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These are just some of the wonderful local and regional vendors we work with every day! |
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Taylor with Sassy Cows |
Outpost Stocks 21 varieties of Sassy Cow milk products! |
Sassy Cow Creamery
Columbus, Wisconsin
Miles to Market – 76
Love Letter to a Dairy
Dear friends at Sassy Cow Creamery,
Like most new relationships, I was excited at first. Although you felt familiar, I didn’t really know you, and that was thrilling and a bit scary. But I’ve grown to love your refined taste, your creaminess and your consistency. And please don’t think I’m too forward if I say, you’re especially good when you’re chillin’.
I think what sealed the deal for me was knowing that you actually name each of your cows. Did you know that recently British scientists discovered that cows with names produce more milk? I bet it’s because a dairy that actually names their cows really loves their cows, and the attention and care they shower on them really matters. Like people, cows just feel better with personal one-on-one attention! Gosh, I love that about you guys.
I can hardly wait for spring. I’m planning on visiting your family farm with my friends and stopping by your retail store. Rumor has it you have ice cream there and even offer cow trading cards!
Oh, Sassy Cow, I could go on and on, but let me just say thank-you for offering a wholesome and authentic alternative to mass-produced dairy products. And thanks for taking such good care of the ‘girls’.
Your Biggest Fan,
Outpost Natural Foods
Spirit Creek Farm
Cornucopia, Wisconsin
Miles to Market – 377
Just off of State Highway 33 way up north is a picturesque farm tucked in the woods. Spirit Creek runs through it, watering the plants and wildlife that find make there homes there. The farmers, Andrew & Jennifer Sauter Sargent work the land with their family growing vegetables using organic farming practices. They use these same vegetables and quality organically grown vegetables from other area growers to produce some of the best lacto-fermented products we’ve ever tasted!
Sprecher Brewing Company
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Miles to Market - 5
The origins of my beer geekery trace back prior to this, but the geek in me was certainly reinforced when I had the honor of attending the very first tour at Sprecher Brewing Company late in 1985. Sprecher was the first microbrewery in Milwaukee, and is now one of the biggest craft breweries in the State. Sprecher Brewing now makes about 15 different beers, not including their limited release beers, and also produce 7 different soda flavors. Almost twenty years after their opening, Sprecher Brewing won several individual medals for their beers, and was named small brewery of the year at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival. We’re fortunate to have such a highly recognized craft brewery here in the City that means beer.
Local doesn’t get much closer than a popping a cold one from Sprecher!
Jim Surwillo, Outpost’s beer & wine buyer
Stone’s Throw Winery
Egg Harbor, Wisconsin
Miles to market – 171
Just a Stone's Throw Away
In September, I had the privilege of touring the Stone's Throw Winery in Egg Harbor. It's a beautiful facility, in a beautiful setting, but more importantly, they are making world-class wines. The winemaker, Russell Turco showed me the winery, which has undergone several expansions in the 8 years they've been in business, due to enviable growth. In addition to the wines carried year round here at Outpost - Field Blend Red, Field Blend White, and Beatrice Rosé - we will be featuring two new wines for the December holidays.
If you can't make it to Door County any time soon, pick up some of their fine offerings at an Outpost location near you!
Jim Surwillo, beer & wine purchaser
Carr Valley Cheese
La Valle, Wisconsin
Miles to Market - 148
Why we love Sid
Sid is the Willy Wonka of cheesemakers with more than 65 cheeses on his production schedule! Carr Valley offers everything from their one-of-a-kind artisan Gran Canaria cheese to blocks of cheddar. No matter what your cheese craving is, chances are Carr Valley makes it!
Sid supports local agriculture by sourcing his milk from 40 dairy farms nestled within 20 miles of his factory. His sheep milk comes from a single dairy that sources its milk from the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Co-op. His goat milk is from 8 small farms in the Green Bay area.
