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Organic Trade Association '07 Will Help Farmers
Organic Trade Association
Reception will be a smash hit!
One of my Seed Dreams
will be to hook up OTA
with "Joe the Farmer,"
my forthcoming storybook
based on the life of
Joe Rodriguez, jr.,
and his family.
In the Anaheim Convention Center kitchen with
Chef Wynnie Stein (right) and Chef Nancy Lazarus (left)
Moosewood/ Fairfield Farm Kitchens
The Kitchen at the Anaheim Convention center
was filled with stellar world class Chefs
and boxes and boxes of the finest Natural Food
products. The trend will continue this year.
It is a great honor to record this event
pictorially for OTA, a really great organization
that I support. I am proud to be a member.
The Enchanten Garden Farm Project '07 will be
to continue to raise the bar. Locally grown,
fresh delivered organic produce is the standard
we uphold, whenever possible.
One of the Tidbits I learned at last years
Natural Product Expo West, was that one out
of every three trucks on the road is delivering
food from somewhere else.
The Enchanted Garden farm economy is locally
based.
In 07, the long awaiting picture storybook
"Joe the Farmer" will come out. Thanks to
the help of Enchanted Garden sponsors in '06,
including Anthony Zolezzi, I was able to
bring Joe's locally grown fresh picked-that-day
strawberries into our local Whole Foods Market Hillcrest.
Whole Foods, as a chain, wanted to support locally
grown foods. In our local store, the legwork I did
for five weeks last Spring,further instigated
a regional trend that now is a full-on marketing
campaign--more and more locally grown
organic foods are showing up at Whole Foods Markets
throughout our So Cal region.
San Diego County was once one of the food growing
capitals of the world. The fourth generation
Rodriguez family are on the front lines of
true "Homeland Security." The family has suffered
great losses in the last ten years, but as the
storybook goes, "Joe the Farmer, never, never,
never gave up."
The first year I attended the OTA Reception,
I was a guest of Joe Rodriguez, Jr. That year the family donated
his locally grown strawberries to the Reception.
His current crop is making a comeback after freezing
weather, and will again be in Whole Foods this year.
This strawberry image was taken at
Thanksgiving '07 at the Rodriguez Ranch in
Escondido.
Many acres of the farm were sold about five years
ago to settle accounts with elder family brother and sisters
who wanted out so they could enjoy their twilight years.
Joe, inspired by the Whole Foods
Market success in '06, wants to buy the farm back.
As an organic movement, his story epitomizes the
hardship as well as triumphs of a local organic
family struggling to survive not only weather conditions,
but urban water bills.
At last year's OTA reception, numbers of my Super
Ripe Farmers' Market quality photos were in the
fantastic slide show that was shown.
I am in process now of completing a "Joe the Farmer"
CD of images that will be sent to both OTA and Whole Foods
for their marketing purposes. I will submit these
to OTA for this year's slideshow.
Here are a few of the "Joe the Farmer"
Images:
Sponsors to bring out "Joe the Farmer"
To see some larger images,
go here:
The entire record of introducing
Joe's strawberrries is documented
on this Plant Your Dream Blog.
Go here:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1591
With the support of The Enchanted Garden
Club inner Circle Members, you will see
"Joe the Farmer" Picture/Storybook
out in '07. Wouldn't it be great
to see it on this list by next year!
The O'Mama Report:
Good Things to Read about Gardening from OTA:
http://www.theorganicreport.com/pages/150_organic_garden_books.cfm
SUPER RIPE OTA IMAGES TO LOOK
AT by Your Enchanted Gardener:
For more photos from the '06 Reception
go here:
http://www.ota.com/upcoming/events/reception.html
Super Ripe Photos from the '05 Reception
are here:
http://www.lesliegoldman.com/Images/id24.htm
The last two years, Super Ripe photos
from Images of Farmers' Market foods have been
used as gifts to the donors honored at the Reception.
