Cows at the grocery store, cows at the party store

I took my kids to Henry’s Marketplace this morning to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. You know it’s the middle of summer when your cart is full of fragrant white nectarines, plump honeydew melon, sun-reddened apricots and juicy plums.

As I was picking a couple dozens of eggs (and my youngest decided to grab an egg carton and drop half of its contents on the floor – oops!) I looked up and noticed these prepackaged rolls of buttermilk biscuits from the Immaculate Baking Company:

Buttermilk biscuits with cow from Immaculate Baking Company

Is it me or that cow looked pretty crossed? It’s just looks like it’s telling me, don’t even think about grabbing these biscuits or else! I think my oldest can draw a friendlier-looking cow.

Talking about my oldest, he’s turning five tomorrow (yikes!) so we also went to Party City to grab some birthday wrapping paper, candles and balloons. While waiting in line, we spotted another LED cow keychain, with different shape and hide patterns from the cow keychain I recently found at Michael’s. This cow’s nostrils still light up as a handy flashlight and makes a weird moo sound.

LED cow keychain at Party City

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some birthday presents to wrap up…

A whole new take on barbecue and cows

It’s another month in the Henry’s flyer cow saga! The designing staff at Henry’s Marketplace finds new inspiration and they don’t fail to entertain me every month. If you missed the previous flyers, here are the links for you:

- May 2011 flyer – honoring Mother’s Day
- April 2011 flyer – celebrating Earth Day
- March 2011 flyer – getting ready for St Patrick’s Day
- January 2011 flyer – making new year’s health resolutions

This month, Mrs Cow and Mr Pig are getting ready to kick off the summer with a barbecue in their barnyard. What a brilliant idea!

Henry's Marketplace June 2011 flyer

I can see Mr Pig is being… a typical pig, pigging out on watermelon while the cow does all the work. By the way, I know corn is a popular item to throw on the grill, but seriously, we should stop feeding corn to our cows. Bovines were made to graze on grass and are healthiest that way. There, I said it.

I love the apron caption, “Don’t milk the cook!”, although I believe a more appropriate caption should have been “Don’t grill the cook!”. Unless you can come up with a better caption than that. Come on, you know I’m waiting…

Shop in style with this new cow cooler bag

It was just a few days ago when I spotted new reusable shopping bags at Henry’s Marketplace on sale by the registers. Well, the reusable bags now have company! While paying for fresh produce this afternoon, I saw these new cooler bags hanging by the register:

Henry's Marketplace new cooler bag

Doesn’t this cow look cool? Or hot, depending on which side you’re looking at. I’m really starting to think Henry’s is embracing the daily cow spotting theory. Between their monthly flyers, store signage and now two new bags, they’re catching on to the subliminal purchasing power of the cow. Buyers beware!

Get your reusable shopping bag, featuring your cow of the day!

I was reading the news online this morning, some article about the poor schmuck who predicted the end of the world this weekend. Hopefully most people didn’t ruin their Saturday waiting for some ridiculous event not to happen. The article mentioned some people decided to protest and make fun of the prediction and the basis of it (blaming the end of the world on the gays. Seriously). One action taken during the protest was to release balloons, including some ”attached to a toy cow”. You know me, I had to see it for myself. Here’s the video to prove it: you’ll get to learn about the protest and the cow shows up in the last 10 seconds (you’ll mostly see its butt and legs).

I feel pretty clueless after watching this last part. If you have an idea about the significance of attaching a toy cow to balloons and releasing it in the air, I’m all ears!

This afternoon I made a quick trip to Henry’s Marketplace to get some veggies and fruit we desperately need to stay healthy. I’ve shown you Henry’s famous cow and pig monthly flyers in the past but this is a first – a reusable shopping bag featuring the wacky Henry’s cow:

Henry's Marketplace reusable shopping bag with cow driving a tractor

Look, mom, no hands! What a wild ride it would be… Notice the use of healthy produce to create the graphics, from the cauliflower clouds, to the broccoli trees, to the cantaloupe ground. Henry’s, I think you’ve outdone yourself ! And no, I didn’t get the bag, but I felt really, really tempted to…

What represents motherhood better than a cow?

If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few months, you’ve noticed that Henry’s Marketplace, my local produce store, has some funny graphic designers working for them. They like to use farm animals, mostly cows and pigs, on the cover of their monthly flyer (see Henry’s March 2011 and April 2011 issues).

The front cover of Henry’s May 2011 flyer is dedicated to Mother’s Day and no exception to this year’s animalistic trend. And what illustrates the maternal figure better than a dairy cow?

Henry's Marketplace May 2011 flyer with Mother's day cow

Flowers and coffee beans. Those Henry’s people know how to pamper moms and make them feel happy and beautiful! Now, take a closer look at the two little pigs. I think this occurrence is a first:

Henry's Marketplace May 2011 flyer with cow and pigs

Notice the little pig on the left holding a “Happy Mother’s Day” card in his mouth. Add the multiple balloons held by both pigs, “#1 Mom”, “Happy Mother’s Day”. I thought cows and pigs were best friends, but this stretching my imagination even further. This cow has actually adopted the two piglets! And they seem very thankful for it. This mom deserves a lot of credit. Can you imagine having to change the pigs’ stinky diapers? Now that’s what I call unconditional mommy love!