One of our nutritionists, Trish Kazacos, is gluten sensitive, and we recently chatted about the incredible number of gluten-free products available today compared to 15 years ago when she realized the cause of her medical issues.  Even more remarkable is the improved taste of new products in just the last two years.  It’s so dramatic that family and friends can eat them too and never suspect they’re eating gluten free.

The latest poster products for this evolution are new Wegmans brand baking mixes for make-your-own double chocolate brownies, chocolate cake, sugar cookies and vanilla cake.  One of our artisan bakers, Patty Fowler, worked for nearly a year testing and tweaking the recipes for these four mixes.  My favorite is the brownies, a cross between fudgy and cakey.  Want them more moist and fudgy? Bake 28 minutes; less moist, 32 minutes (have you noticed that people’s preferences are really divided when it comes to brownies?).  I’m here to say that when we tasted these, no way would we have known they were anything other than a perfectly delicious indulgent brownie.

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Our deli folks tell me that one of the most frequent questions asked in our “charcuterie” departments is whether salami should be eaten with the casing left on or taken off.  The experts tell me that “it depends”.  What it depends on is what kind of casings were used in the production of the specific salami.  Here are some details, but the short answer is most of the time…take it off.

Traditionally, Natural Casings have been used in making salami.  This goes back many years to the times when every part of the animal was used in some form (long, long before sustainability became a buzz word). At the risk of telling you more than you wanted to know, the lining of the intestines were used as the casing into which the meat mixture was stuffed.  These natural casings allowed enough airflow for  the salami to cure slowly and develop flavor.

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Have you seen the list of products we’ve selected to maintain the same price until the end of August?  We want to make it affordable and easy for you to shop at Wegmans.  There are some seasonal additions as well as holdovers from the Winter List.  Example:  frozen ice cream sandwiches are new; frozen pizza is a perennial favorite that stays on.  Another:  cough and cold remedies go away, but allergy medications and sunscreen are new.  Frozen salmon, tilapia and haddock stay on; a brand new mild fillet called Swai is new (I’ll blog about that later.)

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You’ve doubtless noticed the gradual appearance of single “dosage” for various products.  Those I’ve noticed are laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent , coffee, rice and mashed potatoes (!)   It’s an interesting trend, driven by empty nest households, singles and a desire of folks to have more done for them.

I began to think about this when laundry detergents showed up on my office table (where new products seem to land.)  First came Method with its pump dispenser (pump once for small loads, two for medium, four for large).  Then came laundry Pods, by Tide (the one landing on my desk) and the merchant for laundry tells me that most of the national brands are adopting this system.  The Pods are funny-feeling, soft little squishy squares…one pack for a regular load, two for large or heavily soiled loads.  Dishwasher detergents such as Finish are now packaged in individual units, one per load.  I’ve used these for some time now, finding them really more convenient than pouring out the powder (or liquid) into the dishwasher dispenser.

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We have encouraged our customers to make reusable bags with their colorful designs a habit

One thing I’ve learned about our efforts to take better care of our environment is that it takes many steps, some small, some large, that over the years gradually make a measurable difference.  For an example this Earth Day week, let me recap our most recent trials to have recycled plastic content in our plastic bags at checkout.  This has been a work in progress to find a bag that helps with environmental sustainability and is tough.  Too much recycled content and the bags are weakened.  Not enough and it’s hardly worth the effort.  The magic number for us, right now, is 40% recycled content, with the rest being virgin plastic.  And the really good news is that the bags you return to us are going right back into making more Wegmans bags:  bags into more bags.

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