IT'S THANKSGIVING TURKEY TIME!
Need a
turkey for Thanksgiving this year? Triple S Farm supplies us with heritage breed Broad-Breasted Bronze turkeys raised on organic pasture without any hormones and antibiotics.
Save $0.50/lb when you order by November 18th and take pie and holiday coupons home!
Anyone who pre-orders a turkey by November 11th will be entered into the drawing to get their turkey to be FREE!
To pre-order your turkey, you can fill out a form
online
or at the registers. We require a $20 deposit on any order.
All turkeys are kept frozen as per state regulations, so you can select a pickup day that works best for your schedule.
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NOV 23:THANKSGIVING MENU IN THE DELI
Our Thanksgiving Bar at the Deli will be back on November 23rd, starting at 11 am. We will fill our Salad Bar with house-made Thanksgiving dishes for all to enjoy. Microwave and freezer safe containers will be available to gather what you need for the holiday.
The menu is made from scratch using organic ingredients. We'll have many vegan and wheat-free items to meet your dietary needs. Let us
make it easy to prepare for the holidays!
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ART GALLERY RECEPTION & KIDS ART EVENT
Save the date! Friday, November 18th, from 5-7pm, we will host a gallery reception for Lara and Arlin Orr and including kid-friendly art activities and free food to all that come! Wine will also be available for adults.
The artistic collaboration between Lara and Arlin (mother and son) inspired us to unite more families together to make artwork. We will have an assortment of watercolors, colored pencils, pens, crayons, or stamps made from root vegetables. What's better than enjoying good food, local artists of all ages, and creating artwork!
For more information on Lara and Arlin Orr, check their artist profile and Lara's
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PIEVEMBER: PIE, HARD CIDER, AND CHAIDER SAMPLING
This First Friday, November 4th, stop by from 4:30-8:00pm and enjoy some delicious holiday samples including:
-New! Chocolate Pecan Pie
-Apple Pie
-Pumpkin Pie
-Wheat-free, Vegan Pumpkin Pie
-House-made Chaider (Deli Chai steamed with Local Curtis Apple Orchard Cider)
-Assorted Hard Ciders (must be 21 years or older)
Gear up for the holidays and enjoy free tastings! Check out other happenings in downtown Urbana for
Imbibe Urbana's First Friday celebration. Full maps are available in store or on Imbibe Urbana's Facebook page.
Map courtesy of Imbibe Urbana.
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HOLIDAY CHEESE PLATTERS
Need recommendations for your holiday cheese platter? These five cheeses would do the trick!
Honey Bee Goat Gouda, a six month aged Gouda, with pasteurized goat milk and honey that holds its own with a sweet, nutty flavor profile. Denser than most Goudas, we recommend letting it sit out of the fridge for at least 20 minutes before serving. Perfect with assorted crackers!
Ludwig Sangamon Double Cream, named after the Illinois River, is a local artisan cheese from Ludwig Creamery located in Fithian, IL. This cheese is made with day-fresh cow milk combined with heavy cream to give it a smooth
buttery flavor. Perfect for snacking, it also melts and grates well on top of dishes.
Red Dragon Mustard Seed Cheddar, is a rich cheddar cheese that is made with Welsh brown ale and whole mustard seeds. It is soft enough to spread onto a cracker or on bread! This cow milk cheddar has been aged for three months and is pleasantly tangy. This cheese contains gluten from the brown ale.
Prairie Fruits Farm Magia Negra, is a new cheese! Made with raw goat milk, this cheese is similar to Manchego, makes it perfect for grating or crumbling on salad or pairing with fresh fruit. This cheese has been rubbed with currant paste, adding a nice burgundy rind and aged for 2 months.
Organic Mt. Tam Cowgirl Creamery
, this certified organic cow milk cheese is deliciously rich, spreadable, and incredibly buttery. It has a bloomy rind and has been aged for 3 weeks. It can be served with baguettes, fig jam, dates, or on crackers. Melt it in a cast iron pan for something magnificent. We recommend setting this cheese out on the counter for 20 minutes before serving.
