Members exercise your right to vote today.  As a member-owner you have a chance to participate in the election of the board. Access the ballot online now through October 12 at noon.

Ballots are online and GREEN this year. We’re all doing our part to reduce our carbon footprint. We’re trying to eliminate paper ballots, envelopes, tracking sheets etc.  Help us in our goal to reduce waste.  By voting online instead of sending out paper ballots, we are reducing waste to the equivalence of:

• Planting 4 trees,
• Avoiding driving nearly 1,000 miles, or
• Not burning 440 pounds of coal.

Access online voting now  through October 12.

If you are unable to vote online, come to Customer Service and ask to use the computer we have set up in the store for you to use.

Not a member yet? You still have time to join and have a chance to vote. Join at customer service, then exercise your right to vote!

Don’t forget the Annual Meeting is on October 12. You will receive a 15% discount in November in lieu of your 5% membership discount if you RSVP for the meeting and register at the meeting.

Brand-new and current member-owners are eligible to enter our drawing between now through October 11 to win a ¼-side of beef from our Down in the Valley label! This all-natural beef is raised by our co-partners at Hidden Stream Farm in Elgin, MN. They adhere to humane growing practices and in accordance to our specifications, they do not add hormones or antibiotics to the feed or herd. Winner will be announced at our Annual Membership Meeting held on Oct. 12 in Rosemount.

All current member-owners, please visit customer service to enter the drawing. If you are not a member-owner, visit customer service and become one today!

The kids can jump, the music will play, and a pig will be roasting at FARM FEST, right here at Valley Natural Foods!

With lots of free samples and a pig roast (only $5 per plate), you are sure to leave FARM FEST full of tasty, local food!

Saturday, September 26, 2009, from 12:00-3:00 p.m.

rain or shine

A Few Words about the Authentic Pig Roast:

Byron Korus, owner of Chuckwagon Catering, will be here to present an authentic pig roast for our FARM FEST event. Using a portable pig roaster and his very own Chuckwagon Charlie seasonings for delicious local flavor, Byron will be slow-roasting an entire pig from Hidden Stream Farm. He’s serving it up nice and juicy, pulled-pork-style with buns, potato salad, coleslaw and fixings for only $5 a plate! Buy your pig roast tickets early at customer service starting at 8:00 a.m. Tickets will also be available at FARM FEST.

Check out a photo essay written by Charli Mills in our August/September 2009 issue of This is Living Naturally, page 4. You will learn more about Byron, his delicious Chuckwagon Charlie seasonings and the steps (complete with photos) for an expert rub. Click here for August/September This is Living Naturally

Meet 26 of our Closest Friends!

Meet local growers and producers face-to-face, and taste the good food difference. Yes, that means FREE SAMPLES! Check out our website www.valleynaturalfoods.com and watch our FARM FEST clip to learn more about our sustainable growers and producers!

About the Music:

Minneapolis-based Eelpout Stringers will be here! “The Eelpout Stringers are mostly old fogies playing old-time music,” according to Eelpout Stringers MySpace page. Visit Eelpout Stringers MySpace music page: http://www.myspace.com/eelpouts to learn more. Come to our parking lot and see them live, playing “the stuff that gets your toe a-tappin.” We think we’ve made a fitting choice in music for our FARM FEST event!

And of course, the Bounce House:

Our bounce house will be up and running for all kids who come to FARM FEST and have lots of energy to spend. Bring the kids and let them jump for great exercise  -  it’s free!

Vote for your Favorite Local Apple:

The produce team will be sampling three varieties of locally-grown apples inside the store. Come on in, have a taste and vote for your favorite!

FARM FEST begins at 12:00 p.m. and continues until 3:00 p.m. at Valley Natural Foods, rain or shine!

