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Spotlight on Tierra Farm

We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Tierra Farm this week to highlight the socially and environmentally responsible practices of this employee-owned business. They provide an array of healthy products to our bulk department that are certified organic, gluten-free, kosher, and GMO-free, all of which are produced in small batches in their solar-powered facility in nearby Valatie, NY. They’re featured in our Member Deals program this week, so member-owners can enjoy 20% off their delicious fair-trade coffee, dried fruits, nuts, nut butters, and other healthy snacks from May 24th – 30th! Read on to learn more about this fantastic small business and their commitment to responsible practices throughout the supply chain:

Tierra Farm is a Certified Organic manufacturer and distributor of nuts, dried fruits, and coffee located 20 miles south of Albany, New York. Their customers consist mainly of cooperatives and independently owned grocery stores that value working with an employee-owned, environmentally conscious company that manufactures its own products.

Tierra Farm started as a diversified organic vegetable farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The organic nuts & dried fruit portion of the business started in 1999, as a way to generate income in the slower winter months. That portion of the business has continued to thrive and evolve into a year-round operation, though they still maintain their original farm.

Tierra Farm offers their customers exceptional value through unbeatable quality at prices that are fair both to the consumer and to the farmer. Their products are made without preservatives, added oils or refined sugars, in their own peanut-free facility. They manufacture the products they sell: dry roasting and flavoring nuts and seeds, blending trail mixes, grinding butter, covering nuts and fruits in fair-trade chocolate, and roasting fair trade coffee. Everything is made in small, hand-crafted batches for freshness.

One of their core values has been to cultivate strong relationships with the best organic farmers in the world. They work directly with the farmers from which they source their nuts, seeds, and dried fruit and have worked with some of these farmers for over a decade. Being in direct communication with their farmers allows the preservation of their organic integrity and ensures fair business practices throughout the supply chain.

Tierra Farm handles only Certified Organic products which are grown without synthetic pesticides, genetically modified organisms, or chemical fertilizers. This helps sustain biodiversity, conserves fresh water, and enhances the soil. They generate over 70% of their electricity from solar panels and recycle over 60% of their waste. Their boxes are made from recycled cardboard and their deli cup containers are made from over 50% recycled material – both are recyclable after use. They’re continuously looking for better ways to protect the planet.

Tierra Farm also values the importance of investing in their staff. They have an in-house gym, an in-house chef who cooks daily organic, gluten-free meals for staff – often using fresh produce directly from their farm, a staff masseuse who visits weekly, and they offer many employee health initiatives such as a smoking cessation program that allows their staff to be 100% tobacco-free.

If you’re passing through the Albany area, they invite you to check out their retail store at Tierra Farm’s headquarters in Valatie, NY, where local customers are able to purchase all of their (almost 200) products!

Spotlight on Badger

Our Co-op Spotlight is shining brightly on Badger this week. This small, family-owned, family-run, and family-friendly company nestled in the woods of Gilsum, New Hampshire is beyond worthy of the spotlight. They help define what it means to be a socially responsible, environmentally responsible, people-first kind of business. They are featured in our Member Deals program this week, so all of their fabulous body care products are 20% for member-owners from November 25th – 29th! Read on to learn about the ideals, principles, and practices that make their company worthy of such high praise!

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Badger was born in 1995 when founder Bill Whyte was working as a carpenter in the cold New Hampshire winters and created an amazing balm that helped soothe and heal his cracked hands. The company has since grown to over 100 products and 60 employees but “Badger Bill” still runs the show as CEO, along with his wife Katie (COO), and their two daughters Emily (VP Sales & Marketing), and Rebecca (VP of Innovation and Sustainability).

Badger Bill and family

Quality Ingredients and Standards

Badger selects ingredients with great care, using only those that fit their rigorous natural standards for healthy agriculture, minimal processing, sustainable supply chain, and health-giving properties. Every ingredient they use is grown and processed with the highest degree of respect for protecting the environment, the workers and the natural properties of the plants. Nearly all of Badger’s products are made from 100% USDA Certified Organic food-grade ingredients and they utilize as many fair trade certified ingredients as possible. You can view their impressive growing and processing standards on their web page.

B Corp Status

In 2011, Badger became a certified B Corp. In 2015 they were recognized by the B Corp Best for the Environment list.  The list recognizes 116 businesses that earned an environmental score in the top 10% of more than 1,200 Certified B Corporations from over 120 industries on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment.

