Year-end inventory will be on Monday, January 2nd, 2012, starting at 10 AM and continuing until we’re done. All members are warmly encouraged to come and help out for any length of time they can, starting whenever they can. You know the saying:

“Many hands make lighter work!”

Let’s kick off the New Year in the spirit of cooperation — 2012 is, after all, the International Year of Co-operatives!

Tell all your friends: “Hey, did you know there’s a natural food co-op in London Ontario that’s been around for 41 years now? It’s one of the oldest food co-ops in Ontario! Check it out at LondonFoodCoop.org and in person at 621 Princess Ave, just east of Adelaide.”

If you’re not already a member, come and do a trial shop to see what a great place this is to shop for all your organic, natural, fair trade, eco-friendly, socially responsible, healthy foods, household cleaners, and health and beauty products. In the process, you’ll discover that we’re also a friendly community of people who care about the kinds of things that really matter, and take to heart our motto:

Food for People. Not for Profit.

If you’d like to support their development efforts and their ability to produce it, please consider making a donation to the Co-opoly project through Kickstarter (ends October 3rd). Or, if you are a co-op or organization rather than an individual, you can sponsor the project directly on their website and receive proportionate benefits at various levels of sponsorship (ends November 1st).

The current version of the game is about worker co-operatives, but they have plans to create new card-packs for other versions later. The board will remain the same, so these would be add-on packs of cards tailored to the different kinds of co-ops: consumer co-ops, grocer cooperatives (a.k.a. food co-ops — like The London Co-op Store!), multi-stakeholder (“hybrid”) co-ops, social co-ops, housing co-ops, student co-ops, etc.

The game is designed by The Toolbox for Education and Social Action. They also created a wiki-type site about co-operatives called Cultivate.Coop. Great resources!

And what a great resource Co-opoly appears to be, for learning more about the challenges and rewards and benefits of co-operatives! Check it out!

Ingredients:

• 1 c. cooked, mashed sweet potato
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 1 cup almond meal
• ½ cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
• 1/8 t. salt
• 4 eggs
• 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
• 2Tbsp. soy milk
• 1- 9 inch Spring form pan, greased & floured

Preheat oven to 375

• blend mashed sweet potato with 1 cup sugar, almond meal, cocoa & salt until smooth.
• separate 3 eggs
• beat egg whites until they stand in soft peaks
• add the rest of the sugar (1/2 cup)
• beat until egg whites are stiff
• add 3 egg yolks & 1 whole egg into sweet potato mixture
• fold beaten egg whites into mixture
• bake 45 minutes
• cool 10 minutes
• melt chocolate
• stir in soy milk & mix
• spread over torte
• allow chocolate to harden…

ENJOY!

It’s still pretty new, so they’re still building the directory of London resources that can help you live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. If you know of a business, co-op, or organization that would qualify, please let them know about it.

You’ll find their list of eligibility criteria in the FAQ section. Among other things, it includes offering a product or service that is any of the following:

• certified organic, fair trade, recycled, or energy star rated
• a non-toxic alternative to conventional choices/options
• putting local suppliers first

Sound familiar? That’s why you’ll find The London Co-op Store listed in the ecoLiving London directory — we’re in the non-profit category.

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism.

You can get a free non-GMO shopping guide here but basically, if you’re buying organic, you’re buying non-GMO. And that’s good because there is evidence that genetically modified crops can have serious health effects. The same website that has the non-GMO shopping guide also has an article on Why you should avoid GMOs.

They also link to a list of 65 health risks of GM foods, from Jeffrey Smith’s book Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods.

Dr. Mercola has an interview with Jeffrey Smith and, in his own comments, talks about the fact that GM foods are banned in Europe and encourages everyone to help make that happen in North America as well.

The London Co-op Store carries non-GMO foods.

From 2 pm to 9 pm, right at the Co-op store, we’ll be celebrating our 40th anniversary with lots of fun stuff:

• Fabulous food for every taste
• Live music
• Historical photo display
• Guest speaker
• Great conversation

A time to celebrate our past, present, and future.

2:00 p.m.

Open House with food and music. Bring your friends, neighbours, past members.

5:00 p.m.

Presentation by Sally Miller, author of Edible Action.

to 9:00 p.m.

More taste sensations, music from members, and celebration of our great Co-op!

RSVP so we know how much food to make!

What is most interesting and surprising about sprouts is how high they are in protein, vitamins and minerals. During the sprouting process itself, vitamin B miraculously increases 600%, vitamin E is tripled, vitamin C increases sixfold, and protein level increases. Thus, the sprouts are more nutritious than the seed or bean that produced them. For example, broccoli sprouts have many times more of cancer fighting compounds than the vegetable broccoli. These sprouts are also helpful for stomach ulcers, for lowering bad cholesterol, and increasing good cholesterol.

Our Co-op is currently stocking fresh pea sprouts and broccoli sprouts. When you cut them for use, if you leave some leaves at the bottom and water them daily, new shoots will appear that can be harvested in several days. Sprouts can be used in salads, sandwiches, juices, omelettes, breads, and as a snack. The larger, bean sprouts can be used in casseroles, soups, and granola.

Because of the rich nutrients in sprouts, they are an excellent addition to breads. Sprouted breads have no salt, oil fats, yeast, or artificial sweeteners. They are high in protein and fiber, are low glycemic, and gluten-free. At the Co-op we are fortunate to have three brands of sprouted breads: Ezekiel hamburger buns, many varieties of Manna bread (e.g., multigrain, rye, date and cinnamon, fruit and nut, carrot and raisin, millet and rice), and Genesis 1:29 bread. This amazing bread is made from sprouts of these grains and seeds: teff, quinoa, barley, brown rice, spelt, amaranth, soy, flax, rye, corn, kamut, millet, sorghum, sesame, pumpkin, wheat, and sunflower.

Another interesting sprouted product at the Co-op is brown rice protein powder (plain and vanilla) from Heartland. It is made entirely from organic non-GMO sprouted brown rice protein that has a complete array of essential and nonessential amino acids. It is free of gluten, soy, and lactose. As a vegetarian, I find that one scoop in my morning juice every day keeps me from experiencing protein “lows.” One scoop contains 16 grams of protein and 40% of the daily iron requirement. So, I encourage you to try one or more of these sprouted products the next time you are in the store.

Anne Cummings for
Provisions Committee

We also share the values of environmental responsibility. It’s an enormous part of what makes The London Co-op Store what it is; for instance, a place to buy eco-friendly cleaning products — which we carried way before the supermarkets jumped on the Green bandwagon!

And, of course, there is always the environmentally friendly aspect of pesticide-free, organically grown fruits and vegetables, which we carry both for the sake of our human health and for the sake of the planet.

Come and visit us during store hours and see for yourself why it’s always Earth Day at The London Co-op Store!

One of her posts is about co-ops, and of course she mentions the food co-op as one of the ones she belongs to — and has very actively contributed to! (She was recently on our board of directors.) You can read that post here:

http://earthmagic101.blogspot.com/2010/03/co-ops.html

Great start, Becky!

Marian