Twenty years ago, when we started our store…
What a privilege it is for me to write those words. What percentage of people who start businesses can look back two decades to the day they opened their doors? Especially people with no previous experience owning or starting up a new place? Sure, we had lots of work experience, and of course lots of experience shopping, but when it came to being in charge, and actually running a store, well…not so much!
How much of a business’s success can be attributed to lots of energy and good intentions? My guess is, just a little bit, and not enough to save it. I’d say the good fortune we had in being in the right place at the right time in the right community was a much more significant factor for us. Not to say that we didn’t make some good decisions and good hiring choices—we did. But these were based more on our gut feelings about how things should be done, rather than advice from other business people or books.
As I write this I am sitting in my room at the Hilton in Orlando. I am at a buying show held by one of my biggest distributors, for either the 10th or 11th year in a row, I’ve lost track. The great thing about these shows is the relationships I am able to build with individual vendors over the years. The same reps come every year with the same products, perhaps a few new items, and we get to catch up on each other’s news. These are the people who offered us free products for our shelves when we reopened after Tropical Storm Irene wiped us out. These are the people who drive up to see us from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to sample out their products on a Saturday, meet our customers, help us sell their BBQ sauce, or pickles, or olive oil.
This is the great joy of what I do for a living. Sure, it’s great to be flown to Florida, wined and dined and entertained (and this hotel has a killer pool, by the way!). But really, the pleasure is in meeting people and interacting and learning. Today I met a barbecue pit master whose sauce has won multiple Best in the World awards at international competitions. He started his company by doing pig roasts to benefit people and groups who needed money for scholarships, or to pay medical expenses, or who were otherwise down on their luck. Then he lost his job in the tool and dies business, and made barbecue his profession. But he still does lots of benefits. “See this ponytail I’ve got?” he asked me, showing the back of his head. “Almost long enough to give to Locks of Love. Both my daughters have given theirs too. I believe in giving back to people. It’s what I do.”
I get to meet people like this every day, whether they’re my vendors, coworkers or customers. Our longevity as a business has allowed this, because relationships evolve and deepen over time, and lead to new relationships. And I think that that’s what makes our store special—all of the relationships we’ve formed over the years. They are what has kept us going through our best and toughest times, and sustain us daily. Happy 20th birthday to us—and to all our wonderful relationships!
Amelia
Contrary to popular opinion, Cinco de Mayo is not the celebration of Mexican Independence. It’s actually a day to celebrate Mexican heritage and pride and a day to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Revolution. On May 5th 1862, the Mexican army won an unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Peubla. While Mexican independence was still years away, the battle was important for Mexican morale; a win over the then powerful French army was huge. Cinco de Mayo has morphed over the years to just a celebration of Mexican heritage.
For us Gringos, we love the 5th of May and love celebrating Mexican food. Frankly, it’s simply a great excuse to eat “Mexican”. Here’s our lineup that Chef Michelle and her crew will be creating all week!
–Tuesday May 1st: Fish Tacos, Roasted Poblano Lasagna and Chicken Burritos
–Wednesday May 2nd: Beef Enchiladas and Mexican Rice
–Thursday May 3rd: Chicken, Tomato and Green Chili Enchiladas
–Friday May 4th: Pork Carnitas Burritos, Seafood Frittata and Drunken Beans
–Saturday May 5th: Turkey in Mole Poblano, Green Chili Cilantro Rice, Roasted Veggie Enchiladas
Wow…what a lineup…Call us ahead to make sure we’ve got some left!
When our foodie friend Allen F. stopped by with some pasta sauce that Ramones drummer Marky Ramone is making, I rolled my eyes. Yes…public eye roll, right in Allen’s face. But he insisted and laughed, “I know this sounds crazy, but this stuff is incredible!”
I brought the sauce home and everyone loved it. Wife, son and me. Honestly, this is one of the best sauces we’ve tried. And in this day of ever increasing prices, $7.99 is not bad at all.
Check out these all-natural ingredients…Italian plum tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, oregano and garlic. That’s it. And drums are not included.
This may sound crazy, but one look at the way the sauce swishes around in the jar and you know immediately it’s great sauce. It will be an instant pantry staple. You know what I mean?
