If you’ve followed along with the Sweet, Sweet Summer series at all, you’ve heard quite a bit about a number of natural sweeteners that I’ve been experimenting with over the past year and a half.

Although the series still has a few posts to go before it’s completed, I decided this week was a great time to share this prize package with my readers – FIVE of you can win one bag of all the goodies shown above from Wholesome Sweeteners:

• Organic Sucanat
• Light and dark brown sugar
• Powdered sugar
• Natural cane sugar
• Molasses
• Honey
• Turbinado sugar
• Organic sugar

You’ll be ready to bake your way through Smart Sweets and have such fun trying new recipes (and more wholesome alternatives in your old favorites), or maybe feed some water kefir grains that many of you are trying for the first time (they prefer unbleached, natural sugars).

Organic sucanat is what I’m using in the KS kitchen nowadays, and you can read lots of reasons it’s better for you and the Earth below. Quite a few of the options in the prize are just a slight step up from white sugar: brown sugar, powdered sugar, natural cane sugar, Turbinado, and organic sugar. For those taking baby steps away from how they grew up, however, it’s nice to have some familiar things in the cupboard, and when they’re organic and fair trade, at least it’s a step up from the 5-pound bag of bleached white sugar you’re used to. (My husband still appreciates that we have brown sugar on hand for his oatmeal, and Wholesome Sweeteners’ version is so rich, yum.)

Fancy Turbinado sugar on strawberries…not healthier than white sugar, but a fancy treat!

See my thoughts on:

• Sucanat
• Honey
• Molasses is coming, but it’s a lot like sorghum in its nutritional profile

I only wish Wholesome Sweeteners’ products were not in plastic bags – they’re difficult to close once grains of sugar get in the zipper, and of course plastic is less sustainable than paper.

Using the Goodies

You can learn to use less sweetener in your recipes to make a baby step to better health: try cutting 25% of the sugar in your normal cookie, muffin, or brownie recipe next time you bake. You can see how I slowly changed a recipe from 2 cups of white sugar to 1 1/2 cups sucanat or even less honey than that right here.

The GNOWFGLINS Fundamentals II eCourse also included a lesson on natural sweeteners and healthier desserts just a few weeks ago – if you sign up now, you have access to ALL past lessons in this course and the four previous.

Not sure an eCourse would work for you? Test out the idea with a  FREE webinar next Friday, March 9, 2012 @ 1pm Pacific: “ABCs of Grain Mills” is going to be huge! Not only will everyone learn a lot about the topic, but the webinar kicks off two great drawings for free grain mills, plus sprouted and unsprouted berries. All webinar attendees (or those who register and check out the video replay afterward) will get to take home a free PDF tip booklet, plus exclusive entries in the drawings for grain mills and wheat berries. Click HERE to register and for more details.

About the Company

A huge thanks to Wholesome Sweeteners for sponsoring this giveaway AND for helping me ease into natural sweeteners – that box I received so long ago was honestly instrumental in baby stepping me to using almost exclusively sucanat and other natural sugars currently. Here’s some great stuff about the company:

1. Choosing Organic Sucanat means you are supporting sustainable agriculture and reducing chemical pesticide and fertilizer run-off in our rivers, lakes and oceans.  What does this mean to families and to the planet?  It means safer water and healthier seafood among other things…

a. Toxic levels of agricultural fertilizers are contributing to significant, growing ocean “dead zones,”  or areas with significantly depleted oxygen, which kill off sea life. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is equivalent to the size of New Jersey and a 2008 study counted 405 dead zones world wide.  According to the article, “it might be expected that fish would flee this potential suffocation, but they are often quickly rendered unconscious and doomed. Slow moving bottom-dwelling creatures like clams, lobsters and oysters are unable to escape. All colonial animals are extinguished.”

b. Conventional farming pesticides have been found at toxic levels in the sea and are bleaching coral of the Great Barrier Reef, one of the great natural wonders of the world. You will notice that conventionally grown sugar cane is the source of the pesticides in the article.

c. Sadly, many conventional foods may be cheaper because of government subsidies, but purchasing organic foods is a personal vote for a safer planet for all living creatures and for future generations.

