Our History..... We here at Raw From the Farm are raw foodists. We began our journey in response to our own frustration in finding quality, locally grown, pure raw sun-dried fruits and nuts (with the enzymes still intact!). When contacting the buyers of health food stores or other companies, we found they often did not know what type of heat or processing the foods had been subjected to. Usually, they purchased their products from distributors who also did not know this vital information. We tried to determine the sources of these foods so we could ask our questions directly to the grower and processor, but often were not provided that information. We found that some foods, while available from farms in the United States, were purchased from countries such as China (where it could be purchased cheaper), where the processing methods were completely unknown. Thus began our research in finding farmers that understand and support, through their growing and processing practices, the same standards we require for the food we eat. See The Foods We Carry in the next column for more information about our standards.
About our bags..... We offer two types of bags for shipping our foods: As we want our quality raw foods to be affordable for all, we also offer a less expensive PVC- and Plasticizer-free resealable plastic bag. While these are not biodegradeable, they will not leach PVCs and Plasticizers into your foods like regular plastic might. Foods that are packaged in these bags will credit the order 15¢ per bag. The credit is solely due to the plastic being a less expensive bag, not an effort to encourage the use of plastic, which takes significantly longer to break down and adds to landfill problems. Therefore, please re-use these bags whenever possible. For more information on available discounts, please see our Discounts page.
This page was last modified on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 04:29 PM | The Foods We Carry.... We have very strict standards with the foods we carry. These standards include: Organically grown - these foods are biodynamic, wildcrafted, pesticide free, permaculture, or certified organic. Each food we sell has a description as to its growing methods.
Locally grown - this ensures fresher products that have not been subjected to the pollution levels that exist during long transports. This also decreases transportation emissions that contribute to global warming. For products not available locally, we purchase from farms as local as possible that also adhere to our other specifications. .
Raw Dried Fruits - Many fruits available are dried with artificial heat or rehydrated/washed with hot water. We realize this kills enzymes. Raw From the Farm carries only sun-dried fruits, where no heat is used during washing and no artificial drying. Freezing is necessary on some foods (per certification requirements) to kill existing insects without fumigation. Our research has found that for dried fruits and nuts, where there is very little moisture content, the integrity of the food is not compromised when frozen. When a dried fruit or nut is frozen, the enzyme activity is slowed down, but not destroyed. Even so, we always try to find foods that meet all of our other requirements and were not frozen. None of our foods are sulfured.
Nuts and Seeds - The nuts and seeds we sell have either undergone no drying during processing (almonds, chestnuts, sunflowers) or have been air-dried (macadamias, pecans, walnuts). The Certified Organic almonds and pecans have been frozen in order to adhere to certification requirements. The other nuts have not. Like dried fruits, nuts (except chestnuts - do not freeze them) have very little water, so freezing does not damage the integrity of the food (or the enzymes). We plan to carry more nuts and seeds as we find foods that meet our strict standards.
Pure - as we research foods, we have found some processors that add ingredients during the processing, such as oil to raisins. We only work with farmers where nothing is added to the food during processing. Our raisins are a little stickier, but they sure are yummy!
You will notice that some items, like apricots, cherries, tomatoes, and macadamias, are more expensive than the other foods. This is due to a limited growing season and intense labor that comes with growing these foods. We cut costs wherever we can to keep the costs low for our customers. |