Badger facility & ecology center
Badger facility & gardens

Employee Care

Badger also recently won the Connect 2016 Philosophy Award for their accommodating employee benefits and exemplary work environment. They aim to be supportive of the new parents in their extended work family while considering the well-being of all employees and productivity in the workplace. With this in mind, their Babies At Work program brings together a policy that is best for baby, parent, and business. Most short-term disability benefits regarding pregnancies end after just six weeks, leaving the parent to find childcare as he or she returns to the workplace. Badger’s policy allows the parent to bring the child to the workplace until a specified time: in most cases until the baby is six months old or begins crawling.

The Whole Badger Crew

This program makes breastfeeding easier and allows for the inherent health benefits for both mother and child: enhanced bonding, lessening of daycare costs and more financial stability, great social network and extended-family support for both parent and child, and an easier transition to off-site child care. Once children are ready for off-site care, they have the option of attending the Calendula Garden Children’s Center.  This option offers reasonably-priced, high quality, flexible childcare for children of Badger employees, as well as a limited number of children from the greater community. The center itself is located in the renovated house that was the former home to the Badger Company, a quarter of a mile down the road from the company’s current facility. Badger, in a sense, creates its own “village” to support both parent and child!

Calendula Garden Child Care Center
Calendula Garden Child Care Center

Another exemplary aspect of employee care is their free lunch program. This is a daily organic lunch served during a paid 30-minute break. Every day their fabulous cooks prepare a free, home-cooked lunch for all of the Badgers made from 100% organic and mostly local foods. During the summer months, much of the produce comes right from their Badger vegetable garden! Read more about Badger’s impressive employee benefits here.

Free organic lunch!
Free organic lunch!

Product Certifications

Badger believes that third-party certifications take the guesswork out of claims made on cosmetics and personal care items. This means that they adhere to the standards and guidelines of any third party agency certifying their products. Their products are certified organic by both the USDA and the NSF, many of the ingredients are Fair Trade certified, and all products are certified gluten-free and certified cruelty-free.

 

Check out this short video to hear from Badger Bill about the values that make his company unique:

 

Gluten-Free Apple Almond Pie

Thankfully, going gluten-free doesn’t have to mean giving up your favorite baked goods. This Gluten Free Apple Almond Tart is proof positive that you can still have your pie and eat it, too! Many of the ingredients are featured in this week’s gluten-free baking-themed sale (March 2nd – 9th), so it’s a great time to give it a try.

 

Spotlight on Bob’s Red Mill

We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Bob’s Red Mill this week to shed a little light on this employee-owned business that has been offering stone-milled grains for nearly 40 years! Member-owners can enjoy 20% off all of Bob’s Red Mill products this week – just in time for holiday baking season. Read on to learn more about their unique business model and their commitment to using traditional stone milling techniques to deliver healthy high-quality grain products to store shelves.

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At Bob’s Red Mill, they believe that quality can’t be rushed. That’s why they manufacture their products using time-honored techniques, like grinding whole grains at cool temperatures with a traditional stone mill. Their beautiful stone grinding mills are much like the ones used during early Roman times and unlike the more commonly used high-speed steel rollers, their mills ensure the most nutritious parts of the whole grain remain intact. It was these beautiful antique grinding mills that first inspired founder Bob Moore to start Bob’s Red Mill nearly 40 years ago.

An Employee-Owned Business

On Bob’s 81st birthday, rather than receiving gifts, he decided to give his greatest gift away – his business! Bob surprised all of his employees by giving them total ownership of Bob’s Red Mill through an employee stock ownership program (ESOP).  Bob didn’t extend this gesture as a means to step away from the company he had created so he could ease into a comfortable retirement. He did so because of his firm belief in putting people before profit, and giving due appreciation to the people who’ve made a company strong. Despite hundreds of lucrative offers to buy his company as he approached “retirement age”, Bob chose the rare path of putting people first and gifted his company to his dedicated, hard-working staff.

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Milling, Testing, Packaging, & Distributing Under One Roof

The folks at Bob’s Red Mill knew from day one that if they wanted to ensure the best products possible and ensure quality every step of the way that they’d have to be able to do it themselves. Their facilities in Milwaukie, Oregon include the 325,000 sq ft headquarters, laboratory, and manufacturing plant, plus a 127,000 sq ft distribution center! Their gluten-free products are produced and tested in their separate gluten-free-only facilities to ensure product safety.

