Green Eating

Piece of Pie

+Step 1: Phone in an order for the Paul Bunyan, the ingredients of which are native to the Minnesota ecosystem (including the free range bison sausage).

+Step 2: A pizza dude delivers the pie to you, driving an electric vehicle and wearing a superhero costume. Oof! Pow! You’re Green!

Cafe Ole
The folks at Peace Coffee are bean counters—in an eco-friendly way. The south Minneapolis coffee-buying roastery and wholesaler buys only organic, shade-grown, fair trade beans from family farmers who are insured a living wage. Then it roasts the beans in smallish batches.

The founding member of a twenty-three–member network of fair trade coffee importers, roasters, and distributors, Peace Coffee makes its home in the green-designed Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center. Bean deliveries are by bike to most Twin Cities accounts, with longer forays traversed by a bright biodiesel (veggie-powered) van.

To Market, To Market
Local grocers Lunds and Byerly’s carried organic items long before it was trendy. “Striving to become a more ecofriendly retailer is not a marketing gimmick. It’s what is expected of us and what we expect from ourselves,” says company spokesman Aaron Sorenson. A new twist was launched this spring: Great Food Fast meals in recyclable aluminum packaging that can be heated in a microwave or conventional oven.

Dining Out
Hat’s off—make it a chef’s hat, tinted green—to Minneapolis chef and restauranteur Brenda Langton. For a delicious, healthful meal sourced from local, organic ingredients, she’s given us two indispensable options: the still-hip Warehouse District fixture Cafe Brenda and Spoonriver, its two-year-old, self-dubbed “chic sister” across from the Guthrie Theater. Better yet, she brought us Mill City Farmers Market, the metro’s only wholly sustainable, organic farmers market where amidst the enviable selection of grass-fed beef, local artisan cheeses, and just-picked produce, there’s chef-prepared fancy mini donuts and bison burgers. Green but not fussy.

Frozen Tundra
Is there a business in Minnesota with greener, deeper roots than Sno Pac Foods? Maybe not. Based in the southeastern Minnesota town of Caledonia, the family-owned operation traces its roots to J.P. Gengler and Leonard Gengler in about 1900. Their original business ventures (lumber and refrigeration, respectively) evolved eventually into Sno Pac, which offers more than a dozen frozen, organically grown fruits and vegetable.

This article has been adapted from the original, which was published in the October 2008 issue of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.