review of wheatsville's bigger and betterness

Well, it's official: The back part of the store is open. And damn, it's fun :) Lots and lots of shelves are empty, which is a great sign - more options will be coming very soon.
The deli is shiny and new at the very back of the store, and the coffee bar is all modernized against a nicely painted wall.
The fabulous additions I've noticed:

1. Wheatsville has added Straus Family Creamery ice cream to their shelves. This is of special importance to me, as that was something I added to their wish list the very first time I went into the store. The Straus Family Creamery has products the closest to perfection I can find: their ice creams (and yogurt, actually) are 100% certified organic, and the nearest thing to grass-fed we can get, which seems to be about 90% grass, along with some grain and silage supplements during tough times of the year for pasture. While I maintain that it's possible (and by far superior) for the industry to show respect for the animals and for those consuming animal products by raising them in a way so obviously well designed, I very much respect the difficulties associated, and Straus Family Creamery is doing an admirable job - even without 100% grass, the consumer still gets a pretty darn close to accurate balance of N3s to 6s. Straus' ice cream is the only grassfed cows milk ice cream available in central Texas that I'm aware of, and by far beats the price of the delicious (but wickedly expensive) organic, grassfed, raw goats' milk frozen pints of heaven that Waterkoak Farms churns out. Another selling point for Straus: the ice cream is divine. I just had my first bites of their vanilla and mint-choc-chip, and I was surprised at how unique (especially the vanilla) and satisfying it was. I'm something of an ice cream snob (which may mean that many people won't like this ice cream, actually), and I'm rarely surprised in a pleasant way when I try new, even "premium" brands.
2. Wheatsville will be carrying an organic french baguette. Ok, so I have not yet tried it, the first of the stuff will be in hopefully the middle of next week, helpful deli people say, but I could not be more excited. Will and I have all but sworn off of fresh bread due to the inability of the free market to produce anything organic worth eating, and also of course due to my total ineptitude at making it from scratch. And I have tried. Numerous failed attempts have somewhat dissuaded me from the practice... not to mention, buying organic pastry flour is not exactly cost effective when you use almost the entire bag for one damned loaf.
   
3. Margarita's Tortilla Factory tortillas. No, this is not new. But what is new is that I now know that her tortillas are organic. Unfortunately, I don't think the canola oil she uses is organic, but she's getting pretty close. Nowhere on her package does she mention that she uses organic ingredients, and I'm not exactly sure why... I'm sure it has something to do with the bloody USDA. But in case you're wondering: Margarita's Tortilla Factory tortillas, according to her website, are organic. Hoorah.
4. Fish!! I'm hopeful there will be some more options in the future, but today they had some fabulous looking wild sockeye salmon, Texas-raised catfish, and something else that I can't remember right now. I would not myself or recommend to anyone else to eat farm-raised fish (again with the omega 3s, mercury, and other serious issues), and I don't know what "Texas-raised" means, but it sounds like a farm. So, despite it's tempting $8ish dollars a pound, I'd have to go with the salmon, which was $15/pound today. I'm not sure if this is a good deal or not, but I know I sure can't afford it all that often. That's probably not that big a problem though, since fish are entirely too contaminated with mercury, even in the wild. Not to mention, if grass-fed ruminants are available, there's no real reason to prefer fish even for their N3s.
5. I've never been one to frequent the deli, just because I don't really like to pair dining with grocery shopping (Will thinks I'm ridiculous) and we live 15 miles from the place, but the menu looks pretty, and seriously expanded. Will got a mozzarella and tomato salad and country fried tofu - oh. my. gosh. Good. Although, Will and I both think it would be far more apropo for it to be called Chicken Fried Tofu. That'd rattle some vegan/vegitarians :)
   

Things that remain to be seen:

1. Reasonable meat options. So far, the only place I've been able to find that has organic, grass-fed (or other nature-ly feed, in the case of chickens and pigs) meat is the farmers' market. Not to mention, the prices on meat at Wheatsville have always been staggeringly high, not that I can really blame them. But buying only semi-acceptable
   (healthwise) meat at $8 a pound or more still hurts, especially given the ever-present temptation of running over to HEB and picking up almost anything for like $2-4 per pound... worthless though it may be.
2. Organic tortilla chips. While currently my hero for carrying Kettle's organic potato chips (HOLY YUM), Wheatsville has either been hiding the organic tortilla chips, or does not yet have them. Central Market is my go-to place for tortilla chips. And I hate Central Market.
   
3. Organic drinks. This isn't exactly an issue with Wheatsville, it's more a problem with the market. Blue Sky is the only thing I've found with organic stuff, and Wheatsville carries them. Maybe I'm completely tasteless here, but I think Blue Sky's organic line tastes like poo. It's really gross to me, I'm not sure why. Not to mention, it's not 100% organic, and they have silly additives which if I had to guess, I'd say came from Everyone's Favorite Satanic Company (Monsanto). I'd also love to see more options with stevia instead of aspartame or splenda. Steaz Teaz and Zevia both make pretty good drinks - and Steaz is organic (shame on you, Zevia). Wheatsville does carry the Steaz organic energy drinks, but I won't go into the health risks posed by most things labeled "energy drinks". To be fair, I haven't researched Steaz's, and they're definitely a better choice than the others, just in the fact that they're organic. Also, other than the organic cider I'm quite partial to, I don't think there are any fermented beverages for sale on a regular basis that are organic. If they're there, they're not clearly labeled.
   
4. Organic specialty breads. Sun Harvest has some organic pitas and filo dough in their freezer food section, I can't remember what the brands are though. I'll repost when I can remember. But Sun Harvest makes it 4 grocery stores (or markets) I frequent. It gets old, especially when Wheatsville is far superior.
5. A more stable line of organic produce. Wheatsville is actually AWESOME about affordable, delicious organic produce. However, some random weeks there will be only conventionally-grown versions of certain, normally organic, products - the next week it'll be back to organic, but I can't predict it, as it doesn't seem to fall (always) within growing seasons and such. This is an area (wholesale produce purchasing) which I'll admit I have zero knowledge in, so I'm not entirely sure if anything can be done about this, but since I'm listing my druthers.
6. Organic, grass fed cheese. If it's there, it's not clearly labeled (due of course to the producing companies, but it irritates the tar out of me).
   

We'll see if any of the things on my list rush in to fill some of those empty shelves :) And the single greatest thing about Wheatsville: I can make a difference. I'll put all of these things on the wish list once I can get the brand names I'd like to see, hopefully in the next couple of days. Please go "wish" for some of these things as well - if we have enough customers hopeful for these products, I'm sure some will make their way to the shelves, if they're not already on their way there.