On Friday, August 4th our team headed north to visit two manufacturing facilities of HP Hood.  Hood has been a strategic Dairy partner to Price Chopper for decades; producing many of our Price Chopper and PICS dairy products. The team started the day at the HP Hood plant in Vernon, NY.  This plant produces Price Chopper brand Greek yogurt, as well as Hood cottage cheese. The milk sourced for their Dairy production comes from local farms within a 50 miles radius of the plant. We’re proud of our local roots and being able to source #homegrown milk for our Price Chopper Greek yogurt!  The team also toured ESL processing plant in Oneida, NY where Hood branded creams, coffee creamers, and a variety of plant-based and lactose-free milks are made and packaged. The tour of the facilities was nothing short of impressive! Hood’s dedication to quality, innovation and service was evident in their state-of-the-art operation! HP Hood is one of the largest branded dairy operators in the U.S. as well as an experienced leader in ESL (extended-shelf-life) & aseptic processing and packaging. Thanks to the team at HP Hood for inviting us in! We had a great day moo-ving around the plants!       We had fun following the Genesee Brewery beer tanks as they traveled along the Erie Canal, passing through our canal town stores in New York! Teammates from our Main Office watched the tanks leave lock 8 in Rotterdam to kick off our tracking, and then Amsterdam, Palatine Bridge, Little Falls, North Utica, Rome and Clay store teammates visited their local lock to #toastthetanks as they headed towards their Rochester destination.  Folks in canal-side communities from Albany to Rochester have flocked to their nearby lock to toast the massive tanks, snapping photos with Genny brew in hand and celebrating one of New York State’s most historic transportation systems. Drone users joined in on the action too: check out this cool video of the tanks floating through Fort Hunter, shared with us by Doug J. who shops at our Amsterdam store! After a long journey across the state traveling at about 5 miles per hour, the barges will finally reach their permanent home at the Genesee Brewery this week. It’s been an exciting journey to follow! Cheers to our friends at Genesee, New York’s oldest brewery, and the Erie Canal, which first opened almost 200 years ago in 1825! To take a look back at some of the action, follow us on Instagram @pricechopper.     Guest blog written by Ben Taylor of Merle Maple Farm   As the weather begins to warm up, it’s time for maple season! We at Merle Maple Farm, based in Attica New York, are proud to produce high-quality and consistent maple syrup for our local partners at Price Chopper and Market 32. Their commitment to providing local products for customers is beneficial for local economies and strengthens the “Tree to Table” connection that maple farming thrives off of.   Merle Maple Farm is owned and operated by the Merle Family, which is currently in its 6^th generation of family ownership. We have over 17,000 taps in the woods which collectively produce over 350,000 gallons of sap per season. We boil this sap down to the sweet product we all know as maple syrup: between 6,000 and 9,000 gallons per year! Maple syrup is all-natural, with no additives and no modification; just pure nature-derived goodness.   The Merle family produces a wide variety of maple products, from maple syrup to BBQ sauce, and cotton candy to sugar candy. We enjoy chatting with folks about all things maple, showing people how we make our maple products, and being engaged in the local community.   We hope that you enjoy our maple syrup as much as we enjoy producing it. Thanks for reading!   Find out more about Merle Maple Farm by visiting their website, and find out more about our local maple producers on our maple page! Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator – Local  It’s maple season in the Northeast and we’re celebrating at Price Chopper and Market 32! We’re proud to team up with a variety of different maple farmers and producers across the 6 Northeast States we operate in! Our maple friends supply different stores with a range of items like pure maple syrup, maple cream, maple candies, and even maple cotton candy! Our Price Chopper brand of maple syrup is produced in Vermont from the sap of Vermont maple farms! Maple is a delicious seasonal flavor, but did you know that it’s also an important agriculture product of our region? The Northeast is home to the ideal weather climate for turning maple tree sap into pure maple sugar (syrup): Vermont alone produces over 5% of the world’s maple syrup supply! There are a lot of different maple sugar farms in our region, ranging from small hobby farms who tap trees for personal consumption, all the way to folks who tap 17,000 trees, like our friends at Mapleland Farms in Salem NY !  