Chocolate "Flavor Landscapes"

Over the last few years, fine chocolatiers have been adding nontraditional spices and herbs to create chocolate sensations that pamper the cultivated palate. One of the leaders in the organic food industry is Ashland, Oregon-based Dagoba, a company that specializes in award-winning artisan chocolate products.

Dagoba uses the finest organic aromatic cocoa beans from Latin America and the Caribbean, shade-grown and harvested with environmental sustainability in mind. The company is perhaps best known for its tantalizing chocolate bars, which are nothing like the typical offerings you'll find on a natural foods candy display.

Popular flavors include:

• Dark Chocolate Lime, a "playful and refreshing" blend of citrus and chocolate, laced with lime and macadamia nuts
• Xocolati, dark chocolate mixed with chiles, cacao nibs, maca and nutmeg -- inspired by an old recipe from Aztec royalty
• Chai, a milk chocolate infused with a "secret blend" of chai spices and bits of crystallized ginger
• Milagros, a mildly flavored Peruvian chocolate with hints of clove and mace, accompanied by notes of coconut, banana and orchid

Just released this summer is Dagoba's exotic line of organic truffles and seasonal treats, beautifully packaged for holiday gift-giving. Truffles are packed in 4- and 9-piece boxes, featuring innovative flavor-infused selections like Raspberry-Ginger, Goji Berry and Chai. The company's goal: to open "new flavor landscapes that mesmerize and delight all five senses."

Source:   Cheryl Tallman and Joan Ahlers

As you know by now, all parents have a different idea of what is healthy food and what is not. For years, you have had the opportunity to hand select and monitor what your child eats for lunch. Now it is time to test their ability. It is only natural for your child's eyes to wander and notice, and be envious of, what the other kids are eating. Here are a few tips that may help your child's lunch be healthy, fun and get noticed by the other kids.

The lunchbox: It is important to have the right gear and the lunchbox is an important asset. Consider letting your child pick out his own lunchbox or purchase one and let him decorate it with paint or markers. Make sure your child's name is on it with a permanent marker or paint. Most schools will not provide a refrigerator to store lunchboxes, so you should select an insulated one with a re-usable freezer pack to keep the lunch fresh. Or, instead of using a freezer pack, you can freeze a bottle of water, and add it to the lunch box. It will keep the lunch cold and fresh during morning classes and by lunch time it will have thawed and be ready to drink.

Source:   Steve Meyerowitz aka Sproutman, www.Sproutman.com

The organic food market is growing at an impressive rate. Organic sales have doubled since 1997 and increased 17 to 21 percent per year compared to increases of 2 to 4 percent for the entire food industry. The demand for fresh and naturally grown food is reflected in the ever-increasing shelf space devoted to organic products at large supermarket chains. At a June 28, 2005 conference, the International Food and Agribusiness Association reported that global sales of organic and natural products are forecasted to reach $100 billion by 2008. At this growth rate, demand for organic products is expected to outstrip supply.

Shopping for your holiday turkey can be confusing without a crash course in poultry lingo. Let's first examine what some of the labels mean. (I'm excluding the standard store-bought birds at mainstream grocery chains.)

• "Natural" turkey: Contains no artificial ingredients or preservatives, but not certified organic.
• "Organic" turkey: Free-range birds that have fed strictly on organic grains that contain no pesticides, chemicals, hormones or antibiotics.
• "Heritage" turkeys: Specially bred and raised, with a richer flavor. Available in limited supply and therefore more expensive.

For consumers in search of natural and organic foods, heritage turkeys are the new rage. What, exactly, makes these holiday birds so unique? Think Pilgrims. Heritage turkeys are carefully fed, raised and produced to offer extremely lean, juicy meat, with an amazingly natural taste. They generally have more dark than white meat, and each plump bird is a member of a rare -- sometimes near-extinct -- species that farmers are attempting to preserve. In short, these birds are raised to be as close as possible to the turkeys the Pilgrims ate almost 400 years ago.

Column #1: Flavor Focus - Vanilla

Keyah Grande's Grilled Baby Scallops with Vanilla Beans

When Ben & Jerry's added organic ice cream to its eclectic lineup, it's no accident that one of the four available flavors was vanilla. According to both the International Dairy Foods Association and International Ice Cream Association, vanilla remains Americans' flavor of choice by a landslide.

But vanilla is finding its way into more than ice cream these days. In the organic food marketplace, you'll find a new wave of vanilla-flavored cereals, teas, coffees, soymilks, flavored milks, yogurts and desserts, among other products. Just check out Peace Cereal Vanilla Almond Crisp, Nature's Path Vanilla Animal Cookies, Earth's Best Sesame Street Very Vanilla Shortbread Cookies, Dean's Beans Vanilla and Vanilla Decaf Organic Coffees, Whole Foods Organic Vanilla Pudding, Edensoy Extra Vanilla Organic Soymilk, Stonyfield Farm Organic Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt Smoothie and Horizon Organic Vanilla Milk.

The intoxicating smell and unmistakable taste of vanilla are a warm, nostalgic reminder of Grandma baking cookies on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps this explains why demand for vanilla puddings, cookies and other treats increased after 9/11. In fact, Americans consume roughly 1,200 tons of vanilla beans each year.