Whole Foods CEO: Healthy food is affordable necessity.

Time flies when you're running one of the world's most profitable grocery chains. Whole Foods, the organic and natural foods supermarket trendsetter, turns 30 on Sept. 20.

It has been widely imitated in style and concept. Its pricing has garnered it the pop culture nickname "Whole Paycheck." The relatively tiny chain, which has 300 units in 38 states, has had a cultural impact more akin to that of Starbucks, which has more than 11,000 U.S. locations.

Yet, last year, in one of its most challenging years ever, Whole Foods (WFMI) still posted sales of $8 billion. It is about to roll out three much-watched health and wellness programs at stores in the next year. USA TODAY marketing reporter Bruce Horovitz talks with co-founder, cosmic thinker and conservative hippie John Mackey, 57, about his company's past three decades and the next. The interview is edited for length and clarity.

Read the article here.

Fresh Eggs from Lancaster County

Ever expanding egg recall is scary, right? Rest assured we use
only Sauder's Eggs from Lancaster County, PA.

Learn more about Sauder's Family Egg Farm here.
See pictures of the hens here.

Edible Jersey's What's Fresh

Here's a list from the good folks over at Edible Jersey of what's local and in season:
cucumbers, dill, eggplant, kale, leeks, mint, nectarines, parsley, peaches, peppers, spinach, squash, sweet corn, Swiss chard, tomatoes, white potatoes. arugula, basil, beets, cabbage, cantaloupe & melons, cilantro and collard greens.
Source: NJ Department of Agriculture

Know of something they've missed? Give us a shout.

Get your groove on

Great tips for finding lost love in the kitchen.

Five Ways to Get Your Cooking Groove Back: Kim O'Donnel

1. "Roast a head of garlic: Trim off the top, slather it with olive oil and wrap in foil for 30ish minutes in a 400-degree oven. The perfume alone will inspire; the buttery oozing cloves will make you do a jig and yes, kiss someone."

2. "Go to your nearest farmers market. Stand by a stall selling basil and/or peaches and/or berries. Close your eyes. Inhale. Open your eyes, purchase and feast your senses. Spontaneous dancing in the streets may ensue."

3. "Engage in mindful cooking with the simplest of dishes, a meditation of sorts. Boil a pot of rice. Listen and smell while it bubbles up to the lid. Scoop into a bowl. Sprinkle with soy sauce and sesame seeds. Slice a cucumber and listen to the clunk of the knife on the cutting board. Taste slowly."

4. "Make a grilled cheese sandwich. Is there anything more comforting and soul stirring, or personal? Make one for yourself, and one for someone you like, or maybe even love. Eat under the light of the moon and with abandon."

5. "Grow something to eat: a pot of rosemary, a cherry tomato plant, a hanging basket of lettuce. It may not seem like much, but watching that plant grow will fill your heart and mind, and have you firing up skillets in no time."

NY Mags 101 Best Sandwiches for 2010.

Read the article here.
As a Fatty alum, proud of the guys at Fatty Que.

NJ Slow Food Farm to Table Dinner

Plaid Piper Farm, Farm-to-table dinner
July 18, 2010, 4-7pm, Branchville, NJ
ORDER TICKETS NOW!

Why attend this amazing dinner? The funds raised help Slow Food NNJ programs. The fundraising will provide grants for a minimum of five NJ schools to help develop school vegetable gardens. Along with the grants, our goal is also to provide workshops for teachers on how to integrate the school vegetable garden with NJ curriculum.

Slow Food NNJ is currently working with Maple Avenue School in Newark on the "Growing Minds" Program and recently on a special event called, "Eat, Grow, & Go"

Click here for more info.

Local Spinach

We just got some super fresh local spinach from
the good folks over at Totten Family Farm in Long Valley, New Jersey. Yesterday, our spinach salad with grilled chicken, tomatoes, and blue cheese dressing was a hit. Tonight it is featured in our wild caught grilled Alaskan salmon Blue Plate. We're very happy to be able to serve you this beautiful and delicious spinach. Keep your eye out for the next item featured from Totten Family Farm here at Fresh.

More info on Totten Family Farm:
"Totten Family Farm is a preserved 80 acre Certified Naturally Grown farm in Long Valley, NJ. The 2010 season will be our first season managing the family farm. Collectively we, Kyle LaFerriere and Kristen Bowlin, have been working on sustainable farms for over 12 years. As stewards of the land it is our objective to efficiently raise high quality, healthy food in a sustainable manner. We are driven by a deep rooted need to utilize the skills and preserve the traditions that have sustained humankind for so long. We consider food raised in a pure, ecological, and humane manner to be a basic right that is essential to good health."

Wanna visit the farm:
Totten Family Farm
442 Naughright Rd.
Long Valley, NJ, 07853

Totten Family Farm Online:
Home Page
Facebook
Blog

Local Strawberries

Avi & I picked amazing strawberries today in Hillsborough at Sunhaven farms. Only 17 miles away, they've got super ripe strawberries grown all naturally. We picked early this afternoon, half are working on the stove top now becoming jam - other half becoming strawberry shortcake.

As you may have already heard, this year's strawberry crop has matured quickly due to the weather meaning there are lots of beautiful berries just waiting to be purchased at your local farm, farmer's market or farm stand.

