Our shelves are full of amazing new items! Jessica highlighted some of her favorites to share with you.
January Featured Artist - Shanon Waddingham
“The world is magical through the lens of a camera. Things that seemed insignificant, can seem profound. Things you thought would be an amazing shot, once viewed on the computer, are bland and uninteresting.
“You just really never know: and that is part of the joy of being a photographer. There is always magic occurring...
“I am a photographer and my prints are many different sizes from 4x6“ to 24x36” and normally on canvas but sometimes on metal. I primarily make my income on my sports photography at dog agility events, but I also have had success with my portraits and scenic views. I just finished a show at the Chatham Grill of my old cars which went really well. I think my best attributes as a photographer is my composition of my subjects and also my ability to take candid shots that capture moments that people feel really represent who they are.”
Wine Spotlight!
New Year, New Board!
Q&A with Bill Tynan!
Bill has been working for the Berkshire Food Co-op since August 2011. When he started, his position was titled Operations Coordinator, and that has morphed into his current position, Receiving Coordinator. We asked him a few questions to get to know him better! Here's what he had to say:
Q: Who inspires you?
A: Successful people who have combined success with social involvement, such as Bill & Melinda Gates.
Q: What was the best concert you ever attended?
A: Hard to pick one. Let’s just say any performance by Arlo, Lyle Lovett or John Prine.
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Living life honestly.
Q: What’s your favorite movie?
A: Nightmare Before Christmas. We watch it every year around Thanksgiving.
Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
A: Participated in Project Nim, which was about teaching a chimpanzee sign language. There are a couple of books out on this. Also, HBO made a movie, which is still sometimes on one of the HBO cable channels.
Q: What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?
A: Rethinking our old farmhouse’s design with aging in mind.
Q: Who would you most like to swap places with for a day?
A: Stephen King. Just to get into his thought process for a day would be awesome.
Q: What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?
A: It’s hard to pin down. My wife’s a really good, inventive cook and I don’t think I’ve ever had a meal that surpasses hers.
Q: What’s your secret talent that no one knows about?
A: Investing. It all started when my uncle told me to insist on getting paid in Eisenhower silver dollars when I was mowing lawns as a youngster. Currently, I’m a participant in the Co-op’s Owner Loan Program.
Q: What was your favorite band 10 years ago?
A: Bruce & the E Street Band.
Q: If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be?
A: Weather research. I spent four years in a mobile weather unit when I was in the Air Force and was intrigued that no matter how exacting one was, you could never be 100% correct.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever heard?
A: Trust yourself and in what you believe. Make sure what you believe in is well based.
Q: Seen anything lately that made you smile?
A: Early late fall mornings when the eastern sky is a marvelous combination of reds, pinks and purples.
Q: What’s something—big or small—that you’re really good at?
A: The ear and mind is always open.
Gifts from Sammi
December Featured Artist - Naomi Klavun
“What interests me most, in both my painting and photography is capturing the mystical element, the mood-altering and the magical in a natural scene. I want to find and reveal through my picture what elevates it from “reality” while keeping its resemblance to reality. I want to express my love for what I see. Through looking for it, I find beauty - especially in nature. And I am fortunate to live in the middle of it, now in the glorious Berkshires, previously in rural upstate New York, between the rolling hills and flowing mountain forms of the Catskills and Berkshires. In these locales, one beautiful season transforms gracefully and always colorfully into the next, with the pure blue-whites of winter melting into the gentle greens of early spring, into the vibrant highs of summer’s full color palette, and then to the warm oranges and more muted tones of fall. I want to convey the moods and also a vision, my particular view of this particular frame that I am looking at, how it can speak, what it is telling me, including the conversation of the light and shade. In another way I love the challenge and freedom I experience in painting abstracts, where I can play with forms and colors without reference to anything recognizable, anything other than themselves. Here I purposely avoid forms that suggest objects or beings. I want to explore pure relationship, although, even in these paintings I am most happy when I perceive a mood, a suggestion of mystery, emerge. The process is a step into the unknown, where I am perplexed and free-falling at times, while at others I feel brilliantly enlightened.
