The Spiralizer!

If anyone has followed my tweets (@masonarnold) you probably know that I just finished a cleanse (the Love Cleanse by Kim Love...whose birthday is actually Feb 14th, no lie!). While on this cleanse we spent a lot of time at the Whole Foods raw bar. We had several days of a very restricted, raw diet. We graze on our share of foliage at home, but we hadn't ventured far into raw main dishes (aside from salad) or dehydrated stuff. Our favorite dish at WF was the Pumpkinseed pesto over Zucchini pasta. Zucchini pasta rocked! We saw them make it and instantly fell in love with the device.

We started dreaming of all the glorious dishes we could make with it, so that night we ordered one at www.rawguru.com. (Buy the Spiralizer here). They're not paying me, but they should. Mylie graciously prepped some veggies for me to obliterate with this awesome tool. I'm a pretty good prep cook for her, though in the kitchen I'm one of those employees that you have to tell what to do constantly. And at any moment of inactivity I just might disappear into another room to email or make a call. So she keeps me busy. First up was carrots and then kohlrabi and beets (all from Greenling, of course). You can spiralize just about anything! Mylie nixed my tomato idea, though.

It creates this small core in the middle and you end up with a disk at the end. I think it's to keep it from flying off the spiralizer, but I'm not totally sure. I knew Mylie would get a kick out of em, so I lined up the little towel rods on the counter after each spiralled masterpiece. She loved them so much they became garnishment for our salad and I gotta say, it worked. The most festive salad I'd ever had resulted. I felt like putting on some Kool & The Gang. Tomorrow we'll venture into the world of veggie pasta.

Twitterific

Ok, so I finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and have already learned more in a day than I usually do in a week. I'm really digging all the awesome links people post. And of course it makes me want to share cool links I find. Anyways, you can follow me @masonarnold, but the most important feed to follow is @greenling_com. We're trying to figure out if we created @greenling and just never finished setting it up or if someone else took it...I'll let you know.

Voted Best of Austin AGAIN!

Best Local Food Company!
Austin Chronicle Reader's Poll


Thanks to everyone who voted for us! 2nd year in a row. We are so honored with this award again. The last company to win this award was Whole Foods....well, Mr. Mackey, maybe we should talk. I got some ideas on how you can support local producers better.

Fairy-tale living

Can you imagine a world where everywhere you go people smile at you? And not fake smiles but genuine smiles?

That's the life for whoever's behind the wheel of the bananamobile. It's truly amazing. And with so many people smiling at you, you can't help but smile back (unless you're sick, tired, and achy...then, and only then, I've learned you can stay solemn in the face of so many smiles).

And you don't just get smiles, you get all sorts of interaction. People honk and wave....point, laugh (with us, not at us), and take pictures. Several times I've walked out to the bananamobile from some store and there are people gathered around it taking a group picture under the 5' banana.

Kids go crazy for it. They chase after it like it's an ice-cream truck or something. It can be a little awkward...."Sorry kids, you can't actually eat the banana and I don't happen to have any..." I find myself hoping the light turns green before they catch up to me so I don't have to let them down.

So, if you ever see someone driving down the road in a prius with a 5' banana on top and a huge smile on their face, now you know the real reason why.

Greenling in the New York Times June 5th

Check out this article highlighting Greenling and several other Organic delivery services:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/fashion/05cyber.html?scp=1&sq=greenling&st=nyt

The only constant is change

I became very depressed last week when Brooke, our Vegetable Vixen, came into my office and told me she was moving back to Lubbock. It broke my heart. We love her so much here. She said it has been the best job she's ever had, but Zac (We call him Daniel), her husband, was not enjoying his job and all of their family was back in Lubbock and a few other reasons that just led them to believe it was best. It took me a couple of days to forgive her and I choose to believe she will come back some day.

So the whole week I was depressed until I received a note from a vendor that we had been trying to work into our offering, Dishalicious. Elizabeth Winslow said she was interested in combining resources with Greenling and joining the team. We had a great lunch at Austin Java on Sunday to talk about the position and the two companies. I'm so excited to have her coming on board. I think she's going to help take Greenling to the next level and help us help our customers use their newfound freshness and organic goodies. So, a sad day leads to the beginning of a new era.

More Articles

Article about a peer-reviewed study on kids and pesticide levels in their saliva and urine. Kids who ate conventional foods had unhealthy levels of pesticides in both, kids who ate organic foods had none. Obvious for most of us, but there are a lot of people who are still on the fence about the benefits of Organics. please read if you have any doubt:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/349263_pesticide30.html

Great article on the link between antibiotic resistant bacteria and Honey Bee colony collapse disorder:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=magazine%3E

Here's a great article about Greenling from Tribeza magazine:
http://www.tribeza.com/?q=pd/articledetail&nid=2320

More Proof

I can't wait for organic pudding so I can start saying "The proof is in the pudding". What does that mean anyways?
Here's some more proof for ya that organics is more nutritious:
http://green.msn.com/articles/article.aspx?aid=295&GT1=10725
It might be the same study as the EU one....honestly, I wanted to post it, but don't have time right now to read the whole thing.

