The staff at Meadowsweet Market would like to thank everyone who attended our Holiday Allergen-Free Food Fest. Thanks for making our second event even bigger than the first! We hope you are all in the Holiday spirit now and looking forward to all the great foods of the season!

Special thanks goes out to our class presenters of the day, Naturopathic Doctor Adam Graves and Stephanie from Blue Egg Bakery.  We all appreciate your time and all the valuable information (and delicious treats!).

Now a couple of announcements:  The winner of our gluten-free vanilla cake has been decided.  Namaste Foods vanilla cake took the prize with a high voter turnout (it was a tough job tasting three different cakes!) The Namaste mix was flavorful and had an “I can’t believe it’s gluten free” texture.  Thanks to all who voted! Remember, you can get 20%  off case orders placed at Meadowsweet Market OR juniperfoods.com. You can stock up for the season!

Also, the winners of our many door prizes and grocery giveaways have been chosen!  If you have been contacted you may pick up your prize anytime the store is open.  Stop in and check out our many new holiday items.  See you soon!

It’s back by popular demand!  The response to last year’s holiday allergen free food fair was so overwhelming that it is now an annual event!

The 2nd annual Holiday Allergen Free Food Fest will take place on Saturday, November 14th ALL DAY, from 9am to 5pm.  Once again, we will have a wide variety of food samples as well as FREE informational classes, recipes and tips for your holiday and everyday allergen free cooking!  We will avoid the eight most common allergens:  wheat/gluten, milk, eggs, nuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and soy in our demos, and will have information on ingredients, manufacturing facilities and preparation of sampled products. Keep updated with Meadowsweet’s e-newsletter and receive a coupon good for special savings at the event!

Join Laurie Nelson-Moe, Supplement Manager at Meadowsweet Natural Health Market, for a discussion of how fresh, locally produced food impacts our daily lives.

Class will be held at the Luverne School at 709 North Kniss Ave, Luverne, MN, in community education room # 802, on Monday, June 29th from 6:30-8:00p.m.

Learn how choosing to eat fresh foods from local producers may:

• Promote health and reduce disease risk
• Support local communities
• Protect our planet

Call 507 283-4724 and ask to sign up for class #T225.

Fee:  $10. Call today, deadline to sign up is June 25.

Thanks to all our wonderful customers who made Meadowsweet’s Holiday Allergen-Free Food Fest so much fun! Many delicious treats were sampled, five bags of groceries were given away, and attendees shared ideas for allergen-free alternatives to traditional holiday staples. Patsy’s cranberry salsa was a big hit, and customers tried it while voting for their favorite gluten-free cracker.  Schar table crackers won the contest by a wide margin, and we also received requests for a new cracker line to bring in–Crunchmaster Multi-Seed Crackers. We appreciate your feedback!

Special thanks goes out to chef Sanaa for her wonderful and informative cooking demo. Over 20 customers attended the free demo and we look forward to having similar educational demos in the future!  Meadowsweet now carries Sanaa’s new cookbook:  Gluten Free Mediterranean.

Meadowsweet Natural Health Market will participate in the first annual Sioux Falls Walk Now for Autism Event that is being held on October 11th at the Sioux Falls Stadium. The event is being hosted by Autism Speaks, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness of autism and its effects on individuals, families and communities.  The group is dedicated to raising funds for research into the causes of and treatments for autism.  Walk Now for Autism is a 5K family walk and an autism community resource fair to heighten public awareness and raise money to fund autism research.  Biomedical research is being conducted into the link between diet/nutrition and the symptoms of autism.  Scheduled in 65 US cities, Walk Now for Autism brings together business and civic leaders, medical professionals, educators and families who share a common goal to find the missing piece of the autism puzzle.  Meadowsweet will be providing gluten-free snacks at the event. You can also stop by and visit with Laurie and Patty at Meadowsweet Market’s informational booth. Join us and Walk Now for Autism! To get involved with Walk Now for Autism, visit www.walknowforautism.org/siouxfalls

Meadowsweet customers have voted, and the results are in for our first-ever gluten-free bread contest!  As part of our Gluten-Free day celebration,  Meadowsweet Market asked our customers to taste and vote for their favorite gluten-free breads.  We had such a large amount of samples for people to try that we divided the contest into categories. The categories were determined by type of flours used in the breads. In the Brown-Rice-flour category, our freezer section breads proved to be the most popular. The Kinnikinnick brand edged out Food for Life to take the prize as most tasty Brown-Rice-flour bread, according to our customers. The frozen Kinnikinnick bread was also the clear winner in the Tapioca-flour category, receiving over twice as many votes as the Ener-G brand varieties. The White-Rice-flour category was the largest, with the Cause You’re Special bread mix being voted the winner.

Thanks to all who voted!

Meadowsweet Market would like to extend a big Thank-You to all of our wonderful customers and vendors who made our very first gluten-free day celebration such a success. Everyone had a lot of fun and it was so nice to be able to give away all those samples, door prizes, and goodies! Everyone really appreciated being able to try new things, and the best part was that so many people got to meet and share information and experiences.

We especially want to thank a special Meadowsweet customer who maintains a strictly gluten-free kitchen for a family member, who has severe allergies. She baked gluten-free cookies, two cakes, and brownies using ingredients and baking mixes from Meadowsweet Market/Juniper Foods. Everything tasted delicious and we really appreciated her sharing her baking talent with us.

If you missed Gluten-Free Day, be sure to sign up for our e-newsletter, to receive information on all of our upcoming events and sales.