The Natural Bloghttp://natesnaturals.com/index.htmlHot News in Whole Foodsennate@natesnaturals.comCopyright 2010 Nate's Naturals2012-04-28T23:43:21-04:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Tue, 01 May 2012 00:06:23 -0400Granola as Teaching Toolnate@natesnaturals.comNatural Blog2012-04-28T23:43:21-04:00http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/4dff4cc666aab106f2fa21817bb660f6-51.html#unique-entry-id-51http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/4dff4cc666aab106f2fa21817bb660f6-51.html#unique-entry-id-51YSEC (Yale Student Environmental Coalition) doing educational outreach have brought Nate's Naturals granola to fourth-graders at Fair Haven Elementary School to illustrate a lesson about local food.

Yale freshman Justine Appel has become a serious fan of Nate's Naturals granola through frequent visits to the Wooster Square Farmers' Market. Last week she emailed us to see about buying some granola for outreach:

My friend Marios and I are going to Fair Haven School this Friday for our final lesson, which will be on food. We go teach fourth graders every other week about environmental science and environmental issues, and for this last lesson, we want to provide some sort of snack to show how delicious local food can be! …We would love to bring some of [your granola] with us for our fourth graders to taste.


This sounded really cool, so naturally we donated five bags of granola (one of each kind) to Justine and Marios' program. And we wanted to find out more about them and YSEC's educational outreach. So Justine and Marios consented to a brief interview. Nate talked with them on Thursday evening, April 26 2012.

Nate: Tell me a little about yourselves. How did you come to be here and doing what you do?




JustineMarios15pct


Marios: I'm from Newark, Delaware. Throughout high school I was involved with my environmental club and had consistently gone back to the kindergarten at my K-12 school and taught about the environment, read books [to the kids] and that kind of thing. When I came to Yale I wanted to continue that, and right now I'm a political science major but I'm also interested in environmental issues.
Justine: I'm from Montclair, New Jersey, and my interests in the environment and working with children have never come together until now. I've been a camp counselor and I babysit a lot [laughs] but I've always worked with environmental issues, like planning eco-fairs in my hometown, trying to improve waste management at my high school and things like that, so this was an opportunity to leave campus and get connected with New Haven in a way that also promotes issues that I care about.
Marios Falaris, ES '14 and Justine Appel, ES '15



Nate: How did you get involved with YSEC?

Marios: I just found them at one of the [student] activity fairs, and found out about the specific project group [Educational Outreach] and said, "That sounds perfect!"

Justine: I think there are a gazillion activities that you can do [at Yale] and a lot of issues-based, service-based activities, so you find out about them, and you visit meetings and then you figure out what you want to be serious about. I really like the people in YSEC and can see that they really care about the environment, and not only that, but they care about specific issues relating to the environment.
There are different [YSEC] project groups, so we focus on education but there's also an enviro-advocates group that does political work; food action, which works with sustainable food; project BRIGHT which works with solar energy, and a bunch of things like that. I really liked the people I found, and the amount of work they were willing to put in, so that's why I stuck with YSEC.

Nate: Justine, you are doing a summer internship with the [Yale] Sustainable Food Project.

Justine: Yeah, I'm going to be on a farm this summer.

Nate: Is there a lot of overlap between YSEC and SFP?

Justine: Not really at all -- the Sustainable Food Project is very much through the College and is run, I think, through the Office of Sustainability (you'll have to fact-check that**).

** Editor's Note: Correct. The Office of Sustainability funds SFP.

Justine: It has a director that is employed by Yale, whereas YSEC is a student organization and is allowed to do advocacy work because it’s not connected to the school. So we can fight for things that are more political then YSFP can. YSFP runs a discussion series and has farm work days, so a lot of the goals overlap.

Nate: Are you a gardener?

Justine: (laughs) I used to help my mom plant things, but not much, no.

Nate: So this is quite an education for you.

Justine: Yes.

Nate: Tell me a little bit about the educational outreach program at Fair Haven Elementary and YSEC’s environmental education outreach in general.

Marios: The environmental education program was started a few years ago by a few students who thought that there should be a focus in the New Haven curriculum (on the environment) when children are a little bit younger so that they can find their place in the environment and recognize that there is not really a division between the environment and home, or the environment and school. We reached out to Fair Haven and this year we started in two new [fourth grade] classrooms.

