Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Annual Group Order


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Annual Fall Group Bulk Food Order

Woohoo! I wait all year for this buy in, because it has some basic foods I can't get anywhere else for the price. Please join me if you are local (Graham or Greenlee County). If you live near these counties or in Az and you want to coordinate an order with me, let me know and I'll work with you. If we order 1000 pounds, there is no shipping.  SHIPPING WILL BE CALCULATED BEFORE I TAKE MONEY. I have to "place" the order before I know what it will be, so when we get close to the deadline, I will place the order and recalculate each of your orders and THEN collect money. If you live outside of Arizona and are just dying for one or more of these products, contact me and I can make arrangements for you.

What you need to know.

The order starts immediately and goes until Oct 25. It snuck up on me this year and I almost missed it. Please submit your order by the 24th. Then I will calculate and take money by the 25th. So the deadline is Friday, October 24th. I have adjusted prices to include shipping. If more is required for shipping, you will have the option of cancelling. If there is excess, I will refund when your order arrives. This is a problem for me every year, trying to calculate without overcharging or shorting. The order will not ship to me until after DEC 1. See products and pricing below.

Raw Almonds – 25 lbs

$175.00

25 lb. Box

Unpasteurized raw almonds are nearly impossible to come by, unless you import from Spain, in which case they are $8-$13/lb. Almonds are an incredibly versatile food. They’re great as high-nutrition, high-fiber, relatively low fat, high-protein snacks.

You can soak almonds overnight to germinate them and then dehydrate them till they’re crunchy, eliminating more possibility of chemical residue. California passed a law in 2007 that ranchers must pasteurize their crop. This destroys live enzymes in this perfect food that are highly beneficial and that give your body a rest from having to produce its own enzymes to digest food.

California produces over 85 percent of the world’s almonds. Since you can no longer obtain raw almonds from retailers, I offer a group buy that allows individuals to obtain up to 100 pounds unpasteurized from a rancher. 

Nuts are high in fat, but almonds have less fat than most. They are extremely high in fiber and protein. A handful of almonds with a quart green smoothie is one of my favorite power lunches for days when I’m in a hurry. And almonds slow the absorption of the sugars from the fruit in the smoothie into the bloodstream. Almonds are rich in Vitamin E, magnesium, and potassium, and will help lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease.

Almonds last up to a year in your pantry at room temperature. Keep them in jars or freezer bags in the fridge for 2 years, and indefinitely in the freezer. Nuts can still germinate (sprout) after they are frozen, so freezing is a good way to preserve almonds and other nuts. The freshest almonds you can buy! These are the latest crop from sunny California, unpasteurized!

Raw walnuts – 25 lbs

$230

25 lb Box

Walnuts are a delicious addition to salads. They’re an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, protective nutrients that your body must receive from outside sources. These and other nutrients in walnuts prevent cancer, support immune function, improve cognitive abilities, and prevent inflammatory conditions like asthma and arthritis.

Walnuts do not last particularly long on the shelf, so buy only enough for a few months unless you have freezer space (they will keep frozen indefinitely, and a long time refrigerated as well).

Sunflower Seeds – Organic, Raw – 25 lbs

$59.00 (less this year)

25 lbs

Sunflower seeds are packed with Vitamin E and B vitamins, and many minerals that promote a healthy heart and prevent cancer. These sunflower seeds are organic and fresh with no shell and no salt. Keep sunflower seeds for years in the freezer.  They sprout easily when soaked and drained.  Soak them in a jar for one to two days, drain and rinse twice a day.  Their nutrition is maximized when the end of the seed just barely begins to grow a tail. Refrigerate sprouted seeds immediately so growth slows and they are usable for a week.

You can  fill a pint jar half full of sunflower seeds about once a week.  Then drain it after letting it soak overnight.  Add a large spoonful to granola to provide live enzymes and spectacular nutrition.


