News

Who Knew? Drying Out Your January, One Hour at a Time

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. 

There are few experiences that are more boring than someone yammering on about how successful their Dry January has been, so let me be the first to assure you that this column was written with a glass of my favorite Spanish white wine by my side. Txakoli is crisp, lightly effervescent, and dry. If dry wine isn’t the point of dry January, let’s at least call it thematically compliant and move along. 

In the 1950s, France’s government launched a public service campaign to temper the wine-drinking habits of her citizens–albeit lightly. The recommended amount was one liter per day. And while that seems hilariously high (and hilariously French), it’s also worth noting that wine in the 1950s was weaker than it is now.

Business

Local Businesses and COVID-19: New Canaan Healthfare

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For today’s Q&A with a local business, we hear from Margaret Wenzel, who owns New Canaan Healthfare with her husband, Jim. The Morse Court provider of organic foods—including wheat-free and gluten-free—as well as vitamins, pure cosmetics and more, is offering outside pickup and delivery in addition to its safe in-store shopping. 

Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: New Canaan Healthfare is a business in the field of health and wellness. What has it been like for you to experience the onset of the COVID-19 virus? 

Margaret Wenzel: Overwhelming. There were so many unknowns and so much fear, but we knew we were crucial to our customers.

Business

Meet ‘Garden Fresh Baby,’ Launching Friday in Mrs. Green’s New Canaan

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Though Marna Altman for eight years had been caring for kids professionally as a preschool teacher, she’d never cooked for others until she had her own children. Originally from Scarsdale, NY, Altman moved up to Westport for her husband’s job a few years ago and—while staying home to raise their two young kids—developed a passion for keeping the children’s diets chemical-free. The baby food Altman found in most markets weren’t living up to her own standards, so she started shopping farmers markets and making it herself. “And from that experience we had a lot of friends and family who were really interested with us supplying them with baby food and making it for them, and then it kind of just became a business from there,” recalled Altman, 32, CEO of Garden Baby Fresh LLC. In just one year, the company has grown its locally sourced, all-organic baby food and toddler meals business—with repeat customers and even out-of-state mail orders—to the point where Altman can start to envision a national presence.

Business

Expanded Caffeine & Carburetors Launches Sunday

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New Canaan residents, business owners, traffic police and volunteers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of an estimated 2,000 classic car enthusiasts downtown Sunday morning for the 2014 debut of “Caffeine & Carburetors.”

A grassroots event launched four years ago by town resident Doug Zumbach—owner of the eponymous, gourmet coffee shop on the corner of Grove and Pine Streets—Caffeine & Carburetors has become popular enough that, under its founder’s direction and with support from town officials and the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, it’s grown into an inclusive community occasion. Zumbach—owner of a 64 Plymouth Fury, ‘72 Porsche 911T and ‘77 Porsche 930 Turbo—told NewCanaanite.com that he’s parking one of his own cars in front of the iconic clock midway up the main drag of Elm Street, a spot that will bookend a line of cars that will run the length of Pine and then, for the first time, jag up Park and then down Elm. “I want a certain continuity, a flow for the show,” Zumbach said. “I want a visual continuity as well as physical cars to be down there [on Elm]. Mine is going to be there.