The Daily Scoop

There is such a thing as a free (organic) breakfast

It's not every day you arrive to work and have someone cooking a fabulous breakfast for you. Today at Stonyfield Farm we celebrated Organic Harvest Month with a company-wide breakfast--but not just any breakfast! It was all organic. The organic eggs, bacon, orange juice, cheese and milk were supplied by the Organic Valley/CROPP cooperative of farmers who supply the organic milk that goes into our yogurts. While Stonyfield volunteers served as chefs, the food was gobbled up fast, especially the bacon! Everyone raves about the bacon. The reason it tastes so good? "You are what you eat"--organic bacon would come from animals given only organic feed. In addition to those goodies from Organic Valley, we also had organic bread from the Vermont Bread Company; organic coffee from "fair trade" organic growers; organic maple syrup; and organic baked goods made with organic sugar, flour, eggs, canola oil, blueberries, etc. And it all just plain tasted good.

Happy Organic Harvest Month!

Celebrity Sightings! Who's that eating our yogurt?

Band members of the funky, big-haired B-52s band include Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider and Keith Strickland. Thanks to a reporter at the Brockton, MA Enterprise, we have learned that band members specifically request Four Berry or Lemon Stonyfield Farm or Brown Cow nonfat yogurts in their dressing room for each of their performances. You can find more Celebrity Sightings here.

Budding chefs pick Stonyfield products for culinary creations

If you're a subscriber to Vegetarian Times magazine, you'll see in the October issue that the budding chefs of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Program in Minneapolis/St. Paul chose our very own Plain Yogurt for three special recipes--a cucumber sauce to top "Tofu Curry"; a dressing for "Southwest Tofu Club with Spicy Chile Sauce"; and in their "Frittata Roll-up on Summer Greens." Our White Chocolate Raspberry Moo-la-la was also used to create a decadent dessert, "Bonsai Cherry Mousse Custard." The recipes were all part of a contest for the students, judged by Chef Instructor Steven Shapley. Our lids are off to the culinary students for choosing us!

Try your hand at becoming a master chef with the recipes located here.

Soccer with the women stars--current and future

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U.S. Women's Soccer star and, now, Gold Medal winner Kristine Lilly paid a visit to 7-year-old Sarah Murgia and her "Blue Lightening" team last Saturday in a Stonyfield Farm contest that paired the two.

Above left: Kristine, standing, gives pointers to Sarah's team and their opponents, in Perkasie, PA.
Above right: Kristine gets in with the whole Murgia family before the match: Sarah's mother Tanya Murgia; younger sister Rebecca, 4 ½; Kristine; Sarah; Sarah's dad, Charlie, who is the athletic director at nearby Methacton High School and coach of Sarah's team; and younger sister Gianna, age 2.

A first grader at St. Jude Catholic School in Perkasie, Sarah knew before the Olympics she would be meeting Lilly, so the Summer Games took on a special meaning. "We watched as many matches as possible," says Tanya Murgia, Sarah's mother. "We taped them late at night, and watched them the next day. And since we knew we had won the contest, we kept looking for Kristine."

Below : I'll show you my medals, if you show me yours...
First: Kristine lets Sarah wear the Gold Medal she and her team won in August against Brazil, in 2004 Olympics action in Athens, Greece.
Second: Sarah shows Kristine the treasure trove of ribbons she's won in her long soccer career. She's been playing since she was 3!

Kristine Lilly joins Stonyfield's Strong Women Summit. Check out today's Strong Women Daily News for more details.

Still time to bid with your lid

Each year through our Profits for the Planet Program (PFP), Stonyfield Farm donates 10% of profits to efforts that help protect and restore the earth. This year, we will donate $100,000 of our PFP funds to three select organizations that help the earth: American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day®, Beyond Pesticides and National Wildlife Federation®. Each of the three participating organizations will receive a percentage of our $100,000 donation based on your voting! Voting ends October 31, 2004. Vote here.

Voting results to date:

American Hiking Society
Votes: 2,897 Percentage of votes: 13%
Beyond Pesticides
Votes:5,125 Percentage of votes: 23%
National Wildlife Federation
Votes: 14,510 Percentage of votes: 64%

An important soccer match in PA tomorrow

Seven-year-old Sarah Murgia and her dad are pretty excited about the upcoming weekend. That's when Athens Summer Olympics Gold Medalist and U.S. soccer legend Kristine Lilly will help coach Sarah's soccer team. Sarah's dad Charlie is the usual coach, but tomorrow he'll assist Lilly as she takes over Blue Lightning, Sarah's team, for an afternoon match. Sarah has played soccer since she was 3.

