BRAND AMBASSADOR BOOK

Welcome to the Grange!

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Thank you for becoming part of the Fiore Di Nonno and Grange 27 family. That's right – I said family. For me, family is everything. I grew up in a big Italian family in New Jersey – the type of family that sits down to a f ive-hour meal each Sunday. Food, laughter and love were taken very seriously! At the helm was my grandfather who owned Fiore's of Hoboken, a cheese shop that his father, an Italian immigrant, started in 1913. As a child, I was mesmerized by my grandfather's store. I'd watch him stretch the cheese until it was just right, and my mouth watered in anticipation of the moment when he'd give us a little bite of his fresh, warm, salty and hot mozzarella. When my grandfather retired, he sold the business outside the family. Our craft was nearly lost. I always loved food and wanted a career in the industry, but never thought about carrying on my family's rich tradition. I started my career as a pastry chef with Le Cirque and I baked at Iggy’s Breads of the World, but my career appetite wasn't satisfied. I went back to school and earned a master's degree in health education. I tried my hand in the corporate world with stints at Panera Bread and Marriot. I even spent two years as a technical support engineer for Microsoft. Suddenly, I was at a point where my career path and my memories collided. I knew, without a doubt, what I wanted to do next. I knew I was going to learn how to

make mozzarella in the same style and tradition as my grandfather. It's been a long journey back to my family's history and to those moments I loved as a child. I value family, tradition and community, and my businesses – Fiore Di Nonno and Grange 27 – carry on these things that matter most. Since you are inspired by my cheese, my store and my story, I hope you will be able to do the same – to live a life where your fondest memories and your deepest values lead you to the things you love. I'm honored that you're now a part of the big, boisterous, cheese-loving brand ambassador family.Welcome!

Thank You

Lourdes Smith

Dear Brand Ambassadors,

Lourdes Smith

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Brand Background

Community. Family. Tradition.

In many ways, we’re looking backwards to move our business forward. Th e grange concept is about community, family and tradition. Our new retail space is a reinvention of an old-fashioned grange. Unfamiliar with the term grange? Traditionally, a grange is a place for communities to gather and discuss agricultural issues. But the grange is more than a place – it’s a movement. It all began in the decades after the civil war, crop prices were falling, costs of transportation soared and a nationwide fi nancial crisis crippled growth. Sound familiar? Today, our economic system is still recovering from huge shocks and we don't know the real value of the food we eat or its origins. Our food system is broken. We will repair it through community. Unlike the granges of yesteryear, we have the tools and the technology to connect and organize. But our communities lack dedicated places where we can gather, learn and discuss our food systems with neighbors. As a brand ambassador, you will discover how dairy farms work and the impact a community can have on an industry.

Did you know?

The purpose of the Grange is to “Provide opportunities

for individuals and families to develop to their highest

potential in order to build stronger communities.”

- Journal of Proceedings (2006)

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Are you ready, Grangers?

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All of the cheese served at Grange 27 comes from the original Fiore di Nonno recipe. The first step is making curd at local daries. Cows graze adjacent to the Atlantic at the Shy Brother’s Farms in Westport Massachusetts. The variety of soil and fresh salty air determine the quality of the milk, along with the season and diet of the cows. We took all of this into consideration when developing her curd with farmers from Shy Brothers. It took 27 batches to get it perfect – that’s the “27” in our name. Curds are coagulated milk. Heating milk and adding acid causes the proteins to form solid masses, or curds, that can be separated from the liquid whey. Once the curds are made, they are delivered to our kitchen where the expert cheese makers get to work right away. They break up the curds, temper and cook them. They stretch it and shape it, creating the magical elasticity in all of our mozzarella. The cheese is then divided into balls and finished in salty brine. At Grange 27, the majority of our cheeses are made and served the same day. Especially with mozzarella, nothing beats freshness. We recommend an early morning trip to our kitchen to try some mozzarella as it’s made, warm and straight out of the brine, there is nothing like it! But beware; we start cooking at 5am!

The Cheese Process

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Korsha is the newest member of the Fiore di Nonno cheese making team. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has worked in restaurants for 10 years in many different roles. When she's not at work she's cooking, eating, or writing about food and the people that make it.

Her favorite quote: "After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations" - Oscar Wilde

Korsha

Lauren has been a cheese maker at Fiore di Nonno for over two and a half years. Lauren loves food, being in nature and working with her hands. She is also a certified holistic health counselor and herbalist, and tries to live as close to the earth as possible. Working at Fiore and learning this artisanal craft has only deepened Lauren's connection to the local food movement. She strongly believes that people are nourished most by food that grows close to home and she is honored to be a part of a growing and supportive community.

Lauren

Annie has been a cheese maker at Fiore di Nonno for two and half years. After receiving a degree in English literature, and making forays into baking, bartending, serving, and farm work, she was finally drawn to cheese making by the challenge of learning a new and difficult craft. When not making cheese, Annie travels to the far reaches of the world to spread the good cheese word. They often say that no vegan is safe in her presence. They are right.

