As a co-operative grocery store, we have an insatiable curiosity about what other co-ops around the country are doing.  Fortunately in this era of social media, keeping up with our co-op cousins is as simple as clicking “Follow” on Twitter – and as a result of a few hundred such clicks, we continually run across interesting stories, nutritional resources, and fun food facts worth sharing (or, to use the SM vernacular, “retweeting”).

We thought it might be nice for our customers to have access to some of the best links we’ve discovered over the previous week.  So, grab yourself a cup of coffee or beverage of choice, settle back, and prepare to be challenged, entertained, inspired, amused, or whatever other emotion takes you away from the humdrum and into the wonderful world of natural food.

Welcome to the Boise Co-op Weekly Reader!

Something to Get Steamed About!

Mention of steam often calls to mind bland vegetables — but steaming offers a world of options to those willing to experiment, as our friends at PCC Natural Markets share with us in these tips for successful veggie steaming.

Foods That Fight Pain

Goodness knows that eating the wrong kinds of food can certainly cause discomfort, but are there foods that can help help alleviate pain?  Here is an article that postulates that “when it comes to pain, food really is the best medicine.”

Future Food

The world diet in 2062 or 2112 will be as unfamiliar to most people today as our own cosmopolitan diet of fast food and ethnic cuisines would be to our great grandparents in 1912. The new foods will be the result of fierce demand and resource pressures on food worldwide, astonishing new technologies, and emerging trends in diet, farming, healthcare and sustainability.  An intriguing article from The Sydney Morning Herald.

Fake Meat America Could Love

At our store, any discussion of “meat-like” products inevitably raises some controversy.  Here’s an article from Mother Jones that asks the question, “Isn’t it preferable, at least some of the time, to eat plant products mixed with water that have been put through a thingamajiggy that spews out meat-like stuff, instead of eating those same plant products put into a chicken that does its biomechanical thing for the six weeks of its miserable existence, only to have its throat cut in the service of yielding barely distinguishable meat?”  You be the judge.

Fair Trade, Guatemalan Style

Chajul is a Guatemalan fair trade, organic coffee cooperative of small farmers living in the Ixil traingle. Since 1990, Chajul has been financed by Oikocredit to add to the working capital for Chajul to expand its local and international commercialization.  Just in time for Fair Trade Day (May 12) is this video link from the International Year of Coops.

What’s On YOUR Plate Today?

Trying to get more fruits, veggies and other healthy foods into your diet? What’s on My Plate? Day is an effort by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to raise awareness of the importance of choosing nutritious foods for a healthy meal.  Here are 10 tips for parents.

3 Reasons to Eat More Beans

I already like eating beans, and thanks to this article from the website FitSugar, I now have three more reasons to indulge.

Are Olive Oil and Canola Oil Interchangeable?

To look at many cookbooks, you’d think olive oil and canola oil were identical twins separated at birth. But here are some differences.

Throughout the week of May 7, Boise Co-op will pay its respects to the many suppliers whose business practices ensure that we don’t enjoy our morning latte, or other indulgence of choice, at the expense of a Third World community’s consignment to a life of desperate poverty.

We're putting the "fair" in Fair Trade!

Quite often when folks think of Boise Co-op (or most any cooperative grocery store, for that matter), they are likely to think of “organic” and “natural” as the leading adjectives that describe what makes our store unique.  Increasingly, however, another hallmark of cooperative grocers is “Fair Trade.”  The concept is simple enough: Purchase products from collective enterprises that ensure that the farmers and artisans who produce those products are paid a livable wage.

Throughout the week of May 7, Boise Co-op will pay its respects to the many suppliers whose business practices ensure that we don’t enjoy our morning latte, or other indulgence of choice, at the expense of a Third World community’s consignment to a life of desperate poverty.

This is why the theme for the coming week is “Discover the Sweet Side of Fair Trade.”  After all, supporting companies that support Fair Trade is about more than just the integrity of the products themselves – it’s about a level of social consciousness that adds an extra bit of zest to their enjoyment.

