This time of year is always a little stressful as we wait to see if a year's worth of earning, spending, and donating money will result in us owing a little bit more of it our federal, state and local governments or getting a tidy little refund for the interest-free loan we gave to Uncle Sam over the year. I gave up on doing my taxes long ago when my tax preparation software told me I owed $3.6 billion dollars. Perhaps I should have made more charitable donations. If you're expecting a check or direct deposit from the U.S. Federal Government, consider fighting the temptation to blow it on $200 worth of Oreos (aka the fate of my 1998 refund) and instead use it toward your member equity. For current member-owners, this is a great way to get yourself all paid off and then not have to worry about it for the rest of your life. For not-yet member-owners, let this be the sign from above that finally gets you to visit our easy-to-use online application so that you can be counted among our 250 Founding Members and get us to the point where we can start the process of looking for a location. Of course, you can join with an initial payment as low as $25 and then have until the end of 2013 to pay off the rest. But if you're sitting on a nice refund, why pay it all off now? I know the latest technological gadget is sitting on your other shoulder whispering for you to ignore the Co-op and instead spend it on him. Don't listen to him! Join the Co-op today! Besides, why spend this year's refund on an iPad 3 when you can just wait and use next year's on the iPad 4? And hopefully by this time next year, you'll be using it to keep track of our progress as we raise the capital for a our new location!

Hello, little arugula!

It's been almost two weeks since I planted my seeds and everything is starting to sprout.  The arugula is coming along the fastest which is pretty amazing considering it's outside.  Last year I started all my seeds in our front window because it's nice and warm and gets lots of afternoon sun.  And I did that this year, too, except...I ran out of room on the windowsill.  Oops!  But then I realized that it's been so warm that I could probably just put the hardiest of my seeds (arugula, spinach and lettuce) outside in the sun as a sort of experiment.  Well, luckily these past two weeks have been very warm so they all made it!  Of course the threat of frost isn't totally over yet and I did bring all three pots in one night last week when it dipped down into the 40s overnight.  But that's it!  Here's the spinach:

Little green ones!  The lettuce has also sprouted, too, but it is the smallest.  Here's a blurry picture of the little lettuce:

The tricky part about starting these outdoors is that I've got to be very careful of the temperature getting too low and either bring them inside or cover them.  I don't cover plants very much, though, since I'm afraid of forgetting to take the cover off during the day and steaming my plants to death (it can get really hot under there with just a little bit of sun.)  But the payoff is that they've got to be pretty cold-hardy by now, so unless it does actually freeze they should be fine.

The more delicate plants are all in the front window.  That's four kinds of tomatoes (Copia, Dr. Walter, Rutgers and Jersey Giant), Rosita eggplant, a sweet yellow pepper, basil, chives, and thyme.  Here's the Copia tomato which, judging by my experience last year, will be the biggest of the four:

I say that they're going to be the biggest because last year, from the very start, the beefsteaks were always the biggest and fastest-growing.  I guess if they're going to grow 6' tall they need to start growing early...

The Copia is actually a hybridization of a beefsteak, so they have lots in common.  The Copia tends to be not quite as big (so I've read) and has yellow stripes.  The Rutgers (developed at Rutgers University for Campbell's when they wanted a good canning tomato) is smaller than the Copia but is still fairly large.  I decided to try Rutgers because of the local connection and also because I'm thinking of trying to can some vegetables this summer.  And on that front, the Jersey Giant is also good for canning because it is long and narrow.  And Dr. Walter?  Well, could you resist a tomato called Dr. Walter?  I certainly couldn't.  Here are the little Dr. Walters growing:

Honestly, at this stage all the little seedlings look so much alike that I fear I would bore you all with pictures of each pot.  Instead, let's go back outside where...

the mint is coming back!  Always a welcome sight, especially this early on when it looks all innocent.  You're only a few plants now, mint, but I know in a few months you'll be threatening to take over the whole garden.

Lastly we have this little cutie:

This is my Bartram's Garden strawberry!  The man from Bartram's assured me that this strawberry had been growing outside all year long at Bartram's Garden so it would definitely survive the winter in my little backyard.  Of course, it came in a very little pot so I transplanted it into the built-in raised bed kind of under some ivy which I hoped might protect it.  And now it's got all those new little leaves growing!  Good job, strawberry.  I'm sorry I doubted you.  Let's be friends?

