fresh and local Tag

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Education, Healthy Updates Newsletter

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN Most of us look forward to traditional comfort foods this special time of year, usually anticipating the pleasurable sights, smells and tastes of our family holidays. What dishes are on your “must serve” holiday list? Does everyone in your family agree or do you stress yourself out trying to satisfy everyone’s favorite food memories? What about potential rising numbers on the bathroom scale during the next few months?  Just thinking about holiday cooking and eating does not have to raise your blood pressure. Holiday feasts and treats can include superfoods, offering more nutrition per calorie without straining your waistline or wallet. Click to read more about the fresh, local and global rainbow of holiday superfoods and spices to consider. These fresh foods offer power-packed energy and strong immunity for happier healthier

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Education

Imagine the earthy jewel tones and delectable tastes of autumn harvest on your dinner plate. Even after our first frosts, nutrient-dense, calorie-sparse root vegetables deliver a bounty of body-warming energy for the months ahead. Many of the super-healthy hearty fall “greens”  such as chard, the kales and cabbages, Brussels sprouts and beet, collard and mustard greens  taste even better when they are kissed by frost. Cooler temperatures stimulate plant sugar production leading to a touch of sweetness. In addition, October is the month to stock up on sweet or tart FRESH & LOCAL apples. Consider building optimal health while supporting local farmers and growers with October’s plentiful produce. For cooking demos and ample samples of “Black Bean Smothered Sweet Potatoes” and “Tangy Cranberry Salsa with Pumpkin Seeds” plus more seasonal recipes and healthy coaching for easy whole-foods meals, sign up for

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Education

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN July gifts us with a healthy abundance of flavorful FRESH & LOCAL produce: the crisp nutrient-packed greens of cilantro, collard greens, cucumbers, kales, lettuces, Napa cabbage, parsley and zucchini; the succulent reds and oranges of beets, berries, carrots, radishes, romaine and melons; and the captivating earthy palette of heirloom tomatoes. Satisfying summer meals and optimum health are not the only benefits of eating a rainbow of FRESH & LOCAL produce. When we buy local, we help our local farm families earn a living, which in turn preserves farmland around us. Buying fresh local food also supports our local economy and saves money through minimizing and eliminating processing, packaging, marketing and transportation costs. Take your taste buds on a lip-smacking tour of these July flavors, recipes and meal ideas. I look forward

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Education, Healthy Updates Newsletter

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN The planting season is complete at Featherstone Farm, located in southeastern Minnesota bluff country near Rushford.  Featherstone farmer/owner Jack Hedin recently blogged that this is the earliest spring in his living memory that has produced such high quality and quantity of his first crops. With Featherstone delivering FRESH & LOCAL produce to Valley Natural Foods, expect red and green lettuces the first part of June, including butter, romaine and red oak leaf lettuces.  Discover more of what's local at the co-op

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Education

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN Can you believe that April has arrived? Earth is warming up and preparing to collaborate with us in growing delicious edibles here in Minnesota. New shades of green are emerging day by day. We ponder when everything will be fully green and our first garden sprouts will pop up from moist soil. Regardless of when spring will be here in its full glory, be sure to notice our sprouts and other shades of healthy green at Valley Natural Foods, thanks to FRESH & LOCAL growers in Wisconsin. In World War II, Dr. Clive McKay, Nutrition Professor at Cornell University, sparked considerable interest in sprouts by announcing, "Wanted! A vegetable that will grow in any climate, will rival meat in nutritive value, will mature in three to five days, may be planted any

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Education, Healthy Updates Newsletter

Nature and local producers collaborate to bring us fresh succulent green and red gifts this month. Even after we have been gifted with a moisturizing blanket of pure white snow, local producers still deliver FRESH & LOCAL, including lush deep green upland cress, crisp bright green and white bok choy, crinkly red bib lettuce and juicy rich red vine-on tomatoes.Look closer at the bunches of upland cress (the hydroponic version of native watercress and also called winter cress) in the produce department and you’ll notice long white roots have grown in water rather than soil. Hydroponics is the official name and it’s a splendid way for us to be gifted with fresh local produce through our winter. Michele Keller, owner of LaBore Farms of Faribault, Minnesota, has been growing chemical-free hydroponic greens since 2004. Her co-op and restaurant customers are

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Education, Healthy Updates Newsletter

Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach Visualize bringing the jewel tones and earthy tastes of autumn to your dinner table. Beware: eating a cornucopia of deep reds, oranges, yellows and greens can lead to radiant optimum health. The USDA currently recommends eating at least four cups of red and orange vegetables per week and 1 ½ cups of dark green veggies for an average adult.The good news is that you most likely can’t eat too much FRESH & LOCAL. And your wallet and your waistline will breathe a sign of relief.To invite more diversity, energy and health into your life, explore the whole colorama of vegetable and fruits delivered fresh each week in October from local Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers: Orange, green & yellow squashes and pie pumpkins: Acorns and Spaghetti squashes offer a sweet nutty flavor, while the Buttercups, Hubbards,

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Education, Healthy Updates Newsletter

Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen CoachAs September arrives on our doorsteps, we notice a change in the air and in what’s FRESH & LOCAL at Valley Natural Foods. We may still have a few fleeting days to savor our last bites of fresh cucumber, sweet corn and watermelon. Our supplies of ripe red local tomatoes and aromatic basil are winding down, to be upstaged by the arrival of all that thrives in cooler weather, including the nutrient-rich Brassica oleracea family of luscious greens, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi.All cousins to wild cabbage native to the wind-swept limestone sea cliffs of coastal England and Europe, these hardy Brassica veggies love our autumnal weather and offer the highest-level of disease-fighting nutrients per serving of anything FRESH & LOCAL, not to mention naturally low in calories, fat and sodium.

13750 Co Rd 11, Burnsville, MN 55337

Call us during store hours at: 952-891-1212

Valley Natural Foods Co-op works in partnership with the South Metro community to support health and well-being through education and expertise in local, sustainable food and wellness services.

Store Hours:

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. daily

Coffee & Juice Bar In-Store Hours 8:00 a.m. –7:00 p.m. daily

Coffee & Juice Bar Drive-Thru Window 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. daily

Holiday Hours

OPEN on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27 – 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

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