Green Vida, owned by husband-and-wife team Jackie and Wilson Rueda, says everything in its health-focused café is made with love and transparency. That means the juices are 100 percent organic; almost two pounds of produce are in just one 12-ounce juice. The ingredients are healthy and vegan and vegetarian friendly.
The path to Green Vida began when the Ruedas changed the type of food they fed to their son, whose autism symptoms had included lack of eye contact and verbal communication. Shortly after changing his diet, his behavior changed. “Treating our child with a clean diet full of organic whole foods helped improve his classic autism symptoms. His eye contact came back, he started to talk and was coming into our world,” says Jackie.
From that point forward, the Ruedas began to educate themselves and Green Vida was born in 2018 out of the back of a small gas station in Bangor.
They sold their smoothies and food there for about a year and a half until they moved to their current Forks location. Fast-forward to this writing, early 2021, and a smaller Green Vida outpost is slated to open at the Easton Public Market (all juices will continue to be made at the Forks location).
What's unique about Green Vida is that they use a cold-pressed process for their juices.
“True cold-pressed juice is very different from centrifugal and slow/masticating juice, which is what most juice bars use. We are educating customers as much as we can,” she says. For example, most grocery-store cold-pressed juice is heat pasteurized, which gives it a longer shelf life, but nothing compares to fresh juice.
“The nutritional benefits and taste of a raw juice are far superior to a pasteurized juice. We tell people if the juice is going through a screen and there is no press, it's not cold pressed,” Jackie says. “Can you tell we are passionate about this?”
Green Vida's cold-pressed juices and immunity shots sell out almost daily, and the juice cleanses are really popular, with options ranging from one to three days. “A juicing cleanse is a powerful way to give your mind and body a complete reset and to replenish lost nutrients by consuming only juice for one to three days,” she says. But it's not all juice. Yes, there's avocado toast, smoothies and smoothie bowls, and lots more.
Imagine farm-to-cup coffee from Devoción, sourced from small farms in Colombia and roasted in Brooklyn—it arrives in Forks within 10 days.
GREEN VIDA CO.
1800 Sullivan Trl. Suite 330, Easton | 325 Northampton St., Easton | 610.438.4112
If you grew up with parents who run a health food store, as Sarah Collins did, it seems like one of two things would happen: you'd run the other way as soon as you could make your own way in the world, or you'd really dig into health, wellness and the healing power of food.
The latter happened, and the result is Café Santosha, which has been operating for about 10 years. It's literally an organic outgrowth of Healthy Alternatives, which her parents, Lloyd and Dianne Burg, opened in 1994. Well, not totally—it's inside the store. But what could be greener than that? Shop for your bulk items, grab some supplements and fresh local veggies (Salvaterra's Gardens, among others, delivers there), and then have some breakfast or lunch. Or grab something for dinner from the refrigerated case offering a soup, sandwich or the quinoa salad of theday. (Or their super-popular vegan, gluten-free coconut ricepudding.) “The to-go fridge is alwaysthereeven when I am not there,” saysCollins, as the café closes at 2:30 p.m. and isn't open on the weekend.
If you've been following the progress of Trolley Barn Public Market in Quakertown, you may have seen something called Full Earth Goods, which sells Santosha food. That's her business too. So you can still get your fix on the weekend, as she opened a mini-outpost at the market, full of grab-and-go items from the café, bread, eco-friendly gifts and thoughtful products. (And then go sit outside in the “Yard,” full of fire pits and tons of seating.)
Santosha means contentment in Sanskrit, and it's hard to feel anything but that when you eat its food, as it is largely plant based and organic whenever possible and made with tons of love and attention to detail. Ingredients are fresh, flavors are vibrant and food will sustain you, surprise you and nourish you. Collins and her crew are always leaving beautiful treats out on the counter as they come out of the oven. More often than not, they're made with less sugar and spelt flour.
These days, as a result of the pandemic, Collins started adding to-go dinners once a week—things like turkey sloppy joes (or with tofu) and pasta bowls with roasted veggies. “People just want to be comforted right now,” she says. But what Café Santosha offers is a small bit of comfort that can be taken from the knowledge that you're eating something whole foods-based and healthy.
CAFE SANTOSHA
7150 Hamilton Blvd., Trexlertown | 610.366.1711
FULL EARTH GOODS
116 E. Broad St., Quakertown | 267.875.0701
Sarah Hinsch's launch of Greenmouth Café in 2014 is well documented—as the region's first totally organic café, it was born out of the idea that health is wealth and the staunch belief that we can heal ourselves and our patterns and our lives with what we eat. The café became known for its scratch-made, plant-based vegan fare (epic avocado toasts, for one).
But in spring 2020, Hinsch tweaked that business model and renamed it Greentruth Healing Haven & Plant-Based Kitchen, to represent a wider approach beyond just the café, and incorporate wellness across the board. You can now stay overnight at Greentruth, come for a Reiki session or even book a session with the Hippocrates Health Institute LED and red-light sauna, which helps to detoxify the body.
“Health is more than what we put in our mouths. It's what we eat, what we think, what we do and the environment we put ourselves in that creates health—a holistic approach if you will,” says Hinsch.
The pandemic, she says, hasn't changed anything in terms of how she approaches her business, per se, but the timing with the shift and expansion of her business mindset is perhaps ironic—or maybe prescient. Just as we are having trouble coming together in person because of social distancing, it becomes even more important for us to take care of ourselves in a multitude of ways. “Our mission is to build community around health. Community, purpose, food, movement, rest, they all work together to keep us healthy, happy and full of life,” she says.
GREENTRUTH HEALING HAVEN & PLANT-BASED KITCHEN
134 N. 2nd St., Easton | 484.560.5136
