ExpoWest 2012: My Favorite Things (Part 3)

Welcome to ExpoWest 2012: My Favorite Things Part 3.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of whole grains. Whole grains contain the vitamins and minerals that are lost when we refine them to make white rice or refined flour.

I love making my own sourdough bread, corn tortillas and tortilla chips, risotto (with brown rice), chocolate cookies, and other recipes with whole grains instead of refined grains.

Check out some of the whole grain companies I met this year at ExpoWest.

Grain Products

Bob’s Red Mill

Bob’s Red Mill is one of my favorite companies. Why? Because they believe in whole grains like I do.

Not only that, but they are a company that cares about people. Thanks to the leadership of Bob Moore, the found of Bob’s Red Mill.

Bob hired a full band to perform at ExpoWest.  He said, obviously enjoying himself, “This is my favorite music.”

It was a hoot and the music was fabulous!

They were celebrating Bob’s new book, People Before Profit: The Inspiring Story of the Founder of Bob’s Red Mill.

Here’s the book description on Amazon:

In an era of corporate greed, Bob Moore’s philosophy of putting people before profit is a shining example of what’s right about America. Instead of selling out to numerous bidders who would have made him a very wealthy man, the founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods gave the $100 million company to his employees.

Bob Moore’s gift on February 15, 2010 (his eighty-first birthday), gave hope to an American workforce rocked by a decade of CEOs behaving badly. The national media heralded the announcement as the “feel good story of the recession.” It was an example of a return to ethics in the workplace, but as the legions of fans of Bob’s whole grain natural products would argue, ethics and a sense of corporate responsibility didn’t “return” to Bob’s Red Mill, they never left.

Most 60-year-old men who saw their business destroyed in an arson fire might have quit or faded away into retirement. Not Bob. After his wooden flour mill burned to the ground in 1988, he considered the seventeen employees who counted on him for their livelihood, and started over. He rebuilt, and flourished. He grew the company to become the nation’s leading manufacturer of whole grain natural foods.

Bob’s is an amazing story of overcoming challenges and making great comebacks. His wife, Charlee, was the inspiration to feed the family healthy natural foods, but it was a divine appointment with a random library book titled John Goffe’s Mill that began Bob’s love affair with the ancient art of milling, using stone wheels to slowly grind grains into nutritious whole wheat flours, cereals, and mixes. His unconventional thinking and passion for healthy living is an inspirational story for readers of all ages.

Doesn’t that make you want to read it? I don’t know about you but I’m inspired. I just downloaded it to my Kindle. You can get a copy of the book here: People Before Profit: The Inspiring Story of the Founder of Bob’s Red Mill

Where to Find Bob’s Red Mill Products

Where to find Bob’s Red Mill. Bob’s Red Mill products are available at Whole Foods and most supermarkets. You can also shop online.

Alvarado Street Bakery

I’ve been buying Alvarado Street Bakery bread since the mid-eighties. Yes, I realize that dates me, as many of you were not born until the mid-eighties.

In the mid-eighties, I was just out of high school, working as a nanny in San Francisco. We bought our Alvarado Street Bakery bread at the Marina Safeway.

I’ve continued to buy their bread pretty much on a weekly basis ever since. Why? Because it tastes so good!

It doesn’t hurt that their products are sprouted AND whole grain. Yes, that means it’s really, really good for you.

Oh yeah and did I mention that they are a worker-owned cooperative (this means everyone makes money, not just the top level executives), a green business, and they are solar-powered? Yeah, they pretty much rule.

Good things happen when hippies step away from the peace pipe and actually go and start businesses. I think these guys are so cool, so smart — an inspiration, really.

And I love kibbutzing with them every time I hit ExpoWest. They always make me laugh! Hopefully they will agree to be on my podcast once I get it going again.

Where to Find Alvarado Street Bakery Products

Where to Find Alvarado Street Bakery products. You can also find their products at Whole Foods and other natural food stores around the country.

Pleasant Hill Grain

Pleasant Hill Grain is one of the biggest and best online sources of whole grains, grain mills, bakeware and cookware, and lots and lots of other stuff!

Like me, they are a big advocate of eating whole grains. They sell pretty much everything you need to start cooking and baking with whole grains in your kitchen. From bulk whole grains to grain mills to bakeware to mixers to pizza stones.

They also sell a ton of emergency preparedness items, from food-grade 5-gallon buckets with Gamma lids (also useful for storing whole grains for short term — this is how I save a lot of money!) to Berkey water filters to non-electric grain mills.

This is the food-grade bucket with the Gamma lid. It seals very tightly so you can buy your grains and beans in bulk and then firmly secure them and keep the pests and rodents out.

And yes, you can color coordinate them! How fun is that?

Here’s Kelly the Kitchen Kop testing out one of my favorite gadgets, the Flic Floc oat roller. That’s next on my list of items to get.

It’s the Rolls Royce of oat rollers. And so fun for kids!

Where to Find Pleasant Hill Grain

Shop online at Pleasant Hill Grain.

To Your Health Organic Sprouted Flour Co.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I am a huge fan of To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. They were one of our very first sponsors when I started the Real Food Media blog network back in 2008, and ever since they’ve felt like family to me.

If you are looking for sprouted flour, I can’t recommend them highly enough. I always keep sprouted flour in my freezer. I make my own sprouted flour, too, but I like to have back-up. You never know when you’re going to want to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies!

Here I am with Jeff, who is Peggy the founder’s husband:

Jeff is hilarious — makes me crack up every time. (Sorry, but I didn’t get those other guys’ names. They were just visiting the booth.)

Next year at ExpoWest, they need to bring some of Peggy’s sprouted flour pound cake and crackers. The booth was lovely and Jeff’s fun, but you just can’t beat Peggy’s snacks.

Where to Find To Your Health Organic Sprouted Flour Co.

Shop online at To Your Health Organic Sprouted Flour Co.

Tru Roots

I just found out about Tru Roots a few weeks ago from my friend and fellow Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader, Tara Rayburn. She had them in her pantry and was raving about them.

They sell organic sprouted quinoa, brown rice, and beans and seeds.

We tried the sprouted lentils which were absolutely delicious:

Where to Find Tru Roots Products

Where to Find Tru Roots products in stores. Or shop for Tru Roots products online.

What About You?

Do you buy any of these products? What are some of your favorites? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Check Back Tomorrow

Tomorrow I’ll be posting more of my favorite things from ExpoWest 2012 in part 4 of the series — check back!