Available Everyday:
Sourdough vgn
Baguette vgn
Batard vgn
Ciabatta vgn

Monday
Cuban Bread (Contains pork fat)
Sourdough Wheat vgn
Honey Seed

Tuesday
French Round vgn
Apricot Sage vgn 

Wednesday
Multigrain
Olive vgn

Thursday
Chocolate Cherry
Sunflower Oat vgn
Pain au Levain vgn

Friday
Challah
Polenta-Parm-Rosemary
Sourdough Rye vgn

Saturday
Brioche
7-Grain Levain vgn
Cranberry Walnut vgn
Garlic Herb Focaccia vgn

Sunday
Currant Cardamom
Deli Rye vgn

Bread Schedule
Updated: Jan 13, 2021

Each year the Co-op’s Wellness Department puts together a favorites list for the new year. These products are hand selected by our wellness staff and represent go-to products for both co-op staff and customers. Best wishes from the Wellness Department for a healthy and safe 2021.

Listed in no particular order.

1. Gaia Herbs Black Elderberry Syrup

Elderberry syrup has historically been used for immune health, especially during the winter months. Gaia’s syrup is an elderberry concentrate that provides a meaningful, potent dose, with each teaspoon providing the equivalent of 14 grams of fresh elderberries. We like that it’s made from organic elderberries and is low in sugar.

2. Wild Carrot Vanilla Bean Face Cream

A skin care medley of chocolate, vanilla, and rich skin butters that smells heavenly! This richly moisturizing concentrated blend contains cocoa butter, shea butter, and sea buckthorn oil, and absorbs readily into the skin. Wild Carrot is a small Oregon company with an ethos of caring and respect for the land and planet. This translates into using organic ingredients and glass packaging that can be recycled. A best seller!

3. Organic India Ashwagandha

Sometimes called ‘Indian Ginseng’, ashwagandha has been used for centuries as a botanical source for energy and vitality. Being an adaptogenic herb, it provides a healthy response to physical, emotional, and environmental stress. This is one of the Co-op’s top selling supplements.

4. Booda Organics Booda Butter

This buttery moisturizer gets my skin through the dry Iowa winters! An all in one moisturizing butter that contains only 5 simple ingredients, including cocoa and shea butters for long lasting moisture. Use it on skin, hair, lips, cuticles, and more.

5. Trace Minerals Power Pak

Power paks are flavored electrolyte packets that contain 1,200mg of Vitamin C, plus vitamins and minerals, including the essential electrolytes potassium, calcium, and magnesium. What makes them stand out from other brands is the low sugar, no caffeine, and no artificial colors or flavors. These little packs really are powerful, and are great for pre and post workouts, to combat dehydration, and to fight fatigue. Just add a packet to your water bottle.

6. Mad Hippie Facial Cleanser

Mad Hippie skin care is one of the newest additions to the Wellness facial care section, and has developed a loyal customer following in a short time. The cream cleanser checks all the boxes: clean ingredients, doesn’t dry out sensitive skin, gentle formula with bioactives that provide antioxidants and skin rejuvenating properties. Oh, and its subtle orchid scent is so refreshing!

7. Garden of Life CBD Intensive Recovery Lotion

A high potency CBD lotion that provides 800 mg of CBD in a THC-free formula. A good choice when you are looking for a non-greasy, effective, and concentrated option.

8. Carlson Melatonin Gummies

Carlson offers you an easy and tasty form of melatonin in a 2.5 mg gummy. These delicious strawberry gummies are vegetarian and low in sugar.

9. Nordic Naturals Immune Daily Defense

Nordic has come up with a convenient product that combines four of the most popular immune supporting ingredients: Elderberry, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, and zinc. These powerful nutrients provide antioxidant support for a healthy response to immune stressors. Can be used on a daily basis.

10. Moon Valley Lotion Bars

Lotion in a bar – it doesn’t get any more convenient than that! These wonder bars glide right over dry, cracked skin to hydrate and soften. Simple, clean ingredients provide day long hydration. In two scents, lavender and lemon vanilla.

