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 Friday, August 7 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.

Some notes for this week:

• We have Peaches, Plums and Apricots on the Spontaneous Table this week!
• The chickens did not lay enough Medium Eggs this week. You can take Large or X-Large instead for an additional $1.25
• Items not available this week: Smoked Farmer's Sausage, 500 g plastic containers of honey, 2.5kg 100% Whole Wheat Hard flour from Arva. We should have these in the coming weeks!
• We are short on blueberry and strawberry jam (you can take a different kind of jam from the spontaneous table instead).
  

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.

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.

In out checkout area, please help us and our volunteers by removing all items from your bag for the checkout process. Please be patient as this area will likely be quite busy. We are piloting a self checkout system this week. Please bear with us. If it works well we will open the option to others.

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 any 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 be aware that William Street is currently closed for construction between King Street and Euclid Street. 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
baileyslocalfoods.ca

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.
If you do not wish to receive Notifications in the future, please uncheck the Notifications box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Ordering for August 7 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.

How was your long weekend? Who knew that we just needed to wait until August for Summer to start!

Notes for This Week:

• The mushrooms are from Leamington, which is a bit father away than 100 miles
• Traditional Foods is offering 1 lb of Stewing Beef for $5.50 this week (regularly $6.00)
• If you have a source of one sided paper please contact us. We can use it to print your pickup slips and save some trees in the process.
  

Subcategories
Our 'meat', 'dairy', 'baked goods' and 'other' categories have subcategories. Look for them under the main categories. If you hadn't noticed them yet, you can now check out the beef, pork, cheese and other products that you may have been missing!

Palatine Fruits
The following is a note from Mary Jane about the soft fruits we will have this week:

This week we have apricots, Garnet Beauty peaches and 2 kinds of plums!!
 
This will be the last week of apricots! Their season will be coming to an end! So if you need some for dehydrating, jamming or cooking this is your last chance!
 
The Garnet beauty peaches a little bigger yet than the Harrow Diamond peaches and just as flavourful! They are a cling stone peach (the flesh clings to the pit). They are good for eating or cooking (if you want pie).
 
We have a limited quantity of Early Golden plums. These are the ones that have a bit of zing from the skin along with the sweet of the flesh.
The Shiro plums are a bit larger than the Early Golden plums and are about the same for sweetness. It does not have the same tartness or zing from under the skin. When I was in Zehrs last summer and observed the Ontario fruit they had...it was all Shiro plums.
 
Just a reminder - All the fruit we get from Eva and Rene are 'tree run'. We do this to avoid the sorting station that insists on fungicidal baths, fuzz removal (peaches) and paraffin wax coatings!. This means some fruit will be larger and some smaller, some more ripe and some less ripe, some firsts and some seconds, all in the same box!

See you on Friday,
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.
If you do not wish to receive Notifications in the future, please uncheck the Notifications box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for August 7, 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,
Yay for the sun! Guess we shouldn't take the warmth of the sun for granted, eh?

Selema surprised us with the news on Thursday night that sweet corn was ready for Friday. Now she says we have to wait until the 14th until the next planting is ready. How was it? I forgot to set some aside for me and it was quickly gone.  Last year their sweet corn was consistently super fresh and very tender and sweet.  Last week's corn was the first planting that they covered with a protective cloth row cover in Spring to keep it a couple degrees warmer on those chilly Spring nights. Then they'd roll the cover back during the day. And back on again at night. It is an intense labour of love to nurture that first planting of sweet corn. Most farmers don't bother planting that early because it is too much work and too much risk of loss.  That is why Selema charges more for the early corn.  The price will come down on the sweet corn as the season goes on. 

