We are slowly expanding our herb and spice bulk selection. Today we added Green Cardamon Pods, Raw Carob Powder, Asafoetida Powder (Hing Powder), Ras El Hanout Spice Blend (a essential Moroccan spice) Spanish Paprika powder and Black Pepper powder (we only carried the black peppercorns – as well as the white ones) to our excellent offer.

These spices and ingredients complement our extensive offering of culinary ingredients. I do not believe you will find any other place in Edmonton and possible in Western Canada that offers such a wide assortment of bulk herbs, spices and cooking/baking ingredients – many of which are certified organic.

Many items we can’t get at the moment in a certified Organic version but being bulk certainly helps address many other environmentally negatives that regular over packaged herbs and spices cause.

Learn how to make dehydrated crackers, breads, burgers, vegetables, fruits and fruit leathers plus lots of useful dehydrator tips.  Finished food samples will be available for tasting.

Location & Sponsor: Earth’s General Store, 9605 - 82 Avenue

Presenter: Margaret Marean from Raw Vegan Edmonton

When: Sunday, September 16^th at 6:30 p.m. – at Earth’s

Cost: $25 to cover printing and samples.  Pre-register at Earth's General Store (cash only)

Pre-register: You must pre-register and pre-pay in CASH at Earth’s General Store by September 14th, 2012 (only 30 spots). This workshop has sold out each time it has been held so claim your spot if you are interested.

- Posted July 5th, 2012

Earth’s General Store is pleased to continue to offer exceptional workshops on healthier food choices with the launching of another series of Raw Food Food Preparation classes.

The next series (5 classes) will be hosted by Lauri Germain. Lauri has just returned from living in B.C. for two years, where she took raw food classes in Kelowna. Her approach is to incorporate more raw food into everyday healthy meal planning, and to encourage more fun and no pressure in the kitchen. Lauri’s background is also in holistic nutrition and homeopathy.

Samples will be served, and handouts provided of Lauri’s original recipes.

A what?

A few weeks ago a person sent me a note about the Vegg product so I followed up and ordered some. I am proud to say that, as far as I know, Earth’s General Store is the first store on the Canadian prairies to carry the Vegg product.

What is The VEGG? First off the word is a contraction of vegan egg. This product is made from nutritional yeast flakes, sodium alginate (a gum extracted from brown algae), Kala Namak (this is a salt that coincidentally we also sell at the store) and beta carotene.

From my research people can make some interesting things from it.

Anyway – Earth’s General Store strives to stock products that support the vegan and vegetarian lifestyle. Being the first company east of Vancouver carrying Daiya cheese products, Field roasts and sausages and Tofurky vegan pizzas adding the Vegg to our product offering is just what we do.

The purpose of the Green Acts Reward Programme is to provide a positive feedback to people that do small green acts – reuse or refuse a shopping bag, refill a container or green commute to the store.

Last year (2011) we donated $2981.89 to 36 different organisations (we use to have 3 groups per month but this year we are doing three different groups for two months. So far this year we have donated $534.81 to some worthy organisations.

The next two months I am focusing on permaculture projects in Africa. The three recipients will be:

Daiya Cheese products have revolutionized the non-dairy cheese offerings. Many people that were dairy/lactose intolerant or vegan had to put up with products that were on the whole poor substitutes for dairy cheese.

Then Daiya brought out their tapioca based substitute and it tasted good, melted/stretched, and was not only dairy free but was also soy free.

This year (2012) they launched three new products to compliment their shredded cheese products. The new Daiya Wedge flavours are Cheddar, Jack and Jalapeno Garlic Havarti.

Here is the nutritional information for the new Daiya wedges. 

Soon we will have Daiya Blocks in. We had these before but our supplier was unable to continue to supply us.

The first year we were open we brought in products from the Happy Camel. Good tasting local products. Unfortunately the sales were not so great but also they did not use organic chickpeas/garbanzo beans to make their humus. So after a time I stopped carrying their product and did not have any hummus in the store.

Recently I found an organic hummus made by Sunflower Kitchen and they made an organic hummus. I immediately brought it in. It tastes very good for a store bought product (I prefer to make my own).

Enjoy!

- Posted June 29th, 2012

They say we have two seasons in Edmonton - winter and construction season. Construction has arrived on our street and I took a short video of their work and the obstacle it posses to our customers.

I was unaware that they had planned on doing any construction on our street (grinding and new asphalt). They are going to be blocking access to the store off and on until the 25th which really sucks for our customers (a drop in business of 20 – 30%). Tough one to take.

The construction barriers don’t last all day (just seems like it) and the construction people were letting people drive into the parking lot after the grinder moved out of the way but it dose pose an obstacle to our customers.

A few weeks ago a young woman (Laura) phoned me from Winnipeg to tell me about their vegan deodorants that they make. First off she told me about having been a customer of Earth’s General Store when she lived here in Edmonton.then she told me about the product she makes and sells through the Etsy marketplace/website. Her product is called me & you. 

I have brought in a sampling of her deodorants to see what the market here in Edmonton would support.

So if you are looking for a deodorant that is handmade by some crafty people, support independents rather that large multinational corporations, and a product that is vegan then come and check out their products.

- June 21st, 2012

Over the past year several people had asked for this product - Lakanto. I suggested that they try the Zero product fro Wholesome Sweeteners since they were both erythritol products.

A few weeks back a regular customer (Maurice) brought in a sample and a bag and I was impressed with it (unlike the Zero product it had another ingredient added to the package – Luo Han Guo – known as Monk Fruit). I then arranged to bring a couple of cases into the store.

Today they arrived and I have put them out onto the shelves.