Strawberry Power Bowl

Strawberry Smoothie Bowl punched up with granola, freeze-dried strawberries mixed in Stonyfield’s plain flavored, Greek yogurt. The freeze dried strawberries gives the yogurt the pretty blush color, but beyond that, freeze dried strawberries (like any freeze dried fruit) adds intensity in flavor. To give the bowl a little sweetness I have gave it a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of vanilla seeds. This has been my go-to breakfast for the last few weeks, and if I’m being totally honest, it’s also been pulling double duty as my lunch because three months into the year and I’m already crazy with work.

But let’s talk about what this post is really about today. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go on a two-day trip with Stonyfield Organic along with a few other bloggers to learn and understand how organic farming can positively affect all of our lives and how it creates a healthier planet and a more sustainable food system. We visited the home farm of Doug Lipton, the co-founder of The Shed, a farm-to-table restaurant in Healdsburg, Preston Farm and winery and the organic farm on the University of California of Santa Cruz, accompanying us was the CEO and co-founder of Stonyfield Organics. Each farm we visited emphasized healthy soil and crop diversity.

What does “healthy soil” mean? It means first understanding soil is a living ecosystem. Its fertility relies on an exchange of organic matter, water and soil. The organic matter is any plant or animal material that returns to the soil and goes through the decomposition process. This process provides nutrients to organisms living in the soil. The healthiness of the organic matter helps bind the soil into aggregates that help to improve the water holding capacity of soil.

If you really want to know more about the biological details of soil life, go here to see how organic farming helps to keep the earth cool; and here to learn more about how soil from organic farms is better at sequestering carbon than soil from conventional farms. These videos do an excellent job explaining how important soil is the foundation of organic farming in layman’s terms.

For now, why this post? This post isn’t to shame you into buying organics. But is about being aware of what you can do take care of our best and most giving resource: Earth.

So what is that you can do? Go to the links, here, here, and here to understand difference and impact of organic vs non-organic. Then come to your own conclusion and be active and vocal about what you believe.

And that friends, is what this trip with Stonyfield was all about. For my part, I’m going to pass along what I learned with my kids. We just started planning our simple raised garden bed – it’s a small step towards teaching them the importance of crop diversity, cover crops and composting – all the hallmarks of organic farming and its reliant on a healthy soil. The hope is they will take this lesson and apply it and understand their role as stewards of our planet.

Stay tuned and make sure you watch my Insta-stories as we work our way through this project.

I mean, how crazy and awesome is it that a brand and partnership like one with Stonyfield has inspired a black thumb like me to take on this project with my kids. Which gives me more reason to love their products because they aren’t just about selling more yogurt. In fact, to learn more about Stonyfield and what they stands for, check out this link for the history of Stonyfield Organics, and what the CEO, Gary Hirschberg thinks about the The Future of Organics.

For now, until the garden grows we are saving all of our Stonyfield yogurt cups to repurpose them for some pot gardening. I’ve read that things like mint have a reputation for taking over small garden spaces, so it’s best to pot plant them. How convenient—that just gives me another reason to keep my refrigerator even more stocked with Stonyfield. Lucky for me, that won’t take much added effort, my boys have picked up my habit of having yogurt everyday.