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Winter Squash 101

Winter Squash 101, by Katie Powderly If you are not already a squash-lover and need some additional motivation to incorporate it into your diet this winter, perhaps some nutritional information will sway you. High in vitamins, particularly A, B6, C, and E, squash could be just the boost to your...

Soy Scorecard

We were pleased in late May to receive the much-anticipated Cornucopia Institute Soy Scorecard . The Cooperative is already featuring several of the products and brands which received complimentary ratings. We are also offering some of the lowest-rated products. Our thanks go to Cornucopia for...

Statements on Animal Welfare

On December 17, 2009, Willy Street Co-op sent formal requests to our meat and poultry suppliers to provide an official statement about their animal husbandry practices, specifically the welfare and treatment of their livestock. The producers' letters are linked here for our Owners and shoppers to...

Willy Street Co-op is Celebrating 40 years of Cooperation!

Willy Street Co-op is celebrating 40 years of cooperation in October! We are offering up to 40% off of cases of 10 different products each week for four weeks. Owner Appreciation Weekend is Friday, Oct. 17through Sunday, Oct. 19. We'll have live music at each store, free samples, cake served by...

Board Policy

Board Policies As a policy governance board, we monitor performance and compliance through our policies. View Board Policies Here . ENDS Policy (Policy A) ENDS Policy (Policy A) The Williamson Street Grocery Co-op is, and will remain, an economically viable and environmentally sound business...

Store Locations and Hours

Featured Text:

We have three locations, all accessible by car, bus, or foot!

Willy Street Co-op - East: Open 7:30am - 9:00pm. Our east store is located at 1221 Williamson Street between S Baldwin Street & S Few Street. Willy Street Co-op - West: Open 8:00am - 9:00pm. Our west store is located at 6825 University Ave between Park Street & Mayflower Drive. Willy Street Co-op...

Angelika's squash recipes

On Thursday, Sept. 18th, Willy Street Co-op Kitchen Manager and Chef Angelika Matthews made two dishes on Channel 3 morning news: Grain-free Chicken Squash Curry and Curried Squash Soup . Here are the recipes: Grain-free Chicken Squash Curry Serves 6-8 Ingredients: 1.5lbs butternut squash, peeled...

Willy East's Recycle, Remodel, Reopen Event - Our Grand Reopening

Join us as we celebrate the completion of the 10-month remodel of Willy East! ( Click here to see our news release.) All weekend-long, at both stores: Selfie contest! Here are the rules: Take your selfie with a cutout. (Found throughout Willy East.) Follow uson Instagram or Twitter. Post the...

Willy Street Co-op Grand Reopening Set for September 12th-14th

Willy Street Co-op Grand Reopening Set for September 12th-14th $4 Million Project Completed in Less than a Year Madison, WI —(September 5, 2014)—The Willy Street Co-op, Madison’s largest consumer-owned economically and environmentally sustainable grocery store, with two locations in the Madison...

Action Following the Eden Foods Comment Period

By Kirsten Moore, Director of Cooperative Services On August 2, Willy Street Co-op’s 30-day comment period on potentially boycotting Eden Foods came to a close. We opened the comment period due to high Owner demand over concerns about Eden Foods’ 2013 Federal lawsuit (Eden Foods v. Burwell) for...

Open Letter to Eden Foods

Or see the PDF here .

Following Your Money through the Co-op

It’s October and we’ve entered the season when we’re most likely to ask ourselves, “Where does all the money go?” I can’t answer that question foryour household, but in this article I’ll address “where the money goes” that you spend at the Co-op. Food expenditures: The macro view The U.S....

Fair Trade

October is Fair Trade Month at Willy Street Co-op. This is a great time to actively remember the workers who help bring resources to our tables everyday. These are the people in countries like Peru and Ghana—people we may never meet in our lifetimes—who work hard to help us enjoy a cup of coffee...

How to Select the Best Produce

Here are a variety of Co-op resources describing how to pick the best produce. Is This Ripe? (Stone Fruit, Tropicals, Pears) Keeping It Fresh (storing fruit) Persimmons, Kiwis, Pomegranates Squash 101 Know Your Heirloom Tomatoes

Preserving the Harvest

There is nothing better than sinking your teeth into a ripe, fresh off-the-vine heirloom tomato, or popping a few ripe Door County cherries into your mouth. Not only are local, organically grown fruits and vegetables super tasty, they are also some of the most nutritious foods you can put into...

The Eat Local Games

Let’s play a little game. We’ll call it…Food System Collapse. In this game, we can only eat food that has been grown, foraged, hunted, raised or fished locally (including preserved foods from the area). If I could choose what time of year to play, I’d definitely vote for September. After all, what...

Commonly Asked Cheese Questions

What is the difference between Montchevre crottins and mini-logs? Crottin refers to the shape only. Crottins and mini-logs have identical ingredients; both are made with vegetarian rennets. They are interchangeable, and are offered in the different shapes to meet customer preferences. Why don’t we...

