Hard to buy everything organic

stephilosphy00

Hi all, it's too hard to buy all the food organic. What's your solution? I feel bad when I eat something not organic. Thanks!

MinusTwo

I don't even try to buy all organic. a) I can't afford it, b) there are no stores in my immediate area that have a good selection. I've made it all these years, so I don't let that worry me anymore.

ShetlandPony

Dirty Dozen

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty_dozen_list.php

Clean Fifteen

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean_fifteen_list.ph...

Environmental Working Group publishes a list each year naming what fruits and vegetables tested to be the most and least contaminated by pesticides (in the USA). You can use their lists to see what foods are most important to buy organic, and which ones you can be more comfortable buying conventionally-grown. They point out that it is better to eat fruits and vegetables, even conventionally-grown ones, than to not eat them at all.

ksusan

I'm fortunate to live in an area where organic produce and meat are available. I also grow my own organic fruits and vegetables to supplement. When it's not possible, I use the dirty dozen list as a guide.

Best of luck!

stephilosphy00

Thank you everyone! Looks like I have to give up strawberries.

wallycat

I was vegetarian and 90% organic before dx...now I do organic for nutrition and taste and if it is too expensive, I don't sweat buying "regular" stuff. If you have a costco near you, check them out. They are transitioning a lot of their produce and food offerings to be organic. Doing a diluted vinegar rinse gets rid of a lot of crap topically (but can't undo what the veggies 'ate' while in the ground).

DH loves to garden so we get nice produce but small backyard....

peaches1

I have a hard time dealing with EWG's dirty dozen list. I grew up on a fruit farm in Michigan, and the pesticide that is used on strawberries that makes it appear on the top of the list, is not used on strawberries in Michigan. If you have a farmer's market in your area, you are going to find produce with less pesticide on it than the California and Mexican produce you find in the grocery store. The Chicago Tribune compared store bought peaches from California, to peaches purchased at one of the local farmer's market that came from Michigan. The Michigan peaches were found to have a third less pesticide on them than the conventional California peaches. The nice thing about the farmer's market is that you can actually talk to the farmer, and in most cases they will give you free samples. When I went to the farmer's market in Evanston last Saturday, I got a bag or organic mesclum salad mix, a bag or organic spinach, and two bunches of nonorganic asparagus. I also got two quarts of Michigan strawberries. The produce was way better than anything I could buy in the store.

wallycat

Peaches1, this is my personal experience, but every farmer's market I have gone to, I cannot believe how overpriced the food is. Even the same vendors who offer their stuff at the local co-op/health food store are higher at the market than in the store. Just drives me nuts when I hear that shopping at FM is the easier/cheaper way. It isn't always.

peaches1

Hi- Most of the farmers that sell at Evanston are there because there is not a market for their produce. Most grocery stores want to deal with a few mega farmers to simplify things, and even though they say that they try to deal with local farmers, in reality they don't 90% of the time. One of the organic growers that comes to the Evanston market said that when he asked Whole Foods if they would buy his veggies, they told him that they would only buy his produce if he brought it to their warehouse in Chicago. He could not deal directly with one of the Evanston stores. Another problem is that they want perfect produce, and they will not take any produce, let alone organic produce with small holes in it. This person sells only certified organic, and yes some of his stuff is expensive, and out of my price range, but last Saturday I bought a bag of mesclum salad mix which lasted me five meals and paid $3 for it. I also bought a bag of organic spinach for $3 from him. Yes you can get stuff cheaper from Safeway or whereever, but when Safeway is selling asparagus for $1.49 a pound they are losing money on it to bring people into the store, and the stuff was picked a week ago. I bought 2 big bunches of asparagus for $7, and it was picked on Friday, and it lasted me for five meals. If you go to the farmer's market right before they are closing, you can often get some steals. You just have to know who is willing to deal. There is an organic grower that marks her #2 tomatoes that are left over at the end of the day for $1 a pound. They are wonderful, but they will not keep for more than two days. There are also some growers that will sell #2 peaches, apples, pears and apricots for way less money. I can get a quarter peck of ripe Michigan apricots for $2 lots of weeks. You just have to use them up within three days. Evanston has one of the best farmer's markets in the Chicago area though. Most markets are not nearly as good. I have also heard that less people are cooking, and yes there are a lot of people visiting the farmer's markets, but a lot of them are just purchasing already prepared food, and they show up more to socialize with their friends.

wallycat

Peaches1, I'm glad you agree with me.

Farmers' markets SHOULD be accessible to more people (both time, and location), but not everyone can time when the end of a market is to get a deal and hope there's produce to "bid" on ....And not every market has the amazing prices you are quoting that you've had luck with. Fresh is best, but as someone posted...they can't always afford the organic...so the money doesn't increase for them simply because they should get fresher stuff.

