Citrus fruits have filled the produce department and our favorites, Minneola Tangelos, have just arrived. With all these fruits it can be challenging to know what’s what.
Can you match the citrus fruit with it’s juicy fact? (Answers below)
Clementine
Satsuma Mandarin
Cara Cara Navel
Answers: Clementine E; Satsuma Mandarin A ; Valencia Orange D ; Cara Cara Navel Orange C ; Tangelo B
Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change continues.
Our friends at SES are making the most of this opportunity to travel to Europe. Not only did they fundraise their own travel expenses and are staying with host families, they are also reporting back detailed outlines of their experiences to our community. Here are a few highlights:
December 7th marked the beginning of an annual event called Fossil of the Day awards, held by Climate Action Network. They present awards to different countries based on the poor solutions they’ve suggested during climate talks that day. One of our student bloggers was shocked to hear that on the first day of the awards, a train-loving bicycle-doting health conscious Sweden was amongst one of the winners of this sarcastic award.
Land scarcity and land use was the topic of a meeting another student, blogged about. His attention was caught by Dr. Fredrik Hedenus, who suggests a tax on meat to mitigate methane output, which is a leading green house gas.
“Hedenus noted that Methane sources are non-point emission sources and, as stated earlier, this makes it difficult to control and regulate than CO2. Our best option then, is to begin with the strongest most defined known source, livestock. Hedenus suggested that, because these are non-point emission sources, we must implement output based policies. The C.C.C. estimates that benefit-cost ratios could reach approximately 2 through a beef meat tax in OECD countries. This tax would reduce global emissions by 30-70 million CO2 ton equivalents per year by GWP calculations over the next 100 years.”
Read ses-climate.blogspot.com for more about the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cophenhagen, Denmark from Apple Valley high school students from SES.
You’ve seen Ames Farm honey products in bottles, in honeycombs and pollen. Ames Farm is centrally located in Watertown, MN, but not all the honey is made there. There are bee hives all over central Minnesota. Want to know where your honey comes from?
Check out the label on the side of the jar. It shows you the hive number, vintage year and the city where the honey bees gathered and created that honey. Log onto Ames Farm Web site to locate the hive on a map!
Go to http://www.amesfarm.com/location.php and click on Bee Yards to locate the source of your honey.
Check our latest issue of This is Living Naturally to read more about what makes Ames Farm a unique local and sustainable business. Download a PDF online or pick up a copy in the store. Also watch a mini-documentary about Ames Farm on our homepage. Don’t forget to check back every once in a while through the end of January.
Need a great gift idea? We have some great honey gift packages in our general merchandise department with sample-sized Ames Farm assorted single-source honeys.
Climate change negotiations with world leaders continues this week and our friends at the School of Environment Studies are giving us a first-hand inside scoop through their daily blog www.ses-climate.blogspot.com.
The SES students are staying busy sharing what they’re learning throughout this experience. If it’s not an impromptu conversation with Ministers of the Environment from the Congo during a train commute from the students’ host homes in Landskrona, Sweden it might be a demonstration be it a flash dance or a bed-in.
They’re learning from and connecting with youth in other countries, learning what they are doing for their countries climate issues as well as for the world. The youth voice is strong and present in Copenhagen. There is an area of the conference targeted specifically at youth, which is called the Youth Arcade and is made up of a collection of booths and speakers.
We are continuing to learn from and follow the experiences of the high school students on their blog and we’re also watching the Climate Change Conference Web site.
In pudding, fruit salad or simply eaten alone, this flavorfully sweet fruit has a pear-like texture with a tad bit of spice.
The Fuyu Persimmon has just arrived from California’s trees where its green skin transforms to a shade of orange in synch with the trees own leaves transitioning to the reds and oranges of the fall. The months of October, November and December are the prime time for this organic fruit. It feels a bit firm on the outside with a more crisp sweet almost spicy flesh. As it ages it will soften and become sweeter.
You may use and eat the persimmon just as you would an apple, but Daniel Andersen, a local private chef and Valley Natural Foods’ seafood specialist suggests his Persimmon Tart recipe:
Persimmon Tart
Directions:
Place one layer of filo dough into a greased baking dish and brush it with a thin layer of butter. Top dough with crème fraiche and sprinkle with goat cheese. Slice the persimmons ¼ inch thick and season with salt, sugar, thyme and mint. Layer fruit over the cheese. Place another layer of filo dough over the top and brush with melted butter. Repeat this process to add one more layer.
Place in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the dough is golden and crisp. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.
Crème Fraîche
Ingredients:
Directions:
Combine 2 tablespoons of buttermilk with 1 cup of whipping cream in a glass container. Cover and let it sit at room temperature (about 70ºF) for 8 to 24 hours. Don’t despair if your cream doesn’t thicken after 22 hours; sometimes it happens nearly all at once. When it has thickened, stir well and refrigerate up to 10 days.
Here at Valley Natural Foods we appreciate coffee and the communities that harvest, roast, and sell the delicious beans to us.
