The Season of Growth

Spring is the season of new beginnings in weather, agriculture and self-awareness. Spring invites us to take care of ourselves and our surroundings.

Green Earth Organics is happy to announce that this spring we will focus on giving back to the community, starting with the Covenant House Vancouver. It’s an exciting opportunity to make a difference and help the homeless youth in Vancouver. For the next three weeks for every pack of Fair Trade Blueberries that you purchase we will donate $1.00.

Remember those unwanted pennies that you have at home? Place them inside your bin and we will take them to the Covenant House of Vancouver.

Covenant House Vancouver exists for those young people for whom there is often no one else - young people who either have willingly fled physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse or those who have been forced from their homes. We understand that life changes are challenging and do everything in our power to ensure that young people succeed at whatever plan they have chosen for themselves. As long as genuine effort is demonstrated, so is our commitment.

Thai-Style Yellow Rice

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 to 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup English peas, removed from pods
1 roma tomato or 1 small field tomato, diced
2 cups jasmine rice or basmati rice
4 cups (minus 2 Tbsp) chicken broth or vegetable broth
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 Tbsp of lime juice)
2 Tbsp tamari
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 to 1/3 tsp saffron (optional)
Handful of fresh basil or cilantro, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS

Warm a deep pot over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat. Add the onion, garlic, and pepper flakes/cayenne. Stir-fry for about one minute, until fragrant, then add the red pepper, peas, and tomato. Stir-fry for one more minute.

Add the rice and stir to coat, then pour in the broth. Add the lime juice, tamari, turmeric, and saffron (if using). Stir well.

When the broth begins to bubble, cover tightly with a lid and reduce heat to low. Allow rice to gently simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed. Give the rice a gentle stir, put the lid back on, turn off the stove, and leave the rice to sit on the off, but hot, burner for at least 10 minutes and up to one hour.

Remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. Top with a little fresh basil or cilantro.

Price Increase in Vancouver

It is one of the sad facts of life that prices are always going up. For our dairy suppliers, that means increases in all the usual things involved in a business venture - rent, gas, electricity, labour - plus the cost of organic food and other upkeep for the animals. Our dairy and egg suppliers have increased their prices several times over the last couple of years, but Green Earth Organics Vancouver has just absorbed those increases and just made less money on those items. Unfortunately, those increases by our suppliers are all adding up, and we have to increase our dairy and egg prices a small amount this spring.

Effective starting with March 25th's deliveries, Vancouver's milk and egg prices will be increasing by between 5% and 10%. We have been comparing our prices with those charged by similar services and stores in Vancouver and we will make sure we are still very competitive with their prices.

When comparing our prices with our services, please keep in mind that we only sell organic milk. Avalon does make non-organic milk as well, and it will always be cheaper than organic milk.

If you are interested in saving some money on any of our wonderful organic grocery items that you use on a regular basis, we can always add items to your standing order. Standing orders can be set up for delivery with every bin or every second bin, and they are always 5% off the website price. Just give us a call or email if you have any questions about the standing orders or if you want any help setting one up just right for you.

We also offer Avalon's organic milk in the 2 litre and 4 litre plastic bottles (under the name "Valley Pride") by special order and standing order only. The price on those items will also be increasing a small amount, but they are still cheaper per litre than the 1 litre glass bottles. If you would like more information about this option, or have any other questions or concerns, please contact us at 604-708-2345 or vancouver@greenearthorganics.com.

Thank you for supporting organic food and Green Earth Organics!

Technology for a Healthier Life

If you have a desk job and enjoy television and FaceBook when kicking back after work, you may spend a lot of time sitting still and being tempted, via advertising, with bad food and other poor lifestyle choices. Time can drain away quickly while clicking from one website to another or refreshing Twitter. The damage we can do to ourselves with technology might be obvious, but there are a lot of ways that the same technology can serve our healthy lifestyle goals too.

Smart Phone

When trying to get more exercise, a smart phone app seems to be a good match, since many of us always have our phones with us. I've been seeing "Nexercise" (www.nexercise.com) on my friends' FaceBook feeds, and it seems popular both for its ability to turn exercise into a game with rewards and for its social media sharing capability. There are a lot of other options, including apps that create routines for you and give you instructions for new exercises, ones that turn running into a game (www.zombiesrungame.com, for example), and ones that track your calories burned, etc.

