It’s a new year, and we’ve added a new salad to the menu—the Adisalad.
Named after its creator, and pronounced very closely to “add a salad,” this salad completes our trifecta of salads, rounding out the trio in several ways. The Adisalad is a size perfectly positioned between the side salad-sized Ensaladita and the takes-me-two-sittings-to-finish NWS Salad. Depending on how you choose your own salad adventure, it can also be gluten-free and vegan-friendly without any omissions, additions, or substitutions.
The Adisalad is composed of a bed of mixed greens and thinly-sliced cabbage, topped with a pickled vegetable medley, chopped Marcona almonds, fresh sliced cucumber, and your choice of Hausmade kimchi or sauerkraut. This salad needs no dressing, as the moisture from the kimchi/kraut and pickled vegetables combines with the oil from the almonds to create a complex incidental dressing. If you want to have the salad gluten-free and vegan, opt for sauerkraut over kimchi. Personally, I prefer the sauerkraut for its more pronounced flavor, but it is great both ways: with kimchi you get some extra vegetables and spice-heat.
Adison first threw together this salad to give his body some honest-to-goodness fuel. Not only is it an energizing blend of ingredients, but eating it feels like you’ve done something kind for yourself, without sacrificing flavor. Adison felt the salad would highlight the pickling and fermentation processes we have cultivated, so he brought it to our annual Sandwich Lab.
When I have the Adisalad, I like to add pickled ginger for extra spicy-sweetness, and quick pickles if they’re looking especially slippery.
The Adisalad is available in our deli & via delivery for $10+tax and is a delicious pick-me-up at any time of the day.
The surroundings toe the line of order and chaos. Zip-tied bundles of flattened boxes are piled high in canted and zigzagging stacks top a labyrinthine arrangement of shelves. The wall of product label sticker spools is functional, if disorganized. 
This week, twenty pallets of recycled denim box-liners were delivered to DeWitt-Seitz and our off-site storage area. 4ish- by 3ish- by 6ish-foot boxes of them are stacked in the office, and various corners of the floor. We have even requisitioned a room down a winding path of hallways that I had not travelled before I began researching this week’s blog to stack our boxes and liners, which is filled to the ceiling/skylight. 
This is not my first Winter here. I know what to expect. It still struggle to imagine the extent of the activity that will occur in this small office suite over the next month-point-five.
In my assumed mode of fascination, I asked, “what do cutters do?”“They cut,” was the curt response. “Would you like to know what the cleaners do,” they followed up.I bit.“They cut too.”After a good laugh at my foolishness, I learned that before the cabbage is cut, salted and left to pickle, the heads are thoroughly cleaned so that there are no contaminants in the mix or on the cutting boards. Sauerkraut pickles for a month before it hits our shelves and sandwich line. Our kimchi ferments for a week before we package it.Also in the basement, I found the mop closet still under construction, and snapped a photo.
There are many lessons to be learned in the smokehouse proper, as the folks working down there have countless hours of hands-on experience creating the amazing food we sell.I also found a few purple tomatoes among the heirlooms. Purple is my favorite color, so this pleased me.
One final note before you go: Monday, November 19th is the last day of our mail-order turkey special. Any purchase of a whole turkey breast made by Monday will come with a free 8oz tub of crayo.