We’re in the midst of preparing for what may potentially be one of the worst storms in Southeast Texas since 1900.  We operate four stores in Houston and one store in Sugar Land which will be closing tonight at 10:00 p.m. and shall remain so until further notice due to Hurricane Ike. Those stores are at:

• 4004 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, Texas 77025
• 2955 Kirby Drive, Houston, Texas 77098
• 15900 Southwest Freeway, Sugar Land, Texas 77478
• 11145 Westheimer Road, Houston, Texas 77042
• 6401 Woodway #149, Houston, Texas 77057

All of our other Texas stores will remain open for business. We hope that everyone in the Houston area makes it through all right and we’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

Last week I made a super simple budget-minded meal that I wanted to share with our Whole Deal™ readers. I’ve already added it to my “make-this-meal-when-everyone-is-starving-and-you’re-running-late” list. It took about 25 minutes to get this meal on the table — awesome on a weeknight! It consists of sautéed sausages with red cabbage and lima beans. (You can easily sub green beans if you hate limas, like my daughter.) You want to use a package of fully cooked sausage – either pork or chicken. (I used our Whole Ranch™ Sausages —$4.99.) I’m guessing you could do the same with vegetarian sausage but I haven’t tried it myself. Here’s how it came together.
1.    Place a saucepan of water on to boil.
2.    Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and brown the sausages over medium heat, turning frequently, for about 8 to 10 minutes.
3.    Put frozen limas into the boiling water in the saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes. Season to taste – I used butter, salt and pepper. (365 Organic frozen limas are delicious and only $2.19.)
4.    Thinly slice ½ head of red cabbage (I used organic – $1.88). When the sausage is cooked, remove from pan and add cabbage. Sauté in drippings for a few minutes and then add about ¼ cup apple juice, broth or water along with a bit of salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, until tender.
5.    Serves 4 for a total of $9.06 and 25 minutes. Yeah!!

And now on to the featured tips from Whole Deal™ readers — each will receive a $25 gift card! Make sure to send your value tips – maybe a favorite budget-minded meal? – for your chance to win. These all come from super smart college students who are balancing their food budgets wisely.

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The roaster is turning ‘round and ‘round and the Hatch chilies go up and down. Standing in front of the drum roaster, with its dragon’s breath bursts of propane and flame, I’m almost mesmerized by the rhythmic movement of the darkening chili pods as they drop damply to the bottom and slowly spin back to the top of the drum. These aren’t just any vegetables, as those of you who chase the ephemeral Hatch chili know. The meaty chili pods, about the size of a child’s slipper, provide a tantalizing hint of fire and satisfying substance for New Mexican cookery for a few brief weeks at the end of summer.

Harvested in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico for a few weeks of the late summer, Hatch chilies are a cultivar of the common New Mexico green chili developed at the Chile Institute at New Mexico State University in the 1920s. The Mesilla Valley runs from Las Cruces north to Hatch, nearly forty miles, in the south central part of the state. The Hatch Chile Festival occurs annually each Labor Day weekend and draws up to 30,000 people from around the world to the tiny town of less than 2,000 residents.

Grown nowhere else in the world, the large, almost leathery chilies feature a vigorous, earthy flavor unlike any other chili. Although there are several varieties grown, the types found in Central Texas, where I shop, are typically the milder “A-8″ and the fierier “Big Jim.” Read the rest of this entry »

By late August, many of the wonderful fruits of summer have either passed their peak or have finished harvesting altogether. Even as I mourn the passing of another cherry season, I always look forward to September and the one summer fruit that gets better and more interesting the further we travel into fall. We all associate grapes with summer and while it is true that early varieties began harvesting here in the U.S. as early as May, truly great grapes need the whole of summertime’s long, warm days to bring out their full flavor and marvelous variety and diversity.

The most common fresh production varieties are red, green and black seedless (or table) grapes. These colors are available year round thanks to global production and varieties that can be harvested at different times of the summer and fall. But something magical happens to grapes the longer they are allowed to hang on the vine and in September, green grapes change in color from a light green to amber yellow — a condition that signals the very highest concentration of sugars of the season. A word of caution on amber grapes: high sugar means fragile fruit so they need to be eaten right away.

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Hello!!!

Everyone is headed back to school! Parents get a reprieve while kids get on their schedule again. Since different parts of the country go back to school at different times, we focus on back to school for both August and September in Whole Body, and you’ll find some great products featured. Need a great vitamin? In August we highlighted New Chapter’s Every Kid Organic MultiVitamin. It is kind of like a Pixie Stix^TM except it is a supplement and made with organic sweeteners. The Goodness Grape flavor is exclusively available at Whole Foods Market!

In September we are featuring a full array of fun kid’s bath products from Aura Cacia. My daughter loves pumping the foamy body wash herself and playing with the bubbles. (Yes, that’s her in the photo!)

