Prepared foods to begin week of June 30 – here’s some teasers

Our prepared foods is scheduled to begin the week of June 30! Chef Bill Klar dropped off a sample of the opening selections and ingredients….

**Mexican Style Chili**
Grass fed ground beef
Beans
onions
peppers red and green
crushed tomatoes
garlic
cumin
oregano
basil
chili powder
oil
coriander
fresh cilantro
chilies

**Italian style meatballs**
Grass fed ground beef
Crushed tomatoes
Garlic
Organic eggs
onions
basil
oregano
thyme
Onions
Garlic
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Basil
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

**Indian chicken curry**
Organic chicken thighs
Onions
Garlic
Carrots
Celery
Mushrooms
Curry powder
Graham Marsala
Oil
Coriander seeds
Cilantro
Cumin
Chilies
Yogurt

**Onion soup with Miso**
Onions
Oil
Garlic
Leeks
Miso
Thyme
Black pepper

**Minestrone with spouted pasta**
Onions
Celery
Garlic
Carrots
Plum tomatoes
Mushrooms, crimini
White beans
Oregano
Basil
Thyme
Sprouted Pasta
Olive oil

**Kale salad**
Organic Kale
Beets
Onions
Garlic
Lemon juice
Cilantro
Mustard
Sesame seeds
Walnuts

**Cobb salad**
Mixed greens
Organic eggs
Pastured bacon bits
Diced tomato
Watercress
Avocado
Diced organic chicken
Crumbled organic cheese
Dressing
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Mustard
Garlic
Worcestershire sauce
Lemon juice

**Roasted garlic hummus **
Garbanzo beans
Garlic
Lemons
Cilantro
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Tahini
Roasted garlic

**Spicy Black bean dip **
Black beans
Tomatoes
Roasted onions
Garlic
Cumin
Basil
Lemon juice
Hot sauce
Cilantro

**Roasted root veggies **
Onions
Garlic
Beets
Turnips
Daikon
Olive oil
Cider vinegar
Thyme
Basil
Soy sauce

Ratatouille
Onions
Garlic
Zucchini
Eggplant
Plum tomatoes
Yellow squash
Basil
Red wine vinegar
Pine nuts

Coming soon – local lamb

Lambactionshot
Check our coolers soon for natural, pasture-raised lamb from our new partners at Sepe Farm of Newtown, CT.
We’ll have a basic selection of cuts on hand, but if anyone is interested in ordering a whole leg we can get it for you — they run about 8-12 lb.  Can get you a whole lamb, too!

Why Your Grandparents Didn’t Need To Diet

Family

Great guidelines here.  Full article.

Pollan’s nine principles of healthy eating:

1. Eat food… Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. Don’t forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim that it was healthier than the traditional food it replaced, turned out to give people heart attacks.

3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number – or that contain high-fructose corn syrup. None of these characteristics are necessarily harmful in and of themselves, but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed.

4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away. What you will find are fresh whole foods picked at the peak of nutritional quality. Precisely the kind of food your great-great-grandmother would have recognized as food.

5. Pay more, eat less. There’s no escaping the fact that better food – measured by taste or nutritional quality (which often correspond) – costs more, because it has been grown or raised less intensively and with more care.

6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves … By eating a plant-based diet, you’ll be consuming far fewer calories, since plant foods (except seeds) are typically less” energy dense” than the other things you might eat.

7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are. Any traditional diet will do: if it weren’t a healthy diet, the people who follow it wouldn’t still be around.

8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden. The culture of the kitchen, as embodied in those enduring traditions we call cuisines, contains more wisdom about diet and health than you are apt to find in any nutrition journal. Plus, the food you grow yourself contributes to your health long before you sit down to eat it.

9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases.

Butter is Back

butter-300x210

High quality fats are finally being more widely recognized for the health benefits they provide. Here’s the NY Times covering the news (which wasn’t news at all to our grandparents!).