Grocery stores do have loss-leaders but smart shoppers don't get sucked in to buying other stuff...you can just buy the loss leader and leave

peaches1

Hi- I took a look at the website for the food coop you were talking about, and they had 6 produce items on sale for that week, and 4 out of 6 of them were from Mexico, and this is in June when they should have more local stuff. They also had a salad mix on sale for $7.95 a pound, which is not a deal. I almost always go to the farmer's market anyway, and I used to work on Saturday morning until noon, and so I would hit the farmer's market around 12:20, right before they were closing, and during asparagus season, I would stop there to pick up some asparagus for the family I worked for. I had an extra bunch of asparagus one Saturday, and so I asked the wife if she wanted to buy it off of me. She said yes. Later that day, she emailed me and told me that she loved the asparagus, and could I bring her some more the next week, and so since the market was on my way there, I did that every week until asparagus season was over. Like I said you just have to know who is willing to deal with you, and since I was there anyway right before they closed, it was okay. I would never go there at 8:00am, and expect to get a deal. I am willing to spend a little more money on produce, because it tastes way better than anything I can get in the store, and I know the farmer is getting all of the money. I also personally know some of the farmer's there, and I enjoy socializing with them. One of the farmer's I bought from a few times last year, knows my sister that has the farm, and the times he waited on me, he would not take my money. I don't feel comfortable when that happens. Our farmer's market takes the LINK card, and if you want to spend $10 on your link card, they will match it, and allow you to purchase $20 worth of produce.

wallycat

Peaches1, that is so great that you've been able to juggle it so you get great produce and great deals. I do miss living in the midwest for the reasonable food prices, though the PNW does have other great things (seafood) to offer, it is a higher priced area on many, many things. I'm still getting sticker shock. Maybe because we live in such a remote area (port townsend), there's less wiggle room on prices.

It would be wonderful if everyone who wanted to use the farmers' market had it made affordable for them. It breaks my heart to see so much gorgeous produce that the farmers drag in (the time! the work!) but sadly, only the fairly wealthy retirees spend their money there. Tourists and the occasional great find helps sell too.

I don't think your comment applies to all of us...it isn't that we don't know or aren't willing; sometimes it is just not possible for some folks (be it time, the higher cost, vendors not willing to barter or quibble over price)...no one is denying the stuff doesn't taste better but if you can't afford it, that point is moot. As you can see, your employer asked YOU to go buy it which means she was unable(??) to go herself, even if she could afford it.

SO thrilled you can enjoy the bounty of your area! Happy eating

Momine

Wally, now that I am back in Athens after being in Copenhagen, one big advantage is definitely the farmer's markets everywhere. Most neighborhoods have one, once a week. The produce is fresh, and whatever is in season is usually cheap. With ten bucks, you get food for a week.

peaches1

Hi- She participated in a painting group on Saturday mornings. She could not leave her husband alone for long periods of time, and so I sat with him. She was Chinese, and she bought some of her produce at Hmart, which is a Korean grocery store. I don't eat much processed food, or a lot of meat, and so I spend the majority of my money on produce. Also growing up on a farm, I am spoiled. I will not buy supermarket peaches or sweet corn. I also rent a garden in one of the community gardens in Evanston, and so I get lots of heirloom tomatoes, peppers and other stuff. That is one thing I cannot get is cheap decent seafood. When I was in New Orleans in May for jazzfest, one of my sister's who lives there took me to one of the farmer's markets there. A lot of the market did not excite me, but I got fresh caught gulf coast shrimp for $5.99 a pound, and took it on the plane with me. The same shrimp would cost me $16 a pound in the Chicago area.

Kimhf

Hi: I spoke to someone on the breast cancer hotline here in my city. She said she ate everything organic, would only eat grass fed meat, yogurt and cheese, drank three green drinks a day, went to an alternative medicine doctor and got some sorts of injections in her abdoment, did not drink at all or eat a speck of sugar. She goes to the gym six days a week. She completely freaked me out because I am nowhere near this diligent. I have never eaten organic, but had my surgery a week ago and decided I should eat organic vegetables at least, and went grocery shopping for those yesterday. This woman has scared me. Is she overboard or is this the direction I should move in?

Momine

Kimhf, no need to go berserk I think taking control of things like diet and exercise can help psychologically, but it can also become too much. However, there is good evidence to at least suggest that a diet high in veggies is a good thing. Ditto for exercise.

kira1234

Kimhf I believe we all do what we're able to do. I eat organic for the dirty dozen. I do but free range chicken and eggs because my co-op has been able to purchase them. I also only eat wild caught fish. I'm still looking for organic grass bed beef.

I don't exercise as much as I should. This is an extremely important part of the puzzle and something I'm working on.

