Learning about Organic Foods

Prior to last week and after all the research online and in talking with friends, I decided to finally take the plunge and try to incorporate organic foods into our diet. Organic foods are supposed to be free of antibiotics and free of hormones. Our family has been pretty open to try different products.

Last week, we went to the commissary and picked up some organic items she said they carry- Organic Valley milks (vanilla soy, low fat and fat free) and some organic carrots and tried them. We liked the milk and carrots and I figure if we try a few things here and there, it shouldn't affect our budget as bad. Last weekend, we ran across a MOM's market in College Park when we checked out the REI there. We tried some vegetarian hotdogs and they were disgusting. I was told not to ever get them again. When I asked Wendy about it, she said it is hard to find organic hot dogs that taste good.

Recently, I had been asking a friend of ours about eating organic and different organic products. I asked her what different products her and her family have tried before and she has been very open with me. Thank you for all the information Wendy! I never could have learned so much with out your knowledge and expertise on the matter!

On Friday, we went with Wendy to an organic market called MOM's Organic Market. We tried a few new things like red organic bananas, (I don't think they are ripe yet because we tried them after bringing them home from the market and it tasted like eating I don't know what - yuck!). These red organic bananas are supposed to be sweeter then the regular ones (wonder if they are like apple bananas?) but we'll never know until they ripen up and it was $2.19 for 4 bananas. We'll give them another chance when they ripen up. We also tried a sample of this veggie thing that resembled meat that they mixed with some peppers and put in a sandwich. I was ok. Tyler got some organic fruit leathers that he and Lane love. I absolutely fell in love with the OIKOS greek yogurt with honey! It is delicious and something we'll probably get next time we go to the commissary.

Today we went to the Annapolis Commissary and they have Chobani greek yogurt, puffins cereal, cage free eggs, organic salad greens, organic cucumbers/mushrooms/carrots/tomatoes and Organic Valley milks that we saw. I love the fact that the commissaries are trying to increase their organic varieties because really what they are investing in is the health of their customers.

Now that we are open to and trying a few organic products here and there, we still buy a lot of food that isn't organic and love those as well.

Tonight, I am using the organic carrots and we harvested last weekend out of our garden (yes, they survived both blizzards) in the beef stew I am making for dinner. We grew all of them from seeds so it was wonderful for our kids to see the entire process of what it takes for the carrots to grow all the way until when we eat them.