More Wild Capers Than Butch and Sundance

Gustav has been a little preoccupied with the study of capers lately, as you may have learned from his sweeping and erudite article on the precious buds in April’s Coop News and Notes. So it should come as no surprise that we’ve got a wide range of capers in stock right now. Take your pick of Capers in Brine by Linda, tiny treasured Non-Pareilles in Brine by Delicias, or — if you believe, as some do, that capers are best packed in salt — the Wild Capers in Sea Salt by Moulins Mahjoub. And we have the fruit as well as the flower: Caravaglio Caperberries in Olive Oil and L’Estornell Wild Spanish Caperberries in Brine.

Speaking of olive oil, some of you may already be familiar with a L’Olivier, which we believe is about the best olive oil you can get. You will be pleased to learn, then, that it has now been joined by Almond Oil and Walnut Oil by a L’Olivier, lovely oils in stately stone crocks to match the olive oil. Try the walnut oil with cheese, or either with a nice spring salad.

There are other new additions to older collections. Solera 77 Reserve, a true Spanish sherry-wine vinegar from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, joins our already prodigious sherry-vinegar collection. And to our wide range of pastas by Rusticella d’Abruzzo, Conchliglioni and Pappardelle and Orecchiette and others, we’ve now added Torchio, a curling "torch-shaped" pasta designed to hang on to sauces. Rusticella d’Abruzzo is one of the three best Italian pastas worldwide, made with traditional bronze dies, some over a century old. Don’t miss it! (This is in the Specialty Foods section, rather than with other pastas).

There’s cheese outside the cheese section, too — Soymoon soy cheese by Blue Moon Brands, "the world’s first great-tasting soy cheese" — made from non-GMO, non-hydrogenated soy oil, cholesterol- and lactose-free. People have been asking, and we’re pleased to announce that they’ve arrived: Provolone, Gouda, and Mozzarella with Italian Herbs. Let us know what you think!

From Lightlife comes Smart Deli vegan pastrami "without the fat, cholesterol, nitrites, MSG and who knows what else of standard luncheon meats." Simply Organic, maker of popular soups and sauces, now a line of dips and salad dressings in powedered form, in the little envelopes — so now we can be lazy responsibly. And Pamela’s cookies, quite popular already, now have some organic varieties:Chocolate Chunk Pecan, Dark Chocolate Chocolate, Espresso Chocolate Chunk, and Spicy Ginger.

Practically category all its own is Desert Pepper, maker of salsas and dips, now available on our shelves. Bean dips: Pinto, Spicy Black, Tuscan White. Salsas: Two-Olive Roasted Garlic, Corn, Black Bean and Roasted Pepper, Del Rio Medium, Diablo Hot, Divino Mild, Peach Mango, and Roasted Habanero XXX (Yikes!).

We’ve got all sorts of new items stocked in HaBA, running the gamut of a diverse department. Allergy sufferers should investigate Dolimed Allergy, a line of homeopathic allergy sprays by Dolisos, with such targeted formulas as the New England Mix and Eastern Mold Mix. This is isopathy, the introduction of hyperdiluted traces of the allergen itself, so getting the specific local allergens you’re likely to be inhaling makes a big difference. NewChapter Supercritical Omega 7 is a dietary supplement that provides a fatty acid derived from sea buckthorn — an ingredient known for centuries in Chinese medicine as an aid to digestive and urogenital health. "Supercritical" refers to the extraction process, which uses no chemical solvents, leaving the complexity of the herbal chemistry intact while concentrating it to an extraordinary degree.

Several new products by Natural Factors are on the shelves. Daily Nutrient Boost, part of the Learning Factors line of supplements, is a sort of a powdered smoothie drink designed to address nutritional deficits linked to a variety of learning disorders and to ADD — no wheat, no gluten, no dairy; just a cognitive supplement for the brain. The same folks, along similar lines, make a supplement called DHA Rich Oil Blend, available either in liquid form or gel pills. DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid most of us are low on, best available from fish oils, and only recently available in "pharmaceutical grade," free of mercury and other heavy metals. Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil, also by Natural Factors, is also newly available. There’s been lots of press for salmon oil in general; salmon are regarded as an unusually pure fish to eat, with the lowest levels of mercury and such in their tissues. And Natural Factors supports the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

Moving from health to beauty, there’s a new Derma E product: Pycnogenol and Hyaluronic Acid Eye Creme, a name I’m only going to say once. Straight Fast is a new hair straightener from Giovanni. Zero Zitz is a suite of acne products by Well-in-Hand: Original astringent, Kreamy Kleanzer, and Emergency Power. And very much in demand is Suki’s Naturals, an extensive line of skin care products (especially, though not excusively, for sensitive skin) that manage to be progressive in just about every way you could ask: no animal testing, nothing synthetic, no GMOs, no frangrances or dyes, recycled and recycleable (and minimal) packaging, products concentrated rather than diluted. As much as possible, the company makes its wares on-site; and when it must buy, does its buying locally from small businesses. There’s really nothing bad to be said about them — and, best of all, they’re pretty local to us, in the near corner of Massachusetts.