co-op city

In the past few weeks, I've become much more intimately acquainted with the world of DC food co-ops. Until early August, I was a member of the tiny, completely member-run City Garden Co-op, which was an Authentic Co-op Experience, I thought: shopping was members-only, you had a work shift every few weeks during which you sorted local strawberries and added people's purchases on a thirty-year-old adding machine, and you stirred buckets of homemade natural peanut butter with a large wooden paddle. The co-op is a Mount Pleasant institution - it's been there, in the same basement apartment, for over thirty years - and I loved it - even when the produce order didn't get in until five minutes before it closed, or when I found a dead mouse on the floor. But then I moved out of Columbia Heights and into Shaw, and it seemed illogical to stay a member of a miniscule co-op that would now be a forty-five minute walk away. So I left, and found...

Just a short jaunt down Rhode Island Avenue from my new house, Glut Food Co-op, a wonderful little store, but much bigger than City Garden, on this incredibly homey street in Mount Ranier Maryland, just over the DC border. If you make it past the carribean restaurant, the antique store, and the homeopathic remedy shop on 34th street, just north of Rhode Island Ave, you'll find an unassuming storefront with a giant carrot hanging over the door. Inside is a wealth of local produce, bulk everything, literally from soup (powdered split pea, and veggie chili) to nuts (walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, mixed, maple-coated...), a whole wall of bulk spices and teas, and a variety of jam, honey, seitan, bagels, and other necessities. This co-op is more relaxed - there are no members, and everyone can shop. But if you volunteer to work a four- or five-hour shift, you get store credit at the rate of $6.15 an hour - over $25 worth of free groceries every time you work. I love the neighborhood feel and the incredible selection at this place, and I think it might be my favorite DC co-op so far.

But an unemployed person cannot live on volunteerism and good vibes alone, and so I just got a part-time job at the Silver Spring Food Co-op, the daughter store of the massive Takoma Park Co-op nearby. TPSS is more like a natural food store than a co-op, in all honesty - there are members, but not a significant price break for them, and nonmembers can shop with no restrictions. It's a friendly place, though, and I'm enjoying my work as a produce stocker/buyer (as I fret about misleading them, since I have every intention of bailing once I find a "real" job someplace else). And a remarkable perk of this work is the concept of FTS food. When apples get dents in them, apricots start shriveling, bread is a day old, or maple cream-top yogurt expires, they go into the FTS - "free to staff" - bins and fridge in the store. From there, we are all free to eat them on the spot, or take them home and use them as we like. So far, I've taken some beautiful yellow cherry tomatoes, a handful of sweet (slightly moldy) raspberries, a full odwalla drink with spirulina, and a loaf of pumpernickel bread with oats sprinkled on top. It's a beautiful thing.

Bread is a major contributor to the FTS bins at all times. It gets stale quickly, especially since most co-op bread is made without preservatives, and though it's perfectly good to freeze or cook with, it's not sellable anymore and quickly becomes free to staff. I anticipate more bagels and baguettes than my housemates and I will know what to do with. For such times, bread pudding is an excellent option. You can use stale bread and nobody will know the difference. You can also experiement with different types of bread - any kind, from whole wheat to sourdough to multi-grain, will work - though more porous, light varieties (ie plain old non-nutritious white bread) tend to work best, since they are the most absorbant and will soak up the other ingredients to create a more uniform, nonlumpy, pudding-like dessert.

The following recipe comes from my co-worker Danielle, and I can vouch for its deliciousness. Try substituting raisin bread or stirring in some chocolate chunks, mashed bananas, or dried fruit for new and exciting options. If you serve it warm, it calls - hollers, even - for ice cream or whipped cream.

Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp of melted butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 1/3 cups of sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• Cinnamon to taste
• 4 slices of toasted bread (crumbled)

Procedure:

• Mix all ingredients (minus bread) together
• Pour mixture over crumbled bread into 1 10 x 6 pyrex dish
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes