Fresh Abundance Weekly News - August 29, 2009

Fresh Abundance - Bringing Local Food to Local People

Boxes
Jacque's Blog
PEACH Blog - For the latest Fresh Abundance & Peach news Including recent farm movies.

PEACH on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Community Roots Market this Sunday
Come get your bike ready for back to school with a free Bike Tune ups by Pedals2people from 10-2

Farm To Fork - October 3 from 5-9
What a crazy week. Between harvesting at the p.e.a.c.h. farm, grant writing, looking at land and seeking sponsors for Farm to Fork, our annual dinner and auction I am plum worn out. Speaking of Farm to Fork, be sure and mark your calendar for October 3 from 5-9. We will have outstanding entertainment with The Big Red Barn and fire dance troop that will perform. We will have a silent auction and a raffle with wonderful local prizes. This is a family friendly event with a dinner prepared with amazing locally grown foods.

100 mile diet challenge
Another thing that is taking up my attention is the 100 mile diet challenge http://www.spokanefoodblog.com/2009/08/19/7vs7-localvore-100-mile-challenge-round-1/ Starting Monday August 31 I will only be consuming foods and beverages that are from within a 100 mile radius of Spokane. You can follow my progress hour by hour on Jacque's blog http://freshabundance.com/freshblog/ Anyone out there have some homemade beer, mead or wine made with ALL LOCAL ingredients-yup, even the hops must be from within 100 miles. I figure the hardest things will be no coffee/beer or salt.

Rx Café Let food be thy medicine
Rx Café Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food-Hippocrates So the skinny on our gluten free kitchen is that we have formulated a basic menu of gluten free breakfast, lunch and dinner items, which you will be able to order and eat or take out. We are learning to use our equipment and should start pumping out hot delicious foods made with local ingredients during the month of September. Currently you can get espresso made with organic milk, fresh made cashew milk, local milk, or soymilk. We also have Green Smoothies and fresh made salsa.

Green Smoothies
Speaking of Green Smoothies, if you don't know yet they are my newest favorite healthy craze. The FA Team has been swilling these delightful and delicious green drinks by the gallons and we can tell you from our experience that they are addicting. They cause you to lose weight, your hair and nails to grow fast, they zip up your energy level and they give you an all around since of well-being. You can buy a 16oz size for $4.99 at our Rx Café or you can come to a class and learn how to make your own at home.

Green Smoothie class schedule---45 minute class Cost pre-register $10 (nonrefundable) or $15 at the door

• Sunday August 30th at 1PM
• Tuesday September 8th at 6PM
• Thursday September 24th at 6PM

p.e.a.c.h. farm
I'm off to harvest more food at the p.e.a.c.h. farm. See you at the market and don't forget to bring your bicycle.

Brightspirit

Fresh Abundance Weekly News - August 22, 2009

Fresh Abundance - Bringing Local Food to Local People

Boxes
Jacque's Blog
PEACH Blog - For the latest Fresh Abundance & Peach news Including recent farm movies.

PEACH on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Green Smoothies And A Healthier Immune System
I can't believe we are heading for September already. I am rushing around buying school supplies and it is hard to believe it will be cold and flu season soon. Now is the time to work on your health to be ready to fight off bad winter buggies. I think the best way we protect our families from the flu is to boost our immune system with good nutrition. I have recently discovered Green Smoothies and now believe this is one of the best ways to flood the body with nutrition. Whether you make these green drinks at home or buy them ready made at Fresh Abundance this is an amazingly easy way to get several servings of fresh vegetables fast. I have also experienced a profound side effect from drinking the green smoothies I have lost weight. I have been the same weight since I hit my mid 40's and assumed it would not budge. Wow, I don't quite get it but the green smoothie must be why because it is the only new daily habit I have added to my usual healthy eating.

Green Smoothies include spinach, kale, chard, lettuce, and other leafy greens, very ripe fruit, and purified water blended in a Vitamix. The taste is fabulous; every kid we have tested it on has smiled and asked for more. I think everyone should have a cup of Green Smoothie every morning.

