Are you a lover of all things organic? Do you seek out organic and other earth-caring products on your grocery runs? In celebration of #EarthMonth we are gifting $100 Grocery Gift Card AND a Reusable Earthbound Farm Tote Bag to 50 winners during the month of April!

Share a picture or video of your Earthbound Farm organic haul on Instagram or TikTok and tag @earthboundfarm and #EveryCartCounts2023 and one of the retailers where you got it!

The small choices we make every time we enter a grocery store have the potential to add up to real, positive change. When you choose organic, you support farming practices that work in harmony with nature! Want to read about more ways that you can shop for the planet? Read our blog here. Did you know that if every person used a reusable shopping bag just ONCE a week- we’d keep 16 billion bags out of landfills each year!?

Here at Earthbound Farm, we are always looking for ways to live lighter on this Earth through our organic farming practices and packaging innovations. Did you know, they recently changed their packaging to reduce 27% of plastic from their packaging? Learn about our initiatives here. Happy Earth Month!

CONTEST RULES.

The post Earth Month 2023: Every Cart Counts Sweepstakes first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Earth Month 2023: Every Cart Counts Sweepstakes appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

To start off, create an outer white ring by dipping a frother into 1 tsp unsweetened coconut yogurt and creating a ring in the glass. Next, make the bottom green layer by blending Organic Earthbound Farm Spinach + Kale, avocado, kiwi, almond milk, sweetener, cinnamon, cardamom, and ice until smooth. Transfer this mixture into a large glass or mason jar and refrigerate it while we make the top pink layer.

The top pink layer features steamed and cooled Earthbound Farm Organic Cauliflower Florets, frozen raspberries, ice cubes, coconut kefir or yogurt, and unsweetened almond/coconut milk. Once this layer is blended, we pour it on top of the green layer in the swirled glass and top it off with bee pollen.

Not only does this smoothie taste and look amazing, but it’s also loaded with nutritious ingredients that will leave you feeling satisfied and energized. So, what are you waiting for? Whip up a batch of the Green Berry Envy smoothie today and tag us @earthboundfarm and @shredhappens to show off your creation!

The post Smoothie of the Month: Green Berry Envy first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Smoothie of the Month: Green Berry Envy appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Here’s what you need to make this delicious smoothie:

Handful of Organic strawberries
5 Earthbound Farm Organic Cauliflower Florets
1/4 cup Coconut kefir
⅓ cup Coconut yogurt
1 scoop Protein powder

Blend until smooth! Top with coconut flakes and enjoy!

Be sure to tag us on social if you try the recipes and check back in as we share new smoothies each month!

The post Smoothie of the Month: Strawberry & Cauli Cream Smoothie first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Smoothie of the Month: Strawberry & Cauli Cream Smoothie appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

• An apple changed the course of history for Adam & Eve
• An apple conked Sir Isaac Newton on the head and voilà, gravity!
• The Beatles stormed the planet on Apple Records.
• Legendary marksman William Tell shot an apple off of his son’s head with a crossbow at 120 paces to secure both their freedom.
• Paris and the Golden Apple of Discord – which has nothing to do with iPhones or a chat app. This is how the Trojan War began.
• And then there’s Apple, which has everything to do with iPhones, apps and more…

Now is our moment…Just in time for back-to-school lunches and afterschool snacks, our Sweet Organic Apple Slices are showing up for your apple-a-day.

Why is it that we are all so much more likely to eat fruits and veggies in snackable form? Seriously, we’ve heard the derisive comments: it’s not complicated to eat an apple, is it? But…

• If you’re on the go, what do you do with the core till you find a compost or garbage container?
• If the apple is deliciously juicy and said juice dribbles down your chin and you don’t have a napkin handy, then what?
• So many apples are so big these days? What if you want just the right amount of apple?

And then there’s science…

We’re sure it won’t surprise you to know that this very topic has been researched. A study published in December 2021 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that elementary school students ate more apples when they were provided with apple slices versus whole apples. No surprise to us! And it probably goes for teens and grown-ups, too.

