Today the Corporate Food Supply has become masters of marketing misrepresentation. I’m finding myself constantly second-guessing if I truly am eating clean food. Our food has been so degraded, for so long, there are many situations where I wouldn’t know how the pure product tastes. What is even worse, there are more situations where I forgot what true food tastes like.
I am one of the last generations that grew up when our food supply was delivered by 1,000’s of small local, family farms. I am part of the last generation that grew up before the birth of GMOs, corporate farming, glyphosates, natural flavors, hormone growth factors, chemical additives, and aspartame…to name a few. I am part of the last generation who didn’t experience the monopolization of our food supply into the corporate global food titans staunchly focused on corporate profits.Â
The pandemic hit and my immune system became the most important thing. It became important because if you’re following any of my social media, you are aware that I’m one of the ones experiencing the repercussions of vaccine injury.Â
I’m going to share with you some of the amazing products that I’ve found and what I learned when I started using these products.
The two products the Burroughs Family Farms does really well are olive oil and almonds. I had thought I had been upgrading my olive oil purchases. I was in the grocery stores purchasing more expensive brands, stored in dark jars, and coming from Italy.Â
That’s not enough.
Recently, I found that real olive oil has a robust, grassy, peppery taste. I had no idea. That sent me on a search for something real and local to the U.S. I wanted to find a small family farmer because they care for the land, environment, plants, and livestock like the farmers I knew when I grew up. Those farmers cared and loved their farms and the agriculture they brought to market.
I found a number of olive oil producers in the United States. Burroughs Family Farm caught my attention because they use non-GMO olives (all olives are non-GMO, but that was because of a huge global fight against corporate deception and deceit); the farm is all organic and avoids pesticides. If you’re curious about how much GMO crops have increased the use of pesticides in the United States, click here to check out this episode. This would be the closest I can get to what true olive oil used to be.
The farm also grows almonds that have not been steamed or treated. Usually, I’m not too fond of almonds. I think the steaming process makes almonds “warmer” on the digestion. In Chinese Nutritional therapy, almonds warm you naturally. Yet, corporate processing methods like steaming or gassing with highly toxic substances can change how foods respond in the body. These methods used by most commercial, non-organic almond farming are too warm for my digestion, causing symptoms of heartburn and inflammation. The almonds from this farm are processed without steaming or gassing.Â
Sunrise Flour Mill – Organic Heritage Wheat Flour, Pasta & Baking Mix
This was one of my first real experiences purchasing from small, independent food suppliers. Sunrise Flour Mill produces heritage wheat. Currently, wheat is not a GMO product because grasses have been too difficult to engineer genetically. Yet, they have been cross-pollinated with other grasses, which creates a hybrid. Heritage or heirloom seeds are seeds before we started creating hybrids or GMO’s. This is the original seed.
Working this flour was amazing. It is so much more lively than any flour I’ve used before. Click here to check out my episode where I talk with the owner of Sunrise Flour Mill. The really amazing thing happened when I started baking with it. The house was filled with the sweat, aromatic essence of baked goods that awoke memories from my childhood. I don’t even remember when I stopped smelling that fragrance.Â
The depth of flavor was amazing. Again, here was something that didn’t upset my stomach like most breads, besides sourdough, do.
Princeton Popcorn Company Mushroom Popcorn Kernels
Do you like popcorn? I use to. I remember when Orville popcorn was amazing. Over the years, I can’t tell the difference between Orville popcorn and all the other popcorn.Â
I crave that crunchy taste. Yet, microwave popcorns have a crunch with no taste and a thick taste of oil and salts. I don’t feel satisfied even after eating a whole, popped bag.
This popcorn is great! Pop a quarter cup of seeds, and you can add your own toppings to ensure the quality of your snack.
Palmetto Farms – Stone Ground Grits. All Natural, Old Fashioned.
Part of clean eating is going back to our roots. Many of our families grew up with grits as a staple. I didn’t realize there was a difference between stone ground grits and instant grits. Well, we are becoming more aware that anything “instant” isn’t real. That is the same with grits. I love these. They are sweeter and heartier than instant grits and go with everything.
Buy Nebraska has an organic corn meal that has been my favorite. The product is a blend of organic corn growers in Nebraska. There are pros and cons to delivering a co-op product. When I look at the pros, a co-op allows Buy Nebraska to pick the best from a much larger group of fields. Doing it that way ensures they can deliver a consistent, high-quality product.Â
The cons are that if this was a large Corporate Farm, they would blend lower-quality grains just to make minimum requirements for each grade to maximize profits. Or, they might get even more creative and use the product from organically grown fields to represent all fields in the area making it appear their packaged goods to be non-GMO instead of “might contain non-GMO products.” An example would be Non-GMO project, a non-profit who corporate giants pay to be able to stamp their packaged foods as non-GMO.
This is another exciting farm. They are located in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is up in my neck of the woods in the Midwest. Besides their products, what I really liked about this farm is it is really important to them to mentor other farmers. How cool is that? Â
The other really neat thing they have is heirloom grains I’ve never seen or used before. Not sure what heirloom grains are? Click here to check out this episode on heirloom seeds. They have two different corn meals. I mix them together. Their yellow is a fine grind, and the red dent is medium fine.Â
They call the Red dent a proprietary seed, which makes me think they are growing like farmers did when I was growing up. When I grew up, farmers saved some of the seed from the prior year harvest to plant in the next season. As Monsanto’s seeds cross-contaminated nearby fields with GMO seeds, Monsanto brought lawsuits against farmers for using their seeds. Like today, justice is usually about what you can afford, and Monsanto could afford a lot of justice. Monsanto won the cases and was able to force farmers to purchase very expensive GMO seeds.Â
In addition to these corn meals, Doudlah Farms has heirloom beans that I’ve never seen or tried before. They also have multiple organic certifications besides the USDA certification.Â
Are you starting to grow your own garden and searching for heirloom plants? Here it is.
