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738 Main Street South |
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IN THE NEWS: John Pittari said: “We’re pleased that Congressman Murphy showed his support for local business by stopping in to discuss our mutual concerns relative to the frozen financial system which has negatively impacted New Morning’s ability to obtain the funding needed to expand and create new jobs. “We remain unwavering in our commitment to give back to the community through offering free educational classes, family events and support for farmers, local businesses and area non-profits.” New Morning will mark its 40th year in Woodbury next fall, and despite a challenging business climate, has continued to grow - providing steady employment, health insurance and other benefits to more than 60 people. After touring the store and seeing firsthand the need for an expansion, Murphy informed Pittari that because the new location is located in a United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development Area, his store may qualify for access to a loan program specifically for businesses in rural areas. Pittari is currently exploring this option, known as the Business and Industry (B&I) Loan Guarantee Program. “Accessing capital to expand in this economy is a tough task. But I’m going to look for every opportunity to help small businesses in Woodbury and elsewhere in northwest Connecticut make it and create jobs in the community. I look forward to supporting New Morning Store through this process,” said Murphy. “Pheasant is a game meat, and anything like that is a lot healthier for you,” said Robert Wilbur, owner of Sharon Pheasant Farm, in Sharon. The birds are devoid of hormones, antibiotics and additives, and “they don’t have the fat content of those Butterballs you buy at the store.” Six weeks after Mr. Wilbur’s birds hatch, they are placed outside in pens covered to prevent flight, where their foraged diet of wild greens and bugs is supplemented with a blend of corn and soybeans. A similar process is followed at Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm, in Sterling, where, in addition to seven varieties of turkeys, Rick Hermonot, a co-owner, breeds chickens, capons and geese (as well as pigs and cattle). “With the exception of our capons, which get a lot bigger than a regular chicken and therefore don’t do well outside, all of our birds are free to roam, raised on pasture,” Mr. Hermonot said. Ekonk started as a dairy farm, with the hatching of birds pursued as little more than a hobby. “Raising our own chickens, and turkey for Thanksgiving, was a passion the whole family shared,” Mr. Hermonot said, “and now it’s become a part of the business that has really taken off.” Carol Byer-Alcorace, executive chef at Woodbury’s New Morning Natural and Organic Foods, is also seeing “a lot of interest beyond sort of vanilla poultry.” “People want to have more dark meat,” she said, “and they want flavors that are different.” Because pheasants tend to be leaner than commercial chickens, Ms. Byer-Alcorace cautions, they should be cooked at a lower temperature and for a shorter time. “And because they can become dry and tough, you should really butter them up, or wrap them in nicely marbled bacon strips,” she advised. Ms. Byer-Alcorace’s preference leans toward pintade. “The meat is not stringy, and it has a great, buttery flavor,” she said. Don Bourdeau likes pheasant the way his wife, Ann, cooks it: in a kind of casserole with onions, mushrooms and sour cream. “One hour in the oven and they’re really good, nice and tender,” he said. But his quail and partridge, which he likens to capon in flavor, are less gamy. Mr. Bourdeau took up farming after retiring from a telephone company, where he had worked for 33 years. This year, he said, he expects Bourdeau’s Pheasant Farm, in Salem, to produce 30,000 pheasants, 10,000 chukkar partridges, 5,000 quail and 2,000 Hungarian partridges. It is a familiar profession, one that his father pursued for more than three decades, and, Mr. Bourdeau said, “It’s better than sitting in a chair.” Andrew Puskas, of Kandew Farms in Roxbury, got into selling game birds by accident, said his wife, Karen. He is an avid fisherman and hunter and loved pheasant his entire life. He decided to raise a few birds on his retirement, just as a pastime. “All of a sudden, people started to ask, ‘Hey, can I buy a couple?’ ” Ms. Puskas said. “And that hobby turned into a business.” The 10 acres of the Puskas farm now yield an annual harvest of about 1,000 chickens, 750 pheasants, 200 turkeys, a similar amount of various kinds of duck, 100 guinea hens and miscellaneous quail and geese. “It can be pretty funny when they all get quacking,” Ms. Puskas said. And in this business, you take the laughs where you can get them. Despite the increased popularity of buying local, Mr. Wilbur of Sharon Pheasant says that demand for his poultry is not what it once was. “All the people who used to come in and buy game are dead and gone,” he said. “Nobody cooks anymore; they buy fast food or eat out.” Nearly all of the 20,000 pheasants the farm has bred this year will be sold live to hunting clubs, though it does maintain a stock of Wisconsin-bred birds in the freezer for retail sale. Craig Floyd’s attempt to promote Delawares, a heritage breed of chicken, also failed to catch on. “The public is so used to having a fat, plump, big-breasted chicken that you can’t sell them something that looks kind of scrawny, no matter how good the flavor is,” he said. As a result, Mr. Floyd’s Footsteps Farm, in Stonington, concentrates