2.  Our Organic Sucanat comes from sugar cane grown on sustainable family farms.  The Mill is energy self sufficient – we use the crushed cane stalks, called bagasse, as fuel for the boilers which generates the electricity for the Mill, so we do not need to use any fossil fuels. The Mill purchases sugar cane from farmer cooperatives that “green cut” the cane – which means that we do not burn or spray the fields and the sugar cane is cut by hand.  The leaves and tops of the cane plant are left in the field as a nutrient source for the soil and as a natural form of weed control. 

3.  Choosing our Fair Trade certified Organic Sucanat also guarantees a fair price is paid directly to the farmers for the sugar cane they grow.  Fair trade premiums have been used to build schools for the village children, health clinics, and to purchase more efficient farm equipment.

4. Non-GMO Verified – All Wholesome Sweeteners products are Non-GMO verified.  Keeping genetically modified organisms out of the food supply is a mission we are committed to.  For more about why GMOs shouldn’t be in food, we recommend the documentary called “The Future of Food.”  

5.  With our Organic Sucanat, the nutrient-containing molasses is never extracted from the sugar cane and each granule retains 13% molasses.  Therefore it is extremely less processed than conventional refined white sugar.  Additionally, chemicals such as phosphoric acid and calcium hydroxide used in the processing of refined white sugar, never touch our Organic Sucanat.

ENTER HERE

You could win one of five boxes filled with all those sweeteners from Wholesome Sweeteners.

Giveaways at Kitchen Stewardship are run via a survey, which means comments on this post do not count (and will be deleted). In the long run, this is quicker for you if you go for extra entries.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER GIVEAWAY CONTEST. GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED, THANKS FOR ENTERING!

There are 7 possible entries! Here’s what you can do to win:

1. *Mandatory entry: What topics are most important to you to learn about via a blog? (multiple choice checkboxes within survey)
2. Subscribe in a reader or via email to Kitchen Stewardship (or tell me if you already do).
3. Tell me if you already “like” Kitchen Stewardship on Facebook.
4. Tell me if you already “like” Wholesome Sweeteners on Facebook.
5. Email 5 friends about this giveaway along with the link to it. (Email subscribers can forward their message.)
6. Follow @kitchenstew and @WholesomeSweet on Twitter AND tweet this:
   Five people are winning a whole box of @WholesomeSweet natural sweeteners from @kitchenstew this week! [ENTER URL HERE]
7. Enter another giveaway this week at Kitchen Stewardship.

Remember, comments here DO NOT COUNT. You must use the survey form.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER GIVEAWAY CONTEST. GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED, THANKS FOR ENTERING!

I will use random.org’s integer generator to choose the winner, who will be announced on the blog and will receive an email.  The giveaway is open to continental U.S. residents only.  Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 7 and I’ll post the winners sometime that week.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

Disclosure:  I received products for my review at no charge, which of course did not affect my opinion in the least. I am a partner with GNOWFGLINS eCourses and receive a portion of payments from my readers; I am also a teacher in the courses. See my full advertising disclosure here.

Official rules and small print stuff: 1) No purchase necessary to win 2) must be 13 or older to enter and have a mailing address within the sponsor’s boundaries (see above) 3) only one survey entry per person 4) odds of winning depend on number of entries 5) employees of Kitchen Stewardship, LLC or sponsoring company not eligible for participation 6) contest sponsored by Wholesome Sweeteners 7) prizes must be accepted as is and are not redeemable for cash 8 ) Kitchen Stewardship, LLC and sponsoring company are not liable for any injury or damage to persons and/or things as a result of the acceptance of the prize offered. 9) This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.