Organic kick

This week, I have made a conscious decision to move over to the Organic side.

I know it's a more expensive move, but food and all the horror stories behind it, has really been giving me the creeps lately.  I've been buying more organic fruits and veggies for a while but it's time to be more aware of what my family is putting into their mouths...reading the fine print on labels, deciphering all of the codes, knowing the difference in the vast array of choices, etc etc etc.

My free time has been spent googling away tons of questions and reading what others have put out there, some from personal experience others from facts.  Also searching out local farmers that I can purchase from.

Monday, I stopped by whole foods for a few things we were out of.  $20 later, I came out with 4 apples, 1 head of lettuce, 1 cucumber, 8oz heavy cream, 12 eggs. OUCH!

The biggest blows about needing organic were for milk, lettuce, potatoes, and apples.  This families staples.

The other day, I was so creeped out, I went to the fridge to purge it of it's hormone and pesticide filled self and realized that many of the things that I've been buying from costco are already organic, hooray! Because 5ibs of organic carrots costs me $3 there but 1 carrot from Whole Foods was almost $2.  Aside from organic produce, they also have a nice array of organic meats that I plan on picking up on my next trip.

To add to the list of freaky stuff, I learned that half the organic stuff you buy is no better than the regular stuff because it has been zapped of all its goodies.  Also, buying something oversees is sketchy because their "organic" code is less strict than ours.

And then there are the chickens...don't get me started on the chickens and their eggs.  You can't just buy cage free, or hormone free, oh no, your best bet is to go to a farm, observe that chickens are walking around eating grass AND bugs and that the grass is pesticide free, the water has not been treated, ask a dozen questions, then if all is up to par, have them kill it for you right then and there.  Oh and take some eggs with you too because you can spend $7 at a grocery store and still not be getting that part right.  

{Hopefully some of my dear, sweet, kind and generous friends who own their own chickens may be willing to let me purchase eggs from their girls.}

Then there is the milk problem.  I wont even admit to how many hours were spent yesterday researching milk!  Grassfed, Organic, Raw or atleast low-temp pasteurized, unhomogenized vs. homogenized, rBST, rBGH, UHT...it's going to take me 20 minutes to read one label!  And no, you can't just go buy regular organic because they pasteurize it at such high temps it kills all the good stuff, so then what's the point?  I wish raw milk wasn't illegal to sell, because out of all the research that I've done, everyone that drinks it, loves it, and it doesn't have all the crap in it that everything else does, plus they quickly saw the health benefits and lost weight.  I'm currently emailing farmers with cows and bribing them to let me buy some.  I did see that HighPoint has a farm that sells raw milk, but that's a long drive, so we'll see if that rumor is true.  If I do get hooked up with some, I'll be making my own butter, maybe one day yogurt and cheese :)  I should just buy my own cow...

Next spring, I plan to start my own raised garden and sooner or later get my own chickens and guineas...probably later on that last part...

Any tips and tricks that you use?  I wish the farmers market was open for longer hours, and that we had more farms in the area.  I heard you can order form Carolina grown, but that seems pricey.  Any other ideas?