Honey Mama's Nectar Bar is a unique experience. Kept in the cooler section, this handcrafted bar is made with natural ingredients, wrapped with brown paper, and sweetened with honey. My favorite is the Ginger Cardamom Nectar Bar made with ginger oil and cardamom. Other flavors include; Peppermint, Dutch, Lavender Red Rose, Mayan Spice, Nibs and Coffee, and Peruvian Raw. Checkout out their well-curated blog at The Honey Mamma's website . I found these at our local Co-Op, Rainbow Market!
Hayes Valley, San Francisco Location
Urban Remedy offers pre-packaged food, juices and protein bars that doesn’t use dairy, gluten, white sugar, white flour or unhealthy oils. One of their website’s tag lines is “Food Thats Healing to People and the Planet”.
Enter the Sun Square my first experience with Urban Remedy. These chocolate squares are made with sunflower butter, raw cacao, coconut oil and sweetened with organic coconut sugar and Stevia. It’s a relief to finally read a label that you don’t need a degree in chemistry to understand.
You can buy Urban remedy products in Whole Foods, online or at its sit down locations across the Bay Area. Last week I sat down at their Hayes Valley location in San Francisco for a salad, the staff was super sweet and helpful. I picked up the black rice umeboshi bowl; it was colorful, tasty and energy packed. Its a bit expensive but makes up for its higher cost by only using high-quality ingredients by providing local, non- GMO food products.
The companies goals also include sustainability and reducing waste, packaging is BPA free and made from recycled PET. I am looking forward to seeing what this company has planned for the future.
Other Avenues, a worker owned cooperative that offers locally sourced food to the community, its produce is 100% organically certified.
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For vegan and vegetarian food while in North Lake Tahoe check out Stony Ridge Uncommon Kitchen in the back of New Moon Market, it has great vegan and vegetarian options. I had the falafel salad, great dressing! We sat at the counter that faced the snow-covered yard and enjoyed the low key ambiance. If you want to grab some great organic produce the selection is top notch or browse the exotic craft brews.
Wildflour Bread is located near Sebastapol in Freestone Valley on Bohemian Highway. The restaurant features brick oven-baked bread, scones, and biscotti. The free bread samples make it easy for deciding what kind you want. We got sticky bun bread, fougasse bread, and a pear scone.
Be prepared for long lines (the bread is that good)! How is it that good; well the oven never cools and even on days they are closed they keep the oven burning. This gives the bread a consistent temperature that bakes it to perfection. The ingredients for each bread makes it hearty and dense, the sticky bun had lost of walnuts and raisins, and the scone had large pieces of pear making it more like a meal.
An added bonus to Wildflour is its outside garden area where you can enjoy your bread among wind chimes, trees, and a beautiful garden.
The advent of food Co-Op's helped in putting the democracy of food back into the hands of the people. Arezmindi Bakery is named after a priest (José Maria Arizmendiarrieta) who helped start cooperatives in the Basque Country of Spain.
Arezmendi's is a worker-owned cooperative that opened in 2000 in San Francisco's Sunset District.
On most days the lines for the bakery are out the door at least in the Sunset District. Voted the best bakery in many publications, I have to agree. Get there early, nothing beats warm baked goods fresh outta the oven. If you get there after 11am, try the pizza for $3.00. (Ride your bike and get a discount)! The Arizemendi's website gives you a list of hours, bread schedule and pizza menu.
Amy's Drive Thru in Rohnert Park is a great place to stop before heading to the Russian River or elsewhere. Amy's is the same Amy's Kitchen that sells frozen organic meals found in the freezers isle of your local grocery store. It's first and only restaurant/drive thru opened its doors in July of 2015. With Non-GMO, 95% Organic, and Vegetarian items on the menu its nice to be able to make a conscience choice without second guessing. The menu give you choices from vegetarian burgers, salads, non-dairy shakes, burritos, mac-n-cheese and fries. Here's the menu if your in the area, look for the new opening of their store in Corte Madera coming soon .
Magnolia's Street Food is a teal bus/food truck in front of the Anasazi State Park Museum in a shaded area with picnic tables and makes a great place for lunch. I ordered the Hibiscus Iced Tea and the Sweet Potato Tacos. The tacos were perfectly cooked and delicious and the tea was a great thirst quencher for the hot weather. You can check out the menu here.
