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Oktoberfest has been held every year in Munich, Germany for almost 200 years. The first fest was not really a festival, but a celebration of the wedding of Crown Prince Luitpold I and Princess Theressa of Bavaria on October17, 1810. Like many modern-day events, the highlight was beer and food—in this case wurst (sausages). These days, an astonishing ten million pints of beer and more than ¾ million sausages are consumed annually at this festival.

Stop by our stores and check out the great Oktoberfest selections. From authentic German sausages to new and unique varieties, plus traditional sauerkraut and a very fine lineup of German beers. We’ve got the “best wurst” in town to celebrate the flavors of Oktoberfest!

Get some awesome recipes and read more about beer and brat pairings on our Oktoberfest page!

Each of our six of our finalists for the Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge will be featured in a blog post here. Read about them and check out their featured recipe. By posting a comment on their recipe page, you help determine the winner in our Challenge AND you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $500 gift card!

Rachel Rappaport is a food writer, recipe developer, cooking instructor and commentator on all matters relating to food and cooking.  Her blog, originally started in 2004 as a place for Rachel to share recipes with her friends.  It now features hundreds of original recipes and easy home cooking tips covering a wide range of international cuisines from authentic Indian curries to traditional American favorites to vegan, Korean and Japanese food.

Don’t lie: what did you have for dinner last night?

Last night we were in NYC to attend a taping of a blog focused episode of Martha Stewart’s show so for once I didn’t cook! We went out for Thai with some friends and I had a great shrimp & glass noodle dish.

Remember: Don’t comment here if you want to support Rachel in our contest. You have to comment on her recipe page. We turned comments off to help you remember!
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We’ve all heard the basics on healthy aging, right? Eat well, stay active, adopt daily stress relief habits… So now it’s time for the specifics. This month we have a special guest, Dr. Andrew Weil, a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine. Dr. Weil gives us his personal and professional recommendations on heart health, brain power, and keeping the immune system strong.

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Each of our six of our finalists for the Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge will be featured in a blog post here. Read about them and check out their featured recipe. By posting a comment on their recipe page, you help determine the winner in our Challenge AND you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $500 gift card!

Often referred to as the “sweet vegan,” Hannah Kaminsky’s love of desserts compelled her to start experimenting in the kitchen at a young age to create incredible, cruelty-free treats.  A crafter at heart, her blog features creative crafts, funny stories, and delicious treats with the occasional free recipe or pattern thrown in.  Having already released one delicious cookbook, My Sweet Vegan, she is now hard at work on a second, equally sweet publication.

Don’t lie: what did you have for dinner last night?

I had some baked falafel and grain-less tabbouleh that I made at work- Easy and very satisfying after a full day in the kitchen.

Remember: Don’t comment here if you want to support Hannah in our contest. You have to comment on her recipe page. We turned comments off to help you remember!

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Looking for a simple way to spice up breakfast? Join Todd Coleman, Saveur magazine’s food editor, as makes this south-of-the-border breakfast classic originally created to use up day-old tortillas.  Todd makes his own crisp chips using 365 Everyday Value® Organic Corn Tortillas which add rustic flavor and texture when tossed with roasted tomato sauce, sautéed chorizo and chipotle peppers en adobo. Easy to make and sure to please, this version of chilaquiles will add sizzle to any weekday breakfast or weekend brunch.

Get the Recipe: Chilaquiles

Each of our six of our finalists for the Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge will be featured in a blog post here. Read about them and check out their featured recipe. By posting a comment on their recipe page, you help determine the winner in our Challenge AND you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $500 gift card!

Michael Chu is a computer engineer who learned to cook as a hobby. He began sharing what he learned through countless trial-and-error experiments on Cooking For Engineers in 2004.  His blog is a food and cooking site for the inquisitive.  It features detailed recipes with step-by-step photographs presented alongside in-depth articles on topics such as how brining works, making butter at home, equipment tests and more.

Don’t lie: what did you have for dinner last night?

Flanken-style short ribs in Korean Asian pear marinade grilled on an outdoor grill (Kalbi), light salad of fresh lettuces, seaweed salad (purchased at the local Korean market), steamed white rice.

Remember: Don’t comment here if you want to support Michael in our contest. You have to comment on his recipe page. We turned comments off to help you remember!

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Imagine slicing open a fresh leaf of aloe vera and extracting the beneficial properties from within—our new 365 Everyday Value® Aloe Vera Juices in both unflavored and tangy Pomegranate Cranberry flavor give you an easy way to take advantage of aloe’s benefits every day.

Our new 365 Everyday Value® Aloe Juice and Gel products are made from fresh, 100% Whole Leaf Certified Organic Aloe Vera grown in the rich and fertile Rio Grande Valley of Texas and along the Tropic of Cancer in the Mexican Dessert. They contain the full range of naturally occurring aloe polysaccharides– an average of about 2,400 mg per liter. Aloe polysaccharides are thought to be aloe’s most important constituents. Whole leaf products are made by processing the entire leaf and filtering out the unwanted bitter constituents. This retains more of the 200+ components such as amino acids, vitamins and minerals. We never use distillates or add water. Our product is 99.7% pure aloe vera!

The key to a better product is in the way you treat your aloe leaves. The aloe plants and fields are tended with care. It takes two to three years for a plant to reach maturity, and careful harvesting to keep the plants productive for five to seven years’ time. The plants are replaced after seven years and new fields take more than a year to become ready for a new planting. Our fresh aloe leaves are harvested by hand. The folks who pick the leaves have many years of experience and know exactly which leaves will yield the good stuff that aloe gives! Our fresh aloe leaves are refrigerated within two hours of harvest and processed under optimum conditions to retain aloe’s best qualities.