Flax Seed – Organic – 25 lbs

$45.00 (less this year)

25 lbs

Flax is a powerful nutritional supplement. 
Flax has been cultivated since ancient times but has gained new popularity and been heavily studied in recent years.  It is one of the most perfect foods available in nature.  I can’t think of a food that, by itself, provides as many benefits.  When you soak flax a few hours so that it germinates, it is absolutely unparalleled, nutritionally.  The American Cancer Institute has acknowledged 27 different compounds in flax that are anti-carcinogenic!

Flax is comprised of 35 percent essential fatty acids (EFAs), the ones your body cannot manufacture on its own and must be provided by diet.  More than half of those EFAs are omega 3s, critical for heart health and hard to find in other foods.  No other food has higher omega 3s than flax does.
The flax seed also is high in protein, vitamins, and phytonutrients, and contains a massive dose of fiber—both soluble and insoluble.  In a flax cracker with ¼ cup of seeds, you get 10 grams of fiber.  Little-known but critically important compounds that are garnering more interest from researchers are lignans, which are important in immune function and help neutralize estrogens and metabolize phytoestrogens.  Flax has 75-800 times more lignans than any other plant foods.  Flax has also been linked to preventing depression, and it’s the first food I recommend when someone tells me they’ve been battling a mood disorder.

These benefits yield immune support, healthy digestion and cholesterol levels, positive mood, and even glossy hair and dewy skin.  Flax oxidizes quickly when ground, so use them right away after grinding (in your blender or a coffee grinder).  I freeze gallon bags of flax for use in granola and crackers.


Extra-Virgin Olive Oil – 4 gal

$150.00

4 Gallons (four 1-gallon jugs)

This Olive Oil is not only inexpensive, it is 100% expeller-grade, cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil. This oil is supposed to keep in cold storage for 15 years. I plan on rotating it within five years, just to be safe. This oil is clear, gold-green to rich green color, and has a characteristic mild flavor with olive fruitiness, and a characteristic olive-like aroma. It is from the first pressing of olives, which contains the highest nutrition levels.

Olive oil has been consumed in abundance (often 35 percent of calories) in some of the healthiest populations of the world for thousands of years. Studies have documented that those eating a Mediterranean diet with olive oil, raw vegetables, and poultry had a huge advantage—50% lower mortality risk!—over those eating lots of pasta, meat, bread and wine.

Greek research published in Clinical Cardiology found that those using only olive oil (forgoing other fats) had 47 percent less heart disease than the control group, whereas those using other, refined fats as well had no protection against heart disease.1 At least one very large study (20,000 subjects) even isolated the factor making the biggest difference in the Mediterranean diet’s exceptional effect in lowering blood pressure: virgin olive oil.

Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat that leads to breaking down stored fats in the body, and published research shows both animals and humans losing weight when other oils are replaced in the diet with olive oil, even with caloric intake remaining constant.

Olive oil is rich in the antioxidant classes polyphenols and carotenoids, and in chlorophyll and Vitamin E.  Many studies over several decades have documented that those who eat olive oil regularly (instead of other fats) have dramatically lower rates of diabetes, colon cancer, asthma, and heart disease.  Olive-oil-rich diets lower blood sugar, and prevent diseases as diverse as atherosclerosis, inflammation, and bone loss.  So significant were the findings of a French study on olive oil’s effect on bone health that a Brazilian company is now developing patented olive polyphenol supplements and teas for anti-osteoporosis effects.  More than one group of researchers has documented a much lower risk of breast cancer in populations eating olive oil daily.
Even small amounts of olive oil have been found to kill helicobacter pylori, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that causes chronic inflammation, peptic ulcers, and gastric cancer, because it contains antimicrobial properties.

Always use extra-virgin olive oil, which comes from the first pressing of the olives, as it is unrefined and highest in polyphenols.  It is a longer-chain fatty acid, and while 2 Tbsp. daily has been studied as a good amount to reduce heart disease risk, large amounts of this oil (more than 2 Tbsp. per meal) can lead to weight gain.  Instead of sauteing food in oil, dress vegetables or grains in olive oil immediately after steaming  or sauteing in vegetable broth.  This preserves the compounds mentioned above that are found in the raw oil.

