Every summer season there are a few special items I just can’t wait to see in our stores, and Joe Soghomonian’s certified organic champagne grapes are on the top of my list come the middle of July. I’ve been eating Joe’s grapes for years and his champagne grapes are among my all-time favorite produce items.

This year we’re featuring Joe’s fruit nationwide and putting the word out about why we are feeling the love. Here’s the story:

We love champagne grapes for their unusual appearance and sweetness – small, deep purple grapes on tight clusters. The fruit is super sweet and the stems are so tender that they can be eaten along with the grapes.

We love the Soghomonians for being an authentic family farm. Joe and Johnni Soghomonian’s 540-acre certified organic ranch is located near Fresno, CA, in California’s Central Valley. Joe has been a farmer all his life, working on his parents’ farm from early childhood, eventually taking over the farm and growing it to its current size. Joe and Johnni’s daughter, Natalie, now supervises the harvest and packing of grapes and is the 3rd generation farmer on their land. FAMOUS for their champagne grapes, the Soghomonian’s also grow several varieties of table grapes as well as wine grapes. (We’re looking forward to later in the summer when the Soghomonian organic wine grapes will be ready. Fresh wine grapes are fragile and delicate, but a wonderful treat eaten out of hand!)

We love to satisfy and delight our customers! Expect to find organic champagne grapes at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide from late July through August. Enjoy!

]When we’re in the dead of winter here in the U.S., Chile is at the height of their summer season and summer fruit is in full production. (California stone fruit makes its first appearance much later this spring.) If you’re looking for a taste of sunshine in February, read on!

On the produce team we’re always looking for the best fruit available in the market. Our favorite deals are those where we know the grower and have seen the fruit in production across multiple seasons. For the past two winters, Whole Foods Market buyers have trekked to Chile to learn more about the products and people of a country that provides so much summer fruit to our hemisphere when we’re out of season. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m very happy to announce that Whole Foods Market has signed an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) designed to help improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers.

I put together this blog entry to explain the steps we took that led us to make this agreement.

Just before Christmas of 2007 I became aware of a slavery indictment in Florida related to a contract harvesting operation and we received some questions about whether any of our Whole Foods Market suppliers were connected to the persons named in the suit. Our suppliers were not connected to the indicted parties in any way, but the story got my attention.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Whole Trade Guarantee Rose project began almost a year ago when three of us from Whole Foods Market made a trip to Ecuador to learn about Fair Trade certified roses. Right away we saw that Ecuadorian roses are gorgeous! BIG! STRONG! BOLD! After meeting with the rose workers and learning how Fair Trade benefits them, we were smitten. Before the trip was over we had the wheels in motion to bring a Whole Trade Guarantee rose to market on our stores. Read the rest of this entry »