Sweet corn is on our short list of local foods that we absolutely have to preserve for the Winter.  It is a sticky and messy and long job to steam it and cut it off the cobs but it is so worth it all winter long when we pull out those little golden nuggets and toss them in soups, stews, quiches, and on pizzas.  Are you curious what else is on our short list? I say short list because we have to prioritize. Am I going to run a buying club and bring local food into the city for 500 families or am I going to preserve everything I desire for the Winter? I can't do both. With my dad's help, my partner Matthew and I have been able to get the sweet corn in the freezer the past two years despite giving birth in Aug 07 and starting this biz in 08.  It makes it more fun to make a party out of it. Invite a friend over, put on some energetic music, get out the stimulants (sweets and chocolates for me) and go to town. Make a big mess, take photos to remember it all and then go to bed with a smile on your face.  Even if I could only get four bags of corn in the freezer it would be worth it. I think we froze 25 dozen cobs worth of corn last year.

What's for Dinner?
The nice thing about cooking at this time of year is that it doesn't take much to have a lovely meal. Steaming a few fresh vegetables with rice on the side is delicious and nourishing.  Now we can steam sweet corn, grill a few sausages, open a bag of Antony's salad mix and it becomes an easy gourmet feast.  What is "gourmet" exactly? Does it mean complicated? Dictionary.com says it is "involving or purporting to involve high-quality or exotic ingredients and skilled preparation." Hmm... steaming sweet corn, grilling sausage and opening a bag of salad is not "skilled preparation".  But it is high quality. Can we say that choosing such excellent ingredients is a skill?  It does take skill to buy local food - it is not the mindless shopping of the megamarkets.  I think I'll change my description of the above meal to an "easy high-quality feast".

We discovered a new favourite summer meal today.  I steamed a pot of baby potatoes, baby carrots and broccoli and served it with a side of meat (chicken breast from Noah who is working to be able to offer us all chicken pieces).  The walla walla onions sautéed with the chicken were SO sweet and the soy sauce on them just made them sing.  No spices needed for this meal, just a bit of butter on the potatoes and salt and pepper.  My kids snarfed it all down and asked for more. Wish I had made twice as much. It was so easy too because I put the potatoes in the bottom of the pot (1 inch of water) with the carrot layer next and added the broccoli after about 10 min.  Next time I'm going to do it with beans on top and a different protein on the side (pork chops?).

Think Big
Have you ever considered buying a big block of cheese rather than a small one or two every week?  Millbank offers big beautiful 5 kg blocks of cheese. At first it may seem like too much for you but hear me out.  If you grate up 2/3 and throw it in the freezer, that only leaves you 2 kg.  Cheese will last a few weeks in the fridge so that gives you less than a kg a week (equal to two of the small packages). If you have a household of four or more, this amount of cheese is easy to eat in a week.  You end up saving about $1 a kilogram buying a big block and then have the added convenience of ready-to-go grated cheese in the freezer. We are offering a few varieties this week, but please ask if you want big blocks in any other variety and we'll add them.

Think Winter
Preserving food for the Winter does not have to be a big production like I describe the sweet corn above. You can preserve a bag or two of this and that without it becoming a new hobby.  For example, if you are dabbling in freezing food for the first time, try these six items: a bag of apricot halves, bag of pitted cherries, bag of blueberries, bag of cut up red pepper, bag of dill, and a bag of sweet corn (cut off of the leftover corn from supper).  This Winter these six bags will give you: the best 2 pots of borscht you ever made (dill), 2-3 amazing pots of chili (sweet corn), apricot platz (coffee cake, if you're not Mennonite) on a cold dark day (or apricot/blueberry smoothies for a few days), and a chocolate cherry cake (or cheesecake...).  You'll be feeling like a Queen (or King) this Winter (kind of like a cross between Martha Stewart and Laura Ingalls Wilder) when you make these meals and it will make you want to invite someone over for supper.  Two things we need more of:  feeling like royalty and sharing a meal with others.

Think Local
What else can you buy from Bailey's Local Foods rather than at the supermarket? Changing the local food system won't work if you only buy a few recreational local food items. It's got to include your meat and potatoes, your breakfast, your staples.  We can't provide you with bananas or avocados but we do have just about everything else that can be grown here and is made here. No guilt trips here, just stating the facts. Changing the local food system will only work if about 50% of us are buying about 50% of our foods locally.  You don't need to buy it from us, just get it. Make it a part of your regular life - a part of your routine.  50% means you can still eat all of the avocados that you want to! - and rice, almonds, fruit loops and coffee and whatever else is important to you.  We're encouraging you to seek local foods for the items that are easy to substitute: cheese, meat, oil, fruits, vegetables, beans...

