Thank you to all who entered and congratulations to the five lucky winners: Ellen from Hillsborough, NC; Erica from Santa Fe, NM; Erin from Clearwater, FL; Sarah from Tulsa, OK and Stephanie from San Jose, CA. Happy Thanksgiving!
Can you believe it’s almost November? Now is the perfect time to take stock of your pantry and make sure you have the basics on hand for your big Thanksgiving meal, all of that holiday entertaining and baking, and for everyday cooking in between. Here are some of our favorite tips to get your pantry in ship shape order and ready for the holiday season.
Plus, five readers will win an assortment of organic and natural pantry favorites perfect for preparing your Thanksgiving feast. Read on to find out how you could be one of the lucky five.
Start with a Clean Slate
Before bringing home your holiday groceries de-clutter your pantry and restore order. Here’s how:
Take stock of what you have by taking everything out of your pantry and spreading it out on the kitchen counter. Separate the stuff you use every day from less frequently used items. Consider donating unopened extras to a food pantry. Anything past its expiration date should be tossed out. Remember the adage, “when it doubt, throw it out.”
Wipe down dusty shelves, cans and jars with warm water and a bit of dish soap. For sticky messes, sprinkle the spot with baking soda and top with a warm, wet paper towel. Let sit for a minute then scrape off with a spatula. Dry shelves thoroughly before restocking.
Place stuff you use every day (cereal, nut butters, snacks) within easy reach.
It’s best to put lightweight items on higher shelves and heavy items on lower shelves.
Group items together, such as baking supplies, canned beans and veggies, sauces and soups.
Place flours, dried beans and nuts in clear containers so you can see when you’re running low.
Corral small items (like oatmeal packets) into baskets so they don’t get lost.
Feeling inspired? Extend these ideas to your freezer and fridge.
Jodi Bart is the Austin-based blogger behind Tasty Touring, who won a trip to Europe through our Foodie Fantasy Food Blogger Video Contest. She’ll be sharing some of her adventures in this 2-part blog feature. Read about her tour of M. Chapoutier Vineyard here.
I recently returned from a fabulous European vacation for two, thanks to Whole Food Market’s Foodie Fantasy Food Blogger Video Contest. One of the highlights of the trip (an Intrepid Travel tour from Berlin to Paris) was the Paris cheese tour that was specially arranged for us by Whole Foods Market.
We took the train from Belgium, arriving in Paris on a Friday morning. When we arrived at our hotel, Antoine Marsot, general manager of Interval Export, was there to greet us with a smile.
Antoine has worked in the exporting business since he graduated from business school in the late 1980s. For a decade he managed exports for Laïta, a French dairy cooperative, before buying Interval from its founder, who was retiring after twenty years in business.
Antoine is passionate about running his business in a way that will make a positive contribution to the longevity of small- and medium-sized dairies, the happiness of his employees, and to share his management philosophy with others. He believes that people who work at Interval should be there because they are passionate about the work and because they feel it is contributing to their self-development, apart from the salary. Two US companies that he most admires are Whole Foods Market and Patagonia.
Jodi Bart is the Austin-based blogger behind Tasty Touring, who won a trip to Europe through our Foodie Fantasy Food Blogger Video Contest. She’ll be sharing some of her adventures in this 2-part blog feature.
I recently returned from a fabulous European vacation for two, thanks to Whole Food Market’s Foodie Fantasy Food Blogger Video Contest. The trip, an Intrepid Travel tour from Berlin to Paris, included visits with Whole Foods Market local partners, including one to the M. Chapoutier vineyard and tasting room in France’s Rhone Valley.
My traveling partner on this adventure was Adam, my boyfriend of almost three years, and now fiancé after we got engaged at the end of the tour(!).
Adam and I arrived at M. Chapoutier a half hour earlier than our 2 p.m. appointment, and the tasting room, along with most of the shops in Tain l’Hermitage, was closed for lunch. We wandered to a local sports bar and ordered “deux café.”
Congratulations to our recipe photo contest winner, Janet Foster!