There are many claims about aloe vera and a few are even substantiated by science, how about that? Digestive and immune support as well as increased nutrient absorption are a few of the important ways aloe vera can support health.

To Juice or Gel, you ask?

Aloe vera gel is actually made from the aloe vera juice by adding a food grade thickening agent called carrageenan, which is a naturally occurring sea kelp/Irish moss. They are almost equally effective because the 365 Everyday Value® Aloe juice products contain 99.7% aloe vera, while the gel products contain 99.5% aloe vera. Juice products are typically made for dietary supplement purposes, while gel products are more commonly used for topical application, though they can be orally ingested and may be soothing to your throat, stomach, and digestive tract.

Drink two to eight ounces per day as a refreshing beverage! Pour over ice, mix with your favorite juice or try our tasty Pomegranate Cranberry flavor. To your health!

For over two years now, we have been conducting research for our Premium Body Care Standards, carefully determining exactly which ingredients will be allowed and which will be exempted from the new standard. With over 300 body care ingredients currently classified as unacceptable, you can imagine that it has been a long process: at our desks spending countless hours delving into the nuances of personal care ingredients; at meetings with experts, generous in sharing their information and brimming over with passion; and through journeys far and wide to see firsthand how these products and their ingredients are made.

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Yes, it’s our weekly post with customer tips about saving while shopping at Whole Foods Market. Some of these tips talk about coupons and our Mambo Sprouts coupon booklets. Here’s a reminder that the Mambo Sprouts coupons are now in our quarterly Whole Deal booklet. Look for new ones hitting our stores next week!

Here are the picks of the week from our great customer tips. Got a tip of your own? Post it on the Whole Deal page. If your tip is chosen to feature here on Whole Story, you’ll receive a $25 gift card!

From Georgia:

Before Whole Foods opened in Naples, I was concerned that it would be too expensive for everyday shopping. I was so surprised when I found that buying my weekly basics actually cost less then at competing chains. I decided to price more elaborate menus and again found the prices to be more favorable. The secret: Whole Foods own brand name products are better and better priced than recognized name brands. The chicken broth, and pasta are just 2 examples. Then there are the great sales … daily! Today I bought a 2.5 pound sirloin tip roast, 5 pounds of russet potatoes, and 2.5 pounds of vine ripened tomatoes for about $20.00!! Where in the world can you shop like that? Over the weekend, I made risotto pasta with organic asparagus with a side of sauteed organic carrots - total cost to serve 6 people - $12 (includes pasta, chicken broth, organic onions, garlic, carrots, asparagus). Recipes from NYTimes Mark Bittman - my fav! Conclusion: Fabulous foods at fabulous prices at Whole Foods.

From Karen:

We like to shop at Whole Foods once a week. I always make a shopping list and try to stick with it. That way I don’t spend money on impulse buying. I really like the bulk section. Not only can you save a lot of money, but you can also save on packaging by reusing your plastic bags or brining reusable produce bags. Buying WF store brand, 365 Everyday Value, also is great way of saving money.

I like to collect coupons. A great way of getting coupons for organic and natural foods is the Mambo Sprout coupon booklet, which Whole Foods distributes about 4 times a year. You can find printable coupons online. My favorite is Organic Valley who always have great coupons on their web site. I occasionally write to the companies that make my favorite organic foods and ask for coupons.

I find that great way to save money and stay healthy is to eat homemade foods. My husband and I try not to eat out more than once a week, and we both bring our own lunches to work. Whatever we can’t eat while it is fresh, we freeze. In that way no food is wasted.

From Zoe:

It is really easy to get great, affordable food at Whole Foods. All you really need to do is become familiar with the prices of the items you regularly buy at the regular grocery store or discount mart and compare with Whole Foods. I am often shocked to realize that one item I may be buying at the regular grocery store is cheaper (and often a much better quality version) at Whole Foods. The things that have pleasantly surprised me lately are the whole wheat organic noodles, which are about $0.50 less than they are at the local discounted natural food warehouse. The same is true with the peanut butter and edamame. My latest great find is the soy hot dogs and soy butter that i have been buying at the large discount store are $1 to $1.50 cheaper at whole foods! Comparison shopping saves me about $10-$15 a week on a measely $50 weekly grocery budget.

We are all about food around here. And you know who else is? Food bloggers. Many of you probably visit a variety of food blogs to find out what’s going on in the world of food and to get ideas for dinner tonight! With everyone looking for innovative ways to stretch their food dollars these days, we challenged our favorite food bloggers to develop a budget-conscious (under $4 per serving) weeknight meal recipe that doesn’t sacrifice good taste. Boy did they deliver! It was a tough decision, but we’ve narrowed the entries to the top six and here’s where we need your help.

You can help us determine the winner of our Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge by reviewing their recipes. Everyone who posts a comment to our website on one of the finalist recipes by October 8th will automatically be entered to win a $500 Whole Foods Market Gift Card. Simple, right?

Watch for our posts on Whole Story next week that will give you an inside peek at these food bloggers and their budget tips. With no further ado, here are the final six:

• Farro with Butternut Squash, Hazelnuts and Swiss Chard from Katy Zandy of Sugarlaws
• Chicken Marsala with Brussels sprouts and Capellini Aglio e Olio from Michael Chu of Cooking for Engineers
• Wonton Noodle Soup from Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen
• Cincinnati Chili from Rachel Rappaport of Coconut & Lime
• Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas from Karina Allrich of Karina’s Kitchen, Recipes from a Gluten-Free Goddess
• Miso Bulgur Pilaf with Lemon-Ginger Tofu from Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet