Traveling for the holidays can be appealing, but let’s be honest…not all of us can afford a trip to Europe, South America or even northern California. You can take a journey by bottle instead of by plane with our “top notch wines at easy-to-swallow prices.”

Your vinous passport to so many wonderful places minus the flight delays and inclement weather and – get this – all for under $15 a bottle. Now THAT is a deal that can’t be beat!
This year’s top wines offer something for everybody – a veritable cornucopia of flavors to suit a variety of palates, including both your Uncle Louie’s and Aunt Thelma’s. Reds and whites so versatile they’ll complement whatever you have on your menu.  Speaking of menu, we worked with our creative chefs to pair mouth-watering recipes with our wine selections so you need look no further to find just the right dish. Just go to our Top Ten Wines page and click on the different wine labels to show suggested recipe pairings. Maybe a Helfrich Gewurztraminer white served with Butternut Squash and Coconut Soup with Shrimp or a El Coto Special Cuvée Rioja with Spinach and Cheese Lasagna.

Delicious stuff!

If sparkling wine is what you need (and who doesn’t?) we have a wonderful selection for both sipping and toasting. Last, but certainly not least, we are really excited about the four organic wines included in our top selections. They are made with organically grown grapes and not only do they taste good but they do good too! Did we mention that all of these wines are under $15 a bottle?

We’ve searched the globe for amazing wines at amazing prices and developed outstanding recipes that will undoubtedly be the highlight of your holiday dining experience. You may be staying home for the holidays this year, but with our winter wine selections on your table, every sip will take your taste buds on an exotic voyage. Cheers!

It’s November 5th and Thanksgiving Day is exactly three weeks away. (Cue Psycho-esque scary music here.) Whether you will be serving a house full of guests or a special dinner for two, preparing your kitchen ahead of time and thinking through your entertaining plan of action now can definitely save last-minute hassles on the big day.

Here are some of our ideas and tips for getting ready for the impending holiday crunch.

• Prepare the Kitchen. Before things get crazy, organize your pantry, fridge and freezer, use things up (go all Iron Chef on it!) and make yourself aware of which holiday pantry basics you have or need.
• Attack the Task List early. Write up a non-food related To-Do list with chores such as “create a centerpiece” and “polish the silver” and “vacuum the house.” Write this one up in time to get a couple of things crossed off every day for the week or two leading up to the big day.



• Plan Ahead. Plan meals and make shopping lists, being mindful of how much to buy and serve for how many people. Use the chart on our holiday website to help you figure it out.
• Choose Crowd-Friendly Recipes. If you will have guests staying in your home, don’t forget to plan for meals other than Thanksgiving Day. Choose hearty, satisfying, affordable recipes. Big-pot meals with self-serve condiments are ideal: chili, curry, red beans and rice, stew, etc.
• Use the Freezer. Prepare big freezer-friendly recipes ahead so you can just heat and serve later. And don’t stop at lasagna and soup, breads and muffins and cookies freeze well, too.
• Learn to Cook at Least One Thing. Choose a perfect entertaining dish to become your sought-after signature item for the season to take along or serve at home.
• Practice Makes Perfect. Trying out some new dishes? A stressful, busy “game day” kitchen may interfere with your best efforts, so a practice run may be in order for any new recipes with a multitude of ingredients, cooking steps or both, such as a fancy dessert.
• Cook something for everyone. Chances are your guest list may include someone with a special diet need. Big holiday meals are actually perfect – since there are so many dishes, there is bound to be something for everyone. Check with your guests to make sure you are aware of their needs, and review our tips on Entertaining Guests with Special Diets.



• Enjoy the More the Merrier. Guests almost always ask what they can bring, and usually enjoy contributing! Make a short list and be prepared when asked, leaving leeway for creativity and culinary talents.
• Don’t be Shy of the Full Potluck. Most people like to show off their favorite holiday dishes. Give them an opportunity to share them!

So, what are you doing to get yourself, your home and your family prepared? Share your tips in the comments below. We can get through this together, right? (Cue the “We All Need Someone to Lean On” exit music.)

