Terra Organics Blog» Elliot

Storage and Preparation Tips: Grapefruit, Bacon Avocado, Leeks

Elliot — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:30:04 +0000

Grapefruit: Store at room temperature for a few days if planning to consume within that time frame. Otherwise, store in the fridge.

devilsfood.net

Bacon Avocado: This green-skinned variety darkens only slightly when ripe, so the best way to check for ripeness is to apply gentle pressure to the fruit; if it yields to the gentle pressure, it’s ready to eat.

Leeks: Lightly wrap in plastic wrap, unwashed and untrimmed, to contain the odor and moisture. Store in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator.

Terra Organics Member Spotlight

Elliot — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:45:53 +0000

Terra Organics wants to spotlight YOU!

We’re honored to be able to serve so many fantastic customers. In order to show just how amazing our customers are, we wanted to be able to spotlight some of the exciting things that you do, which is why we’re introducing the Terra Organics Member Spotlight.

We’d like to share info about your business, your projects, your favorite produce, recipes and more to the rest of our membership. But we need your help to make it happen. If you’re interested in being spotlighted on our blog, please fill out this form. Members that are selected to be spotlighted will receive two weeks of free produce!

Membership spotlight form

GMNoooo!: Fight GMOs, Support GMO Labeling

Elliot — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:50:28 +0000

The fight to label food products that have GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) is on THIS WEEK. This Thursday and Friday the state capitol, down in Olympia, is holding hearings that discuss bills that have been introduced to the House and Senate. The more support that is shown, at these hearings specifically, the better chance the bills have of passing. If these bills pass, we can expect products in grocery stores to indicate that they contain GMOs, which is a big win for those of us trying to avoid those dangerous “food” substances. GMO labeling would provide us with a defense against the often sneaky inclusion of these “foods”.

Hearing details

SB 6298 is scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Water & Rural Economic Development at 10:00 AM on Thursday, January 26, 2012.
HB 2637 is scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources at 8:00 AM on Friday, January 27, 2012.

If you take some time out of your morning to be in Olympia and show your support it can go a long, long way in fighting GMOs in our state. This is a tremendous opportunity to make a big impact by just being somewhere.

Other ways to support the bills:

If you can or can’t be there, here are some other/additional ways you can support the bills from organicconsumers.org:

Write your state reps to ask them to cosponsor the bills.
Write your state senators to ask them to cosponsor SB 6298.
Call your state reps to ask them to cosponsor HB 2637.
Call your state senators to ask them to cosponsor SB 6298.
Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund so we can reimburse the travel costs of supporters who couldn’t otherwise attend the hearings.
Learn more and get involved at GMOFreeWashington.com.

The Dangers of GMOs

In addition to our blog post from a while back, organicconsumers.org also has some great notes about GMOs and just how big of a scary impact they have on the food we eat.

10 scary reasons to label GMOs:

Monsanto’s Bt-toxin, in its Bt-producing GMO corn and cotton (used in food in the form of cottonseed oil), was found by Canadian doctors in the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of the umbilical blood of their babies.

The authors of the Canadian study conclude that the women and their babies were exposed to Monsanto’s GMO Bt-toxin through a “normal” non-organic Canadian diet, including non-organic (so-called “natural” and “conventional”) meat, egg, and dairy products from animals fed Bt corn.

Monsanto’s GMO “Bt” corn and cotton plants are engineered to produce a insecticide in every cell of the plant that kills insects by breaking open their stomachs.

Mice fed Monsanto’s Bt corn had elevated levels of immune system substances that are also higher in humans who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, allergies, Lou Gehrig’s disease, autoimmune disease, and colitis.

Young mice in the same study had elevated T-cells, which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

Monsanto’s GMO Bt-toxin has properties of known allergens – it actually fails the World Health Organization’s allergen screening tests.

Monsanto’s GMO Bt-toxin has been found to bind with the small intestines in mice and with intestinal tissue in rhesus monkeys.

In addition to its GMO “Bt” crops which are engineered to produce insecticide, Monsanto also produces GMO “RoundUp Ready” crops, engineered with a bacterial DNA that allows it to survive otherwise deadly doses of its herbicide RoundUp.

In the only human feeding study ever published on GMOs, Monsanto’s GMO “RoundUp Ready” soybeans were found to transfer Monsanto’s “RoundUp Ready” DNA to the bacteria living inside human intestines.

According to Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology, the transfer of Monsanto’s GMO Bt DNA to human digestive bacteria could create a “living pesticide factory” that could be responsible for the “increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders - since 1996 when Bt crops came on the market.”

Show your support at the hearings in Olympia! Contact your state reps and senators! Join us in saying “no!” to GMOs.

Terra Update – Jan 17, 2012

Elliot — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:38:49 +0000

Dan shares some awesome produce from Tahoma Farms.