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150 ITEMS ON CO+OP BASICS
Co-op Basics is a list of household staple items that Common Ground offers to everyone at an everyday low price. We have updated the list with over 150 products including pantry items, grains, baby food, wellness products, protein-rich foods, vegetables and fruits, dairy, sauces, drinks, snacks, and recycled paper products!
Check out the new list of items that will help you with your grocery budget just in time for the holiday season. You can find copies in the aisles of our store.
How low are the prices on Co-op Basics items? Low enough that as we are updating our Food For All Recipes, many of them are coming in at the same prices they were in 2011! You can find Food For All recipes on the wall across from the Grab and Go Deli Case.
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KRISTIN WALTERS: CO-OP OWNERSHIP STORY
I was not an owner of Common Ground for the first year I shopped here. I didn't see the point-there were great foods, smiles and deals for everyone, not just owners. But my eventual decision for ownership changed my perspective (and professional life!) and I am now on Common Ground's Board.
What were my initial, silly concerns? That ownership at an organic food market would immediately make me a hippie. (Ok, that didn't happen.) That I wouldn't remember my owner number at check out (Guess what? The changemakers can look it up...) And most importantly, that the sixty-dollar owner investment would take away from my Kombucha fund! (Ok, but my investment keeps Kombucha within walking distance of my house...)
After about a year of me saying, "No, I don't have an owner number", a cheery changemaker at checkout asked if I wanted to become an owner, and I shockingly said yes. Kombucha and my favorite chocolate had been on sale, so I was maybe in a gratitude delirium. Or maybe my daily visits to the CGFC (mornings for oatmeal, midday for soup or pizza, evenings for wine, etc.) had confirmed the store's dedication to its customers and to its ends, and this finally meant something to me. The positive attitude from staff, the countless educational opportunities, the constant research and promotion of locally produced products, these were things I certainly wanted to support.
Once I became an owner, I felt generous, sure, but then an unexpected sense of empowerment flooded me as well. I read the newsletters more closely, paid attention to owner appreciation events, smiled at every staff member I could catch because I was now a committed member of this community and I had the power to bring more positivity and change. That simple "yes" I said years ago has gotten me more and more involved in the coop, and now I sit as one of the new members of the board, ready to envision and manifest new avenues for our community's growth. Thank you to the CGFC community (owners or not!). Let's make great things happen, together, every day.
-Kristin Walters, Common Ground, Board Member
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YOUR INPUT IS INVALUABLE
As always, there's a lot going on at the Co-op. We're busy preparing for the holiday season, making operational plans and budgets for 2017, and talking about all of the ways we can better serve you, our customers and owners! One of the ways we hope to do this is by hearing more about the products you want us to carry. In our September newsletter I mentioned that we are working on an in-store product input project and in November you will see this come to fruition. Every week will be posting a product-related question on an easel in the entrance of the store and next to it will be a place for you to write your responses. It will be a very easy way for anyone who wants to give input on our product mix to do so and it will be easy for us to formally collect information without overwhelming surveys. We will be asking questions such as, "What is a product we used to carry that you wished we would bring back?" or "What's your favorite cereal?" We really look forward to hearing from you as we make plans for our product selection for 2017.
On that same note, I really want to thank all of you who have taken the time to write us a comment, fill out a product recommendation, interact with us on social media, send myself or other managers emails about your experiences at Common Ground, or even stopped a staff member to talk in person. You are an invaluable source of feedback to us and we love hearing what you like about our work and what you wish we would improve. Our purpose is to serve you and our community better and you help us every day in fulfilling that goal. Please feel free to always reach out to me about any of your Co-op needs at [email protected].
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Thanks for reading our newsletter!
This offer can only be used once per owner and is valid only during the first two weeks of November. It can be printed or presented on smart device at time of purchase. Limit one coupon per customer. Applies to all store items besides those that are on sale or considered Co-op Basics.
Common Ground Food Co-op
300 S. Broadway Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801
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Click the links below for Co+op Deals for October!
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First Fridays-Pievember Sampling
Friday Nov. 4th, 4:30-8pm, Pie tasting and Chaider (chai+ apple cider) sampling
Thanksgiving Turkey Preorders
Pre-order forms due by Nov. 18th.
Be entered to win a free turkey if order is in by Nov. 11th.
