MARCH 2009:
A Sampler of recent suggestions of general interest ... and our answers:

Are carrot tops poisonous? At all? If so, shouldn’t you have a warning posted?

There is some debate about whether you can eat the green leaves. 
Despite the presence of celery and carrots in the carrot family of Apiaceae ("umbellifers"), many other members of the family are highly poisonous, but not carrot.
They ARE edible and are highly nutritive, rich in protein, minerals and vitamins.
The tops of the carrots are loaded with potassium which can make them bitter, so the use of them in food is limited.
However, it is edible, so you may mix some in with a mixed lettuce salad.
You may also use it for garnish. Combine your common sense and your creative skills, and invent something! That's what makes cooking fun. It is a form of art. 
Carrot greens are high in vitamin K, which is lacking in the carrot itself. The leaves do contain furocoumarins that may cause allergic contact dermatitis from the leaves, especially when wet. Later exposure to the sun may cause mild photodermatitis. (This is NOT the same as 'poisonous' - it will only affect susceptible people with allergies to the plant. Some people have the same reaction to yarrow, ragwort, chamomile etc.)

There is a distinct difference between toxins and allergens. Carrots (Daucus carota), whether wild or domesticated, are not toxic, they are allergenic.
This is like peanuts, which are not toxic but can kill those who are allergic to them.
For more info, go to the Carrot Museum website.

The packaged carrots (all sizes, organic and non-organic) collect water inside the bag due to the sprinkler. This rots the carrots. Please consider displaying carrots so that the bags do not fill with water.
Thank you.
PS – Quality of veggies has greatly improved! The efforts are noted and I now can do more shopping at the Co-op.

Thanks for the note, and the nice feedback.
Great suggestion, and you are right! We have begun to reset the department to accommodate this change to the bagged carrots – and all other bagged produce.
I will pass along to the staff your feedback. We are working very hard to continually improve our variety and quality of produce and we are glad you noticed! Thanks again.

This was my shopping list, compiled from your brochure: Buffalo Chicken Wings; Aubrey Skin Care; Asian Cabbage Crunch; Fruit and Nut bar; Rudi’s English Muffins; Granola; Muir Tomatoes.
You did not have any of the items left. What gives?

I know it can be frustrating – let me explain the situation. We use a national CAP (Co-op Advantage Program) flier. By joining together with over 300 food co-ops nationally, we get deeper discounts and better sale prices.
The one drawback is that we do not carry all these items – no co-op carries all the items in the flier. Some items just don’t sell in this market, some we don’t have space for (especially in JP).
Besides the fact that some of those items we don’t carry, others were out-of-stock from our suppliers – that happens especially at the very end of the month when our suppliers run low on the specials.
We appreciate your writing, and will try to do better to have all the sale items we carry in stock. Thanks-

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