Black Cow

December 29th, 15 years ago on a beautiful Saturday morning the Black Cow opened it doors the first time for business......crazy!

The following was written by my good friend Danny Livingston in '02. I found it nestled in my hard drive and wanted to share. I think you can apply all of it to today with a few name changes......enjoy and thank you all for 15 years of smiles/tears/hugs/winks/kisses/guffaws galore, and just all around love and goodness.....I tell people I have 1000+ really great friends that I love very much.....xo

The Black Cow

By Danny Livingston 7-9-02

So,

In this town

Where the cotton flies free

There’s an aromatic, wide awake

Place to drink tea

And java, and cocoa

Coffee’s of all sorts

A sanctuary, if you will,

For the Sunday NY Times Sports

Where you’re greeted by name

As you walk thru the door

No matter the mood that your head

Felt before

You feel better!

Things will be all right

All strengthened, of course

By your handshake with Mike

The Black Cow

Where artists and bankers

Can stray from the day

Sit on warm wooden chairs

And conversate away

Or just soak in the music

Let your stressed mind take five

Let the coolness of whipped cream

Slowly open your eyes

And not to brag

But the easiness of Croton on Hudson

Exaggerates here

For all are included

No ego’s rest here

Kim(’02) helps you choose

Something different to drink

You sit down,

Rest your tush

And should you opt to think

Go ahead!

Or if not

Sip alone

You know how

Where the doors and minds are all open

Enjoy your morning

Black Cow

Nothing to do with coffee but relevent.......

This article falls under and relates to the discussion of "organic" based on USDA guidelines. It's total BS created to enable monster agribusiness to be "ORGANIC"...You don't always get what you think you're getting and just because there's a barn and setting sun on the package doesn't mean it's good healthy food...Read it and learn/weep........Remember when organic was truly organic......

READ THIS!

Coffee!!

This from my good friend Peter Gordon Lavery Esq.........

It was on this day in 1850 that the French writer Honoré de Balzac (books by this author) died, a death that was probably fueled by his coffee addiction. Balzac drank between 20 and 40 cups of intense Turkish coffee every day.

Balzac produced a huge body of work, nearly 100 novels, stories, and plays that are known as La Comédie humaine. He worked for about 15 hours each day, and he sustained himself with massive amounts of coffee, pipe tobacco, and food.

Balzac suggested drinking strong coffee on an empty stomach as a writing method. He said: "Everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination's orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink — for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder."

Balzac had been married for five months at the time of his death, but his wife had gone to bed and his mother was the only one with him when he died. He was 51 years old.

Good drinking to all........

Dog Days

We are in the dog days of summer. I love summer, I love the hot humid weather, I also love the periodic heavy summer thunder showers. We haven't had one for some time and we are due. Things are a little too dry for my liking. The last two weeks of August are the slowest of the year for business with the first two weeks of the new year coming in a close second. It's this time of year that Peggy and I always freak out looking at the dailies($$) thinking what's wrong, what happened. Then we get a hold of ourselves and remember it's the last two weeks of the summer. September comes, school begins, new staff and schedule and all cranks right back up again. It's always in the fall that I also think of new ideas, try new things. Through my life I always changed living situations in the fall, moved away, traveled. It still resonates in me. I have lots of ideas and really want to get them out so keep your eyes open things may start happening, time and money are my obstacles. My kids are getting older, moving on to bigger and better I can only hope, this is weird time in my life. We have been in business 15 years come this October 15th. We signed our lease, began work and opened the doors for day one December 29th 1995........Crazy!.......A guy came in the other day selling some kind of internet ad thing. I obliged his sales pitch and he asked me how long we have been in business. I said 15 years, he continued with his pitch. I politely moved him along and he said as he was leaving, he wished me success with my business. I chuckled, 15 years I would say we are established/successful(?). He won't be getting my business, not paying attention. So with September approaching I hope to bring all my Black Cow folk some new fresh ideas to carry us into the next 15 years.........xo

