WHOLE FOODS!

It's a big day for Relay! You've probably noticed that we've been adding wonderful new vendors, specifically farms, just about every week for a while now... but we've been keeping mum about our biggest Relay Family addition. Now that the store front is up and running, we're proud to announce that Relay carries products from Whole Foods!

The 19 folks who started the original Whole Foods in Austin, Texas in 1980 were certainly a forward-thinking bunch. Just think about how much our food-system consciousness has changed in the past 30 years! They were at the forefront of the movement, they believed (and continue to believe) in the value of quality food, real food, WHOLE food from transparent sources.

There's so much media hype about Whole Foods these days it can be hard to sort out what's what. We looked into their core values: "...selling the highest quality natural and organic products available, satisfying and delighting our customers, supporting team member happiness and excellence, creating wealth through profits & growth, caring about our communities & our environment, creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers, and promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education."

At Relay, we've got our own set of core values. Our goal is to provide a way to for folks to support local farm and community businesses while offering the kind of selection that comes with larger vendors, like Whole Foods. For our smaller vendors, it is a balancing act -- competition and opportunity. They have told us they accept the challenge of competing with the bigger boys in order to receive the opportunity to be in the same arena -- offering their uniquely grown and produced items to the wider audience they need to achieve growth and sustainability. In this way, Relay becomes the market that levels the playing field. They get to compete for your favor (and patronage!). You get to follow your pocketbook, your conscience, and best of all your taste buds.

Right now, we've begun with Whole Foods' 365 items, which offer incredible value and taste. Soon we will branch out to into other categories. Meantime, happy browsing!

Community

I'd like to let you in on a few secrets...maybe not true secrets, I suppose there's been plenty of press about them, but those sorts of things that make you feel they’re secrets because they’re just so delightful and community-oriented. The Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers (CLUCK), The Charlottesville Wine Guild, C’ville Foodscapes and Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest are invaluable resources for our little trendsetting area.

Surely you’ve heard of the Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers—their acronym is CLUCK—could that be any more adorable!? These chicken gals and guys, led by the local legend Guinevere Heathcote Higgins, are all about education and community awareness. They’re “a network of backyard poultry enthusiasts dedicated to raising chickens humanely in Charlottesville” which they accomplish by working together, sharing chicks, inspiring creative coops, and educating each other about poultry disease and distress. It’s so wonderful to see members of the community coming together to pool resources and educate each other!

This is Charlottesville, of course we have a Wine Guild! Their mission is to have "More people drinking better wine more often." The Wine Guild is not here to be uppity or snooty about wine, they’re just passionate about it and willing to spread their knowledge (and wine discounts) to others in the community! Their blog tells the tale of many a delightful bottle from Cali to Chile and the cheeses to pair. They keep us up to date on local wine events and even meet up on Wednesdays to talk wine and build community.

C’ville Foodscapes and Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest have built up some serious buzz in our food-centric community--for good reason! These folks are forward thinkers, trendsetters, community builders and world changers!

Over here at Relay, we know that people in Charlottesville are smart, they care, they want to eat locally and organically, but they also work hard and take care of beautiful children who need to be rushed to swim practice and chorus recitals. We’re here to provide an alternative—a way to connect you to your farmer while reducing your carbon footprint, allowing the farmer to spend more time on the land s/he cares about.

The hip Charlottesvillians involved in C’ville Foodscapes and Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest have realized the same thing. They know you want to have a beautiful garden that produces food for your table, but it takes a lot more time than you might have to devote to it. A good veggie garden is one of those things that everyone is going to do “next weekend.” Well, these folks are here to spread their knowledge and get their hands dirty this weekend so you can actually pull your dinner out of your backyard. They are available for consultation, implementation, and maintenance of your backyard garden for a very small fee.

Charlottesville is a beautiful community. We have so many resources here that are not utilized nearly as much as they should be. If we all work together to spread awareness, knowledge, and lend a helping hand every now and again our whole community will benefit and we may even be able to rework our atrocious food system into a truly beautiful, sustainable community endeavor.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie from Shelia Talbott

Mmm Mmm I think this dreary Monday calls for a little fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Pie straight from our delightful Belle Haven baker, Shelia Talbott. Don't forget, Gary from Twin Springs Farm picks fresh strawberries on Thursday mornings for Thursday orders only--they go fast so get your local strawberry orders in today!

Some measurements are approximate because I kinda eyeball the sugar as it depends on how sweet the strawberries are. Hope you like it. Obviously, you can use a pre-made crust, but I think fresh crusts are better.

Crust:

1 cup all purpose white flour
1 cup fresh ground soft white wheat flour (Can just use 2 cups all purpose)
3/4 cup cold butter cut into cubes
1/4 tsp salt
approximately 1/4 cup ice cold water

Mix the flours and salt together. Add the butter and cut in until flour
resembles coarse corn meal. Slowly add the ice water, tossing the flour
mixture with a fork until it starts to hold together. Don't work the
pastry too much or it becomes very tough. Gather pastry mixture together
and divide in half. Roll out crusts to desired size. Will make 2- 9 inch
pie crusts

Filling

16 oz fresh Strawberries, cored and sliced
5 - 6 stalks fresh Rhubarb, diced
approximately 1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar or to taste depending on sweetness of
strawberries
1/4 cup small pearl tapioca
1 tsp ginger (optional)
2 tsp butter cut up

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the sugar, tapioca and ginger.
In a large bowl, mix together the fresh strawberries and rhubarb.
Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the fruit and toss to coat fruit. Pour
into prepared pie crust. Dot the top of the mixture with the butter and
cover fruit with the top pie crust, cutting 4 - 5 small slashes in the
top. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, then decrease temperature to 350,
cooking until pie is golden brown and the filling is bubbling and thick
(about 1 hour). Serve warm or cold with fresh whipped cream.