Cantaloupe Crisp

INGREDIENTS

3 cups cubed cantaloupe
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 package vanilla cake mix
1/4 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, mix together the cantaloupe, lemon juice, sugar, flour, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla.

Transfer the fruit to a 9-inch square baking dish. Spread the dry cake mix evenly over the top and then drizzle the 1/4 cup of melted butter over the cake mix.

Bake until the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Changes to Fair Trade in the US

As of December 1st, 2011, Fair Trade USA (FTUSA) decided to end its membership with Fairtrade International (FLO) to pursue its own approach rather than continue working within the global system.

FLO has a 20-year history of partnering with small-scale coffee grower cooperatives and working to set fair trade standards internationally. This hard work has resulted in a well-known ethical certification label recognized and respected around the world.

With bananas and other fresh fruits and vegetables, teas, and flowers, FLO works with large-scale farms to push for improvements in working conditions and worker empowerment. However, their approach when dealing with coffee is a little different:

"Recognising that 70 percent of the world’s coffee is produced by smallholders with less than 10 hectares of land, and that around 10 million small-scale coffee farmers depend on coffee as their primary source of income, feedback to date has been that the global standard for coffee should remain fully focused, as originally intended, on delivering market access on Fairtrade terms for smaller-scale farmers. We will continue to explore how we can expand our reach in this regard, focusing on partnership with producer organisations committed to democracy, transparency and empowerment." (Full article here.)

This is what Fair Trade USA has decided to change. According to Equal Exchange, a US-based provider of fair trade products:

"Without input from stakeholders, on January 1, FTUSA abandoned the global Fair Trade system (Fair Trade International, aka FTI) and loosened eligibility rules to allow large coffee, cocoa and sugar plantations to receive Fair Trade certification. That would put these large estates in direct competition with the hundreds of small-farmer co-operatives around the world who co-created the Fair Trade movement and have been the core of Fair Trade for over 25 years." (Full article here.)

Many people are concerned about what it will mean for small farmer cooperatives who have to compete with large plantations who don't need fair trade premiums to be profitable. Many are also concerned about the possible dilution of the meaning of "certified fair trade":

"The concern is that "large companies will use the fair trade seal to do what they call 'fair-wash,' to get the halo effect and perhaps confuse consumers about their overall practices," said Daniel Jaffee, an assistant professor of sociology at Washington State University who has studied the movement." (Full article here.)

Fair Trade USA, meanwhile, is defending its decision by saying that their changes will support fair trade for more people ("Fair Trade for All"). They are seeking to double their impact over the next three years and say:

"The key to adding value and growing impact is innovation. Fair Trade USA is innovating our model in three ways:  
1. Strengthening Farming Communities by investing in cooperatives and partnering with others to provide support services, with a focus on quality and business capacity  
2. Including More Farmers, Farm Workers and Communities in the benefits of Fair Trade
3. Engaging Consumers to increase market demand for Fair Trade Certified products and grow sales and impact"

(More information here.)

One of our suppliers is very committed to fair trade (they are our source for organic, fair trade bananas). When we asked them about this controversy, they had this to say:

"[We are] working with FLO, Fair Trade Federation, Fair Trade Resource Network, Domestic Fair Trade Organization, World Fair Trade Organization, Equal Exchange, North American Fair Trade Stakeholder Council, Fair Trade World and others (we're members of most of these) to find a way out of this mess, and we're hoping for some progress soon.  Ultimately, if we succeed in making some changes to certification, it will still leave Fair Trade USA out there as a rogue certifier, so the product will be in the marketplace, which will have some impact on us.  At this point, the new Mexican mega corporations that have been certified are selling their stuff only through Whole Foods - you can already see it at their stores, but I have no doubt it will be available on the open market.  ... at this point we're not happy selling it as Fair Trade because of the low standards that have been set for these large companies."

This supplier is intending to do a more detailed write-up about the changes to fair trade and the possible impact internationally and in Canada. Once they do that, we will post it here or link to it. In the meantime, we will continue to bring in fair trade products certified by FLO and continue to support small farmer cooperatives.

