Many of you may know we host educational evenings at the store. Many of these deal with food - dehydration, raw, vegetarian, vegan, etc. Over the summer we are continuing in our ongoing series of Raw Food preparation classes (there is still space available if anyone is interested). The instructor is a Raw Food Chef named Robyn.

Robyn is also conducting a whole series of workshops out at a retreat centre about 30 minutes east of Edmonton.  I asked Robyn to send me some information about what they are doing out at the retreat and I have cut and pasted this below.

If you are interested in improving your health in short order I would strongly suggest you check out what they are doing out there and consider attending some of the courses/retreats.

Rain Barrel Truck Load Sale June 16th, 2012 – Pre-ordered/pre-paid $70 (plus GST)!

Earth’s General Store distributed over a hundred and fifty rain barrels last year. This year we are kicking off the rainy season with a truck load sale.

You need to come into the store, pre-order, and pre-pay for your rain barrel. We will then give you a receipt and on June 16th you can come and pick up your barrel – please bring your receipt as proof of purchase. The rain barrel (Normally $80 plus GST = $84.00) will be on truck load sale price of $70.00 plus GST = $73.50. A savings of over $10.

Also we will be donating $2 from each barrel to the Vegans and Vegetarians of Alberta who are having a Vegan Bake Sale at the store and at the same time. So when you come and pick up your barrel you can enjoy some vegan yumminess!

Things about the rain barrels (rain catchers):

Rain Barrel Truck Load Sale June 16th, 2012 – Pre-ordered/pre-paid $70 (plus GST)!

Earth’s General Store distributed over a hundred and fifty rain barrels last year. This year we are kicking off the rainy season with a truck load sale.

Things about the rain barrels (rain catchers):

Ø The barrels are repurposed barrels that at one time had cleaning products or food ingredients for the food industry. They have been thoroughly cleaned out.

Ø They are repurposed at a Hutterite colony in southern Alberta

Ø The barrels have a capacity of 205 Litres but they will only hold about 190L due to the installation of an overflow spout on the side. (If your watering can is 10L this will allow you to refill your watering can about 19 times.)

Ø They are made of polypropylene.

Ø Originally the barrels had two bungs on the top. One of them was cut out and a wire mesh screen was epoxied into place. This screen will help keep small animals, larger debris and insects out of the barrel but it won’t be 100% effective on other material getting into the barrel (see below for cleaning suggestions).

Many vegetarians and vegans supplement their diet with a Vitamin B12 source. Many of the B-12 supplements out there are animal based. Earth’s General Store is pleased to be able to offer a “Pure Vegan” version of this important nutrient.

[From their website] ”Pure Vegan's B-12 Spray is a cut above other vitamin B12 products since it's in the methylcobalamin form. Methylcobalamin is the most absorbable form of vitamin B12. This is extremely important when taking a vitamin B12 supplement, especially for a vegan diet. Since B12 is found mainly in meat sources, a vegan diet is often deficient in this important daily vitamin.

Back at the beginning of April Tammy (store manager) went down to a small farm operation in to work in the vegetable fields of one of our suppliers. She has now posted her blog at the Discovery Organics website and the experience is that few people get the opportunity to see and participate in – where their food comes from.

So if you are interested in read about Tammy’s adventure check out the Discovery Organics' website.

The following photograph is of Tammy with some of the staff at Earth’s General Store (L-R Raydel, Tammy, Alex, Layne, and my son Timothy) holding some beets from the farm that Tammy worked on. Along with our customers we complete the chain.

- Posted May 17th, 2012

Quite a few people asked me to stock the Little Creek salad dressings over the past few months and so recently I started a conversation with the company that makes them. They are based out of Kelowna in the Okanogan and started their business in a small organic way.

They are not certified organic and that was what delayed me deciding to have them as a stock item until I did a little further investigation and found out that the majority of their items are organic – especially the oils.

So we now carry the ‘Original’, ‘Cesar’, ‘Spicy Strawberry’ and ‘Cherry Balsamic’.  They are also vegan products.

AND as a first in Edmonton (as far as I know) you can refill your Original and Cesar  dressing and save a glass bottle. Another first for Earth’s General Store.

Yahooie! I wasn’t even aware that this was happening. I really appreciate those people that voted for our little store. Wild Earth Foods won the category. This is an annual poll/assessment conducted by Vue magazine.

Thank you for making us part of your lives, your community, and for all your continued support.

The citizens of this area of Edmonton (Old Strathcona/Mill Creek) have the most options available for great grocery shopping. You have the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market, Blush Lane (newly opened Edmonton store of this Calgary based company), Planet Organic (unsure who now owns this corporate entity but last I heard it is a venture capitalist fund out of Toronto), Wild Earth Foods and of course my biased favourite – Earths’ General Store.

Have a great day.

- Posted May 15th, 2012

Jamie Oliver has done much in his short life to raise the awareness of the poor food we are feeding ourselves or being allowed to be fed to us and our children. One of Jamie’s big targets are school meals. I quite agree with him on this aspect (though would love for him to also bring in more plant based aspects).

So the other day I noticed that Jamie had pronounced May 19th as Food Revolution Day and since I like to be part of revolutions I jumped right in with a fundraiser event for that day. We will be having a barbecue (veggie hot dogs).

So come out and support a food shift in Edmonton at this event at Earth’s General Store this coming Saturday, May 19th, 2012. Barbecue will start around 11:00am and go until around 3:00pm. Three dollars will get you one Yves veggie dog (bun and condiments) and a Santa Cruz organic pop or hot coffee (roasted and brewed right here at Earth’s General Store). One dollar from each sale will go to support the work of this foundation.

We have just received an order of soap nuts (after being out of stock for a couple of months. Being a little frustrated with our supply, partly because they didn’t have the bags to repackage the soap nuts, I decided to start stocking them in bulk.

AND you can save over 20% over the packaged price.

I like that – less packaging and saving money.

Let the cleaning begin!

- Posted May 12th, 2012

Some time ago, like 18 months, customers were asking me to bring in a product called “Holy Crap”. I did some research and contacted the company to see if I could bring it into the store. I was advised the price of a case and realized it was a very high priced item. They weren’t able to supply me at that time because they were so busy fulfilling orders following their pitch on “Dragon’s Den”.

Then some people started to come into the store to buy the ingredients that were in “Holy Crap” – chia seeds (black), hemp hearts (hulled hemp seeds), hulled buckwheat, cranberries (they don’t say on the package whether the cranberries are sweetened or not), raisins, little cubes of dried apples, and cinnamon. Seems simple enough so they just bought the ingredients and mixed them up.