We occasionally get questions through the Contact page on our website and have decided that rather than keep the answers between us and the questioner, we'd share the them with everyone in a new feature we're calling From Our Inbox. (Got a more clever name? We're all ears...) So let's kick this off with... Q: I’m new to the area... just moved to South Philly from the suburbs, and don’t know too many people/restaurants. Can you recommend any restaurants/stores that offer a decent alternative (i.e. gluten free) menu? - New to the Hood A: First of all, welcome to the neighborhood! With a member-owner count that is growing by the day, we can introduce you to a few hundred new people. And we can definitely suggest a start-up Co-op for you to join! To find out the answer to your question we checked in with the Gluten Free Warrior, Genevieve Sharrow MS, CN, and asked her about her favorite gluten free (GF) friendly eating spots in South Philly. Geneveive suggests: B2 has GF bread for sandwiches P.O.P.E. also has GF rolls/bread for burgers and such and their menu is relatively GF Adobe Mexican Cafe is GF friendly Cantina Los Caballitos is also GF friendly Also, several member-owners have said good things about the new bakery called "TOTÉ" on 9th street in the Italian market. If you are interested in learning more about a GF eating or want to meet up with other GF folks, check out the local GF MeetUp Group. Check back regularly for more From Our Inbox featured questions.

Our website is just full of all kinds of good information including a list of eventsthat the Co-op will either be hosting or participating in. In fact, coming up in the next few weeks we have:

• QOTA fundraiser at Paradiso, Wednesday, March 21 (TOMORROW!!!)
• Mushroom Log Workshop with Rich Meyers at Alison’s House, Sunday, April 1
• Join us at the Passyunk Gardens to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary with live music, raffles and an after-party at Devil’s Den, Saturday, April 28th
• LoMo Flea Market, Saturday, May 19
• General Membership Meeting at South Philadelphia Older Adult Center, Tuesday, May 22

Another cool feature of the Events page is that it also keeps a list of where we've been and what we've done that goes all the way back to December 2010 when we had that great fundraiser at the South Philadelphia Tap Room. It's a great way to look back and see all of the time, effort and energy that everyone involved with the Co-op has put in and remind you of just how quickly we've been able to pull this together. It also gives a nice guide if you happen to have a time machine and want to go back to one of these moments in Co-op history. Before you know it, we'll be at 250 Founding Members, looking for a location, and setting our next goal for the number of member-owners we'll need to open up shop! Of course, that time will go by even more quickly if you also check out our Membership page and our really handy online application.

Almost one year ago exactly we wrote about a congressional briefing being hosted by Congressman Chaka Fattah, whose district includes both Weavers Way and Mariposa co-ops. The briefing was prelude to a bill known as the National Cooperative Development Act (H.R. 3677) that Fattah introduced in mid-December and which has been cosponsored by Congressman Brady and Congresswoman Schwartz along with six other members of Congress. Full text of the bill can be found here. The bill, summed up nicely by The Campaign for Cooperation will:

• Provide loans and seed capital to groups who are attempting to form cooperatives;
• Award grants to nonprofit organizations, colleges, and universities so that they can provide technical assistance to operating cooperatives or groups that are attempting to form cooperatives;
• Provide guidance, information on best practices, and technical assistance to communities seeking to establish cooperatives;
• Provide funding for training of providers of technical assistance and supporting existing professional development training for organizations engaged in cooperative development;
• Establish cooperative development centers in areas that currently do not have them; and
• Authorize $25 million yearly for four years.

All over the world people are seeking alternatives to the system that enables corporate scandals and encourages greed. Because cooperatives are democratic and focus on member-owner needs rather than maximizing return for shareholders, they are perfectly situated to provide such an alternative. The National Cooperative Development Act is both an outgrowth of, and will help to support, this historic surge of interest in cooperatives as a means to build a better world. In case you don't remember what you learned in American Government back in high school, this bill still has a LONG way to go before it becomes law and will require the support of everyone in the country who would like to see the cooperative movement expand and thrive. One obstacle to overcome is getting companion legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate. So, Pennsylvanians, please contact Senators Casey and Toomey and ask them to introduce companion legislation for H.R. 3677 - the National Cooperative Development Act. Tell them it will be good for farmers (it will) and cities (it will). That pretty much covers all of PA right there. And if you happen to be reading this from a congressional district not covered by the 9 co-sponsors of the bill (which means you live in one of the 426 other districts), please contact your representative and ask him or her to sign onto Congressman Fattah's bill. To find out more about the legislation and how you can support its passage, visit www.campaign.coop.

