Video: “World’s Best Latte Art”

Pithy and upbeat violin music accompanies this lesson in “latte art” demonstrated by an expert.  Professional barista Luke Shaffer at the 21st Street Coffee and Tea in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania makes this look easy. If you’ve ever tried making lattes into mini-paintings, “easy” it’s not!

For more brilliance, check out 15-year veteran barista Musa’s latte art (Whispers at North Bridge Chicago, Illinois). Hopefully the coffee ORGANIC!

Photo: OrganicLives storefront in Vancouver

Kudos to VanCity for financing new equipment for OrganicLives facility in Richmond! OrganicLives is a Vancouver-based organic food manufacturer and distributor, restaurant, and educational centre. Whenever and wherever possible OrganicLives supports fair trade and sustainable practices.

OrganicLives “has been making a positive impact to the health of our community for two years. OrganicLives has doubled its revenues year over year and is positioned for growth.” [Source: VanCity "Good Money™ an organic food business scale up to meet demand"]

The new investment dollars from VanCity will enable OrganicLives to expand its offerings into retailers such as Whole Foods. 

AND OrganicLives does have lots to offer.  A new OrganicLives Cafe was just opened in December 2011 on Granville (451 Granville Street at W. Hastings ), located near the newly opened Chopra Yoga Center.  AND  an OrganicLives Cooking Series from Preet Marwaha, CEO & Founder of OrganicLives can answer questions such as these: “Why organic? Why sustainable? What is actually nutritious? What is actually fairly traded?” [For course start dates, cost and content, see "Cooking Series: Food 101."] You can also shop online at OrganicLives at the Ultimate Organic Pantry.

Video: David Wolfe Noniland chocolate Farm

If you haven’t yet discovered author, nutritionist AND now organic farmer David Wolfe, then you’re in for a treat! In the video above Wolfe introduces the NoniLand Hawaiian Agricultural Research Center and Bee Sanctuary in Hawaii, the Chocolate Farm portion.

Chocolate or cacao is of course one of the so-called “superfoods” more and more available in organic food stores. These nutrient-rich superfoods pack an energetic punch. For example, a handful of gogi and/or golden berries with a few cacao bits thrown in will keep a belly full AND energy levels up for hours.

The more I read about these superfoods myself, the less I want to eat anything BUT superfoods! Of course David Wolfe has written at length about these special foods. Two books to check out are 1) Superfoods/Food and Medicine of the Future and 2) Eating for Beauty. 

For more information about organic chocolate from Wolfe’s Hawaii reasearch center, visit Sacred Chocolate online.

Photo: artist Terry Border at work

Photos: “Chainsaw Banana” and “Fortune’s Lost”

Here are more creations from ”bent objects” artist Terry Border!  This art is definitely “organic,” whether the food used is or not! Bent and twisted humor is also included. For even more, see “Bent Objects” on The Daily Eater website. Border’s art is also featured in three books available on Amazon.

Video:  “Kirlian (Aura) Photography of raw foods ”

Most of us have clued into ORGANIC being more nutrient-dense than chemically-laced food.  But, what about raw versus cooked?  Has everyone realized how many healthy nutrients are lost by cooking organic food?  

Check out the “auras” of  raw and cooked produce in this video. Clairvoyance is NOT required. Kirlian Photography takes up the slack. (Kirlian photography refers to a form of photogram made with voltage.) Photograms made this way reveal the dynamic energy fields around raw organic food, (and not-so-dynamic fields around cooked or commercial-grade food).

Next time you open your fridge, think about how much energy you’d like to ingest. Raw organic is apparently superior to cooked. [For more about raw organic food, preparation and recipes, see “Raw Food Diet Magazine.”

Photos: Kauai Chololate Farm offerings

Here’s to a chocolate lovers paradise, the island of  Kauai! That’s the “Garden Isle” in the Hawaiian Islands. After what seems like weeks of “dark, windy and wet” in Vancouver, hopping a plane to Hawaii for sun and warm AND a Steelgrass Chocolate Farm Tour sounds like a great idea.