Justine: It’s really funny - one of the first things we do is show them a picture of a forest and say, “Is this the environment?” and they’ll say “Yeah” and then we show them a picture of New Haven and we say, “Is this the environment?” and they go “No.” It’s really interesting tapping into what their ideas are and they’ll know a lot about photosynthesis but they don’t know where we get food from. It’s interesting to see where the gaps are and to help fill them. To get them thinking about things that you don’t normally get from a fourth grade class.

Nate: Have you seen a change in kids’ attitudes and understanding of the environment and their environment as you’ve been going through this program?

Marios: As you’re asking [the students] questions you start out with a question to the group and you judge what they know and don’t know and by the end of the session they have some really interesting suggestions about ways that they can use less energy or help fight climate change in their individual actions.

Justine: I think what it does is to spark a connection that may already be there and calls attention to something that they knew was a harmful practice or that they understood to a certain extent but never really related back to the bigger picture which we get a lot into. All the different lessons that we teach are very interconnected and it's fun to see them make those connections and for them to remember things that we taught them two weeks ago -- like if we talked to them about water pollution and then we’re talking about waste, to see them form connections of different ways that people destroy water ecosystems by polluting. It’s really interesting and I think they get a lot out of it and they also get excited about it.

Nate: What do you each see yourself doing in five years?

Marios: Perhaps I’ll be working in a non-profit. Where in the world it would be I have no idea. Or maybe I’ll be back in school, in grad school. Unsure.

Nate: Do you think your main focus will remain related to the environment?

Marios: I’m interested in diplomacy and peace in conflict studies so that of course is related to the environment in many places, especially with water resources. I’m specifically interested in south Asia. The environment won’t be separate from future things that I’m interested in.

Justine: My parents would hate to hear me say this but I’m just really interested in local food right now. This could totally change. I’m thinking of majoring in linguistics, so this seems totally unrelated, but I want to do things that help bring more local food into cities and do more urban farming, community building work, and maybe even with schools, doing something with education and bringing more awareness of food and farming to children. I think that our generation is getting back to the importance of food so I think working with young people actually would be really cool. But that’s just me saying that right now.

Nate: Thanks very much and good luck!

Marios & Justine: Thank you!




]]>High Hopes Hoedown and Holiday Market 2011nate@natesnaturals.comNatural Blog2011-11-20T23:25:52-05:00http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/77b0d73ef2634866306ba86545bdfe8a-50.html#unique-entry-id-50http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/77b0d73ef2634866306ba86545bdfe8a-50.html#unique-entry-id-50If you are driving up Route 1 in Old Lyme, CT and take a left just before Rogers Lake onto Town Woods Road, you will come upon a remarkable place: High Hopes Therapeutic Riding. High Hopes is a facility devoted to serving people with physical, emotional and developmental disabilities. They have been accredited by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association since 1979. Every year in November they hold a Hoedown and Holiday Market which features dozens of vendors of local foods and crafts, family games and activities, live music and horse-drawn carriage rides. A couple of months back, our friend Chip Dahlke of Ashlawn Farm Coffee mentioned this event to me. I know from experience that when Chip suggests that we might want to take part in an event, such as for the Lyme Midsummer Festival, that's probably a good idea. So we signed up. This morning we packed up lots of granola, Granola Lace (tm) and gift baskets, and headed out to Old Lyme. Today was a beautiful mild fall day, with hazy sunshine and temperatures in the 60s. I spent the day in my Nate's Naturals T-shirt, a rare treat for late November!

The Holiday Market was extremely well-organized and was held inside their main riding arena which is a space the size of a respectable hocky arena. I was delighted that my wife Joanna and our daughter LiLi joined me today. Our greyhounds Liam and Maddie stayed home. The only human member of our family missing was my daughter Laurel who, being in her senior year at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, was unable to attend in person. We met lots of new people and introduced them to our fabulous granola and chocolate granola treats.

There was a lot a great food to be had. We treated ourselves to some excellent burgers and a hot dog for LiLi from Four Mile River Farm, an excellent chocolate Whoopie Pie and some frosted pumpkin cookies from Coffee's Country Market in Old Lyme, and of course a couple of cups of delicious Ashlawn coffee.

