To Be or Not To Be Organic

It's a tough decision. Organic is, without a doubt, a healthy way to go. It's best way to get a handle on all those nasties we ingest (pesticides, fertilizers and heaven knows what else) that are put on & in the food we eat. It's also expensive, and as my friend Maisie said in her comment to my last post - when you've got growing children and a budget, it's not easy to do.

I order from a company called SPUD - small potatoes urban delivery. They have great prices and having it delivered helps me to NOT make impulse purchases at the grocery store. This is how it saves me money. Plus, I'm busy and it saves me quite a bit of time, not to mention gas (which is creeping ever upward!) They are at https://www.spud.ca/index.cfm . If you'd like to browse and see what they have, use V4C 3C9 as a postal code (not - not mine, but it's in their delivery area) I'll put in a referral code tomorrow in case you live in their delivery area and want to try them out - that way you can use me as the referer (is that a word??) Aha.. here is the code: CR5-318120.(save's you $25) I believe they do Vancouver/Lower Mainland/Whistler and Calgary. But you'd have to check as they may deliver elsewhere, too.

I order quite a few things from them - but not meat. I still can't get my head around the price of organic meat. Maybe soon - but not yet. I do buy from them veggies and fruit, dairy, my cleaners, and this week I even bought recycled toilet paper. When I was in the grocery store this morning, I checked out their prices on the things I buy and the prices were very much the same.

If you are unsure of what to buy organic - here is a list from Canadian Living Magazine of the items with the most pesticides: Peaches, Apples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Lettuce, Imported Grapes, Pears, Spinach and Potatoes. If nothing else these would be good choices to start with. And remember - with your fish - the bigger the fish, usually the higher the toxins. That's why they don't encourage you to eat tuna daily anymore.

Items like Avocados, onions, pineapples, magoes, Asparagus are said to have less pesticides. I've seen avocados listed as the least likely to contain pesticides in a few different articles , so I'm not going to pay the extra for organic anymore - especially when my son loves them and I buy a few a week.

And to be green - buy local. If you buy local, in season produce, you will save money - what a bonus! My local veggie market sells a lot of things that are grown without sprays (leafy greens of all kinds) at excellent prices (the best anywhere) and they stock a lot of locally grown items. When I have the time to go by there, I will pick up these things and just order what they don't have. I'm not yet ready to give up my bananas, but I'm trying to balance this with buying as much local stuff as I can. I do choose local items over imports as much as possible not matter where I buy them.

I'm planning on using up all the leftover veggies tomorrow. A stir fry or soup or something tasty like that. Gotta fit in the next order of fresh stuff - so I'll make applesauce with the old apples, too. I do not want to waste food like we used to. This is another bonus of my ordering. I'm not buying lots of extras that catch my eye, only to end up in the garbage when they've gone off.

It's good to do a little research on what is grown locally and when it's harvested. Plan your meals around that, buying local organic when possible, and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the taste, the price and the good feeling you get from supporting a local farm.