Find meaning in the present with our fantastic selection of holiday gifts.

Everything to do your party good, from wine pairings to holiday decor.

Helpful tips that will make your holidays easier & your guests happier.

Get the goodness in every bite with our holiday recipes and menu ideas.

All Things Good. We hope you’ll make us your “go to” bookmark for all your holiday needs.

Make Décor do Double Duty. Decorate your table with winter squash, fresh herbs, citrus, apples, pears, pomegranates and nuts, and then use them in recipes.

It reminded me that the time and weather is right for my annual collection tromp. Every fall when the air gets as crisp and sweet as a new-crop apple, I grab my garden snips and a stiff bag or two and go out to essentially steal from Mother Nature.

The loot is dried plants, seed pods and flowers, as well as berries, colored leaves, vines, small evergreen branches… anything with interesting color or texture that looks like it will hold up for a while. Fortunately, I know my poison ivy and am able to steer clear of that!

When I get home, I cover the big dining table with newspaper and unload the fruits of my caper. Next, I gather the things I actually bought to add even more color and texture, many of which fall into the décor-now-eat-later category. I love pomegranates, apples and squashes, especially with the natural hues and rough textures I foraged outdoors.

I then put together a few different styles of arrangements, a tall one for the dining table when not in use and also one that is low-profile to use when we’re eating so we can see each other for conversation. I make one for the sideboard or a hall table, too. And then, either the same day or a few weeks later, I make simple mini arrangements of just a few items and tape them together to use instead of bows when I’m wrapping holiday gifts.

I love the naturally festive and seasonal look of the arrangements around the house every day for a month or two, but I also take a little time to punch them up when we’re having a party. I’ll buy a few Whole Trade™ flowers and depending on what type they are, either slip one or two into my existing arrangements dry or alter the arrangements a bit to incorporate something that will hold water for a blossom or two. It’s also fun for shorter periods to decorate with interesting bowls or small baskets filled with bright citrus or a colorful variety of pears.

The point is, decorating for the holiday season doesn’t have to rob your food budget…it can be part of it, and is just one way to steal ideas and materials from Mother Nature. Oh, and don’t forget to string popcorn and cranberries if you’re decorating a tree. When you take the tree down later, you can hang them outside for the birds to eat.

So, who’s got more ideas for edible or stolen-from-nature décor? I’m sure I’m not the only one who needs some crisp, sweet Fall ideas.

And without further ado, this week’s randomly selected* winner…

Denice H:

If I am in need of a quick meal, I turn to soup. It is healthy, tastful, and easy. However, all the chopping,washing,peeling of the vegetables can be a pain. Instead I just open a jar of good quality mild salsa and add it to chicken stock. It is a great, quick foundation for many soups. It already has the mirepoix plus a nice small amount of heat.

Denice will be receiving a $100 gift card! We hope you enjoyed “value contest month” on our blog during October. For more giveaways, check out our Facebook Fridays and Twitter Thursdays for more weekly contests throughout the holidays.

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* This comment was randomly chosen using random.org.

Let’s face it: The holiday season can be pretty stressful. There’s shopping, working, gift buying, crowds, family stress and all of that “special” food! At best, it can feel overwhelming. At worst, completely out of control. What to do?

Well, before we get to that, let’s review how stress affects our bodies. Stress is a natural reaction to danger and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Cortisol, the main stress hormone, kicks in during times of crisis to make you more alert and prepared for action. Your senses are heightened, and the brain and immune system are primed. Other functions, like digestion, slow down. When safety returns, the body goes back to status quo. The challenge comes when the “danger” doesn’t resolve – the body never gets the chance to “settle down” and recuperate. Chronic stress can lead to slower immune system responses, impaired cognitive function, lack of appetite control and sleep difficulties. Yikes!

So, what to do about all of that added holiday stress? Here are some of the things I try:

• Create gift-giving plans to avoid last minute shopping and rushing. It also helps keep me on budget – don’t need to add financial stress!