Kristine Lilly

Kristine Lilly's visit to Sarah's team in Perkasie, PA, is the result of a contest we held last fall for soccer enthusiasts to meet and play with one of the sport’s premier female players. Lilly has partnered with Stonyfield for the past few years.

We promise to report next week on this meet-up!

Stonyfielders paint the town for United Way "Day of Caring"

Right: Jamie from Marketing; Left: Kris from Sales Admin

Yesterday was the United Way of New Hampshire's "Day of Caring" in which corporate volunteers fan out across the state and contribute some sweat equity to the non-profits who receive United Way funds. Ten of us Stonyfielders showed up at the Boys & Girls Club of New Hampshire in the town of Derry and spent the day as "Artists in Residence." We painted logos to decorate the teen center, and we painted new handicapped symbols and lines in the parking lot. Pretty fun duty for an important and worthy cause!

Right: Kim & Gloria reach new heights; Left: Karen & Candace spruce up the parking lot

The finished product, painted by Kris

Our Chef Stephan grows his own pumpkin

Stonyfield's very own chef, Stephan (he helps develop the recipes featured in our recipes section here) has just harvested his first pumpkin, here at his Concord, New Hampshire home. Though he's quite the gardener, he didn't set out to grow this one--it just sprang from last year's Halloween pumpkin which became part of the compost Stephan uses on his garden. Though he's picked this one, he has two others still out in the yard.

"The only nurturing I did was the occasional turn, so that it would grow round, and I also spent a few minutes each day flicking away bugs and other critters that were trying to eat it," he said. "I will most likely use this one for carving, but rest assured--it might also end up in a pie before autumn is gone."

If you've got your own pumpkin hanging around, you might want to try this slimmed down version of Pumpkin Cheesecake this fall, made with--what else?--yogurt!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cups ginger snap crumbs
1/3 stick unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling:
1 cup lowfat plain Stonyfield Farm Yogurt cheese
2 packages lowfat cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Directions
Using a yogurt cheese maker or layered cheesecloth, strain the whey from one quart of yogurt overnight. One quart of yogurt yields approximately 2 cups of yogurt cheese. Reserve.

For the crust, mix the ginger snap crumbs and butter together. Press the mixture onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-inch spring form pan. Chill.

Preheat the oven to 300°F. For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and the sugar with a hand blender. Add the eggs, vanilla, pumpkin, spices and yogurt cheese, and mix until all the ingredients are combined. Spoon the mixture onto the crust.

Bake the cheesecake using a water bath. Place the cheesecake in a 9 x 13 baking dish, and fill the pan with water, just so that the water comes half way up the side of the cheesecake. Bake for 50-60 minutes, being careful not to open the door while baking. Turn off the oven and allow the cake to cool for 30 minutes with the door ajar. Remove the cheesecake and continue cooling on a wire rack. Refrigerate before serving.

We're getting pumped up at Stonyfield Farm

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All pumped up, Gary Hirshberg.

Yesterday, CE'Yo Gary convened one of our biannual "All Staff" meetings, in which everybody tells everybody else what we've been doing in the company. It's a chance to review where we've been and where we're going, and to highlight our successes. Yesterday we learned that we're the Number 3 brand of yogurt in the country in grocery store sales (Number 1 in natural food store sales), that we've grown by 65 employees just since January and now have 240, and we've reduced the amount of trash we throw out here by 22 percent (yes, we keep track of even those things).

At the meeting, Gary donned a muscle suit to highlight "Fit on the Farm", a new package of "lifestyle" health benefits for us employees. In addition to company health insurance, we'll now have free access to programs with professional counselors for weight and stress reduction, and to help us quit smoking. And, we'll also be earning prizes for the amount of exercise we manage to fit into our busy lives. We're hoping to get even more fit here on the farm!

YoBaby Fans--times 3! Oh my!

A yogurt-lover recently wrote us about a problem she was having with our yogurt cups splitting at the seam and she even had a theory as to why it was happening. We love to hear from folks who buy our yogurt and have questions. After we helped out Laura Richard of Plymouth, Massachusetts with her question, she was kind enough to write, "Meanwhile, we will continue buying your product for our children. In fact, their pediatrician recommended it!"

Above and below, the Richard Triplets--Jack, Olivia and Shane,
turning 2 this week. "Just a few of your fans,
growing up on YoBaby Yogurt," their mother writes.
Above the triplets at 6 months, below at 1-year-old.
Photos by Laura Richard.

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Learn about "The Joy Diet" in today's Strong Women Daily News at Stonyfield.com