All fantastic reasons to choose the organic apple slices. Our 12-ounce bag is just the right amount to portion out 3 or 4 lunches or snacks, maybe more for the littles. With a bag or bowl at the ready, pretty soon even your kids will have crunched their way to at least an apple a day.

Available at WalMart, Whole Foods Markets, and Sprouts Farmers Markets. 

The post Snackable and Sweet! Organic Apple Slices first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Snackable and Sweet! Organic Apple Slices appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

You can do cool kitchen things. Here’s a challenge for you: 5 days of the week, 5 new eats to try. See which of them rise to the top and earn a place in your routine and which ones might spark your culinary creativity. Pick a week soon and get ‘er done.

Monday: Crispy Chickpea and Radish Salad

We were hooked at crispy chickpeas. This one offers up more crunch with radishes and cucumbers contrasted with creamy avocado on a bed of baby spinach and spring mix. The cool yogurt-dill dressing is the perfect complement to these flavorful ingredients.

Tuesday: Arugula Pesto, Prosciutto, and Egg Toast

This dreamy delight will make you forget all about your avocado toast…and with just a bit more effort. All well worth it. Crusty sourdough, nutty arugula, salty prosciutto, and the perfectly cooked egg turn the yum knob up to 11 for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is a recipe for one, but increase quantities if you want to serve more. Use any Parmesan cheese you like, but if  you want to level it up, Reggiano or Grana Padano are our favorites.

Wednesday: Tropical Green Smoothie

It doesn’t get easier than a smoothie. And the payoff for precious little effort here is big.

Thursday: Little Gems Caesar Salad with Crunchy Panko Bread Crumbs

This is a classic Caesar salad flavor profile with a twist: those crunchy Panko crumbs add a little something extra. Seriously…if you don’t want to go to the trouble of making your own Caesar dressing, use your favorite store bought but don’t skip the Panko crumbs!

Friday: Thai Shrimp Lettuce Cups

Listen up…don’t let the long list of ingredients in this one intimidate you – it still all happens really quickly and all those ingredients add to the spectacular flavor of this end-of-the-week treat!

Download the shopping list for all 5 recipes here.

The post How to Eat Happier: 5 Tasty, Terrific, and Super Simple Eats with Organic Greens first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post How to Eat Happier: 5 Tasty, Terrific, and Super Simple Eats with Organic Greens appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Hmmm. Where to start? What would you do? Here’s what they did.

Our young founders – Drew & Myra Goodman — cared deeply about the health of people and the planet. So rather than reflexively farming the land the way it had been farmed, they wanted to figure out how to grow things in way that respected Mother Nature rather than tried to battle her.

Remember, it’s 1984. Organic was not the popular kid on the block yet. Organic was more like the Don-Quixote-Tilting-At-Windmills thing for starry-eyed idealists. “Those kids are crazy,” scoffed other local farmers. “It’ll never work!”

But they were determined. They turned to Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, and with the support of some sympathetic local nursery people, they started to figure it out.

Then came the little table by the side of the country road where they sold their extraordinary organic heirloom berries and evangelized to anyone who would listen about why organic matters. Then they started growing culinary herbs and the local chefs started buying these extraordinary berries and herbs from them. And then came the organic baby greens, still mainly for chefs at this point. Mainly for one chef. And then in 1986, that chef lost his gig. And they lost their biggest customer.

But they were determined. With a lot of perishable organic baby greens on their hands and no customer, they had to think fast. They’d been washing, drying and bagging greens for their own salads all along. And they seemed to stay fresh for at least a week. So they made up a bunch of bags, made their own little header cards to attach to the bags and threw up a Hail Mary to see if any grocery stores might want to offer these bags of prewashed greens to their shoppers.

This was all just two years from when they first moved to farm.

You can guess what happened from there. Earthbound Farm organic baby greens kept growing in popularity.  Organic in general kept growing in popularity. And the farm kept growing to meet the demand. In 1995, they joined forces with dedicated third-generation family farmers Stan Pura, John Romans, and Mission Ranches. These farmers were professionals and helped Earthbound Farm scale up organic farming to meet all that ever-growing demand.

