Wheatsville Co-op Austin, TX

[Dan Gillotte <gm AT wheatsville.coop>]

Hi Wheatsville!

In this e-mail: 
Living La Vida Local
News from our cheese department
Featured in the deli and the meat and seafood department
Co-op Advantage Specials
Natural Foods Industry News
Wheatsville Credit Card

Living La Vida Local
There is increasing interest in buying local products and here at Wheatsville, we couldn't be happier! We have always been a strong proponent and supporter of local producers as well as small scale producers. Look through the store for new signs promoting our local companies. We'll be putting these out over the next few months, so look for them all! We are trying to help people know what items are local with signage, Some of the signs will also indicate how far the product traveled to get to our store. Keep in mind that the average food item in a grocery store in the US travels about 1,500 miles, so anything less than that is a positive step. We have a surprising number of items that comes from within 150 miles of the co-op and we're always looking for more. Your support helps!

In the cheese department
Keep an eye out for pre-packaged Texas Jersey Cheese, out of La Grange Texas.  We are looking forward to offering a cheese that is conveniently pre-packaged, but still local and natural.  We should be offering pepper-jack and cheddar at $3.79 per block so keep an eye out, and visit their website for more information:

http://www.texasjersey.com/

And one last thing... the most important innovation in the history of the internet... Watching cheese age in real time.  Now you too can watch a wheel of cheese in an English cellar as it ages over the course of an entire year, along with a timer to indicate how long it has been aging.  Of special interest is that once per day, at about 10AM GMT, the farmers come in and turn the wheel of cheese, to ensure that the cheese ages evenly.

http://www.cheddarvision.tv/

And, as always, please drop any requests or questions to us at cheese AT wheatsville.coop, and we can arrange custom cuts of cheese, special orders, or general cheese questions!


In the deli!
The deli will be cooking fish up for you on Fridays for the Spring. Look for a variety of fish to be available each week. 
The smoothie of the month is dark chocolate covered strawberry and is highly recommended!
February is a short month, so you have about a week left (and this is your last weekend) to partake in any February Co-op Advatnage Specials! Here is a sampling of what's on deal:

Featured in our Meat and seafood department:
We will be focusing on fish in the coming weeks for our members that observe lent and everyone else who just like to eat fish! 
Look for Alaskan (USA) wild caught Black Cod/Sablefish Filets on special! 
We will also be carrying sustainably fished Ahi Tuna, Wild sockeye salmon, and other fish, too.

Organic meat has returned! We carry center cut chops, boneless pork ribs (in fresh case), ground pork & ground turkey (in freezer).

Be sure to check out or lamb choices from small family farm Loncito Farm in Dinero, TX. 

Grocery
Lakewood Organic Heart Healthy Juice for $2.99
Traditional Medicinals Tea, selected varieties for $3.29
Nature's Path Organic Cereal, selected varieties for $2.99
Chocolove Chocolate Bars for $1.69
Kettle Food Potato Chips for $1.69
Bionatura Organic Pasta for $1.69 (My favorite! Molto bene!)
Mediterranean Organics Organic Fire Roasted Peppers for $4.99
Thai Kitchen Organic Coconut Milk 2 for $3
Rice Dream Rice Milk for $1.69
Muir Glen Organic Pasta Sauce for $2.89
new! Sierra Nevada Mustard (For spreading, not drinking!) $2.29

Refrigerated
Lightlife Smart Deli slices for $1.99
Organic Valley Soy Milk for $2.99 (We're switching to this at our house because Organic Valley is a co-operative of small family farmers! Try it while it's on sale!)
Wallaby Low Fat Yogurt for 75¢

Frozen
Cascadian Farms Organic Potatoes at $1.99
Rising Moon Organic Ravioli for $2.99 (These are quite good and include a vegan variety that my wife and I enjoy a lot.)
Lifestream Pie Oh My! These are delicious single size pies for your enjoyment! For $1.75
Purely Decadent Non Dairy Dessert 2 for $5! (Wheatsville member Suzanne Batchelor told me that she tried this product after my urging and was very delighted  by it! So, try it Suzanne and I can't be wrong, right?)

Bulk
Organic Long Grain Brown Rice for 99¢/lb
Organic Sushi Rice for $1.49/lb
Organic Love Buzz Coffee for $7.99/lb

Bodycare
Avalon Organics Hair Care products for $5.49

Head to our web-site for the complete flyer as a downloadable pdf including some great recipes http://www.wheatsville.coop

Breaking natural foods industry news! Whole Foods is planning to merge with competitor Wild Oats (who own the Sun Harvest stores here). This will bring Whole Foods annual sales in at nearly $8 Billion with over 300 stores. We'll have to see what will happen here in Austin since Whole Foods is currently in construction of their new 80,000 square foot store to replace the Gateway location. They plan to close some of the Wild Oats stores in markets where they have both stores, so that could mean changes to the landscape here in Austin. This is a big change to the natural foods industry and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Maybe you've heard his one before?
Wheatsville and the University Credit Union have teamed up to offer a Wheatsville Co-op Credit Card! Use your card anywhere, get a great interest rate and help support your co-op! For more information, go to http://www.ufcu.org/accounts/credit_cards/greatrate.php scroll down until you find the Wheatsville card. (It's the one with the picture of the co-op on it!) I have one and I always feel great when paying with it. I get great responses from people who think it's cool that we have a credit card!

Do you do MySpace? Come be our MySpace friend: http://myspace.com/wheatsvillecoop

Have a great week!
Dan
Wheatsville GM and e-mail guy