George Eckrich has vegan problems!

George is a master baker - he developed the wonderful Whole Foods Market bread bakery! A few years later, he brought an outstanding product to America: Dr. Kracker flat breads. Originally created in Germany by Dr. Karg, these healthy crackers can now be found in almost every supermarket across the USA. Good for George, and good for us, of course! George Eckrich and I both live in Austin, Texas and we're friends. This super-friendly guy has helped me a lot with good advice, over the years. George knows bread. Trust me on that one. Some time ago, I had made a Squidoo lens on Dr. Krackers. Meanwhile, George has picked up a vegan life style and he wrote a candid article about it. So, I made a new Squidoo page featuring George's experiences and I'd like for you to take a look: Dr. Krackers and George Eckrich

Channel Your Granny

Ah! Farmers markets! Imagine a piece of vegetable still with some dirt attached, yet fresh and firm and brightly colored. A tub of freshly-made cheese with herbs - sold in a simple plastic cup with a hand-written description on the label. A cryovaced package of deep-red lamb chops with a thin white rind of fat. Baskets of peaches so fragrant you don't even have to bend over to catch their scent. Innovative specialty food products by artisan micro manufacturers offering soups and salsas, jams and pickled goodies, natural sweeteners and uber-healthy crackers.

These are some of the many beautiful impressions you get at a local farmers market. Millions of Americans have re-discovered the benefits of clean, fresh, and local foods: it contains more nutrition, flavor, and natural life force. It nourishes us much better than weeks-old supermarket produce that's been transported for thousands of miles, sitting in storage houses, exposed to extreme temperatures - after a premature harvest and a hefty spraying with enhancing chemicals. "Enhancing" what? The looks, the shelf life - but at what expense? We're fed a sub-prime food with added chemicals that make us sick in the long run.

Is it really cheaper to buy at the local WalMart? In my opinion, it's more expensive! Do we really believe the corporate propaganda that tries to tell us they provide jobs to our communities? The truth is they take away our beloved small local businesses and replace them with a small fraction of low-wage labor. They get rewarded by our moronic government entities with tax relief and other incentives. They get rich by destroying our neighborhoods. And who pays for all that? We do.

Shouldn't our money go to our own communities, furthering our own prosperity? It's a social and political no-brainer - it's much better for all of us to "buy local". Let's seek out the farmers and their markets in our neighborhoods, let's find the newly emerging small neighborhood groceries providing an outlet for our local food artisans. Let's help ourselves and get healthier along the way!

Dr. Kracker co-founder George Eckrich posted a wonderful article on his blog. It begins:

"In my opinion, Michael Pollan is one of the most important food writers of our generation. His reports on cattle feedlots and grass fed alternatives have deepened our understanding the food supply chain from farm to table; he’s influenced where we shop and what we buy in our grocery stores; and he has highlighted the importance of farmers’ markets, and aided the efforts of so many people who work to encourage the support of local foods."

"I very much enjoyed Pollan’s latest book: In Defense of Food. Its two big themes are the processing and industrialization of food and the errors the U.S. government has made in its food recommendations, particularly the lipid or fat hypothesis. I’ll leave the discussion of the latter theme for another time. In this post, I want to focus on that first theme, and Pollan’s arguments and recommendations that so closely echo my own strong beliefs."

"In Defense of Food begins with very simple advice: ” ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.’ That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.” (pg. 1, first paragraph). I consider Dr. Kracker very much to be part of this admonishment to eat real food!"

Please continue reading on George's blog...

The story of The World's Best Kracker

Ladies and Gentlemen!

May I introduce to you - the Doctor! Doctor Kracker, that is.

It was in 1997, in Schwabach, Germany, when Dr. Klaus Karg began experimenting with cracker recipes, right in his own grandfather's bakery. His goal was to bridge the gap between austere Swedish flat breads and flavorful specialty breads. Through a long period of trial, error, and inspiration he created several flavor combinations such as Emmental Cheese Pumpkin Seed, Seeded Spelt, and Klassic 3-Seed Krackers.

That same year, Austin, TX master baker George Eckrich set out on a mission of his own: to find the most wholesome cracker of the Old World and to bring it back to his homeland, the good old US of A. This quest ultimately sent him to Germany, where a mutual friend introduced him to Dr. Karg, who was immediately impressed with George's trustworthiness and enthusiasm. A partnership was formed.

The company Dr. Kracker was founded in Dallas, Texas in 2003 by George Eckrich, Dr. Klaus Karg, Carsten Kruse, and a fourth partner, Danny Kelly, an expert in special bakery equipment.

In 2007, Dr. Karg sold his interest in the company to George, Carsten, and Danny. Today the company employs 25 people all committed to the same mission: to make the best-tasting and most nourishing crackers possible.

Dr. "George" Kracker says:

"In our quest to bake a nutritious and delicious, artisan flat bread Kracker, we have always insisted that our recipes use only the best ingredients and maximize the whole grains. We want our flavor profile to emphasize the flavors of the grains and seeds and the caramelization that naturally occurs during the baking process rather than the addictive power of sugar and fat."

"Specially selected, organically grown wheat, spelt and oats are the first step. To our Spelt Krackers we add extra bran for flavor, nutritional power and an extra crisp bake. Flax seeds go into all the doughs to enhance the basic texture. Our Graham Krackers use organic creamery butter and a thin coating of raw sugar and cinnamon to recreate the Graham Krackers as they were originally baked."

"All of our ingredients are organic and add important fiber, Omega-3 essential fatty acids, lots of vitamins, minerals and trace elements to the diet. Our Krackers offer substantial nutritional value, especially when compared to crackers, chips and other snack foods, and they celebrate the best flavors that a bakery can offer."

"It is one thing to emphasize and discuss the nutritional benefits of our Krackers, but in the end we are discussing food and not medicine. I hope that you come to love our Krackers as much as I do simply because they taste great!"

See my Squidoo lens "Crackers" for in-depth info and recipes with Dr. Kracker crackers.