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Whole Foods, an Austin-Based Store with Over 400 Locations in the U.S. and U.K. - Being Purchased by Amazon for $13.7 Billion


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Farro is emmer wheat (triticum dicoccum), not spelt (triticum spelta) which is a different type of wheat. The Italian word is frequently mistranslated as "spelt", though some argue that Italians simply refer to both types of grain as "farro". The former's an ancient grain documented in Egypt and the Mesopotamian world, while spelt grew in ancient European regions. There might be some hybrid crops in Italy.

To add to this:

Il farro è stato l'alimento base degli Assiri, Egizi e di tutti i popoli antichi del Medio Oriente e del Nord Africa.

Secondo recenti studi il luogo di origine dovrebbe essere la Palestina, dove è tutt'ora diffusa una specie spontanea di farro (triticum dicoccoides), da questa regione grazie ai pastori nomadi, si pensa che la coltivazione sia stata portata in tutte le regione allora conosciute.

Luciano Mignolli,
il FARRO e le sue ricette
, (Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazzi Editore, 1991)

i.e. it appears to have originated in Palestine.

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At the Clarendon Whole Foods, I noticed a week or so ago that they have new glass bulk jars of salts, peppercorns, and dried mushrooms at the cheese counter. They have French grey sea salt, Flowers of Bali salt, rocks of Himalayan pink salt, Hiwa Kai black sea salt, Alaea Hawaiian red sea salt, Salish Washington state alderwood smoked sea salt, Japanese comet tail peppercorns, Balinese long peppercorns, dried naturally grown morels, dried organic porcini, and dried naturally grown matsutake. The Himalayan pink salt was $7.99/pound, and I don't know the prices of the others. I bought a hunk of the Himalayan pink salt but haven't tried grating it yet.

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Also worth noting is the price on chanterelle mushrooms for the past two weeks: $14.99 a pound!!!

The first time I gathered some and told the check-out clerk what they were, she said she didn't know the code, so she'd charge me for cremini instead. :( This past Saturday, the uninformed clerk asked a colleague, but the price was still great. You have to forage around in the piles since the quality is uneven. However, they're still absolutely delicious.

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Also worth noting is the price on chanterelle mushrooms for the past two weeks: $14.99 a pound!!!

Yeah, that was awesome. My brother found some for even less at a Cosco (in the Northeast) that he served up at Thanksgiving. I was thrilled to find that the P St store had them available in abundance on Sunday.

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Also worth noting is the price on chanterelle mushrooms for the past two weeks: $14.99 a pound!!!
Yeah, that was awesome. My brother found some for even less at a Cosco (in the Northeast) that he served up at Thanksgiving.

My pre-Thanksgiving visit to the Pentagon City Costco last Monday was a disappointment, Chanterelle-wise. The price was still an amazing $8.99 a pound, but alas they did not appear to be in good condition. I looked through many boxes, but they all looked bad. Didn't see Richard Perle or Sally Quinn, either. I made do with crimini and porcini powder.

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My pre-Thanksgiving visit to the Pentagon City Costco last Monday was a disappointment, Chanterelle-wise. The price was still an amazing $8.99 a pound, but alas they did not appear to be in good condition. I looked through many boxes, but they all looked bad. Didn't see Richard Perle or Sally Quinn, either. I made do with crimini and porcini powder.
I only seem to run into my neighbors when I'm at Costco, none of whom are huge power players :(. I bought a pack of chanterelles shortly after you first mentioned their availability there, but my next trip back they did not look so great and I passed. The ones I bought were pretty good and certainly better than anything else I could get at that price.

I thought the mushrooms at the old Pinecrest/Landmark WF location were pretty good, and there was an employee there who was a huge mushroom enthusiast. He used to get me to try new mushrooms and give suggestions on preparation. He was supposed to move over to the new Old Town store when that one closed, but I never saw him again. He had described a great new mushroom section that was to be in the new store, and I haven't found it to be a whole lot better most of the time than at the old Pinecrest store. I still have not found chanterelles at the Old Town store this year. Will be checking again tomorrow.

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P Street has superior meat department and bulk foods in comparison w G'town.

The Meat folk at G'town are super nice and even responsive, e.g. ordering a mega-ton of smoked ham hocks when I remarked that there was only one shank and no hocks. However, they often out of the things I want, or simply don't stock them. I pointed to the raw sausage meat that fell into the sauerkraut and now there simply is a taller physical barrier between the two neighbors.