Today, Earthbound Farm is part of the independent and family-run Taylor Farms. It’s interesting to note that Earthbound Farm’s partnership with Taylor Farms spans decades. In Taylor Farms’ early days, Earthbound Farm provided Taylor Farms with prewashed packaged baby greens (like spring mix, baby spinach, baby arugula, etc.) for their foodservice customers.

Since those early days, Taylor Farms has grown to become one of the most respected fresh produce companies in the country, with 10,000 dedicated employees, each of whom cares deeply about the quality of its product. Taylor Farms is a cherished pillar of the Salinas Valley community, actively engaged in philanthropy and community activities to support the vibrancy of the community that is home to its headquarters…and to the historical legacy of the California fresh produce industry. We are proud to be the flagship organic brand of Taylor Farms, carrying on as passionate, principled, pioneers, right here in the Salinas Valley.

38 years on from the first days on the farm, we’re still idealists. But now we’re just reading Don Quixote and ecstatic that organic food is such a popular choice. Thanks to you for choosing organic.

The post 38 YEARS OF ORGANIC FARMING first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post 38 YEARS OF ORGANIC FARMING appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Because it’s all organic, Chef Lucia can confidently walk out into the garden and select any edible flower to add flash and flavor to her salad masterpieces. And she does. Check out this delightful summer salad, festooned with colorful flowers.

Want to try adding some edible flower to your next salad? Here are a few rules of thumb:

• Use only organic flowers! This is critically important because rule about pesticides used on flowers (other than organic flowers) don’t take into account that the flowers could be consumed.
• Use them when they’re super fresh – petals tend to be delicate and wilt quickly.
• Before adding to your salad, rinse the flowers in cold water or dunk them quickly in a bowl of cool water to remove any dirt and gently shake off the water and let them air dry for just a bit.
• Flowers tend to be on the delicate side, so they pair perfectly with salads made from any of our organic baby greens

Not every flower is edible! But here are some of our favorites for salads. You can download this chart here.

Roses

There are probably as many flavors of roses as there are varieties, with stronger flavors in the darker varieties. The flavors are typically sweet, slightly fruity and even spicy. A salad garnished with rose petals feels quite luxurious. Also a key ingredient in Janna Jo’s Fancy Herb Water.

Bee Balm/Bergamot

In case the name wasn’t obvious, these dramatic flowers are adored by our pollinator friends. And they bring a stately presence to the garden. This ornamental herb is also the source of the much beloved Earl Grey tea, which is made from its leaves and blossoms.  You can use the leaves and blossoms in salads, too. They have a fairly pronounced herby that’s a cross between oregano and mint.

Nasturtiums

Some people think of these as almost weeds – maybe because they are super hardy and can really take over in the right conditions. But they can really gussy up any salad with their brilliant colors and sweet, peppery flavor, similar to watercress.

 Pansies/Violas

Pansies have a slightly sweet, grassy flavor that’s milder in the petals and much stronger in the entire flower. They’re tasty and beautiful in fruit salads, green salads, desserts or in soups.

 Calendula/Marigolds – Only the petals are edible

Bright and sunny in warm golds and oranges, their flavor can range from bitter to tangy to peppery. They have also been substituted for saffron, in a pinch. The petals can add a beautiful and flavorful sprinkling of gold to your salads.

Hibiscus

These super flashy flowers have a flavor something like cranberry with a touch of citrus. A glamorous addition to any salad, but use sparingly.

The post Edible Flowers: Flash and Flavor for Summer Salads first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Edible Flowers: Flash and Flavor for Summer Salads appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Most of these packages have a slightly new packaging feature: it’s an easy open peel & reseal lid that reduces the plastic in the package by 27%. That’s a win for you and for the planet. Read more here.

Plus, if you sign up for the Merryfield Rewards program, you’ll earn rewards when you purchase these items, just by scanning your receipts. Earthbound Farm is Merryfield’s only produce partner.

