May Newsletter

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). 

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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!)

SAOW November Update

we are excited to announce the following new products!

beef stock cubes

We have frozen our beef broth (without added salt) into ice-cube sized portions for you to conveniently pop a cube or 2 into smoothies and sport drinks for extra nutrient-density and frothiness (without affecting the taste at all!). Any which way to sneak in our beloved bone broth into little bellies (big ones too!) is a winner. You can also add these cubes to sauces, stews and baby’s food for extra nutrient-density and liquid.

Our beef broth is long slow simmered using certified organic bones from 100% grass fed & finished cows raised on sustainable Australian farms. Our broth is truly unique because it was formulated in consultation with an integrative GP, a wholefoods dietician and naturopath to be completely free of FODMAPs and low allergenic as possible.   

I have been adding 2 cubes of frozen beef broth into my morning smoothies for almost 10 years. I started blogging about it in 2012 here and started teaching people how to do it when I started running my bone broth workshops 5 years ago. Earlier this year a customer walked into my workshop and said “You know Soulla, you really should start selling your frozen beef broth cubes”. So the idea was born but didn’t become a reality until recently as life got in the way. I’ve had tremendous response to this new product to date. It can be purchased directly from me or selected stockists such as The Health Emporium in Bondi, Foodies in Peakhurst and All Good Things Organic Market in Wollongong.

The retail price and list of ingredients can be found here.

Scroll down to read my nutrient-dense smoothie recipe!

veggie stock

We crafted this vegetable stock in response to a number of requests over the years and more recently. This stock is made by long slow simmering certified organic vegetables and dulse (a sea vegetable). This provides for a mineral-rich and intensely flavoursome vegetable broth. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans or those wishing to consume more nutrients in their diet. Some of my meat-eating friends drink veggie broth in place of water for parts of the day to up the nutrient-density ante. After all, vegetable broth can be thought of as nutrient-dense water. My 7 year old daughter is in love with my vegetable stock and asks for it. There must be minerals in there that her body is somewhat lacking. She loves taking it to school in a thermos container.

Click here and scroll down to the bottom of screen for the retail price and list of ingredients.

coming soon...

We also hope to launch a heap of new products in the coming weeks and months including veggie chips (salted or spicy), brothsicles (broth-infused ice blocks) made with Ovvio Organic teas or coconut milk based, gluten-free crackers, kale chips, spicy activated pumpkin seeds, spicy activated cashews, a gluten-free breadcrumb mix and ready-made casserole meals with root veggies and 100% pastured meat or chicken. Yes we have been busy (and that’s not the half of it!). 

I can’t wait to share these new products with you!  My passion is creating new products which don’t exist in the market or the quality of which is lacking. The products that I make and sell are IDENTICAL to the ones I make at home for myself and my kids. The same ingredients are used and the same preparation methods are employed. Our products are completely free of gluten, refined sugar, industrial seed oils and tap water. For these reasons and more. I believe our products are truly unique in the marketplace. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of my long-standing customers for your loyal support and for all of our new customers – your feedback and support has been touching and greatly appreciated. 

To make a delicious nutrient-dense smoothie for 1, blend the following with a stick blender:

+ 3/4 cup milk of choice (full-fat dairy, coconut or nut milk)
+ 2 frozen cubes of beef broth
+ 1/2 banana or 1-2 medjool dates
+ 1 tbsp extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil (optional)
+ 1-2 raw pastured egg yolks (optional). Not the whites! To understand why egg whites must NOT be consumed raw read one of my earlier posts here.

+ choice of flavours: 2 tsp raw cacao powder, 1/4 tsp vanilla bean powder, 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder, pinch of nutmeg, 1/4 cup berries or 1/2 fresh mango.

Leftovers can be poured into ice-block moulds and frozen to make brothsicles! You may like to increase the sweetener if freezing.

Our fermented veggies have recently had a make-over with new glass jars. We will update all of the photos on the website in the coming weeks but for information about prices and ingredients click here!

