Nick Moless has been a team member for our global produce procurement office since 2001. He has purchased several commodities for Whole Foods Market including berries, hard fruit and row crop vegetables. Nick’s favorite fruit is the Adriatic fig.

One of the fruits I look forward to all summer long is the fig. The fig season is broken up into two parts. The first small peak, known as the breba crop, occurs in May. This fruit really just serves to whet our appetites until the second peak, which occurs in early August. The “fig” crop, as it is known, brings with it the largest volumes, greatest varietal selection and the best tasting fruit of the year.

Maywood Farms, which is owned and operated by the Steinacher family, is a grower we love at Whole Foods Market. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to visit this farm in Corning, California, and I learned all about their story. Read the rest of this entry »

Meet Hosea Rosenberg, Top Chef Season Five Winner, and find out why buying and eating local is important to him. And to us!

Our history and reputation are intimately linked to our support of local farmers. Our search for produce begins right outside our front door in every community where we do business. We are committed to buying from local producers whose fruits and vegetables meet our high quality standards, particularly those who farm organically and are themselves dedicated to environmentally friendly, sustainable agriculture.

And our Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP) provides up to $10 million in low-interest loans to small, local producers. Why? Because we believe in supporting local farmers and producers. We want to make it easier for them to grow their businesses and bring more local products to market. That’s good for us and it’s good for you.

Local means miles closer, miles fresher, miles more delicious.

What are some of your favorite local products in our stores this summer?

Ripe in the field – Santa Maria, California

One of the great annual events of spring is the beginning of the domestic berry season. The true starting point has blurred because of global production, early producing varieties and weather protection technology (like hoop houses). Mother Nature also plays a huge role — too much rain slows production down; too much sun brings all the fruit on at once; a late freeze burns off the blossoms or even kills the plant, which can put whole growing areas out of business for a season.

Here at the Whole Foods Market produce buying office in Watsonville, California, we are surrounded by miles and miles of strawberry, raspberry and blackberry fields — Watsonville is the last of three major growing areas for berry production to come online in California. But the large and small berry producers here make up only part of a dynamic and ever-changing industry that spans the U.S., springing up (pun intended) everywhere and sometimes in some very unusual places. Read the rest of this entry »

The coming of March marks an awakening of sorts here on the Central California Coast. With daylight savings time bringing longer afternoons, more folks are outside – assessing their yards and plotting what early projects can be squeezed in to take advantage of March’s generally abundant rainfall. I’m among them, doubly so as this year is the first full spring in our new neighborhood (and my new backyard).

Asparaguscape- Yolo county, California

This awakening is not lost on the local nurseries and farmers markets- suddenly we go from the drab and ordinary dregs of the winter to a world of fruit trees and flowering plants, seed potatoes and garlic, in addition to tempting starter plants of all kinds. Spring for me is a circus of optimism – and like every year I start the season believing I can grow anything. Mostly though, I just stay out of the way and let Mother Nature work her magic – trees bloom, vines put out leaves and dormant seeds push their first shoots up from the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Pink Tulips – California

Every year right around the start of February I start yearning for more color in my life. The part of the world where I live is not uniformly white in the dead of winter, but like most places the California coast is not as vibrant as it is other times of the year. What makes me start to search out color is an unconscious anticipation of spring – brought about by the first of the winter rains. That first speck of moisture has turned the normally brown wild grasses green and the Acacia trees are starting to put out their tiny yellow blossoms (jam packed with pollen by the way). The ornamental fruit trees are blooming but the “real” fruit trees’ fragrant blossoms are weeks away and the poppies, foxgloves, and sunflowers of summer are still little more than seeds. What I crave are the true colors of spring – and tulips are my winter surrogate. Read the rest of this entry »

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!

The Koch Family has been raising turkeys on 60 acres of land in the Lewiston Valley of Pennsylvania for three generations. Duane Koch runs Koch’s Turkey Farm with the help of his three sisters, and together they raise free-range turkeys using an all-vegetarian diet of locally grown corn and roasted soybean.  With the feed mill, turkey houses and processing facility all located on the family property near Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, the turkeys are able to live their entire lives on the same land.

Note: Our Farm to Market slide shows currently feature farmers and producers from our South and MidAtlantic Regions. We hope to expand to others in the future.

One of our vendors was featured on Oprah today for their innovative calf raising practices. Inspired by their concern for animal welfare, the Strauss family spent years researching alternative veal raising systems. Ultimately, they say the most humane and compassionate system is the one Mother Nature provides.

For anyone who wants to eat veal, this is the way to go —pasture-raised with exceptional quality and flavor, while raised in a healthy, humane and sustainable way. They promise their calves are:

• Free to Roam – never tethered, raised in confinement
• Raised on natural open pastures alongside mother & herd
• Never raised in feedlots
• Unlimited access to mother’s milk
• Strictly vegetarian fed – never receiving animal by-products
• Never ever administered growth hormones
• Never ever administered antibiotics
• Never experience the stress of industrialized farming
• Traceable to place of birth
• Agriculturally sustainable & environmentally friendly

If you want to know more, check out this video on their website. Strauss Free Raised™ Veal is available in our stores in the Southwest, Southeast, Florida and Rocky Mountain regions. It’s coming soon to stores in other parts of the country.

In their own words…

White Oak Pastures works in cooperation with nature to produce premium quality beef that is healthy, nutritious, and good to eat. Care is given to ensure that all of our production practices are economically practical, ecologically sustainable, and that the animals are always humanely treated.

Will Harris is a fourth generation cattleman taking his family farm in a whole new direction. His 1,000-acre farm in South Georgia is home to about 650 grass-fed beef cattle that roam freely and graze on 100% Georgia native sweet grasses.

White Oak Pastures is a recipient of Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program. Through the Local Producer Loan Program, Whole Foods Market makes $10 million available annually for low-interest loans to small, local producers.

Note: Our Farm to Market slide shows currently feature farmers and producers from our South and MidAtlantic Regions. We hope to expand to others in the future.

The best part of my job as administrator of our Local Producer Loan Program isn’t giving out loans to our small producers – it’s watching loan recipients use those loans to grow their businesses. In the year and a half since we launched the program, Whole Foods Market has provided loans to 29 small producers of products ranging from grassfed beef and honey to wine sorbet and body care products. They are some of the hardest-working, most passionate people I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and it’s always so inspiring to see their plans come to fruition.

One of our most exciting success stories is Laughing Giraffe Organics, a (very!) small company from Phoenix, Arizona that makes raw, vegan, organic, gluten-free granola and macaroons… that taste amazing! Justin Baumgartner started selling his product at a farmers market in 2006, where a local Whole Foods Market team member noticed him and asked about getting the product in our stores. That was the start of a great relationship. Due to its popularity and Justin’s entrepreneurial drive (would YOU call each store individually to make sure your product is in stock?), Laughing Giraffe soon expanded to more stores and then region-wide. After receiving not one, but TWO small loans, the products are now available in our Southern Pacific, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest regions. The products also recently were accepted by United Natural Foods, one of our primary distributors, a move which will allow access to Whole Foods Market stores throughout the western half of the United States. Did I mention that he managed this while he and his wife were caring for a newborn?

Anyone who knows Justin knows what a hard worker he is, and we are so thrilled at his success. He was recently featured on the front page of the business section in the Arizona Republic, a wonderful recognition of his passion and dedication to great food made for people, by people.

As Justin would say, be well.