Everyone talks about beans being a great value source of protein, but not everyone knows how to get them on the table easily. In this podcast, we asked nutritionist and natural foods chef Alana Sugar to demystify the process of cooking dried beans. Listen in to find out how and if you want more details, check out our Beans 101.  Once your beans are cooked, you can freeze them and use in any recipe calling for canned beans.

Here are a few of our favorite bean-based recipes. What are yours?

• Refried Beans with Roasted Salsa and Monterey Jack
• Bread Salad with Pinto Beans and Queso Fresco
• White Bean Soup

 Beans [5:26m]: Play Now | Download (3335)

Hi. I’m Danielle, a high school senior in Northern California. There are simple changes that we can make to better “green” all aspects of our daily lives. Below are four more tips that will get you started as we head back to school. If you CAN make healthier choices, why not?

This past year I replaced my plastic water bottle with a Klean Kanteen. I feel much better about drinking from a bottle that it is not contaminated with phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic softer that is a known endocrine disruptor and toxic to our bodies.

In the process of doing my own research, I’ve come to realize that there IS a “greener” alternative for pretty much every action you do and every item you use.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is to seek out new and innovative products for you, our customers. That means I see literally hundreds of new products every month hoping to make it onto Whole Foods Market’s shelves. Many of them don’t make the cut. However, the new pizza and pasta meal kits from Ian’s definitely caught my eye. First, they’re made for kids…which is a hot trend right now. Just look around our store, kid-friendly products abound. But what sets Ian’s apart is their recognition of special diets. Realizing the growing population of kids who have dietary allergies to gluten, wheat, dairy, and eggs, when Ian’s developed their pasta and pizza meals kits, they created two options… a special diets version alongside the standard variety. Designed with kids in mind, these kits provide a hands-on experience. With the help of an adult, a kid can assemble and cook their very own dish. Each kit comes with all the ingredients necessary to make a pizza or pasta meal for one. And because they’re not frozen or refrigerated, just stock them in your cupboard until you need them…that’s convenience…something many of us place a premium on nowadays.

Interested in other cool products from Ian’s? Check out their Cookie Buttons… guess what…they come in two versions as well.

If all that wasn’t enough, you got an otter. As in Andy the Otter, the venerable mascot for Ian’s kids products. And who doesn’t love an otter? Not only is Andy on the package, he leads the SuperFit Kid program online, where he combines fun and prizes with education and tips for developing healthy habits.

These Ian’s items are in store now so check them out.

Probably the most common (and cliché) “green tip” is to change out your traditional incandescent light bulbs for those curly compact fluorescent (CFL) ones. I’m sure everyone has heard this, and most of you have probably done it. You may have even noticed your electric bill go down since these bulbs use one-fifth of the energy of an incandescent (and they last 7-10 times as long).

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I just visited Ron Cottle, one of the better conventional and “emerging organic” growers (and long-time vendor/partner with Whole Foods Market) in Eastern North Carolina and took a bunch of pictures to share. He is just about wrapped-up with organic and conventional blueberries and is just now starting his blackberry harvest (they’re awesome!), and in about 8 to 10 days will be full-speed ahead with his organic grape tomatoes.

This block of about 10 contiguous acres just came to full organic certification this season, and he’s pretty excited about it. Read the rest of this entry »

I spend more than half my work time thinking about, researching and talking about organic food. As part of my job as Quality Standards and Organic Programs Coordinator, I work with our stores and suppliers to help them understand and follow the National Organic Standards, to ensure that what they’re selling as organic truly is. I also work with non-profit organizations, certifiers and others to support organic agriculture, and I carefully follow the USDA’s National Organic Program and their ongoing work on the standard. Given all my work with organics, the Whole Story Blog powers-that-be asked me to answer one of the more perplexing questions that’s been floating around lately: Can organic food from China truly be organic?

The short answer is “yes, it can,” but the long answer is far more complex and interesting. Let me take a few minutes to lay out some of the basic issues around organic agriculture in China, go over just what “organic” means in the US (or any country), talk to some leading organic experts and certifiers, and then let you decide whether organics from China are truly legit.

News stories about products from China have been largely negative over the past year: Dog food tainted with toxic melamine, fake pharmaceuticals, toys with lead paint, contaminated crops… All of these very serious safety issues have raised serious red flags about the quality of everything coming out of China. Shoppers, retailers, food makers and the media have all wondered: “If pollution is this rampant, and oversight is this lax, how can we trust anything grown or made in China?”

With organic food, the answer is complicated, but there are number of reasons we at Whole Foods Market feel good about our organic private label products from China. You can read more about some of the specific ways we make sure our organic private label products from China meet our standards here. Read on past the fold for more information about how U.S. law applies to organics grown outside the U.S., and what some experts see as opportunities to strengthen the system.

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I’ve been hearing some questions about whether it’s possible to get organic products from China, so I went to Margaret Wittenberg to find out the inside scoop. Margaret has been with Whole Foods Market for about 27 years and she served on the National Organic Standards Board and helped write the USDA Organic Rule, so I figured she would be in the know. (Transparency alert: Margaret was my Team Leader for many years and I love this woman. Her integrity is unbelievable!)

Anyway, here’s a quick blurb from Margaret on the whole organics in China deal:

Whole Foods Market is a transparent company. We take pride in informing our customers about where our products come from so they can make conscious buying choices. The reality nowadays is that sourcing high quality organic products has gone global. Many companies play the game of sourcing ingredients from one country and packaging them elsewhere so they can be labeled from the country they were packaged in. Not at Whole Foods Market. For example, our Private Label team sources a few high quality organic products from China and we let our shoppers know that up front. We go to great lengths to ensure that the quality and organic integrity is there every step of the way, whether we are sourcing our products from around the corner or around the globe. We are proud of the processes, safeguards and protocols we have in place and we want our customers to know exactly what we do when it comes to sourcing.

If you want to know more about our organic sourcing, check out “Sources You Can Trust” – new info just posted to our website. We plan to have more on this topic this Friday. Got a specific question about organic sourcing? Let me know and I’ll try to make sure it is answered with the info posting Friday.

From supporting a biologically diverse, healthy environment to limiting the toxic and long-lasting chemicals in our surroundings, there’s no shortage of reasons to buy organic. Take a look at our top reasons for choosing organic.

Why do you choose to buy organic?

Tune in to our latest podcast to hear from whole Foods Market’s buyers and how they work to source organic products for you. We’ve also got a great recipe for a Quick Tortilla Casserole featuring 365 Everyday Value Organic pantry staples.

 Organic Harvest Podcast [9:40m]: Play Now | Download (142)

Learn about the current issues in the organic world, find out what organic produce is in stores in September and get some quick and simple recipe ideas for organic arugula and organic apples.

 Organic Harvest [9:12m]: Play Now | Download (146)