Happy Holidays Secret Ingredient Viewers!

It’s the season for great food and the Secret Ingredient is offering a chance to win a $25 Whole Foods Market gift card, so you can treat yourself to something special this holiday season. What’s the catch? It’s simple. We want to know what your favorite holiday party dish is and how it adds that special touch to your holiday celebrations.

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Boulder Ice Cream has been selling ice cream to Whole Foods Market for about ten years! This long-time partner has used its Local Producer Loan Program funds to finance the expansion of an organic line.

Glennise Humphrey spoke with us about Boulder’s history and future plans.

The holidays can be a stressful time on many levels – picking out the perfect presents, cooking large elaborate meals with the family and all the travel to get to your loved ones.  This week, we’re featuring some sites that provide some great advice on how to keep things safe and stress-free.

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The Alaffia holiday baskets were uniquely designed and created for the 2008 holiday season. These are Alaffia basket weavers in Blitta, Togo. Gift baskets include the basket, three body care products and a handcrafted ornament and retail for $34.99.

Six months ago, while on the road I received a suggestion from Justin Miloro (Global Associate Whole Body Coordinator) for Alaffia to propose an exclusive Fair Trade gift basket to Whole Foods for the holidays.  I remember feeling a little fever at this moment, as my mind went immediately to the Alaffia Basket Cooperative in Togo.  I went directly to contact Togo, and a week later we had a prototype basket to present to Justin. Upon his approval, we immediately began weaving the baskets in Togo. We invited 16 women from the Bolga region of Ghana to join the 100 Alaffia basket weavers. After two weeks of production, we realized that even with 116 women, we would not be able to make enough baskets on time since each basket takes an average of three days to complete.  Our cooperative director, Limata Gbadamassi made a trip to the northern Ghana Bolga region to meet with more basket coops.   For the next three months, more than 350 women worked to complete the gift basket order.

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Allow me to introduce you to our bakery department.  This beautifully arranged and often deliciously fragrant part of the store is filled with cakes, pastries and breads – perfect for your holiday entertaining needs, as well as your everyday needs.  Did you know you can buy cake by the slice or half loaves of bread?  Have you considered shopping specialty and the bakery for your party needs?  Check out this week’s excellent customer tips for some smart ways to shop this sweet department.

Remember, each week, we choose tips to be featured in our weekly The Whole Deal™ blog post. Every chosen tip gets a $25 gift card, so submit you tips and recipes here.

From Bharathi:

I love the healthy, beautifully decorated, and especially the variety of cakes available in the bakery at Whole Foods. Ever since I started visiting whole foods, it has been my habit to stop by the bakery to see what variety of cake I can get. The specialty of the whole foods bakery is that they provide a piece of any cake. This way you can buy and taste it without buying the whole cake. If you like a piece of cake after tasting, you cal also go ahead and buy the full cake as the same cake is also available in full size. Our family love tasting a variety of cakes at the same visit. So I end up buying variety of small portions of cakes packed independently. Our family has really learned the value of shopping at Whole Foods. You can also do the same by getting a cut pieces of cake instead buying one full cake. Whole foods have an expert baker who will help you in selecting right cake piece for you. So next time you visit whole foods don’t forget to visit the bakery section. A new world of cakes is waiting for you. I am sure that you will love my idea.

From Jackie:

I am originally from Germany and love bread, and trust me German’s know their bread. Until WF came to Colorado I had a difficult time finding good healthy bread. Know I only purchase my bread from Whole Foods. The Prussian and Munich Rye is awesome and reminds me of home. I also like the Nick’s Mountain a lot. Whole Foods lets you just buy 1/2 loaves which is great if you live alone. I usually buy a couple different 1/2 loaves and then freeze them. This way I have healthy fresh bread to make sandwiches for lunch to take to work with me.

From Stacy:

I run a small, non-profit media company and we host a lot of last minute meet-ups and small speaker events. I think it’s always a good idea to have things for guests to nibble on so that they stick around, but often we are on a really tight budget. I’ve found that if I choose one or two trays from whole foods catering department (the crab cakes and the chicken drumette platters are a great deal) I can build around them with other wise choices. I usually get two boxes of plain crostini in the bakery, pick up two or three cheeses and then hit the olive bar. Sweep past the salad bar for sliced peppers and grab a bunch of flowers on the way to the check-out. I end up with a nice little starter spread and guests think I went to a ton of trouble!

Early Winter Citrus

The leaves have fallen- the days are shorter and we spend less and less time outdoors. Fall is finishing, winter is just around the corner or has already arrived.  It seems every trip I take on a plane, I bring back some new Rhino-bug (the same is true almost daily with my son Aidan and his Kindergarten gang of plague carriers). Just when we need it the most, Mother Nature brings us the sun in a neat little package.

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After nearly two years of planning and implementation, we are excited to announce that, beginning in January, our Whole Foods Market commissary kitchen in Massachusetts will get 100% of its electricity from recycled cooking oil.  Yeah!

The waste vegetable oil used for frying food at the commissary kitchen facility as well as from 21 Whole Foods Market stores across the Northeast region, will be used as a biofuel in a cogeneration module using an internal combustion engine to generate electricity and usable heat.  We expect to repurpose over 1,200 gallons of cooking oil a week, which was previously considered a waste product, to fuel a system that reduces our dependency on conventional fossil fuel sources and results in less harmful emissions — helping us move one step closer to our goal of becoming a zero waste company. The generator will have the capacity to meet the electricity needs of the entire commissary, just over 2,000,000 kWh’s per year.  Producing electricity with waste biomass avoids new carbon dioxide emissions attributed to electricity generated using fossil fuels. Vegetable oil exhaust emissions that are produced contain virtually zero sulfur oxides and sulfates, major contributors to acid rain.

The Boston Globe ran a great in-depth story on the new generator.  Lifecycle Renewables will be installing and operating the system as well as coordinating and managing the logistics involved with weekly waste cooking oil collections and fuel delivery.

A huge thank you to everyone who has worked on bringing this great project to fruition.

You may not think gift shopping when you go to the grocery store, but Whole Foods Market is known for offering unique, interesting, exclusive treats for those who care about quality, social responsibility and the environment.  Check out this video where we share with you some of our favorite ideas for holiday gift giving!

For more info, check out our Holiday Giving Guide.

Gifts

Season’s Greetings!
Welcome to holidays with heart.
Joyous gifting and feasting
while doing our part.

Empowering, inspiring
sharing our treasures.
Satisfying, delighting
and taking great measures.

Here’s the best, you can choose
from far or from near.
Ever green are our values.
Ever bright our good cheer!

Podcast: Download

Holiday entertaining doesn’t get much easier than this! Join Scott Simons and guest chef Sharon Gerhardt for this encore episode and learn how to create four simply delicious appetizers using this week’s secret ingredient: Whole Foods Market brands. From gourmet spreads and classic goat cheese to appetizer toasts, smoked salmon and more—Whole Foods Market brands are a value-centered, high-quality choice when looking for the best ingredients for making holiday hors d’oeuvres. Discover how effortless entertaining can be when you combine easy recipes with our brands.

Get the Recipes:

• Prosciutto, Blue Cheese and Date Wraps
• Mediterranean Polenta Rounds
• Endive Leaves Stuffed with Bruschetta and Feta
• Smoked Wild Salmon Toasts