Whole Foods

[brunoflipper]

I am not a regular shopper at Whole Foods, but they are the greenest store in my opinion. I regularly give "Green Grocery" tours and use Reasor's, Whole Foods and Food Pyramid locations to walk a college class or civic group around. I am actually registered with Whole Foods in order to be able to do these stores.

Whole Foods does ship in many items from far away places, but so do the other stores. I think it is ridiculously stupid to buy bottles water from Fiji, but they all sell it. Whole foods has the best selection of organic foods, reduced packaging foods, and bulk item shopping opportunities. They have a great slection of recycled paper products and green cleaning products.

The store encourages customers to bring their own bags and even offers collection of yogurt containers and hard to recycle products.

They may be bastards to work for and I can sense your bitterness, but they are the greenest grocer in our town, especially after the Farmer's Markets shut down for the season.

I've become a fan of http://www.naturalfarms.com/
Local sourced fruit/veggies and meats. Custom products. Good prices. Online ordering and free delivery if over $75.

[SXSW]

The store encourages customers to bring their own bags and even offers collection of yogurt containers and hard to recycle products.

My wife hasn't brought back paper or plastic bags in months because you can reuse the same bags at WF.  They donate 10 cents for each bag to charity.  We do the same thing at Reasor's and Target.  I wish it was mandatory that you have to provide your own bags.

[Gaspar]

I am a big fan of Whole Foods because they respect their supplier's right to make a profit!  That's very important in any business.  We have had dealings with other grocery chains, and their primary goal is to squeeze the vendor for every penny.  One in particular demanded that we change our ingredients and start using fillers, additives, and cheap ingredients to bring our prices down.  That is out of the question, so we parted ways without regret.

Immediately when we entered into the process with Whole Foods, we realized things were going to be different.  They have regional buyers for each group of stores responsible for sourcing as much local fresh product as possible.  So basically, the buyer also becomes an advocate for the product.  Though their quality and ingredient standards are high, the process has been very easy and the buyer is wonderful.

As for employee management relationships at the stores, I would assume that is a typical relationship dynamic in the grocery industry.  I used to work for a local grocery store when I was a kid and my boss was a grade A a$$hole too.  Now that I have more grey hair, I understand why.

[Conan71]

I've become a fan of http://www.naturalfarms.com/
Local sourced fruit/veggies and meats. Custom products. Good prices. Online ordering and free delivery if over $75.

Just curious where they source their salmon locally...    Also not much of a fan seeing photos of my food on the hoof beforehand but I digress.  Good to hear a recommendation, I may have to give it a try.

[rdj]

The family that own NaturalFarms are good people.

I have a friend in Austin that owns a coffee roastery.  They have a great relationship with WF.  They even a received a low interest loan from WF to expand.

[brunoflipper]

I've become a fan of http://www.naturalfarms.com/
Local sourced fruit/veggies and meats. Custom products. Good prices. Online ordering and free delivery if over $75.

OK, so not ALL of it is local (the company is) but their products are antibiotic/hormone free and they are very selective about what they sell...

My other new local food crush is- http://www.fioravantibison.com/
Grass fed, antibiotic/hormone free local bison... The prices are very competitive and they deliver for free in Tulsa. I'm a big fan.

[Conan71]

Rib roast is $25 a pound?  Do you find it worth it or significantly better than a beef rib roast?  I usually do a rib roast for Christmas dinner, one of my favorite meals, curious if there's enough fat to do a decent roast, I usually ask the butcher for a flap of fat on the beef.

[Gaspar]

Rib roast is $25 a pound?  Do you find it worth it or significantly better than a beef rib roast?  I usually do a rib roast for Christmas dinner, one of my favorite meals, curious if there's enough fat to do a decent roast, I usually ask the butcher for a flap of fat on the beef.

I like buffalo for burgers and some steak cuts.  It wont' work very well for any long-cook cuts of meat unless you add pork fat.  The texture of the meat is also has a finer grain.  Add a nice slice of pork belly and it roasts up very nice, but not as good as beef.  If you can get pork "caul" from your butcher, it works very well too.

You will also find the the bone cuts from bison are more gamy than beef cuts because the marrow carries much of that strong bison flavor.  I don't mind it too much, but some people find it odd.  A dash of green peppercorn and/or nutmeg does a good job at canceling some of the gamyness.

[rdj]

I enjoyed a bison ribeye a few years back.  It was quite tasty.

[brunoflipper]

Rib roast is $25 a pound?  Do you find it worth it or significantly better than a beef rib roast?  I usually do a rib roast for Christmas dinner, one of my favorite meals, curious if there's enough fat to do a decent roast, I usually ask the butcher for a flap of fat on the beef.

i've stuck with their burgers (which are great and the price is hard to beat) and steaks thus far, so I can't speak to the roasts.
planning on doing a prime rib in a couple of weeks...

[Conan71]

i've stuck with their burgers (which are great and the price is hard to beat) and steaks thus far, so I can't speak to the roasts.
planning on doing a prime rib in a couple of weeks...

Is there a brisket cut with buffalo?  Curious how that would taste with some nice smoke.

[Teatownclown]

I had the best corned beef (made from brisket) at Boston Deli this week....best I have tasted in Tulsa since the 1960's.

Kenny makes it in house....

[jne]

Is there a brisket cut with buffalo?  Curious how that would taste with some nice smoke.

I was wondering the same.

[Gaspar]

Is there a brisket cut with buffalo?  Curious how that would taste with some nice smoke.

Yes, and it is quite nice when "nitolized" and used for pastrami or corned beef.  You can make it work on a smoker, but again you have to add pork fat or you get a very dry grainy cut.

You could probably inject with hydrolized soy product and juice it up a bit, but the fine muscle and low marbling will still make for a dry texture.

It's not just the bison has very low fat content, the structure of the muscle is extremely fine and dense, so any fat or moisture drips right out in a smoker or oven.  Now that that same specimen and braise, boil or stew it and you have a wonderful lean product because it absorbs any fat or juce that you add.  Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite in a brine or rub before cooking (as you typically do in corning or making pastrami) also helps it to retain moisture (I know that's not your gig Conan).

[Kenosha]

I think the underlying point of this thread is that it is a good sign for our local economy that a Whole Foods is choosing to locate another store here. Period.  It is not a comment on the Urban Design, location, perpetuation of suburban lifestyles....or anything else. It's simply, Whole Foods is building a store in Tulsa, and that is a good thing.  Period.