You need no more than 1-2 Tbsp. of olive oil daily.  And that’s instead of, not in addition to, the bad fats in animal flesh and processed foods.

Organic Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil – 3 gal

$180.00 ($15 per quart)

3 Gallons (three 1-gallon buckets)

This coconut oil comes in white plastic (food grade) buckets so the oil is protected from air and light.  It is a saturated and therefore highly stable fat, and goes rancid much more slowly than other fats and therefore stores well.  Plan on rotating it within a few years, and buy no more than a 5-year supply for your baking, cooking, and beauty regimen needs (see last paragraph below for ideas for your skin and hair).  If you don’t have a cool area to store the oil in, I recommend buying only a two-year supply.
The oil is liquid above 76 degrees, and solidifies at cooler temperatures.  If you want a liquid oil, just put the bucket in a sink ful of hot water until enough melts for you to use.  (Don’t microwave the oil or you destroy many of its nutritional properties, including enzymes.)

A very successful political campaign in the 80’s and 90’s by the soy industry effectively blacklisted tropical oils (coconut and palm) and made “saturated fat” a swear word in nutrition.  We were told instead to use canola or corn oils when we couldn’t avoid oil in a recipe.  Unfortunately, refined and nutritionally inferior vegetable oils that replaced coconut oil increased health problems, rather than decreasing them.

Medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) are necessary in our diet and lead to silky skin and hair, as well as healthy cellular function buffered by lipids (fats) everywhere in the body. Organic, virgin coconut oil has the highest levels of MCFAs (58 percent) and has provided some of the healthiest and most beautiful people on the planet with excellent nutrition for thousands of years.  Dr. Bruce Fife has documented in The Coconut Oil Miracle how indigenous Pacific Islanders who are relatively unaffected by Westernization have virtually no heart disease and cancer, with ideal height/weight ratios.  Their diet is up to 60 percent fat, most of it saturated fat from coconut!1

MCFAs supply quick energy because they are metabolized in the liver like carbs rather than being stored in the adipose tissue or as belly fat.  MCFAs enhance our immune system with critical nutrients.  Coconut oil is antimicrobial, antibacterial, and antifungal—shown to kill strep, staph, fungus, the virus that causes leukemia, and much more.

A friend's teenaged son once had a fungal infection on his face that wouldn’t go away all summer.  They tried everything on it, including colloidal silver and even over-the-counter topical drugs.  Nothing worked, and the spot was growing bigger and becoming a social liability.  Finally I had the idea to apply some virgin coconut oil.  The quarter-sized fungal infection disappeared in 36 hours!  

The good and bad fat debate centered on saturation for many years, obscuring other factors.  Not all saturated fats are bad.  Lauric acid (the immune-boosting compound in mother’s milk) is found abundantly in coconut oil, as well as in smaller amounts in butter.  Many supplement makers isolate lauric acid or make it in synthetic form and sell it as an immune system aid.  Coconut oil has lauric acid in the whole-food form, which is always utilized better by the body than an isolate or synthetic.
Unlike other oils, coconut oil does not produce dangerous trans fatty acids, even when cooked at high temperatures.  (Even olive oil produces some TFAs.)  For this reason, coconut oil is ideal for sauteeing.  If you don’t like the coconut flavor imparted to fried foods, I would recommend non-virgin coconut oil–for this purpose only–since cooking with high heat would kill many of the enzymes and nutrients anyway.  The non-virgin oils tend to be without the coconut flavor.

Although coconut oil is low in Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), it increases the utilization of EFAs by up to 100 percent.  It also nourishes the thyroid and increases metabolic rate for up to 24 hours.  You may know that proteins and carbs have 4 calories per gram, and fats have 9 calories per gram.  But you may be surprised to learn that the MCFAs in coconut oil actually have only 6.9 calories per gram, making coconut oil a slightly lower-calorie fat!

Again, eat coconut oil, but don’t go crazy with it.  With fats, small amounts are all you need, and 10 percent of your diet is enough.

