Brewers Bars
A Brewers Bar is a chewy-crispy fruit and seed (no nuts) granola bar created by Granola Lab of Brooklyn, New York with organic rolled oats, organic rice syrup, brown sugar, barley malt, organic pumpkin seeds, organic dried apples, organic dried apricots, organic malt syrup, organic dates (with oat flour), hemp seeds, olive oil, organic sesame seeds, flax meal, organic vanilla extract, and salt. Sounds like most energy bars…but it isn’t because of one ingredient: barley malt. Read more 
Perfect Fuel Chocolate
What do you get when you take two organic super foods: dark chocolate and ginseng – and blend them together? The Perfect Fuel Chocolate Energy Bite: a single serving (0.5 ounce or 14 grams) raw super dark chocolate (74%) bar with no refined sugar made from five organic ingredients: cacao, cacao butter, coconut palm sugar, vanilla bean, and American ginseng (500 mg).
Made by Boston-based Perfect Fuel Chocolate, the Perfect Fuel Chocolate Energy Bite is gluten-free, soy free, vegan, kosher and powerfully delicious, with the only caveat: you have to like dark chocolate. Who knew that dark chocolate and ginseng could produce the perfect snack? Read more
Garofalo Gluten-Free Pasta
I’ve never met a dish of pasta I did not love. A Wise Person
How to make a great tasting gluten-free pasta has been a big challenge for pasta makers worldwide over the past decade. Knowing that pasta made without wheat could not have the same flavor or texture as traditional pasta, Garofalo – the Italian pasta maker – set upon creating pasta with a different flavor, making gluten-free pasta a cooking opportunity for everyone and not just those on a gluten-free diet. Equally important was to create a healthy product which led Garafalo to combine corn flour (70%), rice flour (18%), and quinoa (3%) with corn starch and a small amount of oil to make some of the best tasting gluten-free pastas on the market. Read more
Videri Chocolate Factory
There’s a special place in a chocolate lover’s heart for bean-to-bar chocolate makers like Videri whose founders are committed to creating great chocolate while following the tenets of social responsibility and providing warm and friendly customer service. Truly a labor of love, the beans-to-bar operation is a fascinating process and one worth understanding to truly appreciate.
The Videri Chocolate Factory, located in Raleigh, North Carolina starts with what is referred to as “The Process” purchasing organic and fair-trade cocoa beans from Central and South America, whenever possible. Read more
Halloween Treats for Adults
Most adults don’t go trick or treating unless they happen to be the parent of a primary school aged child. For those of us who embrace Halloween, this is a responsibility we take very seriously – enough to make some of us consider spacing our kids out far enough to ensure we are needed for decades. Yes, I mourned the day my daughter was old enough to go trick or treating without me but I don’t know if it was because she was growing up or because I wouldn’t be able to scarf candy out of her bag before she noticed or get free handouts by the neighbors. Read more
Grateful Grahams
Nearly five years ago, Rachel DesRochers started Grateful Grahams – a company that specializes in making graham crackers that are not only delicious but vegan, too. Made with wholesome ingredients and without artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, Grateful Grahams come in two varieties: Original and Chocolate. Crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle, these graham crackers are unlike any other graham cracker on store shelves. One bite and you will be forever grateful that DesRochers pursued her dream to show the rest of us what a graham cracker should taste like. Heavenly, comes to mind. Read more
Walnuts by Old Dog Ranch
The nutcracker sits under the holiday tree, a guardian of childhood stories. Feed him walnuts and he will crack open a tale…. ~Vera Nazarian
A big bowl of walnuts resting on a coffee table draws people together to engage in conversation while enjoying the thrill of cracking open a shell in search of the rich nutmeat inside. When I was a child, we would kneel around the table and struggle to apply enough force to break open the shell but not so much as to smash the nutmeat. Those of us who succeeded were rewarded with a large walnut half while those who used brute force were left with nutmeat crumbs – still tasty but more difficult to separate from the unwanted parts: the smashed shell and dry nut skin. Walnuts have a way of bringing people together and imparting lifelong lessons. Read more
Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels
Uncle Jerry’s has been making crunchy sourdough pretzels for 26 years the old-fashioned way: by hand. The original recipe (written more than 100 years ago) for these Pennsylvania Dutch pretzels includes no sweeteners, shortening, oil, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors – just simple ingredients like unbleached wheat flour, water, sourdough, yeast, salt, and baking soda. Today, the pretzels are made the same way in a cozy south-central Lancaster County, Pennsylvania bakery where each pretzel is rolled and twisted by hand and then baked to perfection: regular (special), dark, or lite. Read more
Frontier Soups
Now is the perfect time to make a big batch of soup but who wants to spend the afternoon searching cookbooks for the right recipe, shopping for the ingredients, chopping vegetables, and figuring out the right spice combination to make a flavorful pot of homemade soup? Frontier Soups offers an easy, healthy and delicious way to enjoy homemade hearty soups, chowders, and chills.
Made of dehydrated vegetables (non-GMO), dried beans, peas, and legumes, herbs and spices, Frontier Soups has no added salt, msg, preservatives, artificial flavors, or colors – just plain wholesome ingredients that can be combined with fresh vegetables, meat, poultry, water, broth, milk, or any non-dairy milk to make the ultimate comfort food on a crisp cool evening. Read more
Battenkill Brittle
Battenkill Brittle is a high energy snack with five major attributes: great taste, wholesome ingredients, high in protein, low in sugar, and low in sodium. Made with three types of organic seeds (sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin), organic brown rice syrup, Vermont maple syrup, and pecan meal, Battenkill Brittle is the perfect snack food – wholesome, crunchy, and full of flavor. Slightly sweet with the subtle taste of maple, the brittle stands out for making seeds and pecans the star of the show. Read more
Paddock Post 