Join our South region as they hit the backroads and discover the stories of the people and places behind local and regional foods found in their stores. They’ll travel the farm-to-market roads and interview farmers and producers whose passion it is to produce the highest quality, best tasting food available.

This week, we feature Terra Ceia Farms of Pantego, North Carolina, and their peonies and sunflowers.

Of course, all of our stores feature local and regional foods. Learn more about your region’s local growers and vendors.

Thanks for watching our slide show and please let us know what you think!

You may have noticed that we’ve been getting a bit friendly out here on the interwebs. With the launch of Whole Story, our new Facebook page and our new Twitter account, we’ve been busy looking for ways to connect with you! In celebration of recently hitting the 1,000th-follower mark on Twitter, we thought it would be cool to give back to our Twitter followers.

Here’s the skinny: Follow us on Twitter (simply sign up for an account if you don’t have one and then go to http://twitter.com/wholefoods and click the “follow” button). You don’t need to follow us on Twitter to win, but it’ll help you keep updated on what’s going on.

There will be two ways to earn a $25 Whole Foods Market gift card by following us on Twitter!

First, once a week we’ll announce (on Twitter only!) a store location, a start time, and a “secret pass phrase.” If you’re close to this location, go there, walk up to customer service and tell the team member the pass phrase. The first five people who show up will get a gift card and once they’re gone that’s it, so best to be quick (but safe!).

The second way to earn a gift card will be to tweet (making a Twitter post) about Whole Foods Market. Every day of the work week we’ll pick one Tweet that’s particularly funny or interesting and we’ll retweet it, direct message the winner and award a $25 gift card. Sound like fun? Let us know that you think!

We’ll be doing all this through the month of August and perhaps longer if there’s a lot of interest. Here’s to happy tweeting!

 Halibut: Play Now | Download (1323)
 Podcast Video: Download (516)

Secret Ingredient host Mark Law and Denver chef Jean Philippe Failyau of Osteria Marco take the mint out of the mojito and add it to a fresh summertime salad of cherry tomatoes, fennel, red onion, cucumber and mint, served over seared halibut.

Get the Recipe: Seared Halibut with Cherry Tomatoes, Fennel, Cucumber and Mint

This past Wednesday, Whole Foods Market launched our enhanced aquaculture standards — standout stuff for the industry. Our seafood quality standards team spent the last couple of years researching and investigating all of the issues surrounding farmed fish. They worked with the fish farmers as well as environmental groups and scientists to develop the very best standards out there. In this podcast, I talk to Carrie Brownstein, our Seafood Quality Standards Coordinator, and David Pilat, our Global Seafood Coordinator, to find out all of the scoop on these standards.

 Aquaculture Standards: Play Now | Download (446)

 Whole Planet Foundation: Play Now | Download (614)

In my humble opinion, poverty is the most pressing problem facing the world today. It either magnifies the devastation of other global issues like HIV or is the direct cause of epidemics like vitamin A deficiency in infants.  The 1.2 billion people living on less than $1/day confront a fight for survival on a daily basis.  Their plight has been well documented.  Equally, people are recognizing the poor’s inalienable ability to be their own change agent with the rise of microfinance.  This was never more apparent than with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, which acknowledged the direct link between peace and prosperity.

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Join us as we hit the backroads and discover the stories of the people and places behind local and regional foods found in our stores. We’ll travel the farm-to-market roads and interview farmers and producers whose passion it is to produce the highest quality, best tasting food available.

This week, we feature Antioch Farms of Claxton, Georgia, and their organic Vidalia sweet onions.

Check out our South region’s local grower and vendor profiles.

Thanks for watching our slide show and please let us know what you think!

Hey there. It’s The Whole Deal™; value tips time again! If you haven’t checked out all of the fantastic tips for saving while shopping at Whole Foods Market, you’ve got to go to The Whole Deal™. We only choose a few tips to feature here each week and there are tons more innovative ideas out there. Read them over and if you have your own tip, post it on the page. If your tip is chosen to feature here on Whole Story, you’ll receive a $25 gift card! Drum roll, please, for this week’s featured tips:

On my last trip to Spain, I discovered egg dishes for supper! That’s right! Main course egg dishes! Spain has had generations that, out of necessity, have had to conserve funds, so eggs became popular for dinner, since they’re an extremely inexpensive source of protein. Try a Spanish Potato Omelet recipe [ed: Here's a version from the Whole Foods Market recipe section.] - you might be very pleasantly surprised - It’s fabulous!
-Lynne

