Living Maxwell
Company Stories
Last week, I was in New York City to attend two fantastic trade shows — 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show and Good Food Mercantile.
Whenever I go to these shows, I always come across some outstanding organic products, and this year was no exception.
Here are my Top 10 Organic Products of the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show and Good Food Mercantile.
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
For those of us who are fans of Dr. Bronner’s, the company’s products have a constant presence in our households, and we use them to clean our bodies and physical surroundings on a daily basis.
While this is unquestionably a critical component of our lives and imperative to maintain good health, cleaning transcends removing whatever is on our skin, on our clothes or on our kitchen countertops. It also affects our emotional well-being and directly impacts how we show up in the world.
And this is precisely why Lisa Bronner’s Soap & Soul: A Practical Guide to Minding Your Home, Your Body and Your Spirit with Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps spoke to me so much, as it squarely touches on the importance of cleaning both the tangible and intangible — an essential formula for a meaningful life.
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
For as long as I have been covering the organic food industry, I have attended Natural Products Expo East, with my first show in Boston in 2009.
So, it is very bittersweet to report that after last week’s show in Philadelphia, there will be no more Expo East moving forward. New Hope, the organizer of the event, has decided to launch something new in 2024 called Newtopia Now.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
Ever since I launched the Pressed Organic Juice Directory a few months ago, people have been constantly asking me what I drink for juice.
In terms of pressed organic juice, I prefer green juice in a glass bottle. However, sometimes glass is not available. And sometimes straight green juice is not available either. Usually, this means that a juice bar has added apple for sweetness.
Despite the fact that I have plenty of places to buy pressed organic juice in my neighborhood, I have not abandoned juicing at home. And I never will.
A message from E3Live
The best testimonial that I can give is that I drink this every single day, as it impacts my mood in an incredibly positive way.
E3Live + BrainON is certified organic, fresh-frozen AFA (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae) with a concentrated, aqueous, organic extract of Phenylethylamine and Phycocyanin.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
In wine, there are naturally occurring sulfites and added sulfites. The naturally occurring sulfites are a by-product of the fermentation process and it is nearly impossible to have a sulfite-free wine.
Winemakers have been working with sulfite agents, added sulfites, for hundreds of years. They were originally introduced in Europe as a preservative and are used to prevent spoiling.
It is possible, however, to have a wine that is free of added sulfates and that is organic wine. The four main attributes of USDA certified organic wine are:
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
When I review organic food products, I do my best to make sure that they are available either online or at retail locations throughout much of the country, so readers can go buy them.
Sometimes, however, my excitement about a product is so strong that I have to make an exception.
Over the Thanksgiving holidays, not only was I fortunate to have eaten at Dr. Andrew Weil’s restaurant True Food Kitchen for the very first time, but I was also lucky enough to have discovered Ozuké kimchi by the Esoteric Food Company.
For the most part, sauerkraut, kimchi and other fermented foods is a very regional business.
So, wherever you go in the U.S., there tends to be a different local producer of these foods.
Living Maxwell
Company Stories
On the last few days of my trip to Costa Rica, I was in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.
Populated by many European and American ex-pats, Puerto Viejo is a really cool surfing town on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Living Maxwell
Better Choices
Despite the fact that it has become a burgeoning trend in the beverage world, cold-brew coffee is still a relatively unknown quantity to the average person on the street.
In a very unscientific poll that I conducted, the majority of people that I talked to had heard of cold-brew coffee but couldn’t give me a good answer as to what it is and why people should be drinking it. And to be perfectly honest, I was pretty in the dark about cold-brew as well.
While I know that choosing organic coffee is a must, because coffee is one of the most chemically-treated crops in the world, I, too, had many questions about this increasingly popular drink.
Organic Insider
Must-Read
If you are a consumer or participant in the organic industry, something new is set to hit the marketplace that you absolutely want to know about, and it is called the Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC).
Started by three organizations — Patagonia, Dr. Bronner’s and Rodale Institute — the certification aims to raise the bar for what organic represents.
But contrary to what one might believe, it is not a substitution for the USDA organic seal. Instead, it adds onto the USDA organic seal and is referred to as an “add-on” label. The USDA organic seal is a requirement, or a baseline, in order for a company to receive the ROC certification.
Living Maxwell
Personal
I learned how to meditate in college when I took a Transcendental Meditation class and have maintained a very serious practice over the past 11 years.
For some reason, I don’t remember doing it that consistently in the 90s. Most likely, it was the hard-partying lifestyle that got in the way.
Anyhow, my meditation practice is something that I cannot live without. It calms me down, centers me and gets me more focused. Nothing makes me more relaxed or present.
So, when I get up in the morning I sit and meditate for 20 minutes. The meditation is Transcendental Meditation, which uses a mantra as a way to keep the mind from wandering.
And after I finish meditating, I do something called Creating My Day.