It's spring, and there's no denying it. It's been spring pretty much since autumn, but now, for sure, it's spring. It's not just the short sleeves and outdoor dining that tells me, either, it's the new veggies and the flowering trees. So it celebrate this unexpected yet totally happening seasonal shift, I bought pea shoots.

Pea shoots are like sprouts, plus greens. Here's a bit more information on them, if you're up for that sort of thing.

I didn't go out looking for pea shoots, I actually went looking for flowers to plant. Because, you know, it's spring. We took our first trip out to this year's CSA, Greensgrow (three CSAs in three years!), and they had some veg for sale. They had some of the wintry veg I've become accustomed to in the past few months, but they also had scallions and pea shoots. I should have bought the scallions, they'd have gone great in this recipe, but at least I grabbed the pea shoots.

At lunch they were used in a salad and for the next night's dinner, they were the star of this stir fry. Also, yesterday's salad dressing became today's marinade. You know what we call that?

It's same dinner different day, because I made one sauce and used it two different ways. Salad dressing is marinade and marinade is salad dressing, it's just that sometimes I don't think of it. I always have some sort of homemade dressing on hand, but rarely do I do anything exciting with it other than top my greens.

The dressing in the spotlight today is the Ginger Peanut Salad Dressing that I first wrote about on Saturday's Mouse over the summer. This stuff is good, it's like the dressing of Japanese restaurants but not thick or clumpy like that can get, and with a bit of the richness of peanut butter. I'll include the recipe for that at the end, or you can click the link above for the step-by-step.

Since I already had a jar of the dressing in the fridge,

my first step was to drain the tofu. Even if you don't have the dressing ready to go in advance, drain your tofu now and make marinade later.

When I have fresh (unfrozen) tofu, I dry it out by cutting it into cubes and laying it out like this: cooling rack, towel, tofu, towel, heavy cutting board and then something heavy on top. So the tofu is under this green towel. When I freeze my tofu (and I'm all for freezing tofu), I just press the water out with my hands. Also, sometimes, I bake it at a low temperature to dry it, or dry fry it. Do whatcha need to do. Photos of a very similar layout a year ago, here.

Give the tofu a half-hour to drain like this, or drain it however you do it. While that was happening I cut up my veg; you might want to take this time to make the marinade.

I had those carrots in the freezer from when we talked about freezing carrots. This is a little bit less than a cup of blanched and defrosted carrots, diced.

Also mushrooms. In an ideal world, I'd have shiitakes on hand, or even white mushrooms, but that's not the case and you know, I really don't go out shopping and get all the exact right ingredients for each meal I make. I want to use what's in the fridge. So if you're making this fancy, get the shiitakes, but otherwise, hey, why not add that mushroom in the fridge?

So I cut up my portabella into small chunks. It's about a cup of chopped mushroom, whatever mushroom you use. Use more if your dining partner likes mushrooms as much as you do. Chop them smaller if he/she is less tolerant.

And I chopped up two garlic cloves and half a red onion. Again, scallions are ideal but we use what we have.

At this point I loaded the drained tofu into a take-out container and poured some dressing on top. Maybe three tablespoons?

And then I gave it a good shake to coat.

I left the tofu for half an hour to drink in the goodness of the dressing while I did other things.

After half an hour, I set some water to boil for noodles. Lots of times we have stir fries without rice or noodles, but when we do have a starch with our stir fry, I like to have it ready in advance so it can hop in the pan with the veg and sauce and take on some flavor. So I had some udon noodles boiling.

And from there, it happens pretty fast. It's a stir fry, after all.

I start with some mild oil - in this case, safflower, but use what you like. More than enough to coat the bottom of the pan, but not so much that your tofu is swimming. Bring the temperature up to a ripple and throw in the tofu. I did drain some of the marinade off the tofu first, and set the drippings aside.

I gave the tofu a good head start, about five minutes, moving it and flipping it, until it started to get golden and crispy, like this:

Then veg, in order of the time they'd need.

Onions first.

Then garlic and mushrooms.

Then carrots.

Pea shoots just need to wilt, they don't need much time at all. I added a bit more of the marinade/dressing/sauce. Maybe a quarter cup or so. Taste and see. And stirred everything around.

Then pea shoots.

And noodles.

