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Elizabeth
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Are you a fan? Why? How much of your diet is organic? Hints? Tips? Interesting research?
BTW, our Costco now has organic milk  It's not raw but it is a step in the right direction....
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Courtney
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I do insist on organic milk. I don't want all the extra hormones for me or my dc. Our area will be getting a Central Market soon (much like Whole Foods). I may start buying organic meat when that store comes. I was please to see Costco has the organic milk, but I'm still finding it cheaper at a couple of other stores in my area.
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tovlo4801
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We like to buy organic, but it's not largely available in our immediate area and we can't afford to buy everything organic.
We joined a CSA this summer so most of our vegetables are organic right now. I don't buy organic milk, but I do buy the milk without the growth hormones in it. We don't eat a lot of meat and so we will often buy organic meat since it won't break us costwise.
My son eats a LOT of fruit and is not terribly good about remembering to wash it first so I should make sure our fruit is organic, but I haven't been consistent.
Gosh, if I bought all organic our grocery bill would skyrocket and I'm just not sure what our priority for organic food should be....
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Genevieve
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just a quick note, you could join a food co-op. When I was in Austin, I joined Ozark and for a one-time membership fee of $25, you buy in bulk which is then picked-up at a mutual spot weekly. I loved it and honestly any big family could probaby be its own buying club and not have to deal with the hassle of pooling resources. You get food at a discount and shop at home. And you can a lot of different things from food to household cleaners! Combine that with a CSA, you would be set. Wished I could do it again but I was just informed that we are moving again. 
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: July 18 2005 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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We once belonged to a CSA, but our portion wsan't nearly enough food for our family and two or three portions would have been prohibitive $$.It was very rainy that year and we got nice baskets of flowers with little apology notes for the lack of real food  . We do belong to a co-op and from them I buy chicken and eggs and goat cheese and some pantry items. Our co-op farm specializes in sweet potatoes so we do that in season. The beef is far too expensive, so we do without beef for the most part. I do use quite a bit of ground turkey. Occasionally, I buy ordinary steak from Costco.
When I buy frozen fruit and veggies, they're organic but the expense of buying all those things fresh in the quantities I need... 
I buy organic milk but I really think we should just do without milk unless it's both raw and organic. There is an Amish farmer from Pennsylvania who sells raw milk here but after listening to Michele educate me on Amish hygiene and reading about the risk of listeria, I'm settling for pasteurized organic milk and trying to persude my family that milk is for baby cows .
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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JennGM
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I try to buy organic whenever I can. My priority is eggs and meat (although I do buy steaks at Costco). I don't want the hormones and antibiotics. Our family is still little, so I don't have to worry about bulk amounts. But Trader Joe's is a great place to get organic pretty cheap. Whole Foods prices are high -- there was an article in Forbes magazine this year about how much markup they do...and they freely admit it.
My Giant has choices sometimes in organic produce and products. I check those aisles first for choices, then move elsewhere if they don't have it. Now that I think about it, I guess I buy things like brown rice, brown rice pasta, cereal, milk (for dh) on a regular basis that's organic. Most of what ds eats is organic.
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Elizabeth
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Ditto what Jenn said about Trader Joe's and Giant. There is no Trader Joe's in Utah. Every time I think about moving, I wonder how much unopened pantry stuff the movers will cart for me. And the fortunate thing about moving into a home previously owned by a Mormon is that they have these awesome storage places in their houses because they are taught to store provisions for a year. I'm thinking I'll move with a year's worth of TJ's pantry items and then, dh promises a road trip to CA with a trailer to stock up when we deplete the East Coast TJ stash.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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guitarnan
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Elizabeth,
Usually movers will pack anything in cans. In a cross-country move, most will also pack unopened jars. Some won't pack flour and stuff like that. I bake a lot, so that's an issue. Spices are OK.
The biggest issues are (opened) cleaning products, aerosol cans and live plants.