We make 3 types of fermented veggies:

+ Sauerkraut
+ Turmeric spiced sauerkraut
+ Kim ch

I recommend up to ½ cup of fermented veggies be consumed per day. I have a heaped tablespoon or 2 as a condiment with eggs for brekky and I throw some into my salad at lunch. Packed with probiotics that proliferate as a result of the wild fermentation method, home-made fermented veggies are a must for robust gut health, immune function, skin and oral health, brain function and metabolism.

We welcome the following 2 new stockists on board:

Bondi Beach Chemist.

This institution of 18 years in South Bondi (opposite icebergs) is now stocking our activating nuts….the perfect summer beach snack–attack!

They are open 7 days and can be contacted at:
bondibeach.chemist@frednet.com.au
(02) 91305270
14 Campbell Pde, Bondi Beach NSW

Enliven Fitness & Enliven Organics

Enliven Organics is a online Sydney-based organic food delivery service. 

Enliven Fitness Studio offers a holistic approach to your health, fitness and weight loss goals.

They are located at 327/308 Wattle Street, Ultimo, NSW 02 8203 4598.

Follow them on instagram @enlivenfitness.

They are selling a selection of our date coconut balls, power bars, broths, broth-based soups, chicken liver pate, kombucha and beet kvass.

Henley’s Wholefoods

Congratulations Sophie Henley for opening up her third Henley’s Wholeoods in under 2 years: first in Bondi Junction which I blogged about here, then in Alexandria and now in the Intercontinental Hotel, Cross Street, Double Bay. We are in love with your work and your contribution to the wholefoods scene in Sydney. All food in made on the premises. Sophie is meticulous about the source and processing of what she offers customers. Yet another amazing clean eats place for brekky, lunch and snacks. 

New organic butcher: “1888 certified”

Also opened in Double Bay is a new butcher “1888 certified” selling 100% grass fed and finished, antibiotic-free and hormone-free meat from local farms. Previously located in Hall Street Bondi they moved their store to larger digs just behind About Life in Double Bay. The founders, Charlie Crichton and Tim White, are farmers and their forefathers have been farmers and graziers since 1888, hence the name. I visited their beautifully decorated store on the weekend and spoke at length to owner Tim. I share with you this information that he relayed to me:

+ They can absolutely guarantee the provenance of their meat. It might surprise you that few butchers can. Their beef, lamb and heritage pork  come from farms owned by the owners themselves or a select number of other local farms. The chickens are from Bannockburn. All these meats are not certified organic but as I have previously discussed in an earlier post organic certification is comforting but is not the be-all-and-end-all. I always look behind the existence or absence of a stamp, and do my own due diligence to ascertain “Is this in substance organic?”

+ They age their own beef.

+ They make their own biltong and bacon.

+ The cured meats are from Pino’s Dolce Vita Fine Foods.

+ Some sausages contain breadcrumbs and some are grain-free. Please ask!

+ They hope to sell a range of organ meats and bones too in the near future. In the meantime, these can be specially ordered.

+ They only use filtered (and not tap) water in their products.  

Shop K2, 1 Kiaora Lane Double Bay 2028 NSW (under Dan Murphy's) 
(02) 9328 3200
info@1888certified.com.au

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Go check them out. We welcome them and wish them every success!

EQ Wholefoods, Moore Park

EQ Wholefoods popped up at the Entertainment Quarter (near the farmers market) but this pop up is now staying. Hooray! They have a huge open space stocked with beautiful organic wholefood products. They do not serve ready-to-eat food (yet!) – only pre-packaged products that you will recognise and love. How cool are the beautiful larger than life size photos of the raw cacao beans on the windows?! I wonder how many people would even recognise these as raw cacao beans? Now you know...

If anyone has any lingering concerns about the consumption of red meat following the recent WHO report, I suggest you read Chris Kresser’s response here and/or Mark Sisson’s response here.  

"Mama, what's so bad about vegetable oil?" my 7 year old happen to ask me on the day that an article in the Sydney Morning Herald appeared highlighting the dangers of vegetable oils.

The article summarises that "Cooking with vegetable oils releases toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases, according to leading scientists, who are now recommending food be fried in olive oil, coconut oil, butter or even lard."

