Illinois Harvest of the Month

Winter tips

WINTER PROGRAM TIPS AND INFORMATION 

Winter procurement can lead to great opportunities when you share Illinois foods that are often overlooked. With fresh and storage crops now depleted, why not promote local honey, dairy, or grains on your menu or in your garden program? Share, promote, and educate your kids about “other” local foods!

 
As the snow flies, we have chosen local honey for our focus in January. Local honey taste tests can be a fun and economical way to educate kids about how honey is made and where honey comes from. Inexpensive, plain saltines or bits of bread will become the perfect vehicle to excite and educate your eaters about local foods.
 
Vinaigrettes and glazes are the easiest way to add local honey to your menus and recipes. By incorporating local honey into a dressing, or glaze, you can boost flavor and add interest to the most common of foods.
 
Yogurt and honey were made to go together! Try a local yogurt parfait with local honey for a sweet breakfast surprize. Honey is versitile and has no expiration date! While excavating Egypt’s famous pyramids, archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient tombs. The honey, dating back approximately 3,000 years, is the world’s oldest sample – and still perfectly edible. 
 
Are you sharing this email with teaching staff, and others?
No? Why not?
Share your program and all the tools in this email with teachers, food service staff, and administrators. The best way to drive up interest and excitement is to share the possibilities with others in your site! By sharing information you can promote Harvest of the Month beyond your meal or garden program. Just think of the possibilities sharing program information can create!
 
Need assistance? We are here to help!
As of the end of November, we have provided assistance for many of our Harvest of the Month participants! It’s exciting for us when a participating site calls or emails asking for help. Did you know we can customize recipes to fit your program or your food restrictions? We can also send you sourcing information for your specific area of Illinois chocked full of producers, processors and other buying sources. Need advice on a specific topic or issue? We can connect you to other participants who have crossed that bridge before, and have found a solution!
 
IFSN is here to provide free assistance on everything Harvest of the Month as you develop, or scale up your programs. You can take advantage of our expertise through a variety of tools, our websites, and through direct consultations. Check out the IL Farm to School website and sign up for the monthly newsletter here.
Need to work out where to start building your program? Perhaps you’re having a problem sourcing? Do you want to start a garden? Email us and we will help you get things started!

TIS THE SEASON FOR A LOCAL CELEBRATION!

Winter procurement can lead to great opportunities when you share Illinois foods that are often overlooked. With all of the seasonal celebrations in store, why not promote local honey, dairy, or grains on your menu or in your garden program?
 
 
Did you know a large portion of fresh and dried cranberries in November and December are grown in Wisconsin? Feature these holiday gems on the salad bar and in baked goods! Share fun information about how cranberries are grown with your students. Check out the growing process here. Discover Harvest of the Month cranberry facts and recipes here.
 
IN DECEMBER, FOCUS ON HEALTHY CELEBRATIONS!
 
With the build-up to the holiday break, December is a festive and busy month. Sometimes good nutrition can get lost in all the sweets and festivities. But, that doesn’t have to be the case! If you focus your festive celebrations on healthy, local foods you can help to swing the balance toward a healthier holiday season.
 

Change the Celebration Focus to Healthier Choices

Need help incorporating better holiday snacks into your school festivities? Action for Healthy Kids has a tip sheet for avoiding sugar overload and incorporating healthier choices in school celebrations.  The University of Illinois Extension has wonderful resources for promoting healthy school celebrations. Learn how teachers, food service, and school administrators can maintain a positive, healthy, and most importantly fun environment through the holiday season. By sharing resources like these with staff and administrators you can help to promote healthy and fun holidays at school.
 

On the Meal Lines

Are you serving carrots for December’s Harvest of the Month? Adding more celebration to your meal lines on Harvest of the Month featured veggie days will lend a festive note to your efforts.
 
Did you know that Moroccan Carrot Salad has a history steeped in celebration? In the cuisine notes on the recipe, you will note that Moroccan Carrot Salad is a traditional Rosh Hashanah dish in Israel. This dish is a symbol of a sweet and fruitful year to come. Adding pictures of a traditional Rosh Hashanah celebration, or a New Year’s celebration and decorating tables or food lines with festive trappings will increase the interest of young eaters. Adding a marketing blast about the celebration on your school’s website and to the morning announcements will draw attention to your Harvest of the Month day festivities. Carrot Fries will steal the show on the lunch lines during a holiday celebration. These sweet, roasted carrots are a perfect side dish for your student’s favorite entrees. This side dish is fast and easy to prepare and can be used with local, precut carrots or full carrots. You don’t even need to peel them! Just scrub them well and cut into sticks, coins or chunks. Adjust your roasting time if the pieces are thicker and you have an easy way to promote Harvest of the Month local veggies!
 