You can use it as a nighttime moisturizer. Coconut oil is absorbed quickly by the skin, and is useful for healing dry skin on heels, elbows, and lips.  Rub warm coconut oil into your hair (especially the ends) and leave it on overnight or for an hour or two before you shower, for silky hair.

Q: How long does coconut oil last?
A: Coconut oil is highly stable relative to other oils. Many estimates are 3-5 years, but if you aren’t keeping your oil in cold storage, plan on 2 years in the pantry. My coconut oil in cold storage (not heated in the winter, in the basement) is four years old and still tastes wonderful, no rancidity.
 
I LOVE popping my popcorn in coconut oil.


Organic Raw Coconut Sugar – 15 lbs

$120.00

15 Pounds (Three 5-lb. Bags)

This was new last year and oh how I love it! It has a yummy brown sugar taste, kind of caramelly. Unlike Sucanat, it has a glycemic index of 35. And anything 55 or less is considered “Low Glycemic Index.” (56-69 is medium GI, and 70+ is high GI.) Low GI foods lower total cholesterol and LDL’s.
This sweetener is also the world’s most sustainable source of sugar, as coconut palms can grow in severely depleted soils (think sandy beach!) and use very little water. In fact, they improve soil structure, fertility, and water conservation, helping marginal lands become lush jungle, over time. They’re nearly twice as productive per hectare as sugarcane.

This sweetener is neutral flavored, perfect for baking and sweetening drinks, and it is surprisingly high in minerals, including nitrogen, phosophorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and Vitamin C. It is far higher in nutrition than agave, honey, or maple syrup. Should be a staple in a whole-foods kitchen.

Raw Honey – 30 lbs

$120.00

30 lb. Case

Honey literally keeps forever; never goes bad.  This is in part because it is a natural anti-bacterial.  You can put it on cuts and scrapes and burns for excellent healing properties.  My source is in Utah, and the bees range on alfalfa. The honey is completely raw.

Raw honey can decrease or eliminate seasonal allergies.  Some theorize that the cross-pollination done by local bees provides a type of homeopathic remedy.  I tried this myself when I first read about it and did not have seasonal allergies ever again after beginning to use small amounts of local, raw product.

It’s a good sweetener for green smoothies in small amounts (especially if you suffer from allergies).
Six 5-lb. Buckets.

Organic Raw Dark Agave – 4 gal

$200.00 (Ouch, really went up)

 4 Gallons (four 1-gallon jugs)
Agave will last for years on the shelf.  Keep the amount you want for long-term storage in a cool area if possible, and buy up to a five-year supply.

Use it in green smoothies, and as a replacement in desserts. The big advantage of using agave rather than other sweeteners is that it has one-third the glycemic index of sugar and honey.  A health care practitioner I know says that by doing nothing more than shifting her diabetic clients from sugar to agave, she has seen many diabetes remissions.  It is a light syrup with a pleasant, neutral flavor that you won’t notice, and it is sweeter than sugar.

Agave has gotten a bad rap lately, as allegations have been made that Mexican companies sometimes cut high-fructose corn syrup into agave.  Good brands, however, process their “raw” agave under 118 degrees.  Some brands that advertise to be raw probably are not.  So use a brand that clearly states its commitment to cold processing, since that is how enzymes are preserved.

 Date Pieces

30 lbs-$95

Date pieces rolled in oat flour are moist and delicious. They add sweetness to baked goods and granola.

Dates are an ancient food very high in magnesium and calcium.  As a whole, raw food, they are an excellent sweetener, much better nutritionally than any concentrated sweetener, and will consequently have less impact on blood sugar with its fiber and non-reduced and non-altered sweet flavor.
I offer date pieces through group buy because they cost less than half of whole dates, and you can rinse the oat flour off if you wish.
 
That's it! Do ask friends to share or split orders. I'm sorry I can't do that for you. Last year I almost lost my mind doing that.

I will add chopped dates to the order if anyone wants them.






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