Sprout Creek Farm’s creamery, located on 200 beautiful acres in LaGrange of Dutchess County, NY, is where the magic happens: where milk becomes cheese. But not just any cheese. This cheese is made from the rich and creamy milk of their herd of grass-fed Jersey, Milking Shorthorn, Normande & Holstein Cows and their Nubian, Toggenburg & OBerhasli goats.

These artisan cheeses (antibiotic and hormone free) are made in the age-old tradition of European farmstead cheese, using a method that enhances the innate quality of the milk. From season to season you can actually taste subtle differences as the pasture grasses change with fluctuating temperatures and amounts of rainfall. The farm’s unique aging process is what delivers the milky conversion of soils & grasses to your palate and creates the distinct flavors and textures in the cheese.

The goal of the farm’s grass – based product is to provide their animals with their ideal eating habitat. Pasture-raised animal products have less harmful fats, cholesterol and calories than grain-based ones. They have more antioxidants, high levels of the beneficial omega -3 fatty acids (anti-inflammatory) and more of the cancer – fighting fat, CLA (shown to help in the prevention of breast cancer). A pasture raised system also means less tractor work, less fuel consumption & no herbicides or pesticides.

Sprout Creek Farm is not only a real working farm but it also offers both children and adults alike a fun & educational experience through the farm’s year round educational programs. Check out their website, sproutcreekfarm.org, for information on their daily, weekly and summer programs. You and your children can stay at Sprout Creek and learn the workings of a real farm including how to milk a cow and gather eggs. More importantly, they teach us to love our fragile earth, to understand our connectedness to it and develop a passion for protecting its integrity. Not to mention, you will have a lot of fun and an opportunity to try some great tasting cheese.

If you have a healthy food highlight of your own that you would like to share, let us know. Friend us on facebook and share your favorite healthy food and we’ll check it out.

Bon appetite and remember to eat healthy.

Happy New Year Everyone!

2012 is going to be a big one!  There are a lot of things coming down the pike affecting pharmacy patients across the state and country:

• January is traditionally a mess with insurances.  Everyone’s plans change and the computers can’t keep it straight.  To make it worse, nationally the communication system is being upgraded to a new standard.  That means our pharmacy staff will need lots of wine to prevent us from dreaming about insurances until February 15th or so.
• We’ll see the dissolution of mandatory mail order, thanks to you.  Our Anti-Mandatory Mail Order legislation passed and goes into affect for 2012.  Starting this year, insurances will be prohibited from forcing anyone to use mail order.
• The NYS EPIC changes go into affect.  If you are 65 or older and make less than 50k/year married or 35k/year single, PLEASE SIGN UP.  It’s free!
• Many big brands are going generic, saving everyone major bucks!

At our store, many great improvements are coming:

• New register systems to make the check out system smoother.  We’ll have a rewards program started in Saugerties that will work with both stores.  Exciting stuff.
• Monthly lectures for 10-20 people on different topics.  We’ll have diabetes education, heart healthy tips, nutrition, and vitamin lectures among much more.  These will be hosted weekly and topics will change monthly
• Rx Sync – make one trip to the drug store for all your medicines, on a day YOU choose.  Never run out of refills before your next doctor’s appointment!
• More Shingles clinics to increase access to these important vaccines!

You’ll see more on Facebook and our blog as well.

A few things we’re working on that get us really excited:

• an app for “scanning” your rx’s and sending them for refills
• coupons for the stuff you need
• a generic savings program:  you switch from a brand to a generic drug and we’ll buy you 1 month free!

Again, Happy New Year to all.  We could not do it without you!

Governor Cuomo signed our legislation into law last night!

“AMMO” or Anti-Mandatory Mail Order gives patients a choice:  mail order pharmacy OR community pharmacy for their prescriptions, with the same benefits, with the same price for the patient.  It was a common sense law that puts in a protection for patients against the mega-corporation pharmacy benefit managers.

How it works from here is as follows:

1. It has to become law, which is 13 business days after he signs it.  This is about New Year’s.
2. Any contract written thereafter will not allow mandatory mail order.  Some insurances have 2-3 year contracts, so this will take 2-3 years to be 100% official.
3. You will be notified with your next benefit notice probably

This truly could not have been done without the patients of Village and Woodstock Apothecary.  You signed petitions, called, emailed, and commented on blogs.  It was a true grassroots effort and restores my faith in the system.  The big guys don’t always make the rules; they don’t always win.