Creating and Living the Life You’ve Always Wanted

A Life-Changing Workshop on Possibilities

Despite a Challenging Economy 

Monday, Sept 21 6:30-9:00 pm

Shepherd of the Valley Church,

12650 Johnny Cake Ridge Road

Apple Valley, MN 55124

 Would you like to experience improved health, vitality and balance while aligning your life with your values? Are there ways to easily and affordably create a more meaningful, healthier life for yourself and your family while making a difference in the world? Come and discover how we can bring about sustainability on a personal, organizational and planetary level at this upbeat, empowering workshop.

Through discussion, reflection, music, movement, fun and delicious, easy-to-make healthy snacks we’ll explore the possibilities for creating a sustainable life for you, your family and future generations. We’ll explore the challenges we currently face and how we can use alternative Nobel Prize-winning Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef’s ten fundamental human needs and other innovative ideas for creating the lives we want. 

You will leave this life-changing workshop with key steps and inspiring approaches for creating a life and a world that you will love. Invite your partner, family, friends, colleagues and community to join you on this insightful journey.

Facilitators: Terry Gips is a nationally recognized sustainability leader, author (Breaking the Pesticide Habit and The Humane Consumer and Producer Guide), CEO of Sustainability Associates, Adjunct Faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, President of the nonprofit Alliance for Sustainability and founding  Vice-Chair of Congregations Caring for Creation. Annalee Wolf is a professional violist in the heralded Artaria String Quartet, faculty member at the MacPhail School of Music and Artaria Chamber Music School and a certified yoga instructor. 

Sponsors: Alliance for Sustainability, Shepherd of the Valley Church & Environmental Group, and St. John’s Newman Church & Environmental Justice Committee

Registration: $15 Discounted early registration for members of sponsoring organizations by Sep 14. $20 Discounted early registration for others by Sep 14. Add $5 for registration by Sep 20 and $10 for registration at the door (if space is available). Alliance for Sustainability, www.afors.org (online preferred), 612-331-1099, or info@afors.org   

Member-owners have a chance to receive a patronage refund at the end of each fiscal year … are you getting one this year?

We expanded our store, and then a recession came. But we have such great co-op shoppers that the store still did well enough in fiscal year 2009 to give you patronage refund checks! This is a great reflection of the dedication of our co-op members and shoppers.

 As a member-owner of Valley Natural Foods, members are eligible to receive a patronage refund check. This is given to you in the form of a store credit you can use as cash in Valley Natural Foods. You can receive your check at the annual meeting on October 12. Visit www.valleynaturalfoods.com for more information.

If you are unable to attend the meeting you can pick up your check at the customer service desk beginning October 13, 2009.

The patronage refund checks are based on how much of a profit the store has made, the amount of money you as a member has shopped throughout the year (always tell the cashier your member number!) and one more thing. The board and management decide how much of the profit is needed to reinvest in the store. What is left over is given to you, the owners of the store.

Are you eligible?

You are eligible for the possibility of a refund check if you joined the co-op prior to the end of FY 2009 (June, 30, 2009). The possibility is based on how much you’ve spent at the store. Remember that if you joined the co-op after the end of FY 2009 you are not eligible for this round of patronage refund checks.

 Join today to begin building your account towards next year’s patronage refund! Learn About valley Natural Foods Membership

I own Valley Natural Foods. Well—me and about 7500 other folks. As owners of the store we have a voice in the business. We can speak to the board, vote with our dollars, and support the mission of this cooperative business.

As a co-op, we are a distinct business model that wants your participation. Exercise your right as an owner and vote September 16 through October 12.

Attend the annual member meeting on October 12 (RSVP required).

Watch your snail-mailbox, a post card will be coming soon.

This postcard will tell you how to:

• Receive 15% member discount instead of 5% (RSVP for meeting and register at the meeting)
• RSVP for the annual meeting (just call customer service! Or email membership@valleyanturalfoods.com)
• Vote online for board members (exercise your right as a member!)

Not a member-owner? Would you like to become a member-owner of Valley Natural Foods? Just stop by the customer service counter and learn about the benefits and values of membership.