Many of these farms offer sugar house visits and seasonal tours that are open to the public, and multiple Northeast state associations provide resources on visiting these local maple farms. You can see the process of maple production and become a Maple Master! Check out the links below to see what resources your state has to offer! Visit a New York Maple Farm Visit a Vermont Maple Farm Visit a New Hampshire Maple Farm Visit a Pennsylvania Maple Farm Visit a Connecticut Maple Farm Visit a Massachusetts Maple Farm And if you aren’t able to make it out to your nearby farm this year, our Vermont pals at Coombs Family Farms offer this pretty cool video that tells the story of their maple farm. For more information on our Northeast maple producers, visit our home.grown. maple page. May your maple season be extra sweet this year! Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator Capital District Holiday Homegrown Flavors: 12/3 10am-2pm We’re rounding up the local crowd in New York’s Capital District! Our Homegrown Flavors events feature tastes from local communities, meet ‘n greets with local growers and producers and an overall celebration of all things local here in the Northeast. On 12/3 we’ll be featuring a unique group of local producers in 5 stores for Homegrown Flavors: Wilton Market 32, Hudson Valley Market 32 in Troy, Hamilton Square Market 32 in Guilderland, Clifton Park Shoppers World Market 32 and Altamont Ave Price Chopper in Rotterdam. We’ve lined up an exciting group of local producers for each store on 12/3, including Perreca’s Bakery at our Altamont Ave Price Chopper and Mapleland Farms at our Wilton Market 32. Each store will have a local brewery in-house to chat with guests and offer tastes of their New York brews! Tune in to WGNA on event day: they’ll be broadcasting the event live on site at Hamilton Square Market 32 from 10-noon. Check out the event roster below to see who’ll be in the house at your store:   Altamont Avenue Price Chopper      Flavor of Schenectady                   Schenectady NY Horseshoe Hot Sauce                     Rhinebeck NY Perreca’s Bakery                              Schenectady NY Davidson Bros Brewing                  Glens Falls NY Ole McDonald’s Honey Farm       Fultonville NY Barkeater Chocolates                     North Creek NY Blue Hill Farm                                     Morrisville NY Harney & Sons Tea                          Hudson NY   Wilton Market 32 Saratoga Peanut Butter                 Saratoga Springs NY Nettle Meadow Farm                    Warrensburg NY Saratoga Brewing                             Saratoga Springs NY Dellavale Farm                                  Pattersonville NY Mapleland Farms                             Salem NY                 Shoppers World Market 32 Old World Provisions                      Albany NY Death Wish Coffee                          Round Lake NY Schmaltz Brewing Co                      Clifton Park NY Vermont Hydroponic                     Florence VT Pixie’s Preserves                              Waterford NY Russo’s Grill                                        Amsterdam NY                 Hudson Valley Plaza Market 32 Snacks101                                           Bethpage NY Brown’s Brewing                              Troy NY Larry’s Sauces                                    Slingerlands NY Dominick’s Gourmet Sauce          Guilderland NY R & G Cheese                                    Troy NY                 Hamilton Square Market 32 Brooklyn Brewery                            Brooklyn NY Valente’s Restaurant                      Watervliet NY The Peanut Principle                      Albany NY Vital Eats                                              Saratoga Springs NY Our Daily Eats                                    Albany NY WGNA (radio onsite!)                   Albany NY     Written by Karin Reeves of Reeves Farms This is the time of year when things start to slow down a little on the farm: We’re done harvesting all of our vegetables with the exception of some pumpkins and winter squash.  