Spring is on the way!

For those pining away for maple syrup, we have new season maple syrup just in. (Whew! Just in time for brunch this weekend.) As always, there are limited quantities, so come by to snag a jar or two.

We are also flush on eggs just in time for Easter, so feel free to grab an extra dozen if you want extras. The eggs are so colorful that a few members might not even dye them!

The garage is now a drop-off point for Raw Mik Shares from WiMo Farms. We can’t provide the milk to non-shareholders, but if you are interested there is information in the garage on how to purchase a share. Mo drops off the milk to shareholders each Monday. We make the most incredible yogurt from the fresh milk – the difference between the fresh yogurt and what one can get in the store is striking.

We also just received our first order of lamb from Long Shadow Farms! If members like it, we will offer it regularly in the freezer. We will post profiles of both WiMo and Long Shadow in the next several weeks.

More Coldani olive oil is on the way! We should have it in the next few days.

Finally, we’ve had a lot of questions about produce this summer. We are planning a trial run for regular local veggie orders. If you are interested, let me know and we will put you on a ‘pilot program’ list. We are planning to organize it as a mini-CSA program where members can order on a weekly basis but don’t have to commit to long-term shares.

Open to any and all ideas on this  – including a member garden table for sharing from our own backyard crops. If you have suggestions, drop us a line!

See you in the garage,

-Nels and Teresa

Hi All -

Join us for the Garage Grocer open house and Colorado Micro-distiller tasting today (Saturday, Feb.9th) from 3 – 7 pm. It’s in the garage, so bundle up if it’s cold. We’ll have the fire pits going with hot chocolate from Robin Chocolates, hot apple cider from YaYa Farm and Orchard, and lots of local food samples from the garage.

Whiskeys from more than 12 Colorado Distillers are represented (so far). Luc and I will be blogging about the event for MicroShiner Magazine, the definitive guide to the micro-distilling movement. Check it out!

See you in the garage – we’re at 1612 6th Avenue, Longmont 80501. It is a family-friendly event, with lots of non-alchoholic options.

Walk, ride or scooter over (thanks Owen – good idea!) and we will see you in the garage!

-Nels

Hi all -

Great news! We have Coldani Olive Ranch barrel-aged balsamic vinegar available. I put out a few sampler bottles at $2 each, and will add more as soon as I find more bottles. It is so sweet, rich and thick that it is literally a syrup in the bottle.

Also, come pick up some free samples of Applewood Smoked Sea Salt. I have about 16 bags; it is strong smoke, so use it sparingly. Perfect for dry rubs (I can imagine it as a pastrami dry rub) or for sprinkling over complimentary cheeses.

We have more olive oil, so those who were unable to get some last week can snag some.

Also, the egg situation is looking up, just in time for the holidays. We have a good supply (at least 7 dozen in the fridge right now). I’ll be making a batch of my homemade eggnog tomorrow with fresh cream (Longmont Dairy), fresh eggs (the garage), and local Stranahan’s whiskey. I will post the recipe this weekend since I’ve had many requests to pass along the good cheer.

See you in the Garage,

-Nels

Happy Post-Thanksgiving!

Lots of traffic in the garage the past few weeks – it has been great to see all of you stopping by as we move into the holiday food season. There are some great (and some not so great) updates to share, including:

We will be adding small-batch California Olive Oil to the garage late next week! We have connected with a small family olive grower in Lodi, California to receive unfiltered, new crop olive oils directly from their family grove. Coldani Olive Ranch is aa very small family owned and operated company. The company consists of Mike (the founder) his parents, his wife, and his sister and her husband. They do everything in house, from gropwing and milling to their own labels and marketing. They have been making olive oil for the past 6 years, and have been milling their own oil for the past 2 years.

The oil will be in bulk, and you’ll want to bring your own bottles to use (I’ll try to have some available in the garage just in case). Pricing will be about half of what you can get good olive oil for in the retail stores, so a fabulous addition to the garage.

On other updates – eggs are tricky! Karen had almost half her hens dispatched by a rogue racoon or fox, so we are very thin on eggs. We are looking for additional suppliers, and Lone Hawk Farms may be able to help us out. Their eggs are $5/dozen, so we will have different prices on eggs. If you can double-check the pricing on the cartons, that is appreciated.

