Written by Sara Lilkas, Marketing Intern  Happy New Year! We hope that everyone had a happy and safe New Year’s celebration and that you are looking forward to 2016 as much as we are here at Price Chopper and Market 32. As part of 2016 we will continue to have craft beer tastings every month at all of our locations with Growler Stations. This month features breweries that call the Greater Capitol Region home and even feature ingredients from other local businesses. Learn more about the breweries being featured this month below! First up in 2016 is Brown’s Brewing Company, featuring their Uncommon brownsPorter. The Uncommon Porter features a blend of different coffee flavors from local coffee shop Uncommon Grounds which is based out of Saratoga Springs, NY. One of my personal favorite brews from Brown’s, the Uncommon Porter features caramel, chocolate, and just a hint of vanilla. Try Brown’s Brewing Company Uncommon Porter: Friday January 8th, 2016 Saturday January 9th, 2016 Since it is the beginning of a new year it is only fitting that a new beer should be featured this month! New from Founders Brewing out of Grand foundersRapids, Michigan (they are the one exception to the local brewers featured this month!) is the Azacca IPA. As the name implies this beer is made with Azacca hops which are named for the Haitian God of Agriculture. Azacca hops feature citrus and tropical tones. Try Founders’ Azacca IPA: Friday January 15th, 2016 Saturday January 16th, 2016 Shmaltz Brewery from Clifton Park, NY is the next brewery being featured this month! A year-round offering, the Slingshot American Craft lager features a citrusy aroma and is a light straw color. Brewed in the style of an American Pale lager, it is brewed without any “cereal” elements such as rice or corn. Try Shmaltz Brewery’s Slingshot American Craft:shmaltz-brewing-logo Friday January 22nd, 2016 Saturday January 23rd, 2016 New from the Olde Saratoga Brewing Company is the PB&J stout. A twist saratogaon their classic Oatmeal Stout the PB&J stout, is in fused with peanut butter and raspberry jam! Try Olde Saratoga Brewing Company’s PB&J Stout: Thursday January 28th, 2016 Friday January 29th, 2016 Saturday January 30th, 2016 To finish up the first month of the New Year, Davidson Brothers Brewing Company will be sampling their Coffee Stout. Featuring a caramel, chocolate, and coffee aromas, the Coffee Stout is a lighter and tasty stout. davidson brewingFor those who usually only drink lighter colored beers, don’t let the dark color of this brew fool you, the Coffee Stout is the perfect introduction to darker beers. Try Davidson Brothers’ Coffee Stout: Saturday January 30th, 2016 Sunday January 31st, 2016   Follow us on Twitter @PriceChopper and @market32bypc for updates and changes to the schedule. Please enjoy responsibly! Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator – Local M32 Market Day Header We’re celebrating local on Saturday, January 16th 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 16th, 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 With the addition to Growler Stations to some of our capital region stores, we are happy to invite you to tastings throughout the month of July featuring 21st Amendment Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, and Druthers Brewing Company. 21st Amendment Brewery is based out of San Francisco, California and started in 2000 by Shaun O’Sullivan and Nico Feccia. 21st Amendment Brewery’s goal is to rebuild the culture lost during prohibition, one beer at a time. Blue Point Brewing Company is located on Long Island in New York and is named after the favorite oysters of Queen Victoria. Their goal is to continue to brew beer their fans want to drink. Druthers Brewing Company is located in Saratoga Springs, New York and they are driven by rewarding those who live grandly and honestly with good beer. Make sure to check out their new brewpub on 1053 Broadway, Albany, New York! Ommegang Brewery located in Copperstown, New York was built in 1997 on what used to be a hop farm. Their Ommegang Summer of Love Tour Bus, will make a stop at Market 32 in Clifton Park to highlight their new Hopstate NY American Pale Ale made with hops only grown in New York State! All attendees must be at least 21. Check below for times and locations of these tasting events! 