Good sleep may be a less obvious match for the smart phone. Recent studies have shown us how bad smart phones can be for our sleep, from disrupting melatonin production to waking us up to just check our emails one more time, but if you can resist the urge to check your phone, there are some good sleep apps too. As an insomniac, I like white noise generators (simplynoise.com includes white, pink, and brown noise generators, with an optional timer) and sleep trackers. Just keep your phone on plane mode to help you resist the temptation to check your emails.

Computer

In addition to being able to look up health information online, computers can be a part of your healthy lifestyle. Share your goals with friends to increase accountability, get exercise videos online, etc.

For your mental health, consider taking computer breaks, maybe using a website like www.donothingfor2minutes.com, which gives you a nice picture and some calming wave noises with a timer.

And, of course, when you order your food from Green Earth Organics, you bring a lot of healthy organic options into your home and avoid the temptation to pick up junk food while you are shopping.

Television

Though the heyday of the exercise video might be the 1980s, there is still a lot of exercise programs available on TV, including everything from energetic cardio to fun dance to meditative Tai Chi and yoga. They are often on during the day or at other non-prime times, so a PVR might be helpful to be able to do the exercise you want at a time that is most convenient.

Roasted Lemon Cabbage

INGREDIENTS

1 head of green cabbage
2 Tbspextra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Lemon slices, for serving cabbage (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut the head of cabbage into 8 equal wedges, cutting through the core and stem end. Carefully trim the thick core and stem from each wedge and arrange wedges in a single layer on a non-stick cookie sheet.

Whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice, then use a pastry brush to brush the top sides of each cabbage wedge with the mixture. Season generously with sea salt and pepper. Carefully turn the wedges over, then brush the other side with the olive oil/lemon juice mixture and season with more salt and pepper.

Roast cabbage for about 15 minutes, or until the side touching the pan is nicely browned. Turn the wedges and roast for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the cabbage is nicely browned and cooked through. Serve hot, with additional lemon slices to squeeze lemon juice on at the table if desired.

Apple and Carrot Salad with Basil

INGREDIENTS

6 apples
3 carrots
2 cups raisins
1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp molasses
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 pkg basil, cut into strips

DIRECTIONS

There's no need to peel the apples or carrots. Scrub well, core the apples, and shred both the apples and the carrots. In a large salad bowl, mix the apples and carrots with the raisins.

To make the dressing, whisk together yogurt and sour cream in a small mixing bowl. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, molasses, vinegar, and salt and whisk to combine.

Add the dressing to the salad and toss. If possible, let the salad sit for about an hour in the refrigerator. Just before serving, toss in the sliced basil.

Further Weather Updates & A Price Increase

Unfortunately, there has been little good news on the weather front. The consequences of the sudden freezing temperatures in Mexico and California* continue to roll in, with more crops being affected.

Our suppliers are advising us that because of the severity of the crop losses and the timing of the freeze, prices will be affected for at least 6 months, and availability will be impacted for the foreseeable future. As before, this is not a situation that is just affecting us, or even just the organic sector; all produce, both organic and conventional, is going to be up in price and down in selection.

In addition to this sudden produce crisis, all costs continue to increase slightly with inflation. Average gas prices continue to creep up every year, for example. For all of these reasons, Green Earth Organics Vancouver will be increasing all our bin prices by $1 starting with deliveries on February 11th. The new prices will be:

$28 Small Bin
$36 Medium Bin
$47 Large Bin
$36 minimum order on the Custom Bin

We hope that our members will be understanding about this change. This is the first price increase on our bins in more than five years and this small increase will allow us to continue to provide full and delicious bins through this difficult weather situation and for the future.

If you have any questions or concerns about this price change or any other aspect of our service, please call Melissa at 604-708-2345 or email vancouver@greenearthorganics.com. Thank you for being a member of Green Earth Organics!

* For background information, see our previous blog posts: "California is Freezing (and so is the Broccoli)" and "Weather and Food Updates".