Amen. Knew we were onto something. Vegetable oils are one of the most unhealthy fats you can consume for the following reasons:

 1. they are extremely high in omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids which cause inflammation, and inflammation in turn is the root cause of all (yes all!) modern disease including cancer, cardiovascular disease, hormone disruption, mental health problems including violent behaviour. This is all backed by robust scientific studies. 

2. they are made by an extremely industrialised process

3. they contain no nutritive benefit (100% empty calories) 

4. they are not heat stable yet they are used to cook with further denaturing the heat sensitive omega 6 fats. 

5. they are particularly damaging to children and unborn children according to Dr Catherine Shanahan in her book “Deep Nutrition: why our genes need traditional foods”.

P.S. vegetable oil doesn’t actually contain any vegetables!!  But it’s a great marketing name, right?!

Most restaurants and all fast food chains cook in vegetable oil because it's so damn cheap. Rethink store-bought deep fried foods in particular! So where should we eat out? Read this and this. Cook more at home! Make your own chips with coconut oil. Kids love this especially if you get them involved! Read the labels on all packaged goods- if it contains vegetable oils of any description ditch it! Life's too short and you and your kids are too precious to eat crap oils. Opt for the delicious healthy fats that your great grandmother cooked in: butter, tallow, lard, ghee or coconut oil. Our bodies (esp brains!!) need saturated fats from natural sources to grow and function properly and to perform our best. Why settle for anything less?!

A few years ago I wrote a post on Dr Kate Norris being one of the handful of integrative GPs in Sydney who I highly recommend. She is on exactly the same nutritional and lifestyle page. A couple years ago she left for Victoria but now she’s back and practising in Bondi Junction. For me it’s imperative that all of my health care professionals (from my dentist, GP, osteopath and naturopath) are on exactly the same nutritional page and speak and understand my language. It’s reassuring to know that, at least in Sydney, such people exist. We welcome Kate back!

I recommend you check out her brilliant website here. The other utterly brilliant integrative GP who I work with and highly recommend is Dr Min Yeo, also based in Bondi Junction. For recommendations on GPs further afield, please contact me directly.

A few months ago I had promised to run a heap of cooking workshops in the latter part of the year. Unfortunately I am not able to do that at present as a unique and exciting adventure has presented itself to me rather unexpectedly. Given the enormity of what’s involved for my business, I need to throw much of my energies into that. I hope to be able to reveal all of the details very very soon! Workshops will resume in 2016 in full swing!

Newsy Wholefoodie Update!

Iggy's Bread, 131 Macpherson St, Bronte, NSW. Best sourdough bread in Australia hands down.

Pure Wholefoods, 10 Darley Rd, Manly, NSW. This is a beautiful organic café in an iconic location.

Pymble Grove Health Centre, Suite 11, Level 3, 924 Pacific Highway, Gordon, NSW. This well-established centre offers the best of complementary medicine with traditional medicine and has GPs, naturopaths, paediatricians and clinical psychologists. The Dispensary arm stocks a wide range of practitioner-only and retail products include some of my range.  

A complete list of all our stockists can be found on our website here. Not all stockists sell the entire range of our products so if you are after something in particular call ahead first. You can also collect direct from our workshop in Waverley or we courier all over Sydney and send dry goods all over Australia. 

Ora at 17b Whilster St, Manly is a café doing great things in the traditional wholefoods scene. From bone broths, to pastured slow cooked meats, to pate, to fermented foods, to clean treats, this seems like the place to eat when not eating at home. Open 7am – 4pm. 

Bondi Wholefoods organic café and groceries (who I blogged about when they first opened here) is about to open a second (much larger) store at 517-527 Elizabeth Street, Surry hills. Stayed tuned!

We are excited to have been asked to showcase our products again at the next 2 Conscious Club events on THURSDAY 22ND OCTOBER and THURSDAY 3RD DECEMBER. The 22 October event (called The Best of the Best) has 3 of the world's truly remarkable minds on one stage:

Daniel Pinchbeck (USA) - Author, Change Maker and Visionary Thinker
Kip Andersen (USA) - Filmaker and Environmentalist (Cowspiracy)
Luka Lesson- Award winning spoken word Poet and Artist.