Local Feed for Egg Makers
We have 9 hens in a coop in our backyard.  We used to have 10 chicks but one of them turned into a rooster so he had to move to the country. He was too bossy so I was glad to see him go. I just wish we could've heard one cock a doodle do before he hit the road.  No eggs yet but any day they may start laying!

We've been driving out to Elmira to buy our chicken feed so I was thrilled when Noah said he could sell us local chicken feed!  Rachael and I are clear that we sell food and nothing else (at this point) but food for the animal that will give me food seems to fit within our mandate.  The farmers that raise the hens that lay our eggs (Steven and Karen Lemke) also have a small feed mill on their farm.  They grow all of the grain for the mill on their farm except for a premix of supplements. 

Fresh Broccoli
Lena Burkhardt called me about having those nice new potatoes last week and this week she has broccoli for us!  I've been wishing we had broccoli so I'm thrilled. And it's even organic. Organic broccoli means that it may have a few little worms (sweet corn often comes with worms too).  The trick is to soak the broccoli in salted water for 10 min and then the worms will die and float to the top.  I don't know about you but I'd rather have a few worms to soak/wash off then chemicals soaking into my broccoli.  If you see a worm in your sweet corn, thank Edward (Selema's husband) for not spraying the corn. Just cut off the the wormy part and eat the rest.

New Foods to Look for This Week
Pfenning's has a Galia Melon(!) I'm not sure what it is but if it's a melon, I'm in! I looked it up and it is a green-fleshed melon that tastes closer to a cantaloupe than a honeydew. Pfenning's also is bringing us our first green and purple sweet peppers, and first acorn squash.  We can also order Button Mushrooms from Pfenning's this week. Selema says that the first red cabbage is ready and Paul Bowman has yellow wax beans big enough to harvest. 

Did you see the article in the Etc. section of the Record on Saturday with a photo of Antony John from Soiled Reputations? It is in Dinah Murdoch's column Ravenous. Antony has baby leeks and baby turnips for us this week.  We are able to order three different kinds of melons from Pfenning's this week!  They are not cheap but if you compare how much fruit you get in a small melon compared to a pint of berries, the melon seems more affordable.  Paul and Saloma Bowman are growing melons for us but they are not ready yet so we'll buy them from Pfenning's until then.  You can get flours and oats from Oak Manor this week (and not next week).  At this time of year, their oats are from farther than 100 miles (Northern ON) and the hard flour is from out West. When this season's crops are harvested, these items will come from closer to home.  No raspberries on the horizon due to extreme wet and lack of sun. Find them wherever you can, we won't have any.

Tortillas and Tamales
We order the tortilla and tamales every other week. So this week you can order as much as you want (two weeks worth?) and then next week we sell whatever is leftover from the previous week.  The tamales will be msg free this week! Doug was dismayed to discover that there was msg in the chicken bouillon he was using in the tamales. He has made changes so he can offer us MSG free tamales.

Closed the week of Aug 21
Rachael is going on a family holiday the week of Aug 21 and there is no way I can do this without her so we are closing for a week.  We'll remind you again the week before so that you can stock up for two weeks.

This sure is fun changing the food system together,
Nina
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca


P.S. We can use your big fruit boxes, green quart boxes, jars from preserves and egg cartons (from eggs you bought at Bailey's) again if you return them.

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

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

Baileys Local Food Buying Club - Weekly Pickup Reminder

***This "Pickup Reminder" email currently goes to all Members who have chose to receive "Notifications" (in Account Settings). We are considering only sending it to members who have ordered for the current week and also posting it to http://baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com/. But then you might not be able to swing by and get that Sweet Corn on the spontaneous table. If you have an opinion on this, please let us know. We may not reply to each individual note if we get a lot of responses, but we will read them and consider your opinion. Thanks!

If you put in an order this week it will be ready for you to pick up on Friday, July 31 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.

