Summer zucchini season inspired Jill, one of our Whole Story readers, to request a healthier version of her mom’s zucchini bread recipe, since mom’s version used loads of vegetable oil.

Thanks for the opportunity to play around with this! We love zucchini bread too – one of summer’s best treats and an excellent way to use up an abundance of summer squash. Typical recipes do call for a lot of oil (a cup of oil in batter? Yuck!), so we cut back on that and made a few other improvements as well. Check out our Healthier Zucchini Bread recipe. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a blueberry lover and every spring my love affair gets a little more serious! Luckily, blueberries are packed with nutrition and I don’t have to moderate my affection for them.

These colorful fruits top the charts with antioxidants and have been shown to help with brain, eye and vascular health. Antioxidants are compounds that protect cells from free radical damage. Free radicals are highly reactive particles – induced by such things as cigarette smoking, sunlight and excessive exercise – that damage cells throughout the body by triggering oxidative reactions. Read the rest of this entry »

Snowville Creamery – Pomeroy, Ohio
At Snowville Creamery in Pomeroy, Ohio, the cows graze in pasture all year long and the grasses that are in season affect the flavor of the milk.  Winter milk from Snowville may taste of hay; spring milk of dandelions.  Morning milk even tastes different from evening milk!   Warren Taylor, owner of Snowville, believes that milk is perfect when it comes from the cow, so he processes his milk as minimally as possible.  Snowville Creamery milk is bottled on the farm the same day the cows are milked and delivered to Whole Foods Market the very next day to bring customers the freshest product possible.  As they say at Snowville, they make “Milk the Way it Used to Be!”

Steve Wanta and Phillip Sansone of the Whole Planet Foundation meet with women entrepreneurs of Peru who have benefited from microloans from the Whole Planet Foundation. In less than one year, working with Pro Mujer, The Whole Planet Foundation has provided loans to over 1200 woman. This capital has allowed these entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, provide for their families and plan for the future in ways that were previously unavailable.

Want to see Dave Matthews Band this summer? We’ve got you covered two ways:

Local tour stops: Check out the displays of the Big Whiskey and The Groogrux King CD in our stores and look for a chance to enter to win tickets to a local Dave Matthews Band Summer Tour 2009 stop! See your store for details.

Grand prize: Enter for your chance to meet Dave Matthews & see Dave Matthews Band perform live at the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, CA on August 28th – 30th. No purchase necessary for a chance to win an expense-paid trip for two including round-trip airfare, hotel and local ground transportation. Enter Now!

Curious about the food connection? Be sure to check out our Whole Story blog throughout the summer as we post dispatches from the road from the catering crew – including their trips to Whole Foods Market, what’s on the menu, and how the tour is going as it happens! You can check out some of the recipes from the road here.

Want a little taste of the music? Check out the latest from Dave Matthews Band.

Food and music always go together in our book. What's your favorite way to mix food and music?

While you are probably aware of the importance of eating organic foods, have you thought much about the importance of organic feminine hygiene products? Our friends at 7th Generation have. Check out what they have to say and spread the word to the women in your life.

Tampons are a big part of the monthly female lexicon. American women spend about $2 billion on them annually and will use about 11,000 during their lifetimes. But they are a product that few people regularly discuss.

That dynamic needs to change: Tampons, which come into contact with some of the most sensitive tissue in a woman’s body, aren’t as straightforward as they seem.

Tampons are typically made from a variety of materials including conventional cotton, rayon or a blend of both fibers. Conventional cotton is one of the “dirtiest” crops in the modern world. According to the USDA, in 2003 U.S. cotton farmers applied an eye-popping 55 million pounds of pesticides to their fields. And global cotton production also uses high levels of pesticides. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer has officially arrived and just about everyone around here is looking for simple meals that don’t heat up the kitchen…or the cook! Maybe some of the “best meals” below will inspire you. Share your “best” in the comments below. Remember, “best” is highly subjective: healthy, super quick, inexpensive, fabulously delicious – or a combination of all that and more.

From Amanda:

I made WONDERFUL halibut kabobs for my in-laws. Serve with a box of couscous; it is yummy and quick!

2 lb cubed halibut (the seafood guys can cube it for you so you’re ready to go)

1 red pepper, cut into squares

Pineapple chunks, in produce section

Marinade

1/2 cup 365 Organic balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup Wild Oats Apricot preserves

1/4 cup 365 Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Marinate for 4 hours, put on skewers, grill for 7 minutes. Serves 4.

Note: You can also try our Grilled Tuna Kabobs with Peach and Mango Salsa. Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time this Value Guru was a small tyke, but even then I had a hungry mind and curious appetite. My father fed both. He didn’t cook all that often, but when he did, it was always exciting because it was something special. Like many a dad he was the steak cooker and knew the power of a marinade to tenderize an affordable cut, and the power of slicing against the grain to avoid too-chewy bites. The slicing also stretched a modest-sized steak to feed four.

My father’s other specialty was seafood. We lived in a small island community on the Texas coast where his brain power, writing ability and knowledge of the mysterious workings of local government-official and otherwise-were valuable enough amongst the fishermen and shrimpers that they would barter fresh catch. Another local owned a popular chicken and soft-serve shack, Custard’s Last Stand (where I worked my first job at age 11 for a silver dollar an hour, incidentally). This guy also worked for Westinghouse so my father gave Custard’s ad space in his newspaper in exchange for a full-size Westinghouse freezer that soon filled with the rewards from his bartering for seafood along with his own hunting and foraging efforts. Read the rest of this entry »

The first few vegetables that come out of our garden at home hold a special meaning for me that is hard to replicate in a store or even a farmers’ market. It was summer squash this year; a half dozen round green scaloppini and yellow sunburst varieties. These were small and still had the blossoms attached – barely enough for a side dish and all had that delicate layer of spiked fur that the plant produces to protect itself from insects. As I slice them for a sauté, I know I’ll be swimming in squash in a month or so but this first small sample of the flavors of summer always comes with a simple but special kind of joy and pride at having provided for my family with my own two hands. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you the outdoors fan who’s loved just a little bit too much by the bugs? Fortunately, there are effective natural products such as essential oils, vitamins, and homeopathy to make your skin less tasty to the critters. Malia Curran, MS, MPH, is a nutrition and health consultant.

For a summary of this and our other summer podcasts, click here!

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