Where to Buy

Organic Spring Mix in 5 oz and 1lb packages

The crop that started it all for Earthbound Farm back in 1984. A delicious blend of colorful mild and bold baby greens.

3 of our favorite spring mix recipes

• Chocolate Zucchini & Spring Mix Smoothie
• Strawberry and Blue Cheese Spring Mix Salad
• Spring Mix Gyros

Organic Baby Spinach in 5oz and 1lb packages

Incredibly versatile, these tender young spinach leaves are harvested with care for optimum freshness, flavor and nutrition. Enjoy in salads, smoothies, omelets, or any of your favorite recipes!

3 of our favorite baby spinach recipes

• Flavors of Morocco-Inspired Spinach Salad
• Sneaky Spinach Chocolate Muffins
• Spinach Artichoke Dip

Organic 50/50 Spinach + Spring Mix in 5oz and 1lb packages

Two tender and tasty salad favorites combined: spring mix with extra baby spinach.

3 of our favorite 50/50 recipes

• Baby Spinach and Spring Mix with Stilton and Pecans
• Peach Salad with Dijon Balsamic Dressing
• Baby Spinach and Spring Mix Lasagna with Spaghetti Squash

Organic Power Greens in the 5oz package

A super-versatile – and super popular — mix of tender baby spinach, baby red and green chards, and baby kale.

3 of our favorite power greens recipes

• Crispy Rice Power Greens Salad
• Tomato and Power Greens Pesto Tart
• Easy Breakfast Tortilla Hack

Organic Baby Arugula in the 5oz package

Slightly peppery and nutty, this delicious member of the mustard family adds a zesty flair to salads, sandwiches, and more. Also known as rocket.

3 of our favorite baby arugula recipes

• Arugula, Fig and Prosciutto Salad with Maple Tahini dressing
• Spring Arugula Panzanella Salad
• Beet & Arugula Salad

Organic Herb Salad in the 1lb package

Spring Mix plus fresh parsley, dill and cilantro for a burst of herbal flavor.

3 of our favorite herb salad recipes

• Grilled Chicken and Halloumi Herb Salad
• Herb Salad with Fennel and Celery
• Pesto Vinaigrette

The post Now Available at Save Mart & Lucky Stores! first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Now Available at Save Mart & Lucky Stores! appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Making healthy (yet delicious!) food choices should be its own reward…and it is. But we’re excited to say that there are more tangible rewards headed your way. We’re proud to join with other better-for-you brands at Merryfield so that you can now earn points toward gift cards from top brands like Adidas, Airbnb, REI, Whole Foods, Nike, Starbucks, Sephora and more. So when you buy our organic spinach or arugula or spring mix or power greens or Little Gems (etc.) you’ll rack up points toward your rewards.

What’s so great is that not only will you get rewarded for buying these products, Merryfield is a trustworthy resource where learn more about food brands who are making products with ingredients that are healthier for you and better for planet, too.

It’s super simple – all done with the Merryfield app (available for iPhone or Android). After your shopping trip, just snap a photo of your receipt. Your purchases are logged and your points add up instantly. Or connect your online shopping accounts (Target, Walmart, Sprouts, Acme, Albertsons, Kroger, Safeway and many more) and earn points automatically with every purchase.

Learn how it works here.

We’ve known and respected the folks who founded Merryfield for many years – working side by side in the work to produce healthier food and make it more accessible. These folks have a great track record and have developed clear standards for what “better-for-you” means in the Merryfield world.

“Every product and brand on Merryfield meets our strict quality standards. We look carefully at every ingredient and ask whether it’s safe, necessary or something you’d expect to find in a “clean” product. We’ve created standards for all categories in the grocery store, including beauty products and pet food. We also look hard at label claims and language that could be misleading (we call that “cleanwashing”) to help make sure you get what you’re promised on the label.”

Joe Dickson, Co-Founder, Head of Quality Standards & Policy, Merryfield.

Read all about Merryfield standards here.

As always, thank you for choosing organic!