P St. had not only the turkey wings I wanted to make stock, but usually has the backs and necks of chicken I don't recall seeing elsewhere, though I had to buy a frozen package. There was a small, tied pork butt on sale, something I don't think I've ever purchased at Whole Foods before; I used to pay more for shoulder chops when making a stew.

And this past week, I saw that the place is selling goat: shanks, etc.

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I continue to wish that the house made sausages at Whole Foods were salted properly and didn't smell off every other time I buy them. Our breakfast sausages (purchased yesterday afternoon) were spoiled, and the rest of the package is going back today. :mellow: If the Silver Spring meat counter disappoints me one more time they will be losing my business.

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I continue to wish that the house made sausages at Whole Foods were salted properly and didn't smell off every other time I buy them. Our breakfast sausages (purchased yesterday afternoon) were spoiled, and the rest of the package is going back today. :mellow: If the Silver Spring meat counter disappoints me one more time they will be losing my business.

Never had a problem with the sausage, but about two months ago I returned two whole chickens (not the Bell & Evans, the other organic ones) that were horribly spoiled from the Clarendon store. Then just yesterday, I returned one to the Old Town store whose odor had been masked a little by the pre-seasoning. That was particularly a pain because I was with my baby and we live in Arlington. To their credit I was refunded the cost and they gave me a fresh bird for free. It seems that these stores are so busy that they turn over their inventory so quickly, and spoilage is never an issue. Evidence to the contrary.

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While I constantly curse the day that I moved out to the suburbs, I at least have the new Whole Foods in Fair Lakes to be thankful for. It has been open for a bit less than a month now and I can say that I have already been there five or six times to eat, which is what happens when you tell your friends that you like it and they ask you to come along with them.

The size is obviously a selling point for me, lots more space means they get to carry a lot more products, which I appreciate. The "restaurants" that they have there are good as well. The barbeque joint is just OK, but the amount of food that you get when you order "The Kitchen Sink" is absurd for the $13 price tag. But, since I tend to shy away from above average food, even for a good price, I have eaten most often at the seafood place that they have. A Tilapia BLT on Texas Toast with Fries is well worth the $8. I also have had pretty good food at the Asian grill that they have there.

Anyway, I could go on for a long time about this place, but I will talk about the highlight and the lowlight. Highlight first...

The wine tasting room upstairs is just plain cool. The fact that you can taste from a $600 bottle of wine if you want to is awesome. The fact that you can get 1, 3 or 5 ounce pours is great as well. And the variety, between 70 and 80 bottles, is a nice treat. Personally, I have been to no place quite like this, so it is nice to have around, even if you can drop $50 there on an evening in a blink of an eye.

Now, the lowlight of the new Whole Foods...

It looks like the Italian "restaurant" that they have at the store is the featured eating venue in the place. It is somewhat separated from the rest of the hustle and bustle of the store and has much more seating for everyone. I haven't eaten there yet, but the menu has looked very creative for a "restaurant" in Whole Foods (think pumpkin ravioli and ricotta gnocchi). Anyway, we went last night to try to Italian place and the menu was half the size it used to be with pizza being the highlight along with a few sandwiches (meatball sub, etc.) and some basic pastas (spaghetti with meatballs). In my state of confusion I asked the lady that worked there about the new, smaller and less creative menu and she told me that they wanted to simplify it because those cooler, more creative and more tasty items weren't selling at all. How? Don't ask me, but I guess that is the upside (bigger space to build a cool store) and downside (plain vanilla customers) of being in the suburbs.

Overall, the place is great though, may be a fun day trip for city dwellers to make at some point.

I haven't been to many of the "restaurant" in Whole Foods recently, not because I have grown sick of it, but because they have begun to falter since they opened. The Italian one is now closed, they use it almost as a storage area for extra crap that they are trying to sell. The barbeque one hasn't changed much, it is still average, and the Asian on that they have has become more inconsistent. The seafood one, at least in my opinion, is still the best, but it also 1) is the most crowded, making service spotty and 2) gone up in price some since it opened.

Like I said a year ago, it is still a nice concept, but the "restaurants" aren't quite as good as they used to be.

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Interesting reading, I don't think I had any idea how thorough the regulations were. Since prices are comprable between WF meat and farmer's market meat, it seems that the difference boils down to

1) WF producers are larger farms (anyone know if that's an accurate statement?) that can balance the overhead of WF regulations with the economies of scale. Prices are high because of the WF regulations and the WF markup.

2) Farmer's Market producers are smaller farms that still have to deal with USDA regulations and the like, but can't afford the overhead of WF oversight. Prices are high because the economies of scale don't exist on a family farm.