When: 

Thursday 22nd October

Time: 

6pm Meal and Mingle
7pm: Presentation starts
9pm: Mingle, teas and treats until 10pm

Where: 

Paddington Town Hall Sydney: 249 Oxford St (cnr of Oxford & Oatley Rd)

Price: 

General admission $55
Students $45
$15 for a Vegetarian/Gluten Free meal    

For more info click here and to book a tix click here. We look forward to seeing you there and making available to you (via sales and samples) our organic activated nuts, sokolata (raw dark crap-free chocolate), and power bars.

Have you joined the Club?

To book into my Rethinking Breakfast workshop on Sunday 18th October or the bone broth workshop on Sunday 1st November both at All Good things Organic Market in Wollongong CLICK HERE. Only a few spots left and filling fast!

The Foam Rolling workshop on 13 October is fully booked but there are 2 spots left in the Foam Rolling workshop the following week on 20 October 7:30pm. Find out more here. 

The bone broth Worksop on Wed 7th Oct is fully booked with a wait list of many disappointed people. I swore I would not be running any more bone broth classes this year and I’ve already broken my promise once and looks like I’m a big fat liar and I will probably be breaking my promise again because I hate disappointing people. So stay tuned for another one in November. 

Who doesn’t love pizza? For many of us who have eschewed gluten or grains in general or totality in the journey of moving towards a more ancestral or paleo or traditional wholefoods diet, this has meant giving up the much beloved pizza. Not anymore. Pure Paleo makes a totally grain-free, soy-free, sugar-free, crap-free Organic Paleo Wrap which can be used as a pizza base. Made with only 5 ingredients: certified organic coconut flour, tapioca flour, coconut oil, water and unrefined salt.

Here’s a simple and fun dinner you can make with the kids. Big kids too!

Ingredients:

1. Gluten-free pizza base (eg Organic Paleo Wraps by Pure Paleo). 
2. Tomato paste (I like the Global Organics brand)

Suggested toppings

·       Ham
·       Prosciutto
·       Anchovies
·       Zucchini, thinly sliced (eg with vegetable peeler)
·       Red and or green capsicum, thinly sliced
·       Pineapple, chopped
·       Mushrooms, sliced
·       Mozzarella cheese, grated
·       Fresh or dried herbs such as basil, oregano,

Directions:

Place each base on a baking tray. Spread with a thin layer of tomato paste. Add desired toppings and finish with grated mozzarella cheese. Season with herbs of choice and cracked pepper (the cheese is typically salty enough to not warrant adding extra salt especially if you have included anchovies).

Bake at 150 degrees for 20 minutes or until toppings are cooked and cheese has melted. Cut with pizza cutter then transfer to a plate.

I set out all the toppings in little bowls and get the kids to build their own pizzas by selecting their own toppings. They have so much fun doing this. Serve with a big green salad, and a cup of broth of course :-) 

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Ok, so the Paleo Wraps don’t taste as amazing as a gluten-based pizza but I was really surprised at how delicious it was and the kids demolished it.  If you are after a traditional pizza I highly recommend Pompei in Bondi which is the only pizzeria I know of in Sydney (possibly Australia?) that makes pizzas bases from organic sourdough (no yeast) with a sourdough starter that is proven for 36 hours. They use only olive oil as opposed to industrial seed oils (like canola or vegetable oils) and their vegetables and dairy are organic. Artisanal pizza made on the premises. No wonder they have been voted the best pizza in Sydney. So IF you are going to eat pizza out, then this is the place to go. They also make a gluten-free pizza with sorghum, rice flour and millet flour (with no soy flour). To read why soy flour is so bad, read my earlier blog here. Pompei also serves traditional Italian fare like meat and vegetables so there are plenty of non-pizza options for those wanting or needing to avoid grains altogether. Their gelato is to die for and also made on the premises.  George and Aidsa Pompei are as passionate about food as I am and do not compromise on quality. So nice to know that places like this exist!

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Note: I do not receive any commissions or kick backs from any businesses. I simply promote products that I personally use and love or businesses who have the same or similar ethos to mine.