The post A Rewarding Partnership first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post A Rewarding Partnership appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

But you don’t have to start an organic farm to make an impact. What you do every day matters. In addition to choosing organic and supporting organic farmers, eliminating single use items, which reduces garbage and waste, is an important way to be live lighter on the planet. And who doesn’t want a bright and stylish reusable bag? We typically give a lot of them away at least once a year (around Earth Day). Keep your eyes peeled for our next giveaway.

We’re Also Doing Our Part to Part with Plastic

Have you noticed anything new about some of our packages of organic greens? Yep…we’re flipping our lids to reduce the plastic in our packages by 27%.

There’s lots to love about our new Peel + Reseal film lids.

• 27% less plastic. The new Peel + Reseal lid reduces the plastic in the entire package (not just the lid) by 27%! This is by far the biggest and most important benefit of moving from our rigid plastic lids to Peel + Reseal. We all understand the urgency of reducing our dependence on plastic. We know it matters to you – we hear from many of you on this very topic pretty much every day. We’ve been looking for ways to say yes to less plastic since 2009.

• But plastic has many benefits: it protects freshness and prevents cross contamination, protects delicate greens from bruising and crushing, and offers  visibility to the product so shoppers can get a good look at what they’re buying. As we take more and more plastic out of our packaging, some things change. This is the next step on our way to phasing out plastic. More to come on this journey soon. Stay tuned!

Beyond the plastic reduction, there’s more that’s good:

• Less plastic breakage. If you’ve been buying our organic lettuces and greens for any length of time, you know that sometimes those rigid plastic lids are fastened so tightly to the tray that when you pull it off (which sometimes requires some force), there can be some plastic breakage. Sometimes you’d have to pick those pieces out of the organic greens. We’d rather you not have to do that. It all comes down to finesse versus brute force.
• Easier to open. As we noted in the bullet above, the seal on those rigid plastic lids could be so strong that you’d often have to pull extremely hard to get that lid off, sometimes ripping either the lid or the tray. The Peel + Reseal lid is easier to open. You have to recalibrate a bit so that you peel the film directly back with care rather than muscling it off.

How to Win with Peel + Reseal

Watch this quick video to see how simple it is ace our Peel + Reseal lids.

In case you don’t want to watch our video, here’s what you need to know.

#1: Grasp the yellow corner that says “Peel + Reseal.” Peel the film back gently, straight back. Your mantra: Finesse is fine. If you’re not so careful, the lid may tear. So finesse it.

#2: Leave the film attached across the top. That will make it easier to reseal evenly along the other edges.

#3: Take out the greens you need.

#4: Reseal carefully. Mantra again. 

#5: Run your fingers along all the edges where the film lid meets the tray to ensure a good seal.

If you open the lid and reseal it carefully, the seal should hold well enough to support another 1-pound clamshell or other items. It will be stronger if the thing you want to stack on the tray rests on the tray edges.

We know some new things take getting used to. But we hope that once you’ve spent some time with our new package, your fondness for it will grow, just like ours has.

The post The Eco-Stylish Way to Commemorate Earth Day first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post The Eco-Stylish Way to Commemorate Earth Day appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

If you’re like a majority of your fellow Americans, climate change is something you’re concerned about. And whether you know it or not, all that delicious, fresh, healthy organic produce you put into your shopping cart (whether online or in-store) is helping fight climate change. Well…at least the dirt it’s grown in is. See, it’s all about the benefits of robust, healthy soil, above and beyond even all that delicious organic food it produces. Organic farming has always been regenerative: organic soils get richer, healthier, and more productive the longer they’re farmed organically. Any of our farmers will be happy to tell you how true this is. Earthbound Farmer Stan Pura illustrated the point by talking about some of the ranches that we converted to organic in the early days “that were somewhat marginal in the beginning are so much more forgiving today because we’ve been building the soil health for two and a half decades.”