its poultry efforts on Cornish cross broilers. “It’s a typical breed that Tyson and Perdue use,” he acknowledged, “but instead of bringing them to market in 6 weeks, it takes me 12 or 15.” Arthur Hiles, of Groton’s Red Fence Farm, tried selling rabbits and ring-necked pheasants, but he stopped when there was little demand for them. So Red Fence continues to focus on cows, pigs, turkeys and Cornish broilers. “The real difference” in his Cornish broilers, he said, “is that mine are raised in big cages that are moved every day, and because they’re eating bugs and grass, rather than just processed grain, they have a more chickeny flavor.” Mr. Hiles said the pheasants he raised did not sell well because they were small. Rabbit sales, he said, were affected by consumers’ associations with the Easter Bunny. “Most Americans won’t eat anything that doesn’t come wrapped in cellophane,” Mr. Hiles said. “And the guy who hurt farmers the most was Walt Disney: he gave all these food animals human personalities, like Bambi, that generations have been raised on.” It's the 10th annual Ice Cream Social hosted by New Morning Natural & Organic store on Main Street South from 4 to 7 p.m. A sundae costs $5 and all proceeds go to Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury, an agency that provides emergency shelter and free support services to victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The benefit is especially timely as domestic violence court cases have increased in Waterbury and donations to the nonprofit have been down. "Our mission at New Morning is very community-based and domestic violence is a breakdown of healthy communication," said Mary Giampietro, marketing director at the store. New Morning also collects toiletries and new clothing for women and children staying at Safe Haven.
Recently, the FDA found Salmonella in peanut butter produced by the Peanut Corporation of America. Upon inspection, their facilities were not in compliance with federal food safety regulations. Common sense says that peanut butter was not the “culprit” but Peanut Corp. of America’s noncompliance with federal regulations which allowed the Salmonella contamination. A safe food supply depends on proper food handling practiced by all parties that come in contact with our food. In CT, these best practices are defined in the state and local regulations that food producers and handlers must by law comply with. Jan Spiegel’s article from March 15, 2009 left her readers with the impression that raw milk was the “culprit”. She omitted the fact that Town Farm Dairy, the only source of tainted raw milk, was not in compliance with the current regulations. Remember, the strictest regulations cannot protect us if they are violated. I have sold raw milk from my store for more than 35 years without incident and am proud that CT has ensured consumers access to safe quality raw milk. Respectfully, Customers of the store, at 739 Main St. South in the Middle Quarter Mall, are benefiting from a new rewards card program called GreenShare. The program, which debuted in November, uses information from customers' shopping habits to negotiate better deals with providers and offer discounts on a variety of products. Store owner John Pittari said the program also is intended to promote local and regional businesses that supply products to his store. "We'd been thinking about doing a program like this for quite a while," Pittari said. "Much of the impetus was in wanting to be closer to our family of customers, and to New Morning's roots." Fourth location Those roots run deep in Woodbury. The store opened in 1971 on Route 47 in the Hotchkissville section of town. Pittari, a Monroe native who dropped out of the University of Connecticut, joined the store's staff in 1974 at the age of 21. A former chemistry major who had an interest in nutrition, Pittari eventually was promoted to store manager. He bought the store in 1981, and in 1982 New Morning relocated to a historic building, a former blacksmith shop at 15 Hollow Road. While the location was charming, it had its issues for the store. "That was near a residential area," Pittari said. "We weren't being good neighbors, and the building just no longer suited our needs." So New Morning moved to its current location in 1995. Each move expanded its size; the current location has about 4,000 square feet of retail space. But even these quarters have proven cramped for the growing business. Pittari said the store will make what he hopes will be its final relocation later this year, when it moves about a mile away to a 14,000-square-foot building under construction on Main Street North. That store will have about 11,000 square feet of retail space, nearly three times what it has now. The expansion should also increase the store's staff of 60 by up to seven new workers, he said. "We are four times the national average for our industry for sales per square foot," Pittari said proudly. "But if you were to look at rural areas, and we are pretty much in a rural area, our sales average is even greater. We're busting at the seams in our current location, so we're busting out of it." Tracking trends While the steady growth has done wonders for the business, it has meant Pittari spends less time getting to know individual customers. But that face-to-face contact is crucial to serving his clientele, he said. "We recognize the need to be able to pick up that one-on-one in an ever-growing new customer family," he said. "We get new customers every day." Determining what those new customers want and providing it for them, as well as continuing to serve its