The twins heading out to pick local strawberries. If you look under Emilynn's left arm, Peppa Pig joined us for the occasion! :-) I had a cute strawberry outfit for her, not sure why I didn't put it on her for the day. ??
Henry took a different approach-he just sat down basically on the plant. It was his first time picking! Last year he was too little and sat in the car. One plant may have been damaged slightly during this picking session. Hopefully all of my business I gave them made up for it! We went back so many times it was embarrassing!!
Buying local and organic foods has become something very important to me. I have always been interested in it, yet once I had kids it became SO IMPORTANT! I felt like they were a clean slate and I only wanted to put good things in their bodies. It was really easy when they were babies, because one of my favorite companies, Earth's Best, has an amazing line of organic baby foods. It's also a company started by twins-I read the book about it! Yep, I'm a nerd like that! Do you now believe me when I say I research everything? Haha!
Once the kids turned a year old, I really began worrying about what "real" foods they would eat.
I started my journey with milk. It seemed the most appropriate place to start since that was the main staple of their diet at one year old. I researched milk and decided raw milk was the best option to be drinking. I was lucky enough to find a farm really close to me that had herd shares available. I spoke with the farmers on the phone, met them in person, bought our herd share, and the rest is history! We have been drinking raw milk for almost 3 years now. I have no regrets whatsoever on the money spent on our milk, it is SO worth it. If you ever want to know more about milk and why it began being pasteurized in the first place, a great book to read is The Untold Story of Milk. I highly recommend it. I realize now how lucky we were to find a close farm that has milk, because some people drive hours to get it! It is a bit expensive, but I would give up our Y membership before I gave up our milk if things got tight. I really believe in it that much.
So, if you want to start eating more whole, local foods, I would suggest starting with milk. You can't wash it off like you can produce. There are also options at the store. If I have to buy store milk for some reason, I get Horizon Organic. The conditions of the cows aren't necessarily any better for Organic milk producing cows, but you at least know you aren't getting any antibiotics or hormones in there. You just have to read the labels and make the best decision for your family's health and finances.
If you are interested in finding a raw milk source near you-check out the website www.localharvest.org
It is my favorite source for finding local foods. You can search all types of foods on there!
As far as produce goes, we try to buy organic when we can. Some things are hard to find organic, like seedless grapes! I just found some at Kroger Friday, after searching for about two years to find a good source for these. I hope Kroger will continue to carry them. I bought all they had Friday! It was a great price-$1.99 per lb. My kids love grapes, and I hate them eating conventional ones since they are on the dirty dozen list. Above you see us buying local strawberries, which are not organic. I just can't pass up in season berries though, and they are only miles from our house. As with most things, eating local is a balance. Sometimes farmers can't afford all that goes with being labeled organic, but actually are-so it doesn't hurt to ask that too! Frozen veggies are another great option as far as organics go. They usually taste better than canned. We also grew a garden this year, which was a lot of fun for the kids and we got organic produce for very little cost! It will cost even less next year because we already spent money on the fence this year (to keep deer out) and won't have to re-buy that next year. Now that I am confident we CAN grow some thing successfully, I hope to expand what we grow next year! I also am lucky to get a bunch of apples from my Granny's apple trees, which are local and organic since no one really fools with the trees. If you know someone with a tree or some type of veggies, it doesn't hurt to ask if you can get some. Most people are more than willing to share! We even were able to share some out of our small abundance we grew this year. It is nice to share and save on the grocery bills!
Meat is something else you can look for on local harvest.org. We get beef from the same farm we get our milk, or another farm we know. We have the 1/3 of a cow coming from a cow my father-in-law had to process. I get chickens, frozen whole, from a cousin's farm. I also sometimes buy it organic at the store, when I want different cuts or from a food co-op I can order from monthly. Pork I only buy from a cousin's farm, and when I can't get it there, we just don't eat it. I will buy organic bacon sometimes at Kroger, but that is it. The conditions of pigs raised commercially is deplorable. You may not care about the condition of animals you are going to eat anyway, but I encourage you to think about it. If the animal's conditions are awful, it is not going to be healthy and happy. It will most likely be sick, possibly need medicines, etc. Plus, I love animals and I do care about their well being. Just because you are going to use them for nourishment, doesn't mean they don't deserve to live and die with dignity, treated properly and respectfully.
The only food group I think we left out is bread. I am so blessed to have a friend make bread for us weekly. It is the most delicious homemade bread and I am so thankful for her! We pay per loaf and I hope she never stops baking because I'll have to learn how to make the bread. I know it is very time consuming!
Of course, we also get eggs from our chickens, and my dad's chickens if we are short. My kids love eggs thank goodness! We can't get eggs more local than our backyard! I hope to expand the flock very soon!
Other random things-we use only real butter. I could make it myself, but that takes a lot of time. I choose to buy it instead. I don't ever buy margarine-I think it's gross. It's one molecule off from being plastic and that's just not cool with me to feed my family. Cheese is something I buy in bulk and grate myself. I haven't found an organic or raw variety I like but am working on it.
I try to use a natural sweetener-sucanat whenever possible in baking, etc. Local honey is also a great sweetener.
As for oil for cakes, frying, etc. we use palm oil shortening or coconut oil. I buy these in bulk from a great company called Tropical Traditions. They will often have free shipping, so check them out!
If we must have hotdogs, we get the kind preserved with celery juice, not nitrates or nitrites. Applegate has a good one, and I will buy the Oscar Mayer or Ball park ones at the store too.
Applegate also has a chicken nugget we like, but mostly I just make chicken bites myself by frying pieces of boneless skinless thighs or breasts and everyone gobbles them up-the adults included!
As far as eating local goes, I know it can seem overwhelming at first. It has definitely been a journey, not something we did overnight. It is something we still work on and will probably always work on. We also give ourselves grace-because my kids can down Skittles like nobody's business, which are most certainly not a healthy, local food! I would just start with one or two things and go from there.
As far as finances go, yes, eating better does cost more. I was commenting to my mom about how high groceries were, and she reminded me that I could eat a lot cheaper stuff. She's right, and if I had to cut back, I would for sure. Also, we buy some convenience organic things we don't necessarily need- like fruit leathers, applesauce pouches, cereal bars. We could cut that out as well, and we will if we need to. I can't even really say what our grocery budget would be, because one month we may buy part of a cow, but don't need to buy meat for months to come. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what we spend. I will say, I think it is important for our health, especially since we have a high deductible health plan. It is important for us to stay healthy and eat well. Also, by changing gradually it's not such a shock!
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