As July transitions to August, we enter what is commonly known as the dog days of summer. In the produce world this also means we will see the most abundance and variety of domestically grown produce in our stores than at any other time of year. Local production is also peaking with all types of nearby fruit and vegetable production.

In soft fruit, plum availability explode, figs start their second season and grapes come off the vine full of sugar and flavor. Cherry production has shifted to the northernmost states and to higher elevations and, while some of the best fruit is still ahead of us, the season has passed its peak. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wonder why cereal and flour are often “enriched”? I recall my 8th grade home-economics teacher reminding us to use “enriched” flour so we would get the B vitamins we needed. Good point! White flour, on its own, is missing the B vitamins naturally present in whole wheat. While I prefer using whole grain flour whenever possible, the B vitamins that go missing from the refined stuff are critical! In general, they promote health by playing a vital role in how food is converted to energy. They are important for our immune system, blood as well as our nerves, and may help cut our risk of stroke and heart disease. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in April I hosted a live blog chat about greening our lives. Folks across the country shared great tips and ideas about what steps they’re taking to leave smaller, shallower footprints on our earth. Some of the discussion centered around figuring out the best way to explain to others why we should be more careful with our planet and her inhabitants. Most felt it was best to show by example. Then, while we’re walking our talk, if questions come up or it seems appropriate to expound on certain subjects, we all agreed to “go for it!”

So a couple of weeks ago during dinner, I mentioned that I’d be heading to our town’s middle school with Sustainable Scituate (our town is part of Sustainable South Shore in Massachusetts) to help cultivate the many vegetables and herbs growing in the newly dug organic garden. This garden is going to help stock the town’s food pantry and be shared with some elderly neighbors. Read the rest of this entry »

In this final installment of Dispatches from the Field, Steve visits the Pro Mujer

headquarters in Salta, Argentina and operations in Tucuman, Argentina, where Whole Foods Market sources blueberries.  His interviews with Pro Mujer clients, Pinky and Graciela, unveil the power of access to credit in their communities, where these women have been able to build support networks and find access to affordable healthcare services.

In 1984, as a kid growing up in the suburbs, the beginning of summer meant playing sports with friends, swimming in the town pool and going to baseball games with my dad. Summer was also synonymous with many family gatherings at our house. Almost every weekend we’d have family and friends over to grill and sit outside on our deck and enjoy the warm summer evenings. I can remember my brother and I having to go to bed long before the last guests left our house.

Fast forward about twenty-five years and we still have those wonderful family gatherings that I relished when I was younger. Only now they are at my house and there is a new generation of young ones running around. A few weeks ago we had some family and friends over for dinner and I decided to buy some Widmer Hefeweizen. I’ve had this beer many times before and really enjoy it especially when it is hot outside. Read the rest of this entry »

Ice cream, ice cream, we all scream for ice cream! One of our favorite things about summer is enjoying frozen treats and it’s really hard to beat a scoop of homemade ice cream. Barbara, one of our Whole Story readers, has ice cream on her mind, too, and wrote us with a request for a casein- and gluten-free ice cream recipe. Her original recipe was for a thick and creamy custard-based ice cream that relied on instant pudding and pie filling mix, whole milk and heavy whipping cream. To meet Barbara’s request, we used a combination of light and regular coconut milk along with egg yolks for thickening instead of dairy milk and cream.

Check out the resulting recipe for Coconut Milk Ice Cream.

If you want a lighter version (or vegan one), simply eliminate the egg yolks and proceed with the rest of the recipe.
We’ve found that coconut milk makes a great substitute for dairy milk in many recipes. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind when making this substitution: Read the rest of this entry »

Big news: We just announced that our 273 U.S. stores have been certified organic by CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers). Those of you who’ve been paying attention know that we’ve been a certified organic retailer since 2003 – a voluntary certification that’s not required by the USDA. So what’s the big deal now? Well, last November, the USDA told us that it was about to get much harder to be a certified retailer. Rather than walk away from certification altogether, we opted to go down the much more difficult road of getting each of our stores individually certified. The USDA was right: it was much harder. But we did what it took and made it happen. That’s the news.

Here’s a bit of context. When USDA’s National Organic Standards went into effect in 2002, they defined organic in great detail, down to the specific substances that could be used, and required that everyone who handles organic food – growers, ranchers, processors, etc. – be certified by a USDA-approved third party organic certifier. Everyone, that is, except retailers. Huh? Yes, the whole supply chain for organic products must be certified, with the tiny exceptions of retailers and restaurants. These exceptions were made because they thought it would have been prohibitively difficult and expensive for all the retailers that carried unprotected organic food to get certified (by “unprotected” I mean unpackaged, like produce, meat, bulk grocery, etc.). So the USDA told retailers that they still had to follow the rules, but they wouldn’t have to be certified. And we told the USDA something to the effect of “So you think it’s too hard for retailers to get certified? We’d like to respectfully prove you wrong.” Read the rest of this entry »

Why am I grinning ear-to-ear on this steamy hundred-degree day in the middle of Texas? The reason is this press release, which announces our commitment to the Non-GMO Project and represents the culmination of a very long and complicated undertaking. I’ve been working on this project – helping the company come up with a way to truly verify our efforts to avoid Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in our private label products – for just over five years, and it would be an understatement to say that I’m ecstatic about this announcement. I’d even go so far as to say that this moment makes me extremely optimistic about the future of our food supply and the persistence, energy and integrity of the natural and organic food visionaries who propel our industry forward.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was pretty disappointed late last week to learn that there was a smear campaign afoot, by a group claiming that Whole Foods Market is working to “undermine” the integrity of the organic food label. What?! It seems like this happens every couple of years, usually based on some sort of claim that large food corporations are inherently evil and out to dilute the organic standards to make organic food cheaper to produce so they can make millions off of unsuspecting, gullible shoppers. Insert your best evil laugh here: Mwah-ha-ha!

Ludicrous yes. True no. We’d have to be insane to push for weaker organic standards. A strong standard gives food shoppers something to trust. The “organic” label represents a strong regulation that ensures the food is grown without toxic and persistent chemicals on environmentally friendly farms. We fought hard for decades to get that regulation established and the last thing we’d want to do is jeopardize its value by chipping it away.

A small and passionate group of people who wanted to create a natural and organic alternative to the mainstream conventional grocery stores of the era opened the doors of our first tiny store 30 years ago, about four blocks from where I’m sitting now. Since day one, we’ve supported organic agriculture, and we now offer more organic products than our founders could have imagined back in 1980. And we add more and more year after year. Here are some basic facts about our commitment to organic: Read the rest of this entry »

Growing up in Hawaii, I had access to some of the most delicious, freshest fish imaginable. Unfortunately, salmon was not one of them! I only had access to previously frozen or canned salmon. So, at the time, salmon had too strong of a flavor – kind of fishy and mushy.

It wasn’t until I was a little older and moved to the mainland that I discovered the pure deliciousness of high quality fresh wild salmon. Since it is so versatile and easy to cook, I find I now eat salmon more often than any other fish, with wild Sockeye being one of my weekday go-to favorites. Read the rest of this entry »