We sell sustainable, organic and fair trade coffees. Alakef is one of our favorites, which we use exclusively at the Java Drive and is one of the best gourmet coffees around. Alakef is family owned and based on the north shore.
Stop by the store to buy a cup of the good stuff or you can swing by the Java Drive on your way to work in the morning (opens at 6:30am) and have a taste for yourself. Check out the Latte of the Month: Pumpkin Spice.
You love coffee as much as we do and want to learn a little more about how to brew a good mug? Check out the 20th Annual Calhoun Cofffee Festival at Calhoun Square in Minneapolis. Proceeds benefit Second Harvest Heartland.
What’s tiny and green and flying off our produce shelves?
Kiwi Berrys!
Matt Stiehm from the Valley Natural Foods produce department says they taste like traditional kiwis with a hint of pineapple and honey sweetness.
How do you eat them? Just pop ‘em in your mouth. You won’t be disappointed with this northwestern fall crop.
Our cheese buyer Lily says the sweet flavor of the kiwi berry pairs well with her Clawson White Stilton Mango and Ginger cheese.
Impress the family at Thanksgiving!
Fresh, local cranberries are here and if you’re like me, you don’t exactly know what to do with them. This isn’t exactly the type of berry you hand to the kids in a little baggie to snack on after school. So, what do you do with it?
I found a quick recipe in healthnotes that you can access through our Web site http://www.valleynaturalfoods.com/resources.shtml. Now you can impress the family with fresh and not canned cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving.
Cranberry Sauce
3 cups of cranberries
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of water
Simmer cranberries and water together. While simmering, mash with potato masher. Add sugar; simmer for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Put into container and refrigerate. Makes about 2 cups of sauce.
Learn more about our local Wisconsin Sand Hill Cranberry bogs and find more recipes on http://www.sandhillcranberry.com/
What do you do with fresh cranberries? Share with us!
There’s lots of talk about eating gluten-free this month. We just had our first Holiday Gluten-Free day October 15th (the first of three) and our Oct/Nov newsletter is a special gluten-free edition. But many are still hazy on what it means to eat Gluten-Free.
What is it?
A gluten-free diet eliminates wheat, barley, and rye (and often oats). These grains contain a protein called gluten. For people with Celiac Disease even a small crumb of one of these grains can cause damage to the small intestines, which can lead to immediate discomfort and serious health problems.
Celiac Disease
According to Celiac.org:
Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong, digestive disorder affecting children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed. Even small amounts of gluten in foods can affect those with CD and cause health problems. Damage can occur to the small bowel even when there are no symptoms present.
Is a gluten-free diet healthier for everybody?
Abstaining from gluten can improve the health of many people, but eating a gluten-free diet does not make you healthy. Exercise and eating a balance of foods from all the food groups is still necessary. Reading labels is key to understanding what you are placing in your body.
So what can you eat?
On a gluten-free diet your range of food choices might at first feel minimal, but it’s actually quite large. Our staff nurse Eileen Johnson wrote in the Oct/Nov issue of This is Living Naturally:
"Shop the perimeter of the store to find foods that are easily seen as gluten-free: fresh fruits and vegetables; unprocessed meats; raw nuts; dried beans; and gluten-free grains like rice, quinoa and millet."
There are also many packaged products in our store. Our GF items have a special red shelf tag. We have baking products, breads, crackers, snacks and frozen meals. There are many options and more just keep on coming.
Want to make an appointment with our registered nurse Eileen Johnson? Stop by customer service or call 952-891-1212 to make a free appointment.
To learn more about Celiac Disease, please visit: www.celiac.org
Stop by the store every third Thursday of the month for Gluten-Free sample day.
Equal Exchange wants us to know, that after nearly 25 years, they haven’t sold out. Scott Patterson of Equal Exchange says in “Building a Cooperative Economny Together”
“…the one member, one vote and profit sharing backbone of co-ops protects against greed and promotes ethical entrepreneurialism better than any business model I have seen to date.”
Continuing in their cooperative spirit Equal Exchange, a cooperatively owned business, decided to take on the daunting big-wig-dominated banana industry. In the process their co-op highlights the values and meaning of what it is to be a cooperative business:
“Together, both with international and local farmers, our collective work is one of creating food chains that stand for our values. The beauty of co-ops and these supply chains is that they are transparent; you can get to know something real about the 80 farmers who are growing your bananas. And with shared ownership and decision making, when you as a shopper support cooperatively owned companies on the shelves of your store, you are sharing your power and creating authentic change.”
Patterson goes on to say that we shouldn’t only be proud of labeling standards, but let’s be proud of the business model itself. Our cooperatives should make us stand tall. ,
“I ask for your amazing, continued loyalty to your co-op and to Equal Exchange, and that you join us in holding our collective feet to the fire. Remember, your grocery store has been an innovator and is able to carry the products you want because it is a co-op! As you shop the aisles of your natural foods store and think about your routine purchases, why not keep asking for more companies that are cooperatively owned – and in this way remove the incentive for companies to sell out.”
We love our cooperative business model too and are proud of our co-op members and shoppers.