Kimhf

Thank you. Makes me feel better.

kira1234

L

I agree having our own gardens and chickens would be great but I live in city limits not allowed

peaches1

Hi Kimhf- That person that counseled you on the cancer board goes to extremes. I try to eat organic as much as possible, and I try to exercise, but I can't afford to switch to a 100% organic diet though. In the summertime I either grow my own organic veggies, or buy them at the farmer's market, but it is hard to grow organic fruit in the midwest. I can get organic blueberries for the same price as conventional, but there is currently only one person selling organic fruit on a consistent basis there, and I tried one of her cherries yesterday, and it had no taste, and so I passed on it, and bought some cherries from one of the conventional growers that I know. I also bought some strawberries from somebody who raises semi organic berries. Some of his stuff is organic, and the rest of it he uses integrated pest management, where he only uses pesticides when he has to. He only uses a quarter of the pesticides on his apples that most conventional growers do, but his apples have some defects too. Yesterday I did buy a bag of organic mesclun, a bunch of organic Japanese turnips, and some organic Chinese lettuce. Like I have said before I have a hard time with the dirty dozen list, because most of the growers that come to the farmer's market don't use nearly as much pesticide as the factory farmers in California do.

We have somebody that has come to my breast cancer support group a few times, who started chemo after she got diagnosed, but quit when she was half done because of side effects. She was stage 2 when she was diagnosed, and she still has the lump, and refuses to deal with mainstream medicine. She feels her lump every day, and takes a boatload of enzymes and supplements to keep the cancer at bay. I just could not do that. I wanted my lump out.

I ran across an article on myfitnesspal on how to best shop at the farmer's market. I thought people here might be interested in it.

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/10-farmers-market-shopping-tips/?utm_source=mfp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recipes20170622

peaches1

Hi Kimhf- That person that counseled you on the cancer board goes to extremes. I try to eat organic as much as possible, and I try to exercise, but I can't afford to switch to a 100% organic diet though. In the summertime I either grow my own organic veggies, or buy them at the farmer's market, but it is hard to grow organic fruit in the midwest. I can get organic blueberries for the same price as conventional, but there is currently only one person selling organic fruit on a consistent basis there, and I tried one of her cherries yesterday, and it had no taste, and so I passed on it, and bought some cherries from one of the conventional growers that I know. I also bought some strawberries from somebody who raises semi organic berries. Some of his stuff is organic, and the rest of it he uses integrated pest management, where he only uses pesticides when he has to. He only uses a quarter of the pesticides on his apples that most conventional growers do, but his apples have some defects too. Yesterday I did buy a bag of organic mesclun, a bunch of organic Japanese turnips, and some organic Chinese lettuce. I have a high risk of colon cancer in my family, so I do not usually eat red meat, even if it is organic. Like I have said before I have a hard time with the dirty dozen list, because most of the growers that come to the farmer's market don't use nearly as much pesticide as the factory farmers in California do.

We have somebody that has come to my breast cancer support group a few times, who started chemo after she got diagnosed, but quit when she was half done because of side effects. She was stage 2 when she was diagnosed, and she still has the lump, and refuses to deal with mainstream medicine. She feels her lump every day, and takes a boatload of enzymes and supplements to keep the cancer at bay. I just could not do that. I wanted my lump out.

I ran across an article on myfitnesspal on how to best shop at the farmer's market. I thought people here might be interested in it.

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/10-farmers-market-shopping-tips/?utm_source=mfp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recipes20170622

wallycat

Kimhf, here is a pubmed peer reviewed study that shows that too many veggies can be as bad as not enough (for ER negative breast cancers):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC35937...

Everything in moderation, including moderation!

There's also this study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC30397...

Kimhf

I spent $100 on organic vegetables this past Saturday at a local natural foods coop. Unaffordable. But I feel like I have to do it now.

I am stunned at the person in your support group who is trying to treat herself. I can't even fathom that.

kira1234

Kimhf that's about what I'm spending at my co-op. Hate spending that much but so worth it. Buying organic meats on top of that.

katcar0001

I can get some organic vegetables, meat and chicken in Mexico, but it is very, very expensive. And, this is a very social environment, so we eat out a lot--I assume I am not getting organic at most restaurants. I get organic blueberries at Costco in the frozen food section.

In general, I try to remember what my first MO told me--don't go crazy on any one food; try to vary your diet.