More Stuff

In 2004 a woman named Felice Kaufman came into the store and told me she was writing a cook book and would I be interested in submitting a recipe for good coffee. I was curious what kind of cook book would support a recipe for good coffee. She told me she was in the publishing business and also the mother a little girl of girl scout age. She wanted to write a cook book called "Americans Cook" and sell it as a fundraiser for her daughters girl scout troop. She mentioned that she had some connections and was getting politicians, chefs, celebrities, and notable people in America to submit their favorite recipe. She was a customer, lived in Chappaqua and I thought it would be fun so I submitted a recipe for my the perfect cup of coffee and my favorite coffee based drink the "Espresso Macciato". It turns out she was pretty serious. 300 recipes submitted by President Bill Clinton(Chicken Enchiladas), Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten of "Vong"(Crunchy Fall Vegetable Salad), The "21" Club(Caesar Salad), Senator Trent Lott(Mississippi Marinated Shrimp), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger(Kaiserschmarren), Chris Madden(Fast Tomato Soup), Nancy Reagan(Mac and Cheese), Chef Tom Colicchio(Braised Red Snapper), Dom Deluise(Sweet Potato Souffle), Chef Daniel Boulud of "Daniel"(Chocolate Bread Pudding With Dried Fruit) and 289 more people like this and......me. When I got the copy and saw who I was on the pages with I felt pretty OK. Attached are my recipes and again the book is called "Americans Cook" by Felice Kaufman published by herself at Linzer Tart LLC. If you can find it check it out its a great cook book and The Black Cow is in it, page 22.

Fair trade and Organic

A customer came into the store today and asked if we had any Shade Grown coffees. I proceeded to explain what/how/why/what and how we deal with fair trade and organics. Below is something I wrote and posted in the store a while back to try and explain where we stand in this regard. For your reading pleasure.......


Blackcow and Fair-trade/Organic

The Black Cow is limited with its ability to roast and sell organic and fair-trade coffees. Most fair-trade coffees are also organic and with the new USDA rules (laws) for processing and selling organic products our space does not conform to the requirements needed for certification. We used to sell organic coffee but now that the rules (laws) have changed we are not allowed. The long-term idea is to move the roaster out of the store to a space that can accommodate the certification and then we will be on board. Until then, whenever I see a fair-trade coffee that is not organic I do buy it. Straight up organics will have to wait.
You notice now how there is so much “organic” in the supermarkets these days. I really believe that the new organic rules were set up to allow the big agri-producers to get into the game of “Organic”. Now Dole, Wal-Mart and the huge agri-businesses can put an “organic” sticker on their products because the new guidelines have several levels of classification for organic. Maybe it’s better on the giant, global scale of things moving a little closer to the organic model, but do your homework, what says organic should fall into some new classification of “organic” but find out the real story/source of the product. Some of these foods are pretty scary. Whenever possible best to buy local products/produce where you know the source. When we get to that point documentation will be provided for our organic coffees.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause…….

I'm Here!

I'm really trying to keep this thing going. I have been so remiss with posting but am committed to get my literary ball rolling. I am going to attempt to "social network" using all my social networking sites to help spread the word of The Black Cow. There are plenty of people in the general area that do not visit us. I want to know why. We are very nice people, we welcome anyone and everyone, we have damn good coffee as good as you can get, our prices are competitive with any other coffee operation out there. What is it that keeps people from coming in. I have friends that I grew up with still very friendly, maybe not socially but certainly hand shakes, hugs, kisses etc. and they have never set foot in the store. It's strange to me. If something or someone offended them I want to know. If I somehow I offended them I want to know. I just want to know.....spread the word The Black Cow has been operating for 15 years this year. We pride ourselves in being the best possible specialty coffee operation we can be. This month we were named "The Peoples Choice" winners for "Best Cafe" in Westchester Magazines Best of Westchester Issue. I would much rather have the peoples choice award than the magazines pick any day. It makes us feel that we are doing something good for the community. Hopefully this is the beginning of continued postings and as I branch out into the social networking world please join in. Post ideas opinions etc. Become a fan of The Black Cow Coffee Companys facebook page. I try and post the Coffees/Iced Teas of the day every day and just try and entertain. Until next time in the immortal words of Bartles and james "and thank you for your support"......xo