During the week, we’ll bring you little vignettes of the suppliers we’ll be featuring at our Demo Counter from May 7^th through the 12^th.  Here’s our current lineup:

• Monday, May 7 — Equal Exchange Fair Trade coffee and chocolate.
• Tuesday, May 8 — Fair Trade Chocolate from our friends at Dream Chocolate.
• Wednesday, May 9 — Full Circle Exchange Fair Trade coffee and their brand new line of Fair Trade chocolates!
• Thursday, May 10 –Fair Trade espresso chocolate sauce over coconut mounds.
• Friday, May 11 – Fair Trade Celebration! Featuring Dunia Marketplace (Fair Trade handicrafts), Full Circle Exchange coffee and chocolate, and a wide variety of Fair Trade products including Maggie’s Organics, Guayaki, Alaffia, Dr. Bronner’s, and Equal Exchange.
• Saturday, May 12 — Fair Trade coffees and chocolates.

We look forward to introducing you to the people and products that will be part of this demo schedule, and most especially to helping you Discover the Sweet Side of Fair Trade.

May marks the beginning phase of Boise Co-op’s remodel plans.  While the most visible changes will be in the store itself, there’s also a lot going on across the parking lot.  Next to the Co-op Wine Shop, what was once a humble storage space will soon become the Co-op Pet Shop, offering a wider array for premium, local, natural and organic pet products and supplies, including new bulk offerings and branching out into new pet items, such as organic chicken feed!

Zach Jones

A big part of what will make this possible is Zach Jones, and chances are that if you’ve spent much time in the Co-op Grocery Department, you’ve met him.  Zach is the Co-op’s go-to guy for pet owners who have ever had a question regarding natural food alternatives for their dog or cat.  Along with his other accolades – husband, father, musician, artist, pet food buyer – Zach counts “animal lover” as one of his strengths of character.

“I was fortunate enough to get hired straight away as the pet food buyer,” Zach recalls.  Since that day, Zach has spent countless hours researching pet foods – particularly those that compliment the Co-op’s natural and organic philosophy of good food.  This research, which continues some seven years later, guides Zach’s decisions about which brands of pet food to carry.  “For me there is a pretty clear line that defines ‘good and natural’ when it comes to pet foods: They have to be free of by-product meals, corn, and fillers,” he notes.  “As people have paid more attention to what they were eating, they didn’t want to leave man’s best friend out of the equation.”

Over the years, Zach has eliminated pet food lines that did not meet his standards, carefully choosing pet food lines that he and his customers believe to be the healthiest choices for their dogs and cats – brands that include Natural Planet Organics, Innova, Nutri-Source , and California Natural.

“In addition to solid meat sources (chicken versus chicken meal, for example), I also look for probiotics as part of the ingredients,” says Zach.  “There is also a major trend toward removing wheat and soy from pet foods – so many of our customers have come in and complained that their pets were suffering from food allergies.  While I always encourage pet owners to seek professional veterinary advice on any health issue affecting their animals, I’ve learned enough by now to know that sometimes simply switching to a different food might eliminate the need for more expensive allergy testing.”

Zach’s success in growing a Co-op clientele for pet food has resulted in the creation of the large pet food section presently found in the Co-op.  Because of this continued success, and by listening to our customers, in May 2012, the Co-op will begin work on the creation of the Boise Co-op Pet Shop, located next to the Co-op Wine Shop.  Moving pet food to its new location recognizes the fact that our pet-loving customers are seeking healthier diets for their four-legged family members.  The shop adds 600 square of retail space, which Zach plans to fill with new brands and products that include, among others, Taste of the Wild, Orijin, Stella and Chewy’s, along with an increase in locally-made pet foods and treats.

Would you buy pet food from this man? Of course you would!

“I want to create the best retail food venue for pet lovers in our community,” says Zach.  “I want us to stay on the cusp of the best pet food trends and incorporate the Co-op’s philosophy on what makes good food and apply it to the pet foods we offer.  I think we’ve been seen by our community as a trendsetter by carrying brands that you can’t find anywhere else in the Treasure Valley, and I want to continue to do that, as well as seek out local and organic sources for the products we carry.”