There are several ways that I try to save money as well as not waste food. One way is to go shopping more often, then I can go in for what I am in the mood for that night or next few days and not waste. I also purchase products that are in season and that whole foods is featuring that week. It also helps to buy products that are 365 brand and things that won’t spoil such as tuna, beans, and boxed pasta or rice. I also love to use coupons. Whole foods distributes Mambo Sprouts coupon book for free several times a year and you can also go to the manufacturers website and print coupons. My favorites are Stonyfield, organic valley, and seventh generation.
-Laura

Hello to all! We have 6 growing boys; needless to say, we’re always working on ways to stretch our food dollars! One of the best things we’ve done is used hot cereal instead of cold cereal. Hot cereal is better for you, more filling & costs way less versus cold cereal. Oatmeal is our perennial favorite, & steel cut oats are tastier than rolled oats. Steel cut are also less expensive, so we save $$. Find them in the bulk section at Whole Foods! They do take 30 minutes to cook, but are so easy to make ahead of time for a few mornings. Frozen berries, bananas, brown sugar, etc. are great additions. Once in a blue moon, when we buy cold cereal, it is a nice treat instead of the everyday! Homemade granola is fun to experiment with, too!
-Beth

Ever wonder why we tend to be drawn to spicy peppers in the summer when it’s already hot? Tune in to our podcast to hear chef Juan Pablo Chavez answer that question and chat about the different types of chile peppers and how to pickle your own peppers. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but it sounds super easy.

Here are some of our new recipes using a variety of chile peppers:

Blackened Jalapeño and Avocado Dipping Sauce
Watermelon and Strawberry Salad with Chile Vinaigrette
Chicken with Grilled Peach and Chipotle Salsa
Green Curry Tofu

Listen in and then share your favorite chile concoction.

 Chili Peppers: Play Now | Download (4863)

I am at the new Whole Foods Market store in Tribeca, NYC perusing the seafood counter on a most exciting day. Today we launched our new quality standards for farmed seafood at Whole Foods Market, a culmination of two years work to set the bar high for aquaculture practices worldwide. I watch as an inquisitive customer reads through our brochure detailing the key highlights of the new standards while the team member wraps up her salmon. Her eyes shift from the brochure to the salmon in the case. “Does this salmon that I’m buying come from this farm, pictured here in this brochure? Does it meet your standards?” she asks the team member. “It sure does,” he replies proudly to the customer’s delight, “all of our farmed seafood will need to meet our standards and be approved through an independent third party audit.” “That’s so cool,” she declares, and away she goes, pulled by the hand by an impatient toddler.

As I scan the seafood case, I see fish from many of the farms that I’ve visited over the last two years-salmon from Norway, trout and catfish from North Carolina, shrimp from Vietnam, and Arctic char from Iceland, to name only a few. It’s been a stimulating and inspiring process developing these standards. Learning about the problems and finding solutions-my favorite kind of work. Speaking with scientists, environmentalists, and producers, I investigated every issue related to aquaculture: feed, predator control, water quality, chemical use, environmental contaminants, siting, traceability, etc. With the best available science, I armed myself with all the information. Then I went into the field. I visited hatcheries, farms, feed mills, and processing plants to get a closer look at how farmed fish are produced and to really understand what producers are doing, and not doing.

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Hey everyone! It is summer time and it is officially the time of year I miss my hometown area the most. I grew up spending summers in Surf City, NJ on Long Beach Island and spent probably 8 hours a day in the sun. Well, now we know that is not the best idea and also that if you are going to surf the summer away, you better be wearing some strong sunblock.

Some of my favorites include: Dr. Hauschka SPF 20, Aubrey Organics Green Tea SPF 25 & California Baby SPF 30 Fragrance Free (for the little ones). For more information on summer sun protection check out this pdf of our Be Good To Your Whole Body brochure from June. Don’t forget to grab some Aloe Vera Gel too, just in case you do get burned, it is still the best for soothing sun-fried skin.

On another note, if you are like me with stress, travel and the general day-to-day chaos, you might not always eat enough vegetables or greens. This month we launched a great EXCLUSIVE product from the folks at Amazing Grass called Amazing Meal. There are 3 flavors (Original, Chocolate and Pomegranate-Mango) and it provides a power-packed punch with 3000mg of raw greens, a serving of protein, a blend of goji, maca, açaí and other antioxidant rich foods, complemented with a probiotics and a comprehensive enzyme blend. It is guaranteed to liven up your morning shake or give you a quick boost while on the run this summer.

Have fun!