3) Producers for other grocery chains (Safeway, Giant, etc) are large, industrial farms that don't have to worry about WF regulations, and can exploit massive economies of scale to drive prices down. Hence the $1.50/lb pork shoulder.

This requires some thought.

Side question: how much do the WF regulations affect the economies of scale when applied to a farmer raising animals for food? I imagine the space requirements go up, and certainly the whole process seems to require more human intervention (if they can't use antibiotics, etc)

Also, the WF Sustainable Seafood policy...any experts out there want to comment? Are they actually doing good things in this area?

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That was particularly a pain because I was with my baby and we live in Arlington. To their credit I was refunded the cost and they gave me a fresh bird for free. It seems that these stores are so busy that they turn over their inventory so quickly, and spoilage is never an issue.
I don't know if you've tried the Tyson's location, but I've not had any problems there so far (knock on wood), AND their meat dept. was more accommodating than the Clarendon locale when we were doing the raw diet with the dogs.

ETA: Getting the spacing thing down finally! :mellow:

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As a working member of the People's Food Co-op in Ann Arbor, I would stand at the cash register and bag items, one by one, as Susan rung them up.

Small with long, brown hair parted in the middle, wire-rim glasses, overalls, she'd hold up the produce and ask, "Conventional or organic?"

The pace is faster at Whole Foods, especially early on a busy Sunday afternoon when the store on P Street is packed. With around twelve bucks in my wallet after dropping by the farmer's market, I was selective and made sure I had enough to pick up some rhubarb at Safeway on the trek back home.

Therefore, I couldn't believe it when the cashier announced, "That will be $11.55." Bright sun made reading the computer screen above my head close to impossible. I paid, loaded up my shopping cart and stepped aside.

While I was charged for one item twice, the biggest error was made in coding in the beautiful, little, slender zucchini. Problem was that they were bare naked. No stickers. A shade of deep, dark green with nary a blemish, the things must have looked so perfect that the young guy figured they were organic and charged me three times the sale price.

So I went to the Customer Service desk and handed them over, explaining the mistake. The code for the conventional zucchini did not correct the error since the sale price had not been entered into the system, so I wasn't charged anything.

Solution?

Dip one end of all organic items in chocolate to distinguish them from conventional produce? Better than stickers that peel off skin with removal. Ask shoppers to load organic produce in prominently displayed florescent green bags and conventional produce in transparent ones?

I wonder if we could adapt the European system that one finds modified in the self-check aisles at Giant.

In Italy, you slip on disposable gloves to avoid handling produce with bare hands. When ready, you queue up at scales set up throughout the department and price all purchases before moving on to the dairy cases.

Shoppers are trusted to use the correct code for each item, but now that I think of it, the organic produce is found packaged and priced in one corner at the big Essalunga in Florence. The store doesn't trust shoppers to code in the higher prices charged for "biologico".

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When ready, you queue up at scales set up throughout the department and price all purchases before moving on to the dairy cases.

Shoppers are trusted to use the correct code for each item, but now that I think of it, the organic produce is found packaged and priced in one corner at the big Essalunga in Florence. The store doesn't trust shoppers to code in the higher prices charged for "biologico".

At Central Market stores in Texas, they have this system in place and it seemed to work well the time I was there. The problems arise from the less technologically-minded, or, perhaps, less-hurried folk who head to the checkout with nothing pre-priced. That can make for a bit of a hold up in the line because the checkers aren't trained to price things quickly. Or, at least, my checker wasn't trained to price things quickly. :mellow:

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Saturday, April 12th, 3pm EST, Whole Foods goes for the world record for Most Parmigiano Reggiano Wheels Ever Cracked at the same time.

World Record Cheese Crackin'

;)

I wish they'd portion the cheese as shown in the link, just cheese, no rind. We don't really like the rind. They cut the pieces so that every piece, no matter how oddly shaped, has rind attached.
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I wish they'd portion the cheese as shown in the link, just cheese, no rind. We don't really like the rind. They cut the pieces so that every piece, no matter how oddly shaped, has rind attached.

That's cause they paid for the wheel by the pound, including the rind, and they want you to pay for it all, too.

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I wish they'd portion the cheese as shown in the link, just cheese, no rind. We don't really like the rind. They cut the pieces so that every piece, no matter how oddly shaped, has rind attached.

You know, you'd think that somewhere, deep within the core of that cheese, there would be ONE piece without a rind - but I've yet to see any either!

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Rindless cowboys, I just don't get it.