Our Cob Wall

We worked with Outta the Box , a Madison, Wisconsin-based organization offering educational workshops and consulting on natural building techniques, whole system food production and urban reuse of resources. Their instructors led workshops on creating and building with cob, a sustainable material...

Gardening

This has been a challenging season for the gardeners around our neighborhood. While last year brought drought and heat, this year seems to be balancing that with abundant moisture, almost too much moisture. For the gardener there are strategies that can be employed to mitigate the risks. For...

Slow Food UW Madison Picks Up Speed

“Think globally, act locally” is a mantra of our times. It is hard to imagine a need more universal than good, clean, fair food, or a place as local as a church basement on one college campus. The basement at 1127 University Avenue is where you’ll find many of the activities conceived and operated...

Postharvest Horticulture

Her voice and expression projected considerable concern. “Here is a new statistic for your life,” said ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. In America, she continued, “every average home, every household, throws out $190 worth of food every month.” (ABC Evening News, 1/28/13.) What followed was a segment on...

Saving Money in Our Wellness Aisle

Another Wisconsin winter is almost behind us and between the snow, the bitter cold and the flu, I have to say that it was a pretty rough one. Soon, the warm spring sun will wash all that snow and cold away (I hope, because as I write this in mid-February it seems like it will be cold forever), and...

Oils

I must admit that when I was a younger man, I was fairly ignorant about the world of vegetable-based oils, aside from the ever-common and generic vegetable or canola oils. I knew that olive oil was good for light sautéing but bad for frying and that some “fancy” restaurants would put some out with...

Go With Your Gut: Probiotics

BIOTICS Probiotics The word probiotic is from the Greek words pro which means “supporting “and bios which leans “life.” Probiotics typically refer to a supplemental form of live microorganisms strains similar to the bacteria found in the human gut Antibiotics The word Antibiotics is from the Greek...

Garden Planning

Every yeararound this time my thoughts turn to the future of my garden—looking through the catalogs for seeds, planning where I’m going to put all the plants, and wondering what the weather will bring. We have an exciting new technology to bring to you this year and we are displaying it right up...

Saving Money at Your Co-op

Every New Year we make resolutions. They usually focus on things like health, money and happiness. So the question is, how can we make it easier to achieve these goals we set forth for ourselves after a few glasses of champagne? Well, as my 2012 resolutions slipped through my fingers around...

Label It: Fair

I set out to write about some new, exciting news in the world of coffee: the Small Producer label that made its way to the shelves of Willy Street Co-op in October of this year. After interviewing Matt Earley from Just Coffee about this, I realized it was essential to also write about the recent...

Social Consciousness Year-Round

This time of year, many of us are thinking about giving more—volunteering at our local soup kitchen, giving to charities, donating coats for kids, buying toys for tots. Did you know that just by choosing certain brands you are contributing as well? Choosing companies that are Fair Trade is one...

Juicing 101

We get a lot of questions in the Juice Bar, but one the most frequent is, “What is juicing, and what are the benefits?” There are a lot of answers to this question, and different people juice for different reasons, but if juicing is something you’re interested in, here’s some general information...

DIY Cleaning Bonanza

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....

Chad Vader

Not so long ago, in a local grocery co-op In July of 2006, Madison filmmakers Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan contacted the Willy Street Co-op about filming a short about Darth Vader's younger brother, who worked at a grocery store. The Co-op is always interested in supporting local art, so a shooting...

Board Director Job Description

Job Title: Director of the Board Reports to: Co-op Owners Board Responsibilities The Board should engage in ongoing planning activities as necessary to determine the Mission of the organization and its strategic direction, to define specific goals and objectives related to the Mission, and to...

Cooking on a Budget, Co-op Style

Sometimes it feels like there is just too much craziness happening in the world. Between the highly polarized political scene, the weird weather, world-wide economic crisis, and the more general struggles in the day to day, I must confess that there are days when I feel completely overwhelmed. For...

Gardening Like a Farmer

It was early April 2011 and I was getting ready to move Nicole, our little Case 880 tractor, from her winter home in my garage back to the field at Troy Community Farm. She started right up with no coaxing or tinkering of any kind, which is not usually the way it goes after months of sitting idle....

Container Gardening for the Urban Farmer

Growing up I spent many a summer on my grandparent’s organic farm. They had acres of fertile fields to romp and play in. By the end of a day pulling weeds, digging carrots, mulching pathways and turning the compost pile over with a pitch fork, I was happy, hungry and covered from head to toe with...

Herbs

What is an herb exactly? It’s surprisingly tough to lay down specific guidelines – but my favorite response to that question so far is from the legend of Charlemagne. When posed that same question by his teacher, Charlemagne replied that an herb is “the friend of physicians and the praise of...

Practical Indoor Gardening

I love gardening. But as I write this, winter has settled into the Wisconsin landscape! The vibrant colors and warm sunny days have finally given way to a pale winter palate and a cold, biting wind. Looking out my window towards the garden, I halfway expect to still see the tall stocks of corn and...

Understanding Egg Carton Labels

People are always curious how I know so much about eggs. Fact is, the Rischs were famous for eggs long before we were famous for shotgun weddings and online coupon fraud. My great-great-grandfather acquired his first hen at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, where it was touted as “the poor man’s...