This picture of our Pumpkin-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies looks good enough to eat. Many thanks to everyone who submitted pictures. We received so many wonderful entries that we’d like to share a few of our favorites. (Top row, left to right: kelsiwil, lschirmbeck, susan.m.rudolph. Bottom row, left to right: DoughingRogue, Lizz King.)
Keep taking and sharing those pics with us! Remember, you can share pictures of any of our recipes right on the recipe page. Stay tuned for future photo contests, and happy cooking!
Original post:
If you’re like us and you love baking, cooler weather makes your heart sing. It’s the perfect excuse to turn on the oven and whip up warm batches of muffins, cookies and cakes with seasonal ingredients and spices like pumpkin, cinnamon, cranberry and cloves.
Which is why we’re excited to reveal a new recipe for fall baking: Pumpkin-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies. We know these taste wonderful but trouble is — we don’t have a picture of them yet. We’d love to feature yours!
Whip up a batch using our recipe, snap a beauty shot and upload it to our recipe page. Fun and you get to eat cookies. What could be better? Winning a $25 Whole Foods Market gift card! Upload a picture to our Pumpkin-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie recipe page by October 29th and we’ll select the best of the best to win.
Kids love sugar. I heard of a recent study that finds kids’ preference for really sweet tastes has something to do with the caloric needs of their growing bones. So, they can’t help it, it’s their biology. Ha! Now I don’t need a study to tell me kids love sweets. I just look at my son. Ever since his second birthday a few months ago, he’s been asking for birthday cake for dinner every night. Luckily, his sugar cravings can be satisfied by a banana or other fruit.
But beware, bananas can’t fend off the sugar monsters that will be roaming the streets in a few weeks seeking to satisfy their insatiable appetites for all things sweet. Whether you keep these little goblins and ghouls at bay with candy or you have another secret weapon (some folks swear by coins and toothbrushes!), don’t let the poor souls fall victim to hydrogenated fats, high-fructose corn syrup or artificial preservatives, colors and flavors.
Here’s a great reason to throw a party. On October 24th, chefs, food banks, schools, farmers’ markets and food-lovers across America will observe Food Day, a national day of awareness-raising and fund-raising to promote healthy eating and affordable, accessible food. We encourage and challenge YOU to take the lead and host a fundraising party for your local food bank or a food-related charity that you believe in. We’ve partnered with the Food Day initiative and Epicurious to make it easy, rewarding and fun to host a Food Day event.
Our local producers are total rock stars. Their creativity, ingenuity and absolutely delightful products are a constant source of inspiration for us. Judging by sales, we know they are a favorite of yours, too! Helping them do more became a goal for Whole Foods Market a few years ago and as of this month, we’ve funded more than $5 million in low-interest loans through our Local Producer Loan Program to help them grow their businesses.
To celebrate the $5 million mark, we’re giving away a basket filled with culinary treasures from several of our loan recipients! This is your chance to experience some of the fabulous products made by passionate small producers that aren’t available in your neck of the woods. Just post a comment below by October 21 telling us what your favorite local product is and why, and you’ll have a chance to win! We’ll choose one lucky commenter at random to receive the basket.
Ever heard of the BBC World Challenge? We hadn’t until one of our vendors became a finalist this year! The purpose of the challenge is to “highlight and reward small businesses around the world that bring economic, social and environmental benefits to local communities through innovation and enterprise at a grassroots level.”
Guayakí, a company whose yerba mate we’re pleased to carry, has been selected as one of 12 finalists (out of 640 entries!) for their partnership with the Ache tribe in Paraguay. Watch their video, read more about their work with the Ache and then vote for Guayakí on the BBC World Challenge web site. If Guayakí wins, the Ache tribe will receive $20,000 to support food security in their local community.
Even if you haven’t tried their delicious yerba mate yet, you’ve probably seen their distinctive yellow and green packaging in our stores. Guayakí’s organic yerba mate is available in loose leaf and tea bags, ready-to-drink in bottles or cans and energy shots. Robustly flavored and naturally caffeinated, Guayakí likes to say yerba mate combines the strength of coffee with the health benefits of tea and the euphoria of chocolate. Yerba mate’s been consumed for hundreds of years by people in South America, particularly in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.