A Word from the Board

Megan Myers, Wheatsfield Co-op Board of Directors

The holidays offer us an ideal time to reflect and as I look back and reflect on the year as a Wheatsfield board member, the first thing that comes to mind is our revised mission statement: “The Co-op offers food, services and education to cultivate a healthy environment and socially just community.” The statement, unveiled at our annual meeting of the members this past October, builds on the cooperative principals and also speaks to the values that form the core of Wheatsfield’s daily practices and role in the community (see more here: https://www.wheatsfield.coop/history/).

In the spirit of reflection, with a new year around the corner and the holiday season upon us, it is equally important to remain grounded in the present (or the presents!). For many of us, this reality might mean procuring final gifts, stocking stuffers, or maybe just brainstorming a last-minute way to show someone you care about them. Let Wheatsfield give you the “gift” of a safe space to shop for those final holiday purchases—where you can also give back to your community (and round up your purchase for our monthly Change for Community!).

Allow me to recommend a few of my favorites:

• Chocolate—try fair trade and organic chocolates from Lake Champlain and Theo Chocolates.
• Gift card—the gift that keeps giving!
• Wine/beer—try the incoming (Dec. 17) Winter Cider from Jefferson County Brewing. (Alternatively, if you’re in-store, build your own 6-pack of Iowa beer …the perfect personalized gift!)
• Coffee and tea—get that water boiling and give Celestial Seasonings’ “Candy Cane Lane” a go!
• For seasonal produce organic pomegranates and winter citrus favorites like satsuma mandarins are in stock!
• For the perfect stocking-stuffer, you could purchase Badger chapstick—I recommend the Cinnamon Swirl flavor.
• Local Eggnog from Picket Fence Creamery—this is perfect if you’re looking for something to add to your contactless cookie box drop-off on friends’ front porches!

Perplexing Persimmons

Adam Calder, Wheatsfield Produce Manager

A fresh persimmon is one of winter’s lesser known treats, and with a little bit of foreknowledge one can incorporate persimmons into their winter celebrations.

Persimmons are a member of the genus Diospyros, which in ancient Greece translated loosely to “divine fruit.” They are native to China, but are grown in Asia and the United States as well. The word “persimmon” come from the Algonquian language, and means “a dry fruit.”

pictured: fuyu persimmons

It is odd that “persimmon” means “a dry fruit,” as anyone who has ever eaten a ripe persimmon knows they are in fact juicy, succulent gems. There are two varieties commonly sold in the United States, Fuyu and Hachiya, and they both do start out rather firm and dry, so perhaps this is where the name comes from.

Fuyu’s are flat, and Hachiya are more acorn-shaped. The Fuyu can be eaten at any stage of ripeness, be it firm and dry or soft and juicy. They are delicious at any stage, although they do get sweeter as they get softer.

This fantastic fruit can be eaten whole, just like an apple. The Hachiyas should first be allowed to ripen to a soft, jelly like consistency before they are eaten. This seems counter-intuitive and flies in the face of everything we’ve ever been taught about selecting fruit, but trust me; you do not want to eat an under-ripe Hachiya. In their unripe stage, they are full of tannins and therefore incredibly astringent. A bite of an unripe Hachiya will make your mouth implode into an arid wasteland of crippled taste buds, so make sure you let it get soft and juicy first!

Persimmons ripen rapidly at room temperature, so store them in a refrigerator until a couple of days before you want to eat or cook with them. They will continue to ripen in your refrigerator, but at a greatly reduced rate. If you find they have become soft, squishy and ripe and you still are not ready to use them, then remove the stem of the plant and then toss the whole fruit, peel and all, into a blender, food processor or food mill and then put the puree in a ziplock bag or other freezer safe container and freeze until needed.

Persimmons have been used in this country to make a special holiday dish, persimmon pudding, since the 1800’s, when persimmon trees were first introduced to the United States. If you are looking to start a “new” holiday tradition, then try out this recipe from the mid-1800’s:

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Persimmon Pudding

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups pureed persimmons
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 6 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon butter

Persimmon Pudding

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together eggs and persimmons in a large mixing bowl, then whisk in sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and soda. Add half the dry mixture to the wet mixture, then alternate between adding the dry mix and the milk to the wet mixture until all are fully incorporated. Pour into a large greased casserole dish or crock, cut the tablespoon of butter into little pieces and place them on top. Bake for 2 ½ hours. If you want the dish to be more like pudding, stir it every 15 minutes in the oven. If you would like it to be more like a dense cake or brownie, do not stir.