Washington, DC has the largest number of Ethiopians outside Ethiopia and is the site for a lively festival where music and food mingle with historians and dance. Get a taste of this culture in this episode of Fest-A-Nation as host Emma Green makes friends over food at the Ethiopian Heritage Festival.

The self-described “Martha Stewart meets MacGyver of all things food, wine and travel,” Emma Green asks the questions you would ask if you were there and gets the answers with her ever-present smile as she eats, drinks and dances her way through festivals that celebrate and preserve international cultures far from home.

What fun festivals have you enjoyed recently?

Thanks to their humanitarian efforts, Vitamin Angels is an organization that holds a special place in the heart of Whole Foods Market. Discover the ways they are profoundly changing the lives of children around the world and how easy it is to get involved. Want a quick way to help? Post a comment below telling us what you think about Vitamin Angels and we’ll donate $1 for every comment received in September, 2011.

Listen to Howard Schiffer, founder of Vitamin Angels, share his passion.

Podcast: Download

Howard Schiffer, founder of Vitamin Angels, was honored with the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance’s Hero Award in 2003 for his work in “making a difference in the lives of so many children throughout our country and around the world.”

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September is officially Organic Harvest Month because that’s the month we generally see the highest percentage of organically grown produce in our stores. That may come as a surprise since many of the fruits and vegetables we have enjoyed all summer start to go out of season! The reason is simple: September is when we see the most significant harvest overlap of the seasons.

In mid-August, the fall harvest season starts and by September, apples and pears start coming off the trees in earnest. Slow growing fall vegetables like winter squash make their debut and cooling temperatures also bring a return to leafy greens lost to the summer heat. And although we are well past peak harvest for most summer fruit, there is still plenty of late harvest fruit to tempt us. My September favorite organic fruits are grapes and raspberries.

At the top of the best of the season list are organic grapes – there is no month that comes close to besting September for flavor and variety. Grapes harvested in September have been hanging on the vine all summer and there are few crops that benefit from the long days of sunshine and warmth more. Red and black grapes are large and sweet but it is the green where the seasonal quality is most noticeable. The light green we commonly associate with the Thompson Seedless variety gives way to a golden yellow. This “amber” coloring of the fruit is the seasonal signal that the grape is the sweetest it will be all year.

In addition to the common varieties, September is also harvest time for a wide selection of regional varietal grapes. The iconic Concord and Muscat varieties, in addition to regional favorites like the Scuppenong and Muscadine, are in peak production. Wine grape varieties are also

coming off the vine and some producers out west have started packing some for fresh sale as well.

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Saddle up – it’s that time again! All of our U.S. stores will help shoppers celebrate Labor Day by offering ground grass-fed beef at a sale price of just $4.99 per pound this Friday, September 2^nd, only. It’s a one-day only sale and there is a 10 pounds per person limit. This is the perfect way to try out grass-fed beef if you haven’t yet; and if you have, a perfect opportunity to stock up!

So what does it take to be a grass-fed beef supplier for Whole Foods Market? In addition to being rated through Global Animal Partnership’s 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating program, their beef cattle must also meet these criteria:

• Cattle must be born and raised on pasture or rangeland;
• Cattle are fed forage consisting of grass (annual and perennial), forbs (e.g. legumes, Brassica), browse (woody plants like shrubs and bushes), or cereal grain crops in the vegetative (pre-grain) state, with the exception of milk consumed by calves prior to weaning;
• Cattle are not fed grain or grain by-products;
• Cattle can be fed hay, haylage, baleage, silage and crop residue without grain during periods of low forage quality or bad weather.

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While most bell peppers start out green, depending on the variety, they will mature into a rainbow of red, orange, yellow and sometimes even purple. Bell peppers are abundant late summer into fall and these colorful veggies have a sweet, not spicy flavor (the spicy peppers we know and love are referred to as chile peppers). Green bell peppers have a grassy flavor and are less sweet than their red, orange or yellow counterparts.

When choosing bell peppers, make sure to pick those with shiny, blemish-free skin. No wrinkles or soft spots for these beauties. Their size and shape will vary greatly so don’t use that as an indicator of age or taste. Packed with vitamins and low in calories, bell peppers can (and should) be added to a variety of dishes to bring both color and flavor to your diet. Use them raw or roasted and freeze them if you end up with more than you can handle. Add some to your basket and try one of our ideas tonight!

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Seems like kids are just as picky about eating as they were a couple of years ago when we first ran this blog. Enjoy this encore presentation!

We all know kids are picky eaters, right? Let’s teach them a new way to be picky. Pick whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies along with healthy proteins. Impossible? Not if you give them choices and very tasty food.

