Time and Nourishment

Time. We like to think we are in control of it—especially our own—but it usually gets the better of us. And so the opening planned for April was moved to May, then pushed to June, and then, because we didn’t want to have to shove, we shelved any talk of a new date.

That has not changed.

Right now, some walls need painting; some parts of floor need refinishing; others need grouting; the space and all the equipment need cleaning.

But the signs are up! The food is waiting—even produce, which is growing up in local hothouses. The electricity and heating are updated, and the air conditioning and fireproof drywall have been installed. The lighting is hanging. Two brand-spankin’-new (ADA-approved) bathrooms are ready for all the tail-less sows and boars. There’s a wheelchair-accessible ramp, too. And four tables are eager to receive guests and their order from our fine deli-sandwich menu.

What’s the delay? Well, in addition to wanting to do it right from the start—which includes making later-stage improvements earlier, while the room is gutted—we’ve been one tall man short for the past couple of months. Winston Blick, owner of the Clempire that includes Green Onion and Clementine, has been suffering from double pneumonia. His energy is sapped, and his sleep has been less than sound. Thus, the heavy lifting is left to others.

How can you help? The best way is by enjoying a meal at Clementine! Right now, we have four $15 menu items. And the meat from those meals is organic and all ours—at the Genuine Food Company, raised in conjunction with our partners, Bellvale Farms and Forever Endeavor.

We can also use your help in other ways. Are you a skilled craftsman willing to barter? We can use tile installers and grouters, floor refinishers, painters, and all manner of clean-maker. If you have a proven expertise in one of these areas, please leave your intention and email address in a comment on this post.

Thank you again for continuing to check on our progress. We know you are excited, and so are we. We hope for a soft opening soon—and a healthy Winston way sooner.

Friday CSA

Many of you are wondering where you'll pick up your CSA on Friday.  Until Green Onion is open, you can pick up your haul at Clementine.  Please click the CSA tab on this blog for information about what's in store for you for Week One.

high on the hog—and the fumes

We’ve stepped away from our prep of the new space momentarily to bring you a long-overdue update.  A few strapping lads are taping and filling the drywall seams, while others are uncovering more of that fantastic tile floor.  We’ve sent Jim Perry off to hand-paint our store signs.  And early next week, we will paint the walls and the building will be ready for inspection.

 

Now to the food front.

Cheese & Dairy

·      We now have 30 spectacular cheeses for our cheese case. 

·      Fresh Mackenzie’s chickens are pumping out the eggs.  

Produce

·      Twin Compass Farm has planted one and a half acres just for us

·      Arthur at HCC has been bringing us dreamy greens and herbs for the past two weeks

·      Zahradkas has beautiful lettuces coming up and heirloom tomatoes in the ground. 

Dry Goods

·      We just met with Unfi to finish ordering our dry and package goods. 

Meat

·      Zahradkas’ chickens have been a hit at Clementine, and we can’t wait to bring them to your home table, too. 

·      Farmer Al has two grass-fed beeves ready for the butchery in early June.

      ·      And our ten Belvale Hampshire/Yorkshire   Cross piglets are growing up.  They have moved outside and are living large.  (Need we say literally?) 

We know it’s taken longer than we had hoped (our new open date is mid-June), but we also know that it will be well worth the wait.  Meanwhile, hop over to Clementine for a fresh taste of things to come.  And we’ll get back to the drywall tape.

Meet the Porkers

grand nopening

As you may realize, tomorrow is April, and we are appear to be the fools.

We admit that in planning our Grand Opening date, our enthusiasm trumped the reality of permits and other procedures. But we are chugging along and expect to open sometime between the first of May and the first of June.

We amended our plan to include café seating, which means we had to add a second restroom—bad for cost projections, but good for seating! We have finally completed the arduous task of selecting and agreeing on a color scheme and will commence with the paintin’ just as soon as the weather cooperates. (Spring—another April fool?) And we continue to amass massively expensive equipment, a favorite pastime.

