The Marquette Food Co-op prides itself on offering a one-stop shopping experience for quality, healthy foods with nutritional integrity and an extensive range of vitamins, minerals and natural remedies and supplements. We support U.P. farmers and producers by offering their products throughout all departments. Browse through our department pages to find out more.
Click here for sales running February 1 – 14.
Click here for sales running February 15 – February 28.
Click here for February Owner Buys—sales just for owners!
Using essential oils for physiological and psychological benefits is an ancient art. Join Co-op owner Cindy Engle of Feet First Reflexology to discover the fragrances and uses of essential oils for yourself at this aromatic event.
Class is held at 6pm in the Co-op’s Conference Room, and is free to owners, $3 suggested donation for others. Contact Sarah at 906-225-0671 ext.23 to register!
Click this image to view the Co-op’s February Newsletter!
2012 has been declared as the International Year of Co-ops by the United Nations. Keep up with our website throughout the year as we highlight other cooperatives we partner with to help “build a better world” through our collective social, economic and environmental impacts!
Our featured Co-op for the week is a regional, Southwest Wisconsin native: Mt Sterling Goat Milk Creamery . The tiny cheese factory in the tiny town of Mt. Sterling (population 200+) has been making cheese since 1913. In 1976, a group of goat herders banded together to create the Co-op and purchased the creamery in 1983.
The milk is now sourced from about 20 farms in the tri-state area (WI, MN, IA), quality tested, and crafted by hand into fresh, excellent-flavored goat cheese in a variety of styles by cheesemaker Bjorn Unseth. Five styles are now available at MFC.
Adding Mt. Sterling American Cheese Society award-winning artisan goat cheese to your shopping list is another way you can support traditional family-operated farms working together to make high quality products .
As Co-op consumers we contribute to economic resilience, ecological sustainability and social justice simply by doing the business we do to fulfill our human needs.
A few new finds to liven up your winter food options, with thanks to Customer Suggestions for inquiring about these products!
Divina Mediterranean Foods works with small farmers throughout the Mediterranean region to procure hand-picked and sorted produce, cultivated and preserved without pesticides, coloring or additives. Our latest addition to the Divina lineup is Greek Pepperoncini peppers. Their mild heat is a favorite addition to sandwiches and salads. (They’re also great with a shmear of chevre on a Marquette Baking Company baguette, in case you need any further inspiration.)
Casa Fiesta Jalapenos are sliced, pickled and packed within 24 hours of harvest, guaranteeing fresh, crunchy, spicy results. They’re actually labeled as “nacho sliced”, but we give you permission to put them on everything.
“Less Bun, More Flavor”. Ozery One Bun flat sandwich breads. Multigrain is loaded with nine nutritious grains for a hearty sandwich bun. Whole wheat is a convenient 100 calorie serving size.
Organic Nigori Momokawa Sake from Sake One. Craft brewed In the traditional, partially filtered style, this domestic sake from Forest Grove Oregon is versatile enough to pair with foods from spicy Thai to dark chocolate. Still silky smooth like the filtered sakes we are used to, but the creamy rice adds layers of exotic flavors.
This Saturday, Jan. 28, stop by the Co-op from 11am-5pm for the Indira Shea Sampling Event!
Swing by the Co-op’s wellness section, try some free samples, and enter the Gift Basket Drawing (Buy any Indira Shea product to enter – winner will be announced at 9am on Valentine’s Day)!
Indira & Shea Products: are hand-crafted in Michigan, with locally harvested herbs, unrefined oils, and fair-trade ingredients; feature high impact nutrients with proven anti-aging benefits; are priced lower than national brands of similar or lower quality.
Some mislabeled packages of Guindon Farms Beef Bratwurst were sold at the Marquette Food Co-op. The last arrival of Beef Bratwurst from Guindon Farms was mislabeled by the packing processor. The incorrectly labeled Beef Bratwurst are a quality control oversight relating only to the labeling. Guindon Farms Beef products are “Certified Naturally Grown” and DO NOT contain artificial ingredients “MSG”, “IA” and “BHT”.
An ode to land ethics from a local beekeeper, Co-op owner, friend, and poet:
This Autumn, we received a very unexpected and seldom seen honey harvest.
Usually, the gathering of Fall season nectar and pollen is pretty much over, and our bees gather honey to completely fill their supers and be ready for winter. Cold nights, often very windy, limit the bees activities and they are more defensive of their hives as they prepare for the long winter.
This Fall, we had something unusual and unexpected happen! The weather was extremely mild, and the second bloom of goldenrod provided an extraordinary flow of nectar, along with asters, sweet clover and other wild flowers. The bees seemed ecstatic! They were gathering nectar, propolis, and during the warm nights, could be heard reducing the nectar into honey.
Honey made with these late blooms crystallizes by itself. It has a light and delicate flavor, that is lost and completely compromised if the honey is heated at all, and so we have bottled it, using a wide mouth jar, so that you can spread it on toast, oatmeal, bagels… or your face!
In over thirty years of beekeeping, I’ve only seen this happen on one other occasion. I think it’s worth celebrating. It’s a wonderful gift, and it’s on sale to give you the opportunity to pause and reflect on the value of our forests and fields, water, and winds. Too often open spaces not under cultivation, active mechanical harvesting, or other activity are thought of as having no particular value, until placed into contrived activity by those “managing” land. “Gotta make the land pay…” is a phrase I’ve heard way too often. Land does ‘pay’—and it pays well! As the lungs and liver of our environment, and with products we scarcely know, and insects we seldom recognize.
We have filtered nothing except ‘bee parts’ from this honey, so expect to see small specks of pollen, propolis and wax within each jar.
Once again, we’re a certified organic farm, hoping that a path toward more ‘non-toxic’ farming will grow throughout Michigan, particularly in the Upper Peninsula. We are NOT Michigan’s virtual vacant lot, and our land is worth protecting.
Thanks,
Sue Raker, Cloverland Apiary
Keweenaw Gold Late Harvest Honey is available now at the Marquette Food Co-op!
Despite receiving nearly 45,000 public comments in opposition and only 23 comments in favor, the Obama administration gave Monsanto the green light to release its newest genetically engineered (GE) corn variety freely into the environment and American food supply, without any governmental oversight or safety tracking.
Over the holidays, the USDA announced its approval of a novel strain of GE corn Monsanto claims is “drought tolerant.”
The USDA also opened a 60-day public comment period for two petitions. One is for Monsanto’s GE soybean containing higher levels of an omega-3 fatty acid that does not naturally occur in soybeans. The other is from Dow AgroSciences for corn that has been genetically engineered to better resist the poisonous herbicide 2,4-D, a key ingredient in the “Agent Orange” used to defoliate forests and croplands in the Vietnam War.
“The concern is that, just like Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn that is resistant to RoundUp™ (glyphosate) herbicide, the approval of a cultivar resistant to 2,4-D will cause an exponential increase in the use of this toxic agrichemical,” Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute stated.
Citizens can comment on the proposed approval of Dow’s 2,4-D tolerant corn and Monsanto’s stearidonic acid soybeans until February 27, 2012.
An online petition opposing Dow’s 2,4-D corn variety, which will be sent to President Obama and USDA Secretary Vilsack, can be signed here.
For the full original news story click here.