And check out this testimonial that came in via email the other day: “Whatever you do, don’t stop carrying Marky Ramone’s Marinara…read about it in the New Yorker some time back and was happy to see it at the Market…I’ve even given up making my own lately…”
What else can I say? You’ve got to try it!
Patrick
We’re trying something different–we’re having a Mail Order special sale on our baked goods.
What does that mean you may ask?
Our Mail Order unit sends great WFM food all over the country. And we ship our incredible baked goods too. You can order a couple of ways: If you are comfortable, log onto http://www.woodstockfarmersmarket.com We offer brownies, cookies and macaroons…it’s easy and simple. Or you may drop by the store, ask a staffer to walk you through our Mail Order form over at our Mail Order station by the registers.
Either way, our baked goods typically ship only on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays ’cause we really hate for our amazing baked goods to sit in UPS warehouses over the weekend. Our goal is to send the freshest possible–we bake to order each week and use only the finest ingredients like Vermont butter, Belgian chocolate and King Arthur Flour. And in case you are wondering, we send the exact same items you may see at the Market everyday.
So take advantage of the this first annual spring Mail Order baked goods sale. Birthdays, special days, thank yous…sending WFM food is fun and easy! If you are ordering online, use coupon code BAKE2012 to cash in on your 20% savings! Offer expires this Sunday night. Enjoy!
Many of you that don’t shop here everyday have been asking how we are doing after the Irene flood last August.
Well…it’s been an incredible experience. First there was the cleanup last fall and the push to open the market by November 19th. We opened to a limited store and a bit of chaos, but we opened. I’ll never forget throwing the open flag into the sign on Route 4 while a small group of customers and staff stood clapping and shouting inside the market. It was very emotional.
Then there was the push for Christmas and the holidays. Each Monday (the Market is closed on Mondays) there would be some major project from installing equipment to repairing the old flood survivors. We made it through that crazy time and into the first quarter of 2012. Then—of all things, there was no snow. I mean NO SNOW.
Now you must understand that our culture here in Vermont is geared around winter and snow. Not only is it an economic issue, it’s an emotional issue. We love snow. So needless to say people were depressed. And many from down country never came skiing or snowmobiling or snowshoeing.
Now as the weather turns and warm breezes return, our moods turn hopeful. The west Woodstock neighborhood is bustling again. The Lake Sunapee Bank (new building) has reopened, Ken Colby’s house (the old bank) moved to higher ground next door to the bank and construction continues. Dead River is rebuilding, the White Cottage is almost open and we purchased the Vermont Standard property and plan to bring the building down this week.
And the Farmers’ Market…well, we’re doing pretty well. We are getting back to routine of making and selling great food. It’s these routines that keeps one grounded. I’d be lying to say the journey has been anything but easy. And we’re in a financial hole that will take a few good years to climb out of. But what’s really cool is that most everyone on our staff has returned…and it’s these guys that work the front lines day in and day out that are my inspiration.
Easter is a time of reflection and rebirth. I’m not particularly religious but it’s hard not to acknowledge the excitement that each new season brings. We are lucky to have such rich Community and friends. We look forward to seeing each and every one of you at some point over the year (if not everyday for lunch!). After all, it’s our 20th year and we’ve got some celebrating to do this summer. Stay tuned for more details…
Happy Easter and Passover. Patrick.
Easter and Passover are traditional spring renewal holidays. And while they may not be food holidays in the sense of Thanksgiving or Christmas, we love to pay attention to these holidays and show that you can still have fun with spring foods.
This year, one of our highlight foods is Vermontzah, baked by Naga Bake House of Middletown Springs, Vermont. This outstanding artisan product is one of coolest foods of the season…wood fired, fairly thick and very traditional Matzah. Farm to table and Eco Kosher, it’s truly a handmade product worth considering—but catch it while you can. We’ll probably only offer it for about another week. It’s available both at the Market and online.
Check out this interesting Matzah recipe from Bon Appetit… http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/04/matzo-almond-croccante
Another great spring food in my opinion is cheese. While of course I love cheese year round, there is something about the spring and the Easter season that has me seeking more of what I already love. We’ve got lots of great Vermont cheeses for the holidays—our cheese monger Lisa Battliana continues to push the envelope, with our selection representing over 60% of the state’s cheeses making us one of the top cheese retailers in Vermont! We cut small batches off wheels—keeping what you purchase from us as fresh as fresh can be. And everything we ship out from our Mail Order department is cut right before it’s shipped. Check out some of our favorites: Tarentaise, Cobb Hill and the Consider Bardwell cheeses. They’re fantastic and unique.