Join the GREEN SMOOTHIE REVOLUTION & Learn to Make Green Smoothies
Class schedule-45 minute class
Sunday August 30th at 1PM
Tuesday September 8th at 6PM
Thursday September 24th at 6PM

Cost pre-register $10 (nonrefundable) or $15 at the door
Classes are brought to you by p.e.a.c.h. www.peachlocal.com

The Rx Cafe is gluten free and now open at 7 AM 7 days a week to serve you.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"
-Hippocrates

-Green Smoothies 16 oz $4.99--These are always ready to grab n go
-Espresso made with organic Maya Earth Coffee, Organic milk, local milk, raw milk or fresh cashew milk made in our gf kitchen.

Maya Earth Coffee
Maya Earth Coffee is grown by Mayan farmers who practice traditional farming techniques that have been passed down through generations. These farmers actively practice composting, terracing, natural pest control, and soil and water conservation. They also utilize other native technologies to grow and manage their coffee. In addition to coffee, they cultivate traditional foods such as corn, beans, herbs, and other native crops. Many still utilize the agricultural calendar, Tzolkin, which helps to preserve their cultural roots as they strive to obtain economic self-sufficiency.

Local Salsa On The Way
This next week we will be developing our own fresh salsa made with local tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and love. We will soon have a lunch menu featuring locally grown and produced ingredients.

Community Roots Market - Pedals2People Bike Tune-ups August 30
Community Roots Market at 2015 N Division every Sunday from 11-4. Mark your calendar for Sunday August 30 for bike tune-ups by Pedals2People. Come make a donation and get your bike ready for back to school pedaling.

10-20 Acres Of Farmland Needed Soon For p.e.a.c.h. Farm School
We are aggressively looking for 10-20 acres of farmland to buy for the p.e.a.c.h. Farm School if you know of a good piece of land let me know!

The 5-Day Local Food Challenge
One last thing check out this new local food blog and join me on the 5-day local food challenge. All food consumed must be raised within a 100 mile radius. Dates of the challenge are August 31-September 4, 2009. http://www.spokanefoodblog.com

I'm off to the Fresh Abundance Gluten Free kitchen to try out some new recipes.
Till next week, eat, drink and be merry locally!
Brightspirit

RX Café Now Open - Using p.e.a.c.h. Farm School produce

p.e.a.c.h. Farm School August 10, 2009

p.e.a.c.h. Farm School is to purchase first farm land of 10 acres.

p.e.a.c.h. Farm School Needs For Next Year - 2010

Fresh Abundance Weekly News - August 15th, 2009

Fresh Abundance - Bringing Local Food to Local People

Boxes
Jacque's Blog
PEACH Blog - For the latest Fresh Abundance & Peach news Including recent farm movies.

PEACH on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

All Good Stuff
OK I'm up to no good again. I wrote yet another crazy long weekly news. BUT it's all good stuff, what am I to do? Read on!

RX Café
RX Café our gluten free, espresso, green smoothie, juice bar, raw food extravaganza is coming to life. Hold on FA members and friends because we are taking you on a wild ride of green smoothies, raw dinners and edible parts yet unknown to Spokane. Not to worry, there will be plenty of healthy cooked foods too. We have named it the RX Café because we believe local healthy food is the solution to 90% of the US health problems.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"
-Hippocrates

Over the next three months we will be unrolling a plethora of palate pleasing, cell nurturing, mouth watering, essential nutrient based prepared foods. We currently have Green Smoothies. What is a Green Smoothie you ask? A Green Smoothie is a blended combination of organic greens, organic very ripe fruit and clean filtered water. The eviscerated mixture of these live foods is easily digested because the particles of green matter are tiny. Green smoothies are so YUMMY, even kids will be lining up for this brain stimulating, flu fighting concoction. You can buy it at Fresh Abundance for only $4.99 for a 16 oz cup or you can attend a class on making smoothies.

DO THE GREEN SMOOTHIE thing - Class At Fresh Abundance - Register Now - Tuesday September 8th
Tuesday September 8th at the Fresh Abundance kitchen and learn how to DO THE GREEN SMOOTHIE thing yourself at home! Register ahead of time and pay only $10 or show up last minute for $15 at the door. You too can be healthy during what is shaping up to be the worst flu season on record! Time to beef up your immune system and get in the habit of washing your hands a lot.