Granted, I never buy the pieces that have rind on the top and on the sides, but you need one hard rind on the short end of a narrow wedge or hunk to hold onto while grating the cheese by hand.

Leftover rind goes into the freezer and then into soups for flavor.

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IN all my travels to Italy, I have never seen a rindless piece of cheese sold there. The rind guarantees the quality of the cheese. If a cheese is substandard, it has the rind "x-ed" out by the consorzio. There were retailers in the US who bought that cheese and had it cut without the outside rind (the part that is pin pricked withthe words Parmigiano Reggiano, the date of the cheese, the export quality brand and the number of the caseficio). It is this outside rind that is controlled by the consorzio and if your cheese doesn't have it, there is no way to know what you are buying.

And Zora is right. The cheese tastes the way it does because of the care and handling of the cheese as it ages so that the rind is an integral part. There is no way to minimize it. So the rind weight has to be paid for. If the cheese is cut in Italian fashion, it is split vertically into two semi cirsles, then split into quarters. Then these quarters are cut from center to edge so every piece has some of the "nose" - the moister center which is best cut off and eaten by itself, and the same portion of the rind. Americans tend not to like this style of cutting as the minimum size piece is usually about 1.1 pounds.

There are producers who make double sized cheeses and these just are not the same. They never develop a great flavor. I know of no high level cheese agent in Italy who deals in these cheeses, they are strictly made for export. Of course, there is more paste and less rind, but, frankly, who cares. It just ain't the real thing.

Just as when you buy a good piece of beef, if you have the outside fat trimmed off, the cost to the butcher is no less, so in the end you are paying the same or more for a well trimmed piece as you would for a less well trimmed piece. So buy your rinded reggiano with pride and make a pot of soup!

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You know, you'd think that somewhere, deep within the core of that cheese, there would be ONE piece without a rind - but I've yet to see any either!
I have that piece in my fridge right now, but it took me 2 years of shopping at WF to find it. After reading Dean's post, I won't complain about the rind anymore. I do wish they would cut the pieces a little smaller though.
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I take your point about the branding.

NYTimes article on using reggiano rinds. Doubt I'd add it to chicken soup but potato-rice soup with parmesan rind sounds good.

Cabbage, prosciutto & rice soup.

Savoy cabbage, chopped onions, prosciutto ends chopped up into small pieces, a little pancetta, boiled carnaroli rice. Sautee the pancetta until it renders its fat. Add chopped onions and sautee till soft but not colored. add the cabbage cut into smallish pieces (3/4" x 2-3") and stir it till it wilts. Add some water. Drop the reggiano rinds into the soup and simmer till the cabbage is meltingly soft. Adust salt & peper. Put some rice in the bottom of the bowl. Add the soup on top. A few grinds of fresh black pepper. Reggiano on top.

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Cabbage, prosciutto & rice soup.

Savoy cabbage, chopped onions, prosciutto ends chopped up into small pieces, a little pancetta, boiled carnaroli rice. Sautee the pancetta until it renders its fat. Add chopped onions and sautee till soft but not colored. add the cabbage cut into smallish pieces (3/4" x 2-3") and stir it till it wilts. Add some water. Drop the reggiano rinds into the soup and simmer till the cabbage is meltingly soft. Adust salt & peper. Put some rice in the bottom of the bowl. Add the soup on top. A few grinds of fresh black pepper. Reggiano on top.

Thanks Dean. I'll try making this tomorrow. I'm going to use green cabbage, though, as I have quite a bit of it left that I need to use.
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If you go to the meat counter (as I did at the Glover Park store this morning), and you see veal shoulder for $8.99 a pound, and you tell the counter attendant which piece you want, and he weighs it and wraps it and puts a price sticker on it and gives it to you, and you realize a moment later that it's rung up at $9.99 a pound, and you take it back to the counter to ask them, politely, to correct the error, should you expect to be treated like the biggest asshole in town?

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Are you referring to the coupon or the Post? Not a first for coupons, I dunno about the Post specifically.

Quite possibly it is a first for WF with a coupon in the Post--according to an "inside source" :lol: The coupon is at the bottom of the fold in today's Food section. Valid only until 05.26.08. (If there is a good response, then maybe WF will see there is an advantage to putting coupons in the Post and do more!)

On to another WF subject, any news on the expected arrival of the WFWF (White Flint Whole Foods?)

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At the Old Town WF entrance today, there was a large display of bi-color corn @ 8 for $1.99. Two big signs and ears in husks stacked high. Right next to the husk corn was packages with 3 ears each. Well, the bi-color corn is $.25 each, and I only need 3, and they're half shucked, so I picked up a pack.