While a target date has not been set for opening the Boise Co-op Pet Shop, we anticipate this happening sometime in June 2012.  We’ll keep you and your pets posted on its status as construction is in progress.

As a co-operative grocery store, we have an insatiable curiosity about what other co-ops around the country are doing.  Fortunately in this era of social media, keeping up with our co-op cousins is as simple as clicking “Follow” on Twitter – and as a result of a few hundred such clicks, we continually run across interesting stories, nutritional resources, and fun food facts worth sharing (or, to use the SM vernacular, “retweeting”).

We thought it might be nice for our customers to have access to some of the best links we’ve discovered over the previous week.  So, grab yourself a cup of coffee or beverage of choice, settle back, and prepare to be challenged, entertained, inspired, amused, or whatever other emotion takes you away from the humdrum and into the wonderful world of natural food.

Welcome to the Boise Co-op Weekly Reader!

Pacific Halibut with Fennel and Grapefruit Salad

From our friends at StrongerTogether.com comes this recipe that I’m very much looking forward to trying.  The combination of halibut poached with white wine and served on a bed of thinly sliced fennel bulb and grapefruit sounds deliciously refreshing!

Growing Your Food Close to Home

As traditional agriculture producers struggle with unfavorable environmental and market conditions, city dwellers are finding innovative ways to use their own green thumbs.  Read more…

The Secret to Glowing (and Yellow) Skin?  Eat Your Fruits and Veggies!

This story from National Public Radio (NPR) will hardly come as a surprise to our vegetarian customers.  Or will it?  We know that fruits and vegetables do us all kinds of good. But evidently they also give us a healthful glow — by tinting our skin yellow and red!

What’s Eve Eating Now

Eve Adamson makes a living writing cookbooks on topics ranging from “The Complete Idiots Guide to Gluten-Free Eating” to “The Mediterranean Diet.”  But what does she feed a family who has no interest in her dietary obsessions?  Find out in this StrongerTogether.com story.

From Grass to Food to White House

A University of Massachusetts student tells the story of how her school’s permaculture project not only won them a “Campus Champions of Change Challenge,” but also fit President Obama’s description of “college and university students [who] are helping our country out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”

“Sisterhood” Brings Rights to India’s Low-Caste, Rural Women

When the women of Ganeshpura village began their fight for a patch of overgrown wasteland two decades ago, they were mocked by men, scorned by neighbors and ignored by officials in this conservative, patriarchal region of western India.  The land they now cultivate has turned from dense scrub, once filled with scorpions and snakes, to a vast, lush and lucrative plantation.  Their story is a great one in this, the International Year of the Co-operative.

Aquaponics Offer Hope for Year-Round Produce

John Derksen pictures small coffee shops that can grow their own vegetables for fresh salads and sandwiches.  He envisions grocery stores that produce their own fruit on site. He sees a world in which even cold, dark and remote northern Canadian communities can access local fresh food, even in the dead of winter.  The technology may not be far off.  Read more…

How To Establish a Farm-to-School Program

As a co-operative grocery store, we have an insatiable curiosity about what other co-ops around the country are doing.  Fortunately in this era of social media, keeping up with our co-op cousins is as simple as clicking “Follow” on Twitter – and as a result of a few hundred such clicks, we continually run across interesting stories, nutritional resources, and fun food facts worth sharing (or, to use the SM vernacular, “retweeting”).

We thought it might be nice for our customers to have access to some of the best links we’ve discovered over the previous week.  So, grab yourself a cup of coffee or beverage of choice, settle back, and prepare to be challenged, entertained, inspired, amused, or whatever other emotion takes you away from the humdrum and into the wonderful world of natural food.

Welcome to the Boise Co-op Weekly Reader!

A “Simple” Notion: Connecting Institutions to Local Farms

Less than five per cent of the food served at Canada’s schools, hospitals and universities is locally grown, according to the Public Health Association of Canada.  But the association’s Farm To Cafeteria campaign is slowly chipping away at that number.  Read more about its efforts to do so.

