become an Owner

OPEN DAILY 7:30am - 9:30pm

JOIN NOW! : CO-OP BLOGS : CONTACT US

Action Alerts

Closing Early

Both Willy Street Co-op locations will be closing at 7:30pm on Monday May 28 for Memorial Day. We will resume our regular hours on the following day.

Latest Reader Edition

Demos

4:00pm - 6:00pm

Thursday, May 17th - Salad Girl Demo

3:00pm - 6:00pm

Tuesday, May 29th - Bolzano's Meats Demo

10:00am - 1:00pm

Sunday, June 3rd - Otter Creek Cheese Demo

2:00pm - 5:00pm

Wednesday, June 6th - Rustic Kitchen Gluten-Free Demo

4:00pm - 8:00pm

Thursday, June 21st - Otter Creek Cheese Demo

3:00pm - 6:00pm

Friday, May 18th - Bolzano's Meats Demo

3:00pm - 6:00pm

Friday, May 25th - Bolzano's Meats Demo

2:00pm - 5:00pm

Sunday, June 3rd - Otter Creek Cheese Demo

3:00pm - 7:00pm

Thursday, June 14th - Otter Creek Cheese Demo

10:00am - 12:00pm

Saturday, June 23rd - Hidden Springs Creamery Demo

Daily Menu

10am - 8pm

Wednesday, May 16th

Orange Chicken $8.99/lb

Bell & Evans chicken stir fried with a sweet and spicy citrus sauce

Mongolian Beef $8.99/lb

Black Earth beef stir fried with a sweet and spicy hoisin sauce

Vegan Fried Rice $7.99/lb

Organically grown vegetables stir fried with brown rice

Tofu & Vegetable Stir Fry $8.99/lb

Organically grown vegetables stir fried with tofu and a tangy sauce

11am - 8pm

Wednesday, May 16th

Vegan Side

Deepak's Korma - Our coconut milk based Korma. Goes great with our brown rice.

Organic Brown Rice

Wild Mushroom Stroganoff - Button mushrooms, penne pasta, onions, earth balance...

^-A ⁺A

What's New?

Employee Garden at Production Kitchen Adds to Lunch

L Employee Garden ast fall some enterprising, enthusiastic staff who work at our administrative offices (at the same site as our Production Kitchen), started a staff garden. Any staff member is encouraged to plant or harvest anything they wish. A large mixing bowl full of spinach has already been harvested, and kale, sage, arugula, sugar snap peas, green beans and peas are coming along nicely.

Run for the Board of Directors

application/pdf icon

Board of Directors Nomination Packet

Each August, Co-op Owners vote for the Board of Directors candidates who they think will best represent them and help guide the future of Willy Street Co-op. The nine-member Board governs the Co-op and is directly accountable to Owners for the activities and accomplishments of the Co-op. Are you willing to run for the Board?

If elected, you’ll be essential to helping a progressive organization grow and flourish. You’ll learn a great deal about how the Board works to lead the cooperative (through policy governance) and have the opportunity to focus on long-range, big picture items. You’ll work with talented and energetic folks (Board colleagues and staff) and be able to make a solid contribution to the Willy Street Co-op community.

This year there are four seats up for election. To run for election, complete and submit your answers to the list of nomination questions in the application no later than 6pm on July 12th, 2012. Thank you!

Vote for your 2012 Co-op T-shirt

Vote for your favorite adult and favorite kids' t-shirt design May 7–31! The winning shirt design will be printed on either a cherry red or a slate gray shirt, and the kids' design will be printed on a navy blue or heather gray shirt. In some cases the artist submitted the designs on a colored background because a white ink would be used in printing or because the shirt color was integral to the design and needed to be shown. The Co-op will determine the shirt color based on the winning design, and will use cherry red or slate gray for adult, and navy blue or heather gray for kid.

Only one vote per person listed on the Co-op Ownership account. (Household accounts get two votes.) Thanks for voting!

