Archives

By Richard Drace, Board President Why was I thinking about spring planting in early November? Because I was listening to a presentation hosted by Riverhill Farm featuring FarmLink, an [...]

By Richard Munroe, Produce Buyer Spring is the time of rebirth, renewal, and rejuvenation. Spring is a time for hope and looking forward. Some people turn to cleansing to achieve renewal, while [...]

By Tristan McLarty, Meat and Seafood Manager I love lamb. When a lot of us think about lamb we incorrectly think about mutton, not tender, delicious lamb. True lamb is processed before the animal [...]

By Linda Nowak-Carlson, Floral Buyer The garden is the ultimate example of “Rebirth.” It’s almost a magical event, and it happens every year. All the bulbs you planted last fall or over the years [...]

The first week of February is my 12th anniversary as a part of BriarPatch Co-op. Twelve and a half years ago, I was the Food Service Manager at La Montañita Co-op in Albuquerque, NM. I learned [...]

BriarPatch Cooking Instructor Tiffany Chen Ayurvedic chef and one of BriarPatch’s most versatile cooking instructors, Tiffany Chen offers a variety of classes, ranging from Vegan Sushi to Indian [...]

By Richard Munroe, Produce Buyer As the evenings get shorter and colder, we tend to stay in and make comfort foods that keep the cold, dark nights at bay. Of course, here at BriarPatch we have [...]

Linda Nowak-Carlson, Floral Buyer You’ve probably noticed that most of your plants are getting ready for a long winter’s rest. Leaves are falling and perennial foliage is dying back. Our [...]

By Angela Ingendaay, MD Winter—the season of longer nights and frosty weather…When it draws nigh, it’s time to winterize, not only our homes but ourselves as well. Some of us may grow weary [...]

As you sit down with family and friends to celebrate the fruits of the season, imagine turning back the clock and spreading your table with the same authentic and unaltered food that your [...]

By Laura Petersen Breadmaker Dorian Matei, the founder of Artisan Lavinia, makes bread from organic, heirloom grains such as kamut and spelt. Inside his home bakery in the Yuba County town of [...]

By Richard Munroe, Produce Department When I think of the word “heirloom,” I think of tradition, of precious things handed down from generations past. Heirloom fruits, vegetables, and grains, [...]

Richard Drace, Board President In the kitchen my daughter Miriam is eating half a Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato. Without asking if she wants the other half—which is sitting on the counter [...]

By Shauna Schultz, RD Certain foods when eaten together have a positive influence on our health, such as enhancing our nutrient absorption or antioxidant activity. Most foods contain a [...]

Sierra Harvest’s 2019 Sustainable Food and Farm Conference Yes, it may still be summer, but for most farmers and gardeners, the seeds of next year’s dreams are already germinating in their [...]

Chris Maher, General Manager I’m happy to report that our current delivery yard and access pathway remodel project is nearly finished. The project was initiated as part of our 2017 remodeling [...]

By Laurie Meyerpeter, Placer County Master Gardener For your cool-season garden, many vegetables are best planted in late summer or early fall. The same vegetables can also be planted in early [...]

Get set for great grilling with these grilling tips. Start your grill about 30 minutes before you begin cooking. It’s a good idea to have a hot side for grilling meat and a cooler side for [...]

Get everything you need to take your food on the go in style while helping the earth! 1. Island Bamboo Lunch Sack. Fully insulated, sandwich board and bamboo utensils, made with 100% recycled [...]

  Summer is an incredible time to step outside and have an adventure that reminds us how fortunate we are to live in this incredibly beautiful landscape. Manzanita Cider is a traditional [...]

by Richard Drace, Board President Although I began shopping @ the Patch way back at the Washington Street store, I used to think of our co-op as just a special place to buy healthier groceries. [...]

With the summer growing season upon us, Hospitality House staff and guests joined together to plant the six raised beds that front the homeless shelter. Soil to refresh the beds was donated by [...]

With an estimated 700,000 visitors each year, the secret is out about this region’s gem of nature, the South Yuba River State Park. The Yuba is one of the most visited attractions in Nevada [...]

Local season is in full bloom. The gifts of the Earth that nourish and sustain us will be mostly local or regional for the near future. Our hard working and talented local and regional farmers [...]

Throughout the world thousands of sites are polluted from mining, agricultural spraying, and manufacturing. Handling the polluted soil has traditionally been done by digging it up and putting it [...]