The Best Maya Earth Coffee At RX Café
Also in the RX Café we have taken the best coffee by Maya Earth Coffee to a new level. You thought you knew coffee, you thought you loved coffee; well we challenge you to do the Fresh Abundance COFFEE dance. We have spent hours tasting coffee and have picked the best espresso coffee. And this coffee comes straight from the Comal Cooperative in Guatemala.

p.e.a.c.h. Farm School Is Looking For 10 Acres Of Farmland
p.e.a.c.h. is looking for 10 acres of farmland. Help us find a permanent home for the p.e.a.c.h. Farm School. The land needs to be zoned Rural Traditional, have rights to water for irrigation, good soil and hopefully be on a STA bus line.

Our farm model encompasses a sustainable Permaculture farm with cows, both milk and beef, chickens for eggs and meat, produce, geothermal green house, aquaculture and vermaculture. We will make cheese and other value added products on the farm. We will be using best practices and teaching methods that build soil and strengthen the environment. This will be a closed loop system where all the farm practices work in a symbiotic relationship. We want the farm to become a vital part of the surrounding Urban area therefore our first choice for land will be as close to an urban center as we can get. Can you imagine a farm stand where you can stop on your way home from work and grab fresh veggies, milk & cheese? We can do this! If you know of land that fits this description please let us know. If this excites you please give a tax-deductible donation toward the land.

Community Roots Market - Every Sunday 11-4
Remember Community Roots Market is every Sunday from 11-4 where you can get gluten free fresh baked goods, along with produce, goat meat and more!

Till next week, LAND HO!
Brightspirit

p.e.a.c.h. Class 03, Part 1 of 3 - Gardening 101 - Cuttings, Clonings And Root Separations

p.e.a.c.h. Class 03, Part 2 of 3 - Gardening 101 - Cuttings, Clonings And Root Separations

p.e.a.c.h. Class 03, Part 3 of 3 - Gardening 101 - Cuttings, Clonings And Root Separations

p.e.a.c.h. Class 04 - Gardening 101 - Questions And Answers

Fresh Abundance Weekly News - August 7th, 2009

Fresh Abundance - Bringing Local Food to Local People
Boxes
Jacque's Blog
PEACH Blog - For the latest Fresh Abundance & Peach news Including recent farm movies.

PEACH on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube


Good, Bad, Ugly & FANTASTIC

Valley Store Closed - Farm Continues
This week has been full of the good, the bad, the ugly and the fantastic. Where to start, I always think it is better to get the bad and ugly out of the way so here goes. Your support is showing as our store sales have been consistently going up (this is not the bad part). This led us to decide that we needed to drastically improve the Valley store. So we put together a plan that would include expensive expansion of cold and frozen units, expanding the inventory and adding beer and wine. To do this we needed various permits. As we perused the permits and got shuffled around through various government departments we landed in a conversation with the planning department and this is were the wheels fell off. Even though there has been a food/grocery store at this location for over 50 years it is not zoned for this use. Therefore we could not get the necessary permits to allow us to expand the store and finally make it profitable. So the sad state of affairs is that we have closed the Valley store.

What about the farm you ask with sadness. Well have no fear we will continue to finish out the farm season and with the owner permission, continue to farm there in the future.

p.e.a.c.h. Farm School Land To Be Purchased Before Winter
Ok now onto the fantastic. This change of events and the success of our season have lead us to believe we are ready to set up the farm school. For this we need land that is owned by p.e.a.c.h. So we have launched the Farm School fundraising campaign to raise at least $50K for the down payment on farmable land. To kick it off we have a commitment from an avid supporter for $10,000 so we are 1/5th of the way there!!! We are looking for farmable land with good soil, with or without buildings, near a bus line, with a good source of water. We need to pick the land before the snow flies.

