This Sunday, the 5th of July, is Customer Appreciation Day here at the Shelburne Supermarket. Stop in the store and receive a free copy of the Burlington Free Press. This is only while supplies last, but we are going to be receiving vastly more papers than usual, so, you know, come get one. See you on Sunday!

Nozia mwuliko,
Kyle

A little while back, I wrote about a few great things associated with Summertime. However, I left out an incredibly significant subject. Local Produce!

As we get further into the summer, every day seems to bring with it fresh, delicious produce from local farms. Here are some of our local producers and the great products they have arriving in our store.

Stony Loam Farm- This farm, just next door to us in Charlotte, offers some of the best lettuce you’ll find.
Lewis Creek Farm - From Starksboro, this farm offeres baby spinach, (adult?) spinach, scallions, & radishes.
Britante’s -  Amazing strawberries and rhubarb from down Colchester way.
Arethusa Collective Farm - Fresh kale, romaine, mesclun, zucchini & summer squash.
Rockville Mountain Farm -Another great source for succulent strawberries.
Pleasant Hill - Out of Cornwall, this farm offers zucchini, summer squash, and you guessed it, yummy strawberries.

That is just a sampling of what we have to offer in our fresh produce section. Come by and see what local delights we have today. And don’t forget, soon enough, that local corn will be showing up. If you’re anything like me, your August diet consists of corn with a side of corn.

Kapa ga nossa,
Kyle

This coming Saturday is Independence Day, but don’t worry, we won’t be closing up shop early or anything. We will be open our regular hours, all day from 8am to 8pm.

Rhonanai,
Kyle

Every once in a while, an young, eager publisher tries to one-up his competition by going to the presses a bit early, and publishing a headline he feels will be accurate, only to find out in dismay that it is not only inaccurate, but completely wrong. Take the April 15, 1912 headline from the Christian Science Monitor that read “Passengers Safely Moved and Steamer Titanic Taken in Tow.” Pretty darn incorrect, huh? And let’s not forget quite possibly the most famous example of this, from the November 3, 1948 issue of the Chicago Tribune, reading “Dewey Defeats Truman.” Sorry Dewey, no dice.

Well, sadly you can now add my name to that unfortunate list. I wrote on the blog last week that our Thursday afternoon sampling station would not be operating over the next couple weeks. A few hours after publishing that entry, I was sauntering toward the back of the store, and what did I find? You guessed it, samples. Now, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t strongly consider blaming this on someone else and perhaps saying something like, “Hey, Justin told me there would be no samples and this is clearly entirely his fault.” But I am not going to stoop that low. I don’t want to be the kind of person that is remembered for blaming his mistakes on someone else and claiming such outrageous statements as “Justin deliberately did this to harm my credibility.” That would be wrong and petty.

So, the samples are back, or rather never left and will continue into the foreseeable future. The one part of it that is actually changing is that the sample day will be changing from Thursday to Wednesday, so adjust your schedules accordingly. I hope you accept my humble apology and do not question the accuracy of our blog in the future. Have a good one!

Hoi,
Kyle

ps. Justin’s fault.

Hey all,

So, you know how we have free samples of delicious dishes every Thursday? Yea, well, you won’t find them here over the next couple of weeks. Nothing to worry about. We are just dealing with a few logistical problems associated with the samples. Vague enough for you? They’ll be back in a couple weeks. We apologize!

Tschau,
Kyle

Hey Everyone,

How’s it going? You must accept my apologies about the fact that I have not posted in a number of days. It’s been so beautiful out that I have found it difficult to focus on anything else. I’m sure you know the feeling. Seeing as we live in Vermont and therefore get roughly 9.25 days of sunshine, it is imperative that you get outside and enjoy them whenever possible.

Since (as of Sunday) Summer is officially here and (as of February) you’ve been eagerly awaiting its arrival, it is just about time you started reveling in its splendor. This means engaging in all of those supremely important summertime activities.

