We have several exciting and delicious ways that you can support the Whole Planet Foundation this month! Come join us for a special Giving Grill (March 12, 11-3) and Pig Pickin’ (March 26, 11-3) where you can enjoy a tasty meal amongst friends and help empower people worldwide. You can also easily make a contribution when you checkout in the store. If you donate just $1, you get an entry for a gift basket valued at $75. With a $5 donation to the Foundation, you can enter to win a Wii or a Char-Broill gas grill! 

The Whole Planet Foundation was created from the desire for Whole Foods Market to give something back to the global community. Microcredit loans are extended in communities where we source product for our stores, empowering the recipients and their families and in turn strengthening the community as a whole. Every dollar that is raised for the Foundation goes directly to funding loans, giving each and every dollar profound potential. Learn more about the Whole Planet Foundation here (www.wholeplanetfoundation.org) and check out the amazing photos and stories from the field.

We are also happy to be partners with the Interfaith Food Shuttle to help bring fresh and nutritious foods to those who may not have access to it. For the past two summers, we have been a drop-off site for the Plant a Row for the Hungry program. In the tradition of neighbors sharing their garden’s bumper crop, people can bring in their extra cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers (and more!) and this home grown goodness is shared with others.

We are proud to have our very own Community Garden at our store to contribute to the Interfaith Food Shuttle. We have carved a broad garden oasis among the urban setting in front of our store in which we have successfully grown our own bumper crop of tomatoes, chard, lettuce, corn, cooking herbs, and more. Our Community Garden also serves as a simple model and learning tool in sustainable gardening, complete with rain barrels and organic gardening methods. Frequently, there are visitors in our garden admiring the seasonal offerings and hopefully bringing a little inspiration home with their groceries for how they can Plant a Row for the Hungry, too.

Interested in learning more about community gardens? Join us on March 5^th from 8:30am to 1:00pm at Dig-In at the Marbles Childrens Museum in Raleigh. Participation is free. http://www.advocatesforhealthinaction.org/news/dig-community-gardening

To make a delicious Tortilla Soup, pull all the meat that you can off the chicken and shred with a fork. Heat one 28oz. can 365 Everyday Value organic diced tomatoes in a pot and crush with a potato masher or fork. Add ½ cup of your favorite salsa, 4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock, and a pinch of sea salt and pepper. Add your shredded chicken and a handful of chopped cilantro. Let simmer on medium low heat for 20 minutes. To serve, break a few tortilla chips into the bottom of a bowl and cover with soup. You can garnish with a great variety of toppings including cheddar cheese, diced avocado, sour cream or greek yogurt, more chopped cilantro, or a few chopped mixed olives from the olive bar.

To make a quick Mediterranean Chicken Salad, remove all the meat from the chicken and dice. Add a 5oz bag of chopped fresh spinach (our 365 Everyday Value spinach is only $1.99!), a 6oz tub of crumbled feta, some local cherry or grape tomatoes (cut in half), a few artichoke hearts and chopped mixed olives from the olive bar, a generous sprinkling of oregano, and a quick drizzle of olive oil. Serve on toasted ciabatta bread.

To make a quick Barbeque Chicken Pizza, start by pulling off one side of the breast meat and dicing into small chunks. Pick up one of our premade crusts (near the frozen pizzas) and top with barbeque sauce, the diced chicken, sliced red onions (make it even quicker by picking these up off the salad bar), mozzarella cheese, and a sprinkling of smoked gouda cheese. If you feel like cooking up a couple slices of bacon, it is fantastic crumbled up on top of this pizza. My favorite addition to the BBB Chicken Pizza is pineapple- fresh or canned is delicious!  If you’re really serious about not heating up the house, try a grilled pizza outside instead of turning on the oven.

 When you are done with your delicious chicken, you can always store what is left in a plastic bag in the freezer. As soon as the autumn arrives (in just a few short months) and we feel that tinge of cooler weather, we’ll put it in a pot of water to simmer with garlic and a few carrots. Let it cook for hours until all the flavor and remaining meat comes right off and creates a delicious broth that is a perfect base for a fall soup. Until then, keep it cool!

Busile's pea shoots and corn!

If you’ve ever grown a summer garden, you know that sometimes you can end up with more than you need! How much yellow squash or zucchini can one family eat? In the tradition of sharing a bumper crop with your neighbors, we have partnered up with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle again this year to be a collection spot for the Plant A Row for the Hungry (PAR) program. This national program works to connect urban gardeners with those who are hungry in their communities. PAR has partners all across our area who have planted extra in their gardens to ensure a bumper crop, but someone with just a few extra tomatoes could just as easily become a part of this great program. Just bring your home grown extras in on Thursday or Friday and leave it in the designated bin in the Produce Department (near the front doors). Whether you bring vegetables, fruit, herbs, or flowers, take pride in the fact that you are personally working to reduce hunger in our area.
 
In case you haven’t noticed our Community Garden in the back of our parking lot, you need to check it out! Busile’s corn is tall, our sunflowers bright, and the whole garden is a frequent stopping point for enchanting (and pollinating) butterflies and dragonflies, too. Our swiss chard is growing vibrantly, despite the heat, and our tomato plants are bursting with big green tomatoes that are soaking up this hot July sun. We currently have 4 families involved in our garden and their plots are looking great.  What could make this garden even more beautiful? How about the fact that everything we grow is a contribution to the PAR program? Everything that we grow (and our member families are encouraged to share their harvest) in our Community Garden is sent along with the other donations to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to help nourish someone who needs it.  We have also partnered with Cary’s Pocket Community Garden and Penny Road Elementary PTA Community Garden to support their gardening efforts, and also to serve as a Plant A Row drop off for their extra produce.

Admittedly, I am borrowing our cheese buyer, Cole’s reference to cheese-rock-stardom, `to describe Herve Mons, but only because she is correct.  Plus, she said she would ask him for an autograph given the chance.  Having groupies is what elevates regular cheesemaker to rock star cheesemaker, in case you were wondering.  So who is this Herve Mons and why should you join his fan club? 

Mons is a family business created 30 years ago by Rolande and Hubert Mons.  Today Hubert’s two sons, Herve and Laurent, run the business.  The Mons family relocated from Auvergne to Roanne to sell their cheese to local markets.  Soon they were buying cheese from producers all over France.  It became apparent that these cheeses needed to be properly cared for so Herve set out to learn the art of aging cheeses or affinage.  To support his education the Mons family built caves in the hillside of the small village where they lived, St Haon le Chatel, for Herve to practice and perfect affinage.  The caves in St. Haon le Chatel are still being used by the Mons family and that is how one becomes a cheese rock star.

Today Herve Mons is an acclaimed affineur in France who has been awarded with the prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France. The Meilleir Ouvrier is a craftsmen competition held every four years with awards given to the best craftsmen competing in each field. It covers everything from chocolate making, pâtisserie, and in Mons’ case affinage, to specific building trades, including window making and cabinetry.

Mons focuses on sustaining the art and history of France’s most famous cheeses that, with the changing times, have come close to extinction. Because of their passion, excellence and commitment to artisanal cheesemaking, Mons is responsible for helping sustain hundreds of dairy farmers and small artisanal cheese makers throughout France.  If you’d like to hear what Herve has to say in his own words (and see his righteous cowboy hat) check out our producer profile. We feel lucky to be a part of this and we hope you stop by on Friday to share in all the Herve Mons’ awesome-ness that we call cheese!