existing customers, became the driving force behind creating GreenShare, Pittari said. The program uses sophisticated software that tracks customer purchases. By studying shopping trends, the store can make better decisions about what items customers prefer, and then can negotiate better prices with suppliers in order to provide discounts on those products. But it also does more than that. "We want to be able to reward our good customers with good values, but also to be able to point out and emphasize products that we select that would meet their needs, or notable products because they are local or hold product values that we feel are really important," he said. For example, Pittari said, local small producers of honey, milk and cheese are often overlooked because their products are usually expensive to produce and sell. "We can feature them to our regular customers, so they'll try them when they're a really good value," he said. The rewards program also combines existing New Morning Value Programs such as senior and supplement discounts, tax exemptions and check writing privileges. The card is free and available to anyone over age 18, and each card may be used by up to two additional household members. The discounts are rotated among a variety of products, and are identified by shelf signs with the GreenShare logo. So far, about 1,000 customers have signed up for the program, and Pittari said so far it has had "a very good response." Customer approval Andrea Anderson, a health and nutrition counselor from Newtown, is one customer who loves the GreenShare program. "Organic food is tastier, and it makes you feel better, look better, and your moods are better," she said. "So when you get discounts, you will eat organic foods on a more consistent basis." Anderson said she has shopped at the store once a week for about three years, and likes the idea of supporting local and state businesses. "That's good for the environment, because the food doesn't travel as far" as when it comes from out of state, she said. "It's cleaner and its greener." Byron and Rosetta Eddy, Woodbury residents who operate Mind Body Works, a therapeutic massage and holistic health business, say they've shopped at New Morning for years and appreciate the discount program. Byron worked at the store in the 1980s, and the Eddys' son Trevor is an employee now, so the family has a deep appreciation for New Morning. Byron said the store will benefit from the new location, because it will be less crowded during peak shopping times and may attract new business because of the way customers and employees are treated. Rosetta said the store offers customers more than they may realize. "About 50 percent of this store is educational," she said. "The more people who eat healthy and organically, the more people who shop here for the quality, the more the prices will come down. "But," she added, ""You can't put a price on good health."
Excerpted from: The Litchfield County Times, 07/10/2008 "The steel is fully up ... but because of the financial inflation we are being very careful about our planning. We basically want to run across the finish line and not have us get stuck at the end," said Mr. Pittari of the building development. "Right now, it's a lot of planning and coordinating." When he was in his early 20s, Bill Bless thought he'd be able to make a living playing music. For a while, he actually did perform at restaurants, cafes and bars. After some time though, the business aspect of the music scene made him change his mind. So did the money. Bill Bless writes the music while he and his wife work out the arrangements together. The two have been performing as a duo for 13 years. While teaching and music sometimes are separate, Bill Bless says he often shares his first love with his students -- he even jams with his students on occasion. He also plans on forming a songwriters' club/workshop for students next year. WHEN: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 WHERE: Pomperaug High School, Southbury, CT
WOODBURY -- John Pittari's next incarnation of New Morning Natural and Organic Foods FDA approves sale of meat and milk from cloned animals The owner, John Pittari, said the new building was needed to alleviate the crush of "There are times you couldn't move in the store," Pittari said. "I know there are other customers who would like to be in the store, and others who schedule times to come when we're not busy." In addition, Pittari touted the new building's planned environmentally friendly features, including recycled material, a renewable energy generator and "rain gardens" to filter rain to the ground instead of allowing it to flow off site and carry pollutants from the parking lot. In the late 1950s, 129 Main St. North served as a bowling alley, became an indoor flea market in the 1970s and an office building in the 1980s before turning into the Puddleducks child care center, which closed in 2004, according to Pittari. Site work has begun for the new home of Woodbury's popular New Morning Natural and Organic store, and in creating a building to call his own, John Pittari Jr. is also endeavoring to make an eco-friendly statement and raise awareness about environmental issues. Mr. Pittari began working on this project in January 2004 and the new store, located at 129 Main Street North, is expected to be completed next year. According to Mr. Pittari, the new location-once the site of a bowling alley-lends itself to redevelopment, a process that he values above the development of raw land. And, he noted, his project is sensitive to the site by using the previous building's footprint. The