| Sunday, September 26th Presented by the | |
What's Happening at Farm FestFun for Kids! Local Food! Chili Cook-off! Great Entertainment! Also, join us for these fun, informative presentations: Canning and Preserving Everything you need to know about Community Supported Agriculture Food Journalism and and Social Networking Gardening from a Chef's Perspective
| Admission Admission to Farm Fest is available at the pre-sale prices until September 25th. |
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.
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."
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. 
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)