Customize your recipe with your student’s favorite flavor combinations such as Ranch, BBQ or Mexican spice blends. To avoid higher sodium in premade spice blends, create your own. Draw attention to your creation by giving it a name that ties it to your school. Examples:
  • New! (Your district name) (your district’s mascot) Ranch Carrot Fries are available today on the lunch line!
  • Limited Time Only! (Your district name) (mascot) Fiesta Carrot Fries are available today on a lunch line near you! Add some spice to your holidays!

VALENTINE CELEBRATIONS WITH BEETS!

With Valentine’s Day comes an opportunity to showcase a very unappreciated, very red vegetable: the beet. Showcasing beets and educating kids on this versatile and earthy vegetable can be easy in a month saturated with pink and red decorations, hearts and activities. If you can transform a tasting for beets into a fun and festive activity, you can win your students over to this very misunderstood vegetable.
 
Try a Valentine Celebration with a Focus on Beets!

If your students aren’t eating your Harvest of the Month monthly veggies providing a little fun on your lunch lines and education to improve your customer response could be the boost your program needs! Let’s face it, beets are not an easy sell to school-age children. Building a celebration sprinkled with fun education can influence your students and help to gain acceptance of these earthy beauties!

Here are a few examples of this technique.

  • Beets used as a dye: Cutting beets into simple shapes and using them as a stamp is a great way to decorate serving line and cafeteria signage. Fun facts with red beet hearts stamped all around will draw student interest. (photo courtesy of www.parentmap.com)
  • Creating temporary tattoos for students in the shape of a red heart that are a safe and fun way to celebrate this dark, red vegetable during February.
  • “Will You Beet My Valentine?” This is a fun and inexpensive way to promote your February Harvest of the Month. Create a theme lunch for younger students, such as k-5 with a sweetheart beet promotion!
  • “With Every Beet of My Heart” is a wonderful way to tie beets to that popular February holiday! Create signage in the form of giant beet love valentines to paper your wall space using beet stamps cut into the shape of hearts.
  • Veggie Love Is In the Air! Utilizing a Valentine theme can provide a fun learning opportunity in the lunchroom and in the classroom. Themed lunch celebrations also increase participation numbers, which is something we can all appreciate!
  • “Pickle Me Pink!” Sharing how foods were preserved in the past by serving pickled local beets with a side of education on the preserving process is a sure win. Adding these pickled beauties to a themed Valentine celebration may be the catalyst you need to encourage kids to taste something new. Our Quick Pickled Beets recipe can take the center stage on salad bars, a special mainline salad or in cold sandwich lunches throughout February!

Featured Recipe: Winter Sunset Salad, A beautiful fresh salad with the colors of a winter sunset- a great way to get your students to try beets!

For a colorful and healthy salad try Winter Sunset Salad as your Harvest of the Month recipe! This recipe is rated BASIC for prep skills and utilizes canned mandarin oranges, as well as red or gold beets.

We have more cold and hot beet recipes including Quick Pickled Beets, Beets and Sweets, and Roasted Balsamic Beets for food service. If you want to avoid the red staining that can occur with Red Ace beets look for Chioggia (Candy Stripe) or golden beets. Chioggia beets, pictured below, have an amazing striped color and a very mild flavor. Golden beets are sweeter than the standard red beet and do not stain surfaces. Either beet makes a delicious and nutritious addition to a cold salad.

PUT LOCAL DAIRY ON THE MENU!

Did you know?
Illinois dairy farms produced approximately 220 million gallons of milk in 2015. Illinois farms generate more than $334 million in milk sales annually. In Illinois, the average dairy cow produces more than 6 gallons of milk per day. That’s more than 2,340 gallons of milk over the course of a typical year.

Do you need a classroom lesson or activity for Illinois dairy? Check out the Ag in the Classroom Dairy Magazine here. Midwest Dairy has a great page for schools. Get Schooled here. Looking for a dairy farmer to visit your classroom or cafeteria? Or, perhaps a virutal dairy farm tour would be a useful tool in your school or facility? Send Midwest Dairy your farmer request here.
 