Lastly, I always find something very springy about our amazing Macaroons. They are like an early summertime treat—rich and coconutty—no fillers or preservatives or anything…with just a little chocolate drizzled on the top to make the experience of eating one even better. To the moon Alice! We sell a ton of these little guys at the Market and they make a great gift for those who are hankering for a little summer even though it’s still March.
Patrick
One of my favorite cheeses is Cobb Hill’s Ascutney Mountain. It’s an outstanding Alpine style cheese that’s incredibly addicting. We’ll be sampling it here at the Market all weekend! It’s won many cheese awards–the most significant back in ’05, when it was the Farmhouse Cow category winner at the American Cheese Society Awards.
My wife did something really really easy last night for dinner using Ascutney Mountain. We had a salad, of course, as our main meal–it was 80 degrees for crying out loud–but more importantly, she cut two whole grain bulky rolls in half (Red Hen Bread in our neck of the woods). Then she lightly drizzled olive oil on them, topped them with some fresh organic local spinach (yes, Cogers Sugarhouse Farms down in Springfield VT is now producing spring spinach!) and then topped them with shredded Ascutney Mountain cheese. She then popped them under the broiler for a few minutes and voila! A nice side dish for your meal! And P.S.- pretty inexpensive too! Ascutney Mountain makes a great grilled cheese too. Our 16 month old prefers that.
–Patrick.
Vermont Maple Syrup season is a couple weeks early this year so we’ve decided to get going on focusing on some of our favorite maple products. This week, we’re highlighting Moosewood Hollow Infused Maple Syrups.
Moosewood Hollow Syrups have been around for several years and are a solid seller throughout the year at the Market. But don’t turn your nose up…these infused syrups are actually quite good! They’re fantastic for adding sweet and flavor to almost ANYTHING. Sure, let’s call them what they really are: condiments…so a great recipe is almost a must to ger the most out of them.
I find new and easy recipes are not only functional, they are a must for spicing up life. The all too familiar speed dinner drives me insane-the kids are melting down, you’ve been working all day, everyone is hungry and you just want something fast, easy and DIFFERENT.
Check out these easy and fantastic recipes from Butternut Mountain Farm, all centered around Moosewood Hollow’s great Infused Maple Syrup.
Enjoy! P
Maple Stir Fried Eggplant
2 medium eggplants, peeled
2 tsp salt
1/4 c chicken stock
2 T Sweet Heat
1 T soy sauce
1/4 c peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger, grated (OR 1 T Sweet Ginger)
3 green onions, sliced
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T sesame oil
Cut eggplant into 1/2 x 2 inch strips. Toss with salt, place in colander and let drain for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry. In a small bowl, mix chicken stock, Sweet Heat and soy sauce. Preheat skillet, add 3 T peanut oil. Add eggplant and stir fry until softened. Remove eggplant from skillet. Reduce heat and add remaining peanut oil, garlic and ginger. Cook briefly. Add maple soy sauce mixture, green onions and increase heat to bring to a boil. Add eggplant and stir to coast pieces. Stir in vinegar and sesame oil and remove from heat. Yield 4-6 servings.
Sweet Heat Spinach and Cranapple Salad
1 T EVOO
1 1/2 c granny smith apples, thinly sliced
1 c red onion, thinly sliced
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T Sweet Heat
8 c fresh spinach
1/4 c dried cranberries
2 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
Add olive oil to skillet and heat on medium. Add apples and onions and saute for 3 minutes. Add balsamic vinger and Sweet Heat, mix thoroughly. Remove from heat. Place spinach in serving bowl. Pour apple mixture over spinach and toss. Sprinkle with dried cranberries and bacon. Yield 4-6 servings.