Meet Claudia, the High Tech Cow

Here’s the secret of the modern dairy farm: The essential high-tech advances aren’t in machinery. They’re inside the cow.  Here’s an interesting story from NPR.

Umami Dearest

Quick…what do miso and Parmesan cheese have in common?  You’ll find the answer in this New York Times article by food columnist Mark Bittman.

70 Percent of Ground Beef at Supermarkets Contains “Pink Slime”

Here is a story that has certainly been gaining in circulation…and one that will make you appreciate what you’ll find (or rather, what you WON’T find) in the Boise Co-op Meat Department.

The 11 Healthiest Foods in the World

J.I. Rodale, the man who founded Rodale Publishing, launched the organic farming movement in America. A strong believer in the power of food to heal, he knew long before organic went mainstream that producing the healthiest food meant growing it in the healthiest soil — soil enriched naturally with organic matter, not synthetic, petroleum-based fertilizers that can rob it of vital nutrients and minerals.  Read his take on the 11 healthiest foods you can eat.

Growing the Future: How Can Farming Attract More Young People

With this month’s Co-op Shop for Good recipient being Boise Urban Garden School, this article from The Guardian in the UK raises a question that should concern all of us who care about healthy food.

A New Breed of Farm

Here’s an episode from a Stronger Together video series that offers a lesson in food biodiversity from Bellingham, Washington’s  Heritage Lane Farm. Their eclectic family of farm animals is made up of rare “heritage” breeds, which they raise to promote better livestock-raising practices and healthier meat for the Community Food Co-op’s customers.

Green Cuisine: Why Low-Carbon Eating Can Help Save the Planet

With Earth Day fast upon us, here is an article from the Ecologist website that encourages you to think less about low-carb and more about low-carbon eating.

At BUGS, we don’t just want to create gardens; we want to create communities that garden together. To accomplish this goal, community gardens must develop a blueprint for success that will maintain a lasting place in our public spaces.

When talking about Boise Urban Garden School (affectionately known as BUGS), it’s almost impossible to avoid metaphors that don’t involve soil, seeds, and growing things.  Now in its ninth year, the organization began as modestly as a single seed of hope that a generation of children’s understanding of where food comes from would grow out of their experience with the soil, with the garden as a living classroom.

As the BUGS’ website tells the story, “The idea behind the Boise Urban Garden School came one winter afternoon while co-founders Wendy Young and Amy Hutchinson were talking over a cup of tea. Amy, a junior high school teacher, was reflecting that her most positive experiences with students occurred outside the classroom, planting gardens, taking nature walks, and collecting sagebrush seed in the Boise foothills. The pair also discussed the role the natural world, especially the family vegetable garden, played in their childhood. From this simple discussion, the seed of inspiration was planted for BUGS.”

Today, both Wendy and Amy continue to tend the garden they planted together, while BUGS’ day-to-day operations are managed by Erin Guerricabeitia, who assumed the position of executive director in March 2011.

“In 2003 we had 20 kids and around 1,000 square feet of garden space in our current location (Wright Congregational Church on W. Franklin St. in Boise),” Guerricabeitia recalls.  “We’ve been growing ever since.”

Boise Urban Garden School began in 2003 as a seven-week summer gardening and literacy program for young people ages 10 to 16. From June through early August, approximately 30 youth from diverse backgrounds share enriching experiences around gardening, giving them a deeper understanding of nature, food, and the power to make responsible, healthy choices that serve them and their communities well into adulthood.

BUGS’ summer program provides an opportunity to learn everything from soil composting and water management to seed propagation, planting and harvesting.  In addition to digging in the dirt, kids also spend three full days in the kitchen, where they learn to prepare what they grow in the garden.  They also spend a day working in the program’s farm stand, where they learn about harvesting and pricing food – as well as how to interact with the public.  To learn how to price the produce they sell, kids are divided into three groups during the first week of the program and sent out on comparison pricing visits to local grocery stores (including Boise Co-op).

