Why Buy Organic Foods?

ORGANIC FOODS OFFER:
Taste & Quality … If you ever ate vegetables fresh from your Grandma's garden you'll remember the flavor. To produce the finest quality best tasting products in the marketplace we remember the way Grandma grew them! With a keen awareness of the need for pure and healthy foods, organically, we insure the nutritional vitality of the products we produce. Offering nature's perfect foods of high quality, great flavor, clean and pure, for you.

The Environmentally Safe Option…Caring for the future with environmentally sound practices aimed at insuring the continual health of the land, water, and natural habitat in every aspect of production. Organic growing techniques offer balance, with the wisdom of the past in harmony with the technology of the present, organically, keeping our world clean & pure, for our children.

From: Linda
Subject: Bone Meal 

Regarding bone meal in organic farming fertilizing techniques.
I read that bone meal fed to our cattle could cause mad cow disease. Why don't we have the same concern with our organic fruits and vegetables? Also how does feeding bone meal to fruits and vegetables affect the vegans?

Thank you.
Linda

 
Subject: Re: Bone Meal
Dear Linda;

Thank you for your Questions. Very interesting.... Mad cow disease may be transmitted to the animals being fed bones of cattle etc.  Cattle don't usually eat each other, they eat plants.  When we use bone meal it is dried powdered and spread on the soil and incorporated into the soil where it breaks down into organic compounds and is absorbed by the plants as soil nutrition. The bone meal cows eat is VERY unnatural in the method of ingestion. The soil is where animals, carbon life, is generally broken down safely and naturally for use by the plants we eat. As long as we don't try to overload the soils with unusually great ammounts of fertilizers like bonemeal...we are safe. We use very small ammounts of organic soil ammendments because we conserve always. Over loading the soil is not productive as a farming method.

I do not think Vegens worry about the natural breakdown of life in soil. If they do they cannot eat at all. Soil is made of organic materials , rock, plant, insect, & animal,  there's not much you can do about soil. What dies decomposes as the creators plan is played out for as long as we are here on Earth. I think it is wonderful.  God is good and He did it perfectly for us...

Many Blessings to you
Margaret Ann Walser

From: Annette
Subject: Peas nutrition 

Hi, I have a question? Is there any nutritional value in peas?

Annette

Hi Annette;

Yes there is nutrition in peas! but the nutritional label doesn't really list the  minerals available in most vegetables very well.  Our peas have been tested to contain 35% of the MDR of Vitamin C, 6% of vitamin A, 2% Calcium, & 6% of the iron needed daily in 2/3 Cup of warmed product. These numbers are pretty consistantly twice as high across the board in our organic vegetables as in the typical nutritional content of conventional vegetables. Peas in general are also high in Phosphorus and Potassium though we have not had ours tested for other nutrients due to the high cost of testing for each mineral.

Peas & Love...
Blessings Always,
Margaret Ann Walser
Willow Wind Organic Farms         

From: Jan
Subject: eating potato greens

Do people eat the young sprouts from potatoes?

I tasted one; a little fuzzy and tart. I just have a few sprouts that have developed from spuds? (pieces of potatoe we put in the ground. They sure do look delicious.

just wondering, JR

Well JR,

Do not eat the spud sprouts. They are not very tastey and the green on potatoes is not good for you.  Peel it off.  The green contains Glyco-Alcholoids (I think I spelled that right!) They are unhealthy. I do not know exactly how they hurt us...I will do some research for you (and me) and let you know ASAP.

In the meantime don't eat the sprouts or green on the spud itself.

Margaret Ann Walser
Willow Wind Organic Farms

 
From: Vfr44
Subject: frozen corn

Hi, I've been using your frozen organic at Krogers and wanted to know is your frozen corn genetically modified?