Annie

Our Team

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Meet the Shy Brothers

With a nickname like the Shy Brothers, the four Santos brothers live up to their reputation! As 3rd generation farmers dedicated to good stewardship of the land, they can grow nearly anything in the rocky Massachusetts soil they tend, and they even make their own gourmet cheeses! The Shy Brothers are two sets of fraternal twins, Arthur and Norman the older pair, and Kevin and Karl the younger. Together they do everything on the farm from milking cows to fixing machinery to working the farmers markets. At a local agriculture meeting, the Shy Brothers met Barbara Hanley. As a new Westport resident, Barbara was shocked to learn the rate at which dairy farms in the region were closing. Barbara and her husband Leo Brooks decided to help the Shy Brother’s out in any way they could. Now they’re partners in cheese making. The boys are pretty shy, but they believe that what we eat matters, and put that care into everything they make. Be sure to stop by if you’re in Westport, it’s a short 90 min drive from Boston. Barbara loves talking about cheese and giving tours of the farm.

“There is this whole culture of people who are grounded

that we don’t know until we get to know farmers. They are

at peace, know everything is going to work out…and every

one of them lives on the edge [financially]. They know what

they want. This is what Leo and I are fighting for, for the

community, to keep that intact.” – Barbara Hanley

Kevin keeps it simpler: “Mother Nature knows what she’s

doing and we just work with her.”

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Through our cheese making and purchases, we are keeping farms like the Shy Brothers in business. With competition from agri-business and very low prices set for each gallon of milk produced, the little guys cannot succeed without people like you, who value independent businesses and handcrafted products.

Keeping Our Farms Alive

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By now, you know our va lues and what we stand for. And you know that we can't do it alone.

It takes a community.

As a conscious consumer and brand ambassador, Granger, you will build our movement to change the food system.

Vision for Growth

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What you’ll do- Use our action list for unique ideas to spread our message- Keep yourself informed with our webinars, book club and movie night- Connect with the community online and in store

Who you areYou have amazing talents, whether you are a cook, blogger, student or neighbor. Bring them to the table and share your expertise with each other. We’ ll show you what we do best, too. We are not only cheese makers; we are designers, social media experts, strategists, and farmers. Most importantly, we care about the same things and have a network of people to connect you to. Th at's the power of community.

What connects all you Grangers? You care. You f ight for what you believe in, you recognize that community matters and you cheer for the underdog. You care about the food you eat. You don’t compromise on taste and you're curious to learn more about your food – where it comes from and who makes it. Collectively, we have the purchasing power and the voice to transform our global food business into a local food network. To us, buying local just makes sense. We believe food best when we make it in our own kitchens or in the kitchens of our friends.

Plan for Advocates

Why join the Grangers?

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What Kind of Granger are You?

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• Share your own story about your experiences with the food system.

• Plan a weekend visit to a local dairy farm.• Teach a child how to cook a simple meal or help

prepare food. • Create your own taste test. Buy different cheeses and

milks at various prices and see whether or not you can taste the difference.

• Contact Lourdes with a book or movie suggestion for fellow grangers.

Not local? Not a problem! Spread the modern day grange concept in your neighborhood by encouraging sustainable practices, eating locally and building solid relationships with chefs, farmers and food suppliers near you.

Get to know someone you wouldn’t otherwise meet.

If you know someone interested in the values of Grange 27, introduce them to us! We cherish good partnerships almost as much as we cherish good cheese.

Ready to shout it from the rooftops? Here's how you can spread the message of the modern day grange:

• Post an article about the food system to our granger Facebook group.

• Talk to a farmer or a foodie. Write a blog post about what you learned.

• In the mood to review? Write Grange 27 a review on Yelp and Trip Advisor!

• Meet up with your friends at Grange 27! Why keep all that blissful cheese to yourself?

• Have friends who've visited our shop? Ask them to write about their experience, too.

• Milk a cow.• Try other made in MA products.• Host a farm-to-table dinner. Share with your guests

the process of getting farm fresh food and the costs per-person. We g uarantee your g uests w i l l be impressed by what you know.

• Give Fiore Di Nonno cheese as your next gift.• Share your favorite recipe with a friend.• Create your own cheese of the month club. Try a

cheese you've never heard of every month to expand your palette.

• Try your hand at paring cheeses yourself. • Pack a picnic using sustainable containers.

Spread the Word

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While you're building the Grange 27 movement, remember to apply what you're learning to what you love most.

Maybe you signed up as a Granger to learn about the farm to table process. Maybe the food system is your passion or you're a dairy farmer yourself!

Whoever you are and wherever you come from – we hope you've learned to the importance of the power of community, the strength of honest partnerships and the power that a movement can generate.

Now go do.

Transfer what you're learning.

Your Challenge

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561 Windsor Street, Somerville, MA 02143 | (617) 764-1231 | info@fioredinonno.com

www.grange27.com