Soup Makings and Organic Chicken!

We are so excited to get organic whole chickens at the Mercantile! But first… the weekly Danzeisen order reminder and update!

Peach Milk!

Jeff from the dairy says they will soon transition from Peach Milk to BANANA MILK! Banana Milk was the first seasonal milk we had at the Merc a year ago and I’m sure fans are anxiously awaiting its return. But I’m jumping the gun. Banana isn’t here yet. The point of this paragraph is to let you know Peach Milk is in its final weeks, so get it while you can.

What’s Cookin’!

Thursday after delivery, Emily shared this photo of their lunch featuring Merc foods: Valente Spinach Linguine, Coffee Pot Farms fresh Spinach, Danzeisen cream, plus butter and garlic. She said the kids devoured it! Thanks for sharing the photo. We love seeing what people make with our goods!

New Stuff!

We’ve been busy finding new products for the Merc—like high-quality tuna, and chips cooked in 100% olive oil, and new pastas (including the elusive Bucatini we mentioned on Facebook). To keep this email succinct, we’ve put new stuff in one category on the store. Oh, and if you see something that strikes your fancy, you don’t have to wait until Thursday. Most of our market items (other than Danzeisen) are available throughout the week, just mention a time and day when you place the order.

New Quality Goods!

And now to the Chicken. This week, it’s all about chicken. I don’t know about you, but stormy weather always makes me crave soup. A couple weeks ago, we got two Frontier Soup mixes, a Connecticut Cottage Chicken Noodle and an Arizona Sunset Enchilada soup—both with all natural ingredients and no unnecessary additives.

Frontier Soups - Connecticut Cottage Chicken Noodle

To make the soup, you need chicken stock and cooked chicken. We have a couple options on the stock, but first, here’s what we did at the MPM Test Kitchen.

Using homemade stock and leftover roast chicken, we made the Connecticut Noodle. It was fantastic! Perfectly seasoned, great ingredients, and it made A LOT of soup. Brian and I ate this over three meals (including seconds for both of us so it indeed is about 8 as the label reads). You can eat as is, or garnish as we did with a dollop of sour cream and chopped Coffee Pot Farms Spinach (available again this week!).

Pre-Made Stock

If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own stock, we now carry a chicken stock with clean ingredients! Most store bought is loaded with bad stuff including MSG, (which can hide under different names like yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein, or “natural flavorings.”) Not this Pacific Organic Chicken stock.

INGREDIENTS: WATER, CHICKEN, ONIONS, CARROTS, CELERY, SEA SALT, ROSEMARY EXTRACT.

The box is a four-cup serving. The soup mix requires six, so if you’re making the soup, you’ll need two of these. You can either add it all to make even more soup, or freeze to use in something else later.

Organic Chicken Stock - Pacific Natural Foods

If you want to make YOUR OWN stock we will now have…

Whole Organic Chickens!

Last week we had a great conversation with Joe Palmisano, co-owner of Peddler’s Son, the distribution company that brings Danzeisen to Winslow. He told us about Mary’s Organic Chickens. The Mary behind Mary’s chickens has sensitivities to food additives (like me) so they don’t pump their chickens full of saline nor hormones nor other junk we shouldn’t be ingesting. Plus, they are humanely raised.
“Mary’s name is on these chickens because they are raised the old fashioned way. Healthy for the chickens and for the people who eat them!”

You should absolutely watch this video about their farm. This is the kind of farm and the kind of people I want to buy meat from.

The 3-4 pound chickens range between $11.97 and $15.96 depending on bird size. They will be delivered fresh this Thursday. After Thursday, they will be frozen. So if you want to skip thawing, this week is your chance!

If you’ve never roasted a chicken nor made stock before, have no fear. It’s one of the easiest things you can do. Seriously. And one of the most rewarding. We have an in-progress site for the MPM Test Kitchen where we will post recipes and cooking techniques. Click the button below to see how we roast our chicken!