Bushel & Peck’s – Not Your Average Grocer

I’ve been looking for stories that articulate the uniqueness of Bushel & Peck’s. Not just a grocery store, not just a café, not just an ordinary place. There are many things that make the store unique; a focus on local foods, a sense of community, home made products, unique choices from fancy foods to cheap bulk items. There’s a lot that’s unique. One thing that struck me as really unusual the other day is our recycling program. More specifically, our composting program…..it is pretty fancy and really sustainable.

So it goes like this. And I found it sort of funny last night on my drive home. Yesterday, Jeff, a student at Beloit College started his job as Vice President of Dishwashing. His last job for the night is to take out the trash. So he does… except for the one, usual, large black plastic bag that is placed behind my 1999 Saturn Station Wagon. (It is placed there so I don’t forget it, which I have been known to do) He tells me just before we’re leaving that the big bag of garbage the staff told him to put outside is behind my car. That it is heavy and ready to burst. Then he sort of asks, “Why do you take the garbage home?” – or something like that… and I explain.

“I take the scraps home and feed them to my chickens. They love them. Today they’re getting all the vegetable extras and we shaved and froze corn so they’re getting corn cobs too! They’ll be so excited!” He looks at me a bit perplexed….but pleased. I continue, “ Every morning on my way out to the store I open the chicken door and they all run out to get the stuff that comes out of the bag. They’ve come to expect it.”

And then I explain that the chickens are our egg layers. The eggs we sell in the store. It’s really a pretty cool cycle. We grow food in soil fertilized by chickens, the food gets transported to the store. It is washed, cut and made into something delicious in the café. The scraps go into the compost can and then back into the chickens. The chickens lay eggs. The nutrition from the eggs comes from the food scraps from the café…very cool. Very unique. I don’t think Walmart or Cub or frankly any store can claim to be so sustainable. Just one of many things that make it unique.

And it will only get better…..

The real bread

Local, organically grown potatoes and onions.

The wine selection

Customers in the cafe

Organic and Gluten Free Baking Items

Condiments and Sauces – NO High Fructose Corn Syrup

In addition to our regular menu, we’ve added several breakfast items for Saturday. This weekend, our first Sunday brunch will be served. Watch for the menu on Sunday morning. We’ll have ten fabulous items to choose from on the menu…should be fun! See you then.

Bread from Bob McQuade of Arena Wisconsin is a permanent item at the store now. His breads include authentic rustic Italian breads and dense whole grain and seeded bread. They come twice weekly and sell out pretty fast. Pie from D’s is back at the lunch counter. More house made salads in the deli case. New tables are coming to the cafe this week so we can have additional seats.
Also, last Saturday we carried Kaufmann’s baked goods because they couldn’t be at the market. When the farmers’ market season is over we may add their products to the regular line up. In the wine department, we’ve added twelve new wines. Watch the website early next week when we announce our event schedule which includes wine tastings and other fun events. See you at the store!

Meet the maker! Here’s Bob the bread maker and Jackie of Bushel & Peck’s at a farmers market.

Interesting article…shot for local first, then US organic

Bushel & Peck’s has been open a whole three weeks now. We’re still busy stocking the shelves with new and exciting products. This week we introduced a few house made salads to the deli case. We’ve added pasta salad, potato salad, pesto pasta and hummus. The hummus is so good, our first batch was gone in 6 hours. We’ll make more! The deli case also holds some mighty fine olives (imported, not local, but so tasty!) If you need fresh mozzarella, there’s some in the case as well as the Crave Brothers cheese in the dairy section. Both Wisconsin made. Fairly soon we’ll be adding bulk cheeses to the deli case.

Products that are new this week in the store include a greek style yogurt, which we can’t seem to keep on the shelves. Glass bottle milk is now available in skim, 2% and whole.

We’ve added the cafe menu to the website, so you can check daily to see what we’re offering.

If you ever have a special request for an item, let us know – we’re happy to locate it.

Welcome to the store blog! A catalog of happenings and current topics at the store.