  • Maple Tarts - I talked Erma into making us maple tarts. I had to convince her that we really do want REAL maple syrup for the tarts - no corn syrup or sugar to cut the costs.
  • Freestone Peaches in a Jar - These are peaches from Eva and Rene's farm (Palatine) where they raise soft fruits with very few chemicals.  They have a different taste and texture than the peaches from Country Flavour.  These peaches are freestone which means that the pits separate easily from the flesh.  The clingstone peaches that Country Flavour cans are MUCH firmer when processed and each pit needs to be cut out rather than pulled out by hand.  The result is that the freestone peaches are a softer texture.  I prefer the freestone. I know others who prefer the clingstone.  How about you get a jar of both and do a taste test?
  • Apple Pearsauce - We offered this last year and it was a big hit. Many people have not tasted this amazing combination of apple and pear (about 50/50).  This year the sauce is thicker than last year and lovely. The ingredients are: apples and pears. Period. They just use steam to cook them.
  • more...
 
Remember to buy enough to last until December 21.  See you November 23!
In gratitude for health and good food,
Nina
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca
P.S. We can use your fruit baskets and jars from preserves again if you return them.

 

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