Storage and Preparation Tips: Red Bell Peppers, Ataulfo Mango, Sunchokes

Elliot — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:36:46 +0000

Red Bell Peppers: Store unwashed and uncut in a plastic bag, in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. Wash before use.

Ataulfo Mango: Store at room temperature for several days to soften until they yield to gentle pressure and the skin wrinkles. Once ripe, you may refrigerate for a few days before using.

Sunchokes: Handle sunchokes with care as they will bruise easily. Store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area away from light, or in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator, wrapped in paper towels to absorb humidity, and sealed in a plastic bag. Sunchokes may be eaten raw or cooked. Before eating or cooking, scrub the tubers thoroughly with a vegetable brush. Peeling can be difficult due to the protuberances and is not necessary.

Terra Supports No Wal-Mart in Tacoma!

Elliot — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:03:23 +0000

As far back as 2007, there have been discussion and speculation about Wal-Mart moving into Tacoma. Last year, the rumors came to fruition with Wal-Mart’s announcement to build a store on the site of the former Elk’s Lodge on Union ave. and South 23rd. This announcement has met major opposition in the thousands by concerned citizens who want to keep the big box store out of Tacoma.

There is a wealth of fantastic and informative information out there about why Wal-Mart in Tacoma (or anywhere for that matter) is a bad thing for people, cities, farms and out agriculture. Here are a few resources worth checking out:

Wal-Mart: The Cost of Low Prices – A comprehensive movie detailing what Wal-Mart does to cities it inhabits (available online)
Is Wal-Mart Good for America – A PBS report on its dangers
The Retail Revolution – A book the investigates the sometimes shady dealings of Wal-Mart

We here at Terra Organics want to present our opposition to Walmart coming to Tacoma. We see Wal-Mart as being bad for eaters and bad for farmers. Here’s our official statement from owner, Dan:

As an owner of a small business and a resident of the City of Tacoma, I want to voice my opposition to Wal-Mart setting up shop in Tacoma. Wal-Mart has an egregious history of treating its workers poorly and destroying competition and independently owned businesses. Their model of selling cheap junk for less – especially highly processed, low-cost, high-caloric and nutrient deficient foods – is bad for our community and for the health of our residents.

To find out more about the fight to keep Wal-Mart out of Tacoma, check out the Tacoma United Against Wal-Mark facebook page and voice your support.

Tacoma cartoonist RR Anderson protest the site of the proposed Wal-Mart

Terra’s Biodegradable Bags

Elliot — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:12:55 +0000

You may have heard that the bags you receive with your Terra Organics box are biodegradable. But what does that mean exactly?

Terra gets our bags from Aurora Packaging and they are in fact biodegradable and 100% recyclable. Aurora uses an additive from ECM Biofilms which allows the bags to break down completely when in contact with other decomposing materials. Our bags break down in compost bins, landfills, or even when buried in the ground. Terra bags can also be recycled along with regular plastic bags too. Further, because our bags aren’t starch based, they won’t degrade due to oxygen, heat, or sunlight. That means you can use your bags over and over for other uses like a compost bin, recycling or unique fashion statements

We’re proud to reduce our environmental impact with these fully Biodegradable bags and hope that you’ll help us be sustainable by composting or recycling your bags.

Bigger, Better Cooler

Elliot — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:12:10 +0000

Part of our awesome new facility is an expanded cooler which holds a ton more produce. Just to give you an idea of how much more produce we can store since the move, here’s a quick graphic. The old cooler is represented in green where as the outlined box represents our new cooler:

Seattle Bans Plastic Bags

Elliot — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:00:38 +0000

Last week Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to ban plastic grocery bags and charge 5 cents for paper bags in grocery stores. Though the ban has not been put in effect yet, the Council has hopes that it will not be repealed.

Terra Organics applauds the actions of the Seattle City Council. Plastic bags are not biodegradable and may take more than 1,000 years to decompose. Granted, in our landfills today, it’s difficult for a lot of materials to decompose, but plastic bags certainly aren’t helping. Further plastic bag pollution is known to be detrimental to marine and avian wildlife.

More links to information about the ban:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/us/seattle-bans-plastic-bags-and-sets-a-5-cent-charge-for-paper.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017051358_plasticbag20m.html

New Colombia Fair Trade Organic Coffee from Bluebeard

Elliot — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:55:53 +0000

Terra Organics is excited to announce that we’ll be adding a new coffee bean from Bluebeard, soon to be available in the webstore. Our new coffee, Colombia Fair Trade Organic is produced by the ANEI Cooperative.

This medium body coffee is sweet and savory and has a smooth floral finish. It makes a nice espresso and tastes great with some bittersweet chocolate, sugar cane hot cocao.