While community is no longer in our name, please know that community remains a priority in all that we do!  Please share your feedback on our name and logo change with us.

Member-Owners & Co-op Fans Pose for a Photo

My father was a dairy farmer in Walpole. As a child my fondest memories are not of holidays or vacations, but rather of the animals and playing in the fields.

I collected fresh eggs from our hens, milked cows, assisted in calf births, worked in the garden (with my “blankie” – I was a toddler and young child). I drank raw milk right from the cow my father was milking and we made our own butter. As an adolescent, I also worked hard days haying in the fields under the hot August sun.

Unfortunately, the  corporate gregariousness of America “stole” many small local farms. I witnessed this as my father lost his farm, along with many other Connecticut River Valley farmers.

I am committed to the health and wealth of my community. I am committed to organic gardening. I joined the co-op many years ago at Earth Day because of my spirited commitment to my community and my innate love and compassion for the natural world, animals and the hard work of family farmers.

• To bring a higher sense of community. . .    ~ Aylene Wozmak
• Our co-op is a vibrant, welcoming, community-oriented space where people love to work, shop, gather, and celebrate life!  ~Bonnie Hudspeth
• Affordable, healthful food in a pleasing nearby store where I’ll see my friends and neighbors when I shop. ~ Jane Shapiro

Share Your Own Hopes & Dreams for Our Co-op!
This is our time to bring our dreams for our local food Co-op together.  Think of how you want our Co-op to feel when you walk through the front doors, how you want it to function as a cooperative business, or how you hope it will help to transform the community or the local food landscape (don’t be afraid to dream).  Notes can be anonymous.  Please keep them to 2-3 words or a short sentence at most.  We’ll share your hopes & dreams at the Groundbreaking Ceremony on May 24, 2012.

How to get us your electronic note:

• Share your note using this link
• Post your note on our Facebook Page
• Email monadnockcommunitymarket@gmail.com

How to get us your hand-written note:

• Drop off at the MCM Co-op Office at the Hannah Grimes Center, 25 Roxbury Street, Suite C, Keene

Before the Co-op’s floors are poured and the walls raised, we have an opportunity to bring our community vision to the Monadnock Food Co-op.  Let’s gather our wishes, visions or blessings from all over the region and place them into what will become the foundation of the Co-op’s building.

Groundbreaking Ceremony: Everyone is Invited

Thursday, May 24, 3:30 p.m.
(Rain Date: Friday, May 25, 3:30 p.m.)
Meet at the “Future Home of the Monadnock Community Market” Co-op Sign
Railroad Square, Keene
If you have one, please wear your Co-op T-shirt

This afternoon rally and celebration will include a NEW group photo of the Co-op’s Founding Member-Owners and Board of Directors.  Come enjoy sample treats from local vendors. Bring a friend or co-worker who isn’t yet a Member-Owner.  Anyone who joins during the ceremony will receive a co-op t-shirt or bag!

Directions
From Main St. in Keene, follow the bike path down Railroad St. until you get to the new brick building where Nicola’s is.  To the right of the building, you will see our Co-op sign.

Write a Note
This is our time to bring our dreams for our local food Co-op together.  Think of how you want our Co-op to feel when you walk through the front doors, how you want it to function as a cooperative business, or how you hope it will help to transform the community or the local food landscape (don’t be afraid to dream).  Notes can be anonymous.  Please keep them to 2-3 words or a short sentence at most.

How to get us your electronic note:

• Share your note using this link
• Post your note on our Facebook Page
• Email marketing@monadnockfood.coop

How to get us your hand-written note:

• Drop off at the Monadnock Food Co-op Office at the Hannah Grimes Center, 25 Roxbury Street, Suite C, Keene

SEE YOU AT OUR GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY!

• 1 roasting chicken cut into 8 pieces
• 1 lb. new potatoes, or small potatoes
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb. ramps, cleaned and trimmed
• ½ cup dry white wine
• ½ cup chicken broth
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 450ÕF. Toss potatoes and chicken in 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange in a heat-proof skillet with the skin side up. Roast in upper part of oven for 20 minutes.

While chicken and potatoes are roasting, prepare ramps. Separate bulbs and stem from the leaves. Thinly slice leaves and reserve. Toss bulbs with remaining olive oil.

After 20 minutes, add ramp bulbs to the chicken and cook 20-30 minutes longer or until chicken meat is done.

Remove chicken and vegetables from the pan, and cover to keep warm. Deglaze pan with chicken broth and wine, scraping up and bits that are stuck. Add ramp leaves and cook briefly. Season sauce with salt and pepper and serve over chicken and vegetables.

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine: April 2000

Flavorful Fact: Foraging for ramps is illegal in Quebec due to over-harvesting. However, in New Hampshire ramps are quite prevalent and can be found both at the farmers’ market and in the forest.

Ramps have a strong flavor, somewhere between garlic, onions, and chives. They emerge in the spring, often in moist areas and near sugar maples. Ramps typically grow in clumps and can be harvested for their stalks and bulbs. Just make sure to leave a few in each cluster so that they can regenerate. Ramps are delicious added to pesto or scrambled with eggs and wild mushrooms. Use them in place of leeks in any recipe, or thinly slice and sauté in olive oil for a yummy salad topping.

{Ed. note: If you harvest your own, take only half of each “clump” and replant the rest.  Also avoid taking small, immature or flowering plants.  See more: When Digging for Ramps Goes Too Deep.)

Try this Recipe:

Roasted Chicken with Ramps and New Potatoes

The Slow Living Summit, May 30 – June 1, 2012 in Brattleboro, VT, will have a special focus on co-ops and their contribution to sustainability and the common good.

John Restakis, executive director of the British Columbia Co-operative Association and author of Humanizing the Economy: Co-operatives in the Age of Capital, will speak during the opening plenary session and in a special workshop focused on the challenges and opportunities around growing the co-operative economy.

“With over 800 million members in 85 countries the co-operative movement is by far the most durable and most powerful grassroots movement in the world,” says Restakis.  “In its own quiet way, the co-operative vision continues to thrive and hold the keys to the emergence of an economic model that is capable of remaking and humanizing the current capitalist system.”

In addition to Restakis, the Neighboring Food Co-op Association organized three workshops:

• Co-ops: Humanizing the Economy (featuring John Restakis)
• Co-ops: Building a Better World (panel presentation)
• Co-ops and Business Succession: Converting to Co-op and Why (panel presentation)

View Slow Living Summit Schedule