Video: Quick look at Hanalei organic chocolate farm (2 minutes)

“Hawaii is the only state where the chocolate tree grows, and the only place on Kauai where you can experience a live chocolate tree orchard is at Steelgrass Farm, our family’s eight-acre tropical garden specializing in vanilla, bamboo, and theobroma cacao, the chocolate tree. (Tour Photographs) You’re invited to enjoy Chocolate From Branch to Bar, a guided exploration of everything there is to know about how to grow and harvest chocolate fruit, and turn that fruit into your own home-made chocolate.”[Excerpted from Steelgrass Chocolate Farm.]

Yet another delicious excuse to visit the Garden Isle!

Photo: Model Courtney Murphy poses in a Bernard Callebaut-inspired chocolate dress creation by fashion designer Paul Hardy

Here’s a dress that’s good enough to eat! Literally! Organic too! This dress Paul Hardy designed using Bernard Callebaut chocolate. The dress was created for a Paris fashion show and the Bernard Callebaut Chocolate 25th Anniversary Celebration. Would anyone like a bite?

Photo: The Atlantic selection of organic grapes and tomatoes

Apparently reading labels in not enough anymore! Not only are Genetically Engineered foods NOT labelled at all, but foods labelled as “organic” might not be ORGANIC!

“When is USDA ORGANIC not organic?”  That’s  a question a US magazine, The Atlantic, asked recently. The answer, alarmingly, is this: 

“More often than you probably realize. The USDA keeps a National List of inorganic products that can legally go into foods labeled as organic. The casings for those tasty USDA Organic sausages can come from conventionally raised animals that have been fed antibiotics. The hops in your favorite organic beer can be sprayed with all manner of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Strawberries can be labeled as organic even if they had their start in a conventional nursery. According to USDA rules, if 95 percent of a product is made up of organic ingredients, it can be called organic.”

Should we be worried about this 5 percent? Public interest groups like the Cornucopia Institute say “yes” and are “complaining that the National Organic Standards Board  too often weakens regulations in the face of intense lobbying by corporations who are more interested in the higher profits conferred by the word “organic” than in strong and meaningful standards.” [Source: The Atlantic]

Ah, the politics of food![To read FULL ARTICLE, see "How Much of Your Food Labelled as Organic is Actually Organic.] For organic food labelling rules in Canada, visit Canadian Consumer Information Gateway.]

Photo:  Health Freedom Alliance illustration

You can have “commercially produced” eggs or you can have organic, but any egg labelled as “commercial organic” is pure bunk!  “Commercially produced” (or “industrial-scale”) organic eggs come from chickens which are packed into tight spaces with “more fowl than foot room.”  Healthly chickens, these are not! 

Even though so-called “commercial organic” chickens are not fed antibiotics, they all are confined in a breeding ground for disease. That’s why the “farmers” who raise ”commercial organic” chickens and procure the eggs usually wear “space-age, bacteria protecting, white suits when handling them.”

AND, get this! “Due to these unclean conditions, the USDA has mandated that all organic eggs be bathed in cleaning agents and chlorine. And while many companies tout their cleansers to be organic, it is still bleach – not meant to be consumed nor used on consumables!” [Source: Health Freedom Alliance]

[For more about what's in organic (versus industrial or commercial) eggs, see "What's REALLY in Your Eggs?"]  Be sure to check out ”Comments” (link below) for feedback  from TWO separate organic egg producers.

Video: “A GIGGLE with the GOATS/Jingle Bells holiday performance”

Free-run, free-range…free, free, free–and “Jingle all the way”! These goats are definitely feeling their oats! Could there be any doubt those “oats” are all organic? No animal full of hormones or pesticides could be so full of zip and fun!

Enjoy the goats! May all your Holiday CELEBRATIONS be a romp!