Have you shared your program with local grocery and produce markets? The extension kit allows you to do just that! Grab attention for your program in your community and share recipes for your featured veggie with parents and other shoppers at your local store. The ready-to-print produce signs share your district, or site, name along with the Harvest logo to attract the attention of shoppers. You can also print home recipe cards to share on the display. The produce manager letter template provides program and your contact information to introduce the program to your local stores.
 
What could be easier?
 
Try a tasty Strawberry Yogurt Banana Split as a breakfast entree!
Looking for a CACFP recipe? Try Apple Yogurt Smoothies.
 
Share Baked Mozzarella Sticks on your web page, on your menu grid, or as a companion send-home recipe.
 
Why not serve yogurt parfaits at breakfast or at snack time? It’s easy!
Using a 6 oz. disposable or recyclable cup layer:
4 oz local, low-fat vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon, or a drizzle, of local honey
1/4 cup of chopped fresh or frozen fruit or a 1/4 cup of dried cranberries
And, top with an (1oz) of granola for a tasty local dairy parfait!
USDA Components: 1 oz meat/meat alternate, 1/4 cup fruit (cranberries credit as a 1/2 cup fruit), 1 oz grain
Click here for the full recipe.
 
Be sure to tag your local/regional string cheese sticks, yogurt, and fluid milk as a local selection in December. Share dairy facts and shine a light on dairy throughout the entire month!
 
FEATURED RECIPE: Cheesy Chicken and Zucchini Pasta
Cooking and Prep Level: Intermediate 
Featured Harvest: zucchini (summer), dairy, and fresh herbs (winter).               
Recipe Type: Food service
Servings: 100
 
This recipe from Greendale WI School District showcases two cheeses combined with USDA diced tomatoes and chicken for an easy entree packed with flavor! The addition of fresh parsley will give your dish color and extra taste!
 
Need a lesson or activity for Dairy? Check out this great resource! National Ag in the Classroom Literacy Curriculum Matrix

​​Looking for family recipes? Check out Midwest Dairy’s Recipe cache of over 100 dairy- related recipe options here.

 

FUN FACT: IT’S ALL ABOUT DAIRY!

  • Illinois is the 21st largest milk-producing state in the U.S.
  • It takes about 48 hours for milk to travel from the farm to the dairy case.
  • Illinois has 24 plants that process one or more dairy products.
  • The greatest amount of milk produced in one year was 59,298 pounds by a Holstein cow named Robthom Sue Paddy.
  • Cows have a very acute sense of smell. They can smell up to 6 miles away.
  • To make one gallon of ice cream, it takes 12 pounds of whole milk.
  • The most popular natural cheese in the United States is mozzarella.
  • Our neighbor to the north, Wisconsin, uses ninety percent of the milk produced in the state for cheese.
  • The natural yellow color of butter comes mainly from beta-carotene found in the grass that cows graze on.

NUTRITION FACTS

The perfect winter choice: Honey

Feature local honey, dairy or grains during the winter months. Check out the Winter Harvest toolbox here.
 
Looking for bee-themed educational resources? Check out BuzzedAboutBees for coloring sheets and more. Planning for grants next year? Check out the Whole Kids Bee Grant Program.
 
Did you know?
Like wine, honey can have different flavors depending on the type of nectar a bee collects and the location of the hive. Honeybees pollinate many of the plants which produce the food consumed by humankind. Examples of plants pollinated by honeybees include almonds, apples, blueberries, cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins.
 
Honeybees pollinate about one-third of all food-producing plants, including Illinois’ nation-leading pumpkin crop.
As of 2013, Illinois’ beekeepers managed more than 24,000 colonies. The U.S. has more than 300 unique types of honey, each originating from a different floral source.
 
In the winter, beekeepers insulate their hives to keep the bees warm. In the wild, honeybees huddle together for warmth and find shelter in tree trunks or caves.
 
Do you need a classroom lesson or activity for Illinois honey? Check out the National Ag in the Classroom Curriculum Matrix. Fresh From the Farm Roots and Fruits currulum also has a section on honey!
 
Do you need help finding local honey near you?
Check out these location sources:
 
 

Minerals and Vitamins Pack a Punch!

Honey has minerals, vitamins, pollen and protein to create a superfood punch!
 
