Join us on Tues, Dec. 21st to celebrate the opening (in 1844) of the co-op store that became the model for the modern co-operative business movement.

Rockland Farm Alliance was started in 2007 with the mission of facilitating sustainable agriculture in Rockland County. Hungry Hollow Co-op has supported RFA from its inception, and on this day we will donate a portion of every dollar you spend to their Harvest Fund Drive. Members of RFA will be on hand to discuss the future of sustainable farming in Rockland County. The event runs throughout the day and light refreshments will be served.

Thursday, December 9th, we are presenting "What Goes On You Goes In You" with Robert Genco of Welda North America. Robert is warm and engaging, and has lots of information and samples to share with everyone in attendance. The event is free, but registration is required. Space is limited. Please join us from 7:30 to 8:30 pm on December 9.

Join us on Friday October 29th for a little old fashioned Halloween fun. We'll fire up the grill one more time this year, and offer grass-fed burgers, organic hot dogs and more. Live music, hot cider, sweet treats for kids in costume, children's activities, and probably the last of Threshhold Farm's amazing apple crop. Come in costume, have a bite to eat, and pick up a pumpkin to carve. 11am-4 pm.

This Friday night, Oct. 1, as part of their First Friday Film series, the Piermont library is hosting a free screening of the movie Fresh, followed by a short panel discussion featuring local author, educator, and organic gardener Joan Gussow; and Alexandra Spadea and Andy Sahn of Camp Hill Farm. 7:30 pm. Piermont Public Library, 25 Flywheel Park West, Piermont NY. (845)359-4595 Find out what eating locally really means.

Throughout the month of September, NOFA-NY is hosting their first Locavore Challenge, with the goal of having 4,000 participants. If you missed Hungry Hollow Co-op's Eat Local, America! event last month, here's a chance to dive into the locavore movement for a day, a week, or the rest of the month. Check out NOFA-NY's website, and sign up today!

On the last Wednesday in August, in Bunol in Valencia, Spain, 20-50,000 revelers participate in the world's largest food fight. It is a tradition that began in the mid 1940s; no one is really sure how it all began, but it was greatly enjoyed and has lived on, despite having been banned for a period during the 1950s-1970s. Within exactly one hour, about 90,000 pounds of over-ripe tomatoes are flung among the participants. The event is followed by dancing in the street and drinking sangria. Whew! Sounds like a party, but we at the co-op have other ideas for tomatoes. Check out the recipe section for some delicious ways with tomatoes. We even threw in a recipe for sangria! -kp

I spent most of the day in the car yesterday, but was well stocked with local ingredient left-overs and snacks for my drive. Here in Asheville, they are big into the local food/local business scene, and that's a good thing. But at the end of the day, what I was really craving was the local kombucha, and at Rosetta's, they have it on tap. Along with that, for dinner we had gumbo made with local heirloom okra, and cornbread (local cornmeal) and greens. I picked up a six-pack of local beer to take home, and a couple bottle of kombucha for the ride. Today being Sunday, I'm going to call it a wild card. (When we were kids, during Lent, on Sundays we were allowed to break our fast and have a little candy, which was always what I gave up). I'm on my way to my brother's, and he's a good cook, so if he feeds me, I will eat whatever he makes happily, local or not. -kp

After a couple days of eating locally in an un-planned, not well-prepared fashion (cheese curds for lunch, bread with jam for dinner, etc) my stomach has brought me back to my senses. Last night was (yes, again) grilled cheese with tomato. But I made a little extra effort and made pancakes this morning (Wild Hive flour, Evan's Creamery butter and buttermilk, local egg) with raspberry sauce (NJ raspberries--there are still some here in the store, you should grab them!) and there is chili in the crockpot for dinner tonight (VT turkey sausage, almost local, Threshold Farm Onion, Cauyuga Pure Organics chili beans, NJ pepper & tomato) as well as local beer (PorkSlap from Butternut Brewing in Garrattsville NY, slightly beyond the 100 mile range). Last night I also made syrup from local grapes, and tonight's project is peach jam and peach butter from NJ peaches (yes, the sugar and lemon are not local, but they are indispensable). Don't forget to submit your "Eat Local" recipes to get in the drawing for the "Eat Local" cookbook! -kp