Sunhaven Farms
1018 Orchard Dr.
Hillsborough, NJ
908-369-6504

NJ Strawberries

According to reports by Edible Jersey, strawberry season may be shortened this year due to the early summer heat. BUT in the meantime, the berries are ripe and ready to be eaten. The closest pick your own farm we found to us here in the 07920 is Sunhaven Farms in Hillsborough. We gave them a ring and they're open today, saturday and sunday starting at 8am. Get yours while the gettings good.

Sunhaven Farms
1018 Orchard Dr., Hillsborough

For more pick your own farms in Somerset Country visit;
http://www.jerseyfresh.nj.gov/cgi-bin/agriculture/jerseyfresh/search.pl?type=pyo&county1=somerset

Go ahead, rub your eyes and pinch yourself - the mcrib locator will still be here....
Vans for the road trip to MA (the closest sighting)
are filling up fast - book your spot now!
http://kleincast.com/maps/mcrib.php

How green is your restaurant?

From http://www.mycentraljersey.com
CENTRAL JERSEY —
As many restaurants in New Jersey embrace a culinary philosophy of cooking with locally grown/ locally produced, organic ingredients, some are taking the extra step of becoming certified by the Green Restaurant Association. The national organization, based in Boston since 1990, helps food businesses become more environmentally sustainable … and helps the public identify restaurants that are committed to sustainability, not only on their menus, but in their complete operations.

Recently, Fresh, a Basking Ridge restaurant that opened at the end of 2008 with a casual dining menu and positioned itself as a healthy alternative to fast food, became the latest of only seven restaurants in the state to be certified by the GRA, and the first in Somerset County.

"The physical restaurant is an extension of our food philosophy, and certification allows us to communicate our level of commitment to customers,'' says Fresh co-owner Erik Wolfe. "We have customers that choose us because of our approach to both the food and what we stand for … We didn't want to scare away the foodies, but we also wanted to let our environmentally conscious customers know that we walk the talk.''

Walking the talk means, to the GRA, that each restaurant it certifies has set up recycling programs, posted educational signage on site, connected with local farm sources and acquired the necessary equipment to carry out sustainable operations, among other criteria.

To be certified, a restaurant must accumulate at least 100 points, which are awarded for such checklist items as water efficiency, waste reduction, having sustainable furnishings and building materials, serving sustainable food, energy use and reducing chemicals and pollution. Each year of certification requires re-education and re-evaluation.

Fresh completely renovated a former Dairy Queen before it moved in, installing sustainably raised and harvest bamboo flooring and recycled quartz countertops, painting the walls with formaldehyde-free paint and decorating with farmhouse-style shutters reclaimed from the historic Mohonk Mountain House in the Catskills. Its coffee mugs and even its pens are made of recycled materials.

The menu, featuring natural spins on such popular dishes as cheeseburgers, pulled pork and grilled cheese sandwiches, Cobb salad, chicken salad and French fries, is adjusted for seasonal availability of local farmers' products, because that's "what it means to operate a green restaurant,'' Wolfe says.

(read more here)

Earth Day

At Fresh. we celebrate Earth Day every day. This Thursday join us as we join the good folks at Bloomingdale's of Bridgewater as they go green. They'll be unveiling their new Earth Friendly initiatives for 2010 and we'll be there serving Fresh. fare.

Come and join us. Unless you have school. Or work. Or you're somewhere else and have a really super excellent reason why you can't come see us. Otherwise, we'll see you there.

Spring/Summer Blue Plates

Edible New Jersey

Fresh. in the Spring issue of edible Jersey magazine!

Check out the article "How Green Is My Restaurant?" featuring the Green Restaurant Association and Fresh. for recently becoming a certified Green Restaurant.

http://www.ediblecommunities.com/jersey/

Fried Chicken???

We hoped to keep it secret longer but recent ipad news
forced our hand...We ARE currently recipe testing our
very own secret fried chicken recipe.

Are the mayan legends of the recipe's mythical origin true?
Depends on who you believe.

Buzz Aldrin claims he brought it from space but lost it shooting craps. Some say it's what Robert Johnson went looking for at the crossroads. Still others claim Peter Frampton nicked it from the Bee Gees while filming Sgt. Pepper's...
Hard to know. Either way, their loss is your gain.

Fresh. fried chicken. Coming to a picnic basket near you this Spring.

"...These sandwiches are a culinary marriage of French technique, Chinese ingredients, and Vietnamese ingenuity; the remnants of failed colonialism and influence on Vietnam and its proud people. "

Check out their comprehensive listing of Banh Mi locations
throughout the 5 Boroughs.

NY Magazine's Where to Eat in '10

The essential survey of really good food in New York right now.

Click here to read the full NY Magazine article.

Sweet Potato Latkes

Came across a mexican inspired latke on Chowhound.
Click on the picture below to be magically transported to the recipe.



Looking for other great Hanukkah recipes not featured on a Manischewitz box? More chowhound.com recipes with updated versions of your favorite classics, click here.

Fresh. holiday menu

What's black and white and has delicious food all over it?
If you answered the Fresh holiday menu you probably have esp.

Fresh. Holiday Menu

Technically still two weeks till winter & enough already with cold weather. We're dreaming of warmer climes, remembering Hali'imaile General Store, perched high atop Maui in paniolo country.

If you too find yourself wishing yourself somewhere equatorial, reading Bev Gannon's Hali'Male menu will actually physically make you warmer and probably in general give you the ability to run faster, jump higher & possibly give you x-ray vision (actual results vary).

Hali'imaile General Store
900 Hali’imaile Road
Hali’imaile, HI 96768
Phone: 808.572.2666
http://www.bevgannonrestaurants.com/haliimaile/index.html