Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Organic or Conventional?

I'm always looking for the bargain. When I go to the grocery store it is physically painful to pay more for a vegetable that looks the same (mostly) as its conventional counterpart. What I have to remind myself over and over is that I'm paying to make sure my kids are not ingesting pesticide residue. Also, by buying organic it supports the small farm (usually local farm) and helps the environment.

Can I taste a difference in the vegetables? Sometimes yes. We bought some organic celery and it was the best celery I'd ever had. It was almost sweet. It wasn't too stringy. I cut the whole bunch up and put it on the table before dinner. Between me and the kids we ate the whole thing. There was no dip, just plain sweet organic celery. I have never done that with conventional celery. I usually will only eat it in a salad, cooked in a recipe or with peanut butter on it.

Now I understand that a lot of you are just as frugal as I am. So here's a list of the vegetables that should be bought organic and those that you can go conventional:

What should be bought organic?
Celery
Sweet bell peppers
Potatoes
Spinach
Kale
Lettuce
Carrots


What doesn’t need to be organic?

Asparagus
Avocados
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Sweet corn
Onions
Sweet peas
Eggplant
Cabbage
Sweet potatoes

Also, before you buy fruit check out what should be bought organic (strawberries and grapes on the list). Just google "buying organic fruit."

1 comment:

  1. Here is a link to the EWG's list of foods that they recommend you buy organic, if possible.

    http://www.foodnews.org/

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