by Lisa Hogan, Chair, Weavers Way close to our Ambler store. Aldi is reportedly BOARD Leadership Committee planning a huge growth phase, and home gro- 2018 CORNER Who ‘s cery and prepared-meal delivery services are EAVERS WAY IS SEEKING A FEW proliferating. Big-box stores such as Walmart Wmember-owners to join the Co-op and Target are now our competitors in the Running? Board of Directors in 2018. Next year will fresh and local food business. be a busy and exciting time to join the Board. The Board, according to our bylaws, The Philadelphia area grocery scene is chang- must have a minimum of nine and a maxi- Could Be You! ing quickly with Amazon taking over Whole Foods and opening a store in Spring House, (Continued on Page 31 BOARD ELECTIONS Community-Owned, The Shuttle Open to Everyone DECEMBER 2017 Since 1973 | The Newsletter of Weavers Way Co-op Vol. 45 | No. 12 Mayor Kenney Looking Ahead Talks Schools, To Giving Sustainability Twosdays 2018 by Crystal Pang, At Fall GMM Weavers Way Marketing Director by Jacqueline Boulden, OMMITTEES ARE A BIG PART OF HOW for the Shuttle CWeavers Way members can get engaged with the Co-op in a meaningful way. In 2018, DDRESSING AN OVERFLOW CROWD we are planning to support our committees by Aat last month’s Fall General Mem- raising awareness of their amazing work and bership Meeting, Philadelphia Mayor Jim by giving them an opportunity to raise money Kenney said he came to praise what the for causes that are important to them. Co-op is doing and express his commit- Each month, on the second Tuesday, ca- ment to its work. “Philadelphia is proud of shiers in the stores ask shoppers if they would your success,” the first mayor to address like to give $2 — or more — to a designated a GMM told the 250-plus members gath- cause. Next year, starting with Tuesday, Jan. ered at the Waldorf School of Philadelphia 9, six of our most active Weavers Way com- in Germantown on Nov. 3. mittees will each propose a nonprofit or com- munity project to be the beneficiary of their Kenney, noting that the Co-op now scheduled Giving Twosday. has three stores, said this expansion shows how Weavers Way is leading by example, To give you a sense of what committees growing its business, creating jobs, buying are all about, here are examples of what two local and serving the community. of them have done in the community. Over the past few years, the Food Jus- “We know these locations can bring Ellie Seif photo (Continued on Page 28) Co-ops are good for communities and for business, Kenney told the assembled members. (Continued on Page 5) After the Storms, Working Toward Buen Provecho for Puerto Rico by April Lea Pedrick, for the Shuttle cooking each day and green everywhere. Besides be- farm markets I visited and in the yards of neighbors, ing immediately in love, I knew that sustainable agri- but the most accessible supplier of other organic goods T WAS ICY ACROSS THE WAY WHEN I GOT THE culture and cooperative economics would be the center is the local Walmart. More than 80 percent of food on Inews in February 2016: My little family was relo- of my future on the island. Natural living is intrinsic to the island was imported. We made a point to travel to cating to Puerto Rico, to live among a group of family Puerto Rican culture. Farm stands, natural-health shops any real food outlets on the island. They were vibrant friends. Within a year, we were healing in the sun, set- and complementary-medicine centers abound. But the and valiant and full of the spirit of good eating — buen ting up a modest home with rain barrels and easy gray- grocery stores were full of produce wrapped in plastic. provencho, the “bon appetit’ of Puerto Rico — but they water redirection, planning our off-grid wish list. Eggs for sale in Yauco had been shipped from Lancast- were also struggling. The country that welcomed us was even more than er. Entire refrigerator cases were devoted to margarine. Puerto Rico is a microcosm of relative exploita- the eco-village I hoped would illuminate Mom’s re- Meanwhile, most coconuts consumed by Americans are (Continued on Page 14) tirement. Here was community, nature, a human pace, coming from Asia. Organic growing is the default at the All Weavers Way stores will be CLOSED Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED REQUESTED SERVICE CHANGE Stores will CLOSE at 7 p.m. Dec. 24 www.weaversway.coop www.weaversway.coop and 8 p.m. Dec. 31. 