This means that we finally have a little time to do some cooking and baking. I’ve always enjoyed baking more than cooking.  It’s nice to mix up a bunch of ingredients, pop a pan in the oven and wait to see how it come out.  These pumpkin muffins are great because they’re really versatile.  They can be used for a dessert, breakfast or tasty snack. We have tons of pumpkins and squash around the house this time of year.  I usually spend a few hours on a rainy fall day baking up squash and pumpkins and turning them into puree to freeze for the winter.  Everyone in our family is a pumpkin and squash fan including the cat (it’s strange but he loves butternut squash).  For the pumpkin piece of this recipe I have used a lot of different things – pie pumpkins, butternut squash or even buttercup squash.  They all work well so use whatever you like best.  This recipe can also be a good way to use up leftover squash you made for dinner. Start by making the pumpkin puree, which is much easier than you might think. First cut the stem off the pumpkin or squash you have decided to use.  Then cut in half and scoop out the seeds (I like to save the seeds to roast later.)  Place on a baking sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.  You will know they are done when you can easily pierce the flesh with a fork.  Allow to cool for about 20 mins or until its cool enough to handle.  Scoop out the flesh leaving the skin behind.  Put all the pumpkin flesh in a food processor and blend until smooth.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash up the chunks of pumpkin with a potato masher or a fork.  You will need one heaping cup of puree for this recipe.  Depending on the size of the pumpkin or squash you are working with you will probably have more puree than you need.  You can freeze it for later or you can easily double this recipe to use up more puree. Reeves Family Pumpkin Muffins Ingredients 1 ¾ cups flour ¾ cup granulated sugar ½ cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground ginger ¼ teaspoon ground cloves ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 eggs 1 heaping cup of pumpkin or squash puree ½ cup vegetable oil 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon vanilla   Baking Instructions   Preheat oven to 375 degrees   Place paper liners in a muffin tin or grease tin using a paper towel with a little vegetable oil.   In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  Make sure brown sugar is broken up so there are no chunks of sugar in the batter.   In a separate bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, oil, milk and vanilla. Whisk together until smooth   Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold together gently until just combined   Scoop batter into muffin tins so that each cup is about ¾ full   Bake for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a muffin   Let muffins cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan   You can serve immediately or let muffins cool completely before storing in an airtight container   Yield: about 18 medium size muffins.   This muffin recipe is a great base for trying some variations and experimenting a little.  You can add ½ cup raisins or walnuts to add some more interesting textures. For an extra rich dessert, sometimes I frost the muffins with cream cheese frosting or add a ½ cup of chocolate chips to the recipe.  Enjoy! We’re celebrating local again in New York’s Capital District! Our Homegrown Flavors events feature tastes from local communities, meet ‘n greets with local growers and producers and an overall celebration of all things local here in the Northeast. Our next event is slated for Saturday 8/27 from 10am-2pm in 5 Albany-area stores (see below for location details). We’ve lined up an exciting group of local producers for each store on 8/27, including Death Wish Coffee at our Wilton Market 32 and The Cookie Factory at our Hudson Valley Market 32. Each store will have a local brewery on hand to chat with guests and offer tastes of their New York brews! Our friends at DeCrescente Distributing are hosting a Bean Bag Toss competition outside our Shoppers World Market 32 – if you’re in the area stop by and challenge us to a game! While you’re there, enjoy a $1 hot dog from Old World Provisions, with all funds being donated to local United Way chapters. Can’t make it to the store? Tune in to WGNA on event day: they’ll be broadcasting live at Clifton Shoppers World from 10-noon! Check out the event roster below to see who will be in the house at your store.

