Littleton Food Co-op is working with locally-owned Pearl Lake Distributors to bring Cooperatively-sourced Organic Italian wines to our shelves. Cantina di Montecarotto (shortened to Moncaro) was formed by some family farmers in 1964 to share resources and growing techniques. Eventually they opened what is now the original Moncaro winery in the 70’s, and have since expanded to 3 wineries.
Traditionally, most farmers would own a few acres of their own vineyards, which were then harvested to make wine at home. By banding together in a co-op, the farmers could instead sell their own grapes for a good price, working their own land and being paid fairly for their work.
Each farmer family in the co-op gets one vote, whether they own 1 hectare or 1000. (Most own 1 to 2 hectares, with an estimated 1,000 owners.) Each year, co-op owners sell all their grapes to the co-op, which is committed to buying them. Quality standards determine the price, which is higher than the market price. The owners elect a board to run the co-op.
Moncaro farmers have been cultivating organic grapes since 1980. The co-op works on innovative projects to help the environment in collaboration with the University of Ancona; current projects include studying new cultivation techniques (using seashell extracts in place of copper on the fields) and finding new production techniques to reduce the use of sulfites. They use an innovative system to recycle waste water and also recycle other materials, and use renewable energy at the winery. And they are certified as a socially responsible work environment.
We have a few varieties of Moncaro wines in the Co-op now and we’ll be adding more as time goes on. This is yet another way that your Co-op works with other Co-ops to help small family farms survive! Stop by and taste some of these wines at the Littleton Food Co-op on Saturday December 21st from 12-3pm.
Downeast Ciders are one of the Co-op’s most popular hard ciders, in part because they are unfiltered. Arriving this week is their Winter Blend seasonal, just in time for our first snowfall.
Halloween is just around the corner and the Co-op always tries to get in that Haunted spirit. In that vein, one of our favorite breweries, Allagash, has come out with a Haunted House Porter, darker than any ghoulish soul could imagine. Doomed by a love of pitch-black Porters and their Allagash House Beer, they summoned the recipe for Haunted House. Roasted Barley and Blackprinz malt curse this beer with a gravely dark hue. Hopped with Crystal, Chinook, and Saaz hops, this beer ends with a ghost of coffee-flavored bitterness and hauntingly complex malty palate. Is it a coincidence that the ABV is 6.66%? I think not. So get in that Halloween Spirit and pick up a 4 pack of Allagash Haunted House at the Co-op today. 
White stouts are something we’re seeing more and more of in the beer world.
In our last week of Eat (and drink) Local Month, I’m reviewing Bluet Charmat from Maine. Made entirely from Wild Maine Blueberries, Bluet Charmat is vinted in Jefferson, Maine. Thoreau called wild blueberries “bluets” and wrote of their “innocent ambrosial taste, as if made of the ether itself”. Bluet wild blueberry sparkling wine captures summer in Maine with the purity of a single ingredient: native Maine wild blueberries. Using the Charmat Method (the same method that produces Prosecco) Bluet is brightly and bubbly with vivid fresh berry aroma. A chilled glass of Bluet makes a fine dry apéritif on its own, but also as the foundation of a sparkling cocktail, Bluet has an affinity for a variety of ingredients. Try Bluet with a splash of triple sec over crushed ice and a sprig of mint, or give it an old-fashioned treatment with rye whiskey, simple syrup and bitters. If you can get your hands on some mead, pour over ice, squash a lemon and float Bluet on top for a perfect peak-of-summer drink.This is truly a Northern New England original, now available at the Littleton Food Co-op.