From the article:

“That the worm is turning became increasingly evident a couple of weeks ago, when a meta-analysis published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that there’s just no evidence to support the notion that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease. (In fact, there’s some evidence that a lack of saturated fat may be damaging.) “

Meet Chef Bill Klar at our open house this Saturday

We’re excited to announce a new vendor at our open house this Saturday.

From 12-2 pm Chef Bill Klar from Angelo’s on Main of West Hartford will be here sampling some “core plan” dishes, discussing upcoming healthy cooking classes we will be sponsoring with the restaurant, and signing-up people for our upcoming prepared foods/private chef program.

Decoding Supermarket Beef Labels

Beef

For those looking for healthy beef choices it can be confusing shopping at the supermarket.  With beef there are many terms thrown around on the labels, and much of it is misleading so that consumers will believe it’s a more natural product.

Here’s a handy guide to common designations you’ll find on labels.  Food Renegade gives an easy to read summary of it here.

At TFC we only sell 100% grass-fed beef of the highest standards and at lowest available prices through our bulk foods program.  Join the program today!

Free “Live to 100” Workshop, Mon. March 24

Do you want to be healthy decades from now, flying around on your jetpack with your grandkids, or lying in bed under the care of your robot nurse with its cold claws?

Mark your calendars for our free workshop this coming Monday, March 24th at 6:30 – 8:00 pm — “Live to 100”.

Learn the health secrets of the world’s longest living cultures. Discover proven ways to keep your brain young, and slow aging. Look and feel younger without wasting money on miracle formulas!

Email us here to reserve your space or call 860-269-3228.

Now in stock – Magnesium Oil

Now in stock – Magnesium Oil spray from our partners at Ancient Minerals.  Most people are Mg deficient and this is a highly effective, and cost-effective, way to absorb in your body: with an oil you spray on your skin.

Mg is an mineral for has a wide range of essential body functions. As Dr Mercola notes, magnesium is found in more than 300 different enzymes in your body, which are responsible for creation of ATP, the energy molecules of your body; action of your heart muscle; proper formation of bones and teeth, promotion of proper bowel function; relaxation of blood vessels; regulation of blood sugar levels, and much more.

Can also be useful for aches, cramps and spasms, sleeplessness, eczema and more.  Here’s some testimonials at Ancient Minerals.  Some even claim it is beneficial for hair loss.

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Pastured Pork Sausage Arrived Today

Yum!  In our freezer now, heritage breed pastured pork sausage from our partners at Rain Crow Ranch.

No nitrates, MSG or bad stuff.  We’ve got Italians, Brats and Sweets.  Just $6.50 for a 1 lb package of four links!

Here’s more info about their piggies:

Heritage Pork

Why Every Commercial Salad Dressing is a Health Hazard

Avoid Soybean and Canola oils

Good post here from RealFood Forager, reminding us to avoid Omega 6 laden polyunsaturaed industrial vegetable oils, ie oils from soybean, canola, corn, etc.  These can also be found in most processed foods you’ll find on the supermarket aisles.

Healthy oil salad dressings are simple and cheap to make – be sure you know the olive oil is pure – or there are several excellent commercially sold ones, including Bragg’s dressings which are available at our store.

Also this article has a good reminder about ensuring your meats have a proper Omega 3/6 balance, which you will find in 100% grass-fed and not in the grain-fed, never mind the hormones and anti-biotics.

http://realfoodforager.com/why-every-commercial-salad-dressing-is-a-health-hazard-and-a-recipe/

Interesting info about rosemary

Sniffing Rosemary has recently been scientifically proven to improve memory.  But wait, this is not a new idea. In 1601, Shakespeare writes his play, “Hamlet,” and Ophelia remarks, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance: pray you, love, remember.” And then in 1652, English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote, about rosemary: “Helps a weak memory and quickens the senses. The chemical [essential] oil drawn from the leaves and flowers, is a sovereign help…touch the temples and nostrils with two or three drops.”

Read the full article here: http://blogs.naturalnews.com/memory-enhancing-rosemary-i-do-remember-you/