Choices in sugars and sweeteners
by Nancy Schatz Alton

It’s easy to make lovely holiday desserts with less refined and even unrefined sweeteners. Choosing less refined sweeteners has some advantages, too. Learn more about using Sucanat, demerara, muscovado, Rapadura or liquid sweeteners in baking and cooking.

Celebrate the holidays with PCC

The PCC Deli offers three freshly prepared holiday meals that taste home-cooked but only require heating and serving. Choose turkey, ham or vegetarian/vegan lasagna complete with all the trimmings and dessert. This year you can order a holiday meal, as well as our all-natural holiday meats, online.

Taste of the season
Holiday sampling event

During the first three weekends in November, all PCC stores will be sampling PCC’s delicious holiday meal packages and presenting ideas for festive appetizers, beverages and desserts. Here’s your chance to try one of our prepared holiday meals before you place an order.

Recipes from the November issue

This Thanksgiving, it’s easy to order a pre-cooked dinner at your local PCC deli, leaving time to make a special dish that your guests ask for every year. Perhaps one of these recipes will become your yearly favorite: Pear Salad with Cabrales Cheese and Toasted Pecans · Savory Stuffed Mushrooms · Apricot Ginger Glazed Yam Wedges. And for those who prefer pomegranates: Barley & Wild Rice Pilaf with Pomegranate Seeds

Sustainable label update
by Joel Preston Smith

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in a huff over an independent organization’s move to define a national standard for sustainable agriculture. The Undersecretary of Agriculture, Charles Conner, has warned the Leonardo Academy that its work on a “superlabel” for sustainably produced food “was not inclusive of all facets of U.S. agriculture" ...

From Seattle to Jerusalem: sustainable ideas ripple around the world
by Heather Trim, People For Puget Sound

The environmental leadership of Seattle is having a ripple effect around the world. During a recent trip to Jerusalem, a friend saw people there starting to refuse plastic bags at check-out counters.

Genetically engineered animals and drugs in food supply?
by Goldie Caughlan, PCC Nutrition Education Manager

Election jitters and economic earthquakes have left many of us drained, begging for a break, ready for some time with family and friends during the holiday season. We recoil at having to face more malicious governmental mischief, yet to ignore what’s unfolding now is most unwise.

Notes from the Cellar
Sustain this
by Jeff Cox, Wine and Beer Merchandiser

Perhaps the hardest thing about penning this rant every month is picking one little slice of one little topic and somehow managing to work it into a respectable lather in 400 words or so. Alors, as I sit here with the first wave of French press (I do indeed make a serious cup of coffee) unleashing a tide of shockingly profound things that need to be said, it isn’t a question of having enough to write about, it’s a case of having too much.

Seasonal produce
Powerful pomegranates

Touted as one of the newest “superfoods,” pomegranates are one of the earliest cultivated fruits, extolled in literature and a longtime symbol of health, fertility and rebirth. While extracting the fruit’s seeds can be a little time-consuming, it’s well worth the effort.

Organic and sustainable: simple words, complex ideas
by Pamela Coleman, PCC Farmland Trust board member

As encroaching development converts more of Washington’s farmland into houses and shopping malls, we at the PCC Farmland Trust strive to preserve farms for future generations. What exactly do we mean when we use the words organic and sustainable?

Letters to editor

Edmonds fan mail · Aerial spraying of pesticide · Sweeteners in the diet · Beef Northwest labor issues · Slaughter · Fluoride

News bites

Co-ops raise $30,000 for flooded farmers · The origins of Thanksgiving · American Thanksgiving · Big breakfasts for losing weight · Insects resistant to GM crops · Honey relieves sinusitis? · First law protects farmers from GM · Non-GM crops dominate world agriculture · Organic farm wins pesticide lawsuit

Your community

Bag reuse credits · A safe start for kids · Food bank packaging parties · Taste of the season · Eat local for Thanksgiving · Edmonds tree lighting ceremony · PCC Cooks

Your co-op

Talk to the board · Board meeting report · Next board meeting · Running to save farmland · Advocating sustainable public policies