In other news,

• Our fine friend Peter Mares is working with us on the website, which should be up and running soon. 
• The Zahradka Farms/Green Onion CSA is filling up fast, so if you’re interested in getting in on that Friday market pickup, now’s the time to sign on.
• We are working on the idea of processing veggies, especially tomatoes, so we can have them in the winter.
• We just met with the territory manager of UNFI, the nation’s largest natural foods provider. He’s helping us set up our packaged goods and bulk foods.
• We are also progressing in our setup of bulk detergents—laundry and dish—for sale. You bring in your old containers, and we’ll fill them with the most environmentally friendly soaps we can find.
• Clementine is ramping up charcuterie production for sale at the market.
• Bill deBloom, the daily manager of the market, has been taking classes in meat and in organic and all-natural produce. And we’re all honing our butchering techniques as well, which is good news for our fingers.

So we’re a little off our timeline, but we’ll open this damn market soon and will sneak in a soft opening as soon as possible. Keep your ideas and questions coming—here and on our Facebook page. Thank you for liking this idea and being as excited as we are to make our market your market.

join our CSA

Like our restaurant, Clementine, Green Onion will help to sustain local agri-businesses. It makes us proud—not only because those family farms can continue to run in part because of food lovers like us, but also because we know that we're helping you feed your families the best, freshest, healthiest foods at prices you can afford.

You may have heard about local CSAs— Community Supported Agriculture. For as little as $13.46 a week, you can buy a share from one of our favorite purveyors, Zahradka Farm. Yes, they’re the folks who bring those stunning heirloom tomatoes to market.

Please click the CSA tab at the top of this blog (or press right here: CSA) for more information about buying a share. If you do it by March 15th, you’ll get a chance to win a free share for the next season of your choice. But Green Onion has a signing bonus of our own.

We’d like to get at least twenty new members. So if you join the CSA by March 15th for weekly pickup at Green Onion, we’ll throw in a $20 gift card!

And here’s another bonus: When you pick up your CSA from Green Onion each week (likely on Fridays), we’ll help you discover new and exciting things to do with your veggie haul. We'll even post some of them right here, on our Tips and Recipes pages.

what do you want?

We have this nice big space over at the corner of Harford and Hamilton, and we're getting ready to fill it up all manner of comely comestibles. But let's say you were in charge. What ten things, in order of their importance to you, would you carry? Would you line your larder with legumes, leg of lamb, leeks? Perhaps you're partial to parsnips and pickles (Clementine's house-made pickles, of course). Fancy fresh fenugreek and fines herbes? Hanker for ham hocks? Stock up on soup stocks?

Think about it, please, and post your must-have list as a comment here.

yellow-brick road? cheese!

This week, Winston is wiling away the hours with cheese-makers, fraternizing with produce farmers, and conferring with egg people. Soon, amazing local cheeses will appear in two grand cases, and crisp, ripe produce will fill the bins at Green Onion. The folks at Fresh McKenzie are ramping up their egg production to accommodate us. And we’re meeting with our meat purveyor to choose the best-tasting all-natural, hormone- and antibiotic-free meats for our butcher shop. Forever Endeavor Farm will supply grass-fed organic beef and milk-fed pork, which has a sweetness and fullness that can be explained by science but is better to think of as magic. Meanwhile, back at the Clementine ranch, Winston and the boys are tweaking the stocks and soups, sauces and dressings, perfecting them for sale.

April Foods!

That's right, we said it. On April 1st, the fine folks who bring you Clementine Fine Foods give you another reason to celebrate: Green Onion. As our tag line states, we're a bona-fide food market. In addition to carrying popular restaurant items like house-made pickles and Green Goddess dressing, we'll have a glorious eight-foot case of the finest cheeses known to humankind, as well as milk-fed pork, grass-fed beef, a butchery, oodles of heirloom tomatoes, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a few of our favorite food-related non-food items.

How many times have you wished the Farmer's Market were open on other days of the week? How many times would you have settled for one that stays open past noon on the weekend, when you don't have to get up for work? How many times have you wished that the strollers and cute doggies standing between you and the last bowl of spring greens would vanish?

Your wish has come true.

Join us for the grand opening on Friday, April 1, when the only fools will be the ones who wait till Saturday.