Fresh from Victoria

We are happy to add fresh, local fruits and vegetables from Saanich Organics to our growing selection of locally sourced food.

Saanich Organics is a community of farmers from small, certified organic farms throughout Greater Victoria who work together.

Robin Tunnicliffe of Feisty Field Organic Farm, Rachel Fisher of Three Oaks Farm, and Heather Stretch of Northbrook Farm are the owners of the business and they work with several other farmers in and around greater Victoria area. These local farmers co-operate and support each other in many ways, and through Saanich Organics they get as much fresh, delicious, healthy, local, certified organic produce as possible on to tables in and around Victoria.

This week, we have green leaf lettuce, long English cucumbers, and orange bell peppers from Saanich. This coming week, we plan to bring in a few different items, and we look forward to enjoying more fresh food grown right here on Vancouver Island throughout the summer!

At Green Earth Organics, we have a continuing commitment to provide you with fresh organic food that comes from local growers and suppliers here on the Island. Stay tuned as we will continue to have more and more locally sourced food as we continue to grow and as the local growing season begins.

Please feel free to provide feedback as to what you might like to see available each week. Your input is important and will help us to provide you with the best possible service. We can be reached by email at info@greenearthorganics.com or by phone at 250-704-0660.

Yours in Organic Living,
Aaron Purser
Owner, Green Earth Organics Victoria

Poor Kale

Ah, poor unappreciated kale! Like many dark leafy greens, its health benefits are fairly well known, but it is often thought to be difficult to prepare or not very tasty. Some do find kale to be a bit bitter or too chewy, but with proper preparation, it can be delicious and makes an easy nutrient-rich addition to a meal.

Kale is a cruciferous vegetable, part of the Brassicaceae family of vegetables, like cauliflower and broccoli. Kale is actually a form of cabbage, more closely related to wild cabbage than to most domesticated forms. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C (one cup has the same amount as an orange), lutein, and some calcium. It doesn't contain oxalic acid, which prevents the body from absorbing calcium, unlike chard and spinach. It also contains sulforaphane, a chemical with anti-cancer properties. This is most accessible when the kale is chopped or minced; boiling will decrease the amount of sulforaphane, but other cooking methods do not result in significant loss. Researchers have identified over 45 different flavonoids in kale, including kaempferol and quercetin, with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Kale is a versatile vegetable, and it has been popular around the world: in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, it is often stir-fried with beef; in the Netherlands, Ireland, and Germany, it is used in traditional dishes that often also use potatoes and sausages; in Portugal, it is part of a traditional soup; in East Africa, it is used in stew; and in Japan, kale juice is a popular dietary supplement. In Scotland, if someone is too ill to eat, that person is "off one's kail".

Kale will keep slightly better than other greens, such as spinach, but its flavour will get stronger as it sits around. To get the longest shelf life out of your kale, place unwashed kale in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable crisper of your refrigerator. It should last up to a week this way. If you prefer to freeze it, wash and dry the kale well, then mince or chop it. Seal in a plastic bag, pressing out as much of the air as possible. Minced, frozen kale can be used just like raw kale since it thaws almost instantly. Some people find that kale tastes sweeter after it has been frozen.

When you are ready to use it, swish the kale in a bowl of cold water to remove any grit and dirt. Change the water a few times for very dirty leaves. Trim or break off any tough stems. If you are using the kale right away, you won't have to dry it, as the residual water will help them wilt as they cook. Some people prefer to cut any thick ribs out of the center of the leaves, but I prefer to just chop those parts up and use them too for texture and to reduce waste. A Green Earth Organics member and I were commiserating about how this wonderful vegetable is often left out when people are choosing their bin contents, so she shared with me her easy preparation method:  

We like to keep it pretty simple and just warm some ghee or EVOO [extra virgin olive oil] in the pan, throw in some garlic for a minute, then add the chopped kale and toss for a few minutes until it softens and greens. Then at the end I add some balsamic vinegar for the last minute or so and it's done. It also works well to add mushrooms. - Taryn in Vancouver.