Our grocery team is always working to bring innovative and great-tasting natural and organic products to our stores. Lucky for me, I get a sneak peek of what’s made the cut, and this stuff is too good to keep to myself!
Each month, I blog about a few of the products we’re most excited about so you can try something new, too. These products are only available in our stores, and you’ll be the first on the block to try them. After you do, take a minute to tell us and other shoppers what you think by rating and reviewing them on our product pages.
Without further ado, here’s what’s on our list for October. Add them to your online shopping list with a few clicks of the mouse.
Quench your thirst with this organic take on the popular European orange soda made with orange pulp. It’s a zesty, fresh tasting beverage that gives you all the citrus refreshment without any high-fructose corn syrup!
In my opinion, there are a few absolutely perfect (cheese) pairings: bright cheddar and dark Russian rye bread; creamy mascarpone and crispy gingersnaps; a crumbly blue and crisp apple; and exotic Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog and an airline ticket to northern California.
To help celebrate American Cheese Month this October, you can come up with your own unique cheese pairing and enter the Smile for the Camembert Photo Contest on our new Whole Foods Market Cheese page on Facebook. Choose any one of the ten 2011 American Cheese Society’s (ACS) award-winning cheeses listed below and photograph it with your favorite pairing: loaf of bread, jug of wine, fruit, chocolate — anything that strikes you as a good match — edible, drinkable, or otherwise.
Submit your photo via our Facebook Cheese page between October 3 and 14. Tell your network of friends and family because the public can vote on their favorite photo until October 17. Then Cathy Strange, the Global Cheese Buyer at Whole Foods Market and our very own Cheese Rock Star, will pick the winners based on quality and creativity of cheese pairing, creativity of photo and the representation of one of the 10 cheeses listed below (with bonus points for including the name or logo of the cheese in the photo). Contest details are on the Whole Foods Market Cheese page.
The grand prize winner gets a $200 Whole Foods Market gift card and 5 runners up get a $50 gift card. All six winners also receive a gift basket with all 10 cheeses!
Welcome to Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market.
Don’t know us? In a nutshell, we are the world's leading natural and organic grocer and we’re passionate about healthy food and a healthy planet. Learn more about us.
We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of smart, passionate people doing incredible things in areas like organics, supporting local growers, green practices, fair trade, micro-lending and all kinds of food related stuff. We’ll use this blog to share some of the cool things going on around here.
Of course, what makes this blog really exciting is YOU — so join the conversation!
Subscribe via RSS
Can you believe it’s almost November? Now is the perfect time to take stock of your pantry and make sure you have the basics on hand for your big Thanksgiving meal, all of that holiday entertaining and baking, and for everyday cooking in between. Here are some of our favorite tips to get your pantry in ship shape order and ready for the holiday season.
I recently returned from a fabulous European vacation for two, thanks to Whole Food Market’s 
Antoine has worked in the exporting business since he graduated from business school in the late 1980s. For a decade he managed exports for 
I recently returned from a fabulous European vacation for two, thanks to Whole Food Market’s 
If you’re like us and you love baking, cooler weather makes your heart sing. It’s the perfect excuse to turn on the oven and whip up warm batches of muffins, cookies and cakes with seasonal ingredients and spices like pumpkin, cinnamon, cranberry and cloves.
Kids love sugar. I heard of a recent study 
Here’s a great reason to throw a party. On October 24th, chefs, food banks, schools, farmers’ markets and food-lovers across America will observe 
Food Day is centered on 
Our local producers are total rock stars. Their creativity, ingenuity and absolutely delightful products are a constant source of inspiration for us. Judging by sales, we know they are a favorite of yours, too! Helping them do more became a goal for Whole Foods Market a few years ago and as of this month, we’ve funded more than $5 million in low-interest loans through our 
In my opinion, there are a few absolutely perfect (cheese) pairings: bright cheddar and dark Russian rye bread; creamy mascarpone and crispy gingersnaps; a crumbly blue and crisp apple; and exotic Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog and an airline ticket to northern California.
