What's New in Natural Foods

June 2008

Hello Everyone

June is such a big month! This month I'm launching a great new look for my website, celebrating Dinner with Jennette's one-year anniversary and beginning a new business partnership. To start, I hope you'll take a minute to get acquainted with the newly re-designed Jennette Turner web site and discover how much easier it is to navigate. Next, June 1st marks the one-year anniversary of Dinner with Jennette--Meal Plans for Naturally Healthy Eating. I am thrilled to see that a wonderful community centered around the idea of naturally wholesome, healthy food has developed from my work over the past year. Always grateful for your feedback and suggestions, I plan to continue its evolution and enhance Dinner with Jennette by adding a discussion forum for subscribers soon. Finally, I'm so excited to become more directly associated with one of the best natural food co-ops in the United States -- The Wedge in Minneapolis. The Wedge has been setting the standard for co-ops for over 30 years, and now my Dinner with Jennette service is available directly through the store... more on that below. All that, and it's the beginning of summer!

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Strawberries Aren't Just for Looking Pretty

It's strawberry season, so take advantage of these luscious and beautiful berries while they're at their peak. Strawberries are a goldmine of antioxidants and phytochemicals that protect our cells from damage, help to slow the aging process, and prevent diseases including heart disease and cancer. These special nutrients are only available in fresh or frozen berries, so make sure you're not just eating them in jam! See below for meal ideas incorporating these June delights.

Because strawberries are quite perishable, it's best to keep them refrigerated, and not wash them until right before eating. I recommend getting organic strawberries, because conventional ones are consistently found to have high levels of pesticide residue. For more information about the pesticides used on conventional strawberries please see the Organic Consumers Association.

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Musings on Grocery Bills and Gardens

I was talking with a friend the other day about how much food prices have gone up, and she said "it makes me think about what can I grow myself." That got me thinking, too. I live in the city and don't have much room for a big garden, but I thought about what I could grow. So I went to the Farmer's Market and got some tomato plants and fresh herbs to put in pots in the yard. Baby steps. Fresh herbs at my fingertips and, weather permitting, perfect, off-the-vine tomatoes in a couple of months.

In his book The Gift of Good Land (North Point Press; ©1981), Wendell Berry wrote an essay, "The Reactor and the Garden," in which he considers the act of gardening a way to protest dependence on fossil fuels and foster environmental stewardship. As we finally start to realize the real costs of the globalized food economy -- to our health, our land and our wallets -- it makes sense for us to become (in whatever ways we can, small or large) producers, and not just consumers of food. So get out your gardening gloves and grow some food!

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Welcome, Wedge Customers!

As I mentioned in my introduction above, customers at Minneapolis' Wedge Co-op can learn about and subscribe to Dinner with Jennette -- Meal Plans for Naturally Healthy Eating while they're shopping at the Wedge. I'm really excited about this convenient partnership because 1) I can reach out to customers who are pre-disposed to wholesome food and 2) Wedge shoppers will benefit by having creative cooking ideas for all those ingredients they buy. As a natural foods educator, I find that many people want to eat more healthfully, they just don't know how to put it all together and prepare it. My intention in building Dinner with Jennette was to solve that problem by making it easy to eat nutritiously. I'm looking forward to helping Wedge customers do just that. Welcome aboard!

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June Meals Are Full of Variety

As you might guess, I'm featuring strawberries this month in Dinner with Jennette: "Almond Crusted Tilapia with Strawberry-Lemon Coulis," "Fresh Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Pine Nuts" and "Mini Strawberry Custard Cakes" for the "Bonus" treat. Enjoy them while they're here!

Other meals this month will have your palate traveling around the world: to Argentina for "Steak with Chimichurri Sauce," to Sweden for "Salmon Chowder with Fresh Dill," to China for "Sichuan Chicken and Vegetables," to Italy for "Rosa di Parma Pork Tenderloin," and to the Caribbean for "Tropical Rice and Chicken."

There are lots of other creative summer meals you can enjoy this month, so if you want the convenience and fun of eating well, subscribe to Dinner with Jennette and you'll be on your way.

It's always great to hear from you, and learn what you're interested in. And please use the forwarding option to send this newsletter to anyone who might be interested in healthful food.

Thank you,
Jennette