This sort of keep-it-simple method makes kale easy to use as a side dish for a wide variety of meals and makes it an ideal item to have on hand for quickly assembling a meal. Green Earth Organics does have a few kale recipes on hand, ranging from fairly complex dishes like a chickpea and kale curry with homemade paneer to the very simple and easy like kale chips. You can also incorporate minced kale into recipes you already have, such as pasta sauces, soups, and stews. Add cooked minced kale to wraps and scrambled eggs and raw minced kale to salads and fruit smoothies. Kale can also be used in many collard green recipes.

If you want to develop your own kale recipes, kale goes well with aged hard cheeses, smokey flavours (including smoked cheddar and smoked tofu), corn and polenta, curry, lemon, garlic, onion, vinegar, and hot sauce. Non-vegetarians might want to explore combining it with ham, bacon, or smoked turkey.

If you have another favourite way of getting this healthy green into your diet, please let us know!

Did You Know: Finding Products

"Did You Know" is our series of blog posts about Green Earth Organics: how it works, how you can do more with your account, etc.

There are a variety of ways you can find a product on our website. There's the "search products" field on the right-hand side of the page when you log in or when you go to any page besides our home page. The search results will include anything with the searched words in the name, description, or ingredients, so more specific is usually better. If you search pepper for example, you will get a list of all of the products that have pepper as an ingredient, which is quite the list. Entering ground black pepper or whole black pepper will reduce the list and make it easy to find a package of the spice to add to your bin.

Using the general search feature to find everything we carry by a favourite brand is one of the ways this works best, as it can bring together products that would otherwise be scattered across several categories. Searching "eden", for example, brings up two pages of Eden Organic products that would otherwise be in at least three different categories.

Another way to find things on our website is to browse the categories and subcategories. If you are looking for a can of soup, for example, you could choose the Grocery category and then the Soups & Broths subcategory to see all your options.

Using the subcategories can also come in handy when choosing fruits and vegetables. The Fruits and Vegetables categories are sorted alphabetically, which means that ambrosia apples and gala apples will be quite far apart, and maybe on separate pages. To see all the apples together, just select the Apples subcategory of "Fruits", and there are all the options for the week, side-by-side for easy comparing.

Finally, there is a separate search box for within a category or even a subcategory. For example, if you click on the Beverages category, you can use the search box that shows just above the first items (labelled "Find Item in Beverages:") to find all the beverages that contain the word orange in the name, description, or ingredients. Now you can see all the orange beverages in one place, regardless of subcategory (for example, "Carbonated Beverages" or "Juices"), without non-beverages containing orange coming up too.

If you've searched our website for a favourite organic brand or an organic grocery item you would like to be able to add to your bin and we don't have it, please let us know. We are adding items to the website all the time, and many of our new products come from member requests and recommendations.

Thank you for being a member of Green Earth Organics!

Bulk and Special Orders

For bakers, large families, and people who just like to have lots of food on hand in case of an emergency, bulk buying can be a blessing. We can't stock a lot of large bags of flours and dry beans and similar items as they take up a lot of valuable warehouse shelf space and they might go stale, however, we can order bulk amounts of a lot of non-perishable items.

From Westpoint, we can get bags of many different kinds of dry beans, as well as grains and dried fruit and nuts, often in 2 kg, 5 kg, and 10 kg bags. Some examples of things we can get are dry black beans, dry organic soup mixes,  different kinds of dry lentils, bulgur, corn meal, and hulled millet. They also have some unusual organic flours for those who bake gluten-free, such as white rice flour and quinoa flour.

From other suppliers, we can get 11 kg bags of different flours and oats and similar items. Many of these options are from the local flour mill, Anita's. They provide organic wheat bran, spelt kernels, regular rolled oats, quick cooking oats, and more. Other bulk suppliers have organic barley, quinoa, and farro.

Ordering time for special orders will vary, but we can often give you a good estimate of when something will be ready to be delivered.