With the success of its core program, BUGS created Spread Your Roots, which is designed for kids 12 years old and older who have already been through the initial 7-week  program and are interested in more self-directed learning, as well as opportunities for greater leadership in the garden.  BUGS has also created a series of abbreviated programs called Digging In, which take kids through the growing process.  BUGS also brings its hands-on learning approach directly to classrooms, as well as hosting field trips for schools and organizations such as the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club.

“BUGS has evolved along with the emergence of community gardens, small organic farms, and a local food movement,” Guerricabeitia observes. “When I was young, we used to shop at the Co-op, and that was considered unusual among the kids I went to school with.  Today, BUGS is part of a larger lifestyle change that involves exposing kids not only to healthy foods and more sustainable ways of doing things, but hopefully also helps create future farmers .”

BUGS’ most recent program – which will benefit from funds raised by Boise Co-op’s Shop for Good day on April 19, 2012 — is  Just Add Water.  The “roots” of the program were established through work that BUGS did with Taft Elementary School to create a school garden.  With the help and encouragement of school principal Dr. Susan Williamson (who Guerricabeitia speaks of glowingly), BUGS and Taft also developed a curriculum to go with the garden – an effort that Just Add Water now seeks to replicate through other schools as well.

“Creating a program like Just Add Water is a lot of work , but it is so important to introduce kids to this knowledge — so we are bringing this to schools through the concept of a starter kit for garden development for grades K-6,” says Guerricabeitia.  Just Add Water provides more half a dozen different garden plans and curricula, along with a manual of “how-to” information that even includes fundraising concepts.  If needed, schools can access BUGS’ staff on a consultancy basis to help get their gardening programs off the ground.

Cass Meissner, BUGS instructor

“We should have the lesson plans for Just Add Water put together by May 2012, and then be able to launch the program in the fall,” Guerricabeitia estimates.  “We will make Just Add Water available on a sliding scale fee basis, and we hope to pilot five to six schools next year.”

When recalling how BUGS has changed the lives of the children who have participated in its programs, Guerricabeitia immediately recalls a young man named Sam, who started off in BUGS and Spread Your Roots before going on to become a paid assistant in the program.  “Sam came to us from a church that had a community garden, and has stayed involved ever since.  Today he’s a senior in high school with plans to do volunteer work with Heifer International (a program whose mission is ending global poverty and hunger), as well as studying agriculture in college.”

“Kids like Sam who have been involved with BUGS are better able to see the larger picture that connects the local and the global,” says Guerricabeitia.

In April 2012, BUGS announced another step forward in its mission with the introduction of an adult education program at a new garden location.  Beginning May 3, Row by Row will guide students 17 years old and older through the basics of organic gardening in a community garden setting, located at The Salvation Army on West Bannock Street in Boise.  All students will work as a group to plan and plant the garden space, tend the garden, and share in the harvest.

While Row by Row might seem to be something of a departure from its historic focus on children, Guerricabeitia sees the program as a logical extension of her organization’s larger goal: “Agriculture is so deeply rooted in our state that it is a shame that children don’t know where their food comes from,” she says.  By reaching out to adults as well as kids, BUGS just wants to make sure that, in the words of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, we “teach our children well.”

On this, Tax Day 2012, it is good to remind ourselves that while nothing is permanent except death and taxes, beer has at least been around longer than one of those two constants.  So, if you haven’t yet filed that return — or have a reason to mourn or celebrate — Matt the Beer Guy’s latest dispatch from the fermented grain front may be just the tonic.