I feel that this is the beginning of something big.  With the “Occupy” movements fresh in our minds, I believe Americans are realizing that the small businesses that were taken for granted are necessary for us to survive as a nation.  The big guys grow in a manner to benefit stakeholders only and they will step on all in their path to get it.

In the world of pharmacy, this means attacking the pharmacy benefits managers.  They lack transparency and create market conditions that favor themselves at the expense of good care.  We will be working to reclaim what was taken in an effort to care for our patient family for years to come.

Thanks again.  This would not have happened without our awesome patients.

You rock.

Consumer Reports recently did a study on fish oil; purity, potency, consistency.  This third party analysis is essential information that NEEDS to be done as frequently as possible.

BUT, Consumer Reports tested final products for spoilage.  Many fish oils are flavored with lemon and orange flavors which create a false positive for anisidine on tests.  This means, pure fish oil looks rancid if tested with flavors in them.

Consumer Reports January 2012 issue shows a very clean, diligent manufacturer, Nordic Naturals, as having evidence of spoilage.  Guess what flavors they were?

So how do we tell if it is fresh or not?  Normally manufacturers supply pre-flavored fish oil to third party groups.  Nordic Naturals is actually leading the industry by developing a procedure to allow flavored fish oil to be tested without false positives for spoilage.

In conclusion, when the headlines show misleading information, don’t believe it.  The study was flawed.

Very much why we exist:  the pendulum should not swing entirely one way or another.  We have science to provide us with answers to important questions like “Will X help me treat Y.”  It may be a natural remedy, it may be traditional.  In the end, all that matters is that it carries the greatest benefit with the lowest risk.

The alternative therapies Mr. Jobs used had no well controlled or documented evidence in proving effectiveness.  He could have used the alternative method IN ADDITION TO traditional, proven treatment.  In the end, he regretted his decision, and spent much of his time at the end with biographer trying to get this message out.

This is great timing, as Village Apothecary and Woodstock Apothecary will be accredited Diabetes Education Centers in 2012.

Enjoy the read.

The FDA will halt the sales of OTC inhalers as of Dec 31st, 2011.  This is part of the FDA’s latest efforts to remove CFC producing substances from the marketplace.

Which, in all honesty, is partly true.  OTC inhalers contain epinephrine.  While they work similarly to prescription inhalers by opening up the airways, they also can increase the heart rate and put other stress on your cardiovascular system.  In absolute emergencies they were considered fine, but many people used them routinely.

We never sold them in either drug store because of the safety concerns.

Patients using these products must seek medical advice and get the prescription alternatives.

There will be two sessions, one in Saugerties at the Senior Citizen Center on Thursday, October 13th from 5:30-7:30pm.  The second will be in Woodstock at Woodstock Town Hall on Friday, October 14th from 5:30-7:30pm.  Refreshments will be served.

This session is perfect for:

• Medicare D patients
• Family members or friends helping someone pick their Medicare Drug plan
• Patients with NY Epic and are confused how that will affect them next year
• Patients who will be dealing with Medicare D for the first time.

We highly encourage as many people as possible to attend.  Last year we had a great turnout and many felt it was HIGHLY informative and helped them substantially.

There are many NEGATIVE changes in the upcoming year and we want all patients to keep their costs low.

Please set aside the time.  It is a small investment of time for a great savings in money and HEADACHE in the future!

If you have questions or would like to reserve a spot, please call Casie at Village Apothecary at 845-247-0010 or at Woodstock Apothecary at 845-679-0790.

Click HERE for the flyer.  Click HERE for the press release

Coconut water is basically natural Gatorade. It is a fluid that has a high concentration of electrolytes such as potassium, magnesium, and sodium. It also has a small amount of naturally occurring sugar, so like Gatorade and other sports drinks it has some calories.

Consumer Labs, the independent testing/consumer watchdog group, recently tested 3 brands of coconut water. Most had almost more than HALF the reported electrolyte content! Surprised?

One brand had the labelled amount on the bottle, Zico’s coconut water. Guess what brand we carry… I bet your not surprised!

So, yes, coconut water is GREAT. It is “natural Gatorade” that’s great when you are exercising or are a bit dehydrated. It does NOT have any health benefits beyond this. But as we’ve said many times before, just getting re-hydrated solves many health problems for most people.