A good place to start is by talking to your kids. Anytime is good but natural launching pad activities are when you are grocery shopping or cooking dinner. Get their brains thinking about what food does for us – how it helps us grow, keeps us healthy, gives us energy for sports, helps our brains learn and keeps us feeling good. Those topics easily transition into why it’s important to eat healthy foods and not stuff that gunks up our bodies. Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit I love mayonnaise, especially when I make it myself, just like I plan to do this Labor Day. My sister and I share the picnic menu and, as always, my job includes making the potato salad with my homemade mayonnaise.

Just because I adore mayonnaise, though, doesn’t mean everyone else does. I remember the first time I saw a friend eat a hamburger without mayonnaise and all I could think was, “Why bother eating it at all?” I hate to admit it, but I have the same problem with potato salad. Just today, while asking advice from Paige, my Whole Foods Market friend and Team Leader, I was reminded that there is more to potato salad than just mayonnaise.

That sent me on a quest to discover the many possible variations such as tossing with vinaigrette, adding cheese, flavoring with mustard (like Paige does), and adding interesting additions of vegetables, proteins and fruit. Here’s a great assortment of potato salad ideas:
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Back to school time brings a flurry of activity, from shopping for supplies to getting back into the swing of family meal planning. Since there’s lots of buzz surrounding school lunches these days, we thought we’d share some exciting things that are being done by Chef Steven Burke and the Austin Independent School District (A.I.S.D.) in Austin, Texas.

Chef Steven Burke is the School Food Service Chef for A.I.S.D. He develops new recipes based on student preferences and trends, reviews feedback from student focus groups, presents to parents and works with local chefs for “Local Chefs – Local Fresh” that includes school visits. He also works closely with the Sustainable Food Center and the Farm to School program in Austin.

A.I.S.D. participates in the Eat Smart portion of the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program, which was developed by University of Texas researchers who are on staff at the Dell Center for The Advancement of Healthy Living. The cornerstone of the CATCH program is teaching students to select foods using a stoplight metaphor. Foods are categorized as either GO, SLOW or WHOA.

GO foods are those lowest in fat with no added sugar and are less processed than other foods. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and fat-free and low-fat dairy products with no added sugar are all examples of GO foods.

SLOW foods are higher in fat and sugar, and they are more processed. Reduced-fat plain milk and dairy products, reduced-fat processed meats, refined grains and foods that are prepared with added fat or sugar are all examples of SLOW foods.

WHOA foods are highest in fat and sugar, and they are the most processed. Whole milk, meats that are high in fat, fried foods and foods prepared with large amounts of added fat and sugar are all examples of WHOA foods.

Students are taught that a healthy diet consists mostly of GO foods, fewer SLOW foods, and rarely WHOA foods. At A.I.S.D., different menus are developed for each school level to serve foods that students are familiar with in the healthiest versions possible. Then newer items are introduced annually to provide students an opportunity to broaden their food experience.  For more detailed menu information, peruse the Austin Independent School District lunch menus.

Want to see more pictures? Check out Chef Burke’s photos on flickr.

This year, the first ever National Take Your Parents to Lunch Day will take place on October 12th during National School Lunch Week. Will you participate?

What I really love about working on the Local Producer Loan Program is that we are helping people with a passion for what they do to grow their business. By providing a low interest loan, we make capital available to them to expand their operations and bring fantastic local products to our shoppers. This month we’ve taken it one step further by providing a loan to a social enterprise — an organization that uses business principles to solve a pressing social problem.

Our newest Local Producer Loan recipient, Thistle Farms, is the non-profit business run by the women of Magdalene, a residential recovery program for women who have survived violence, prostitution and addiction. Here’s how they describe what they do:

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CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER MARY FROM MADISON, WI. THANKS FOR ALL THE COMMENTS!

We love our producers, suppliers and vendors and we think most of them have some pretty interesting stories behind their products too. We’ll be sharing some of our favorites here in an ongoing series. Read on for a chance to win a $50 gift card.

Doug Beretta is a family man. He’s one of four generations in Beretta Family Organic Dairy, a supplier of organic milk for Wallaby Yogurt. The dairy is based on a ranch that was bought in 1948 by Beretta’s grandfather, where the pasture-raised cows graze today. According to Beretta, the advantages of pasture-raising their cows are many. “You’re able to utilize your own land for feed. Organic feed costs are starting to get very expensive so we’re able to use our land to produce as much of the feed as we can.” In addition to the nutritional value of feeding cows on the pasture, “being on grass instead of concrete is a lot easier on the feet and legs of cows,” says Beretta.

Wallaby’s founders were looking for family farms and pasture-based dairies with this type of commitment to their cows and their milk, so partnering with Beretta Family Organics made perfect sense.

What do you think about the changes that Beretta Family Organic Dairy made when they switched from conventional to organic processes? Watch the slideshow above and leave a comment with your answer by September 9^th. One comment will be chosen at random to win a $50 gift card to our stores.

Click here to check out Wallaby’s products or visit our stores to taste them for yourself. We carry their full line of organic yogurt as well as their outstanding sour cream!