Scallops with Spicy Sweet Ginger
3/4 c orange juice
1 1/2 T soy sauce
4 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 T Sweet Ginger
2 T vegetable oil
6 green onions, sliced
2 T fresh ginger, minced
1 T jalapeno pepper
2 small red bell peppers, cut into thin strips
1 small bok choy, diced
1 lb sea scallops, sliced in half. lengthwise
1/4 c pineapple, diced
Mix orange juice, soy sauce, cornstarch, vinegar and Sweet Ginger together until cornstarch dissolves. Heat oil and saute onions, garlic, ginger and jalapeno for 3 minutes. Add red bell pepper and bok choy, cook for about 4 minutes. Add cornstarch mixture. Stir fry until sauce thickens slightly. Add scallops and pineapple. Continue cooking on low until scallops are cooked through. Yield 4 servings.
We blasted this week about Blue Ledge Farm’s La Luna, a fantastic cheese that is an aged Gouda style goat’s milk cheese. I have definitely been guilty of the “oh I hate this or that goat cheese…” (I do apologize for that particularity. Weird, isn’t it? I love so many cheeses!) But I am here to confirm how great that cheese is! And we’ve got plenty of it in stock both on line and in our Market’s cheese section.
Another great Blue Ledge Farm cheese is Crottina—which we included in our new Cheese of the Month Food Club this past month. We don’t sell Crottina on line, so stop by the market and check it out. Crottina is a delicious, bloomy rind goat cheese with a lemon tang and a spreadable paste (middle). It pairs well with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio wine. It’s also great on a slice of wheat toast with a small dollop of honey. I love it spread on a thin sliced Red Hen multi-seed baguette! It makes for an easy before-dinner appetizer.
The folks at Blue Ledge have a pretty cool situation. On 110 acres of gorgeous woodland and pastures in Salsbury (at the bottom of Lake Champlain on the west central border of Vermont) sustainable farming practices are at the top of their priority list. They compost their bedpack manure and re-apply it to their fields thereby completing the nutrient cycle from grass to goat. In 2008 they built an underground cheese cave, which naturally keeps the ambient temperature cool rather than relying on air conditioning or other man made cooling systems. And check this out–they heat most of their entire farm with an EPA approved bio mass furnace using a local farmers corn…the only thing that comes out of the furnace stack is the smell of popcorn!
And just a reminder…We are running a 10% special till March 15th on our new Vermont Cheese Food Club (on-line orders only)! We’ve been sending many of these boxes out; they make great birthday or anniversary gifts! It’s a cool idea…we choose three half-pound cuts of some pretty cool local cheeses and provide tasting notes and info about the farmers.
Thanks for listening…Patrick.
OK. So I just asked Amelia why chocolate is such a big deal at Valentine’s Day. Quickly I realized the idiocy of my comment as she immediately said, “it’s an aphrodisiac!”, seemingly to imply that I was completely out of the loop.
Of course I had always heard that and not to appear too defensive, I quickly checked around, thinking this really can’t be…(and Amelia may be onto something) there are indeed trace amounts of two critical elements responsible for getting you in the mood: phenylethylamine and tryptophan. But most experts agree you’d have to chow down a ton of chocolate to have any effect!
Still, even though there may be no actual proof, I do think lots of folks believe in the spirit of Valentines and chocolates supposed aphrodisiac qualities. Which brings me to my next topic: Brownies.
Over the years-and this is no joke- we’ve had some customers swear by the power of our fudgy, rich brownies. Now mind you, our brownies are no ordinary brownie. We belong to the Fudgy Brownie School, which favors a bar so rich, moist and dense that a dentist could positively identify you from the marks your teeth leave behind. In our opinion, there is nothing worse that a dry, cakey brownie. Nothing. While we can’t promise our brownies will do the trick, we do believe if you put your mind to something, anything is possible.
Since it’s kinda close to Valentine’s Day, (shameful plug) sending brownies to your loved one could be a good idea (though it would probably be better to get on a plane, train or automobile and actually go see them). And since we have $8.95 all-you-can-buy flat rate ground shipping, you could even add a few more things into your package and still feel like you are getting a good value! Hurry- there is still time for your package to arrive before Valentine’s Day.
And if you live around the corner, come down to the Market for your brownie fix and for all gifts that are Valentine’s Day- we are known around here as Love Headquarters and we have an incredible array of flowers, chocolates, roses and champagne. Remember Valentine’s Day is next Tuesday, the 14th!
Patrick
