Grocery Life May 8, 2014

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Grocery Life May 8, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good Thursday afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market,

I hope everyone is having a good week. The weather has been great if you like the weather in July, which I do. Seems more like 4th of July week instead of Mother’s Day week, but I think it is going to cool off in the next day or two.

We are still trying to perfect the transmission of this blog. It is supposed to go on the website, facebook, and email all at the same time, but the email part doesn’t always cooperate. Hopefully we will get this figured out soon. I am a lot behind the current technology so I really rely on my manager Keith to put this all together. I write the text out in a spiral notebook, give it Keith and he formats it on the computer, adds the photography, and sends it out. He does a great job, but I am sure he will be glad when I learn how to do it.

It has been a good week at the store so far. The only out of the ordinary thing that has happened is our semi-annual visit from the Knox County Health Department on Tuesday. We get inspected every six months as do all places that sell or serve food. The inspectors come in unannounced and go over almost every square inch of the store looking for violations. It is kind of like getting audited by the I.R.S. every six months if any you have been through that. My day off was Tuesday, so I missed the pleasure of his visit. This is probably a good thing. Sometimes his opinion of how I run my business and mine are a little different and he gets to decide? The old adage in our business is “the customer is always right.” It should be “the customer is always right and so is the Health Department.” He ended up giving us a good score and told us we were doing a great job.

We did get our local strawberries in this week. I wrote in the last blog that they were seventeen times better than shipped in ones. My wife questioned me a little on how I knew this. Well, I use a very scientific method. I walk over, get a handful, eat them, and that’s how I determine it. I told her the pen is mightier than the sword, so she needs to be nice in her critiques.

We have greatly expanded out cookout supply section. We now carry a twenty pound bag of all natural lump charcoal to go with our eight pound bag. We also have seven varieties of wood chips; hickory, mesquite, apple, maple, peach, orange, and oak. I have not tried all of them yet, but I am going to. I always like to test new flavors off the grill. We even sell a metal pan designed for wood chips when using a gas grill.

New to our meat department are fresh Cornish game hens. I love Cornish hens and having them fresh instead of frozen will make them much easier to prepare.

The cooking classes are almost full for May. The May 13th class which is “Spring and Summer Salads” has several spots available, the May 20th class has three spots available, and the May 22nd class has two. The others are full. If you would like to make a reservation for any of these just call the store, 865-691-8881.

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The deli will have strawberries dipped in chocolate, and we will have a good assortment of cut flowers for the weekend if you need to pick-up a bouquet for mom. We also offer gift certificates for cooking classes if you are looking for something special to give mom.2013-02-08_14-50-00_466

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

 

Tom Butler

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