Honey contains natural minerals and vitamins which help the metabolizing of undesirable cholesterol and fatty acid on the organs and tissues into the system, hence preventing obesity and promoting better health.
 
The vitamins present in honey are B6, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and certain amino acids. The minerals found in honey include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc.
 
Manuka honey has a higher than normal conductivity, a way of measuring the mineral content of a honey — about 4 times that of normal flower honeys. The higher the conductivity, the better the value of the honey.
 

Put local Honey on the Menu!

Try a tasty Crunchy Apple Slaw with Local Honey as an addition to your salad bar or as a side dish.
Looking for a CACFP recipe? Try Chicken Sliders with Honey Mustard Aioli.
 
Share Local Honey Vinaigrette on your web page, on your menu grid, or as a companion send-home recipe.
 
Why not add a local honey glaze to precooked chicken patties, or fish? Or, add a glaze to cooked carrots, Brussel sprouts, or green beans for a savory/sweet taste sensation!
Using a heavy-bottom saucepan combine:
1/2 cup local honey
3 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
3 Tbsp oil, canola or other olive
Stir to disolve the honey and allow to thicken slightly over medium heat to produce a glaze-like consistency.
 
Be sure to tag your local honey as a local selection in January. Share honey facts and shine a light on honey throughout the entire month!
 
Featured Recipe: Crispy Sweet Brussels Sprouts with Local Honey
 
Cooking and Prep Level: Basic
Featured Harvest: Brussel sprouts, Cranberries (autumn) local Honey (winter)
Recipe Type: Food service
Servings: 100
 
This recipe, adapted from Super Healthy Kids! showcases fresh Brussel Sprouts and local honey using an easy oven-roast method. The twist in this recipe is in the topper of dried cranberries and fresh parmesan cheese which creates a sweet and nutty balance against the earthy taste of the Brussel sprouts.
 
Need a lesson or activity for Honey? Don’t forget to check out this great resource! National Ag in the Classroom Literacy Curriculum Matrix Type Honey into the search box.

 

FUN FACT: It’s all about honey!

  • Bees are the only insect in the world that make food that people can eat.
  • Honey contains all of the substances needed to sustain life, including enzymes, water, minerals and vitamins.
  • One bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon on honey in its entire life.
  • A bee’s wings beat 200 times a second, that’s 12,000 times a minute!
  • Each colony smells different to bees, this is so they can tell where they live!
  • Bees communicate by smells called ‘pheromones’ and by performing special ‘dances’.
  • There are 900 cells in a bee’s brain.
  • Bees have two separate stomachs; one for food and another just for nectar.

 

NUTRITION FACTS

How much do you know about grains?

 
When is a berry not a berry? When it’s a grain!
You might be more familiar with wheat berries in their ground form, a.k.a. whole wheat flour, but we’re talking the whole whole grain here! A wheat berry, or wheatberry, is a whole wheat kernel composed of the bran, germ, and endosperm.
 
Wheat berries have a sweet, nutty flavor that makes them incredibly appealing on the tray. This flavor works just as well in savory meat and vegetable dishes as it does in sweeter puddings and breakfast dishes. They also hold their shape and chewy texture even after long cooking, which is a boon in winter soups or in a vegetarian chili.
 
Introduce your students to whole grains!
Buckwheat is one of the healthiest, nuttiest, most versatile whole grains. And, despite its name, it’s really not related to wheat at all. Buckwheat is actually the seed of a flowering fruit that is related to rhubarb and sorrel. It’s completely gluten-free and unrelated to wheat and all the grasses in the wheat family.
 
Rice in disguise. Wild rice isn’t really rice at all – it’s the seed of an aquatic grass originally grown by Native American tribes. It has a strong flavour and it’s usually for sale mixed with other types of rice.
Rice Pilaf, or pilau, is a dish, originating from the Indian subcontinent, in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth. In some cases, the rice may attain its brown or golden color by first being sauteed lightly in oil before the addition of broth.
 
Pop goes the kernel! Popcorn is simply a puffed-up whole grain. It’s made from a special type of corn called ‘zea mays everta’ – the only type of corn that can ‘pop’.
 
Pigweed, also known as amaranth, grows wild in North America. Amaranth is a nutritious, gluten-free grain that provides plenty of fiber, protein and micronutrients. It has also been associated with a number of health benefits, including reduced inflammation, lower cholesterol levels and increased weight loss. Cooking amaranth is comparable to cooking pasta or rice.
 