• Stick to an exercise program! A great stress buster, exercise keeps your blood flowing, oxygen moving and helps control your weight. For relaxing movement, try Tai Chi, Qigong, yoga, gentle stretching, walking or Pilates.
• Make time for yourself! Spend some time alone drinking a cup of calming tea, reading a good book or magazine, taking a cat nap, getting a massage, taking a walk, listing to some favorite music or hanging out with your cat or dog. Even just five minutes can be helpful.
• Keep your diet simple and healthy. We all try special things at parties, but for the most part focus on whole foods and a balance of nutrients. Go for fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, etc.
• Don’t use the holidays as a reason to go overboard on anything – especially caffeine and alcohol. Try to moderate refined and added sugar too!
• Get enough rest! A well-rested body will be better able to cope with holiday stress.



• Breathe! When most people inhale, their lungs fill to only 1/6th their capacity. Focusing on slow, deep breathing is one of the simplest ways to calm our bodies. Here’s a simple exercise: Breathe steadily and deeply through your nose, hold, exhale steadily, and then hold. Start small, and as you continue to practice, you can inhale, exhale and hold for longer periods of time.
• Use calming essential oils, like lavender and chamomile. You can sniff straight from the bottle, put a few drops on a cotton ball and place under your pillow, sprinkle a bit on the floor of a warm shower or in a humidifier.
• Boost your magnesium intake – the “anti-stress” mineral. Found in nuts, seeds, whole grains and leafy greens, magnesium is known to help promote relaxation and proper nervous system function.
• Reach for the Rescue Remedy™. A long-standing favorite, Rescue Remedy is a mixture of Bach flower essences that work to provide natural stress relief -perfect for overwhelming holiday stress and bustle.

I hope you all have a very calm and relaxed holiday season! How are you planning to make that happen?

I work in a part of Whole Foods Market that our customers probably don’t think about very much – one of our regional distribution centers. Here in Maryland, my facility stocks and moves most of the product that you find on the shelves in our Mid-Atlantic Region stores. We’re moving pallets of food around all day and we do that with a lot of forklifts and pallet jacks.

Each of those forklifts has a 2000-pound lead-acid battery. In fact, each forklift has two huge batteries – one in use and one being recharged. A battery charge only lasts about 7 hours. That means that every one of those forklifts needs a 2000-pound battery changed for every shift. That’s 14,000 battery changes in a year, totaling about 4000 labor hours. Wow!

When we first started talking about hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklifts, we were looking at a cost of about $17,000 per fuel cell. Ouch. A lead-acid battery costs $3500. But then everything changed when GENCO received a $6.1 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Plug Power, a clean energy solutions company, connected us with GENCO and a deal was born. They could now offer us the hydrogen fuel cell-powered batteries for $3,000 each. With the other transition costs involved, turns out that there wasn’t a cost savings to us but the deal was net zero.

Some companies might have stopped right there. Who needs the headache of a big change if it doesn’t affect the bottom line? But that’s what is different about Whole Foods Market. We don’t just look at the numbers. We guide our business by our Core Values and two of those are about supporting and caring for our team members and the environment.

Remember those 14,000 battery changes? That involves a team member dealing with a very heavy piece of equipment. Of course we have a machine that lifts the 2000-pound battery, but it is definitely safer for them to switch to refueling the fuel cell, which takes less than a minute. That’s only 250 hours a year instead of 4000 – we’re sure they can find better things to do with their time! Check out this video that shows the complete re-fueling process:

Switching to fuel cell technology will also allow us to reduce our carbon footprint by the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the use and charging of those lead-acid batteries. We expect this conversion to save up to 80% of emissions – roughly the equivalent of removing two passenger vehicles from the road per year for each forklift truck powered by fuel cells. My facility is excited to be piloting this project for Whole Foods Market and there is already a ton of interest from our distribution centers in other regions. That could add up to a lot of reduced emissions…and a lot of happy team members!