Toss that around for a good minute to coat everything and wilt the shoots, and you're all set. Yesterday's salad dressing is today's marinade and it's tangy and garlic-ginger spicy and awesome.

*as always with my "vegan" recipes, do swap out the honey for something else that makes you happy.

These recipes are cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.

Ginger Peanut Stir Fry

Ingredients

• • 1 block Firm tofu, cubed and drained

 

• • 3 oz Pea shoots

 

• • 1 cup Carrots, blanched and diced

 

• • 1 cup Mushrooms, chopped

 

• • 1/4 cup Red onion (or scallion)

 

• • 2 cloves Garlic, chopped

 

• • 2 tablespoons mild oil (safflower, etc)

 

• • 1/2 cup (to taste) Ginger Peanut Dressing (recipe below)

 

• • 4 smaller servings Udon noodles or rice, cooked

Instructions

• • Marinate the drained tofu in 3 tablespoons of dressing for 30 minutes.

 

• • Heat oil to shimmering and drain tofu marinade (reserve for later).

 

• • Quickly fry tofu until just starting to brown around the edges.

 

• • Add veg in order of cooking time (onions, mushrooms & garlic, carrots, pea shoots.

 

• • Stir fry until veg are cooked but still crunchy. Add remaining dressing (to taste) and noodles or rice.

 

• • Serve hot, maybe with some red pepper flake if that's your thing.

Details

• • Prep time: 1 hour

 

• • Cook time: 10 mins

 

• • Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

 

• • Yield: 4 servings

Ginger Peanut Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• • 1/3 cup white onion, diced

 

• • 3 cloves garlic, minced

 

• • 3 tablespoons tamari or soy

 

• • 1 teaspoon creamy peanut butter

 

• • 1.5 teaspoons ginger, minced

 

• • 2 teaspoons honey

 

• • 2 teaspoons lemon juice

 

• • 1/3 cup rice vinegar

 

• • 1/3 cup mild oil

 

• • 1 tablespoon ketchup

 

• • 2 teaspoons water, as needed

Instructions

If using a blender (stick blender or regular) just mix it all together. If not, mince everything finely, add everything but the oil to a bowl and slowly stream in oil, whisking furiously. Sub honey for another sweetener to keep it vegan.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time:

Total time: 10 mins

Yield: about 1 1/4 cups

This is to let folks in the greater Philadelphia area know that a new non-profit, the Home Grown Institute, is organizing a 2-day "Springing Good Intentions Into Action" conference to be held at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (500 W Willow Grove Ave, Phila 19118) on March 24-25. The Saturday evening dinner program will feature information about the Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance and all the start-up efforts in the area followed by a presentation by Creekside Co-op in Elkins Park, which had its ground breaking on February 2. Below is a description of the conference. 50+ Hands-on Home-Scaled Sustainable Skills Workshops including:

• edible gardens,
• community and school gardens
• seed-saving, soil enrichment, 4-season harvest
• bees, chickens, worms (oh my!) and aquaponics
• food preservation, fermentation, mycology
• repurposing, upcycling, natural building

There will also be a fun, engaging and educational KIDS and TEEN program; a seed exchange and tool swap; a silent auction and awards reception; and a local, organic, seasonal Lunch. A detailed list of all the workshops can be found here. What's the catch? Well, I'm a little late in posting this and registration closes TODAY, March 19. So if you're interested, head over to their registration form to secure a ticket, ASAP. Tickets go for $99 for one day or $149 for both days. Saturday evening dinner reception is included in the price but if you just want to go to the reception, tickets for that are $18. For more information, contact [email protected]

I've had this sitting in my email inbox for just over a month and finally am getting around to sharing it. Co-op Board President Alison Fritz (full disclosure: my beloved wife) emailed it with the suggestion that each of these points would be great for talking about the Co-op and co-ops in general with people that we're trying to recruit as new members. So for all of our current members out there who are trying every day to get the Co-op to our first goal of 250 Founding Members (this link takes you to our new, easy-to-use online member-owner application!), feel free to commit these to memory as great little talking points for why a cooperative would be such a good thing to have in our neighborhood. In the near future we're hoping to compile a similar list that is more specific to the South Philly Food Co-op itself. (I don't want to promise that it will be a top 10 list, mostly because I don't want to limit us to just 10!) And please consider jumping over to Co-opoly's site and pick up one of these really cool Top 10 Reasons Co-ops Rock posters for yourself for just a $5 suggested price. It'll make me feel less bad for reprinting them in their entirety below. But you really should see them on the poster... very cool looking. So here they are.