It rang up @ $2.99. A dollar an ear and four times as much as the sam corn it sat next to-and no signs whatsoever that the packaged corn was 4x the price!

I went to customer service on the advice of a flumuxed cashier and had them credit me without any problem. "Gee, there wasn't a sign?"

"Well, actually there are two large signs which advertise the bi-color corn is 8 for $1.99, and there's no sign that the same exact corn in 3-packs is $2.99"

"Oh".

Hmmmmm :lol::lol:

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On to another WF subject, any news on the expected arrival of the WFWF (White Flint Whole Foods?)

It's gonna be a while. Early 2010? It isn't just a store-- it's a big underground parking garage and high-rise condos too. Right now it's just a big hole in the ground.

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Are you referring to the coupon or the Post? Not a first for coupons, I dunno about the Post specifically.
The coupon. Didn't know WFM did that sort of thing and do think it's great the company is spending money to support our local newspaper. Also wish the stores in the region would provide advance notice of specials for the week on the web site, too. Not that much lately, but I often make decisions about where to shop for the week based on specials I discover online.
Fresh fava beans are back. (Georgetown/Glover Park) $1.99 lb. Mexican. Have to pick through them quite a bit to find fat ones, but they're there.
Dear Regional Office: This is a good price for fava beans since you only get about 2/3 to 1 cup of double-shelled beans per pound of carefully selected pods. At Tenleytown today, the fava beans were $3.99. Ridiculous. Made do without.
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Dear Regional Office: This is a good price for fava beans since you only get about 2/3 to 1 cup of double-shelled beans per pound of carefully selected pods. At Tenleytown today, the fava beans were $3.99. Ridiculous. Made do without.

They were $1.99 at P St too.

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Whole Foods Tenleytown had several tables in the entryway area today manned by farmers and other vendors from close-in West Virginia. Picked up some yummy sweet (and not waterlogged) strawberries; just-right tomatoes; and a bag of coffee beans to try from "Black Dog Coffee Roasters" of Summit Point. Tables had assorted veggies, lettuces, meats, and baked goods. Vendors will be there Tuesdays from 2 to 7. One of them told me it is a Whole Foods effort to promote local suppliers.

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They were $1.99 at P St too.
Turns out the fava beans were incorrectly priced at $3.99. They were $2.99 #, Mexican, and sold as organic vs. conventional. Still didn't bite.
Whole Foods Tenleytown had several tables in the entryway area today manned by farmers and other vendors from close-in West Virginia.
I eyed the spring onions and spoke to one of the farmers who was wearing a FRESHFARM Market hat!!!! I've heard about some stores around the country doing this sort of thing: a way to increase the company's profile as a supporter of small farms (see its loan program) and local food. All quite interesting and the farmers seemed to be happy to be there, too.

As cool and important as the mini-market might be for shoppers to encounter before running into the store to pick up what they came for, it would be nice to see WFM restore a back-door policy for selling some of these local farmers' items at the discretion of individual stores instead of going through the large distribution center. That way people who couldn't make it to farmers markets had options during hours WFM is open. (Though, gee, even St. Louis, MO had farm stands you could visit from late spring through fall.)

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It's gonna be a while. Early 2010? It isn't just a store-- it's a big underground parking garage and high-rise condos too. Right now it's just a big hole in the ground.

I thought I had read 2009 for delivery? But maybe that is construction company turning property over to developer/management company? Developer web site says full project completion in 2010 - but that probably includes all other retail and residential as well. Whatever it is, it can't be too soon as I work one block away.

I was in a WF in Seattle (Redmond specifically) that was listed as 50,000 sq ft. It had a huge prepared food area, and a nice wine section. At 60,000 sq ft, I have to assume it will at least have the former in good ole Montgomery County.

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One of them told me it is a Whole Foods effort to promote local suppliers.
Noticed signs on Saturday at the Fair Lakes store for a weekly farmer's market at that location. Details from the WF website (including the answer to your question The Hersch):

Every Wednesday

Fair Lakes Farmer’s Market Begins!

8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Finally, the season of fresh fruits and vegetables begins with a bang right outside our store in our parking lot. We play host to many great local producers, and the food couldn’t be fresher – it’s from our own backyard! This market will continue through the season, every Wednesday morning. Look for our Sunday market to start a little later on in the season, making Fair Lakes the place to be on Sunday and Wednesday mornings for the freshest foods from the area!

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