Every year for the last 33 years, a magical and mind-altering event takes place, hidden away in the hills of North Columbia. It’s the Sierra Storytelling Festival, where hundreds of expectant, [...]

When schoolteacher Linda Toll and her artist husband Lew bought their new house in the country they wanted to make their dream of having a garden come true, so they contacted Sierra Harvest. [...]

Flying V Farm, a new worker-owned organic farm in Placerville, took its name from the V-shaped flight pattern of migrating birds. And, like birds that fly together with a single mind, the four [...]

Did you know that the average American produces around 4.5 pounds of trash per day? That’s 1,642.5 pounds of trash per year, according to archive.epa.gov. I’m not sure what exact factor brought [...]

Having successfully made the transition from cabin fever to spring fever, all we want to do now is play in the garden! The weeds are growing vigorously and I really wish I could love them. But I [...]

Most people use the Nutrition Facts Label to make informed decisions when buying food – whether it’s evaluating the sodium or fiber content, or looking for added sugars. The Nutrition Label and [...]

Chris Maher, General Manager At the February Board of Directors meeting, our Management Team presented a recommendation that, after setting aside needed reserves for store operations, the Board [...]

A toast to milk: in all its nutritious forms Excerpts by Co+op, stronger together Do you know where your milk comes from (besides cows, of course, if you’re a typical milk drinker)? More [...]

A recipe for Pot ‘O Gold Saffron Vegetable Medley Stew, by Jeff Olson, Kitchen Manager at Hospitality House When word got to us that this year’s Empty Bowl event falls on St. Patrick’s Day, I [...]

Board President, Richard Drace Each year in May, all current owner/members of BriarPatch have the opportunity to select three of the nine members of our Board of Directors. With everything else [...]

By Shauna Schultz, RD The demand for plant-based products continues to increase as people recognize that plant-based meals are a common theme in building a healthful diet. Some of these people [...]

Interview with quail egg farmer, Josh Fischer of Food Freedom Farm, Grass Valley When did you get started farming? About 5 years ago I was on my first date with a girl that I dated for a few [...]

An interview with Laura Thorne, owner of Way Yum Sushi Tell us about how you got started. I started Way Yum Sushi in 1997. Before that, I was bringing special needs children into regular [...]

By Linda Nowak-Carlson, BriarPatch Floral Buyer As I write, it’s the beginning of February, and we’ve had a week of temperatures in the 60’s. Quite a few plants have been fooled into thinking [...]

From Chris Maher, General Manager “We’ve all learned to leave room for each other in the development of an idea… I mean, it has to be a cooperative trip, or it ain’t music.” – Jerry Garcia [...]

From Richard Drace, Board President Each month we welcome approximately seventy new households to BriarPatch ownership. How do we welcome them? Our brochures and websites list the benefits of [...]

When did you start farming? For me, it’s not that I jumped into farming at some point, just like that. I’ve been a farmer all my life. My family are farmers, and even though I did different [...]

By Shauna Schultz, RD Health and diet trends come and go. Some are good, some are re-discovered, and some are better left in the past (bacon everything, anyone?). Luckily, 2018 brings plenty of [...]

Intrepid BriarPatch Outreach Department Team kept the baskets full all weekend! The BriarPatch Outreach Team delivered 78 cases of fresh and organic bananas, apples, and citrus to the 13 venues [...]

Farmers and ranchers from all over the West Coast will be gathering in Grass Valley from February 9 through 11 for Sierra Harvest’s 2018 Sustainable Food and Farm Conference. More than 500 [...]

By Linda Nowak-Carlson, BriarPatch Floral Buyer Greetings gardeners! This may be old news to some of you, but for those of you who would like to be doing something in the garden this time of [...]

Sierra Harvest 2018 Sustainable Food & Farm Conference – February 9-11, 2018 Joel Salatin helped kick off the first Conference in 2010, and he is back again for 2018! Whether you’re a [...]

Thoughtful gifts are very appreciated, and at BriarPatch Food Co-op, you can find something special for everyone on your list – from locally-made cozy goodies to exotic and unique finds [...]

From Richard Drace, Board President On a bicycle ride through Loma Rica and Bangor, we rode through about 5000 acres of recently burned over area. Wondrously, virtually all the homes were saved, [...]

  Chris Maher, General Manager   I would like to thank everyone who joined us this past October at our Annual Owner Meeting. It was an incredible night that offered us an opportunity to [...]

