Cascadian Farm Organic Goodness

On Friday August 20th, a group of Cascadian Farm employees, and their friends and families enjoyed a beautiful Skagit Valley day, and took part in a longstanding tradition: we hiked up to the top of Sauk Mountain for a mile-high picnic, and then came back down to the farm to pick a basket of our mouth-watering organic blueberries. This has been an annual event for Cascadian Farm and Small Planet Foods employees for the last 7 years!

Check out the Flickr set for this event!

Summer is winding down (as much as we don’t want to admit it) and aside from school starting soon; many kids are also getting back on the field for fall sports. Between getting your kids in their uniforms and driving the car pool to practice, the last thing on you mind is packing a healthy snack to keep them going during and after practice. But don’t worry, we’re here to help with a list of quick and healthy snacks that will keep your kids moving all season long. One of which is our spiced cereal trail mix your kids are sure to love.

Do you have any healthy snack ideas? If so, feel free to share them in the comment box.

Half-Time Snacks: Give your kids fruit during half time, this way they’ll get charged up without filling up.

•Orange slice

•Easy-peel Clementines

•Grapes

•Cantaloupe or watermelon chunks

•Strawberries

Post-Game Snacks: After the game, they will have more time to eat and they will surely be hungry.

Early morning games:

•Whole-wheat mini-bagels with cream cheese and jelly

•Mini-yogurt cups

•Granola bars

•Whole-grain muffins

Just before lunch games:

•String cheese

•Half sandwiches on whole-wheat bread (PB&J, turkey & cheese, etc.)

•Peanut butter on celery sticks

For afternoon games:

•Popcorn and baby carrots

•Whole-grain crackers and cheese

Spiced Cereal Trail Mix

There’s nothing more synonymous with summer than sweet corn. It has become an essential part of any summertime cook out. We love to eat it and we love to grow it. At Cascadian Farm we grow our sweet corn organically. Which means we don’t use any synthetic pesticides or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), making it good for you and for the land.

Yes, organic sweet corn tastes delicious, but it also has many great health benefits that you should take note of. It’s a good source of many nutrients including thiamin (vitamin B1), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), folate, dietary fiber, vitamin C, phosphorus and manganese.

Aside from eating sweet corn right off the cob, there are many great recipes to incorporate it into your diet. Here are some of our favorites. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato- Corn Chowder

Corn and Black Bean Salad

Creamy Corn and Broccoli Chowder

In celebration of the blueberry harvest, Cascadian Farm employees are enjoying a beautiful hike up Sauk Mountain in Washington today. Since we couldn't invite all of you on the trip, we have searched through our organic feed for stories and recipes that will make you want to celebrate!

Last week we snapped a few photos of the Blueberry Picker and showed them to you on Facebook. Here is a video of it being assembled. Farmer Jim is pretty excited to show it off. Enjoy!

Have you had a chance to pick fresh organic blueberries this year? In Washington state, we're at the tale end of our picking season. So if you haven't yet...you should soon!

Hello Friends! We’ve been extremely busy on the farm lately as we’re in the middle of our blueberry harvest. It’s an exciting time for us because we get to see all of our hard work pay off with plump, juicy berries ready to be picked.

With all the excitement surrounding the blueberry harvest, we figured it would be a great time to do a “Best of Blueberries” post, highlighting some of the blueberry posts that we have done over the last year. So here it is, the best of. Enjoy!

Farmer Jim's Organic Advice- Farmer Jim let's you in on his secret to growing such delicious organic blueberries.

Behind The Crop: The Blueberry- Take a look at all the great health benefits of blueberries and why they are referred to as a "super food". You’ll also find some amazing blueberry recipes.

Vanilla Blueberry Almond Bread- Kari Burks shares a wonderful recipe inspired by her favorite, Vanilla Blueberry Almond Pancakes. Thanks Kari!

Hello Friends! We’ve got some great links to share with you that came through our organic feed this week. Happy reading and have a wonderful weekend. If you have any interesting articles that you have found lately that you think our friends would enjoy, feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Radish-and-Onion Topped Steak Sandwiches- Here's another amazing recipe from our friend Shaina.

Green It Yourself: Upcycle Button Thumb Tacks- Got a bunch of old buttons lying around? Well, here’s a great idea for what to do with them. -mysweetgreens.com

Banana Ice Cream- Here’s a great recipe to help you cool down as the summer comes to a close. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. -makeitfromscratch.blogspot.com

A Day In the Life of Chef Shack: Cooking Up A Street Food Community- Take a look at two Minneapolis woman who are bringing gourmet cooking to the streets. -simplegoodandtasty.com

What is Humane Food? Here’s an interesting article from Lee Zukor, author of the blog Simple Good and Tasty, about kindness towards animals. -simplegoodandtasty.com

Photo By: Shaina Olmanson

Hello Friends! Can you believe it’s the first weekend in August already? Out of any season, it’s summer that always seems to fly by so fast. It must be because we’re all having so much fun in the sun! Here to kick-start your weekend are some great links that came through our organic feed this week. There are a couple of great recipes here that would be great to whip up this weekend. Enjoy!

Friendship Bracelets- Are your kids bored yet this summer? Well here’s a fun project that they should enjoy. Here’s a great article on making friendship bracelets from our friends at Make it From Scratch- makeitfromscratch.blogspot.com

Sustainable NYC- There have been so many sustainable stores popping up all around the country. We’re really excited to hear about it. Here’s an article about one that opened in New York City. Check it out.- twitter.com/figandsage

Cherry Almond Crumb Bars- Here’s another great recipe to try from our friend Shaina. – foodformyfamily.com

Design & Print Your Own Organic Textiles- Create your own designs and get them printed on just about anything. How cool is that? Here’s a great article about how it works. -mysweetgreens.com

Sweet Corn- There’s nothing sweeter than sweet corn. And here’s a great article with some delicious recipes all about it. -simplegoodandtasty.com

Photo By: Shaina Olmanson

Can it be? Is this really the first week of August? Wow, the summer has really flown by. As we look back over the summer, we have had so many amazing recipes come through our organic feed. So, we thought it would be fun to pick our favorites and share them with you. We would love to hear how you enjoy them, let us know what you think in the comment box below.

Easy Summer Dessert: Strawberry-Apricot Galette:

Ginger-Soy Beef Tenderloin Kebabs:

Vanilla Bean Gelato:

Smoked Barbecue Ribs:

Grilled Artichokes and Easy Garlic Aioli:

Photos By Shaina Olmanson

Happy Friday Friends! Since our last Five Links post we have had so many great recipes come through our organic feed. So, this week we wanted to highlight some of them for you. It’s always nice to try something new and spice up your grocery list from time to time. Hopefully you’ll try one or even all of these recipes. After that we would love to hear how they turned out. Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

Grilled Pinapple Mango Salmon- A fresh, seasonal take on grilled salmon from our friend Shaina. This is a must try dish!-foodformyfamily.com

Maple Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies- There's nothing quite like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. Especially when they're made with our Cascadian Farm Organic Maple Brown Sugar Granola!-cookiemadness.net

Grown-Up Popsicles- How come kids always get to have all the sweet treats? Try these "grown-up" popcicles to get a little summer relief. -makeitfromscratch.blogspot.com

Spaghetti Remix- Spaghetti isn't just served from a bowl anymore. Here's a very interesting take on the Spaghetti dinner. -makeitfromscratch.blogspot.com

Top Shelf Fajitas- Shaina has another delicious recipe for us to try. These aren't your ordinary fajitas. -foodformyfamily.com