Bring Carr Valley home with you
You’ll moon over Cocoa Cardona cheese! This luscious goat milk creation is covered in cocoa powder and black pepper and is even more delicious served with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. You laugh now, but wait until you try it! And for those of you afraid of sheep’s milk cheese, Marisa is the cheese for you. It has a fresh “milky” flavor with a floral, mineral-like finish – akin to the finish of a great French wine. Which by the way would pair elegantly with this fine table cheese. We carry many varieties of Carr Valley cheese at all three of our stores. What are you waiting for?
Growing Power
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Miles to Market - 5.1
Why we love Will
Green Acres is alive and well and thriving on Milwaukee’s Northwest side! Will Allen, founder of Growing Power, an urban farm in Milwaukee, not only grows food, but grows farmers: Growing Power teaches thousands of people every year to create and maintain urban gardens/farms.
One visit to Growing Power’s farm on 55th and Silverspring will change your life forever. You can witness passion for farming, learn a thing or two about urban gardening and support the cause of making wholesome food available to the food-insecure population.
Bring Growing Power home with you
You’ll taste the difference extreme local makes when you try some of Will’s sustainably raised salad greens, arugula, watercress or spouts from our produce departments. And for those of you starting to plan your summer garden or boosting up your houseplants, we’ll be selling Growing Power’s Worm Castings too. Comprised of some of Milwaukee’s favorite waste products – hops from Lake Front Brewery, coffee beans from Alterra coffee roasters and trimmings from Growing Power’s plants and magically transformed by our wiggly worm friends, it’s just the juju you need for healthy plants.
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In MemoriamOwner Greg Roth unexpectedly passed away on October 10, 2009. All of us here at Outpost are greatly saddened by this news and we will miss our friend dearly. Greg's wife, Debra, will continue on with the business. |
Uncured Natural Meats
Juneau, Wisconsin
Miles to Market - 50.3
Why we love Greg and Deb
Okay, so the name of their succulent sausage isn’t sexy and the packaging is more cottage than city, but we love the authenticity of their distinctive products. Instead of the industry standard of corn syrup, liquid smoke and MSG, Greg and Deb developed a natural line of beef sausage seasoned with garlic, herbs, spices and mineral-rich Himalayan salt all tucked in a natural casing. Plus, all of the beef they use is from Wisconsin and their ‘blue label’ line features 100% Wisconsin grass fed beef!
Bring Uncured Natural Meats home with you
Their summer sausage is the first nitrate-free one we’ve ever seen and boy oh boy is it good! They worked a long time to perfect the recipe and it shows. We also love that there is natural alternative to “Slim-Jim’s”, their Snack Stick – perfect for road trips!
A Good Egg
Shullsburg, Wisconsin
Dean Dickel didn’t set out to be an egg farmer. In fact, several years ago he was happily growing conventional grains in Iowa. But then something funny started to happen – he and his family started feeling poorly. Now most farmers would shrug and say “We’re just a little run down”, but not Dean. He started to wonder if the chemicals that were so effective in stopping insect infestations and fertilizing the soil might in fact be sickening his clan. It was after this realization that Dean vowed to do whatever he could in his lifetime to eliminate potentially toxic pesticides and fertilizers.
The Dickel’s commitment to organic practices begins with the baby chicks, who are fed certified organic corn and soybeans, vitamins and minerals. Throughout their life on the farm, the chickens never receive antibiotics or any other drugs or additives. And the Dickel’s chickens enjoy three times more roaming space than in most conventional egg operations - double the space required for chickens advertised as “free range” and “cage free” in fact.
Not content to offer mere ‘organic’ eggs, the family gathers, processes, and packages them immediately right on the farm so they’re super fresh and handled with the same care each happy chicken put in to them.
The family sums it up best, “If you want a fresher egg, you’ll have to get your own chickens!”
Northstar Bison
Better than Beef!
Located in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Northstar is family owned and operated. Lee and Mary Graese raise their bison without the use of hormones and antibiotics and ensure that they are 100% grass-fed. The Graeses harvest a portion of pasture grass each year, allow it to dry in the sun, and then use it to supplement winter grazing. With more than12 years experience raising their herd with respect for the land and the animals, they ensure that great care is taken to ensure the bison enjoy a healthy, humane, low- stress environment throughout their lifetime.