From an OTA website:
The Organic Trade Association’s (OTA) Annual Organic Industry Reception, being held in conjunction with ExpoWest on March 8, 2007, from 7:30 to 10:30 PM, celebrates the success of the Annual Fund and OTA’s work on behalf of the organic industry. After OTA's 2006 fabulous Organic Industry Reception, we are planning to feature guest chefs once again in 2007. These guest chefs from the organic industry will have the opportunity to create menu items and showcase the wide array of organic ingredients and products on the market. The 2007 event will focus on organic agriculture, and highlight organic farms and farmers. This theme ties into OTA’s 2007 Farm Bill Agenda and Advocacy focus, as well as the association’s core value to recognize that farms are the foundation of the organic industry.
Here is a summary of highlights from the 2006 reception:
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) hosted OTA's Annual Organic Industry Reception Thursday, March 23 to celebrate the success of the OTA Annual Fund and its achievements on behalf of the organic industry. The reception was co-hosted by New Hope Natural Media.
During the event, OTA's 2006 Annual Fund Host Committee presented a check to Phil Margolis, OTA Board President, for the $516,212.00 they helped raise to evolve the organic agenda in 2006. Furthermore, Katherine DiMatteo, former Executive Director of OTA, was presented "The Spirit of Organic" award by New Hope Natural Media.
Photography courtesy of Leslie Goldman
The event, which was attended by more than 900 guests, featured a Mediterranean theme. Several OTA member company chefs volunteered to create a signature dish for this event and each dished out their offerings at tables stationed throughout the room.
The chefs that volunteered their expertise and time
for OTA's Organic Industry Reception are:
Chef Akasha Richmond
Silk/Horizon Organic & Eaturna
Each chef contributed to the development of the menu and worked with Chef William Smith III at the Anaheim Convention Center to prepare this meal. Dishes were featured from countries around the Mediterranean and were made with organic ingredients.
Special thanks to:
*
Mountain People’s Warehouse for assisting in the consolidation and shipping of donations and managing OTA’s order.
*
Mountain People’s Wine Distributors for assisting in the consolidation and shipping of donations and managing OTA’s order.
*
Leslie Goldman (The Enchanted Gardener) for providing photography
___
Take a look at my favorite On-line Video here
produced by OTA:
Enchanted Garden OTA Seed Dreams
for the '07 Reception:
More Enchanted Garden Members
for OTA Sponsors.
Clarity and Promotion
of Enchanted Garden Intention Community
as a teaching site where products are used
in our kitchen and students and residents
come to reestablish connection with Earth.
_____
OTA Sponsors List from their website.
These are great companies to support
through your Conscious Commerce.
Many thanks to the following OTA members
for generously donating their products and
services to support OTA's Organic Industry Reception:
Albert’s Organics
American Health And Nutrition
Annie’s Naturals®
Apple & Eve®
Cal-Organic/Grimmway Farms
Ceres Organic Harvest
Choice Organic Teas/ Granum, Inc.
Ciao Organics
Coleman Natural Foods
Dagoba Organic Chocolate
Del Valle Pecans, Llc
Dixon Ridge Farms
Dr. Kracker™
Dream Foods International
Driscoll’s
Edward & Sons
Fairfield Farm Kitchens
Florida Crystals
Frey Vineyards
Frontier Natural Products Cooperative
Fungusamongus
Global Organics
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Hain Celestial Group
Herb Trade
Hodgson Mill®
Honest Tea
Iranzo Fields, Sl
Kettle Cuisine, Inc.
Larocca Vineyards
Lumia Organic
Martin International
Mediterranean Organic
Merchant Du Vin
Organic Valley
Petaluma Poultry
Pure Produce
Seeds Of Change®
Small Planet Foods
Steaz Green Tea Soda
Sunspire
Traditional Medicinals
Whitewave Foods, Inc.
Wholesome Sweeteners
Chef Beth Ginsberg
Eaturna
Chef Dan Coffin
National Starch Food Innovation
Chef Mark Graham
National Starch Food Innovation
Chef Jesse Cool
Coleman Natural Foods
Chef Wynnie Stein and
Chef Nancy Lazarus (left)
Moosewood/ Fairfield Farm Kitchens