Meeting with Kirk Watson

Senator Watson carried the Organic Advisory Board bill for me in the Senate Natural Resources Committee. After we successfully passed the bill, a couple of months ago we sat down to talk about the future. He is excited to continue working for the Organic and Sustainability movement and we are working on a strategic plan for future legislation. He is really a great guy and doesn't fit the mold at all of a politician. I asked him how often he gets frustrated with the political process - "Every day!" He says at least once a week he really hates it. I really admire him sticking it out. I'm not sure I could have that kind of patience.....but you never know until you try.

Google Alerts

I have set up google alerts to send me any new info published to the web for certain key words. I of course have my name set up and I also have alerts for several company-related topics - "organic food" "organic delivery" "greenling" and "terminator technology." The last one I follow primarily because I think it's just so scary. Anyways, I learn some very interesting things reading all the new articles on these topics. One hilarious website informed us that there's going to be a movie out next year with some little green men called Greenlings. Here's that link - http://tinyurl.com/247m3g
Luckily we have trademark on "Greenling" so I don't have to worry about a movie studio coming after me.....also being in completely different industries helps. Another interesting link is a fairly new website - www.wewantorganicfood.com. Seems to have some good tips and articles on organics.

New research studies out

The list keeps piling up. Just a few studies can be refuted as being interpreted wrong or biased, but as more and more research piles up showing pesticides as being dangerous, organics as having more nutrition, etc. it will get harder and harder to ignore or dismiss. Check out the latest wave of studies here:
Breaking News!
New Studies Broaden Scientific Support for Five Dimensions of the Organic Benefit

I. Linkage Established Between Pesticides and Autism

For years epidemiologists have seen hints of a link between pesticide exposure and autism. As of July 30, 2007, these days are over. Scientists working for the California Department of Health Services have found that pregnant women living near fields sprayed with the common insecticides dicofol and endosulfan were six-times more likely to give birth to children with "Autism Spectrum Disorders" (ASD) than women living many miles from treated fields.

Six-times higher risk - it is very rare for such a large and statistically significant difference to be found in a study of this kind. Plus, the authors report that the closer a mother lived to treated fields, and/or the more pounds of pesticides applied, the greater the risk.

These two insecticides are the last widely used organochlorines - the family of insecticides including DDT, chlordane, aldrin, and toxaphene, among others. Both are known endocrine disruptors, they are persistent in the environment, and bioaccumulate up food chains. Residues of these insecticides, in particular endosulfan, are common in conventional fruits and vegetables, especially imports. This study should compel the EPA to finally take decisive action to end exposures to these two insecticides.

The full study appeared in the online version of Environmental Health Perspectives and is available free of charge.

II. Organic Milk and Meat Dramatically Enhances the Nutritional Quality of Mom's Breast Milk

Mothers consuming mostly organic milk and meat products were found to have about 50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk. This Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is responsible for most of the health benefits of CLAs in milk and meat. The authors of this European study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in June 2007 report that the greater reliance of organic beef and dairy farmers on pasture and forage grasses increases the levels of CLAs in milk and beef, and in turn in the breast milk of women eating organic animal products.

Details on the study are on the Center's website.

III. Organic Farming Practices Improve Water Quality in Minnesota

A team of University of Minnesota scientists studied the impact of organic and sustainable agricultural practices over three years on subsurface drainage and water quality in southwestern Minnesota. Their focus was on corn-soybean farms.

They found that organic and sustainable systems reduced the volume of subsurface drainage water discharges by 41 percent – a major benefit for the farmer, especially in dry years when lack of soil moisture cuts back yields. Organic and sustainable systems also reduced the loss of nitrate nitrogen by about 60 percent, allowing farmers to reduce fertilization rates by nearly half without sacrificing yields in most years. The improved soil quality on the organic/sustainable plots, coupled with more diverse land use patterns, were credited by the team with improving the efficiency of nutrient uptake and water infiltration and use, especially in average to wet years.

The full text of the University of Minnesota study is available free of charge.

IV. Organically Grown Melons Deliver More Vitamin C and Polyphenols

During the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Science, a team from Colorado State University reported encouraging results from a two-year comparison of organic and conventional melon production systems. The team highlighted the impact of crop genetics on total antioxidant activity, which varied over ten-fold across varieties. Crop genotype accounted for 65 percent of this variation, with production system accounting for most of the rest. Organic management was found to increase both vitamin C and polyphenol.

The team's work is ongoing, and has expanded to include some key Colorado vegetable crops.

V. Pesticide Exposures Increase Risk of Gestational Diabetes

The Agricultural Health Study, underway for over a decade, has produced valuable data on the impacts of pesticides on human health. In an important March 2007 paper in "Diabetes Care," a team of government scientists found that pregnant women exposed to pesticides occupationally (i.e., spraying, mixing pesticides) had more than double the risk of developing gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy). Four herbicides, including two in the phenoxy herbicide class that also includes 2,4-D (see the item on pesticide use and biotech crops below), plus three insecticides were found to be associated with elevated risk of gestational diabetes.

Additional information on this study is on the Center's website.

San Antonio Expansion

Got to meet some great guys in SA today, Dean McCall and Miguel Olivo. They strongly suggested I pick blogging back up. Thanks, guys, I think I will (I'm guessing they both have google alerts on their names and will find this). So, we're planning on opening up parts of San Antonio to receive our yummy organic goodies starting some time in October. Fairly certain that part of this launch will be a give-away of a week-long vacation for 2 at an amazing eco-resort on the beach of Mexico. Stay Tuned!