Kolleen

>Hi Kolleen,
[snip]
> So since I've probably assumed I couldn't "manage" to live with all
>organic foods and you've peaked my interest. Can you give me some idea
>about the expense of living/eating oraganically? I am "organizationally
>impaired"....and we have a family of six. Thinking about it overwhelms me!
>Susan

Hi Susan,

I don't know where you live, which does determine a lot about the expense
and availability of organics.

With a family of six it *can* get expensive, so don't opt to go to your
local health food store expecting to do the weekly shopping without
running up an astronomical food bill.

There ARE ways to make it work. Don't despair.

Most communities have some sort of 'food co-op'. I find this great for
the organizationally impaired since many of them choose the fruits and
veggies for you. You just pick them up. Some of them drop them off.

When I lived in the SF Bay area there were two great businesses that
offered a weekly box of organic fresh foods dropped at your door. And the
prices were great. I paid $25 for a box full of fruits and veggies. This
also pushed me into trying new kinds of foods since I cooked with
whatever I had. It was my first experience with purple potatos and they
were awesome. It also put more squashes and roots in my life since I used
to shop for the same ole' things every week before that.

Whatever we didn't finish was washed and put in the freezer for stews or
soups to be used at a later date. The freezer is your FRIEND in times
like this *smile*. An organic household utilizes all they have to reduce
expense and waste (we use the ends of broccoli for soups and stews)

Food co-ops also are great for the organizational ones, since you can get
a list that you check off what you want for the upcoming month. I suppose
even if you aren't organized you can sit down ONCE a month and mark off
what you want (this works for things beside fresh stuff - such as juices,
dressings, etc).

We don't drink our juices at *full* strength. It makes them last longer
and they aren't as heavy. We like them like that now!

Does your community offer a farmers market? What a great time to take the
kids and buy directly from the farmers. What a sense of community and
support for sustainable living.

If one had a choice between eating no meat or *conventional* meat, I
would choose no meat. The added female hormones, the pesticides, the
antibiotics, the deadly hormone that is secreted from fear in a
slaughterhouse setting is FAR worse than anything. I would then opt to
get my protein from whey. Making sure its the non-GMO kind.

If you can find organic or at least *natural* meat, then by all means,
use it if you are meat-eaters by choice.

As Bridget has mentioned, taking it slowly is good way to get started..
so how does one decide?

In my experience with additives, here are some choices:

1) NO conventional meat or animal products (including eggs, dairy)

2) Vegetables and fruits (although some are worse than others)
Carrots have 13 known cancer causing carcinogins, but because of
grandfather clauses, corpporate farming keeps using them.
The skin on grapes is so permeable, and they are so delicate to
environmental changes, they are severely soaked in pesticides, fungicides
etc.
Potatos, bananas *seem* to show the least amount of chemicals in many
tests done.
Strawberries show a lot of chemicals.

3) Get rid of refined sugars

Where does that leave you for starters? Well, your grains, pastas etc.
can still be bought at conventional stores until you've adjusted in your
new lifestyle.

good luck,
kolleen

Cindy

Kolleen wrote:
>
> When I lived in the SF Bay area there were two great businesses that
> offered a weekly box of organic fresh foods dropped at your door. And the
> prices were great. I paid $25 for a box full of fruits and veggies. This
> also pushed me into trying new kinds of foods since I cooked with
> whatever I had. It was my first experience with purple potatos and they
> were awesome. It also put more squashes and roots in my life since I used
> to shop for the same ole' things every week before that.
>

Here (which happens to be the greater SF Bay area) many organic farms
offer this type of thing. They call it CSA - community supported
agriculture. It's a win/win since the farmer gets a reliable customer
base for his products and the customer gets some great food. I hope
to get a CSA share with Camp Joy next year - if not there, I will try
another farm. This might already be available in your area - or
perhaps some farmer would be interested in starting one!

--

Cindy Ferguson
crma@...

Lynda

Also, testing has shown that grains grown in European (NOT central and south
america DDT and various other carcinogens are still used in great
quantities) countries have less residual pesticides. If you can't go the
organic route totally, then op for imported Italian pastas. You can
frequently find them at discount food stores if you buy by the case. I know
around here if you buy by the case the imports are $10/case (20 - 1#
packages).