Some notes for this week:

• We have No Spray Sweet Corn on the Spontaneous Table this week! $2.75 for 7 ears from Edward and Selema Martin
• Lydia was short of small Spanish Onions and so members can take one big Walla Walla Onion instead of three small Spanish.
• If we don't get medium sized carrots, smalls can be substituted. They should grow bigger soon!
• We have been given FREE canning jars for the taking. A buying club member got over 100 from his grandma and does not need them all. Look for them in the corner with the bulletin board.

Self Checkout Reminder
This Friday we can offer the SELF CHECK-OUT option to all 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.

Produce bags
Some items are sold by the quart/litre box. The boxes we have are for measurement only. Please bring small bags to bring these items home in.

  Please enter through the white kitchen door off Caroline Street.

Due to construction on William Street you may have to cross a stream of water that runs through the parking lot. Please wear appropriate footwear to reach the church and your order!

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.

In out checkout area, please help us and our volunteers by removing all items from your bag for the checkout process. Please be patient as this area will likely be quite busy. We are piloting a self checkout system this week. Please bear with us. If it works well we will open the option to others.

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 any 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 be aware that William Street is currently closed for construction between King Street and Euclid Street. 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
baileyslocalfoods.ca

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.
If you do not wish to receive Notifications in the future, please uncheck the Notifications box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Ordering for July 31 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.

Hello Everyone,

Notes for This Week:

• Carrot sizes - only bags of smalls are available. If you ordered other sizes, they will be substituted with smalls.
• The discount on organic beef from Vibrant Farms is $2 off the total price of the roast or package of steaks. No Sirloin steaks are available.
• We thought that we could offer bulk shelled peas again, but they are not available this week. Sorry!
  
• Golden Hearth is on Vacation and will be back next week.

Subcategories
Our 'meat', 'dairy', 'baked goods' and 'other' categories have subcategories. Look for them under the main categories. If you hadn't noticed them yet, you can now check out the beef, pork, cheese and other products that you may have been missing!

Palatine Fruits
The following is a note about the soft fruits we will have this week:

We reached the end of the cherry season rather abruptly with all the rain last week! In a better weather year we could still have looked forward to varieties like the Reginas and Hudsons.....both lusciously big black sweet cherries. So we will need to set our thoughts to next year for those lovely cherries!

This week we have the Apricots, Early Golden plums and the Harrow Diamond peaches!!!

The Apricots are coming into full glory now as the season moves on! They again will be allowed to ripen on the tree and hand picked by only two people who are skilled in knowing just the right feel to the apricot!!

The Early Golden plums are the earliest variety of plum available to us. The have a bit of tartness from under the skin along with the sweetness of the flesh!

The Harrow Diamond peaches are a Very nice eating peach! Full flavour and sweet! They are not a free stone peach. The free stone peaches only come later in the season.

Just a reminder - All the fruit we get from Eva and Rene are 'tree run'. We do this to avoid the sorting station that insists on fungicidal baths, fuzz removal (peaches) and paraffin wax coatings!. This means some fruit will be larger and some smaller, some more ripe and some less ripe all in the same box. Eva and Rene let our fruit ripen on the tree much longer than if they were to pick it for the shippers! The shippers want green fruit and we want tree ripened fruit!!

See you on Friday,
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.
If you do not wish to receive Notifications in the future, please uncheck the Notifications box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for July 31, 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,

Maybe I can keep this shorter this week because we do not have so many new exciting foods being offered for the first time. Good. I can't handle that much excitement all the time.  Sometimes food is not exciting, it is just important. Just need the right kinds of foods at the fingertips so that good meals are easy to make.  Matthew made a version of chili today that hit the spot. Chili in July, what next? It is so cool he even baked two pies! Peach, cherry custard pie - in case you're wondering.

Climate Change and the Buying Club
This weather is actually affecting the food on our plates, have you noticed? Have you experienced that before? It's kind of a new feeling when we are used to global shopping at the supermarkets where we can ALWAYS get EVERYTHING that we want.  Stuart didn't have enough sun shining in his greenhouses to ripen the grape tomatoes. How can I complain about that??

