November 09

Food, Inc. is now out on DVD!  Make it a great gift item with a copy of Pam Walker's, Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas - book available at Eden's. 

The Senate is getting ready to look at and vote on S. 510 Please see FARFA's latest newsletter and be sure to forward to your out of state friends and family so they can contact their Senator's, too!  This is a national issue - and really, a HUGE part of our health care problem. Good food - local and clean - needs to be MORE accessible to our citizens, not less. By imposing many of the proposed restrictions in this legislation, small farms are being lumped together with huge corporate farms and buried in paper work, fees and restrictions aimed at controlling food safety issues that plague BIG warehouse distribution and corporate processing facilities - not small, family farms and producers. 

Sept. 09

2nd Annual BARN AID CONCERT & DINNER AT EDEN

w/Chef David Gilbert and friends

Eden's is proud to host and welcome friends of the farm to a charity dinner (limited tickets by reservation) followed by a free movie screening of FRESH! at Dusk and concert open to the public. (Musical Talent TBA)

Edible Dallas & Fort Worth presents Special Guest Speaker Pamela Walker - author of 

Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas   In Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas, author Pamela Walker and photographer Linda Walsh portray eleven farming and ranching families who are part of this food revival in Texas.

Keep watching for ticket information and details as they unfold!

HR2749 - Sign the petition against it....

Sometimes it is what is NOT in the news that can sneak up on us and affect us.  There are several things to see/read and potentially act on at the below links....I'll try to keep you up to date, but there is so much going on, it is hard to keep up!

Metro Farms has a good radio show each week - listen here

FARFA is always trying to battle for small farms and ranchers on the steps of Washington DC and Austin. 

This is an Eater's Battle. If you eat, if your friends eat, if their children eat, they all need to be able to choose whether or not they want to eat or avoid FrankenFoods. The right to choose clean, unadulterated food is a basic human right since unlabeled, but weaponized and adulterated food makes us sick against our will and without our knowledge.

The hazards of genetically modified organisms, food or fibers, drug-producing plants or animals, soil bacteria, trees, cotton, etc., are suppressed but we are all experiencing them, thanks to the fact that 80% of the American Diet contains these dangerous ingredients and GMO cotton has been implicated in emerging new diseases and deaths among consumers and farmers alike.

Please spread the word and tell everyone you know about this critical campaign: take back clean food from the Biotech companies and their government cronies!

Send this link, http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25920, to everyone on your list and ask them to get involved.

Thanks for your action!

Dr. Rima
 

Lots of things are in the news - Eden's CSA made the cover of the Mesquite NeighborsGo

M&M's and other various yummies in your conventional beef's diet due to high corn prices (see video on Market Day Page)

Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free? A federal judge has ordered Tyson Foods to withdraw advertisements claiming its chickens are “raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans.”

Two competitors said the ads were untrue because Tyson injects it eggs with antibiotics and used antibiotic molecules in its feed.  (read more)

The Truth About Splenda Isn’t Sweet

Another example of this kind of deception is the marketing campaign of the artificial sweetener Splenda.  They would dearly like you to believe that their product is natural because it is “made from sugar”. Well this simply is another “half truth” meant to convince you of a falsehood, and the Sugar Association has sued them for this marketing strategy. (read more)

7-Up Isn’t Picked Fresh Off a Tree

Meanwhile, 7-Up manufacturer Cadbury Schwepps has begun an ad campaign that promotes the soda as "100 percent natural" and pictures cans of 7-Up being picked from fruit trees.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest has threatened to sue Cadbury Schwepps if the all-natural claim is not dropped, calling it a misleading untruth.  (read more)

NutraIngredients-USA is a great source of up to date news.  For some encouraging info on the developments for STEVIA coming to the US as a sweetener, not just a "supplement" read the story below. 

Why all the fuss about Stevia?

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Kim Pierce has a great handle on local foods.  Being a local merchant that sells organic gardening supplies, you might wonder why I am so obsessed with the local food movement, too.  Well, I think it all ties in together.   Whereas I would like to help you start a small vegetable garden to grow amongst your flower beds, I know you can't grow everything you eat. So, in an effort to keep you healthy, to keep local farmers in business and to support the overall spirit of organics by keeping it as green as we can - I have started to bring the local farmers in for Market Days.  Here is a great article by Kim that gives you some other ideas on how to Keep it Green in the kitchen....Eating Green Article by Kim Pierce

15 seconds of fame...

Local entrepreneur Marie Tedei was interviewed for Channel 8’s Daybreak program earlier today, Nov. 13th, bringing the city of Balch Springs and organics into the limelight once again.  Marie hosts an organic all-farmers’ market twice a month at her garden shop on Pioneer Road here in town bringing together local ranchers and producers of natural, fresh meats, poultry, value added items and organic produce. 

 “I am doing whatever I can to bring the healthiest and safest foods available to the people of Balch Springs and surrounding communities.”  Tedei says.  “Many people don’t realize how many pesticides are on the foods they consume or the potential dangers they can pose, especially in younger children who are still developing.”  Processed foods are crammed full of bio-engineered corn and preservatives, sodium and sugars, none of which are good for anyone. 

 “By promoting local and organic foods, we not only support our neighboring farmers and ranchers, but we know where our food comes from – eliminating the imported factor as well as serving our families and our selves the freshest and most nutritious food around.”  Tedei says.  By bringing it to Balch Springs, she fills the gap of organic food availability for the southeast corner of Dallas County.  Plans are underway to break ground for a community garden so those who want to grow their own vegetables have a supervised plot of ground on which to do so.  It will give the community another place to congregate and share information and skills for organic gardening, as well as promote healthy eating and menu planning, cooking and other life skills through classes planned for next year.         

Go on line, stop by or call the garden shop to pick up a list of available grass fed meats, pastured, all natural chicken and organically baked breads, pies and pastas for the next market day.  Produce is available seasonally. 

HOT OFF THE NET

Take a look at this article from Dr. Weil's website.  There are some foods that may not be so prone to pesticides.  Of course, if you can go local/organic, that is always the safest bet, but in the event one of these items is on your list but unavailable organically, it is a bit comforting to know we may not glow in the dark after eating them....

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/TIP02559

AUGUST 14th

We are in the news!  Check it out! http://eats.beloblog.com/archives/2007/08/edens_market_day_and_porgo.html#more

And we were on page 3 of Wednesday's Tastes Section in the DMN, too.  Thanks, Kim Pierce! 

For those of you into keeping up with farmers' issues, TOFGA has a great bunch of stories, too many to post here, but go to their home page here...