Here’s the gist of the problem:

As you may know, reuse is higher on the waste hierarchy than recycling or disposal. And prevention and minimization are higher still. So from a Green Mission standpoint, the best thing we could provide would be either no cutlery (so everything would have to be “finger food”) or reusable cutlery. At our Global Green Mission Congress in May of ’08, attended by about 70 company representatives (including store-level team members as well as Vice Presidents), this goal was adopted: Utilize reusable plates, bowls, coffee cups, drinking cups and serve-ware in cafes and team member break rooms (where Health Department regulations allow).

Wherever we can adopt this goal and use reusable cutlery, we should be doing so. Yes, it adds expense to a certain extent, and, yes, it requires certain operational accommodations to make it work — such as bussing, dishwashers and the like. And, no, reusable cutlery does not cover all the bases, so there is definitely a need for cutlery that customers can take with them when they’ve purchased food to go. That need can best be served by recyclable cutlery first and then by compostable cutlery.

Where possible we should be offering cutlery that can be recycled. Of the plastic resins that are known to be highly recyclable, the best choices for cutlery are either #1 PET or #5 Polypropylene. In a number of our regions, we have implemented the “Gimme 5” recycling infrastructure for recycling #5 plastics. This is a partnership with Stonyfield Farms, Organic Valley and Preserve/Recycline to promote recycling of these plastics (many of which are containers such as yogurt cups and other dairy packaging) and to return them to Preserve to be made into the housewares, picnic goods, and other items such as toothbrushes and shaving razors that this company makes and we sell. More stores are getting involved with this program.

Compostable cutlery is where we get into the “nitty gritty” of some of the most challenging issues we face in trying to put our values into action. Here’s why:

• To be truly “compostable” by our standards, a product or material needs to be certified as such by a recognized 3rd party entity. The best known in the U.S. is the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), which certifies items according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D6400 standard, essentially requiring that items need to break down and decompose within a strict time frame, without leaving toxic residues such as heavy metals, and must not inhibit healthy seed growth in the medium into which they evolve.
• Source material for cutlery must be certified non-GMO to meet the very strict guidelines Whole foods Market adopted for the use of materials in our supply chain.
• We strongly promote the idea that source biomaterials (as they are referred to) should not be derived from food-based feedstock, such as corn, potatoes, wheat, soy, etc. — food should be used for food, not plastics or fuel.
• Any cutlery developed would need to perform at least as well as existing cutlery (in other words, not melt or dissolve in hot liquids!)
• It needs to meet our cost needs for a commodity item as vast as this is for us.
  Finally, it needs to be an acceptable material for commercial-scale composting at “end of life” since this stuff doesn’t break down well in home composting environments.

The good news is that many producers and manufacturers of foodservice wares know our requirements and are scrambling to make cutlery that “gets it right.” The bad news is that very few have hit on all cylinders yet, and those that have got most of this right, are not yet cost-competitive enough to fit our supplies budgets. We firmly believe that the answer to this challenge is to hold out for the “real deal” and to aggregate our demand together with other end-users in the natural products industry, as well as other industries seeking this type of goods such as the health care and hospital industry, in order to ultimately drive the cost down through this aggregated demand.

So why don’t we just take items with some of the “right stuff” as a starting point, rather than holding out for the perfect solution? (In other words, why not settle for “less bad” as a step towards “good?”)

The answer to this may not be so apparent, but it lies in the fact that Whole Foods Market is considered to be the voice, the authority, and the standard-setter for so many things that touch our industry. Many look to us to be the barometer for trends, especially when it comes to “green” issues. Because of that, we strongly feel that we need to hold out for the most optimal solution. One that really speaks to all of the issues and values outlined above, even on so seemingly simple a category as cutlery. It is coming; it will come. And we can dramatically influence the course of that development, if we keep the faith and hold fast to our values and standards.

That’s the story with cutlery. Thanks for asking!

Lee believes his two jobs (EcoCzar and Forager) are the coolest in the company, allowing him to combine several of his passions in a way that makes work a dance. (Thanks, Coach!) With Whole Foods Market since 1996, Lee enjoys all of the many natural wonders and flavors of New England with his wife Susan and their two teenage sons.