Though it is often called a whole grain, quinoa (pronounced KEEN wa) isn’t a grain at all, allthough the USDA lists it as a credible grain source for National School Lunch participants. True grains like wheat and maize (corn) are derived from grasses, whereas quinoa is part of a protein-rich plant family that includes fellow “iron maidens” like spinach and beets. There are over 120 different identified varieties of quinoa, but the most commonly cultivated and exported are white, red and black. Quinoa is also commercially available ground into flours or, most recently, compressed into flakes.
 
The Whole Grains Council February’s Grain of the Month is Barley. In February, the U.S. celebrates Valentine’s Day and Heart Health Month which makes it a perfect match for barley. Barley’s effects on your love life are as yet unproven, but studies show strong support for barley’s role in protecting heart health. Barley is highest in fiber of all the whole grains, with common varieties clocking in at about 17% fiber. Barley is one of the oldest domesticated grain crops. It has been cultivated for over 8000 years.
 
Use Your Flour Power!
Do you understand the uses for the myriad of flours available today? Here’s a short guide to the world of flour.
 
Flour, by definition, is the finely-ground, sifted meal of grains, nuts, seeds, legumes or certain vegetables—and each kind of flour has a different nutrition profile and cooking or baking qualities. Traditionally, the most prevalent flours are milled from wheat.
 
Wheat Flour varieties include: wheat flour (bran and germ are removed),100% whole wheat flour (bran and the germ are intact), 100% white-whole wheat flour (milled from hard white winter wheat which is lighter in color, bran and germ intact), white all-purpose flour (general purpose flour), self-rising flour (used in packed mixes, contains levening agents), cake or pastry four (less protein, asorbs less liquid for delicate bakes), bread flour (higher protein, 20% more gluten development), gluten flour (extra gluten strands with 50% more gluten used for whole wheat, combined or heavly grained breads), and Semolina flour (used for pasta and pizza crust, more binding than traditional all-purpose flour, holds it’s shape in water).
 
Non-wheat flours (gluten free) include: almond meal or flour, coconut, aramanth, barley, buckwheat, corn or maize flour (finely ground) and meal (coarsely ground), flaxseed, oat, peanut, potato, rice, 100% rye, soy, and spelt flour.
 
Flours from other countries include: Cassava flour (Brazil), Chickpea or Garbanzo, Dahl, and Chapati flours (India), Fufu flour (Nigeria), Kamut flour (Egypt), Millet flour (Pakistan), and Teff flour (Ethiopia).
 
 

Put local grains on the menu!

Need recipe suggestions for local grains on your menu?
 
Featured recipe: Wheat Berry and Apple Salad
Cooking and Prep Level: Basic
Featured Harvest: Grains (winter), Cranberries (autumn) Apples (autumn)
Recipe Type: Food service
Servings: 50
 
This recipe, adapted from Massachusetts Farm to School, showcases a quick and easy way to feature wheat berries. This recipe can be used as a stand-alone grain and fruit dish or can be served on the salad bar.
 
 
 
 

The “why” behind incorporating whole grains into your diet.

Why Switch to Whole Grains?
Interesting Facts:
  • Whole grains have similar amounts and sometimes more disease fighting chemicals than many typical fruits and vegetables!
  • Whole grain intake can improve digestive health and help with weight management. Individuals who eat at least 3 servings of whole grains per day reduce their risk of:
  • Heart disease by 25-36%
  • Stroke by 37%
  • Type 2 diabetes by 21-27%
  • Cancer of digestive system by 21-43% and hormone related cancer by 10-40%
  • Obesity
*Courtesy of Minnesota Dept of Health
 
 

Fun facts

Grains galore!
 
