Bring a taste of New Orleans to your table with a wild ramp, mache and asparagus salad topped with crawfish cakes. Whether enjoyed as a small plate starter or entrée salad, the real secret to the success of this dish is the freshly squeezed orange juice added to orange-chili vinaigrette. Discover how fresh citrus juice—lemon, lime or orange—livens up any dressing or sauce with zesty flavor.
The best part of my job as administrator of our Local Producer Loan Program isn’t giving out loans to our small producers – it’s watching loan recipients use those loans to grow their businesses. In the year and a half since we launched the program, Whole Foods Market has provided loans to 29 small producers of products ranging from grassfed beef and honey to wine sorbet and body care products. They are some of the hardest-working, most passionate people I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and it’s always so inspiring to see their plans come to fruition.
One of our most exciting success stories is Laughing Giraffe Organics, a (very!) small company from Phoenix, Arizona that makes raw, vegan, organic, gluten-free granola and macaroons… that taste amazing! Justin Baumgartner started selling his product at a farmers market in 2006, where a local Whole Foods Market team member noticed him and asked about getting the product in our stores. That was the start of a great relationship. Due to its popularity and Justin’s entrepreneurial drive (would YOU call each store individually to make sure your product is in stock?), Laughing Giraffe soon expanded to more stores and then region-wide. After receiving not one, but TWO small loans, the products are now available in our Southern Pacific, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest regions. The products also recently were accepted by United Natural Foods, one of our primary distributors, a move which will allow access to Whole Foods Market stores throughout the western half of the United States. Did I mention that he managed this while he and his wife were caring for a newborn?
Anyone who knows Justin knows what a hard worker he is, and we are so thrilled at his success. He was recently featured on the front page of the business section in the Arizona Republic, a wonderful recognition of his passion and dedication to great food made for people, by people.
Probably the most common (and cliché) “green tip” is to change out your traditional incandescent light bulbs for those curly compact fluorescent (CFL) ones. I’m sure everyone has heard this, and most of you have probably done it. You may have even noticed your electric bill go down since these bulbs use one-fifth of the energy of an incandescent (and they last 7-10 times as long).
Time for our weekly The Whole Deal™ post. If you’re just joining us, these are tips from real live customers who are sharing their ideas about saving while shopping at Whole Foods Market. Got a tip of your own? Post it on The Whole Deal™. Each week we feature tips here on Whole Story and you know what the best part is? Each customer who sends in a tip that gets featured here receives a $25 gift card! Who knows…your tip could be chosen next.
Fresh corn – especially corn eaten right off the cob – just screams “summer” for me. On this podcast, I talked with produce expert James Parker to find out about the different varieties of corn, how to pick the best and how to cook those yummy ears. Of course, how you eat your corn on the cob is a personal choice – do you eat horizontally across the cob or bite around the cob in a circular pattern? Listen in and share your corn thoughts.
Join us as we continue our visit to Manhattan’s premiere natural haircare salon. Pick up tips from “the master” on cutting and styling hair, using examples of curly, straight and limp, and color treated hair. Discover the best secrets for creating the hair you want with all natural ingredients. John Masters has been a leader and innovator in the beauty care industry for more than 15 years. He is founder of John Masters Organics personal care products and salon in New York City.
I’m recently back from a trip to New York City where I attended this summer’s Fancy Food Show. For the past 50 years, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade has sponsored these events to show off what’s hot and new in the specialty food marketplace.
After walking what must have been miles of aisles at the show for two days, I was able to sample just a small percentage of the approximately 180,000 specialty foods on display by some 2,000 exhibitors! (There is a limit to one’s capacity for tasting. Even small bites add up quickly, so judicious pacing is key to a good experience.)
One of the things that caught my eye (and my palate) was the fact that producers are finding ever more innovative ways of making sweet food and drink interesting to the discerning consumer. The following products make clear that you don’t have to give in to overly syrupy or sugary concoctions to get that sweet fix.
Special Note: I did not vet the products listed to make sure that they are available in all of our stores. Most likely, some are and some aren’t.
Add big flavor to tiny burgers—also called sliders—with this week’s secret ingredient: smoked peppercorns. Made from organic black, green and white peppercorns and packed in a convenient grinder, Frontier’s Smoked Peppercorn blend brings an extra special touch to any burger. Host Scott Herbert adds a vegetarian twist and Mediterranean flair to these easy-to-make sliders—sure to please meat lovers and vegetarians alike.
I love working with family-owned businesses, especially those that truly believe in what they do. Maine Root Soda Company, based right here in Austin, TX, is one of those companies.
Brothers, Matt and Mark Seiler, started a company that not only provides great quality products, but it has a conscious too. Maine Root Soda Company uses ethically sourced sugar from Paraguay in all of their sodas. In fact, Maine Root Soda Company was the first soda company to use exclusively ethically-certified sugar. All of the sugar cane comes from a biodiverse farm co-op and is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizer. All weeding is done by hand, thereby eliminating the use of chemical herbicides.
It’s hot here in Austin, so a nice cold beverage is a must. I love their Root Beer and Ginger Beer Soda. The Ginger Beer is nice and spicy. So, grab a Maine Root Soda the next time you need a nice cold, refreshing soda, and be reassured that these brothers are doing the right thing! (Not everyone reading this will be able to find Maine Root Soda in their local Whole Foods Market but they are expanding. Look for them now throughout the Southwest, North Atlantic, Northeast, and South regions.)
Oh yeah, Maine Root Soda is part of our Whole Trade Guarantee program, so in addition to the great work that they do, we donate 1% of sales on their products to do more great work through our Whole Planet Foundation.
Check out the Maine Root website to learn more about Matt and Mark’s great story.
About the only things sprouting up on lawns this summer in central Texas are “Alarm Stage Drought” signs. The grass is crispy, some trees feature the yellow hues of autumn, and county officials and parents will be closely monitoring the few fireworks used by neighborhood kids this year. Our typical blast-furnace-August weather started in mid-May this year, and we’ve not had more than a flirty little spatter of rain since. Our June was the hottest recorded in Austin since 1854, with an average high of 99.4 degrees. Even our scrappiest cur-dogs won’t go out in this year’s noon-day sun.
Welcome to Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market.
Don’t know us? In a nutshell, we are the world's leading natural and organic grocer and we’re passionate about healthy food and a healthy planet. Learn more about us.
We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of smart, passionate people doing incredible things in areas like organics, supporting local growers, green practices, fair trade, micro-lending and all kinds of food related stuff. We’ll use this blog to share some of the cool things going on around here.
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One of our most exciting success stories is 
Brothers, Matt and Mark Seiler, started a company that not only provides great quality products, but it has a conscious too. Maine Root Soda Company uses ethically sourced sugar from Paraguay in all of their sodas. In fact, Maine Root Soda Company was the first soda company to use exclusively ethically-certified sugar. All of the sugar cane comes from a biodiverse farm co-op and is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizer. All weeding is done by hand, thereby eliminating the use of chemical herbicides.