I was listening to Gwynne Dyer on Monday night (CBC Ideas) and was sobered again about climate change. I can't see it or smell it or feel it (unless a cold and rainy July IS climate change...) but it is real and serious.  When I feel overwhelmed by a huge and complicated issue like climate change, I find comfort in local food. It is one concrete life choice I can make that will make us stronger and more resilient so that we can handle the changes that are coming.  It feels good to know that if there is an interruption in the flow of global food (due to a pandemic or drought or whatever) we will still have an abundance of good food flowing into our Buying Club every week.  If 50% of KW families ate a diet of 50% local food, we could handle whatever breakdowns (and implosions) that happen in the global food system.  This is my vision -  my goal. 50% of KW families eating 50% local food.  When we get to this, we will notice that the fields will be less corn and soybeans and more a patchwork quilt of vegetables and legumes.  We'll see more greenhouses.  We'll see more local canneries and cheese makers.  We'll be able to find local carrots in April that have been stored in state-of-the-art cold cellars.  I can see it now.

What we are doing as a buying club group is not just cute or nice.  It is not a place to get "niche" items we can't get elsewhere - it is a place to feed ourselves because most of us don't have gardens big enough to feed us.  What is more important than fuelling our bodies, hearts and minds with good food?  We are also fuelling a movement that will affect how our children shop for food when they are adults.  We are fuelling social and economic change by choosing to eat local food. 

Is the Buying Club working for you?
Now, buying local food from Bailey's Local Food Buying Club SOUNDS good but how is it working for you day to day? Week to week?  I don't know about you but I ALWAYS forget to order at least something I need.  I've decided that I need to make a grocery list before ordering, just like I do/did for going to the grocery store.  How is the pick-up working for you?  This Friday we can offer the SELF CHECK-OUT option to all of you! We hope that this will help speed out the checking out for some of you who want to add up your total yourself.  We did all self check-out last year and now we are returning to our roots. We are not Sobey's so we don't have to operate by their rules. 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.

Local Salad Dressing
No, I haven't found someone selling ready-made salad dressing. Any of you want to start a small business?  What we do have now are the perfect ingredients for easy local salads and dressings. At lunch I made a super easy and popular dressing my friend taught me (you can use any oil and vinegar varieties): Soybean Oil, gurgle of wine vinegar infused with raspberry, gurgle of maple syrup, gurgle of soysauce.  It was a hit on the chef salad!

New Items this Week
This week have new potatoes (at a lower price) coming directly from Lena and John Burkhardt who live near Paul and Saloma Bowman. Lena and John have been leaders in organic farming in the Old Order Mennonite Community.  Antony John of Soiled Reputations is harvesting swiss chard and a tatsoi called Yukina Savoy for us this week.  More peaches, apricots, plums and blueberries and a few raspberries.  Raspberries are harder for us to carry because we do not have a cooler and they perish so quickly. We can only buy from growers who are small enough they will pick our order Friday morning.  It is nearly impossible to find no-spray or organic raspberries due to many pests and diseases.  Ivan and Elmeda Brubacher are growing their raspberries for us without sprays at my request. I've promised that we'll buy all that they can harvest for us at a fair price. Last year they were hit hard by heavy hail. The raspberry canes are still damaged from that hail but Ivan said he'll have a few flats of berries for us.

We have organic blueberries this week from near New Hamburg. The Walkers have a lovely little blueberry patch out there (closest one around) and they've hired a nice young man, Zach, who will pick and deliver them to us. Thanks Zach!

Paul and Saloma are harvesting green beans for us this week! Yum! And Paul has hooked me up with a friend who can sell us uncertified organic carrots! I've been so hungry for fresh-from-the-earth carrots.  We're getting a 10 lb bag which we can go through in a week.  Matthew can eat a pound a day raw.  I hope he doesn't mind me telling you that : )  Four of you can get a half bushel (about 2.5lbs) of it this week if you want to steam and freeze it.