The thing is, we love to eat. We need to eat. But agriculture is one of the major contributors to climate change. However, it can also be a source of mitigation. See, organic agriculture reverses climate change by pulling carbon out of the air and returning it to the soil. Research from the Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial, the longest running, side-by-side comparison of conventional and organic agriculture, shows that, “If only 10,000 medium sized farms in the U.S. converted to organic production, they would store so much carbon in the soil that it would be equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road, or reducing car miles driven by 14.62 billion miles.” In short, organic farming practices generally contribute to healthier soil, which leads to less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, slowing climate change.

How is that possible? It starts with something you may remember learning about in elementary or middle school: photosynthesis. In brief, people and animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants take in that carbon dioxide and transform some of it into oxygen, releasing it back into the atmosphere for people and animals to breathe back in. The remaining carbon, however, stays in the plant tissue. When the plants die and decompose, the stored carbon goes into the soil. This is called “carbon sequestration,” and it contributes to the overall “soil organic matter,” or SOM.

Farming operations such as hydroponic, aquaponic, indoor greenhouses, and vertical farms can’t store any carbon in their soil because, well, they don’t have soil!

Photosynthesis and carbon sequestration happen whether the farm is certified organic or not. However, through organic farming and ranching practices, we can increase the speed and length of carbon sequestration, reducing the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Think of organic farming as feeding the soil and caring for it, instead of depleting it. All of these practices add beneficial nutrients and natural organic matter to the soil, create a thriving environment for helpful bacteria and microbes, and make the soil more capable of storing carbon long-term. So when you choose organic, you’re supporting a farming system that that’s planet positive in so many ways.

The post Organic Farming Fights Climate Change first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Organic Farming Fights Climate Change appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

We often say that organic farming is farming “in harmony with nature.” That’s true. And it’s also true that farming in a truly regenerative organic way demands so much more than simply avoiding the use of harsh chemicals and synthetic fertilizers. It demands our proactive understanding of, nurturing of, and engagement with complex natural cycles. Mother Nature has a doctorate in all this stuff and we’re her eager students.

We’ve learned a lot over the nearly 40 years we’ve been farming organically, but there’s so much more to learn. We recently hosted a delegation of about 40 farmers who are interested in learning how to use more biological/natural controls on their farms and reduce their use of the other stuff. They were there so we could walk them through the field trials of some regenerative practices we’ve got going on, including cover crops. We’re always happy to share what we’ve learned and what we hope to learn.

But First…Let’s Get Under the Covers

Cover crops, that is. They’re called cover crops because they cover the land when the food crop is not being grown. They benefit soil health and the total ecosystem in various ways while they are growing and continue to add benefits when they die and are worked back into the soil.

Cover crops are kind of like the Swiss Army Knife of regenerative practices: they do a lot:

• Adding nutrients to the soil
• Improve soil’s physical and biological properties
• Increase biodiversity
• Suppress weeds
• Improve the soil’s capacity to retain water – which reduces irrigation requirements
• Break pest cycles
• And more…

Watch this cool video for a quick intro to cover crops…and read on below for more of a deep dive on regenerative farming practices.

What the farmers came to check out on our farm was the cover crop research project we’ve got going. Spoiler alert: we don’t have the results yet, but we’ll share them when we do. We’re measuring and tracking the impact of a few different regenerative benefits of cover cropping. With our research trials we are looking to dial in those healthy soil components to work efficiently and effectively for our leafy greens, head lettuces and vegetables. A big part of that is understanding what specific cover crops can accomplish in the specific time and specific place it’s needed. This research will allow us to develop ranch-specific soil nutrition history so we can track and analyze changes in key nutrition and soil health measurements.

