Tag Archives: whole foods market

On It or In It

Posted on August 18, 2023 | 1 comment

Never been a fan of “reality” TV shows, save two. Whenever I was able to get Bravo on my cable line-up, I watched Top Chef, and I’ve seen enough Iron Chef episodes to know who I like to watch best (Morimoto making anything).

So it looks like I’ll be on upcoming Season 21 of Top Chef. As a contestant? No way. A guest judge? Heaven help us. A food maven imparting words of wisdom? Not a chance.

I just happened to be in the produce department of my local Whole Foods Market when a phalanx of black-clad crew showed up with cameras. Away from them by the lettuces, I was approached by a woman with a clipboard asking for my signature on a release form. Before signing it, I asked if they got a shot of my butt. In my 20’s I met my family in Zurich to tour Germany, Austria and Switzerland and in my excitement to see everything, I was always at the head of the pack so all their photos included my backside. That was well before cell phones and selfies.

She said, no, the back of your head. I signed. because I’m really glad they’re showcasing the food bounty that is the State of Wisconsin, my temporary adopted state that is rich in dairy and apples and more. Home to Cheeseheads and die-hard Packers fans. So yes, I’m on it, ever so peripherally, but not in it as a participant.

I still enjoy cooking and the knowledge gained from professional cooking school nearly 35 years ago, but my motto is KISS, keep it simple. This year I’m growing tomatoes and herbs in containers on the balcony near the kitchen, and only yellow and white pansies and impatiens, and orange manzanilla off my husband’s office. Summer is time for marinades though not for grilling this year, as there are no more grills allowed on balconies and the shared terrace with mega-grills is under construction all summer, having been inundated by floods this year. C’est la vie.

This summer’s speciality is rosemary focaccia, excellent with a cold dinner, dipped in seasoned olive oil or even my quick black bean dip. I’m trying to keep it healthy with lots of fruits and veggies.

Back to school and work will pick up again after Labor Day, so enjoy your summer! Look forward to the new season of Top Chef and pay no attention to the behind you see in the produce section of Whole Foods. No, I didn’t wave to the camera, didn’t even know it was there! Keep cooking! Dee

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Birds

Posted on November 17, 2014 | 1 comment

I wanted to title this “Game Birds” but Jim Schiltz would not allow me to do so. I just got off the phone with him in a fascinating interview in which I learned many things about….. birds.

Who is Jim Schiltz? Only the head of Schiltz Foods, Inc. and Schiltz Goose Farm, Inc. He knows his birds. He told me geese were domesticated about the same time as dogs and cattle. My research on dogs says up to 40,000 years. I’d have to check my father-in-law, the rancher and former dairyman, on cattle.

For those of you who know me from the past, yes, I still want a capon and have spent years finding one. While I’ll be at Nanny’s for my 13th Thanksgiving with my husband’s family and am only allowed to bring table snacks, sides and a dessert, Christmas is a different story, to be told later.

One of my favorite girlie movies is the one where the Aussie/Canadian girl learns to fly and takes the geese, from the eggs she found, south for the winter. Fly Away Home, with Anna Pacquin and Jeff Daniels and Dana Delaney. These must be different geese.

The farm began in 1944 and Jim was added to the gaggle in 1962. After tastiness, they had to breed for white feathers because everywhere but France, where the infamous Toulouse geese live and die, people want white down pillows, not grey ones.

Jim said he’d heard of an 82 year-old goose, and that many can live to 25 or even 40, but after maturity they usually go to dog food. Lucky dogs! Mine eats frozen raw rabbit, lamb, turkey, and venison, but I’ll have to check out goose.

Which brings me to capon. It was always a special meal in our home and widely available, even in rural neighborhoods like the one I grew up in. On my birthday I got to choose my cake (Viennese Chocolate Pecan Torte) and dinner, which was capon.

I mis-spoke earlier when I said this was my 13th Thanksgiving at Nanny’s. My husband worked for an online retailer years ago and they wouldn’t let him off for Black Friday so we had to forgo the trip. A month earlier I went to Whole Foods and asked for a capon. No. I asked why? No reason. I asked customer service. No answer. I called HQ. I don’t know why they won’t let me order a capon.

Look up capon on this site. I’ve done my research. Wapsie Farms had capon. Marc and Jim struck up a friendship at industry events and now Schiltz farms has a capon enterprise as well, and you can order from them at http://www.roastgoose.com.

My husband has been off for several months on a consulting contract but of course we’re meeting at his Nanny’s for Thanksgiving. Christmas we’ll have on our own. I’m getting a goose, a capon and a container of goose fat to make Pommes Anna and keep in the frig for good stuff. Jim even told me how to cook a goose (recipes are on the site) but they do have a goose for ‘fraidy cats. Get it frozen and heat it up in an hour. Your family and guests will never know and you can make side dishes instead of basting!

I do shop at Whole Foods Market and everyone is nice to me at this store, but I may have to keep moving around the country to keep that the case when I bring up capon. The store’s protein rules are strict and arbitrary. My father-in-law would love to get his registered Angus cattle into the butcher’s case, and so would raisers of geese and capons.

Principles, not solely marketing, should be the driving force in a market, and that market could be anything from Wall Street to Main Street. The holier-than-thou attitude of Whole Foods Market looks down on anyone not wearing espadrilles and carrying in ten bags then asking if you want to donate a dollar for using the bags you already bought from them, and if you want to donate to their charity of the month.

GIVE ME CAPON! For heaven’s sake, is that too much to ask? Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving. I’m making spicy almonds and cashews, marinated Kalamata olives, cranberry chutney, brussels sprouts and cauliflower gratin, and mincemeat tarts. And driving 1,500 miles to get there.

