Eat Your Vegetables—The Easy Way
Mother always told you to eat your vegetables.
And you know what?
She was right.
Vegetables are good for you. Very good.
They come to your dinner table packed with nutrients and vitamins.
But folks just aren’t getting enough veggies in their diets these days. They need to eat more of them, especially the dark green, leafy kind that are particularly healthful.
That’s where Ron Seibold comes in.
He’s president and cofounder of a company called Pines International Inc. in Lawrence. And Seibold, his business partner Steve Malone and their 30 employees are doing some pretty interesting, vegetable-related things over there, all in the name of getting folks to eat their dark green, leafy vegetables.
Here’s what they’re up to: they take native types of Kansas grasses—wheat, barley, oat and others—then dry, prepare and bottle them as nutritional supplements and foods.
Pines International’s product line features more than 20 items, including alfalfa tablets, wheat grass powder, cereal grass juice powder, rhubarb juice powder, red beet juice powder and herbs such as basil, thyme, cilantro, lamb’s quarters, sage, peppermint, spearmint and so on.
The grasses are all grown right in Kansas, near Lawrence, Larned and Wichita. And they’re all grown without the use of herbicides or pesticides.
Several of the company’s products—basil, nettles, red beet juice powder—are certified organic by the Organic Crop Improvement Association. Another, newer product—the company’s Wheat Grass Pasta—is also certified organic.
Here’s the whole idea behind offering these products:
Cereal grasses are high in nutrients, which build up in the plant leaves. These are the same nutrients found in dark, green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and dandelion greens. But, in the cereal grasses, they’re present in much higher concentrations.
Cereal grass nutrients include beta-carotene, iron, folic acid, calcium and chlorophyll. As well as loads of natural fiber, which consumers have been hearing so much about lately.
Taking seven tablets of wheat or barley grass, or a teaspoon of the company’s powdered products—such as one called Green Energy—is equal to eating one serving of dark green, leafy vegetables, Seibold says.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends people eat three to five servings of these vegetables each day, he points out.
“Most people find it difficult to prepare and consume that amount of vegetables. So Pines products are a convenient and economical method to get the vegetable nutrition you need—in an instant.”
Seibold says people shouldn’t think eating things like wheat grass is unusual.
“There is no grass that is toxic to anybody. Cereal grasses are the most concentrated in nutrients of all vegetables. They have been consumed by man since before biblical times. Most farmers will grab handfuls of grass and chew on it. Dogs and cats chew on grass. Baboons eat 80 percent grass in their diet, and they have a similar digestive system to man. It’s natural for man to eat green plant material,” he explains.
“These (products) are simply dehydrated sources of plants. This is a way to include these vegetables in your diet. It all goes back to eating more vegetables.”
Seibold is a man who firmly believes in the product he’s selling.
I generally will consume about 20 tablets of our wheat grass each day, which is equal to about three to five servings of vegetables,” he says.
You can buy Pines products in health food stores such as Wild Oats and Community Mercantile in Lawrence, and the Health Food Mart, 1507 S.W. 21st, in Topeka.
To order products through the mail, call Pines International at 1-800-MY-PINES. The company will ship its products to you.
Pines markets its products across the United States, as well as in 25 countries around the world. Pretty good for a company that started in 1976 in Hays with $35 and a post office box.
Apart from getting folks to eat their vegetables, Seibold’s larger mission is to spread organic farming practices across the state.
“That is what our dream is: to provide seed money to establish organic farms in Kansas. And we are doing that. We have about 1,000 acres in the state that Pines operates,” he says. “We want to stimulate the growth of organic farming. And we wanted to show you could start with nothing and build a strong company with a broad base of investors.”
Seibold says he’s proud of his business.
“We feel like we’re helping provide better nutrition for people, and we’re also helping to move farming toward a less toxic, more sustainable approach. So when customers take these tablets, they are helping themselves and helping the environment.”
Pines International of Lawrence is one of hundreds of companies that belong to the “From the Land of Kansas” program of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.
AS SEEN IN The Topeka Capitol-Journal, July 20, 1994 / Written by Jim Baker