If you’re into real olive oil from around the world, this is it. After discovering Burroughs Family Farm, I was curious to learn about the differences between their olive oil and that from around the world. This is the sight. Here you can find many oils that are processed and packed within 12 hours of harvest. Everything is 100% olive oil (that was the reason I started looking for real olive oil, because our Corporate retailers were selling blended oils and lower-quality oils into the market as virgin olive oils). Lastly, the harvests happen in the Fall. You can purchase the current year’s harvest as early as October/November. You can also order the year’s premium olive oils at this time, but you have to hurry. Those sell out immediately!
My latest thing is miso soup. My whole digestive thing has become a constant management concern with me being the management. I had been purchasing miso paste from our grocery stores, and one day I wondered if it would be better if I bought it directly from the source. OMG! It is! It’s a huge difference if you buy a product that is actually made in Japan. The nutrient density and flavor of these misos is insane. I can do 16 oz of miso soup for lunch and feel fine and revitalized until dinner. But they offer more than just miso. They offer a wide variety of specialty condiments, sauces, soys, ponzu, and more that I use, and I didn’t know were possible. Plan in advance, as shipping is 9-15 days.
Here’s a 2025 update – the products are sent from Japan. The companies has to find their container to ship and probably have to ship “so much” to make their part of the container. The container forecast for September to December 2025 is forecasted to reduce 18% and costs increase. This may become too expensive or unpredictable to order.
This is a brick-and-mortar and online retailer. They have two websites: LA and New York. I purchase from LA because it is closer. This was the first company I purchased from when I decided to find miso from the source! Their site is very descriptive, which makes the shopping more exciting. I have preferred the light misos and my favorite is barley misos (because barley is great at helping you’re body detox and the grain is cooling, which is especially beneficial if you suffer from acid reflux). I tried miso produced by the “Ancient Method.” I don’t know what that is, but it sure sounded good. And in real life – it tasted even better. So, incredibly smooth and rich. I had no idea how hollow our store-bought misos tasted. This online retailer sells more than just miso; they offer a variety of special rices and a wide range of sauces and ingredients, some of which I’ve tried and others I haven’t.
Azure Standard of Healthy & Abundant Living
Azure Standard offers a unique option for shopping for healthy products. It is a family-owned and independent food delivery company providing affordable organic, natural, and non-GMO groceries and health, household, and garden products. They offer regular and bulk-sized orders. They offer delivery through the mail (UPS or USPS) or through their Drop Points – these are places where you pick your order up. Delivery is free.
Their farm was one of the first farms to get their organic certification back in 1982 grown grains for Bob’s Red Mill.
I first ran into their produce at Chuck’s Fresh Markets. It was the only mixed greens that looked fresh and stayed fresh in the refrigerator. No wilting, no melting, no staying as hard as a rock and drying out. Just real fresh greens that tasted like fresh greens. You have to live near Ridgefield, WA/Battleground, WA/ or Vancouver, WA. You can order online and go to their stand in one of the three locations and pick it up. You can just swing by and pick up greens.
So, great option for greens and vegetables!
The Second Mile Food Hub is a local (Vancouver, WA) aggregator and online marketplace of locally grown and produced food. Customers shop their online store. Orders placed by Monday are packed and ready for pickup on Tuesday. Pick-up is at NE Highway 99, Suite C Vancouver WA 98686 between 1pm and 5pm. The store has a commercial kitchen and offers classes on nutrition and canning. Lastly, you can also purchase gift certificates.
Located at 9504 NE 119th St, Vancouver, WA 98662. Bi-Zi farms grows local produce. Their farm produces a variety of vegetable crops year round and their shop is open 9am to 6pm. If you’re into canning, this is a great place to purchase. They also host a variety of events throughout the year including the Sunflower Festival and Pumpkin Patch.
Located at 18905 NE 83rd St, Vancouver, WA 98682-9531 hours of operation are posted as 11 am to 4 pm. They are closed Sunday and Monday. They offer a variety of produce in their store and for u-pick. They open in May and you can purchase flower and garden starts. They have a Fall Pumpkin Patch. This is a great farm to purchase produce for canning.
If you are looking for heirloom/heritage starts, this is the place to be. Located at 1504 NW 299th ST, Ridgefield, WA. This is on the north side of the Ridgefield golf course. They are open seasonally and have a huge variety of starts. It’s not just vegetables, you’ll find all types of fruits and some really special fruits and berries. I was able to find Mar-de-bois strawberries here, noted for being the sweetest strawberries. They were not kidding. You can get eggs, locally grown meat and poultry, flowers, vegetables and seeds. They are great at education helping you grow in our very difficult soil.
Looking for a resource to find great family farms near you? Localharvest.org has over 40,000 farms listed across the nation. I go here to find farms near me.
Want to learn more about foods and supplements?
Check out my blog on Chinese Nutrition, Clean Eating and Supplements by clicking here!
Reach out on my Youtube channel, bestacupuncturellc, where I delve into Clean Eating and surviving our current food supply chain.
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