Uplands Cheese
A Dodgeville, Wisconsin Award Winner
The owners of Uplands Cheese believe that the old methods of farming produce better tasting cheese. They realized that their farm’s milk had unique flavor properties due to the fresh grasses, herbs and wildflowers upon which the cows graze. So began the development of Pleasant Ridge Reserve Gruyere cheese.
They start with unpasteurized cows milk to produce a cheese reminiscent of French Gruyere style cheeses. They age the cheese in a cold room that is controlled to the same temperature and humidity as the limestone caves in southeastern France and wash the rind with a brine solution containing the natural bacteria found in those same caves. The uplands area of western Wisconsin is characterized by rolling hills (or ridges) and valleys. Being within the northern portion of the tallgrass prairie, the soils are ideally adapted to producing the grasses and forbs that happy cows love.
In this age of industrialized food production, Uplands offers a hand-crafted product using ancient methods that produce flavor and quality that is never compromised in the drive for mass production and labor efficiency.
Omanhene
Chocolate Flavored with Fairness
There's a reason why European and American chocolatiers have prized Ghana's beautiful and delicious cocoa beans. Not only are the growing conditions excellent but farmers carefully harvest high-quality pods by hand, then ferment the beans between banana leaves right on the forest floor. Then the beans dry in the toasty African sun.
But all is not sunny when it comes to the chocolate business, and Steven Wallace, founder of Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, wanted an opportunity to combine his interest in cocoa and his love of Ghana into a winning business.
Unlike many other chocolate producers, Omanhene provides a sunny road to cocoa production by ensuring higher revenues and, consequently, higher wages for both factory workers and the cocoa farmers. And true to Steve's roots, Omanhene chocolates, truly an affordable gourmet experience, are distributed from Milwaukee.
According to the Web site, Omanhene dark milk chocolate ingots contain more chocolate liquor – the non-alcoholic essence of the cocoa bean – than any other milk chocolate in the world. The word Omanhene (oh-mahn-hee-nee) comes from the Twi language and is the title for the traditional king or chief, the repository of ethical and moral authority in Ghana.
From local to global and back again, this ethical, delicious chocolate lives up to its name.
Maple Valley Syrup
Sustainable Products, Organic Quality
What do you pour on your pancakes? If you love that real maple flavor consider serving up your flapjacks with a little cooperative on the side—Maple Valley Syrup!
Located in Westby, Wisconsin, this maple supplier delivers 100% pure and organically produced maple products to our stores. They also select woodland farmers whose standards represent stewardship to the environment and our planet to ensure a socially and economically responsible commodity.
Every year they meet with their maple co-op and individual farmers to determine a fair price. And because of this close relationship with their farmers, they're able to ensure high standards of quality and consistency.
Now some people say that organic maple syrup is the same as any maple syrup, and that just isn't so. Organic syrup guarantees that no pesticides or chemicals were used to manage the forest. The same organic standards for field crops apply to a maple forest. It also means that no formaldehyde has been used in tree tapping. And organic standards also limit the number of taps in maple trees so the forest stays healthy.
When you add it up—fair prices for the farmers, thriving cooperatives and a healthy forest—Maple Valley Syrup is the sweetest way to start your day!
Stone’s Throw Winery
Egg Harbor, Wisconsin
Miles to market – 171
Just a Stone's Throw Away
In September, I had the privilege of touring the Stone's Throw Winery in Egg Harbor. It's a beautiful facility, in a beautiful setting, but more importantly, they are making world-class wines. The winemaker, Russell Turco showed me the winery, which has undergone several expansions in the 8 years they've been in business, due to enviable growth. In addition to the wines carried year round here at Outpost - Field Blend Red, Field Blend White, and Beatrice Rosé - we will be featuring two new wines for the December holidays.
If you can't make it to Door County any time soon, pick up some of their fine offerings at an Outpost location near you!
Jim Surwillo, beer & wine purchaser
Note
Our miles to market distances were calculated to our Capitol Drive location.