A good book to read, if you can find it, is Diet for a Poisoned Planet which
tells you which foods are safest to eat if you can't go completely organic.

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kolleen" <Kolleen@...>
To: "Unschooling.com" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Organics - Susan


> >Hi Kolleen,
> [snip]
> > So since I've probably assumed I couldn't "manage" to live with all
> >organic foods and you've peaked my interest. Can you give me some idea
> >about the expense of living/eating oraganically? I am "organizationally
> >impaired"....and we have a family of six. Thinking about it overwhelms
me!
> >Susan
>
> Hi Susan,
>
> I don't know where you live, which does determine a lot about the expense
> and availability of organics.
>
> With a family of six it *can* get expensive, so don't opt to go to your
> local health food store expecting to do the weekly shopping without
> running up an astronomical food bill.
>
> There ARE ways to make it work. Don't despair.
>
> Most communities have some sort of 'food co-op'. I find this great for
> the organizationally impaired since many of them choose the fruits and
> veggies for you. You just pick them up. Some of them drop them off.
>
> When I lived in the SF Bay area there were two great businesses that
> offered a weekly box of organic fresh foods dropped at your door. And the
> prices were great. I paid $25 for a box full of fruits and veggies. This
> also pushed me into trying new kinds of foods since I cooked with
> whatever I had. It was my first experience with purple potatos and they
> were awesome. It also put more squashes and roots in my life since I used
> to shop for the same ole' things every week before that.
>
> Whatever we didn't finish was washed and put in the freezer for stews or
> soups to be used at a later date. The freezer is your FRIEND in times
> like this *smile*. An organic household utilizes all they have to reduce
> expense and waste (we use the ends of broccoli for soups and stews)
>
> Food co-ops also are great for the organizational ones, since you can get
> a list that you check off what you want for the upcoming month. I suppose
> even if you aren't organized you can sit down ONCE a month and mark off
> what you want (this works for things beside fresh stuff - such as juices,
> dressings, etc).
>
> We don't drink our juices at *full* strength. It makes them last longer
> and they aren't as heavy. We like them like that now!
>
> Does your community offer a farmers market? What a great time to take the
> kids and buy directly from the farmers. What a sense of community and
> support for sustainable living.
>
> If one had a choice between eating no meat or *conventional* meat, I
> would choose no meat. The added female hormones, the pesticides, the
> antibiotics, the deadly hormone that is secreted from fear in a
> slaughterhouse setting is FAR worse than anything. I would then opt to
> get my protein from whey. Making sure its the non-GMO kind.
>
> If you can find organic or at least *natural* meat, then by all means,
> use it if you are meat-eaters by choice.
>
> As Bridget has mentioned, taking it slowly is good way to get started..
> so how does one decide?
>
> In my experience with additives, here are some choices:
>
> 1) NO conventional meat or animal products (including eggs, dairy)
>
> 2) Vegetables and fruits (although some are worse than others)
> Carrots have 13 known cancer causing carcinogins, but because of
> grandfather clauses, corpporate farming keeps using them.
> The skin on grapes is so permeable, and they are so delicate to
> environmental changes, they are severely soaked in pesticides, fungicides
> etc.
> Potatos, bananas *seem* to show the least amount of chemicals in many
> tests done.
> Strawberries show a lot of chemicals.
>
> 3) Get rid of refined sugars
>
> Where does that leave you for starters? Well, your grains, pastas etc.
> can still be bought at conventional stores until you've adjusted in your
> new lifestyle.
>
> good luck,
> kolleen
>
>
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>

Cindy

Lynda wrote:
>
> A good book to read, if you can find it, is Diet for a Poisoned Planet which
> tells you which foods are safest to eat if you can't go completely organic.
>

If you can't find it (it's out of pring and took Powells a couple of
months to find it for me a couple of years ago), read Fast Food Nation.
That book was published recently and makes me queasy to think about all
the fast food I've eaten in the past. It is serious and the chapter
about slaughter houses is really disturbing. What is more disturbing
is what the whole fast food phenomena has done to our culture and to
our workers. Many other industries (can you say Walmart?) are using the
same employment trends. Also read David Albert's column in the Jan/Feb
issue of HEM - it isn't food related but employment/career related.

--

Cindy Ferguson
crma@...