ChiSandy

Peaches, there’s a fabulous multi-ethnic supermarket (much cheaper than Mariano’s or Whole Paycheck) in Skokie called Fresh Farms. It has a massive selection of fresh & frozen seafood at terrific prices (okay, maybe not as cheap as wild Gulf shrimp in NOLA). They’ll even filet fish for you at no extra charge. And lots of organic produce (as well as conventional that are part of the Clean 15) at much lower prices than anywhere else. There’s also Cermak Market on Ridge in W. Rogers Park, but I haven’t tried their fish selection (much smaller than Fresh Farms).

peaches1

Hi Kimhf- The person in our support group did go to an alternative doc in NYC to get her started on the enzymes, and she has somebody in the Chicago area that is following her up on that. I asked her if she went to see Dr. Gonzales in NYC, and she said no that he died a few years ago. She said he was killed by big pharma. When I got home I looked it up, and I found out that they did an autopsy on him after he died, and he had a heart attack. When I told her that, she insisted that I was wrong and that big pharma did him in. The first time she showed up, we had a social worker come and speak to our group, and the social worker told her that he used to work for Keith Block who is an integrative oncologist in the Chicago area. He said that Dr. Block used to strictly do alternative stuff such as macrobiotic diet and supplements and stress reduction, but then he realized that this was not enough, and he now adds a gentle version of chemo and other conventional meds. She was not interested in that. When I told her that I was involved in a weight loss class for cancer patients, I had to justify to her why I was in the class. I do not know if she felt that nobody should be telling me how to lose weight or what the deal was.

$100 is way too much to spend in one week on organic veggies. Do you have a farmer's market in your area? I spent $12 on veggies at mine on Saturday. Three of the veggies were organic, and the fourth one was semi organic, The strawberries were semi organic, and the cherries were not organic, but I know the grower, and he uses about a third less pesticide than the factory farms in California use. I spent $15 on the fruit. It is hard to grow organic fruit in the midwest because of the humidity we get. I eat some chicken and some seafood, but I do not eat very much red meat because it increases your chances of getting colon cancer. I try to only buy humanely raised chicken at Whole Foods, but since I do not eat a lot of it, I don't feel that I have to buy only organic. I eat a lot of beans and a small amount of cheese. Whole Foods has really good humanely raised rotisserie chicken, which they sell for $7 on Tuesdays in the Chicago area. Even Jewel has started a $2.99 a pound salad bar on Saturdays. I passed on it, but when I went there on Saturday, I noticed that all of the greens were organic. They had organic baby kale, organic spinach, organic romaine, and organic salad mix. It looked better than it did the first week they did this a month ago. Jewel is owned by Albertson's.

peaches1

Hi Sandi- Fresh Farms is in Niles. Actually they opened up another store in Niles on Golf where Jewel used to be. last year. I have not been to that store. I have been to the one on Touhy though, and I have not bought any seafood there, but on the lthforum.com that I told you about, a lot of people there love the Touhy location, and rave about the seafood. Hmart is supposed to have good seafood too. Most of the people there also either belong to a CSA, or grow their own, or hit the farmer's market. for produce. A lot of them shop at Oak Park, Green City or Evanston. Organic fruit is not cheap at Fresh Farms, and it is all shipped in from California or Mexico. For $12 I got a bag of organic mesclun, a bunch of organic Japanese turnips, some organic Chinese lettuce, and a half pound of semi organic sugar snap peas. There is no way I could get it that cheap at Fresh Fields, and it is not local there. I can walk to the Evanston farmer's market too. BTW- I got on LTHforum, and looked up the Wisconsin chain that you went to last weekend, and they all gave it a thumbs down. They say it used to be good, but it changed owners. There is a lot of advice there on where to eat on your way to Duluth.

kira1234

It's funny when I lived in the suburbs of chicago I was able to grow most of my vegetables and had many fruit trees. I'd put my apples in the basement which was cool and they lasted much of the winter. We had 2 cherry trees, 2 apple trees, one peach tree, and 1 pear tree. All this was on half an acre lot. We grew tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, different kinds of squash, green beans and asparagus. I so miss my garden here all I have is sand.

peaches1

I am surprised you were able to grow that many fruit trees on a half acre. There are a few peach varieties you can grow on a consistant basis in the Chicago area, but in general it gets too cold in the winter time. Most peach varieties cannot survive 20 below temperatures. This last winter it did not get that cold. On the other side of the lake in Michigan, it does not get as cold, but they get twice as much snow as Chicago does, and they can grow peaches most years there. There is a large peach crop this year there. I was worried., because we had a mild winter here, and we have a few 70 degree days in February, and that meant that the peaches bloomed earlier than usual. The last time that happened about four years ago, it got down to 26 on April 23rd while the peaches were in bloom, and most of them got wiped out. Down South in South Carolina and Georgia they have a small crop this year though. I heard 25% of a crop in Georgia, and the crop is practically nonexistent in South Carolina. I grew up on a fruit farm in Michigan, and so I know a lot about peaches. Apples are easier to grow in Chicago. They can take colder temperatures.

kira1234

The peach and pear trees never produced much fruit. The apple trees and cherry trees were very plentiful. Our biggest problem with the cherry trees was getting the fruit before the birds and if we didn't heavens the birds bodies didn't handle the fruit very well.