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      • Community Food Co-op, Downtown Store, 1220 North Forest Street at Holly StreetDowntown Store
        1220 North Forest Street at Holly Street
        Bellingham, Washington
        8 am - 9 pm
        360-734-8158
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        315 Westerly Road at Cordata Parkway
        Bellingham, Washington
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You are here: Home / Archives for salt

Stone Fruit & Halloumi Summer Salad

by Lisa Samuel, Co-op News contributor

stone fruit, halloumi, salad, summer, organic, healthy, recipe

This salad is a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of summer! And it’s the place to break out the good flaky sea salt. That little bit of salty crunch is perfect! For those unfamiliar with Halloumi, it is a mild, firm, white cheese used especially in cooked dishes. The Mt. Vikos Halloumi carried at the Co-op is imported from Cyprus and made from sheep’s milk.

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS
  • 8 ounces halloumi, sliced
  • 2 nectarines, sliced
  • 2 peaches, sliced
  • 1 cup cherries, halved and pitted
  • 2 avocados, sliced
  • Zest and juice of one lemon
  • Flaky sea salt, to taste
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes, to taste
  • Fresh herbs (like parsley, cilantro, basil, or savory), to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
METHOD
  1. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the halloumi slices in a single layer and cook a few minutes on each side, until golden brown. Remove from the heat and let cool.
  2. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl except for the avocado. Gently fold the ingredients together to coat the fruit and cheese with the lemon and olive oil. Add the avocado and top with additional sea salt and olive oil, if desired. Serve immediately.

Note: You can use any fresh herbs you like in this recipe. I especially love savory right now.

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PRODUCE| RECIPES cheese| crunchy| halloumi| recipe| salad| salt| stone fruit| summer

San Juan Island Sea Salt

sea salt maker building farmer on salt farm

Salt maker Brady Ryan collecting the harvest on his salt farm.

Photos by Dave Hanson

by Laura Steiger, Outreach Team

What do you get when you combine sea water, greenhouses, and sunshine? San Juan Island Sea Salt!

That’s what Brady Ryan discovered, long after his less-successful initial childhood attempts at making sea salt on his parent’s stove. I’ve got to hand it to him—as a kid growing up on San Juan Island and pondering possible homemade gifts, sea salt was a pretty brilliant idea.

No longer relying on the kitchen stove, San Juan Island Sea Salt is produced using solar energy.

Seawater is filtered and collected into 3-inch-deep ponds inside passive greenhouses. It takes 3 to 6 weeks for the sun to finish a batch, and each greenhouse produces 200 to 300 pounds of salt per batch.

Most brands of sea salt, produced by an energy-intensive process of boiling off the water, are almost entirely pure sodium chloride (NaCl), but the ocean is only about 80 to 85 percent NaCl. San Juan Island Sea Salt’s evaporative process retains the mineral wealth of the sea resulting in wonderfully wild and briny flavored salt.

sea salt maker tub at San Juan Island

The salt is transferred to drying racks where moisture levels are carefully monitored before the salt is ground and packaged.

An interesting by-product of this process is the production of nigari, also called bittern. Nigari is used as a coagulant in the making of tofu, and the salt farm sells it to people who want to make their own homemade tofu. Who knew?

After careful monitoring to achieve the preferred moisture content, San Juan Island Sea Salt is ground to a consistency similar to fleur de sel. The irregular crystal size, lots of minerality, and a slight moisture content make it ideal as a finishing salt to sprinkle atop your baked goods, meats, vegetables, chocolates and caramels, egg dishes, or pretty much anything that would benefit from a pinch of salt. Of course, you can also use San Juan Island Sea Salt in recipes, just like any common salt.

Due to a combination of the trace minerals in the salt and our wet climate (and steamy kitchens), it’s completely natural if your San Juan Island Sea Salt gets a tiny bit clumpy. When needed, just give the jar a quick whack to loosen and sprinkle on the salty riches of the sea.

From the Salt Maker

Our theory in salting is plain: The simpler the food, the more powerfully our salt impacts your experience of it. With that in mind, here are some of our favorite ways to harness the flavor of the sea.

  • Fresh cherry tomatoes with salt and vinegar
  • Avocado on toast with salt
  • Salt on a fried egg
  • Salt on a fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookie
  • Salt with nutritional yeast on popcorn

Take a virtual tour of the salt farm and be amazed by the wondrous beauty of salt crystal formations at sanjuanislandseasalt.com.

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GROCERY local| salt| washington

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package of tortillas con madre tortillas locally made in bellingham washington

A Visit To Tortillas Con Madre

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo early this year by visiting one of our favorite local companies, Tortillas Con Madre! Hear Lupita’s story and check out behind the scenes footage of production day at the tortilla factory.

eggnog cocktail with local eggnog and whiskey

Make Holiday Cocktails Using Local Ingredients

Learn how to make two festive cocktails using local ingredients! Find everything you need to make these delicious drinks at the Co-op.

Moving from Fairhaven on Harris Avenue to downtown on State Street in October 1982

Celebrating 50 Years of Good. Local. Food.

The Community Food Co-op has its origins in that season of love and change, summer of 1969. Don Alford offered up his tiny little garage and a local food-buying club was born.

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DOWNTOWN STORE & DELI • map • 360-734-8158 • 8 am – 9 pm; deli service counter closes at 7 pm
CORDATA STORE & DELI • map • 360-734-8158 • 8 am – 9 pm; deli service counter closes at 7 pm

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