21st Amendment July 17th -21st Amendment Brewery featuring Hell or High Watermelon 4-6pm Market 32 in Wilton, NY 6:30-8:30pm Saratoga, NY (Route 50 Store) July 18th-21st Amendment Brewery featuring Hell or High Watermelon 12-2pm Malta, NY 3-5pm Market 32 in Clifton Park, NY July 19th-21st Amendment Brewery featuring Hell or High Watermelon 12-2pm Market Bistro in Latham, NY 3-5pm Slingerlands, NY blue point July 24th– Blue Point Brewing Company featuring Blue Point Summer Ale 4-7pm Malta, NY 4-7pm Market 32 in Clifton Park, NY 4-7pm Market 32 in Wilton, NY July 25th– Blue Point Brewing Company featuring Blue Point Summer Ale 12-3pm Saratoga, NY (Route 50 Store) 12-3pm Market Bistro in Latham, NY 12-3pm Slingerlands, NY brewery-ommegang-85412382 July 30th- Ommegang Summer of Love Tour featuring Hopstate NY 11am-12pm Market 32 in Clifton Park druthers July 30th-Druthers Brewing Company featuring All-In IPA 3-5pm Saratoga, NY (Route 50 Store) 5:30-7:30pm Malta, NY July 31st-Druthers Brewing Company featuring All-In IPA 3-5pm Market 32 in Wilton, NY 5:30-7:30pm Market 32 in Clifton Park, NY August 1st-Druthers Brewing Company featuring All-In IPA  12-2pm Market Bistro in Latham, NY 2:30-4:30pm  Slingerlands, NY     Written by: Ellie Wilson, MS RDN  Senior Nutritionist On a beautiful day last Monday, my son and I drove out to Shaul Farms to meet with Dave Shaul. Shaul Farms encompasses 1500 acres, employs about 40 locals and teens in the summer busy season, and grows a huge list of vegetables. When I got to their large, open air farm market building, I was delighted by what we saw – fresh herbs, straw bales, tomatoes, piles of garlic, cucumbers, a range of sweet and hot peppers, onions, broccoli, summer and winter squash, and the ubiquitous sweet corn  – all fresh and on beautiful broad table/bins. Like the vegetables, the display fixtures are also ‘home grown”, and the tall, wide planting boxes full of a great and colorful display of plants and flowers (which they also grow themselves) act as decoration and half-wall, surrounding the entire building. It was a dietitian’s dream! You will find Dave’s corn, broccoli, plum tomatoes and peppers in your local Price Chopper. Shaul truckDave, one of 10 siblings and the only one left farming from his family, is a busy, generous man who works hard to balance the needs of the farm with that of his growing family. He and his wife Becky have adopted 3 children and hope to add a new baby, visiting the same day of my visit, to their family.  Dave’s family has farmed this land since 1701, and their older children are starting to take on some small chores. Despite the long family farming history, Dave’s father did the lion’s share of building the business up. At one point, they were shipping 4,000 tons of carrots to Beechnut and Birdseye, but as transportation costs escalated, they started to look out for other partners, and started delivery directly to the Cobleskill Price Chopper in 1986. Shaul Farms is, like all of the farms Price Chopper works with, GAP certified. Food safety is of paramount importance to Dave, and to Price Chopper. He offers that national food safety issues, like the incident in Colorado, where melons processed on unsanitary machinery caused illness and some deaths, has impacted retailer demand for those items – he had so few orders, he decided not to grown them this year. To clarify, the melons were fine, the machinery was the problem, but for now, buyers are shy. Deciding what to grow and choosing different varieties of the same types of crops is part of the winter planning Dave does, after family vacations. He described working closely with the seed salesperson, and trying new varieties in part to ensure he has a strong crop – if one type of seed doesn’t produce well, he has several others to fall back on and protect his overall harvest. Technology plays its role on the Shaul farm, and he cites the use of GPS and satellite tracking for planting and harvesting as a game changer. Dave ShaulThe challenge for farmers is to balance the cost of technology with the return on investment – even used machines like combines (that harvest corn) can cost well over $200,000. As Dave helped my son learn more about the varieties of peppers – Don was thinking he wanted to make something for a family event later in the week, we got to speak about his favorites. He gave full credit to his wife for being a wonderful cook , and really struggled for a minute or two when I asked him what his favorite item was that he grew. He finally settled on “winter squash, with brown sugar and butter”.  He also likes being his own boss, and that the farm and the area is a good place to raise a family. As I have of the other farmers I have met with so far, I asked what he thought was driving the growing interest in local foods and farming. He contemplated that for a few moments, and returned the thought that carbon footprint was definitely part of the equation. That, and connecting with farmers who are growing their food, which he thought was a really good trend. Dave Shaul clearly likes his work, and I hope he gets his wish that one of his children is interested in maintaining the family tradition. He left us to get back to urgent chores, and we walked around the main farm area – one trailer being repaired, equipment and vehicles loosely organized around the well kept buildings, trucks of different sizes coming and going and a pallet mover whizzing around, preparing for picking and shipping tomorrow, green fields stretching away behind the buildings. “It’s beautiful out here, Mom. Did you see there is an ice cream stand across the street? ”  We loaded our purchases into our truck, and headed over to enjoy the full bounty of the day. Please enjoy the local bounty of Dave’s produce in your local Price Chopper!