LOCAL Feast Dinner - October 3, 6-9pm - Mark Your Calendars
To raise money for the Farm School and other p.e.a..c.h. projects we will be holding our first annual LOCAL Feast Dinner and action on October 3rd from 6-9 so mark your calendar so you can join us for an evening of great fun. We are looking for items for our silent auction if you can offer a service certificate or item for the auction contact us at peach@freshabundance.com

Fresh Abundance Deli (Gluten Free) Opens Tuesday August 11th
More good news, our gluten free deli just got the stamp of approval from the health department. We can now serve coffee, juice, green smoothies, soup, sandwiches, baked goods, pizza, etc. We are creating our menu and ordering supplies. We will be serving juice and coffee by Tuesday August 11th.

p.e.a.c.h. Green Drinks 5-9 Tuesday August 11th (21 and over) - Fresh Abundance Warehouse
Speaking of Tuesday August 11th p.e.a.c.h. will be hosting Spokane Green Drinks from 5-9 this Tuesday. This will be in the Market warehouse behind Fresh Abundance located at 2015 N. Division. Fresh Abundance is providing snacks and you can purchase your favorite wine, beer or cider from Fresh Abundance and join us out back for Green conversation while you drink your green drink (this is 21 and over).

Ok so are you still with me, we still have a ways to go. I told you this was an intense week. I realize that reading all this is hard but imagine my life, I lived through all this so please keep reading.

p.e.a.c.h At Magic Lantern Friday August 7
Today Friday August 7th we will be set up at the Magic Lantern Theater at 25 W Main St downtown for the movie Food Inc. Fresh Abundance/p.e.a.c.h. will have an informational table set up from 5:30 to 9 with snacks and a display of foods from many of our local farms.

Community Roots Market - Every Sunday 11-4 - Special Auguest 30 Live Musice, Bike Tune Ups, Children's Activities, Lectures
Community Roots Market is every Sunday 11-4 located at Fresh Abundance 2015 N Division St. We will be having a bigger then usual market on August 30 with live music, free bike tune ups by pedals2people, children's activities and lectures.

New Neighborhood Farmers Market - North Of Francis
At  p.e.a.c.h. we also work to enable other projects that increase our local food supply. I have been working with Catherine Donnelly to encourage her and other far north side backyard growers to launch a neighborhood farmers market of their own. They are excited to invite you to the newest market in Spokane. The market is every Wednesday from 5 - 8 p.m. at "The Big Red Barn" 7316 North Smith Street, Spokane North of Francis St.

Hey look you made it to the end you deserve a local treat. You could have blueberries, melon, peaches, and the list goes on and on. I love this time of year.

Till next week eat LOCAL,
Brightspirit

Fresh Abundance Weekly News - August 1, 2009

Fresh Abundance - Bringing Local Food to Local People
Boxes
Jacque's Blog
PEACH Blog - For the latest Fresh Abundance & Peach news Including recent farm movies.

PEACH on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube


Summer's Fresh Local Produce Is Here
Hope your sitting somewhere cool drinking something fun. The upside of all this heat is that the tomatoes and peppers love the heat. The local farmers have been bringing in load after load of the best fresh produce, and I have fallen into my summer time habit of lightly sauteing summer squash, onion and garlic, sometimes adding potatoes and tomatoes to the mix. I love habits of each season. I look forward to making my favorite peach pie from the local peaches now available. Oh yum, the joy of summer for all the senses.

Pickling cucumbers can be hard to find but we have them on the p.e.a.c.h. farm. So if you are looking for pickling cucumbers to make your favorite homemade pickles then place your order with us and we will pick them to your specifications. To order, either send an email to fresh@freshabundance.com. Large $2.00 per pound or $90.00 for a 50 pound box Medium $2.75 per pound or $125.00 for a 50 pound box Tiny ones contact us for a price

We also have 39 kinds of tomatoes! Be sure to visit our p.e.a.c.h. farm stand at Community Roots Market each Sunday to get your favorite tomato or to try something new.

Fresh Abundance hours have changed for both of our locations:
Division Fresh Abundance open DAILY -- 7 AM to 9 PM
Valley Fresh Abundance open M, T, TH, F, S, S --- Noon to 7 PM  (Closed
Wednesdays)

Valley Store
Also, we are trying to figure out what we are doing with the Valley store as we are trying to get the Spokane County Planning department to allow us to have a regular full grocery at the farm. Currently our zoning does not allow for a full grocery store so we will see where this goes over the next few weeks. This means the shopping experience at the Valley is a bit wonky right now while we decide how to use this location. We got the valley location for the farmland, which is working out great. We feel the store either needs to get much better or become a farm store only. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

As always, thanks for your LOCAL support.

I'm off to run through the sprinkler!
brightspirit