I am finally devoting myself to my art full time, having recently retired from teaching art and English at Hawthorne Valley High School since 1985. Even during this career, I exhibited in solo, group and juried shows. I have been a member of the Housatonic Valley Art League and the 14th Colony Artists group, exhibiting at least 5 times a year at various local venues.”
Owner Alert: The Hidden Dangers of the "Other" Plastic
From the General Manager
The Berkshire Food Co-op is committed to sustainability. That commitment comes directly from YOU.
Over 3,500 owners at Berkshire Food Co-op set the agenda for our vision of sustainability. You have told us that you want more fair trade products and we seek them out. Your purchases demonstrate that you enthusiastically support dozens of local producers. You were delighted to see motion sensor LED lighting in our new store which saves on our use of electricity.
But right now, more than anything, you want plastic eliminated from our packaging.
As consumers, we’ve come to expect the food we buy to stay fresher longer, and we’ve become accustomed to plastic as the cheapest packaging option. But now even Pepsi and Coke are committed to ending plastic containers. On a trial basis, Dasani water is now being served in aluminum cans at sports stadiums.
My experience reducing plastic started at the Oneota Co-op where I was a GM 13 years ago. Alarmed by the statistic that 9 out of 10 plastic single-use bottles end up in landfills and not recycled, the Co-op decided to ban all single-use water bottles. As an alternative, we made filtered water available in our Café and encouraged the use of reusable containers. At the time, that was quite revolutionary for the little town of Decorah, Iowa, but it was embraced by the community.
At BFC, we look for ways to promote sustainability every day. In prepared foods, we’re switching from plastic to compostable containers when available. We are now looking at more paper products for our prepared foods. We’re testing paper bags with a cellophane window to package rotisserie chickens. Cellophane is made from cellulose, a plant material, and is more readily compostable. Placing a cooked, all-natural chicken in a paper bag with an aluminum tray (aluminum is 100% recyclable) we can offer a nutritious protein in a container that is a vast improvement to plastic or something made from compostable plant material.
While we’re searching for more eco-friendly packaging, here’s how you can help as a shopper:
Remember your shopping bags
Buy reusable net bags for produce
Bring your own jars for bulk products and use our tare station in the Bulk Dept. You can weigh your empty jar, record the tare weight on a piece of masking tape, and fill the jar with your favorite bulk item.
Tell us what you see that’s sustainable in your travels. Is there a plastic-free deli container you found at another store that we should consider?
Meanwhile, In 2020, we’re forming a Green Team of staff members. The focus of the team is sustainability across all departments. Join us to make 2020 a year we reduce and reuse more than ever!
Herb Roasted Salmon
Try this salmon recipe for your New Year!
This simple fish dish is best made with wild salmon, but it works equally well with the farmed sort. It's astonishingly easy. In a hot oven, melt butter in a skillet until it sizzles, add the salmon, flip, remove the skin, then allow to roast a few minutes more. You'll have an elegant fish dinner in about 15 minutes. Don't be afraid to play with herb and fat combinations: parsley, chervil or dill work well with butter; thyme, basil or marjoram with olive oil; or peanut oil with cilantro or mint.
INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
4 tablespoons minced chervil, parsley or dill
1 salmon fillet, 1 1/2 to 2 pounds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Lemon wedges
PREPARATION
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Place the butter and half the herb in a roasting pan just large enough to fit the salmon and place it in the oven. Heat about 5 minutes, until the butter melts and the herb begins to sizzle.
Add the salmon to the pan, skin side up. Roast 4 minutes. Remove from the oven, then peel the skin off. (If the skin does not lift right off, cook 2 minutes longer.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper and turn the fillet over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper again.
Roast 3 to 5 minutes more, depending on the thickness of the fillet and the degree of doneness you prefer. Cut into serving portions, spoon a little of the butter over each and garnish with the remaining herb. Serve with lemon wedges.
Recipe from NY Times Cooking