And so they have. Our GreenAcres Market customers have bought Organic Valley milk, cheese and eggs for the past 22 years because they know they taste great and they’re free of pesticides, fungicides, preservatives and added hormones.
But not everyone knows we also bake and cook in our store kitchens with Organic Valley milk, cream, cheese, eggs and more.
In fact, we are probably the only fully-functioning deli in the region, if not the whole country, that uses only the best and purest ingredients in all our hot case and deli food as well as our baked goods. Even the finest restaurants around the world get a little “assist” from ready-made packaged products. Not the GreenAcres delis. They are the real deal.
Our cooks and bakers are on site at our stores that have active delis cracking OV eggs by hand and rolling out dough with OV butter to feed hundreds of customers weekly with menus such as: house-made lasagna, edamame puree, cauliflower in cheese sauce, blueberry scones, southwestern quiche, our signature chicken potpies, pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins…and much, much more.
Barb Hoffmann, CEO of GreenAcres Market, has always believed in providing our patrons with the “nutritional best.” And that means no skimping on made-from-scratch-each-day food. “We’re in this business to provide better health for everyone we can—one person, one community at a time. If we don’t do it right, why do it at all?” asks Barb. “Our whole philosophy is based on the premise that proper nutrition and vitamin and mineral supplementation can help you maintain optimal health. And we all know how important good health is.”
So, from the onset, one of GreenAcres’ most prolific partners—Organic Valley—has supplied us with eggs and dairy that are healthy and delicious. The company started in 1988, and from the get-go designated that “organic” would be the only way it would produce.
Family-owned farms that felt the same way were quick to come aboard, and today there is a model of organic co-operatives that lets people buy regionally wherever they live. One of Organic Valley’s strictest tenants is to require its farmer co-ops to use 100% organic feed when caring for livestock. You can’t have organic products if you don’t feed animals the best organic feed available. Happy cows need plenty of outdoor access, lush pasture land and good handling. And chickens need to do what chickens do best: hunt and peck for food that comes naturally.
OV staff veterinarians and an animal wellness expert help farmer members keep their herds and chickens healthy. Cows won’t give good milk and chickens won’t give good eggs if they’re not cared for properly.
We, at GreenAcres, are partial to Organic Valley’s cheese products. The OV brands of cream cheese and Neufchatel cheese are customer favorites. Spread either one on a rib of celery or a toasted bagel and it’s magic—a smooth creamy taste that is a background for just about anything you want to add to it.
We have a customer who chops black and green olives into her cream cheese spread, adds a dash of garlic powder, then lightly toasts it under the broiler. “Better than tomato bruchetta,” she says. If you’re like half the rest of the world’s population, you’ll love what OV’s cream cheese and sugar can do for a frosted carrot cake. Delish!
Organic Valley says on its website that its cream cheese is “made by adding live cultures (as opposed to acidifiers) to creamy organic milk. Culturing cream cheese produces a firm, premium-quality bar with finer flavor than acidified cream cheese,” and we agree. To make certain the cheese is spreadable, organic lactose (natural milk sugar) is added to the cream.
Cream cheese, farm-fresh eggs and organic milk and cream are only a few of the Organic Valley items we sell in our stores.
If you live in the vicinity of one of our stores that has a hot case and deli, we welcome you to try a taste of the best nutrition we can provide. After all, at GreenAcres, good health and good taste go hand-in-hand, and without either, life just isn’t nearly as worth living!