It's getting a little more challenging already. Breakfast was eggs (roadside, NJ) with kale (Pfeiffer garden). Lunch was leftovers from dinner, sliced cucumber(sister's garden), and local honeydew melon. No idea what dinner will be, but I'll be hungry after my evening ride....Last night I blanched and froze a bunch of corn that was given to me (South Jersey) and today I picked a bunch of grapes at a co-worker's home (can't tell you where!) to make syrup. So much good stuff around, go out and get yourself some! -kp

Breakfast was easy enough; after my non-local coffee with local milk, I was awake enough to remember that it is Eat Local Week. I made a smoothie of Duryea Farm yogurt and frozen NJ peaches (I threw in half of a frozen banana to thicken it, that's my cheat) and local honey. Lunch will be a tomato sandwich. The bread is locally produced, but not made from local grains. Wild Hive is the only source I know for that. And truth be told, it will have mayo, not local. And dinner, which I'm very much looking forward to, will be a Hungarian dish of peppers (from my garden) and onions (Threshold Farm) and Hungarian sausage (I bought it while I was in Cleveland, and it was local to where I bought it--that counts, right?) and paprika (not local but vital to the dish)sauteed to perfection in lard (home-made, from Fleisher's pig). I'm not sure how I'm going to handle hunger pangs in between. I do snack alot. -kp

At Hungry Hollow Co-op we invite you to experience the joys and satisfactions of eating local foods every day. But for one week this summer we're going a step further and asking you to challenge yourselves to see just how much of your hunger can be satisfied with local food: 100%, 4 out of 5 items on your plate at every meal, 2 out of 3 meals a day? You decide and then see if you can reach the goal you've set. To help you out, and to make it more fun, we've created a booklet containing tips and resources and journal pages so you can record your experiences. The Eat Local, America booklet is available in the store, or you can download and print your own copy by clicking HERE. We’ll be posting recipes that can be made with local ingredients here on The Daily Holler. And if you have a favorite local recipe send it to info@hungryhollow.org so we can share it with other Eat Local, America participants. Every recipe you submit will enter you in a raffle to win a beautiful hardcover copy of Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers, written by Janet Fletcher with a Foreword by Alice Waters. Every day is Eat Local, Chestnut Ridge day at the Co-op, but Eat Local, America week is August 9th-15th only. Pick up your booklet in the store and start making plans today!

88th ICA International Co-operative Day
16th UN International Day of Cooperatives
(3 July 2010)
"Co-operative enterprise empowers women"
"La empresa cooperativa empodera a la mujeres"
"L'entreprise coopérative autonomise les femmes"
This year's theme highlights how the cooperative model of enterprise can successfully empower women. It links to the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing+15) which sets out the internationally agreed agenda for women's empowerment.

Co-operatives have a key role to play as they are able to respond to both women's practical and strategic needs. Whether it be through women only co-operatives or co-operatives made up of women and men, they offer an effective organizational means for women members and employees to raise their living standards by accessing decent work opportunities, savings and credit facilities, health, housing and social services, and education and training. Co-operatives also offer women opportunities for participation in and influence over economic activities. Women gain self-reliance and self-esteem through this participation. Co-operatives also contribute to the improvement of the economic, social and cultural situation of women in other ways including promoting equality and changing institutional biases.

This Tuesday, June 29, at 11:00 am, Rockland Farm Alliance is having a press conference at the Cropsey Farm in New City. They are signing an agreement with the county to lease the farm for use as a community farm. Details will be announced at the press conference. A large turnout would show that the community supports this idea, so anyone who can make it is invited out to the farm.

The address is 230 Little Tor Rd. New City, NY. (Exit 10 off the Palisades, make a left, go about 2 miles and the farm will be on your right.)

Local author and lecturer Karen Ranzi will be at Hungry Hollow Co-op on Tuesday, June 8th, to guide you on the path to creating happy and healthy children--and getting them to eat their veggies. Her new book is Creating Healthy Children: Through Attachment Parenting and Raw Foods. Karen advocates a holistic approach to many of the health problems children face today; she will share the value of understanding your children’s needs, and the importance of obtaining the best possible nourishment for your family. The talk is from 8-9 pm, with a book-signing, as well as kid-tested recipes for you to take home. No charge. Please call Kathey at 845-356-3319 or email kp@hungryhollow.org to register.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Earth Day Raffle. All the proceeds will go to support the biodynamic farming training and research work of the Pfeiffer Center. Congratulations to the winners: Gloria Binkowski - Honeybee Gardens Gift Bag; Kaori Fuller - Honeybee Gardens Gift Bag; Susanne Margono - Badger Balm Basket; Gwendolin Herder - Gardener’s Dream (Pfeiffer Center Class Gift Certificate & Spikenard Farm Honey); Lynn Bello - Gardener’s Delight (red trug filled with gardening goodies). And thanks, again, to all who contributed.

If you haven’t entered (or you want to enter again) there’s still time. Three different gift baskets are being given away: Gardener’s Delight, Gardener’s Dream, and Best of Badger Balms. They’re on display in the store. All proceeds go to benefit the Pfeiffer Center. You need not be present to win.

We’re having a party in our parking lot to celebrate the Earth and to shine a little light on Honeybees. As usual, we will be grilling grass-fed beef burgers, organic hot-dogs, and Sunshine vegetarian burgers, and for the first time bison burgers. And we’ll be offering tastings and samplings of some of the products we carry. There will be live music (including a special, brief, guest appearance by Tom Chapin at 12:30 pm) and children’s activities. Also, we’re raffling off some great stuff, with the proceeds going to support the work of the Pfeiffer Center. (You need not be present at the time of the drawing to win). Come join us in expressing gratitude for the the gifts of the earth, and share in the fun, food, music, and conversation.

Last Friday, Tom Chapin stopped by the Co-op to ask Skip, our produce manager, to put up some flyers for an appearance by Tom’s daughters at the Turning Point in Piermont this evening. Tom and Skip have been friends since the early ‘90s when they both had kids in the Green Meadow Waldorf School and they played pick-up basketball games in the school gym. Out of their friendship was born the Green Meadow Music Festival, which was for many years one of the most popular community cultural events in our area (and one of the most successful fundraisers for the school). As Tom was heading out the door, on his way to distribute more flyers, Skip said, “Hey, what are you doing April 22nd? We’re having this big Earth Day celebration and it would be great if you wanted to drop by and play a few tunes.” Tom replied, “Ya know, I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything scheduled that day - I’d love to come do a few songs. I’ll get back to you next week after I’ve checked my calendar.” So yesterday Skip got confirmation that Tom was indeed free and would be coming to our Earth Day party. Now, we’re not talking about Tom Chapin, famous Grammy Award winning musician, doing a concert here, but rather our friend and neighbor, Tom Chapin, offering his special talent as a gift to our community, enlivening our celebration with his locally grown music. (He and his wife Bonnie, a frequent Co-op shopper, live in Piermont.) The Plan is for Tom to arrive around 12:30 pm, and after an extensive soundcheck of our state-of-the-art equipment, to sing a few songs, and then ride off into the sunset (metaphorically speaking, of course) leaving all the children smiling, all the women sighing, and all the menfolk muttering to themselves, “Well, I bet I’m a more conscientious recycler than he is, anyway.” And, no, we’re not expecting him to show up if it’s raining cats and endangered species, even though we will be soldiering on - it is a Day for honoring the Earth, after all, come rain or come shine. But we’re thinking positive, expecting sunshine, looking forward to hearing Tom Chapin, and hoping you’ll be here.

Join us for our pancake breakfast benefit.
The Rockland Farm Alliance will be having a pancake breakfast featuring locally made maple syrup, organic pancakes, free range eggs, potatoes, sausage, juice, and coffee.

The dates is Sunday, March 28th from 9 AM-Noon. All proceeds benefit the RFA