Many thanks and happy holidays to the Schiltz’s and the Wapsies, who both hail from Iowa. I won’t hit that state or SD en route but got a bunch of quarters to get through the Oklahoma Territory as I messed up and put a dollar bill in the machine two years ago. Oops, almost got a warrant on that one. Caponly yours, Dee

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Bacon and Butchers

Posted on March 20, 2014 | 2 comments

Over the past few months we’ve take on a bacon odyssey, which is apt as I did once sail the seas of Odysseus.

My husband started with Black Forest, which looked ugly to me, a cooking school grad, but tasted delicious. Recently our Whole Foods Market has started making bacon and we’ve been trying the new varieties.

Many are sliced on the #2 blade width which most people would see as 1/4″ and they have to go in a pan, cooked slowly. No microwaving this bacon, it’s too darned good! When your bacon is good and done, drain it but save the drippings for other uses. What? Potatoes rosti and others. That’s another post.

Now our Whole Foods is not just drying beef, it’s making bacon. So far we’ve tried the Black Forest (great), Maple, Savory which are very good, and now the Cinnamon.

Yesterday I told my favorite butchers that I saw Bobby Flay on TV putting cinnamon on bacon. I just thought that was crazy. Then my butchers said they had a cinnamon bacon now and would I like a slice to take home. Yes. I cooked it for my husband this morning and had a bite. Heaven.

I want to ask them to call it “Je ne sais quoi” bacon which pretty much means don’t ask what’s in it, just taste it and you’ll have that bacon vibe you can’t get enough of anywhere, at any time.

That’s how I grew up. My aunt was an English teacher who catered in summer, mainly for us as we had to throw two parties a week for donors and lecturers or musicians, writers et al. Aunt L’s rule was to taste first, ask ingredients later.

That’s how I came to love Roquefort cheese and other items. Cinnamon and bacon. Go figure. I knew what was in it and tried it anyway. Thank you Aunt L and my butchers. I am the only person who brings in meat to our butchers that I’ve transformed for them to taste, be it chili or beef carbonnade.

Thanks to everyone at WF from produce to meat to deli and cheese. As we’ve moved around the country, you’ve always been in our lives. OK I confess, whenever we’ve moved, it has always been a short distance of WF. That is a component of our relocation strategy. Thanks for the cinnamon bacon! Cheers, Dee

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Game Birds

Posted on October 11, 2011 | 1 comment

Yes, I’m “beating a dead horse” once again.  Capons.  Male chickens that are neutered at three weeks of age and allowed to live twice as long as female chickens that you buy in the market in plastic packages, part by part.

Many people think chickens were raised that way.  Hi, I’m a Wing!  Me?  I’m a thigh.  Love this diaper I’m sitting on, in the styrofoam tray and covered with plastic.

Two years ago my husband was told he couldn’t have Thanksgiving Friday off so we couldn’t go to his grandmother’s for her annual family reunion.  I set off to find a capon for us, and because I was stymied in my quest, we ended up with two steaks on the grill.

Whole Foods would not stock capon, nor would they tell me why.  I’ve tried to contact HQ several times and only get the opportunity to leave a message.

When I contacted the only capon producer I talked to the owner.  When he had to sell his business to roastgoose.com I talked to the owner.  These are family farms.

Capon was something my mother was able to get at the local grocery.  Perhaps she had to pre-order one, I don’t know as she’s gone and I can’t ask her.

So here’s the latest info I have, from the purveyor http://www.roastgoose.com

May your holidays be measured by joy at seeing long-lost family and friends, and by the food you make.  Dee

“We do sell capons to the Safeway family of stores.  Nationally we sell to a number of chains and distributors.  To name a few, Bashas in AZ, Harris Teeter in Carolinas, Fred Meyer in the Northwest, the Kroger family of stores (King Super may be in your area), the SuperValue family of stores, Hannaford and Stop and Shop in the Northeast, HE Butt in Texas.  Now this is a partial list, if someone has a specific area we will try to answer if they contact our website www.roastgoose.com  And, of course, one can be ordered via our website and delivered to ones’ door.  We use UPS to deliver to the roughly 12 states surrounding us and Fed Ex if the person is further out.  In the cooler months we can utilize 2nd day air which does reduce the shipping costs.”  This is from Jim Schiltz.

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Steers… and Capons

Posted on November 30, 2009 | 3 comments

Joe, my father-in-law, runs a cattle ranch. When he was younger he ran a dairy, yup, a small family farm and I remember bringing a bucket of milk to a twin baby calf that was abandoned by his mama (they usually have one, and if there are two, they generally neglect one).

Both sons have left the ranch to pursue other ambitions, but they are aware of what goes on, giving a shot to de-worm a calf or castrating a bull. I am not a party to it except ordering it at the butcher’s counter or in a plastic package at the supermarket. So, yes, I am a party to it because I prepare it, cook it and eat it.

We currently live in a very wealthy, eco-friendly place. They build an eight bedroom house but think because they used bamboo and cork, it’s “green.” The ultimate hypocrisy (and my favorite Christmas gift in decades) occurred at our local Whole Foods market when I asked for a capon. The butchers didn’t know what one was. I posted this on the blog and got over 60 hits on capons! The head butcher wouldn’t come out to talk to me but just said he couldn’t order one for me because it wouldn’t meet Whole Foods standards. I just thought it was because he couldn’t find one that was organically raised.

After the response to this original post, I emailed the local store/regional manager and in their responses they sent me the entire chain, which is hilarious, especially as most of their meat is steer, that is castrated bull. But they object to capons for humanitarian reasons. First they said, if you can order what the customer wants, do it or if you can’t, don’t bother. Then they must have found out I’ve had 50 hits on capon this week so they told the local store to get in touch with me asap.

They did and said they don’t carry capon because of humanitarian reasons. But they sell chicken, and steer. Ironically yours, Dee

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