DIY Cleaning Bonanza

Stephanie Ricketts, Executive Assistant

Spring is in the air and that is giving me a serious case of the cleanings! I’m opening the windows, airing out the house, and sweeping away dust bunnies from underneath the furniture. This season, as I run through my cleaning supplies, I’m restocking with more natural, DIY cleaning products. Exploring the world of homemade cleaning products has been fun and inspiring, and I’m excited to share my new passion with all of you.

Why DIY your cleaning supplies?
There are lots of great reasons to make household cleaning products yourself.

#1: Save Money
Let’s be real—even with coupons and sales cleaning products (especially organic, sustainably made ones) are expensive! All of the recipes I share in this article cost a fraction of the cost, work fabulously, and are truly sustainable.

Read more

The World Champion Cheese Contest

Patrick Schroeder, Willy West Cheese Buyer

This past March, our fair city hosted the 29th World Championship Cheese Contest. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, this is the largest international technical cheese competition, and it comes back to Madison every two years. This year’s event had over 2,500 cheese entries as well as butter from 24 countries. It was judged by 40 cheese professionals from all over the world.

Stuart Mammel, Willy East’s Cheese Coordinator, and I attended the final evening of the event, which featured a wide array of cheese sampling and the judging of the top 16 cheeses to determine the Best in Show and runners-up. Notable among the final 16 were four cheeses from Wisconsin: two Havartis from Decatur Dairy in Brodhead, President Brie from Lactalis in Belmont, and Marieke Penterman’s Smoked Gouda from Holland’s Family Farm in Thorp. The Gold Medal went to Vermeer, a reduced-fat Gouda from Friesland Campina in the Netherlands. Silver and Bronze went to a pair of Swiss cheeses, a Smear-Ripened Winzer Kase from Kaserai, and a magnificent Appenzeller.

Read more

Early Spring Makes for Early Local Season

Andy Johnston, Willy East Produce Manager

How about that March weather? I skiied with my kids at Tyrol Basin on the 2nd and 3rd, and it was great! My youngest’s birthday is March 15th. He turned 4 in 2011, and we skiied the weekend of the 19th. This year, it was 82 on the 15th, and he was asking if I could set the sprinkler up under the trampoline.

It’s fairly common to get a couple of “teasers” in March—those warm sunny days in the mid-60s when you’re tempted to dig out your shorts and pull out the grill. It’s the opposite of the August mid-60s where you feel like you need your winter jacket. The strange thing about this year is that it just wasn’t a couple of “teasers,” and it wasn’t “spring-like;” it was downright summer for the better part of the month.

Actual low temperatures were often higher than average highs by 20 degrees! It was a record-breaking month, and a quick end to winter, not that we had much of one to begin with.

Read more

Fiscal Year 2012 Community Reinvestment Fund Awards

Since 1992, our Community Reinvestment Fund has donated over $200,000 to support a diverse array of projects in the areas of food, nutrition, health/well-being, sustainable agriculture, cooperative education and social change. The Fund’s focus is local, non-profit groups with an otherwise limited access to funding. See www.willystreet.coop/CRF for descriptions of the intended purposes of the awarded grant money. This year $25,000 in grant money was distributed, and the CRF grant recipients were:

Aldo Leopold Elementary School - $1,500.00
To build a community garden to support combined educational, nutritional, and social programming for both the school and the community they serve on Madison’s southwest side.

Read more

Willy Street Co-op Group Solar Purchase Project

In partnership with the MadiSUN Solar Program supported by the Department of Energy, the Willy Street Grocery Cooperative is excited to announce the launch of the Willy Street Co-op Solar Group Purchase Project.

Modeled after similar bulk solar purchasing efforts across the country and a recent group project that resulted in a 10% increase in residential solar projects in the Madison area, the purchase solar through a collaborative approach helps potential customers overcome the uncertainties that often hold them back. By participating in a group solar purchase, members have the option to participate in a purchasing experience consistent with the values of the Willy Street Co-op membership.

Read more