Our love of grapes spans across almost all of human history. Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and many other early civilizations all showed their reverence for the vine, depicting grapes in art, ritual, and song as symbols of leisure, luxury, fertility, and harbingers of good luck.

Evidence of a perfect, hot summer afternoon: sun-kissed cheeks and shoulders and sticky fingers from what tasted like the world’s most refreshing slice of cool watermelon in the heat of peak summer. There is simply nothing like it!

Since time immemorial human lives have been deeply entangled with the lives of mushrooms. Throughout our shared history, mushrooms have been a nutritious food source, a source of medicine, a fire source, and more. In 1991, the 5,000-year-old mummy of a hunter-gatherer was found perfectly preserved in the ice atop the Italian Alps. What was this mummy carrying with him? Mushrooms, of course!

"This abundance of berries feels like a pure gift from the land… You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the robins and I know them as gifts.”
—Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World¹

A love note to America’s most beloved vegetable: Oh, potatoes. So unassuming and unpretentious, you sneak into our hearts and bellies with versatility and scrumptiousness—mashed, smashed, chipped, baked, or boiled—you are a staple on the dinner table.

Humans’ romance with beets has been written through history, in shared feasts, admiring gazes falling on brilliant red and gold, delighting in their sweet earthy flavor, and nourished by their leaves and roots. From the Greeks and Romans to modern day urban gardens, it’s a love that has been cultivated by humans for centuries.

Calling all bread bakers! All cake and cookie makers! Tis the season for baking and indulging with loved ones, which calls for a few choice ingredients to make it even more scrumptious. And if there was just one basic ingredient to bring the magic to life, it would be organic flour.

Rice is one of the world’s most beloved staples. From curries, to sushi, to rice and peas and fragrant rice pudding, there’s more to these fluffy grains than you might think. It turns out there’s a big difference between conventional and organic varieties, and the choices you make have a significant impact on your health, and the planet’s too.

Recipe for a perfect summer afternoon: a paper bag filled with golden peaches, a bowl of perfectly ripe nectarines, as many indigo plums as you can pile in your hands, and a backyard filled with loved ones to share it all with on a balmy sunny day. But the real secret ingredient? Make sure those stone fruits are organic—summer is sweeter without toxic pesticide residues!

Oh tomatoes, you delicious orbs of juicy sweet umami! Diced, sliced, fresh, fried, or saucy—even those who don’t love you can’t help but dip fries in ketchup or indulge in the comfort of a bowl of spaghetti and marinara.

To the parents who told us to eat our broccoli,

You may have spent many meals convincing us those green vegetables on our plate were actually tiny dinosaur trees, or even resorted to bribery as we resisted with all the stubborn refusal a kid can muster.

We’ve all heard the familiar adage, “Eat your greens!” however, it could use a little update, a minor edit, so to speak. Our new adage should be “Eat your organic greens!” And here’s why…