Golden Hearth is on vacation this week but you can still get marvy bread from Rundles (just none that are 100% local).  How did you like the crackers?  Which cheeses did they go well with? After cleaning up the buying club on Friday Matthew and I sat down with a plate of Neil's crackers, chevre goat cheese and a jar of hot cherry jam.  It was so incredibly good it made me feel like swearing.  For some reason it made me want to say "Go-olllllllyeee" just like Gomer Pyle.  Yes, and "Shazam!" It was so good I immediately made a few samples to take to the neighbours. I just had to share the joy.  Matthew and I often have "in-house" dates where we don't go out but ignore the dishes and the clutter and whoop it up and have a good time.  Well, this platter of crackers cheese and jam made this in-house date memorable.  It was better than anything we could've found in any restaurant. That sounds ridiculous when I write it but that is how it felt.

Sale on Organic Beef Cuts
We are offering a sale on organic beef this week.  You can take $2 off of any cut of organic beef (steak or roast) from Vibrant Farms.  Noah is also offering pepperettes for those of you who like to pretend that you are cowboys.  We are offering a couple varieties on the order form and bigger packages of 12 will be available on the spontaneous table along with summer sausage.  I don't need to tell you how awful the meat is from the factory farms, I'll leave that to  Michael Pollan and Food Inc.  I WILL tell you that this is beef you can feel good about eating. The steer spent many happy days grazing on a farm near St. Agatha and was slaughtered and processed at a licensed local facility.  Speaking of good meat. Have you seen the brochures from Traditional Foods on the Spontaneous Table that tell you why their meet is good for you and the land?  The animals are GMO and drug free and fed natural products and supplements. They treat their animals humanely and do not use factory farming methods.

Food Inc
Are you going to see Food Inc? I'm trying to get there Saturday night if I can get the order form ready in time.  Maybe I'll see you there.  Anything that sparks conversations about where our food comes from is a good thing.  If it is entertaining at the same time - bonus!

In solidarity of love for the farmers and this land,
Nina
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca


P.S. Food Inc is a MUST SEE! You know I'm a converted foodie and yet it has strengthened my convictions. It made me laugh and made me cry. I was crying for joy at the end. Joy that we are on the cusp of turning this big ship around.
P.P.S. We can use your green quart boxes, jars from preserves and egg cartons (from eggs you bought at Bailey's) again if you return them.

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

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 Friday, July 24 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. 

Weather affected many of our items this week:

• There will be medium eggs, pepperettes and summer sausage on the spontaneous table until 6pm or when Noah goes home.
• Two Century was not able to provide plums so all plums are from Palatine
  
• We will not have enough cherries or peaches to fill all the orders. Quantities will be adjusted so everyone gets some.
  
• We almost had NO blueberries due to the weather. We should get some if it does not rain tomorrow, but the prices will increase slightly.
• No cherry tomatoes or organic blueberries. They need heat and sun too!
• No honey due to not meeting minimum order amount.
• We may not have grains from Oak Manor due to minimum not being met.
  

Produce bags
Some items are sold by the litre box. The boxes we have are for measurement only. Please bring small bags to bring these items home in.

A Message about Local Soft Fruits
Due to the lovely weather the fruit has been picked in the rain this week. Please let it dry out and ripen completely.

Peaches need to be picked before ripe to survive going in a box. They then should be spread out on newspaper on their side or bottom (not face down) and they'll ripen over the next few days. You can go through and do a squeeze test and pick out the ripe ones each day.

All the fruit we get from Eva and Rene are 'tree run'. We do this to avoid the sorting station that insists on fungicidal baths, fuzz removal (peaches) and paraffin wax coatings!. This means some fruit will be larger and some smaller, some more ripe and some less ripe all in the same box. Eva and Rene let our fruit ripen on the tree much longer than if they were to pick it for the shippers! The shippers want green fruit and we want tree ripened fruit!!

The shelled peas will be picked, shelled and packed on ice on Friday so they will be VERY fresh! Please remember the shelled peas spoil easily so they need to be eaten or frozen as soon as possible. Peas are very easy to freeze so you can have them all winter long. If you spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze them, they come apart easily and can then be put into smaller portions to meet your family's needs!