Howdy all,

Events, events, events…

• Tonight, April 17 at Brewforia, 8PM – Firestone Walker featured beers: core beers, Anniversary 13, Parabola bottles (larger supply to enter market on next order).
• Wednesday, April 18 at The Front Door, 6PM – Firestone Walker featured beers: core beers, Double Jack, Anniversary 15.
• Wednesday, April 18 at Brewers Haven, 7PM – Jamil from Heretic Brewing will pour and chat all things brewing.
• Thursday, April 19 at the Co-op Wine Shop, 4:30-6PM – Jamil to pour and continue the brewing conversation.
• Thursday, April 19 at Brewers Haven, 5:30-6:30PM – Firestone Walker featured beers: core beers, Walkers Reserve Barrel Aged Porter.
• Thursday, April 19 at Bier: Thirty, 7-8PM – Firestone Walker featured beers: core beers, Sucaba BABW.
• Thursday, April 19 at Brewforia, 6:30-9PM – Jamil concludes his Boise/Treasure Valley tour with a stop in Meridian.
• Thursday, April 19 at Bar Gernika, 8:30-9:30PM – Firestone Walker featured beers: core beers, Velvet Merkin (Barrel Aged Velvet Merlin).
• Wednesday, April 25 at the Discovery Center of Idaho – Adult Night Out: the Science of Brewing featuring Crooked Fence and Payette Brewing – live brew session with local homebrewers, tasting session with local pros – good times had by all.
• Thursday, April 26 at the Co-op Wine Shop, 4:30-6:00PM – If you haven’t met the folks from Crooked Fence yet, stop by to taste their wares and hear their story.

• You’ve guessed right if you’ve guessed that the Heretic beers have all returned.
• The Firestone Walker beers should roll through the valley this week.
• Teton Ciderworks from WA has introduced a wonderful line of artisan ciders at certain locations around town – the Co-op currently has the Washington Wild Blend Semi-dry and the Apricot Cider.
• Not to be overshadowed by everything this week, but today is Tax Day, and the 2012 Stone IRS has made its annual appearance.
• Widmer’s Raspberry Russian has arrived – W’11 Imperial Stout with Oregon raspberries added.  The fruit mostly comes through on the nose, with the rich, chocolatey roastiness dominating the ample body.  It makes for a nice sipper/sharing bottle at cellar temp.
• Left Coast Brewing has snuck into our market as well, currently featuring Hop Juice Imperial IPA and Trestles IPA.  We hope to see the Voodoo Stout later in the week, with the Asylum Belgian-style Tripel lurking in the wings.  The standout for me was the Stout, though my wife enjoyed the Tripel.  The hop playground is a tough one for new entries, so expectations are a bit higher.
• Bison Organic Honey Basil welcomes spring – no tasting notes yet.
• Anderson Valley Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema has arrived – rich, creamy, vanilla sweetness makes this an adult cream soda (in a good way).  You can add your own bourbon for a true Kentucky-style ale.  I credit Tate at Bittercreek for introducing this phenomenon to me.
• Laughing Dog Huckleberry Cream Ale has arrived – no tasting notes yet, but I expect a very approachable and sessionable ale that happens to have some regional fruit to it.

Cheers,
~m

As a co-operative grocery store, we have an insatiable curiosity about what other co-ops around the country are doing.  Fortunately in this era of social media, keeping up with our co-op cousins is as simple as clicking “Follow” on Twitter – and as a result of a few hundred such clicks, we continually run across interesting stories, nutritional resources, and fun food facts worth sharing (or, to use the SM vernacular, “retweeting”).

We thought it might be nice for our customers to have access to some of the best links we’ve discovered over the previous week.  So, grab yourself a cup of coffee or beverage of choice, settle back, and prepare to be challenged, entertained, inspired, amused, or whatever other emotion takes you away from the humdrum and into the wonderful world of natural food.

Welcome to the Boise Co-op Weekly Reader!

The Wheatsville Co-op Rocks!

If you had any doubts about the vibrancy of the music scene in Austin, Texas, this little ditty from our fellow co-operators at the Wheatsville Co-op should remove them.  As we enter another year of the My Co-op Rocks! contest, this winning video from last year’s competition might just be the inspiration you need to come on down to your own local grocery store and work your magic.  Follow this link to learn more!

It Takes a Village to Raise a Village

With 2012 being the International Year of Co-operatives, poet Mary Pinkoski offers this spoken word tribute from Edmonton, Canada.

From Farm to Table: Importance of Produce

Matt Habash, President and CEO of Mid-Ohio Food Bank discusses the importance of sourcing more fresh produce to help feed the 49 million Americans at risk of hunger, and the role of farmers in helping the Feeding America network meets its goal of sourcing a total of one billion pounds of fresh produce by 2015.

