Monday, October 24, 2011

Some (amazing, others less so) updates

A less-than-amazing update: the damn dairy cooler should be fixed today.  Please keep your fingers tightly crossed, because this has been a source of tremendous aggravation, and a lot of inconvenience.  Some fresh milk coming in tomorrow, in anticipation of the final fix, and a big delivery on Thursday.  When you are a small business owner, these are the sorts of things that keep you up at night: will everyone be so annoyed by one dead cooler that they will swear off Medusa forever and find another spot to shop?

In other news, Randy Grippin, from Mountain Winds Farm in Berne, is putting together an amazing assortment of darker amber and light maple syrups.  Honestly, I've never been a maple syrup fan, but last year he refused to sell it to me unless I tried it.  The stuff is incredible.  We're getting in pints, quarts and half gallons, probably tomorrow.  Along the same lines, we have fresh honey coming in from Richard Ronconi sometime this week, too.

Kropp's Crops is still sending us lettuce - an amazing fresh mixture of salad greens.  They tend to go quick, though, so drop by later in the week for a bag.

More soon, as well as an email blast about our delivery from United Natural and Albert's Organics.  Oh, and if you happen to be a Medusa resident, we're sending out a flier in the mail (because everyone should use the Post Office more often!) about Halloween in Medusa as well as our Fall/Winter calendar.  If you are not a resident, I'll keep extras here at the store.

Keep warm!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Holiday challenge

Last year, one of our amazing customers, who splits his and his family's time between a local residence in Medusa and work downstate, managed to make his entire Thanksgiving dinner with products from our store.  I find this an amazing tribute to how hard we work to supply our customers with fresh whole foods, with an emphasis, where ever possible, on locally produced products.

This year, I am welcoming all of you to join him - we have Thanksgiving turkeys available from Heather Ridge Farm.  We are not taking an margin on them at all - we would just like to see folks spend a bit of the rest of their holiday budgets on groceries from our shelves.  And we are stocking up on lots of the less-fair weather pantry items - including soups and stocks, chicken, hardy vegetables and spices.  We also have a full line of conventional organic as well as gluten free baking items.  If you need something, and you don't see it on our shelves, let me know - I am constantly trying to improve our selection.

Moreover, I would offer up a daily challenge, and I'm working out ways to help you do that.  I'm going to start suggesting dinner ideas on Facebook - such as dinner serving our wide selection of pastas, Newman's Own sauces as well as Giovanni Rana tortellini and ravioli, with a few Geldner's rolls broiled with olive oil and garlic for a few minutes.  Our grocery business seems to contract as soon as chillier weather comes, which makes it hard for us to continuously supply all of the great stuff we're able to carry through the warmer seasons.

Lastly, on the heels of a fantastic meeting with Medusa playground chair Jolie Pizzagati, we're planning for a fantastic Halloween this year.  If you are a decorating guru, join us on Sunday - we'll be spicing up the village with corn stalks and pumpkins, among other scarier things - as well as (hopefully) distributing scarecrow materials for village residents.  And the Council is planning for a cande-lit village Halloween night, with fright and candy galore!

Stay tuned!!