  • People have been eating whole grains for more than 17,000 years – they picked seeds, rubbed off the husks and chewed the kernels raw or boiled them in water.
  • Egyptians used to bury mummies with necklaces made from barley.
  • In 1324 King Edward II of England set the standard for the measurement – making the ‘inch’ equal to ‘three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end-to-end lengthwise’.
  • One bushel of wheat contains around a million individual whole grain kernels.
  • Amaranth is a whole grain that was incredibly important to the Aztecs. So when the Spanish invaded, their leader, Cortez, tried to destroy the Aztecs by not allowing them to grow it – anyone caught was put to death!
  • Khorasan grain is a wheat variety that was brought to the US as a souvenir from an Egyptian tomb – it was sold as ‘King Tut’s Wheat’. Now known as kamut, an ancient Egyptian word for wheat, this rich, buttery-tasting wheat is certified organic.
  • Quinoa, pronounced ‘keen-wa’, is a whole grain that was highly prized by the ancient Incas – they called it ‘gold of the Incas’.
  • Pringles, the popular potato chip, are technically not potato chips but a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and some potato flakes. Whoa!
  • A massive Dutch famine during WWII helped discover celiac disease. Sick children recovered when wheat was scare, but fell ill once they resumed eating gluten.
  • Rice does not need to grow in water, but since rice can survive in water, it is planted in it to control weeds and other pests, creating higher yields.
  • Humans have fewer genes than rice.
  • Quinoa, amaranth, millet, and sorghum can pop like popcorn.
  • Corn needs to be cooked in limewater before its nutrients can be absorbed into the human body. While Native Americans knew this, early New World colonial settlers did not, which resulted in many deaths from malnutrition for those who were using it as a staple food.

Nutrition facts

Celebrate Mardi Gras with local grains!

 
Did you know Illinois and Wisconsin are commercially producing rice?
In southern Illinois, up in Marquette, WI (near the Wisconsin Dells), and in Milwaukee County short and long grain rice is being commercially grown and processed for the first time.
 
Cahokia Rice (high protein, long grain white and brown rice) is be being commercially grown in south-central Illinois at River Bend Farms in McClure. You can contact them at Cahokia@riverbendrice.com and view their website here.
 
Are you celebrating a holiday in February? Try this Mardi Gras Rice recipe as part of your celebration!
 
When you think about local grains be sure to consider wheat berries, cracked wheat, and whole grain wheat and corn flours that are being commercially milled in our region. If you are in northern Illinois the Mill at Janies Farm in Ashkum, IL. has a full line of grains, including wheat and rye berries (at approx. 12 cents per serving). They sell both online, and through Central Baking Supplies distribution in Chicago.
Lonesome Stone Milling in Lone Rock, WI. and Great River Milling in Arcadia, WI offer many different varieties of flour and grains, too.
 
Are you sharing tips with teaching staff, and others?
Share your program and all the HOTM tools with teachers, food service staff, and administrators. The best way to drive up interest and excitement is to share the possibilities for collaboration with other staff at your site. By sharing information, you can promote Harvest of the Month beyond your meal, or garden program. Just think of the benefits you can create when sharing program information!

WARM UP! WITH HARVEST OF THE MONTH

The holidays are over and schools are settling back into their routine. It’s time to catch your student customers attention and bring them back into the lunch lines with Harvest of the Month!

Regional/local apples are a winter storage crop and are grown in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, and in Missouri, (for our western and southern Illinois schools!). There are two companies selling sliced regional (when available) apples to schools: Richland Hills Farms in Wisconsin and Peterson Farms in Michigan. Check with your produce distributor to order. If you cannot get these products try contacting the companies directly to locate a distributor near you.

Great winter veggies would be any root crop, such as parsnips, sweet potatoes, potatoes, beets, winter/hard squash, such as butternut, carnival and acorn varieties. If you are looking for a fruit, how about dried cranberries? Did you know Wisconsin has produced the largest crop of cranberries — currently, about 59% of the United States’ total production since 1995? 99% of Wisconsin cranberries are sold to Ocean Spray destined to become juice, dried cranberries, and fresh cranberries which are available through the holidays. If you need fun facts, nutrition facts or recipes for a vegetable or fruit that is not listed on the website please contact us!

Featured Recipe: Cranberry Apple Coleslaw, hitting the trifecta of monthly featured foods!

For a colorful and healthy treat try Cranberry Apple Coleslaw as your Harvest of the Month recipe. This recipe is rated Basic for prep skills and has a sweet and tart crunch your students will love!

We have more cold salad recipes including Chicken Salad with Apples & Cranberries, Aztec Grain Salad, and Fresh Waldorf Salad.

Brrr! Looking for a recipe to stave off the winter chill? Try Cranberry Apple Cornbread Muffins or Apple Crisp.

If you would like to try other baking recipe choices the newly added Apple Honey Crisp, Apple Oatmeal Squares, and Apple Muffin Squares recipes are sure to please. Be sure to highlight regionally grown apples on your menus!