We have added a small amount of hand-pressed apple cider from Ya Ya Orchards, just outside Longmon on Highway 66. Seriously – try it and there is no going back to store-bought cider. Add a few cinnamon sticks, heat it up on the stove, and the aromas alone will have your neighbors knocking on the door asking for some…

See you in the garage,

-Nels

Hi all -

Yep, waaaay too long between posts…. We have been swamped with travel, but we are finally back in town. We have a great addition to the Garage – heirloom pie pumpkins courtesy of Vince Wolfe, one of the founding members. He grew two varieties, both spectacular for baking. They are either $4 or $6 – we have a limited supply, so come by soon.

We are also well-stocked on Music Meadows beef. Elin delivered earlier this week (thanks to Elin for going out of her way to drop off.)

And chickens – we have lots of chickens! They are whole birds, and if you need any advice in cooking them, we’ve got some great recipes. Once you roast them, use the carcass to make chicken stock – we get 4 quarts of stock from each bird, and use our veggie trimmings and the chicken remains (sounds odd, doesn’t it?) to make stock that blows away any packaged broth you can buy. I’ll leave some frozen stock in the freezer on Sunday for those who want to try homemade stock.

See you in the Garage!

-Nels and Teresa (and Owen and Hennie)

Finally! A much-delayed post. Sorry to have been out of commission for so long, been a busy month. The good news – I just picked up summer-pastured beef from Music Meadows. The cattle came off the high altitude range a few weeks ago (just before the snow). The color looks beautiful, and we can’t wait to try it. We’re going for slow-braised short ribs tomorrow night.

We have finally located a great source of pork! It has been a challenge to find a provider that fits well with the garage. We placed deposits on two whole hogs, one for early November and one for spring (March/April). I’ll provide details about the farm and how they raise their “girls” – we hope to get out East to the farm in early October to meet everyone.

We also have eggs coming back online. The pullets are producing normally, and we received 11 dozen eggs on Sunday. Whew! Thought we were going to have an egg riot on our hands…

Hope to see you all soon in the Garage!

-Nels

Hi All -

Already a busy weekend – we have a local baker, Cris from Outrageous Baking, who has provided samples of her gluten-free breads and products. There are breads in the garage for taste testing (excellent) and she can provide gluten-free breakfast pockets (freezer) in both spicy egg/potato and cheese/spinach.

We’re trying her baking flour mix too – plan to make a peach cobbler with her pie crust mix and we will post the results tomorrow. So come by while the samples are available, and I will place our first order for next week. Let me know what you like!

As always, please email me with any ideas for LOCAL producers or suppliers that you want to see in the garage.

See you in the garage,

-Nels

Hi all – Andy just dropped off fresh roasted coffee off this morning around 8 am (still warm). Come and get it – only 5 pounds this week.

We are picking up eggs – they will be here around 10 am today (Saturday). The hens are grouchy about the heat, so we’ve been a bit short on eggs. We are looking at a couple of other local farms to supplement since the eggs are definitely the most popular item.

Also, the fridge went to a better place yesterday – luckily we caught it quickly so nothing was lost. I’ll have a temporary cooler with ice for any cold items today until we wrangle up another fridge.

I will be picking up a beef order in 2 weeks, so if you have any requests of Elin, let me know.

See you in the garage!

-Nels

It’s here! Alaskan salmon is in the garage – caught last night at 10pm PT, and hand-delivered by Rob at 1 pm MT. Still fresh, and I’ll keep it in the fridge until about 9 pm tonight before it goes in to the freezer.

It’s $11 per pound – you can help youself to your choice of fillets, use the scale in the garage to get your weights.

We didn’t think we’d get any this year – still only about 10% (or less) of the Kenai has been opened. They haven’t opened up much commercial fishing at all, and they are still trying to protect the Kings (they are almost non-existent) so that has restricted all the traffic on the water. We were lucky to be on of the top on the list to get the salmon since this is our third year of orders. We received just under 40 pounds total, so there’s not much -  savor it while you can.

Happy fishing in the garage,

-Nels