Thanks, Dan Teoli

Greetings Bill;

We keep our crops away from crops that would cross polinate. GMOs are a great concern to all of us. We just don't know enough about them to feel really safe. At this time and as we grow we will grow different crops near other farms. If our acres are near corn we will grow potatoes, carrots, etc. We also seperate our planting dates so that if there is corn near our corn acreage we will plant varieties that polinate after the neighbors corn has been harvested. The pollins will not mix then.  We are extremly careful about this. This is a great question, I'm so glad to hear that people are thinking about what farms are doing...what we do is good for everything.

Mny Thanks To You and Blessings Always,
Margaret Ann

From: Christy
Subject: concern

Hi, I have been fortunate to buy your products through a local Piggy Wiggly Store.  The Broccoli Mini Spears are some of the best organic frozen broccoli that I have eaten.

However, I have a concern regarding the importing of this broccoli from guatemala as I found stamped on the packaging.  Even if it was grown organically there, isn't it still standard practice to have it gassed or sprayed before it is allowed into the United States? If that is the case, how is it considered organic and safe to eat?

I would appreciate a reply.
Thank you!  
Joanne

 
Greetings Joanne;

Good Question! No sprays or gasses are used on Guatamalan or any other Earth's Finest Organically Certified product during import/export.  If that were the case we would not and could not sell it as organic. The farmer's fields & methods,  as well as the processor's must meet WSDA certification regulations. Products and Methods are inspected and the food is safe from synthetic chemicals of any kind.  Fresh fruits and vegetables have different rules, but our products are processed frozen and packaged as soon as they are harvested. No sprays need be applied. Insects and bacteria cannot make it through the processing of frozen products. The blanching  heat is adjusted to kill bacteria and clean products are the result.

Fear not! the Certified Organic by Washigton State Dept. of Agriculture  label is your guarantee that this product is safe and inspected by an excellent agency. They are run by the state government and the rules we are under are laws. We respect them, and value the agency. Unlike other third party certifiers, there are no loop-holes at WSDA or good ol' boys who get away with "little problems" ...it's either organic or not. We want you, our customers, to be able to trust that our products are ALL just as they are represented and that when we say organic, we mean it, that is why we use the WSDA as our certifying agency.  We are very happy that the agricultural community in countries such as Guatamala, Mexico, & Ecuador, are so responsive to organic methods, and we will continue encourage them in their efforts to produce products in a responsible organic way! We have discovered that they can produce some of the finest quality products we have found in alternate seasons from our US growers. They must grow, process, & certify their produce under the same rules as we do so that they are WSDA compliant too. 

Very few of our products come from outside the US, most of them are grown very close to our original farm in Ford Washington, but we are short of acres here. We are always looking for new farmers to bring into our organic program close to home, but when we find products well grown, high quality, and available in other places we will encourage those acres too.

We are all living in a global community these days. The cleaner the better, I say!

I hope this note settles your mind on this issue. Our products from other countries arrive here frozen already...are not sprayed, gassed,or violated in any way during transit. You can trust the WSDA organic seal...it is a good one.

If you would like to send me your address I will send you some coupons for free products. We thank you for trying our products and hope that you continue to enjoy them. I am so happy to get notes from our customers, and we hope to meet and exceed your expectations with every package you buy.

Many Thanks & Blessings Always,
Margaret Ann Walser
Willow Wind Organic Farms

From: Kathryn
Subject: Potato Crisps

Hi, Are these gluten and dairy free?  My daughter is on a highly restricted diet.  Thanks.

Kathy Hudson 

Hi Kathy;

I believe that gluten is from wheat. The Crisps do not contain wheat. I do not think that there is gluten in corn flour. That id the only grain that this product contains. All ingredients are listed on our label. Check with your Dr. regarding what foods to avoid. Food labeling is required to proclaim every ingredient. There is no dairy in this product either.  God Bless you and your family. I hope your daughter is doing well.

Thank you for enjoying our products,

Margaret Ann & your friends at WWOF

From: Jim
Subject: Organically grown vegetables

My name is: Jim Gautsch. Where will I find documentation that will support the idea that vegetables grown organically are indeed purer than non organically grown vegetables?  Is there chemical analysis of vegetables grown organically compared to non organically grown vegetables?  If so, how may I obtain the studies?  Thank you.