LiLi, who is not yet 3 years old, was a champ. She helped us with granola sales and kept us entertained. LiLi and I walked around the beautiful grounds, went down to the duck pond and threw some pebbles in the pond. We visited the horses and ponies who were staying in the stalls in the main arena area, and particularly enjoyed meeting the ponies Kera, Al and Smoky. We also walked down to the other end of the arena, with LiLi on my shoulders, to catch some of the tunes from Silver Hammer, an energetic and talented rock band consisting entirely of high school students. Towards 4 p.m. as things wound down, LiLi wanted to see the horses again and we found the stalls in our building empty. We walked outside in the fading afternoon light, down to the nearby paddocks. There we found Kera, Smoky and Al together in one of the paddocks, nickering and whinnying to each other, and chasing around as fast as their stubby little legs would carry them.

See more photos right here in the gallery I posted to our Facebook page,

]]>Notes from Old Greenwichnate@natesnaturals.comNatural Blog2011-11-14T23:02:52-05:00http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/cbdbff58dd0673a48bf98562f4f85ab0-49.html#unique-entry-id-49http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/cbdbff58dd0673a48bf98562f4f85ab0-49.html#unique-entry-id-49Nate's Naturals joined the Old Greenwich Farmers' Market late this season. Organized and led by Dana, Amy and Leslie (pictured here L-R), the Old Greenwich Farmers' Market is held every Wednesday in the parking lot of the Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich, which space PCOG graciously donates to help promote local growers, makers and artisans in Old Greenwich. Last Wednesday was an opportunity for me to take an afternoon off from my day job and join Joanna at Old Greenwich. We were even able to bring our daughter LiLi to round out our team. It was a mild, beautiful late fall day, with the afternoon sun shining in at a sharp angle through the trees. I managed to check in with our old friends Four Mile River Farm and Sugar Maple Farms, and met a number of new vendors/artisans too. A pretty successful afternoon -- Jo and I introduced a lot of new customers to Nate's Granola. And LiLi had a great time playing on the church playground which featured her favorite thing -- the slide. Once the sun went down the afternoon quickly grew chilly but sales kept up until we wrapped up in the semi-dark at 5 p.m. You can see more photos in the album I added to our Facebook page.

See you at Old Greenwich again on November 23, the day before Thanksgiving!]]>The Local Beet, Chester, CTnate@natesnaturals.comNatural Blog2011-10-17T00:02:20-04:00http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/cd75c4fdc81e1c816f40bc1c457a4382-48.html#unique-entry-id-48http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/cd75c4fdc81e1c816f40bc1c457a4382-48.html#unique-entry-id-48We are delighted to be part of The Local Beet, a great natural food coop in Chester, Ct. Back in September I attended the Chester Land Trust fair, held outside the historic Chester Meeting House. While I was there I met Kim Kellogg, founder of The Local Beet and found that our friend Chip Dahlke (of Ashlawn Farm Coffee and the Lyme Farmers' Market) had been already been singing the praises of Nate's granola to her for a while! Kim invited me to come and do a demo at The Local Beet on October 2nd, which was the last day of the 2011 Chester Farmers' Market. Sunday October 2nd was a beautiful fall day and hundreds of people came to the Farmers' Market and The Local Beet during the day. I set up my table outside the Local Beet and gave out lots of samples of our five fabulous granolas plus Cocoa Orchard and Yankee Lace, our two chocolate-covered granola treats. During the day, we sold almost half of what I brought for the shelves of the Local Beet! We're looking forward to a long and crunchy relationship with the Local Beet. The town of Chester is just beautiful, and if you have never visited you really should. And while you're there, you can enjoy the many great natural offerings of the Local Beet, including Luc's Juice Joint. And pick up some excellent granola, too. Tell them Nate sent you. I took a number of photos at the Local Beet and the Chester Farmer's Market -- see the gallery at our Facebook page.]]>On the Shelf at Elm City Marketnate@natesnaturals.comNatural Blog2011-10-14T21:55:02-04:00http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/9b932a1977fd6e9875eaf5c2d6e8ef95-47.html#unique-entry-id-47http://natesnaturals.com/blog/files/9b932a1977fd6e9875eaf5c2d6e8ef95-47.html#unique-entry-id-47The hotly-anticipated Elm City Market's grand opening is November 2nd and Nate's Naturals is already on the shelf! This picture was borrowed from the market's wall photos on Facebook. We got a sneak peek inside the market last week and it's fabulous. This food co-op will be an amazing place to shop, even better if you're a member-owner like us. We plan to be there for the grand opening, so come by 777 Chapel Street to visit us, try some samples and check out the beautiful new Elm City Market!!!]]>