559 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119 PA Philadelphia, Lane, Carpenter 559 Weavers Way Cooperative Association Cooperative Way Weavers HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2 THE SHUTTLE December 2017 Editor’s What’s in Store at Weavers Way Note l 5 THINGS Five Things is a service of Weavers Way. Because there’s nothing that can’t be improved by something you bought at the Co-op! Jeremy Freymoyer is ready for the season at his tree farm in Berks County. n These Trees Grow in Pennsylvania by Mary Sweeten, Editor, Weavers Way Shuttle Five Things…To Ward Off the Cold For the next few months, we’ll be doing battle with HRISTMAS TREES ARE A CROP, IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED. PENN- Csylvania is the fourth-biggest grower in the United States. In 2014, the the big chill. Here are some Co-op allies to keep you latest year for USDA statistics, some 839,000 Douglas firs, Fraser firs, con- warm inside and out. Selection may vary by store. color firs, canaan firs, blue spruces but not Scotch pines — see below — worth more than $22 million, were harvested by more than 280 Pennsylvania Christmas tree growers. Jeremy Freymoyer is the one who supplies them to Weavers Way. Cozy Wearables Last month, I visited Freymoyer Christmas Tree Farm. It’s on 125 acres at 1 For your top half, scarves from Rising the base of the Blue Mountain, outside Hamburg. In Freymoyer’s family since Tide, Terra and Andes Gifts. Hats, the 1920s, it was planted in apples then. The U.S. commercial Christmas tree headbands, arm warmers, mittens and industry only dates from around 1900, and Freymoyer’s family first planted fingerless gloves or two-way gloves some in the ’30s. Growing Christmas trees isn’t Freymoyer’s living — the Wy- from Andes Gifts and Shupaca. For omissing, Berks County, resident has “a few irons in the fire,” including rental legs and tootsies, Maggie’s snuggle properties in nearby Reading and an escape room he’s about to open with a part- socks, ankle leggings (Ambler only) and ner. (Check it out: Encrypted Escape West Reading at www.encryptedwr.com.) wool sweater socks; Down to Earth But he’ll still get around to harvesting 1,500-1,800 trees — 80 percent slipper socks; slippers for guys and gals of them in one grueling late-November week — for his choose-and-cut op- from Feelgoodz. eration and a few wholesale customers, including us. Commercial Christmas trees, Pancake Mixes which is to say evergreens of species 2 that can be coaxed to grow in the shape MuMu Magic in bulk in Ambler and of a Christmas tree, aren’t native to our Mt. Airy, Madhava Organic in bulk on Appalachian ridges. Freymoyer adheres Carpenter Lane. Boxes or bagged mixes to integrated pest management practices from Arrowhead Mills, Birch Benders — he spreads no lime before its time! and Kodiak Cakes. Also, gluten-free — but the western Douglas firs need a concoctions from Maple Grove Farms, fungicide and the Carolina Fraser firs King Arthur Flour, Arrowhead Mills, will succumb to mites and scale if he Pamela’s and Bob’s Red Mill. doesn’t apply a pesticide. Everything ROAD TRIP has to be fertilized, and “you can’t real- ly get a manure spreader in there.” Buying a tree at the Co-op is 3 Tea for Many easy and a good deal at $36 “The blue spruce, you can get for a 5-foot Douglas fir, but away without spraying,” Freymoyer Twenty nine bulk choices in Mt. Airy, if you want something else, said, noting that Weavers Way Ambler 20 in Ambler, eight in the Hill. Scads or something bigger, or has ordered some of these “no-chemi- of boxed varieties from Numi, Tazo, you’re just into that choose- cal” (air quotes his) trees. The Scotch Rishi, Equal Exchange and Yogi, among and-cut thing, Freymoyer pine, introduced from Europe, the tree- others. And don’t be shy about chai; Christmas Tree Farm is lot standard of my youth? “Too pesty. we’ve got brands in each store. offering Weavers Way Nobody grows them anymore.” members $5 off any tree In other words, a crop of Christ- over $45. Get directions and mas trees requires intense manage- 4 Soup for All hours at www.facebook. ment. “I guess you could grow an or- com/freymoyertreefarm. ganic Christmas tree, if there wasn’t Our Prepared Foods creations are It’s a beautiful spot (and another Christmas tree within 30 amazing. But after hours, try packaged just down the road from miles,” Freymoyer said. versions from Amy’s, Bar Harbor, Pacific, Imagine, Wolfgang Puck and Cabela’s, in fact, and I Nevertheless, something wonderful recommend the aquarium if has been going on at Freymoyer Christ- Health Valley Organic. Or make your you’ve never been there). mas Tree Farm. Only about 20 acres own with bean-soup mixes from North —Mary Sweeten is actually in Christmas trees.