“We have a chance to choose better food three times a day (or more often, if we’re particularly hungry),” Bryan Walsh writes in Time magazine’s Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food

In this shocking, but not surprising article Walsh goes on to explain the “state of your bacon”. The opening paragraph describing bluntly how a pig is raised in a normal factory farm, where the majority of meat comes from and why.

“What we eat – how it’s raised and how it gets to us—has consequences that can’t be ignored any longer.”

Government subsidies and uninformed consumers are to blame, he explains, but it’s not hopeless. There are good farms out there, with good sustainable practices that think about the health of the animals, consumers and the earth. But he reminds us that it’s us, as we wheel our grocery cart down the aisle, that we are choosing the state of our bacon.

“Unless American’s radically rethink the way they grown and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs – and bland taste. Sustainable food has an elitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants – and as every farmer knows, if you don’t take care of your land, it can’t take care of you.”

What’s the state of your bacon?

Bob is one heck of a guy. Or so it appears on the packaging on the Bob’s Red Mill products. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to any of the Twin Cities Co-op buyers who met him in July.

He invited them out to his factory just south of Portland and personally showed them around the factory.

As Linden Hills Co-op’s merchandise manager said in an press release,

“The dedication Bob Moore has to his craft and his mission is evident in the way he talked about his partnerships, his employees and his products.”

Stacy Gangestad, Valley Natural Foods’ merchandising manager said of her visit that it was great to meet Bob and hear the stories behind this great product. What was the one thing that really stuck out to her?

“The people. You could tell that everybody from buyers to floor workers, at every level, there wasn’t anybody who didn’t want to get the job done. They just enjoyed being there.”

The main thing that makes Bob’s Red Mill product so popular amongst the co-op buyers is the traditional stone milling process he uses. It keeps the grain intact bran, gem and endosperm.

In the press release by Linden Hills co-op says,

“Company founder Bob Moore has a long history of supporting regional farmers from California to Canada. As he told our group, ‘We work hard to build relationships so we can continually provide the highest quality products available.’ All the ingredients used at Bob’s Red Mill are GMO free and about twenty percent are certified organic.”

Stacy says they also were able to tour the gluten-free room of the mill. It is completely closed off from the gluten-filled rooms. They even have scientists on staff that are there solely to ensure that the gluten stays out.

Watch for sales on his GF products in October, during Celiac Awareness Month.

As the holidays approach, watch for sales on Bob’s flours and baking goods for your holiday baking needs.

You can visit the Red Mill too. Check out the virtual tour on http://www.bobsredmill.com/.

Burnsville resident Shawn Jorgenson was one happy co-op shopper on Wednesday when he picked up his prize. He was the lucky winner of the Honest Tea and Jamis bike sweepstakes drawing.

Honest Tea and Jamis bikes teamed up to encourage co-op shoppers to work up a “carbon neutral thirst.” We hope you have. Remember that Valley Natural Foods is located along bike trails and has a bike rack out front. Stop in for a quick refreshment or some light shopping while on your bike ride.

Winter greens may seem like an oxymoron but it doesn’t have to be.

Abundant summer local produce helps us forget the drab winter months of our barren winters. But what if there were still green sprouts popping up in your garden in those drab winter months?

Carol Ford and Chuck Waibel of Garden Goddess Enterprises in Milan, MN decided they didn’t want our long prairie winters to mean an end to local veggie production. So they developed a greenhouse structure that would allow for plants to grow all winter, and the best part is, you can do it too! 

Check out their new book The Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual. The Manual describes the design, construction and horticultural methods employed at the Garden Goddess Farm to produce fresh vegetables, using very little energy, through the harshest Minnesota prairie winter.

The book will be available on the shelves of the Wellness Department.

And if you’re a member of the co-op you will have a chance to hear Carol Ford speak at the annual membership meeting on October 12. She will also be available for a book signing during the first hour of the meeting. Remember to RSVP at membership@valleynaturalfoods.com!