Day 38 - How to shop for organic produce

About a week ago when I was standing in line at the self-check at Fred Meyer, a middle-aged lady in line behind me asked me "Wow, where did you find those tomatoes?" "Just over there (I pointed in direction)..and added "..in the organic produce section." 

The lady took an unconscious tiny step away from me and said to me with a tone and manner that conveyed that buying organic tomatoes was above her needs. I quickly added "They are really affordable only $1.39 a pound!" She seemed intrigued but not convinced and brushed it off and said "Oh, well...I am already in line." I offered her to take the spot in front of me in line since she only had one tomato in her hand. When I was loading up my organic vegetables and fruits on the counter and scanned them over the scanner, I realized that I must be a minority at Fred Meyer and buying organic is still a very foreign concept to many people. The lady gave me an impression that she would not be able to afford the organic prices, but yet here I am with a below the average income loading up on organic produce. And I had it all - strawberries, oranges, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers, apples, blackberries...you name it. Yes, I did spend about $20 but that included other things as well, not only organic produce. And let me tell you, they looked so delicious and good that I couldn't wait to get home to wash the apple and share it with our daughter. 

Going to the grocery store with a 2 year-old is always a battle and a stressful experience. Therefore I started to bring Amelie's plastic toy shopping cart to the grocery store with us. This way I can involve her in the shopping process. We pick the fruits together, she learns this way the name of fruits and vegetables. She is excited to put all the groceries in her tiny shopping cart - at times when I stand in front of the shelves and make tiny remarks about prices and ingredients with a certain body language, I look down at Amelie and see that she is watching every detail and copying what I am doing. I am using this to my advantage and set a good example on how to shop and what to buy. She is not getting it, but she can now differentiate which vegetables look good and which we rather pass on.

The experience in the check-out line inspired me to write a post about the "how to shop for organic produce and still save money". I feel that a lot friends understand the importance of organic food and would like to buy it too, but I also hear a lot of valid concerns about their finances. One thing I can guarantee you, we consider ourselves at times pretty "poor" - most of my friends don't have children, and the ones that have children generally make a little more than our family. Of course we are not poor but we can't afford many luxurious things. Yet we decided that our diet consists mainly of organic food. And so far the past two months were def. doable. 

We buy organic produce at two stores only. One is the Coop the other is Fred Meyer. Coop is most of the time pretty overpriced but you can find great deals and at times you can find produce that is cheaper than Fred Meyer. Bananas at Walmart generally cost $.33/lb (we used to buy 5-6 bananas and half of them we threw away). Now we are buying bananas (most of the time red tag = some brown spots but generally no difference inside) at Coop for $.60/lb, which is twice as much as the Walmart bananas. Well, we just buy 3 bananas and spend the same amount. Apples either at Fred Meyer or Coop cost somewhere between $1.39 and $1.59 per pound - I don't even know what the average price of apples are at regular stores but we buy 4-5 apples and the prices don't kill us. 

We buy organic bulk spinach for $3.69/lb - spinach doesn't way much so a half pound is a huge bag full of spinach and costs about $1.80. We like to make salads, use it for Greek feta/spinach pastries, on sandwiches, on burgers, on the side. If you don't like spinach, organic lettuce is the same price as it is in the regular store. A small head of lettuce is only $1.99 and Fred Meyer and Coop have the same prices. Tomatoes are an exception, tomatoes can be pretty pricey. I think we buy the cheapest organic variety of tomatoes at Coop (again same prices at Fred Meyer) they run about $3.69/$3.99 a pound. Therefore we only buy 2-3, which is not a bad idea because in the past we bought about 5-6 and again we threw about 2-3 out because they get moldy after a while. 

I love to buy organic oranges, juicy, fresh and super tasty. In the past I hated buying oranges, because I generally ended up getting old, dry oranges that tasted so bad that I didn't even finished a quarter of it. I even tried buying really expensive ones (non-organic) and it was always a 50/50 chance to get a juicy one. Now that we are buying only organic oranges I know that each time I peel an orange I know it will be juicy. I can't remember the orange prices but again we don't buy many of them. The rule is that fruits and vegetables have to be bought every 3 days.

