August 29th, 2010 by Annie
Our little resort town buzzed with talk about plastic bags and plastic things in general after April’s Ashland Independent Film Festival hosted the movie Bag It. If you didn’t get to see it here, make sure you get to, one way or another. It is eye opening! The movie follows Telluride, CO resident (and TV host) Jeb Berrier through the process of seeing just how much plastic his family uses and what effect it has on his health. He is spurred on by the fact that his partner is pregnant. You will learn more about plastic than you ever imagined. The movie won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. AIFF Executive Director Tom Olbrich called the movie “One of the top couple films that changed my life this year.”
Now you can keep up to date on all things plastic, with some other things thrown in, at their new blog. It is certainly worth dipping into from time to time. You will learn something new that you can put into action right away.
Tags: environment, plastic, plasticbags
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August 17th, 2010 by Annie
Southern Oregon is known for incredible recreation and locally grown foods. These will come together in a great multi-sport relay race, The Siskiyou Challenge, held September 25 in Ashland, OR. It benefits Rogue Valley Farm to School, a terrific nonprofit that connects kids, schools and local farms to build more sustainable, healthy schools and
communities.
The scenic, challenging course includes 5 legs: 11K run, 3K kayak, 25-mile road bike, 9-mile mountain bike and 5K run, featuring gorgeous views of farms, mountains, orchards and parks, and a scenic tour of Ashland. Racers may enter solo or in teams of up to 5.
Those looking for a shorter course can enjoy the “Around the Block Speed Walk.”
Post-race festivities include a delicious meal from Standing Stone Brewing Co. featuring local foods, and a random drawing for participants, with great items from sponsors. There will be awards for overall winners: solo, duo and teams of 3-5, including gift certificates from the Ashland Outdoor Store. A pre-race barbeque takes place 9/24 in Lithia Park.
Join the fun today and get involved as a participant, volunteer or sponsor! More information can be found at the event website, siskiyouchallenge.org, or contact
Deborah Gordon, Race Director: 541-944-4118, dgordonsqc@gmail.com
Special thanks to Lead Sponsors Ashland Food Co-op, Ashland Outdoor Store, BioSkin, Full Circle Real Estate, Project A, ScienceWorks and Standing Stone Brewing Co., and other sponsors at various levels.
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July 1st, 2010 by Deli Department
The fourth of July is a great time to picnic and BBQ with friends and family. Following a few simple tips will ensure you have a fun food safe holiday.
• Wash your hands before you work with food, whenever you change tasks, and after you are done.
• Avoid cross contamination, change cutting boards and wash hands and knives in between tasks.
• Know your temperatures, Steaks, Roasts and Fish need to be cooked to an internal temperature of 145, Pork and Ground Beef – 160 degrees and Poultry 165 degrees.
• Food should not sit out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours, if the outside temperature is above 85 degrees
then this time reduces to 1 hour.
• Serve food on small platters and replenish often so thatyou can keep the majority of your food in the cooler or refrigerator until you need it.
Happy 4th of July everybody!
Michelle, Deli Manager
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June 28th, 2010 by Annie
For the past few months I’ve been thinking a lot about how our Ashland School District is going to reclaim and run its own food service program, after using Sodexo for the past few years. The Co-op has always been interested in having healthy school lunches. Mary Shaw from Outreach has been on committees to improve our school lunches and was in on the discussions to take back our District’s program. Now we have a valley-wide organization to help connect farmers with schools…Rogue Valley Farm to School. At our Annual Meeting on June 26th, we heard a bit about this organization, and also that the Co-op and the Lions Club were going to make a nice donation toward their work for our school children. After the years of corporate run school lunches, who is going to now actually prepare and cook the food that will be served to students? I don’t know the answer to this question but apparently many school districts are asking the same question. And First Lady Michelle Obama is also wondering about this. When I found the article that I’m linking to you here, I thought about this question even more. Read the article and then share your thoughts on our Facebook page or in the comments on this blog. Happy reading….and thinking.
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May 31st, 2010 by Mary
After buying 3 dozen jumbo-size eggs ALL WITH DOUBLE YOLKS, I had to call the farm they came from to see if I was eligible for any kind of prize. Larry Martin assured me the prize was the eggs. He told me that he has a young flock and that it is not unusual for new layers to lay double yolk eggs. If ovulation is too rapid or if one yolk joins to another, the result is well,two yolks are better than one. Larry said that it takes a couple of months for a young hen’s reproductive cycle to synchronize, after that double yolk eggs are rarely laid. Generally these eggs are longer and thinner than an ordinary single-yolk egg, in fact many of Larry’s double yolk eggs were too big to fit in standard egg cartons. Of course I wondered if a double yolk egg would result in twin hatchlings. The prognosis for twins is not good as the white is insufficient to support two developing chicks, and sibling rivalry starts before the egg is even hatched. It’s been a couple dozen jumbo cartons since I’ve seen a double egg yolk, but at least when they were rolling in I could call my local egg supplier and get the real story “laid” out for me.
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