Our trials include:

• Measuring how the cover crop affects the nitrogen content of the soil. Why? Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants. Cover crops often are tasked with nitrogen scavenging: recycling or adding nitrogen to the soil. Legume (peas and beans) cover crops are most often associated with nitrogen scavenging because they can grab the nitrogen in the air and feed it to the beneficial bacteria in the soil, which then convert the nitrogen to ammonia, which nourishes the plants. Other cover crops, such as grasses and brassicas, also scavenge nitrogen from the soil and prevent it from leaching away into groundwater or running off in surfaces waters to our creeks, streams and rivers. When cover crops die and are worked back into the soil, they release nitrogen back into the soil where it can feed the next crop.
• Understanding precisely when the nutrients from cover crops become available to the crops we harvest. We’re keeping track of how these cover crops deliver their benefits in different types of soils and growing conditions. We’re also looking at what mix of cover crop plants are best suited for our varied growing locations. For example, we have had a very dry winter in our California growing region. Drought impacts cover crop growth and economics.
• Measuring increase in soil organic matter and all the benefits that go with it. Soil organic matter is the stuff of life itself. The more healthy organic matter in the soil, the better it retains nutrients and water, the better the soil structure is, and the healthier the soil’s ecosystem of beneficial microorganisms is. We’re track the level of soil organic matter as well as carbon, nutrients, water retention, microbial biodiversity and soil structure.
• Evaluating cover crops plus reduced tillage. In regenerative farming, we minimize the tilling of the soil. Why? To protect the soil integrity, we want to disturb it as little as necessary while still giving it what it need. With reduced tillage, we’re looking to make nutrients available to the plants while avoiding soil compaction, reducing fuel consumption, and lowering labor hours, all of which factor into how we’re measuring the sustainability of our farms.

Mother Nature spins a remarkably sophisticated, delicately balanced web of life. The details of soil ecosystems and agronomic practices constantly offer new lessons. We’re working through it all now and whatever we learn from these complex trials, the results will be incredibly valuable to us, to the soil of our organic ranches, and to the ecosystems our farms inhabit.

The post Cover Crops: the Swiss Army Knife of Regenerative Farming first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Cover Crops: the Swiss Army Knife of Regenerative Farming appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

We celebrate International Women’s Day (March 8th) with an intergenerational story about Nancy Armenta, her work, and her agricultural heritage. Nancy is a seed breeder for Mission Ranches, the farming division of Earthbound Farm. She works with traditional seed breeding methods to develop new varieties of organic greens for Earthbound Farm. As the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: Nancy’s father, Jose Armenta, is a tractor supervisor for Mission Ranches and has been for decades. Nancy even grew up in a house on one of the ranches. With all that nature and nurture combined, Nancy was bound to develop a love for growing food. Like Little Richard sang, “The girl can’t help it.”

Traditional seed breeding requires skill and patience (genetic engineering is forbidden in organic farming). It can take 10 years or more to cross plants and achieve the variety you’re after. Varieties are crossed (bred together) using tiny tools to physically transfer pollen from one parent to another parent (by hand) to try to produce the desired characteristics in a new variety.

For a look inside that world, meet Nancy. We hope you appreciate her enthusiasm for her work and love for her father. And that, like Nancy, you see that the possibilities are endless.

The post International Women’s Day: Sowing the Seeds of the Organic Future first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post International Women’s Day: Sowing the Seeds of the Organic Future appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Years ago we used to be a part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s annual Cooking for Solutions and Sustainable Food Institute events. And every year, as part of those events, we hosted a meal for some of the country’s top chefs (like Carla Hall, Rick Bayliss, Dan Barber) and food writers (like Marion Nestle, Mark Bittman, Francis Lam)  at our Farm Stand in Carmel Valley. It was a fantastic event and not just because of the amazing food. The event brought together a group of people who all cared deeply about finding solutions for making our food production practices more sustainable.

One year, John Cleese (of Monty Python/Fawlty Towers) was a featured speaker. Not because we were great comedy material, but because he had put out “Wine for the Confused” on the Food Network. He had a lot to say about enjoying wine. One of his most important pieces of advice was this (take note wine snobs ).

“Just enjoy wine. If you like sweet wine, drink sweet wine. If you like fruity wine, drink fruity wine. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not good. I mean, if you prefer strawberries and someone told you should prefer raspberries you’d tell them to get stuffed, wouldn’t you.”