I lived without TJ's for over a decade. Sigh. (I used to shop at the original TJ's in South Pasadena, CA, as a kid...what a nice surprise when they built one in Annapolis!) Now I have to drive 3 hours to Reston to get TJ's stuff.
We'll just have to figure out a supply pipeline for you. I doubt the ZCMI monopolists would ever allow TJ's in Utah.
Empathizing!
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mary
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Elizabeth, have you considered buying 1/2 a cow from a local farmer? That is what we do and we are very happy with the quality, the cost and the ease of having whatever cut of beef we need in our freezer. I lucked into sharing produce with an organic farming family. This woman sells her organic eggs at my coop (where we get our dry goods, cleaning supplies, and personal supplies). She offered this year to sell us her extra produce. It's perfect for our family of 5 and inexpensive. Yesterday she brought us 2 dozen eggs, 10 zucchini and yellow squash,a pint of fresh blackberries, a bunch of cilantro, 2 'heads' of broccoli, 1 head of cabbage, 2 cucumbers and 7 tomatoes all for $15.
Maybe there is a farming family in your CSA who would like to sell off their extra produce?
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Elizabeth
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guitarnan wrote:
I lived without TJ's for over a decade. Sigh. (I used to shop at the original TJ's in South Pasadena, CA, as a kid...what a nice surprise when they built one in Annapolis!) Now I have to drive 3 hours to Reston to get TJ's stuff.
We'll just have to figure out a supply pipeline for you. I doubt the ZCMI monopolists would ever allow TJ's in Utah.
Empathizing!
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Hey Nan! We'll have to meet there in Reston some time. I figure I have two or three more Reston runs before the new one opens in Centreville at the end of September.
Need a little education here: what's ZCMI monopolist? Sounds intimidating...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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guitarnan
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Oops. Now I have to look up the acronym. It's Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution. This is the Mormon retail monopoly, originally developed to help Mormon farmers and craftsmen sell their goods in the Great Basin area. This entity has extremely close ties to the LDS church. However, the business was sold to May Dept. Stores a couple of years ago. Now all the stores are Meier & Frank. This may mean that the LDS church is more open to the idea of eclectic competition. It's hard to say, because pretty much everything in Utah seems to be tied to the LDS church/leaders/system.
Here's a historical link:
http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/z/ZCMI.html
Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that TJ's won't get in to Utah unless the LDS folks want them there. That's kind of how things work.
HTH!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Elizabeth
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Okay, but is Meier & Frank a good substitue for TJ's?
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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guitarnan
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Nope. Sorry. I'll bet it's like Hecht's. (Our local May Co. "brand".) The old ZCMI stores used to sell pretty much everything, but I can't find any info on what M&F sell now.
I haven't found any stores that are good substitutes for TJ's, and I've tried. The best I can do here is an independent Mennonite grocery store and some farmers' market places south of Harrisonburg.
I do have a lead on someone who sells organically raised chickens; I think he's about 2 hours from where I live which might be a good bit closer for you. Let me know! I have a friend in H'burg who homeschools (not Catholic). She has a large family and buys these chickens in bulk. You have to pre-order them.
(I know this is not in Utah, but at least it could help you here!)
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Erica Sanchez
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Love Trader Joe's!!! I buy lots of organic from them as well as from another local, small grocery store called Henry's.
Question - Are organic eggs and meat the same as free-range eggs and meat? I assume the free-range kind are organic, but I wasn't sure about the other way around.
Another question - I'd heard a radio broadcast about certain fruits and vegetables that are better oraganic and some that resist the pesicides, etc. There were a good number, according to the speaker anyway, that she considered safe but not grown organically. Anyone have a list like that? Strawberries are suppossed to be one of the worst at absorbing the pesticides, others like broccoli were not so bad. On the other hand, we visited a totally organic farm and were taught that organic food was richer in vitamins and minerals simply because the soil is so rich versus commercial farming. It was very interesting.