Zucchini, super great deals! Zucchini generally cost about $1.00/lb - they can be fried with garlic in a pan, zucchini can be added to any dish, even the famous zucchini bread is yummy. Peaches...peaches..peaches...let me tell you about peaches. Have you eaten a peach lately without a broken pit? I do..all the time now. In the past I ate gross, dry, flavorless peaches with a broken pit. What is it about the broken pit? The organic peaches are so juicy that the juice even runs down all the way to my elbow. Hahaha..I absolutely recommend organic peaches - they cost about $1.39/lb - you can get 2-3 peaches for few bucks. I recommend to weight all your fruits and vegetables and choose the smaller and not so heavy ones, to save some money. 

Bell peppers are really expensive, therefore this rule of weight applies particularly to bell peppers. In the past we used to buy bell peppers all the time, which I have to say that the red and orange peppers even the non-organic peppers are already pretty overpriced. Result of that - we don't buy organic bell peppers very often.

Fred Meyer has great strawberries. I honestly don't know the prices of non-organic strawberries but I don't feel that I am paying a lot more buying them organic. A regular plastic box of organic strawberries costs $3.00 or two for $5.00. They are so good. I don't know if I am officially allergic to strawberries, but each time I eat non-organic strawberries my throat starts to itch. It goes away after 30 - 60 min. (it feels like getting a cold). We have purchased about 3 boxes in the past 2 months and I am always waiting for the itch in the throat, but didn't get that with organic strawberries yet. I don't know if it is just a coincidence or if it has anything to do with the pesticides or other things. Still testing.

To sum it up - organic produce is def. a little bit more than non-organic but try to buy half of what you used to buy (unless you need a large quantity for a certain recipe) and you will end up not throwing so much out and will essentially spend the same amount of money. Look what is seasonal and always know your prices - the prices change frequently. The other tip on saving money is try to buy smaller sizes. If you buy broccoli get the ones with the smallest stem (they weigh a lot). Grow your own garden if you have the space, even if it is a small space or in pots. If you can't buy certain produce organic, that's o.k. too. But know your "dirty dozen".

List is ranked in order of the amount of pesticide used:

1. Apples – 98 percent of conventional apples had pesticides
2. Celery – tested positive for 57 different pesticides
3. Strawberries – some had as many as 13 different pesticides
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines (imported)
7. Grapes (imported)
8. Sweet bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries (domestic)
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/collard greens

Another recommendation is to focus on items from the “Clean 15” list – those with the least pesticide residue.

1. Onions – less than 1 percent had any pesticides
2. Sweet corn – 98 percent of all frozen and sweet corn samples had no detectable pesticide residue (I PERSONALLY DON'T EAT ANY NON-ORGANIC CORN DUE TO GMO - BUT THAT'S MY PERSONAL CHOICE - AS YOU MIGHT HAVE READ I AM ABSOLUTELY AGAINST GMO)
3. Pineapples – only 6 different pesticides were found
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Cantaloupe (domestic)
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet potatoes
14. Grapefruit 

15. Mushrooms 

I hope that gives you a better view on how to shop for organic produce, where to buy it and what the average prices are. I feel much better knowing I am not taking any risk, but an important aspect to us is that I have been very satisfied with the quality of organic produce. I prefer organic produce over non-organic due to that fact!

If you have any questions, feedback, ideas, suggestions - please let me know. You live and learn!

WISDOM OF THE DAY 

A four-year, $25 million European Union funded study found that with regards to organic food compared to "regular" food:  

There are 40% more antioxidants in organic food 

Milk that is taken from organic herds contains 90% more antioxidants 

There are higher levels of beneficial minerals like zinc (something almost everyone is deficient in) and iron in the organic produce.