Do-It-Yourself Skin Care

Every year for the past eight years, my girlfriends and I plan a trip together as a way to reconnect after our lives have moved us to different cities. We have varied our destinations from Montreal, New Orleans, New York City and the Indiana Dunes State Park. Our latest adventure was a getaway to...

What Can Customer Service Do For You?

The Customer Service representative sitting behind the desk at the front ofthe store has a wellspring of knowledge and services available for you to tap into. And though some of the assistance they provide may be obvious, such as helping customers find where we stock coconut milk in the store,...

Creating a Low-Waste Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that there is one full day that we can devote to gratitude for all the blessings around us: our family, friends, or solitude, our homes, food and good fortune. For the past four years, my house has been the gathering place for my family, and I have been...

Stocking Your Pantry

“What should we make for dinner tonight?” seems to be a common question that rings through our home each night. We know the story: you get home from a long day at work, take the dog for a walk, chat with a neighbor and POOF! it’s suddenly later than you expected and now you need to run to the...

10 Ways For Kids To Go Local

Here are 10 tips for getting children interested in local foods during summer and fall: Take your family on a farm tour. Encourage your kids to take pictures and make a photo book or poster about the farm to share with friends and classmates during show-and-tell or a similar time. (Willy Street...

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is a natural, non-invasive treatment system designed to affect the whole person—not just the symptom or disease—and to assist the body’s natural ability to balance, regulate, heal and maintain. One could say that aromatherapy is as old as humankind’s relationship to the plant kingdom...

Permaculture

“Perma-what?” is the common response I get when referencing “permaculture” in a casual conversation. While the majority of the population is unfamiliar with this term, some may be practicing it everyday. To others, the ideas surrounding Permaculture may seem like foreign concepts. Through my own...

35 Food Preparation Tips from the Experts

We've collected 35 food prep tips from experts like Gail Ambrosius and Bartlett Durand from Black Earth Meats. We hope that you like them (and use them)! If you have tips of your own, please share them here. How to Crack an Egg One-Handed Grip the egg by placing in the center of your palm with...

Camping Co-op Style

Does the thought of camping trigger some good memories for you? I think of waking under tall pines on a rocky island in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA)—early morning sun filters through the tent walls; two blue jays are having a raucous conversation in the boughs overhead; a gentle splash...

Hey, You’re Sick; Drink This!

We’ve been talking for years about the benefits of drinking fresh juice. It’s good for you, builds immunity, has antioxidants, lots of vitamins, the whole nine yards. But I don’t think we’ve ever come right out and said, “Hey! You’re sick; drink this!” We’re usually pretty cautious about making...

What’s Cookin’

As I write, a rain that wants to be snow when it grows up is falling. Election Day is past. Those of us who open the Kitchen compare notes on the views of sunrise we miss seeing on the way to work. Winter is born and, along with its birth, thoughts turn to cold weather holidays, indelibly...

Our Annual Wisconsin Cheese Compendium

There are 24 different Wisconsin cheesemakers supplying the Co-op at this time. Of those, 14 qualify as makers of artisanal cheeses. They include: Capri Cheese Run by Felix Thalhammer, Capri is the first organic goat cheese producer in Wisconsin, and at the National Dairy Goat Convention in...

Kitchen Table Issues

With the exception of our most senior Co-op members, most of us are living through the worst financial disaster this country has experienced since the Great Depression. Though the Madison-area has not yet been severely impacted by this financial crisis, the warning signs of looming job losses,...

Stretching Your Food Budget

Want to make the most of your food purchasing dollars? With rising grain prices, greater fuel costs and increased global demand for both, food prices have increased and are expected to stay high for the foreseeable future. But, according to the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA),...

What’s In That?

Reading recipes and ingredient lists has become a bit of a national pastime in these United States. Cooking and chefs are becoming the new pop stars in the national media and the safety and health effects (positive and negative) of food have become borderline obsessions with many of us. It may be...

Is This Ripe?

As stone fruit season approaches, I think now is a good time to address many common questions people have regarding how to choose perfectly ripe fruit. We sell fruits in different locations according to ripeness, and knowing where to get exactly what you want will ensure that you go home satisfied...

Our rain garden

The garden behind the Co-op is an example of how we are reducing rainwater runoff while establishing a beautiful natural area. It was created through the efforts of Applied Ecological Services and planted with native plants by members of our community and Progressive Dane. The rain garden...

Chad Vader Episode 8

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Chad Vader Episode 7

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Chad Vader Episode 6

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Chad Vader Episode 5

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Chad Vader Episode 4

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Chad Vader Episode 3

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Chad Vader Episode 2

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Chad Vader Episode 1

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager Episode One Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8

What Can the Customer Service Desk Do For You?

What can the Customer Service desk do for you? It’s one of the first things you see when you walk into the store: a friendly Co-op staff member sitting at a computer behind a blue horseshoe desk. Tamara, Lisa, Julie, Liam, Melissa, Jesse, Katie, Kerrie, Aaron…you may not know it, but these people...

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