Firstly, grilling. I almost made this the only point, because let’s face it, there are few human experiences that live up to the absolute elation associated with grilling. And, to be fair, this isn’t only for the carnivores out there. There are many things that are improved by the addition of a grill. Tofu? Not really my thing, but grill it and it becomes remarkably tolerable. Veggies? I’m really unsure as to why vegetables are ever not grilled (Corn on the grill = better than breathing). So, whatever your dietary inclination, come on by the store and pick up the perfect juicy steak, or crisp vegetable, or (spongy?) tofu and use it to rationalize to your spouse why you bought that $1200 grill.

Next, cold beverages. This has two important parts. First, beer. Oh, sweet beer. Cracking open an ice cold beer on a sunny afternoon or evening is easily on par with winning the Iditarod Great Sled Race. Trust me, as a three-time champion, I can confirm this (Editor’s Note: lies). When the humidity here in Vermont starts creeping up on 213%, as it often does, there are few things that cool you off as nicely. Except of course, for Iced Coffee. Coffee is already, as I consider it, the lifeblood that keeps the Earth alive. When combined with sunshine and ice cubes, it becomes something so exceptional that I struggle to find an appropriate adjective (Scrumtrulescent?). Our store is packed to the gills with great summertime brews and superlative local javas. Have a nice refreshing beverage while grilling! As if I needed to tell you that.

Lastly, have some fun out there already! Play some games! Come pick up a Whiffle Ball set (my personal favorite) and start some impromptu games. Trust me, whether they admit it or not, everyone enjoys Whiffle Ball. If not, come peruse our gift department. We have all sorts of treasures hidden away in there, guaranteed to get people excited to play.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to try to get out of work early and enjoy some beautiful day. I hope you are doing the same!

Oriti,
Kyle

By now, you are probably used to coming in on a Thursday afternoon and indulging in Frank’s weekly sampling. Well, sadly, today will be Frank’s last time running the sample table. Frank will be leaving our store for position elsewhere. So, stop in, have a sample, give Frank a pat on the back and a “fare thee well.” We’ll miss him.

Oh, don’t worry, the weekly samples will continue. I was more worried about that too.

Syva pul,
Kyle

We are going to be hosting an In-Store beer tasting tomorrow, Friday, the 12th of June, from 3:30pm until 6:00pm. Come on by.

Hatahana,
Kyle

I have some unfortunate news today. For awhile now, we have been collecting all kinds of plastic bottle caps and recycling them through the AVEDA company. Until they began their program, recycling plastic caps was very difficult in this area and they were likely just to end up in a landfill. Well, sadly, that might again be the case, as the AVEDA company is discontinuing their plastic bottle cap recycling program. Apparently the program became too large and too popular for their current business model to handle.

So, until further notice, we are no longer collecting plastic caps. We are attempting to find an alternative recycling program, but with little luck thus far.

If you are bored, call AVEDA and complain. I know I’m going to.

Khush,
Kyle

I wanted to take this opportunity to continue my never-ending push for people to adopt the use of cloth and canvas shopping bags. It’s not news. Plastic and paper grocery bags are not great for our environment. Paper bags add to global deforestation and plastic bags contribute to our dependence on petroleum products. Sure, both types are recyclable, but recycling itself require energy resources.

Why not switch to reusable canvas and cloth bags? They’re much stronger than paper or plastic bags, most are completely leak proof, and they are much more attractive than regular bags. Still on the fence? Did you know that a single reusable bag could eliminate more than 1,000 grocery bags in its lifetime? Well, it can. 

Plus, who uses just a single bag, right? Let’s say you are a paper user and your average grocery shopping require three bags. With three reusable bags, you are eliminating the need for 3,000 paper bags. Considering that the production of a single paper bag requires 2511 BTUs of energy. Thus, getting rid of 3,000 bags saves 7,533,000 BTUs of energy. Not too shabby, right?

Being a good conservationist, you likely recycle. However, recycling bags takes energy as well. Recycling a single paper bag requires another 1444 BTUs of energy. So, even if you were to recycle those 3,000 bags, you’d still be using another 4,332,000 BTUs of energy, making the combined total energy required equal 11,865,000 BTUs. That’s a lot of energy that could be easily eliminated by using reusable bags.

That is all, thanks for listening.

Mantiox,
Kyle