Goodbye, Summer; Hello, You!

How now, brown cow?

Summer’s heat is holding steady, and we’re holding steady, too.  If you haven’t been in lately, you’ll find Green Onion the most family-friendly grocer in town, with many all-natural, hormone-free deli meats for your kids’ school lunches, Pequea Valley’s fantastic whole milk yogurt, and Hamilton Bakery’s sliced loaf bread, which we think is the best thing since, well, sliced bread.

And if you want to throw something uber-delicious into their lunches and yours, try the delicious Kinderhook Snacks—a hit at both the Lauraville Market on Tuesdays and the Green Onion every day.

As usual, our Kilby and Prigel milks are flying off the shelves, as are the two kinds of chocolate milk—made exclusively from local brown cows.  The rest of the cows are making plenty of our gourmet cheeses, and our own Winston Blick is whipping up a special pimento cheese.  You’ll love our patés, charcuteries, and three kinds of Zeke’s coffee, too.

When the weather cools, we’ll start serving up the chili, soups, and stocks, which you can eat here or take home.

As the summer of 2012 takes its usual sweet time saying goodbye to Baltimore, we look forward to saying hello to you.


Please note our new hours:
Tuesday—Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday—Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday, CLOSED

tomatoes tomorrow

With the City's blessing, we open tomorrow! Today, we're filling our shelves with produce, dry goods, jams, spices.

Tomorrow, we open our doors.

Green Onion will be open Tuesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Bill DeBloom will join Winston in managing the new shop. We hope to see you soon!

good food is just a few tweaks away

If you’ve been holding your breath waiting for the opening of Green Onion, you’re about to catch that breath of fresh air—and fresh cheese, meat, produce, sauces, and more. In about three weeks—by the end of April—you’ll be standing in line waiting to catch the glint of Killer’s knife as he skillfully excises chicken and pig parts, wrapping them in paper for you to take home for dinner.

Walk by Green Onion, and peer in the windows. The paper’s down, the shelves are up, the cheese orders are in, and now the word is out.

· Meats by Genuine Food Co., Wagon Wheel Ranch, and other fine farms: beef,
chicken, pork, rabbit, and duck—local and less local, high quality, and hormone
free—and Clementine’s sausages
· Clementine specialties—stocks, broths, pickles, sauces, dressings, and more
· Cheeses—25 different kinds, all natural, hormone free
· Bread made exclusively for us by Hamilton Bakery
· Baked goods—mini versions of Clementine’s desserts by Peep
· Deli sandwiches
· Pastas by Field Day, rice, gluten-free goods
· Ice cream, milk, chocolate milk, and more from Prigel Family Creamery
· Yogurt, butter, and more from Trickling Springs
· Eggs from Andy’s Eggs and Mingodale Farm
· Coffee by Zeke’s and Griggs
· Cleaning supplies
· Pet food
· Bulk olive oil and detergent

You can also pick up your CSAs here, whether it’s The Zahradka Farm CSA or our own Genuine Meat CSA. (Please check back for more details soon.)

Before we open, we’ll be patching the floor and walls, tweaking our equipment, and adding finishing touches here and there, like café tables in the front of the store. Before you know it, the bowling alley floors that serve as our countertops will be holding market bags brimming with the best food you can find.

We’re lookin’ good, and before spring is over, you’ll be cookin’ good.

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.