organic food

treehuggingmom · **organic food**

Hello! This is my first post and I really need some ideas. My 9 year old son is autistic and his doctor recommended eliminating ALL processed food, ALL additives , and try to eat as much organic food as possible. We have done this almost a month and have seen wonderful results, however, our grocery bill has skyrocketed. Even though we are all vegetarian, I end up spending WAY too much at the store, but this is important to us, so my question is...Does anyone have any advice to me about how to eat healthy, organic, and not go bankrupt?Thank you so much!!

vioburn · 03-07-2007, 08:16 AM

Welcome to the board! Glad to have you. You'll find tons of great tips from all the ladies here.

In a lot of places, there are CSA Farms that grow all organic produce. DH and I are planning on joining one this year. You pay around $350 (once) and for 9 months, you get 10-60 lbs of organic, fresh produce every week. Google CSA Farm and you'll come up with one that is hopefully near you. Here's the website of the one we are thinking of joining.

http://www.monroefarm.com/

Hope this helps.

~G

MegNAbbysMom · 03-07-2007, 08:18 AM

Hi and welcome to mommysavers! I don't have any advice for you but we have a lot of different forums here that I'm sure will interest you and hopefully get you the advice you need. Glad you decided to join us.

vioburn · 03-07-2007, 08:20 AM

Oops, I guess the price went up. It's $400 for this summer. Just checked it out again.

ctandam · 03-07-2007, 08:20 AM

Welcome to the boards!! I would think that since not all ladies look at all the posts, you may want to post your questions in the Special Needs forums. Here is the link...

http://mommysavers.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=67

I personally do not have any experience with having to buy all organic foods. I am sure someone on here does though. These ladies are a wealth of information. I would suggest perhaps calling some of the manufacturers that make these foods and asking if they send out any coupons. Perhaps that may help.

I hope you get the information you are looking for! Welcome!!!

momof2boys · 03-07-2007, 09:51 AM

Treehugger will help you! I dont know if you have a Trader Joes in your area but I find that their veggies and fruits are organic and cheaper than my everyday grocery store! I think even Aldis is starting to carry more, they are cheap. Also have the same owners as Trader Joes.

treehugger · 03-07-2007, 10:28 AM

First of all, Welcome! You've found a wonderful place for information. The ladies here are great.

I started going all organic when my son had some "issues" as well. Through trial and error, I found that he cannot tolerate corn syrup or yellow dyes and they are in everything prepackaged. It can't be done all at once, it will be too overwhelming and expensive. Each week, make some little changes. I started out with organic milk. Then I started cooking from scratch. Actually in the long run, cooking from scratch will save you money, expecially after you have some of the things you use regularly already in your home.

One way that I save a ton is to grow my own veggies and can them. It's a lot of work and in the middle of canning season I make my dh remind why we are doing all this. But in the winter when we are having veggies that I know for certain have nothing nasty on them, I remember why. We recenty started a gardening section and there are lots of good tips there.

I have started cutting back on meat, esp. red meat. If I do buy it (rare) I choose Lauras beef, it's all organic. Once I sat down and thought about it, we already ate lots of veggie meals, like spagetti, veggie soups, veggie chili so it was just more about meal planning at that point. There are lots of veggie recipe sites out there too. Artie, Beth and Blessed w/ 6 are our local veggetarians and I'm sure they could help in that direction. You could also go to the websites of the brands that you like and ask them if they could send you coupons, most will.

If you have any questions please don't be afraid to ask, we all are pretty much addicted to this site, so we're always here...lol

treehugger · 03-07-2007, 12:48 PM

I found this:

The 12 foods with the most amount of pesticide residues (which thus carry the strongest argument to try to buy organic) are peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce and potatoes. The 12 with the least amount of pesticide residues are onions, avocados, frozen sweet corn, pineapples, mango, asparagus, frozen sweet peas, kiwis, bananas, cabbage, broccoli and papayas.

vioburn · 03-07-2007, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treehugger

I found this:

The 12 foods with the most amount of pesticide residues (which thus carry the strongest argument to try to buy organic) are peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce and potatoes. The 12 with the least amount of pesticide residues are onions, avocados, frozen sweet corn, pineapples, mango, asparagus, frozen sweet peas, kiwis, bananas, cabbage, broccoli and papayas.

Treehugger, thanks for posting this. I'm going to write these on a note card and bring it to the store with me from now on, just as a reminder. I knew this list existed, but I couldn't find it.

vioburn · 03-07-2007, 01:02 PM

Oh, if there is a Safeway near you, they have a great line of organic foods called O Organics. I usually shop at Safeway first and buy as much as I can from that line and then head over to a local natural grocery store to buy the rest of what I need. The Safeway brand includes fresh produce, too, like celery and carrots.