Clifton Shoppers World Market 32
Pede Pasta (Flavor of Schenectady)	Schenectady NY
Gatherer’s Granola (Flavor of Schenectady)	Schenectady NY
Casa Visco (Flavor of Schenectady)	Schenectady NY
Sindoni Sausage (Flavor of Schenectady)	Schenectady NY
Grower’s Hub	Troy NY
Miss Sydney’s Sauces	Fuera Bush NY
Old World Provisions	Albany NY
Dominick’s Sauce	Guilderland NY
Shaul Farms	Fultonham NY
WGNA	Albany NY
Saranac Brewery	Utica NY
Schmaltz Brewing Company	Clifton Park NY
Decrescente Distributing	Mechanicville NY
Hudson Valley Plaza Market 32 (Troy)
Peanut Principle	Albany NY
Larry’s Southwestern Sauces	Slingerlands NY
The Cookie Factory	Troy NY
Minissale’s Sauce	Troy NY
Brown’s Brewing Company	Troy NY
Hamilton Square Market 32 (Guilderland)
Adirondack Brewery	Lake George NY
Tara Kitchen	Schenectady NY
Sanavi Water	Schenectady NY
Herkimer Cheese	Herkimer NY
Vital Eats	Saratoga Springs NY
Wilton Market 32
Shushan Valley Hydro Farm	Shushan NY
Olde Saratoga Brewing Company	Saratoga Springs NY
Cabot Creamery	Waitsfield VT
Saratoga Chips	Saratoga Springs NY
Barkeater Chocolates	North Creek NY
Death Wish Coffee	Round Lake NY
Market Bistro (Latham)
Ole McDonald’s Honey Farm	Fultonville NY
Ithaca Beer Co	Ithaca NY
Black Horse Farms	Coxsackie NY
Old World Provisions	Albany NY
Hillard’s Greenhouse	Latham NY
Vermont Hydroponic Produce	Florence VT

    Submitted by our home.grown. friends at Cabot Creamery Farmers are a dedicated group. For generations they have staked their livelihood to working the land and feeding America. For us at Cabot Creamery Co-operative, that tradition began in 1919 when a group of 94 farmers came together to bring their excess milk to new markets in a way they could as individual farmers. That spirit of hard work and cooperation remains at the core of Cabot nearly 100 years later.  The cooperative now includes 1,200 family farms spread across New York and New England. These farmers live in your local community. They serve on school boards and volunteer fire departments. They work 365 days a year to deliver the highest quality milk to our creameries, which in turn is made into award winning cheese and dairy products.  Just this year Cabot Sharp Cheddar and Cabot Greek Yogurt took home ‘Best in Class’ at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. Price Chopper and Market 32 are also dedicated to bringing local products to local communities. In conjunction with their Homegrown Flavors program, the farmer-owners of the Cabot Creamery Co-operative have had the chance to visit their local store and sample their cheese and dairy products. These in-store interactions are valuable. They provide the farmer a chance to meet folks in their community and provide shoppers with an opportunity to try Cabot products and meet the people behind them. As a cooperative, our farmers truly own the business and any profit made goes back to the farm. When you buy Cabot products, you are supporting local farms and their ability to farm into the next generation. The farms that make up Cabot vary in size and location throughout the Northeast, but at the core of each one is family. Whether it’s the Ziehm family of Tiashoke Farm in Cambridge, New York or the Tully family of Tully Farm in Dunstable, Massachusetts, each farm is connected to their local community. They are committed to producing high quality milk and are proud of the Cabot products that are made using that same milk. If you’re in a Price Chopper Market 32 and see Cabot handing out samples, be sure to stop by, say hello to your local farmer and try some of our award-winning cheddar cheese! Visit our home.grown. web page for more information on our local growers and producers. Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator – Local   We’re celebrating local again: Saturday, February 27^th , 2016 from 10am-5pm in our Wilton, NY Market 32! The greater-Wilton, New York, area is home to unique local farms and producers, with Saratoga Springs offering a wide variety of favorite locally made products. We’ll have folks from Olde Saratoga Brewing Co, Saratoga Peanut Butter and Saratoga Chips in the house to chat with shoppers and offer samples of their homegrown products. Also in-house will be Nettle Meadow Cheese of Warrensburg and Tiashoke Farm of Buskirk, a Cabot Creamery dairy farm! The area is home to multiple family maple farms, and since late-February rings in maple sugaring