Bob and his wife Charlee at the Bob's Red Mill Headquarters
Bob and his wife Charlee at the Bob’s Red Mill Headquarters

Sourcing the Finest Products From Our Farms to Your Table

At Bob’s Red Mill, the relationship with the final product begins at the source. They maintain personal relationships with farmers across the country and make an effort to visit their farms. Together, they are able to ensure that they’re offering the best product available, while always using best practices.

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Sourced Non-GMO Pledge

The Bob’s Red Mill Non-GMO Pledge means that the ingredients sourced for their products have been declared by their suppliers to be made without the use of modern biotechnology. The truth is, they’ve always sourced using this practice, but now that commitment is visible on Bob’s Red Mill packages to allow consumers to purchase with confidence.

When you see the Sourced Non-GMO Pledge on one of their packages, you can be sure that they’ve worked with their farmers and suppliers to source ingredients that were not genetically engineered. That work includes cultivating trusted relationships over many years and requiring documentation that attests to the fact that the ingredients have not been genetically modified through the use of modern biotechnology. For assurance, they conduct audits of their suppliers annually. They also source organic ingredients whenever feasible, and by definition, foods that are Certified USDA Organic are made only with ingredients that have not been bioengineered.

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Be sure to check out the Bob’s Red Mill website for more info and don’t miss their extensive collection of recipes!

 

Spotlight on Tierra Farm

We’re casting our Co-op Spotlight on Tierra Farm this week to highlight the socially and environmentally responsible practices of this employee-owned business. They provide an array of healthy products to our bulk department that are certified organic, gluten free, kosher, and gmo-free, all of which are produced in small batches in their solar-powered facility in nearby Valatie, NY. They’re featured in our Member Deals program this week, so member-owners can enjoy 20% off their delicious fair-trade coffee, dried fruits, nuts, nut butters, and other healthy snacks! Read on to learn more about this fantastic small business and their commitment to responsible practices throughout the supply chain:

tei-logo

Tierra Farm is a Certified Organic manufacturer and distributor of nuts, dried fruits, and coffee located 20 miles south of Albany, New York. Our customers consist mainly of cooperatives and independently owned grocery stores that value working with an employee-owned, environmentally conscious company that manufactures its own products.

Tierra Farm started as a diversified organic vegetable farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The organic nuts & dried fruit portion of the business started in 1999, as a way to generate income in the slower winter months. That portion of the business continued to thrive into what it has become today and we still maintain our original farm.

One of our core values has been to cultivate strong relationships with the best organic farmers in the world. Every year we purchase an increasing amount of our nuts, seeds and dried fruit directly from the farms, some of which we have worked with for over a decade. Our level of knowledge and communication with our farmers allows us to preserve our organic integrity and ensure fair business practices throughout the supply chain.

We offer our customers exceptional value through unbeatable quality at prices that are fair both to the consumer and to the farmer. Our products are made without preservatives, added oils or refined sugars, in our peanut-free facility. We manufacture the products we sell: we dry roast and flavor nuts and seeds, blend trail mixes, grind butter, cover nuts and fruits in fair-trade chocolate, and roast fair trade coffee. Everything is made in small, hand-crafted batches for freshness.

Tierra Farm handles only Certified Organic products which are grown without synthetic pesticides, genetically modified organisms, or chemical fertilizers. This helps sustain biodiversity, conserves fresh water, and enhances the soil. We generate over 70% of our electricity from solar panels and recycle over 60% of our waste. Our boxes are made from recycled cardboard and our deli cup containers are made from over 50% recycled material – both are recyclable after use. We’re continuously looking for better ways to protect the planet.

We also value the importance of investing in our staff. We have an in-house gym, an in-house chef who cooks daily organic, gluten-free meals for our staff – often using fresh produce directly from our farm, a staff masseuse who visits weekly, and we offer many employee health initiatives such as a smoking cessation program that allows our staff to be 100% tobacco-free.

We recently opened a retail store at our headquarters in Valatie, NY, where local customers are able to purchase all of our (almost 200) products. Also, if you’re in the Albany area, please stop into one of our Tierra Coffee Roasters locations for a great cup of coffee and some homemade baked goods.

We also invite you to take a virtual tour of our farm!

 

 

Chipotle Black Bean Dip

Planning a Cinco de Mayo fiesta? You’ll love this healthy, flavorful dip! It’s the perfect appetizer for any gathering, and also makes a great snack. It’s dairy free and gluten free, so guests with food allergies or sensitivities will be pleased. Serve with tortilla chips, or use as base for a seven-layer dip or taco salad.