new building will have a main floor of 10,000 square feet and a second floor with approximately 4,000 square feet. After deciding that he needed to move a new and larger space, Mr. Pittari looked at properties from the Middle Quarter District toward North Woodbury. Suitable locations either had existing shopping centers or weren't feasible. Once the store is open, Mr. Pittari said, "The efficiencies are ones of labor and scale. The store layout will be done more efficiently. We were able to give our departments the designed space [to make them] more efficient. Lines will be shorter and quicker ... . The quality of the products, being able to have enough of the proper storage conditions, that is a big factor for what we are doing." According to Curtis Jones, president of Civil 1 Civil Engineers in Woodbury, the latest techniques and best management practices have been incorpated in the site planning to make the store and its surroundings an extension of the New Morning philosophy. The new site is on the edge of the 100-year flood plain of the Nonnewaug River, and the entire site is above an aquifer. "When you get a 100-year-flood, a rain storm so severe on the average you get it once every 100 years, then the river will come up significantly, and the edge of the 100-year flood plain is on the edges of the property, so that is like a prime environmental concern," he said. Another consideration, he explained, is that when it rains, the water soaks into the ground and flows toward the center of Woodbury where there is an aquifer, or undeground water supply. Making sure New Morning's new presence keeps that aquifer clean is a priority. "As a matter of fact, the Woodbury Water Company has wells down river from us, so it is important we don't do anything that impairs the quality of the aquifer. If we can do anything to improve it, we will do that also," said Mr. Jones. One decision made to protect groundwater quality involved foregoing paving in some areas in favor of "gravel paved areas" that promotes the movement of storm water into the ground to recharge the aquifer. As runoff goes from one rain garden to the next to increase the water quality, there is a long gentle swale known as a Bio-Swale that has nutrient and pollutant uptake within it to further mitigate storm water runoff and another large bio retention area. Mr. Pittari stated that the long gentle swale is planted with native New England meadow plants that do well in such an environment. "It's a multi-stage process where the storm water quality is mitigated every step of the way. It helps the aquifer, and everything is also in conformance with the 100-year flood plain to make sure everything works in balance here," said Mr. Jones.
"Even more important than just this one site, there is a snowball effect here. If it raises people's awareness from this one site, maybe 10 people get the idea and then you have 10 buildings, and then as you move on through time, it's a step in the right direction," said Mr. Jones. "The big thing is to serve as a model not only environmentally, but through raising people's awareness through eating the proper foods, supporting the local farmers, and I think that John's success over the years is a testament to the values of those issues," said Mr. Jones. New Morning will also be purchasing a "load-sharing" generator that will be powered by biodiesel during peak store hours. At other times New Morning uses local and renewable energy purchased through Sterling Planet as it has done for a few years. New Morning will be participating in the state's co-generation program. The total cost for the property was $1.35 million. Funding for the project was provided in a form of a bridge loan provided from Naugatuck Savings Bank. Financing will become a Small Business Association [SBA] structured loan for small businesses. Approval for the funding of this project was given by the Connecticut Community Investment Corporation of New Haven, an agent in Connecticut for SBA. The architect for the project is Bennett Sullivan Associates of Southbury and the construction manager is Pediment Construction Inc., of Southbury.
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01/18/2009
Julie Benedetto, New Morning’s Customer Care Representative and Katey Miles put in a long day at the health fair at Pomperaug High School sharing information about a naturally healthy lifestyle. Students flocked to their table to sample granola bars, natural sodas, and personal care items. New Morning has been attending each year since the Fair’s inception several years ago. Although attendance appeared a little light, according to Katey, students were as always, very interested in speaking about natural and organic. Many other local health care professionals and businesses also donated their time to help students learn about healthy options available to them in the area.
looks like a giant Erector set, but by this time next year the store should be in full operation.
WOODBURY - Workers poured a foundation for a new 14,000 square foot home for New Morning Natural and Organic Foods on Friday.
customers in the current location, especially during the holiday season.
New Morning is in the process of building a larger facility on the same street, which should be done by late 2008 or early 2009. The new store will increase the shopping space from their currently respectable 4,000 square feet to a roomy 14,000 square feet and feature an expanded café, larger prepared food section and a second floor for office space and classes.| Privacy | © 2010 New Morning Store All rights reserved. | Site by TSGWebPlus | |