season in the Northeast, we’ll be featuring samples of New York maple syrup! Local producers Mapleland Farms (Salem, NY) and Sugar Oak Farms (Ballston Spa, NY) will be attending to chat with guests and sample their syrup, made from trees tapped just a few miles from our store. In addition to offering samples, they’ll be demonstrating the maple sap collection process using real maple farm equipment. Also on the roster for our Wilton celebration are the folks at Flavor of Schenectady, a coalition formed to promote local food featuring Mastroianni Bread, Casa Visco, Pede Brothers Pasta and Gatherers Granola. As a fellow homegrown Schenectady brand, we’re excited to team up with Flavor of Schenectady! Find them on Facebook here. Check out the list below to see who else will be joining us for Wilton’s Homegrown Market Day. And if you’re in the area on the 27^th, come on down to meet and greet with some of our homegrown friends from the region! We’ll be celebrating local in other stores going forward: Stay tuned as we round up the local crowd in other parts of the Northeast! Appearances Schedule

Adirondack Maple Farms	10am-12pm
Saratoga Chips	10am-1pm
Nettle Meadow Cheese	11am-2pm
Mastroianni Bread	11am-2pm (Flavor of Schenectady)
Casa Visco	11am-2pm (Flavor of Schenectady)
Pede Brothers	11am-2pm (Flavor of Schenectady)
Gatherers Granola	11am-2pm (Flavor of Schenectady)
Barkeater Chocolates	11am-2pm
Larry’s Southwestern Sauces	12pm-4pm
Saratoga Gluten Free Bakery	1pm-4pm
Cabot Creamery (Tiashoke Farm)	2pm-5pm
Vermont Hydroponic Produce	2pm-5pm
Olde Saratoga Brewing Co	2pm-5pm
Saratoga Peanut Butter	2pm-5pm
Mapleland Farms	2pm-5pm
Sugar Oak Farms	2pm-5pm

    Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator – Local We’re celebrating local on Saturday, January 16^th from 10am-5pm in our Sutton, Massachusetts Market 32! Sutton’s home.grown Market Day will include samplings and appearances from producers local to the region, ranging from dairy partners to snack food makers. Eastern Massachusetts is home to a wide variety of local producers and unique brands, and we’ve invited a group of them to come chat with our guests, talk about what they do as an area producer and sample some of their products! The home.grown samplings begin with our friends at Kayem Foods, who’ll be sampling breakfast sausage. Kayem hails from Chelsea, MA and partners with us on a variety of different meat items. And to add to the roster of popular brands who call eastern Massachusetts home, HP Hood will be in the house in the afternoon, sampling their awesome cone sundae desserts. In addition to household names like Hood, Sutton’s home.grown Market Day will include appearances from a variety of smaller-scale local folks who offer unique and interesting products. Chat with Marc Cooper, the man behind an amazing Salted Caramel Sauce from Coop’s MicroCreamery in Watertown, MA, or meet a team member from Blossom Water, who locally produces flower-infused water! We’re also excited to have Tully Farm in the house, a Massachusetts dairy farmer from the Cabot Cheese co-op, which you can find out more about here. We host events like these because supporting and celebrating local is important to us, whether it be supporting national brands hailing from our region or small town, small scale outlets local to specific communities. If you’re in the Sutton or greater-Worcester area on the 16^th, come on down to meet and greet with some folks from our homegrown crowd! We’ll be hosting home.grown-focused sampling events in other stores going forward: Stay tuned as we round up the local crowd in other parts of the Northeast!   Schedule: –Blossom Water:                              10am-1pm, flower-infused water -Kayem Foods:                                  10am-1pm, breakfast sausage -Concord Foods:                               10am-1pm, smoothie mixes -Tully Farm – Cabot Cheese         11am-2pm, cheese -Breezelands Orchard:                   11am-2pm, apples -Paino Organics:                               11am-2pm, chips and salsa -Biena Foods:                                    11am-2pm, chickpea snacks -HP Hood:                                           1pm-4pm, cone sundaes -Coop’s MicroCreamery:              2pm-5pm, hot fudge and salted caramel sauce -Raw Food Central:                         1pm-4pm, vegan snacks -Sid Wainer & Son:                          2pm-5pm, herb blends