Right? So when a friend said, apologetically, she liked sweetness in her salad, we said, “Great! Enjoy!” She seemed like she was expecting a lecture about why she should like a different kind of salad. But no. Of course not. In fact, putting great salads together is an exercise in creating juxtapositions of flavors and textures: sweet, tart, salty, spicy, earthy, umami, crunchy, crumbly, soft, chewy. You don’t need them all in every salad, but intentionally choosing a couple of them for your salad will definitely level up your experience.

Here are some of our favorite combos that elevate any of our ready to use organic greens. Typically, these will work wonderfully with simple vinaigrettes, but feel free to try them with any of your favorite dressings.

• Dried cherries, feta crumbles, toasted pecan pieces
• Apple/pear/peach (depending on season) chunks, gorgonzola crumbles, toasted hazelnuts
• Bacon crumbles, goat cheese crumbles, toasted almond pieces
• Grated Parmesan, jammy eggs, roasted chickpeas
• Roasted beets, citrus segments, goat cheese
• Wasabi peas, grated carrots, toasted sesame seeds or chopped peanuts
• Watermelon chunks and feta crumbles

Or use this chart and blend any combination that sounds adventurous and amazing to you.

If you’d like some more formal recipes, here a few that might ignite your salad spark. They all derive their delightfulness from extraordinary combinations of surprising flavors and textures.

Fig and Walnut Butter Lettuce Salad – Earthbound Farm

Deconstructed Wasabi Chicken Salad with Little Gems – Earthbound Farm

Best Autumn Salad – Earthbound Farm

Crispy Prosciutto, Strawberry and Burrata Salad – Earthbound Farm

Caesar Salad with Crispy Chickpeas and Jammy Eggs – Earthbound Farm

Flavors of Morocco-Inspired Spinach Salad – Earthbound Farm

Organic Arugula and Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts and Feta Cheese (earthboundfarm.com)

Baby Kale Salad with Ham, Gruyere & Grainy Mustard | Earthbound Farm

The post I Like It Sweet, She Said first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post I Like It Sweet, She Said appeared first on Earthbound Farm.

Without getting NSFW…it all started on an early February day about 20 years ago when a young man with a heavy Brooklyn-before-it-was-hipster accent called us to ask, “What’s arugula for?” He sounded like he was in his early 20s. And we said, a bit perplexed, “You mean other than salad?”

“Ya.”

At that point, despite growing lots of organic arugula over the years, we didn’t know about its slightly risqué history or that it had any kind of reputation other than for its peppery, nutty deliciousness. But we could tell by how he asked the question he wasn’t looking for a recipe for arugula pesto. Thinking quickly, we googled while we were on the phone with him and, to our surprise, we found a trove of information about arugula and its reputedly aphrodisiac properties.

So we asked him, “Are you asking if arugula is an aphrodisiac?”

“Uh, ya,” he said and giggled with discomfort, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Well, that’s what the ancient Greeks and Romans thought,” we said. But also added, “But you know, as a woman I might suggest treating her to a nice dinner might be a better way to woo her. Maybe you could order oysters and an arugula salad, just to seal the deal.”

Then he giggled some more and hung up. I wonder how his Valentine’s Day dinner went? Hey, if that caller is out there and reads this, get in touch and let us know.

Register for our FREE February 10th Cooking Class

We can’t really attest to arugula’s effectiveness at winning over the object of your affections as an aphrodisiac, but it will win their hearts and minds with its uniquely delicious flavor. So if you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day flavor bomb of a meal, sign up for our FREE Valentine’s Day class with Chef Joel and our friends at Homemade on February 10^th at 4pm Pacific and learn to make this Spanish Arugula Salad with Scallops, plus oysters and chocolate truffles!

Sign Up for the Class!

And if you’re looking for some of our other favorite arugula recipes, check these out.

The Classic!

Organic Arugula and Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts and Feta Cheese 

Breakfast in Bed: Organic Baby Spinach, Arugula, and Kale, Steak and Egg Breakfast Salad

100% Plant-Based Magnificence: Farro Salad with Arugula, Edamame and Tomato Vinaigrette 

The post Arugula’s Love Language first appeared on Earthbound Farm.

The post Arugula’s Love Language appeared first on Earthbound Farm.