The Case For Eating Organic

Why Organic

Eat organic daily – from Pixabay

I regularly hear people complain about the cost of eating organic. While it might be rather pricey to take a family of 4 or 5 over to an entirely organic diet especially if the family is not vegetarian there are ways to greatly increase the amount of organic foods we eat or at least eliminate pesticides from as much food as possible.

I found the video above on Facebook. David Wolfe had posted it from the website https://www.coop.se/organiceffect. Even a few weeks of getting pesticide free can make a big difference in our blood quality.

Spring is almost here and it is a great time to start considering planting your own vegetable garden guaranteeing you a summer full and also late fall and perhaps most of the winter organic vegys.  Sounds like work? It is but it can be seriously reduced by using the square foot garden method. Here’s a link to another post on the site about the how to’s of square foot gardening. https://riseandshine.com/square-foot-garden/

Lots of organic greens
I have been square foot gardening for the last two years. This will be my third summer coming up. I am starting to plan some adjustments to my current layout in order to grow more food. This past winter I was able to extend my harvest to the beginning of December. Eventually a killing frost was about to hit and I took the rest of my crop in the house. I mean I had celery growing in my garden here in Toronto in December. Go figure.

Storing Organic Produce For The Winter

Dehydrating for the winter
With far too much produce left over to eat. I chopped it well and put it all in my dehydrator. Tossed it all
into a large jar when finished along with some beats and carrots from the store that I chopped and dehydrated as well and it became a great vegetable base for
many things over the winter. I could throw it into a cup of boiling water for the winter, cover it and let it soak for 10-15 minutes and I had soup. I have been throwing a couple of handfuls into the rice cooker along with a handful of lentils when making rice. This makes a nice side addition to anything else on the plate and makes the rice full of flavor. I have thrown a batch into stews, the slow cooker along with dried mushrooms and voila. I don’t have to start washing and chopping veggies. Worked like a charm and so convenient. All of this has been organic and I dehydrated everything under 115 degrees so still consider fresh and raw.

What Are The Dirty Dozen Vegetables That You Could Buy Organic
We all have a budget and that seems to be the biggest driver with eating organic.  Any fresh food is better than packaged however .

I have listed the Dirty Dozen Below.  But you can also check this out on Suzuki’s site link here.

David Suzuki lists the Dirty Dozen on his website at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/food/what-are-the-dirty-dozen-and-the-clean-fifteen/.
These are the 12 most contaminated fruits and veg which you could make an effort to buy organic.  Also the cleanest 15 which can help you make a dent in buying less contaminated foods.

The Dirty Dozen (in order of contamination)

kreativ-werbung / Pixabay

Apples
Celery
Sweet bell peppers
Peaches
Strawberries
Nectarines Grapes
Spinach
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Blueberries
Potatoes

These are the Clean 15

The Clean 15 (in order of least contamination)
Onions
Sweet Corn
Pineapples
Avocado
Cabbage
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Mangoes
Eggplant
Kiwi
Cantaloupe
Sweet potatoes
Grapefruit
Watermelon
Mushrooms