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Nutrition Services Division -
California Department of Education:
Let’s Move! Recipe for Healthy Kids Challenge Campaign!
First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign, in association with the United States Department of Agriculture, is challenging school nutrition professionals, chefs, students, parents, and interested community members to create tasty, healthy, and exciting new recipes for inclusion on school lunch menus across the country.
For more information, please visit the Recipe for Healthy Kids Challenge Web site at www.recipesforkidschallenge.com
Community Wellness Challenge
Project Martinez brought together community resources to address obesity and health in schools
Multiple stakeholders came together to address health and wellness in the Martinez school district. Key partners are the Wellness City Challenge, Sustainable Contra Costa County, Contra Costa Certified Farmer’s Markets, Oakland Landscape Committee, and Living Labs. Food for the nutrition workshop was supplied by the Contra Costa Certified Farmer’s Markets.
The Presidents Council for Fitness and Sports
The President's Challenge program encourages all Americans to make being active part of their everyday lives. Visit: www.fitness.gov.
Read this interesting article on plastic bags...and a recent attempt to ban them in California.
http://www.thewatershedproject.org/enewsbaglobby.html
Halloween Fun at the Market!
What's in Season
Apples! Apples!
Apple season starts with Gravensteins and then continues to offer an array of varieties with distinctive flavors and textures. Choose the type of apple suitable for the use - some are best eaten out of hand while others are perfect for baking.
Fugi -very sweet and crisp, excellent flavor, keeps well
Gala – Medium size, firm crisp yellow flesh, stores well.
Golden Delicious – Sweet, juicy and aromatic, keeps color after cutting
Granny Smith – Sweet tart, crisp, bright green skin, excellent for baking pies and sauces
Jonathan – Shiny red skin, firm yellow spicy tasting flesh, very good eating apple
Mutsu – Large greenish yellow to yellow blushed red, very crisp, very good cooking apple
Red Delicious – Most popular eating variety, best eaten out of hand, crisp juicy flesh
Red Gold – Medium size, glossy red with yellow mild flesh, juicy, keeps well
Pink Lady – Medium size, sweet firm juicy flesh, best eaten out of hand, very good eating apple
Romes – Large, round, shiny, dark red, holds its shape during cooking, yellow flesh
Apples contain almost no fat and no sodium. They are high in complex carbohydrates and fiber. One apple contains about 95 calories and is a good source of vitamin C and other important nutrients.
This month (weather permitting):
Asian pears, avocados, dates, marigolds, apples, winter squash, artichokes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, frisee, lemongrass, walnuts, Valencia oranges, radishes, grapes, strawberries, pumpkins, broccoli, mushrooms, almonds, persimmons, pomegranates, raspberries, romanesco, peppers, wheat, onions, lettuces, pastured beef, tomatoes, potatoes, shelling beans, radicchio, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, rice, root vegetables, celery, kale, sunchokes, cabbage, kohlrabi |
The 4th annual edition of the Eater's Guide to Local Food for the Bay Area is hot off the press. It‘s 71 pages about where to get great local eats, what's in season when, and cutting edge thought on the politics and practice of good food from guest contributors Michael Pollan, Nicollete Hahn Niman, and more!
Bunches of fresh cut flowers stand tall in the white, water filled buckets that Ana Ruvalcaba brings to markets to fill her stand each week. Her signature words of "stop and smell the roses" are familiar to many of the regular passer-bys, but hand printed signs identifying the flowers tells you there are more than just beautiful roses to choose from. 
Ruvalcaba Nursery designates a few acres at a time to growing flowers specifically for the farmers' markets. They do not target the holidays by raising prices during peak times – Ana is proud to offer freshness and fair prices all year round. As long as customers give her a week's notice she can put together special orders for weddings, graduations, holidays or quinceaneras.