1. Cooperatives are democratic businesses and organizations, equally owned and controlled by a group of people. There are worker co-ops, consumer co-ops, producer co-ops, financial co-ops, housing co-ops, and more. In a cooperative, one member has one vote.
2. Because cooperatives are democratically owned by community members, co-ops keep money (and jobs) in their communities.
3. Cooperatives aren’t a far off theory. Cooperatives offer achievable and practical solutions to many economic, environmental, and social problems that can be implemented right now.
4. Co-ops aren’t charity; they’re empowering means for self-help and solidarity.
5. Members of cooperatives equally share the burden in hard times and equally share the benefits in good times.
6. Cooperatives are more resilient in economic downturns and in impoverished communities. When other businesses may shut down or lay off workers, co-op members pull together to work out solutions.
7. Cooperatives are an international movement. There are thousands upon thousands of cooperatives around the world that are making major differences locally and globally.
8. Cooperatives strive to make people’s lives, communities, and economies more just, equitable, and democratic.
9. There’s no one right way to do a co-op. They can be flexible to fit different community and individual needs. There are big co-ops with thousands of members, and there are small co-ops with 3 members.
10. Cooperatives are viable and just alternatives for meeting our economic and social needs in contrast to corporations that exploit people and the planet.

This weekend is seed planting time!  Here's what I'm going to start with:

First off:  tomatoes!  I'm branching out a little this year and trying some different varieties.  My beefsteaks last year were very tasty but I definitely think they needed more space.  So these are all slightly smaller since I read quite a few things saying that smaller tomatoes need less growing space.  I never seem to eat cherry or grape tomatoes so we'll see how these work.  The Copia is orangey with stripes and the rest are red; I tried to pick ones from New Jersey or around this area because I figure if this is the climate they're used to then maybe they'll grow better?  Not that my tomatoes last year had any trouble growing...

Some other nightshades:  sweet yellow peppers and eggplant.  I don't actually like peppers but apparently they grow very well with tomatoes and I'm curious to see how they do.  And the eggplant, well, I didn't get even one eggplant from my Black Beauty eggplants last year so I decided to switch it up and try a different variety.  I'm not ready to give up on eggplant yet!

My two favorite herbs are thyme and basil and I already have mint and rosemary outside so together these make a pretty good herb garden.  I've never grown thyme before and it might be a little silly to grow from seed but I'm giving it a try.  And the basil is actually the same variety I grew last year.  It was so easy and I liked the taste of it so much that I'm growing it again!  I'm looking forward to more pesto so I can make my favorite sandwich in the world:  tomato, mozzarella and pesto.

And greens!  It's not really the right time to plant these - they don't like really hot weather so they do best in spring and fall - but they all grow fairly quickly (about a month and half or two months to harvest.)  And the thing with these greens is that it never hurts to pick them early to eat because baby spinach and baby arugula and baby lettuce are not only more adorable but often tastier.  These three are all from last year and I don't think that should be a problem but who knows.  Clearly if my seeds don't sprout I will blame it on that fact.

And that's enough to start!  I doubt I'll have much to show for a few weeks but we will see.  I remember being quite surprised at how quickly my seedlings appeared last year.

I'm not going to go out on a limb and say that just because you join the Co-op means that we'll bring thousands of new, well-paying jobs to South Philadelphia. But it is worth noting that the Co-op would be a piece of an overall food system puzzle in which the owners of the enterprise (you) place a value on supporting the other pieces of that puzzle, which themselves create and sustain good jobs all over the region.

I bring this up because of a recent Treehugger piece which made the point about the job creation power of small, family farms. In fact, the numbers on the return on investment on many different programs that support these kinds of farms are staggering. A program meant to help tobacco farmers transition to sustainable farming of more diversified agriculture "awarded $3.6 million in three years to 367 farmers, created 4,100 new jobs, and had an economic impact of more than $733 million."

As for the Co-op, it's important to remember that while large retailers have their ups and downs (and the downs are mostly suffered by the people at the bottom of their organizational charts), a Co-op can be a more resilient business model because the member-owners come together in times of trouble to see the Co-op through until the economy picks up again. And now, while we're just starting to come out of  some pretty big economic trouble, wouldn't it be good to be prepared for the next downturn?

(Join the Co-op today... we've made it easy with our new online form.)