The Right to Know

One of the biggest challenges any grocery store or consumer faces in making the decision to purchase genetically modified foods is simply identifying them to begin with.  That’s where Just Label It! comes in.

Getting “All The Dirt” on Small Scale Farming

A new book by three Vancouver Island organic farmers is both an inspirational account of modern agricultural life and a cautionary tale of long hours and low pay.  All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming is a memoir and an instruction manual written by a trio of young women who each started her own small-scale farm about 10 years ago.

Getting Back to Basics at Farmers Markets

Notice how much Boise’s Capital City Public Market has grown over the years?  Turns out that the City of Trees is not alone in creating venues to get people closer to where their food comes from.  Here’s a story from Southgate, Michigan.

20 Uses for Leftover Fruit and Vegetable Rinds and Peels

It’s not like we’d ever want to discourage you from shopping in our grocery store for green cleaning products, but with Earth Day coming up, here are some timely tips for using fruits and veggies before they find their way into your compost bin.

Starting this month, the Co-op is introducing a new program that will further benefit everyone who walks into our store, member and non-member alike: Co+op Deals.  Beginning in April, we will distribute coupon books at our checkout lines with page after page of special offers that are good until May 31, 2012 – offers that include $1.00 off any boxed cereal from Nature’s Path, $.75 off any non-dairy beverage from Westsoy, $1.00 off Napa Valley Naturals cooking oils, and $.75 off Santa Cruz Organic applesauce.

In addition to grocery items, our Co+op Deals coupon books include discounts on frozen food items from Cascadian Farms, Amy’s, and Kashi, as well as supplements and health & beauty products.  In fact, you’ll find about 40 coupons in each book – and customers are not limited to the number of coupon books they can take.

Combined with the sale items advertised in our monthly flyer, as well as our member specials, Co+op Deals (which comes out six times a year) represents yet another way we’re making the Boise Co-op shopping experience more affordable, as well as more fun and nutritious.  Shop smart, save money, and live well.

I’m back…and ready to talk about an increasingly popular grocery item that has been both reviled and – more recently – regaled: coconut oil.  Long blacklisted as bad for you (it is, after all, a 90 percent saturated fat), research reveals that not all saturated fats are created equal.  The crucial factor is coconut oil’s status as a non-hydrogenated, naturally saturated fat that contains medium chain triglycerides (MCTs).  According to nutritionists, MCTs are converted into energy instead of being stored as fat – and as a result they can actually stimulate your metabolism, which increases energy levels and helps with weight loss.

As a cooking oil, coconut oil is more heat stable than most plant-based oils, which means that it can withstand high temperatures without heat damage, and does not break down to create trans-fatty acids. We’re confident that just about every health expert out there will tell you that trans-fats are definitely bad for you, regardless of what they may think about coffee.

A blog post I recently came across from sister co-op PCC in Washington cites a number of other benefits of coconut oil, including the following (lifted from PCC’s website):

• Abundant in lauric acid, coconut oil’s supply of this immune-boosting nutrient is only second to mother’s breast milk. This disease-fighting fatty acid contains anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial activity.
• Coconut oil has antioxidant properties, which may help protect your body from cell-damaging free radicals. It has been known to reduce the health risks associated with diabetes as well, by improving insulin secretion.
• Coconut oil also can be used as a lotion, helping to soothe and moisturize dry or damaged skin – a fact that our Health & Beauty Department will be happy to confirm.

PCC’s blog goes on to list some ways that you can add coconut oil to your diet:

• Substitute for butter or shortening when baking.
• Use when sautéing vegetables, for stir-fries or other dishes.
• Spread on toast or mix in with rice.
• Add to a smoothie for an extra boost of energy in the morning.

With all the good press about coconut water (as a great source of electrolytes) and coconut butter that has abounded in the past year alone, 2012 could well be The Year of the Coconut.  We’ve certainly seen an increasing interest in both at our store.  The final clincher in the argument for giving coconut oil a try, however, has to do with another attribute that our customers frequently cite:  It tastes good.

As they say in our Health & Beauty Department, "Don't put anything on you that you wouldn't put in you."

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