In addition to these featured products, all of our Whole Body departments have an amazing array of kid’s products for all ages and many of our stores are featuring notebooks and other back to school supplies from New Leaf Paper, which is a company that is changing the way we look at paper production. Did you know that by switching to paper made with post-consumer recycled content is a great way to reduce your environmental impact? Not only do you save trees, you save water, energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well. This is because making paper from waste paper is a less polluting and less resource intensive process than making paper from trees.

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Looking for easy ways for you and the kids to stay healthy this school season? We’ve got you covered. Get the scoop on the immune system and learn how it can benefit from probiotics, herbs, supplements and simple healthy habits. Start building your healthy school year now!

Podcast: Download

It’s not news to anyone (except The New York Times, apparently) that local food has hit grocery stores in a big way, due to ever-increasing consumer demand. Whole Foods Market is no exception. In fact, we were out in front of the curve!  Although we’ve always had a strong commitment to local products, we made a more concerted effort in the past few years and have seen the amount of local product in our stores increase dramatically as a result.

In the fall of 2006, we hired our very first Local Forager, a Team Member whose sole position is to source local product – in this case, in our North Atlantic region. Since then other regional foragers have been hired, numerous store Team Members have added local foraging to their job duties, and throughout the company we’ve seen our renewed focus on local purchasing impact the way we do business. All this while we continue to focus on our Quality Standards and our commitment to bringing our customers the highest quality food available.

Here are some of the things we are doing:

• increasing local product throughout our stores, and improving signage to help our customers find local products
• putting more energy into promoting local products, including bringing local producers in for demonstrations, hosting “Local Days,” and featuring local producers on our website
• hosting farmer’s markets at our stores in certain areas
• holding company-wide workshops which allow Team Members to discuss the challenges local purchasing presents and to share best practices
• bringing together local producers at vendor seminars, where we explain how Whole Foods Market works and give producers the chance to get their products in front of buyers
• increasing communication internally to help our local vendors grow as they see fit
• funding our Local Producer Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans to our local producers

Of course, I’m particularly proud of the last one, since I run the program! The recent New York Times article on local food even featured one of our loan recipients, Red Jacket Orchards. They have supplied our stores for about eight years now, and we are so pleased to have been able to help them purchase high tunnels, which shelter the delicate fruit they grow during inclement weather.

So next time you are in one of our stores, check out the local offerings. And let us know if you have a favorite local product that we need to know about!

Stretch out the last days of summer—and your budget—with host Mark Law as he grills up some tasty turkey burgers for less than $3.00 per person. The secret ingredient? Lean ground turkey raised free range on a vegetarian diet without antibiotics and ground fresh daily.

Get the Recipe: Lakeside Turkey Burgers

Hi my name is Mattie and I am a member of Teens for Safe Cosmetics: New York.

Sure, the end of summer can make any teen feel a bit sad with a new school year beginning, and the weather starting to turn. But the girls of Teens for Safe Cosmetics are looking forward to the fabulous launch of the Teens Turning Green Collection, featured exclusively at Whole Foods Markets nationwide. The Collection will land on shelves by the last week in September.

It is the first line of truly eco-skin care that’s been formulated specifically for teen skin! And as if that fact alone isn’t enough, each of the products included in our line attains Whole Food Market’s new Premium Body Care Standard, the most comprehensive in the industry. Knowing what you’re putting on your skin is free of parabens and PEGs means that one less thing to worry about every day. Besides picking out a cleanser or moisturizer is almost an overwhelming task, all by itself.

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I’ve been traveling this week – nothing too spectacular- just a flight to upstate NY for a family reunion, followed by a road trip back down to NJ to spend a week with the family and on Sunday – the NYC Century.  During a particularly long layover on my way to NY, as I circled the terminal for the tenth time, I realized just how few options exist in airport dining for anyone seeking healthy, natural or organic – let alone anyone with a dietary restriction.  Same goes for a road trip and its commonly frequented fast food joints and gas stations.  So how do you stay healthy on the move?  Here are some blogs that answered that question.

What Foods Can You Carry on a Plane?

Tomorrow we’re leaving to go to Switzerland for a conference, and it’s going to be a long trip from San Francisco to Geneva – 14 hours! Airplane food is not known for being particularly tasty, and we’d like to pack our own meal. But with security regulations, we wondered: what can we carry on the plane?

Rules of the Road Trip

If you’re planning your own end-of-summer getaway, I’ve gleaned some ideas from my own experience on how you can vacation without gaining 20 pounds, not to mention throwing your eco-conscious intentions to the wind.

What are your Favorite Airplane Snacks? (for kids)

It’s no secret that airline food isn’t particularly kid friendly, and lately most flights don’t include any food at all, leaving parents to bring along their own snacks and meals for their hungry kids. [...] There is an art-form to packing snacks to bring along on an plane ride. They need need to last un-refrigerated for hours, cannot contain liquid, and preferably they take no space at all, are filling, and not sugar laden.

So, what are your favorite travel snacks and how do you stay healthy while on the road or in the air?