May Newsletter
Soulla Chamberlain
The days seem to be flying past at super sonic speed and I find it hard to believe that we are fast approaching winter! I only just managed to squeeze out my May newsletter in the last days of May! Eek! So much for organisational skills. Here’s a brief run down in the world of Star Anise Organic Wholefoods over the past month.
New Products
1. PANNACOTTAS
As we have discontinued our brothsicles over the winter months (and are limiting them as a summer treat only) we have launched for winter our range of panaccottas made with GelPro beef pastured beef gelatin, coconut milk, maple syrup and a flavour: either raw cacao or vanilla bean powder. We hope to launch other flavours such as strawberry and mango. Sold in 100g glass jars, these are a no-guilty healthy dessert. The raw cacao one tastes like a chocolate custard. Yes please!
2. CURED MEATS & BEEF JERKY
I am really excited about offering a range of cured meats and beef jerky at Broth Bar & Larder. Preparing my kids’ school lunch boxes instantly became a heck of a lot easier and a little more diverse.
Through my daily social media posts and my School Lunch Inspiration ebook I aim to provide parents and carers with ideas for quick, easy and simple lunch boxes made with nutrient-dense whole unprocessed foods that are delicious and bursting with flavour. This is part of my broader mission to inspire parents to raise vibrantly healthy children. To that end, the first and easiest place to start, and the place that has the greatest impact, is diet. By making products such as cured meats, beef jerky, raw milk cheeses, coconut yogurt, slow cooked casseroles and broth-based soups more accessible to parents, my hope is that school lunches become more of a pleasure and less of a burden. Some cured meat or beef jerky teamed with veggie sticks makes for a really quick and healthy lunch box. A piece of fruit and a slice of raw milk cheese or thermos of coconut yogurt is an easy morning tea. A thermos of soup, bolognaise with zucchini noodles or warming casserole is easy to heat up on school mornings and well received by kids.
We are selling the following selection of pastured pork products from Bundarra Birkshires: Little French Ham, Capocollo, Lonza, Smoked Ham, Pancetta and Bacon. These are made without any preservatives or nitrates.
Another quick and easy school lunch box inclusion is pastured beef jerky made by Kooee All Natural Snacks. Made from 100% grass fed free range Tasmanian beef and spices without any sweeteners, gluten or artificial crap. I met the producers at an organic expo recently and was inspired by their the story on back of their packets which recounts that “It all began on the trail…” in search of a healthy snack. As I am an avid bushwalker and lover of the great outdoors, this instantly struck me when I read it.
I hope you love these new products as much as my kids and I do!
SINGLE PORTION WILD FILLETS FROM THE CANADIAN WAY
You asked for single portion wild samlon fillets, and we delivered. The feedback I received from many of my customers is that the salmon tails, while more economical, were too large a size to get through especially for a 1 person household. Salmon from The Canadian Way is the only true wild salmon in Australia (other than the salmon you can buy in tins from supermarkets). The rest is farmed and the problem with that is the cramped crowded conditions in which they are farmed and what farmed fish are fed (antibiotics, soy pellets, colour dyes are injected into salmon to give it that pink colour). All this breeds illness and disease which is passed on to humans which eat diseased fish. You can read more about wild versus farmed in a previous post here.
Wild salmon (and tuna) from The Canadian Way has an unparalleled omega 3 to 6 ratio making it one of the most anti-inflammatory foods on the planet. Because it is so high in omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, it should be prepared in a certain way to prevent these extremely heat sensitive fats from oxidizing. I will be sharing my favourite ways to prepare and eat wild salmon in my future posts soon.
New stockists
We welcome the following stockists to the Star Anise Organic Wholefoods family:
· Little Bay Organics, 1407 Anzac Parade, Little Bay, 2036
· Energy Scoop, 2/19 Victoria Ave Castle Hills NSW
· Nourish Kitchen + Lifestyle, 3/68 Albert St, Berry NSW
· The Yoga Bar, Westfield Sydney, Shop 5001, level 5, 188 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
A huge congratulations to the following existing stockists who have opened up in these new locations:
· Wholefoods House at 34 Morely Ave, Rosebery
· Taste Organics, 20 Princes St, Turramurra
The Omeio has relaunched their online store. Omeio is an online store dedicated to providing and delivering a curated selection of fine artisan food. Their mission is to only offer a small selection of what they think is the most premium quality local organic artisan products so as not to overwhelm the consumer with too much choice. We are truly honoured that Omeio have selected our products as fit for their online store.
The full list of our stockists can be found here.
MINDD International forum 2016
Last weekend I attended the annual MINDD International Forum organised by the MINDD Foundation. To be immersed in 3 days of lectures on the latest research from Australian and International speakers and to meet and connect with practitioners, fellow mums, artisan producers, colleagues, customers and clients was such a rich and rewarding experience. My team and I supplied all of the bone broth and sauerkraut for one of the Food is Medicine lectures and the first meal off the plane for all of the International and Interstate speakers.
Everyone keeps asking me what were my major learnings from the conference. There was so much that it is hard to pinpoint, but here are a few surprising nuggets:
· Even on the best diet, probiotic supplementation is still necessary in times of stress in our modern world.
· We should stool 3 times a day. Anything short of that is considered constipation.
· I have a big crush on psychiatrist Dr Kelly Brogan, author of A Mind of Your Own, and her holistic approach to depression and mental illness. She no longer prescribes medication to her new patients in her practice. In her words “The seat of health is in your gut”.
· There are more lifestyle factors that affect the gut microbiome than I knew of including exercise, wearing shoes and mercury fillings. I talk more about these in my fermentation workshops (see below).
WORKSHOPS
My fourth and final fermentation workshop for the year will be run on 8 June. There are only a couple spots left. To book and for further information click here.
After that the next round of workshops is organ meats and bone broth. By learning how to make your own bone broth, cook organ meats and make a few of your own ferments, you really can take your health to the next level. If every household did this like in the days of yesteryear, we would have a very different health care system in this country. I call these my trifecta of workshops and I encourage everyone to come to them. They are foundational foods that have served mankind for millennia but have fallen by the wayside in modern society. My mission is to bring these nutrient-dense traditional wholefoods back to the modern table by educating people (especially time-poor parents!) on how to make them simply, easily, deliciously and affordably. I hope to see you at one of my workshops soon!
If anyone is interested in being a helper at one of my workshops please contact me at info@staraniseorganic. The helper comes to the workshop for free, obtains all the leanings and the workshop booklet in return for assisting with greeting the arrival of clients and helping to clean up throughout and at the end of the workshop. It is a small way of giving back to the community especially for those who would love to attend one of my workshops but may not have the financial means to do so. I especially encourage this for students studying health and nutrition.
Queens Birthday public holiday
We will be closed Monday 13 June for the Queens birthday long weekend.
Until then, Kali Orexi (that’s Greek for good appetite!)