A couple of weeks ago I went to an event for Earth’s Best baby food. The event was meant to highlight some of the company’s new products and so some bloggers and other press people were invited to come and see what was new in the hopes that they would later write something favorable and help spread the word.

I have a been a huge fan of Earth’s Best since my now 6-year-old daughter started eating solid foods back in 2004. At the time, all of those lovely organic frozen baby foods that are now on the market didn’t really exist and so if you wanted something to feed your child in a super-quick hurry and you didn’t want to make it yourself, you went to a jar (I know, it seems so old-school, doesn’t it?). My local natural foods store carried Earth’s Best products and so I bought a few and quickly started to supplement my homemade baby foods with Earth’s Best jars, cereals and snacks.

Since Earth’s Best has been my go-to organic baby food product for the past 5 1/2 years, you can imagine my surprise when, after asking at the event if the cans for some of their new products contained BPA, I was told that yes, they did. I kind of figured that, in this day and age, any new product that comes in a can and is geared toward children would not contain BPA. But when I asked why this was the case, I was told by Shauna Burke, Director of Public Affairs for The Hain Celestial Group (owner of Earth’s Best), that she did not have an answer but would get back to me.

Today I received an email from Ms. Burke and I’ve reprinted below, with her permission, some of what she said:

“What I learned is that all canned products that contain foods with any amount of acidity are canned in the traditional format –i.e. a can with a thin interior coating which contains BPA. You had mentioned that a different brand now uses a BPA free method of canning and uses baked on oleoresinous within their steel cans. Baked oleoresinous may only be used when canning non-acidic products such as beans. If you look at the label on canned soups by this other brand, they are not canned using the same method as their beans.  Any food product containing acidity may corrode baked on oleoresinous and thus it is not a viable option.

Currently, there are no commercial canning alternatives available on the market. At Earth’s Best we continue to research suitable methods of canning as they become available.”

I am pleased that Earth’s Best got back to me with an answer, and I still think they have great products. But I am not an expert in BPA, nor canning processes. If anyone has information and cares to comment, please do so below.

Image by VirtualErn

My husband was not home for dinner last night and so I wanted to make something quick and easy. Lucie asked for pasta and meatballs, which I did not feel like having, so I settled on pasta and sausage instead.

There is a dish I make fairly regularly that basically consists of Farfalle (bowtie) pasta, chicken sausage, peas and mushrooms. When I went to the store for the sausage, they did not have any mushrooms, so I decided (in the interest of time and convenience) I would leave them out. When I got home, I realized that my last onion had gone bad and my neighbor wasn’t home to lend me one, so I had to ditch that part of the recipe as well. This was turning into a pretty boring pasta dish!

I rummaged through my fridge to see what else I had and found some organic baby carrots. I decided I would add those. What I ended up with was pasta with chicken sausage, peas and carrots…and it was actually pretty tasty. I have to admit though, seeing the peas and carrots mixed together made me feel like I had been transported back to the 1950’s.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 lb. Farfalle pasta
• 3/4 lb. of chicken sausage, cooked and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 bag of frozen peas
• 1 cup of organic baby carrots, cut into small pieces
• 8 oz. of chicken broth*
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese, to taste

Put water on for pasta. While water is beginning to boil, cook the chicken sausage in a little olive oil on the stovetop until cooked through and set aside. Put the carrots in the pan and saute until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cut sausage into 1/2 inch pieces. Put sausage back into the pan with the carrots and add the chicken broth. Keep the sausage, carrots and broth on simmer while pasta is cooking. When pasta has about 5 minutes left, add the frozen peas to the broth mixture and continue to simmer until pasta is cooked. Drain pasta and add all ingredients together.

Serve in shallow bowls with freshly grated parmesan and black pepper on top.

Very kid-friendly and fast dinner!

*I buy Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth in 8-ounce packages and use one of those when I make a recipe like this.

Image by Phil Moore

Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?

Eating Food That’s Better for You, Organic or Not

The White House chef, Sam Kass, seems to be pretty vocal about the state our school lunch program.

Read: Obama’s New Chef Skewers School Lunches

Maybe an overhaul in our country’s food policy will be on the agenda for this President.

Picky Eaters:
Winning Over the Kitchen’s Loudest Critics

Eating Locally:
A New Yorker Tries the 100-Mile Diet

Organic Foods:
Five Easy Ways to Go Organic

Whole Foods:
The Case for Real Food

One of my favorite organizations, Environmental Working Group (the folks that have provided us with the incredibly useful list of the 12 least and the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables), is running a campaign to help get fair funding for organic farmers into the new Farm Bill, which is about to be voted on in Congress.

You can help by doing one or both of the following:
Sign the petition
Contribute to the campaign

For every donation of $65 or more, you will receive EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce grocery bag, made from 100% organic cotton.

Time Magazine has jumped on the local vs. organic debate with this recent article:
Eating Better Than Organic

Prepared organic baby foods are now more prevalent than ever. And it seems a new company crops up every day. Here’s a sample of some of the brands that are out there and how to find them:
Baby Cubes and More
Bohemian Baby
Evie’s Organic Edibles
Happy Baby
Homemade Baby
Plum Organics
Taste Bud Organic Baby Food

Some of these foods were recently reviewed in a Wall Street Journal article:
Sampling Organic Baby-Food Services

I recently received a copy of Stonyfield Farm’s newsletter, with its corny title, Moos from the Farm.

There are a couple of good little articles in this month’s issue:

Why Buy Local? reminds us of the importance of shopping direct from your local farm.

The Cookin’ With Yogurt section has a recipe for Easy Yogurt Popsicles.

Or you can always read The Bovine Bugle, where a farmer reports from his organic dairy farm in Vermont.

I want to introduce you to a great company, Evie’s Organic Edibles.

Evie’s Organic Edibles offers 100% Certified Organic food for infants and toddlers for retail sale, with seven varieties available. Each recipe is made fresh and flash frozen to preserve all the vitamins, nutrients and flavor, with no added sugar or salt and is preservative free. For parents who want to provide their toddler with a wide variety of homemade, organic meals like turkey meatloaf, toddler burgers and fish cakes, Evie’s Organic Edibles also provides New York’s only In-Home cooking service for children. The food is prepared fresh, packaged in small portions for your child’s varying appetite and frozen for your convenience.

I can personally vouch for the food. I have tried each of the dishes Evie has to offer and they are all delicious…even to an adult!

You can find Evie’s Organic Edibles at various markets around New York City, or you can purchase her food online via the online store. Happy feeding!