If you are interested in getting a price estimate for a bulk price on organic dry goods, please just give us a call at 604-708-2345 or email us at info@greenearthorganics.com. It may take us a while to get size and price options to you, but we will try to get back to you within a business day or two at the most.

On that note, a member is interested in buying bulk quantities of Omega Nutrition Coconut Oil. It is in a 3.18 kg pail, but, unfortunately, the case size is four pails. The member is willing to buy up to three of them, but if you would be interested in the fourth pail, please contact us and I will arrange to special order the case and split it accordingly.

Refreshing Mint Drink

INGREDIENTS

1.5 cups water
1.5 cups demerara sugar
2/3 cups apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup fresh mint

DIRECTIONS 

Bring the water to a boil. Add the sugar, stir to dissolve, and then add the vinegar. Bring to a boil again, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes.

Remove from the heat and add the mint leaves. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. Allow to cool. When cool, transfer to dry bottles along with the mint leaves for storage.

To serve, add water and ice to taste. Garnish with a few fresh mint leaves.

Victoria Email Address Malfunction

Our deepest apologies to all our members and potential members, especially for our new Victoria location: the email address on Victoria's website has been malfunctioning and an unknown number of your correspondences over the last couple of weeks have been lost.

We always respond to emails by the end of the next business day. If you have sent us a question or concern and have not received an answer, we are very sorry for the inconvenience and request that you re-send your email to our temporary email address of victoriagreenearth@gmail.com or call us at 250-704-0660.

Thank you for your interest in Green Earth Organics!

Celery Slaw

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 cup thinly sliced celery
1 carrot, coarsely shredded
4 Tbsp sunflower seeds (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients, then slowly stir in the sour cream. Refrigerate unless serving immediately. Shortly before serving, toss with celery and carrot and sprinkle with sunflower seeds (if using).

Thai Mango Tofu

INGREDIENTS  

Mango sauce:
 3 fresh ripe ataulfo mangos or 2 of a larger type of mango, fruit scooped out (or use canned mango)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1.5 Tbsp tamari
2 Tbsp vegetable broth
Juice of 1/2 lime or 1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 thumb-size piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp turmeric
Zest of 1 lime

Tofu dish:
1 bell pepper, any colour, chopped
3 to 4 Tbsp coconut milk (optional)
2 blocks of extra firm tofu, cubed
1 fresh ripe mango, cut into chunks (optional)
1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh cilantro (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Place all the "mango sauce" ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process well, until more or less smooth. Taste-test the sauce. Add more sugar if you find the sauce too sour, more red pepper flakes if not spicy enough, more broth if not salty enough, and more lime juice if too sweet or salty. Set aside.

In a wok or sauce pan over medium-high heat, add the mango sauce and the bell pepper. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer (medium to low heat). If sauce becomes too thick, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of coconut milk or water. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, or until pepper has softened slightly but still retains some crispness.

Add the tofu cubes and gently stir to cover them with sauce. Add the additional chunks of mango if using. Simmer briefly, just until everything is hot. Serve over jasmine rice, sprinkled with fresh cilantro if desired.

Meet Aaron from Victoria

Yes indeed... Green Earth Organics has expanded to Victoria! The warehouse is secured in a great central location that will enable us to make efficient deliveries to our new customers from all areas of Greater Victoria and Duncan. As we speak, the shelves are being stocked with a wonderful selection of delicious organic groceries ready for delivery to your door on May 8th and weekly thereafter.

As the new Green Earth Victoria owner, I am very excited to be bringing this convenient and affordable service of home delivered, healthy organic products to Victoria and surrounding areas. I am proud to be a part of a progressive and socially responsible movement, supporting local family owned organic farmers and their families.

We encourage everyone to provide feedback and input as we go through our initial start-up phase and as we continue to grow. Green Earth Vancouver has set the bar high when it comes to community involvement, excellent service, and retaining happy customers, and we endeavour to continue this standard here in Victoria.

Yours in Organic Living,
Aaron Purser, owner of Green Earth Organics Victoria

victoria.greenearthorganics.com
250-704-0660