By Lisa Moeschler For endurance athletes, the intense pursuit of success can lead to addictive training habits—the kind that drive a person through sickness, miserable weather, injury, and [...]

Hospitality House Culinary Team adds subtle spiciness to a traditional dish Winter is upon us here in the foothills of Northern California and for most of us our gardens are lying fallow, [...]

By Shauna Schultz, RD Winter is on the way — chilly weather, snuggly clothes, and maybe even a dusting of snow! While many things about winter are wonderful, it also means the beginning of cold [...]

By Linda Nowak-Carlson, BriarPatch Floral Buyer You’ve probably noticed that most of your plants are getting ready for a long winter’s rest. Leaves are falling, perennial foliage is dying back, [...]

  By Laura Petersen, Community Engagement Manager, Bear Yuba Land Trust In 2017, important landscapes in the Bear River and Yuba River watersheds weathered an onslaught of natural disasters [...]

KVMR Celtic Festival   BriarPatch was happy and pound to provide fresh fruit and healthy snacks at the Festival. The booth was created by local company Sierra Exhibits for the Co-op. Photos [...]

Nevada City Elks Lodge #518 recently held their annual Veteran’s Appreciation Dinner. Every year they serve a complimentary Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings to veterans, while guests of [...]

Cooperation among Cooperatives It’s rare to see smiling faces as a group tries to load a heavy, industrial, three-door refrigerator into a U-Haul. But that is exactly what happened on [...]

Co-ops of all kinds are all around you. More than 800 million people around the world belong to cooperatives, and at least 100 million of them are employed by co-ops. And more often than you [...]

On a beautiful and warm August day, 75 BriarPatch owners, families, and members of our community gathered at the Johansen Organic Farm in Penn Valley for the annual BriarPatch Farm Tour. Rich and [...]

Chris Maher, General Manager Sometimes, we receive more than we pay for. In the last few months our store improvements have increased our ability to offer a larger selection of quality products [...]

By Shauna Schultz, RD You’re most likely familiar with the phrase “trust your gut.” Trusting your gut is great advice, but what if we gave equal importance to nurturing your gut? A healthy gut [...]

Meet Ken and Aleta Barrett of Starbright Acres Family Farm, located at 12575 Polaris Drive in Grass Valley In 2010, Ken and Aleta and their two children, Xea and Sam, moved to Grass Valley to [...]

From Richard Drace, Board President Oh, Puleez,” I mumble to myself, as the presenter at co-op conference workshop I was attending addressed us as “co-operators “ every four or five sentences. To [...]

by Ilene Cristdahl, ND, LAc As viruses become more virulent in winter, keeping children healthy can be more difficult. As the medical community increasingly recognizes the limitations of [...]

BriarPatch Food Co-op sponsors events that build up our community

Hugging the steep slope above the South Yuba River, Independence Trail winds through a mature forest of madrone, Pacific dogwood, and incense cedar. For decades, busloads of school children, some [...]

Many know Nevada County Grown (NCG) as the non-profit group with the gorgeous logo that publishes the yearly Nevada County Farm Guide. This Guide provides a directory of where to find food from [...]

How many times have we heard the phrase from a thankful friend or colleague, “I couldn’t have done it without you,” and thought to ourselves, “Oh yes, you could [...]

Buy tickets to attend “Alice Waters in Conversation” presented at the Center for the Arts and sponsored by BriarPatch – Friday, September 8. Buy tickets online or at BriarPatch [...]

From Richard Drace, Board President Face lift? Tummy tuck? Botox? Joint replacement? Or maybe just a new hairdo and wardrobe upgrade? But why change a good thing? Aren’t we super just the way we [...]

By Shauna Schultz, RD It’s time to say goodbye to those lazy days of summer when we live with less structure, and hello to school days and schedules… which means time to give more thought [...]

Thank you to the 941 BriarPatch Owners and shoppers who took our 2017 Shopper Survey. You exceeded our expectations for the amount and quality of information you shared with us. The shopper [...]

Meet the Johansen Family on their organic farm in Penn Valley, CA Anyone who’s been living in Nevada County for a while knows about the yearly build up of excitement around the [...]

by Zach Bruce Our Co-op was formed 40+ years ago around the idea that if enough of us combine our dollars and cooperate, we can bring healthy, sustainably grown food into our community. Over the [...]

From National Co-op Grocers (NCG) Just as people breathe, produce respires. This process of oxidation is responsible for the breakdown (spoilage) of fruits and vegetables after harvest. You can’t [...]