Coffee with the Board
Saturday Nov. 12th, 10-12pm, Flatlander Classroom
Board Meeting
Monday Nov. 14th,
6:15-8:15pm, Lincoln Square Conference Center
Common Ground Toddler Time
Tuesday, Nov. 15th, 10:30-11:00am, Flatlander Classroom
Art Gallery Reception & Kids Art Event
Friday Nov. 18th, 5-7pm, Flatlander Classroom. An gallery reception for Lara and Arlin Orr and kids art event.
Wellness Wednesday
Wednesday Nov. 30th, all day, enjoy 10% any Wellness item
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This month we cooperatively raised $4,200.00 to Books to Prisoners!
Want to volunteer to strengthen Books to Prisoners? Find info
here.
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The Wesley Evening Food Pantry
November is dedicated to Wesley Food Pantry, a local food pantry that works hard to distribute groceries to neighbors in need. They are considered a "Choice Food Pantry" that allows clients to take items that prefer.
They promote child literacy by donating books to families and are committed to strengthening food security in the Champaign area.
Please contact them for more information.
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Quick Recipe
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1 tsp grated orange zest
-1 cup orange juice
- 1/2 tsp grated ginger root
-12 oz fresh cranberries
Directions
In a saucepan, combine sugar, orange zest, orange juice and ginger root and heat for one minute or until the sugar completely dissolves. Add cranberries and cook for five minutes until the outer cranberry skin start to break.
Set aside in glass bowl to cool. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
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Housemade Hot Chaider
(Chai + Apple Cider)
The Deli is bringing back some favorite this November!
We have Hot Apple Chaider (a blend of our house-made Chai and Curtis Orchard's Apple Cider) and a Toasted Turkey and Cranberry Sandwich (featuring Ropp Cheddar and house-made cranberry sauce).
Look for some new specialty cheeses such as a Winter Spiced Gouda and Reading Raclette from Spring Brook Farm. November is also Turkey Month in the meat department. We will have a number of items including the wonderful heritage breed turkeys from Triple S Farms.
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Make Your Own Herb Butter
Herb Butters look fancy but are incredibly simple to make! During the holidays when you have extra herbs around the house, use the leftovers and combine with softened butter.
Mince any fresh or dried herbs with any softened butter and put on:
-sandwiches
-side with roasted vegetables
-toast or pancakes
-simple pasta sauce
-seasoned rub for meats
Tasty Combinations
-Herbes De Provence
-Thyme and Rosemary
-Smoked Paprika and Fennel Seed
-Cilantro and Green Onion
-Cinnamon and Nutmeg
-Dill, Lemon, and Parsley
-Tarragon and Garlic
-Coriander and Cumin
-Black Pepper and Marjoram
Store the butter in a sealed container in the fridge or place onto plastic wrap and roll butter into a log shape.
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AMARA YOGA &
CO-OP COLLABORATION
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Owners Get Discount on Kids Yoga & Art Classes
Amara Yoga & Arts has a deal for all Co-op Owners who bring their kids to the Saturday and Sunday classes! Kids will do yoga and make artwork together!
Enjoy $20 OFF 6 Kids sessions when you tell them you are an Common Ground owner!
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Did you garden this year?
Did you have any potted vegetables or care for a garden this summer?
UIUC students are asking the local community to complete a quick survey about your gardening experiences this past year. They are conducting this study to collect more knowledge of how to incorporate more gardening opportunities for the Champaign-Urbana neighborhoods.
The survey takes up to five minutes. You can access it
here
!
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Brad Thomas, A Local Egg Supplier from Monticello, IL
Some staff visited Thomas Farm in Monticello, IL last week to check out the chicken farm he has on his 1 acre property. They had a blast learning where the hens live and how they are cared for.
Brad Thomas showed us around his farm, through the hops yard, koi pond, bee hives, rain water collection shed, and through all of the chicken coops.
For a virtual tour of the farm, please check out our
website!
Look out for Thomas Farm eggs in our dairy section and help support this local farmer!
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Would You Like A Personal Tour?
New to the Co-op and want to be more familiar? Sign up for a personal tour where we can guide you through the tastiest products, our education programs, co-op and owner deals, and local food buying practices.
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