New goods including Black Garlic and French Cookie Bars!

I’m writing to you this Sunday morning from our house near Joshua Tree National Park in California. Brian is holding down the fort in Winslow while I take a little R&R. It’s been more than a year since I’ve been here, and I’d forgotten how peaceful this place is. This is my view while sipping Joshua Tree Coffee with Danzeisen Cream. Pretty spectacular. Okay…. now onto the goods.

What’s Cookin’!

As you by now know, Brian and I love spending time in the kitchen. Our goal in 2021 is to continue finding interesting products to cook with, like…

Black Garlic

I read about Black Garlic on a food blog a while back. The description intrigued me. By fermenting the garlic, you get a sweeter, milder flavor. Plus, it’s loaded with health benefits including quadruple the amount of antioxidants compared to regular garlic. While cruising one of our wholesale specialty food sites, I ran across Texas Black Gold Garlic. We, of course, had to take it to the Merc Test Kitchen.

The garlic is soft and practically falls out of the skin—no wrestling to get it free. The taste is balsamic-like. When I cut off a raw chunk and extended it toward Brian his face twisted like a two-year-old. I finally convinced him to give it a taste and he agreed it was delicious. 

For our test kitchen dish, we sautéed three cloves of the black garlic in butter and added some cubed chicken breast, oregano, and basil. Once the chicken browned, we sprinkled in Danzeisen cream, crisped Beeler’s bacon, and chopped Coffee Pot Farms spinach. Next into the pan, our pre-cooked La Fabbricca gluten-free spaghetti. We topped the plated pasta with fresh Parmesan. Not to brag, but it tasted like a pasta dish you’d get at a high-end restaurant. 
This black garlic would also be terrific in salad dressing or anywhere you want a sweeter, less pungent garlic.

CPF Spinach!

Not only is this spinach from local growers Coffee Pot Farms great sautéed (as we did in the above dish and in the Frittata we posted on the Facebook group), it also makes a terrific salad.

We’re not exaggerating when we say this is truly exceptional spinach. Hearty, dark green, and sweet. One customer who ordered last week contacted us and said, “We would like to subscribe. Count us in whenever you get more.”Available again this week and through Spring, 1/4 pound and 1/2 pound bunches! We also have CPF eggs.

THE TROUBLEMAKERS OF TASTE

Michel and Augustin have been pals since middle-school. The only thing exceeding their love of fun is their love of butter (of course, they’re French). This passion led them to say au revoir to their business suits in 2004 and set out on an adventure to make the best cookies in Paris using simple, quality ingredients—like butter. Lots of BUTTER! 

Now available at the Merc, three varieties of their cookie bars: Hazelnut, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, and Milk Chocolate Caramel. Each bar includes four shortbread squares filled with soft chocolate.

Restocked!

Back in stock, our favorite no-MSG plain summer sausage and spicy summer sausage.

We also got a fresh shipment of Epic Fine Chocolates Arizona Desert Tortoise available in singles or a no-frills 12 pack flexi tray.

If you’ve been missing the Vesper Brother’s Pasta sauces and chili, so have we! We are in process of getting a much bigger shipment and should have it soon. Stay tuned!

Other New Stuff

Arriving this week, some all natural soup mixes, some great seasoning blends, and some really special cheese! Keep your eyes peeled for more on those.

Easter Hams!

Milkman Brian is “totally stoked” about the idea of getting his favorite food at the Merc—HAM. After another fun conversation with Julie Beeler about motorcycles and bacon, we learned more about the special hams they’ll have available for Easter. We’re still working on the details, but we should be able to order both Beeler’s bone-in hams and boneless spiral cut hams. As with all Beeler’s products—like the new ribs we introduced last week, the ever-popular bacon, and the tenderloins—the quality of their ham is exceptional. We’ll have more information about pricing soon, but If you’re interested in pre-ordering a ham, let us know by responding to this email so we can start building a list. Their special order window opens the end of January.

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And there it is! This week’s update!

Get your dairy orders in by 9 pm Monday 1/11 for Thursday 1/14 delivery!

If you’ve already sent your order or have a standing order……you’re all good. If you haven’t ordered or want to add to your order, you can do so by clicking the link below. If you use the order form, we have moved it to the online store so everything is in one place. Click the “Go to MPM Market” button below then scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll find the order form.