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mrsgranola
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Elizabeth and you other VA folks-
I heard about a farm in Suffolk, VA that would be good to get bulk quantities from, periodically. It's called Full Quiver Farm.
Here's the website:
www.fullquiverfarm.com
HTH,
JoAnna
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Hmmmm...asking a (former) dairy farmer and current produce grower's wife about the organic debate and whether or not we eat organic, raw, free-range, all-natural, pro or anti BST (hormones)etc... don't know if I want to weigh in on this one, although I have lots of info... In the farming world this is almost as touchy as politics and religion (lots of Baptists farming around here!) How about you other farm wives? What are you eating?
I would like to know why everyone is eating so much organic (what happened or what information made you decide to go that route?) I'm just curious... Where do you get your info about our food supply from?
I will say that we are in the business of providing what our customers demand, so...
We GROW organic and non-organic produce,
We RAISE free range chickens and organic fish,
We MILKED 200 well-fed and well-cared-for Holsteins (grade-A milk we drank raw and pasteurized, depending on who milked that day),
We GRAZE our beef cattle,
and we EAT whatever doesn't sell at our market.
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stefoodie
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we try to buy everything organic IF we can, which means
we buy from the co-op, because it's cheaper
if we do shop at whole foods or trader joe's, we only get things on sale
wal-mart now carries organic milk -- which is the only organic thing i could afford to buy 7 years ago -- so i am very thankful that things have changed and i can afford to buy more organic now
we did CSA two years in a row, but both times the difficulty was TOO MANY SUMMER SQUASHES!!! my family prefers a greater variety.
so now we try to plant/harvest what we can....
but i've also been reading a lot, esp. superfoods rx, and the main thing i've learned is
buy from local markers if you can, even if it's not "certified organic", because those people may have chosen not to apply for certification b/c of the cost, but they use mostly if not all organic farming methods available to them.
OTOH, i've also learned to be more cautious of CSAs, as i found out after the harvesting season was up that our CSA was "supplementing" their supply with harvest from the neighboring farm which they can't tell me if it's organic or not. i had mistakenly assumed that ALL CSA produce were organic and that they grow all of it themselves; apparently this is not unusual practice among CSA farmers. BUT they charge us organic prices, i.e., 2-3x as much as produce from the regular grocery, and i have a really great wegman's where the organic selection has grown and local-grown produce is beautiful and fresh.
lastly, i learned that if given the choice between eating the RIGHT AMOUNTS of healthy foods grown conventionally, and NOT eating the right amounts because of cost (because you're trying to stick to organic ONLY), then you're actually defeating the purpose and you're much better off with the former than the latter.
our co-op is under unitedbuyingclubs.com which services most of the east/northeast, if anyone's interested.
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ALmom
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We buy what is freshest and cheapest. I do like to avoid hormones in meat when I can, but have no source for milk. I buy some organic whole grain rice and flour and pasta in bulk as it comes out better than grocery store packages and if I can get reasonably priced organic, I do prefer it but don't fret when we cannot get it.
Janet
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Becky Parker
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We just jumped on the organic wagon about a year ago. I am trying to find a place to buy organic meat and produce. We belong to a food coop and I can order some produce but I'm picky and really want to see it before I order. Also, the meat from the coop is very expensive. I'm going to check into an Amish Farm nearby that sells meat. I assume it will be organic. I am also searching for an organic pizza and organic chicken nuggets that my kids will eat! These are two of our big lunch items (I'm embarassed to say!) and I just can't find a brand that my kids like. Any suggestions?
Becky
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JennGM
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| Posted: July 21 2005 at 1:26pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth wrote:
| I figure I have two or three more Reston runs before the new one opens in Centreville at the end of September. |
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I usually go to Reston, too. I'm so looking forward to Centreville.  I'm glad you know the date, I was just looking for that information. Do you know where it will be located?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Organic Food
